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11 <div class="doc_title">
12 Getting Started with the LLVM System
16 <li><a href="#overview">Overview</a>
17 <li><a href="#quickstart">Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</a>
18 <li><a href="#requirements">Requirements</a>
20 <li><a href="#hardware">Hardware</a>
21 <li><a href="#software">Software</a>
22 <li><a href="#brokengcc">Broken versions of GCC</a>
25 <li><a href="#starting">Getting Started with LLVM</a>
27 <li><a href="#terminology">Terminology and Notation</a>
28 <li><a href="#environment">Setting Up Your Environment</a>
29 <li><a href="#unpack">Unpacking the LLVM Archives</a>
30 <li><a href="#checkout">Checkout LLVM from CVS</a>
31 <li><a href="#installcf">Install the GCC Front End</a>
32 <li><a href="#config">Local LLVM Configuration</a>
33 <li><a href="#compile">Compiling the LLVM Suite Source Code</a>
34 <li><a href="#cross-compile">Cross-Compiling LLVM</a>
35 <li><a href="#objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a>
36 <li><a href="#optionalconfig">Optional Configuration Items</a>
39 <li><a href="#layout">Program layout</a>
41 <li><a href="#cvsdir"><tt>CVS</tt> directories</a>
42 <li><a href="#examples"><tt>llvm/examples</tt></a>
43 <li><a href="#include"><tt>llvm/include</tt></a>
44 <li><a href="#lib"><tt>llvm/lib</tt></a>
45 <li><a href="#projects"><tt>llvm/projects</tt></a>
46 <li><a href="#runtime"><tt>llvm/runtime</tt></a>
47 <li><a href="#test"><tt>llvm/test</tt></a>
48 <li><a href="#llvmtest"><tt>llvm-test</tt></a>
49 <li><a href="#tools"><tt>llvm/tools</tt></a>
50 <li><a href="#utils"><tt>llvm/utils</tt></a>
51 <li><a href="#win32"><tt>llvm/win32</tt></a>
54 <li><a href="#tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
56 <li><a href="#tutorial4">Example with llvm-gcc4</a></li>
58 <li><a href="#problems">Common Problems</a>
59 <li><a href="#links">Links</a>
62 <div class="doc_author">
64 <a href="mailto:criswell@uiuc.edu">John Criswell</a>,
65 <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a>,
66 <a href="http://misha.brukman.net">Misha Brukman</a>,
67 <a href="http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/~vadve">Vikram Adve</a>, and
68 <a href="mailto:gshi1@uiuc.edu">Guochun Shi</a>.
73 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
74 <div class="doc_section">
75 <a name="overview"><b>Overview</b></a>
77 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
79 <div class="doc_text">
81 <p>Welcome to LLVM! In order to get started, you first need to know some
82 basic information.</p>
84 <p>First, LLVM comes in two pieces. The first piece is the LLVM suite. This
85 contains all of the tools, libraries, and header files needed to use the low
86 level virtual machine. It contains an assembler, disassembler, bytecode
87 analyzer and bytecode optimizer. It also contains a test suite that can be
88 used to test the LLVM tools and the GCC front end.</p>
90 <p>The second piece is the GCC front end. This component provides a version of
91 GCC that compiles C and C++ code into LLVM bytecode. Currently, the GCC front
92 end uses the GCC parser to convert code to LLVM. Once
93 compiled into LLVM bytecode, a program can be manipulated with the LLVM tools
94 from the LLVM suite.</p>
97 There is a third, optional piece called llvm-test. It is a suite of programs
98 with a testing harness that can be used to further test LLVM's functionality
104 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
105 <div class="doc_section">
106 <a name="quickstart"><b>Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</b></a>
108 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
110 <div class="doc_text">
112 <p>Here's the short story for getting up and running quickly with LLVM:</p>
115 <li>Read the documentation.</li>
116 <li>Read the documentation.</li>
117 <li>Remember that you were warned twice about reading the documentation.</li>
118 <li>Install the GCC front end if you intend to compile C or C++:
120 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-the-C-front-end-to-live</i></tt></li>
121 <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-gcc.<i>platform</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf -</tt>
123 <li><tt>cd llvm-gcc3.4/<i>platform</i> (llvm-gcc3.4 only)<br>
124 ./fixheaders</tt></li>
125 <li>Add llvm-gcc's "bin" directory to your PATH variable.</li>
128 <li>Get the LLVM Source Code
130 <li>With the distributed files (or use <a href="#checkout">CVS</a>):
132 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
133 <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-<i>version</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf -</tt>
138 <li><b>[Optional]</b> Get the Test Suite Source Code
140 <li>With the distributed files (or use <a href="#checkout">CVS</a>):
142 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
143 <li><tt>cd llvm/projects</tt>
144 <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-test-<i>version</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf -</tt>
150 <li>Configure the LLVM Build Environment
152 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-to-build-llvm</i></tt></li>
153 <li><tt><i>/path/to/llvm/</i>configure [options]</tt><br>
157 <li><tt>--prefix=<i>directory</i></tt>
158 <p>Specify for <i>directory</i> the full pathname of where you
159 want the LLVM tools and libraries to be installed (default
160 <tt>/usr/local</tt>).</p></li>
161 <li><tt>--with-llvmgccdir=<i>directory</i></tt>
162 <p>Optionally, specify for <i>directory</i> the full pathname of the
163 C/C++ front end installation to use with this LLVM configuration. If
164 not specified, the PATH will be searched.</p></li>
165 <li><tt>--enable-spec2000=<i>directory</i></tt>
166 <p>Enable the SPEC2000 benchmarks for testing. The SPEC2000
167 benchmarks should be available in
168 <tt><i>directory</i></tt>.</p></li>
172 <li>Build the LLVM Suite:
174 <li><tt>gmake -k |& tee gnumake.out
175 # this is csh or tcsh syntax</tt></li>
176 <li>If you get an "internal compiler error (ICE)" or test failures, see
177 <a href="#brokengcc">below</a>.</li>
182 <p>Consult the <a href="#starting">Getting Started with LLVM</a> section for
183 detailed information on configuring and compiling LLVM. See <a
184 href="#environment">Setting Up Your Environment</a> for tips that simplify
185 working with the GCC front end and LLVM tools. Go to <a href="#layout">Program
186 Layout</a> to learn about the layout of the source code tree.</p>
190 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
191 <div class="doc_section">
192 <a name="requirements"><b>Requirements</b></a>
194 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
196 <div class="doc_text">
198 <p>Before you begin to use the LLVM system, review the requirements given below.
199 This may save you some trouble by knowing ahead of time what hardware and
200 software you will need.</p>
204 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
205 <div class="doc_subsection">
206 <a name="hardware"><b>Hardware</b></a>
209 <div class="doc_text">
211 <p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:</p>
213 <table cellpadding="3" summary="Known LLVM platforms">
221 <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
226 <td>V9 (Ultrasparc)</td>
231 <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
235 <td>MacOS X<sup><a href="#pf_2">2</a></sup></td>
240 <td>MacOS X<sup><a href="#pf_2">2</a></sup></td>
246 <td>Cygwin/Win32</td>
247 <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a>,<a href="#pf_8">8</a></sup></td>
248 <td>GCC 3.4.X, binutils 2.15</td>
252 <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a>,<a href="#pf_6">6</a>,<a href="#pf_8">8</a></sup></td>
253 <td>GCC 3.4.X, binutils 2.15</td>
257 <td>amd64<sup><a href="#pf_3">3</a></sup></td>
262 <p>LLVM has partial support for the following platforms:</p>
264 <table summary="LLVM partial platform support">
272 <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
273 <td>Visual Studio .NET<sup><a href="#pf_4">4</a>,<a href="#pf_5">5</a></sup></td>
275 <td>AIX<sup><a href="#pf_3">3</a>,<a href="#pf_4">4</a></sup></td>
280 <td>Linux<sup><a href="#pf_3">3</a>,<a href="#pf_5">5</a></sup></td>
286 <td>Linux<sup><a href="#pf_7">7</a></sup></td>
291 <td>Linux<sup><a href="#pf_7">7</a></sup></td>
292 <td>Itanium (IA-64)</td>
296 <td>HP-UX<sup><a href="#pf_7">7</a></sup></td>
297 <td>Itanium (IA-64)</td>
304 <div class="doc_notes">
306 <li><a name="pf_1">Code generation supported for Pentium processors and
308 <li><a name="pf_2">Code generation supported for 32-bit ABI only</a></li>
309 <li><a name="pf_3">No native code generation</a></li>
310 <li><a name="pf_4">Build is not complete: one or more tools don't link</a></li>
311 <li><a name="pf_5">The GCC-based C/C++ frontend does not build</a></li>
312 <li><a name="pf_6">The port is done using the MSYS shell.</a>
313 <a href="http://www.mingw.org/MinGWiki/">Download</a> and install
314 bison (excl. M4.exe) and flex in that order. Build binutils-2.15 from source,
315 if necessary. Bison & flex can be also grabbed from GNUWin32 sf.net
317 <li><a name="pf_7">Native code generation exists but is not complete.</a></li>
318 <li><a name="pf_8">Binutils</a> up to post-2.17 has bug in bfd/cofflink.c
319 preventing LLVM from building correctly. Several workarounds have been
320 introduced into LLVM build system, but the bug can occur anytime in the
321 future. We highly recommend that you rebuild your current binutils with the
322 patch from <a href="http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=2659">
323 Binutils bugzilla</a>, if it wasn't already applied.</li>
327 <p>Note that you will need about 1-3 GB of space for a full LLVM build in Debug
328 mode, depending on the system (it is so large because of all the debugging
329 information and the fact that the libraries are statically linked into multiple
330 tools). If you do not need many of the tools and you are space-conscious,
331 you can disable them individually in <tt>llvm/tools/Makefile</tt>. The Release
332 build requires considerably less space.</p>
334 <p>The LLVM suite <i>may</i> compile on other platforms, but it is not
335 guaranteed to do so. If compilation is successful, the LLVM utilities should be
336 able to assemble, disassemble, analyze, and optimize LLVM bytecode. Code
337 generation should work as well, although the generated native code may not work
338 on your platform.</p>
340 <p>The GCC front end is not very portable at the moment. If you want to get it
341 to work on another platform, you can download a copy of the source and <a
342 href="CFEBuildInstrs.html">try to compile it</a> on your platform.</p>
346 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
347 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="software"><b>Software</b></a></div>
348 <div class="doc_text">
349 <p>Compiling LLVM requires that you have several software packages
350 installed. The table below lists those required packages. The Package column
351 is the usual name for the software package that LLVM depends on. The Version
352 column provides "known to work" versions of the package. The Notes column
353 describes how LLVM uses the package and provides other details.</p>
354 <table summary="Packages required to compile LLVM">
355 <tr><th>Package</th><th>Version</th><th>Notes</th></tr>
358 <td><a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/make">GNU Make</a></td>
359 <td>3.79, 3.79.1</td>
360 <td>Makefile/build processor</td>
364 <td><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org">GCC</a></td>
366 <td>C/C++ compiler<sup><a href="#sf1">1</a></sup></td>
370 <td><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo">TeXinfo</a></td>
372 <td>For building the CFE</td>
376 <td><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/flex">Flex</a></td>
378 <td>LEX compiler</td>
382 <td><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/bison/bison.html">Bison</a></td>
383 <td>1.28, 1.35, 1.75, 1.875d, 2.0, or 2.1<br>(not 1.85 or 1.875)</td>
384 <td>YACC compiler</td>
388 <td><a href="https://www.cvshome.org/downloads.html">CVS</a></td>
390 <td>CVS access to LLVM<sup><a href="#sf2">2</a></sup></td>
394 <td><a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/dejagnu">DejaGnu</a></td>
396 <td>Automated test suite<sup><a href="#sf3">3</a></sup></td>
400 <td><a href="http://www.tcl.tk/software/tcltk/">tcl</a></td>
402 <td>Automated test suite<sup><a href="#sf3">3</a></sup></td>
406 <td><a href="http://expect.nist.gov/">expect</a></td>
408 <td>Automated test suite<sup><a href="#sf3">3</a></sup></td>
412 <td><a href="http://www.perl.com/download.csp">perl</a></td>
414 <td>Nightly tester, utilities</td>
418 <td><a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/m4">GNU M4</a>
420 <td>Macro processor for configuration<sup><a href="#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
424 <td><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf">GNU Autoconf</a></td>
426 <td>Configuration script builder<sup><a href="#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
430 <td><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/automake">GNU Automake</a></td>
432 <td>aclocal macro generator<sup><a href="#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
436 <td><a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/libtool">libtool</a></td>
438 <td>Shared library manager<sup><a href="#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
444 <div class="doc_notes">
446 <li><a name="sf1">Only the C and C++ languages are needed so there's no
447 need to build the other languages for LLVM's purposes.</a> See
448 <a href="#brokengcc">below</a> for specific version info.</li>
449 <li><a name="sf2">You only need CVS if you intend to build from the
450 latest LLVM sources. If you're working from a release distribution, you
451 don't need CVS.</a></li>
452 <li><a name="sf3">Only needed if you want to run the automated test
453 suite in the <tt>llvm/test</tt> directory.</a></li>
454 <li><a name="sf4">If you want to make changes to the configure scripts,
455 you will need GNU autoconf (2.59), and consequently, GNU M4 (version 1.4
456 or higher). You will also need automake (1.9.2). We only use aclocal
457 from that package.</a></li>
461 <p>Additionally, your compilation host is expected to have the usual
462 plethora of Unix utilities. Specifically:</p>
464 <li><b>ar</b> - archive library builder</li>
465 <li><b>bzip2*</b> - bzip2 command for distribution generation</li>
466 <li><b>bunzip2*</b> - bunzip2 command for distribution checking</li>
467 <li><b>chmod</b> - change permissions on a file</li>
468 <li><b>cat</b> - output concatenation utility</li>
469 <li><b>cp</b> - copy files</li>
470 <li><b>date</b> - print the current date/time </li>
471 <li><b>echo</b> - print to standard output</li>
472 <li><b>egrep</b> - extended regular expression search utility</li>
473 <li><b>etags</b> - C/C++ tag file creator for vim/emacs</li>
474 <li><b>find</b> - find files/dirs in a file system</li>
475 <li><b>grep</b> - regular expression search utility</li>
476 <li><b>gzip*</b> - gzip command for distribution generation</li>
477 <li><b>gunzip*</b> - gunzip command for distribution checking</li>
478 <li><b>install</b> - install directories/files </li>
479 <li><b>mkdir</b> - create a directory</li>
480 <li><b>mv</b> - move (rename) files</li>
481 <li><b>ranlib</b> - symbol table builder for archive libraries</li>
482 <li><b>rm</b> - remove (delete) files and directories</li>
483 <li><b>sed</b> - stream editor for transforming output</li>
484 <li><b>sh</b> - Bourne shell for make build scripts</li>
485 <li><b>tar</b> - tape archive for distribution generation</li>
486 <li><b>test</b> - test things in file system</li>
487 <li><b>unzip*</b> - unzip command for distribution checking</li>
488 <li><b>zip*</b> - zip command for distribution generation</li>
492 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
493 <div class="doc_subsection">
494 <a name="brokengcc">Broken versions of GCC</a>
497 <div class="doc_text">
499 <p>LLVM is very demanding of the host C++ compiler, and as such tends to expose
500 bugs in the compiler. In particular, several versions of GCC crash when trying
501 to compile LLVM. We routinely use GCC 3.3.3, 3.4.0, and Apple 4.0.1
502 successfully with them (however, see below). Other versions of GCC will
503 probably work as well. GCC versions listed
504 here are known to not work. If you are using one of these versions, please try
505 to upgrade your GCC to something more recent. If you run into a problem with a
506 version of GCC not listed here, please <a href="mailto:llvmdev@cs.uiuc.edu">let
507 us know</a>. Please use the "<tt>gcc -v</tt>" command to find out which version
508 of GCC you are using.
511 <p><b>GCC versions prior to 3.0</b>: GCC 2.96.x and before had several
512 problems in the STL that effectively prevent it from compiling LLVM.
515 <p><b>GCC 3.2.2</b>: This version of GCC fails to compile LLVM.</p>
517 <p><b>GCC 3.3.2</b>: This version of GCC suffered from a <a
518 href="http://gcc.gnu.org/PR13392">serious bug</a> which causes it to crash in
519 the "<tt>convert_from_eh_region_ranges_1</tt>" GCC function.</p>
521 <p><b>Cygwin GCC 3.3.3</b>: The version of GCC 3.3.3 commonly shipped with
522 Cygwin does not work. Please <a href="CFEBuildInstrs.html#cygwin">upgrade
523 to a newer version</a> if possible.</p>
524 <p><b>SuSE GCC 3.3.3</b>: The version of GCC 3.3.3 shipped with SuSE 9.1 (and
525 possibly others) does not compile LLVM correctly (it appears that exception
526 handling is broken in some cases). Please download the FSF 3.3.3 or upgrade
527 to a newer version of GCC.</p>
528 <p><b>GCC 3.4.0</b> on linux/x86 (32-bit)</b>: GCC miscompiles portions of the
529 code generator, causing an infinite loop in the llvm-gcc build. Please
530 upgrade to GCC 3.4.2.</p>
531 <p><b>GCC 3.4.x</b> on X86-64/amd64</b>: GCC <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1056">
532 miscompiles portions of LLVM</a>.</p>
533 <p><b>IA-64 GCC 4.0.0</b>: The IA-64 version of GCC 4.0.0 is known to
535 <p><b>Apple Xcode 2.3</b>: GCC crashes when compiling LLVM at -O3 (which is the
536 default with ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1. To work around this, build with
537 "ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 OPTIMIZE_OPTION=-O2".</p>
538 <p><b>GCC 4.1.1</b>: GCC fails to build LLVM with template concept check errors
539 compiling some files. At the time of this writing, GCC mainline (4.2)
540 did not share the problem.</p>
541 <p><b>GCC 4.1.1 on X86-64/amd64</b>: GCC <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1063">
542 miscompiles portions of LLVM</a> when compiling llvm itself into 64-bit
543 code. LLVM will appear to mostly work but will be buggy, e.g. failing
544 portions of its testsuite.</p>
545 <p><b>GCC 4.1.2 on OpenSUSE</b>: Seg faults during libstdc++ build and on x86_64
546 platforms compiling md5.c gets a mangled constant.</p>
547 <p><b>GNU ld 2.16.X</b>. Some 2.16.X versions of the ld linker will produce very
548 long warning messages complaining that some ".gnu.linkonce.t.*" symbol was
549 defined in a discarded section. You can safely ignore these messages as they are
550 erroneous and the linkage is correct. These messages disappear using ld
556 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
557 <div class="doc_section">
558 <a name="starting"><b>Getting Started with LLVM</b></a>
560 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
562 <div class="doc_text">
564 <p>The remainder of this guide is meant to get you up and running with
565 LLVM and to give you some basic information about the LLVM environment.</p>
567 <p>The later sections of this guide describe the <a
568 href="#layout">general layout</a> of the the LLVM source tree, a <a
569 href="#tutorial">simple example</a> using the LLVM tool chain, and <a
570 href="#links">links</a> to find more information about LLVM or to get
574 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
575 <div class="doc_subsection">
576 <a name="terminology">Terminology and Notation</a>
579 <div class="doc_text">
581 <p>Throughout this manual, the following names are used to denote paths
582 specific to the local system and working environment. <i>These are not
583 environment variables you need to set but just strings used in the rest
584 of this document below</i>. In any of the examples below, simply replace
585 each of these names with the appropriate pathname on your local system.
586 All these paths are absolute:</p>
591 This is the top level directory of the LLVM source tree.
596 This is the top level directory of the LLVM object tree (i.e. the
597 tree where object files and compiled programs will be placed. It
598 can be the same as SRC_ROOT).
603 This is where the LLVM GCC Front End is installed.
605 For the pre-built GCC front end binaries, the LLVMGCCDIR is
606 <tt>llvm-gcc/<i>platform</i>/llvm-gcc</tt>.
611 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
612 <div class="doc_subsection">
613 <a name="environment">Setting Up Your Environment</a>
616 <div class="doc_text">
619 In order to compile and use LLVM, you may need to set some environment
623 <dt><tt>LLVM_LIB_SEARCH_PATH</tt>=<tt>/path/to/your/bytecode/libs</tt></dt>
624 <dd>[Optional] This environment variable helps LLVM linking tools find the
625 locations of your bytecode libraries. It is provided only as a
626 convenience since you can specify the paths using the -L options of the
627 tools and the C/C++ front-end will automatically use the bytecode files
629 <tt>lib</tt> directory.</dd>
634 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
635 <div class="doc_subsection">
636 <a name="unpack">Unpacking the LLVM Archives</a>
639 <div class="doc_text">
642 If you have the LLVM distribution, you will need to unpack it before you
643 can begin to compile it. LLVM is distributed as a set of two files: the LLVM
644 suite and the LLVM GCC front end compiled for your platform. There is an
645 additional test suite that is optional. Each file is a TAR archive that is
646 compressed with the gzip program.
649 <p>The files are as follows, with <em>x.y</em> marking the version number:
651 <dt><tt>llvm-x.y.tar.gz</tt></dt>
652 <dd>Source release for the LLVM libraries and tools.<br/></dd>
654 <dt><tt>llvm-test-x.y.tar.gz</tt></dt>
655 <dd>Source release for the LLVM test suite.</dd>
657 <dt><tt>llvm-gcc4-x.y.source.tar.gz</tt></dt>
658 <dd>Source release of the llvm-gcc4 front end. See README.LLVM in the root
659 directory for build instructions.<br/></dd>
661 <dt><tt>llvm-gcc4-x.y-platform.tar.gz</tt></dt>
662 <dd>Binary release of the llvm-gcc4 front end for a specific platform.<br/></dd>
666 <p>It is also possible to download the sources of the llvm-gcc4 front end from a
667 read-only subversion mirror at
668 svn://anonsvn.opensource.apple.com/svn/llvm/trunk. </p>
672 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
673 <div class="doc_subsection">
674 <a name="checkout">Checkout LLVM from CVS</a>
677 <div class="doc_text">
679 <p>If you have access to our CVS repository, you can get a fresh copy of
680 the entire source code. All you need to do is check it out from CVS as
684 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
685 <li><tt>cvs -d :pserver:anon@llvm.org:/var/cvs/llvm login</tt>
686 <li>Hit the return key when prompted for the password.
687 <li><tt>cvs -z3 -d :pserver:anon@llvm.org:/var/cvs/llvm co
691 <p>This will create an '<tt>llvm</tt>' directory in the current
692 directory and fully populate it with the LLVM source code, Makefiles,
693 test directories, and local copies of documentation files.</p>
695 <p>If you want to get a specific release (as opposed to the most recent
696 revision), you can specify a label. The following releases have the following
700 <li>Release 1.9: <b>RELEASE_19</b></li>
701 <li>Release 1.8: <b>RELEASE_18</b></li>
702 <li>Release 1.7: <b>RELEASE_17</b></li>
703 <li>Release 1.6: <b>RELEASE_16</b></li>
704 <li>Release 1.5: <b>RELEASE_15</b></li>
705 <li>Release 1.4: <b>RELEASE_14</b></li>
706 <li>Release 1.3: <b>RELEASE_13</b></li>
707 <li>Release 1.2: <b>RELEASE_12</b></li>
708 <li>Release 1.1: <b>RELEASE_11</b></li>
709 <li>Release 1.0: <b>RELEASE_1</b></li>
712 <p>If you would like to get the LLVM test suite (a separate package as of 1.4),
713 you get it from the CVS repository:</p>
716 cvs -z3 -d :pserver:anon@llvm.org:/var/cvs/llvm co llvm-test
718 <p>By placing it in the <tt>llvm/projects</tt>, it will be automatically
719 configured by the LLVM configure script as well as automatically updated when
720 you run <tt>cvs update</tt>.</p>
722 <p>If you would like to get the GCC front end source code, you can also get it
723 and build it yourself. Please follow <a href="CFEBuildInstrs.html">these
724 instructions</a> to successfully get and build the LLVM GCC front-end.</p>
728 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
729 <div class="doc_subsection">
730 <a name="installcf">Install the GCC Front End</a>
733 <div class="doc_text">
735 <p>Before configuring and compiling the LLVM suite, you can optionally extract the
736 LLVM GCC front end from the binary distribution. It is used for running the
737 llvm-test testsuite and for compiling C/C++ programs. Note that you can optionally
738 <a href="CFEBuildInstrs.html">build llvm-gcc yourself</a> after building the
739 main LLVM repository.</p>
741 <p>To install the GCC front end, do the following:</p>
744 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-the-front-end-to-live</i></tt></li>
745 <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvmgcc-<i>version</i>.<i>platform</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf
749 <p>Once the binary is uncompressed, you should add a symlink for llvm-gcc and
750 llvm-g++ to some directory in your path. When you configure LLVM, it will
751 automatically detect llvm-gcc's presence (if it is in your path) enabling its
752 use in llvm-test. Note that you can always build or install llvm-gcc at any
753 pointer after building the main LLVM repository: just reconfigure llvm and
754 llvm-test will pick it up.
757 <p>The binary versions of the GCC front end may not suit all of your needs. For
758 example, the binary distribution may include an old version of a system header
759 file, not "fix" a header file that needs to be fixed for GCC, or it may be
760 linked with libraries not available on your system.</p>
762 <p>In cases like these, you may want to try <a
763 href="CFEBuildInstrs.html">building the GCC front end from source.</a> This is
764 much easier now than it was in the past.</p>
768 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
769 <div class="doc_subsection">
770 <a name="config">Local LLVM Configuration</a>
773 <div class="doc_text">
775 <p>Once checked out from the CVS repository, the LLVM suite source code must be
776 configured via the <tt>configure</tt> script. This script sets variables in the
777 various <tt>*.in</tt> files, most notably <tt>llvm/Makefile.config</tt> and
778 <tt>llvm/include/Config/config.h</tt>. It also populates <i>OBJ_ROOT</i> with
779 the Makefiles needed to begin building LLVM.</p>
781 <p>The following environment variables are used by the <tt>configure</tt>
782 script to configure the build system:</p>
784 <table summary="LLVM configure script environment variables">
785 <tr><th>Variable</th><th>Purpose</th></tr>
788 <td>Tells <tt>configure</tt> which C compiler to use. By default,
789 <tt>configure</tt> will look for the first GCC C compiler in
790 <tt>PATH</tt>. Use this variable to override
791 <tt>configure</tt>'s default behavior.</td>
795 <td>Tells <tt>configure</tt> which C++ compiler to use. By default,
796 <tt>configure</tt> will look for the first GCC C++ compiler in
797 <tt>PATH</tt>. Use this variable to override
798 <tt>configure</tt>'s default behavior.</td>
802 <p>The following options can be used to set or enable LLVM specific options:</p>
805 <dt><i>--with-llvmgccdir</i></dt>
806 <dd>Path to the LLVM C/C++ FrontEnd to be used with this LLVM configuration.
807 The value of this option should specify the full pathname of the C/C++ Front
808 End to be used. If this option is not provided, the PATH will be searched for
809 a program named <i>llvm-gcc</i> and the C/C++ FrontEnd install directory will
810 be inferred from the path found. If the option is not given, and no llvm-gcc
811 can be found in the path then a warning will be produced by
812 <tt>configure</tt> indicating this situation. LLVM may still be built with
813 the <tt>tools-only</tt> target but attempting to build the runtime libraries
814 will fail as these libraries require llvm-gcc and llvm-g++. See
815 <a href="#installcf">Install the GCC Front End</a> for details on installing
816 the C/C++ Front End. See
817 <a href="CFEBuildInstrs.html">Bootstrapping the LLVM C/C++ Front-End</a>
818 for details on building the C/C++ Front End.</dd>
819 <dt><i>--with-tclinclude</i></dt>
820 <dd>Path to the tcl include directory under which <tt>tclsh</tt> can be
821 found. Use this if you have multiple tcl installations on your machine and you
822 want to use a specific one (8.x) for LLVM. LLVM only uses tcl for running the
823 dejagnu based test suite in <tt>llvm/test</tt>. If you don't specify this
824 option, the LLVM configure script will search for the tcl 8.4 and 8.3
828 <dt><i>--enable-optimized</i></dt>
830 Enables optimized compilation by default (debugging symbols are removed
831 and GCC optimization flags are enabled). The default is to use an
832 unoptimized build (also known as a debug build).
835 <dt><i>--enable-debug-runtime</i></dt>
837 Enables debug symbols in the runtime libraries. The default is to strip
838 debug symbols from the runtime libraries.
840 <dt><i>--enable-jit</i></dt>
842 Compile the Just In Time (JIT) compiler functionality. This is not
844 on all platforms. The default is dependent on platform, so it is best
845 to explicitly enable it if you want it.
848 <dt><i>--enable-targets=</i><tt>target-option</tt></dt>
849 <dd>Controls which targets will be built and linked into llc. The default
850 value for <tt>target_options</tt> is "all" which builds and links all
851 available targets. The value "host-only" can be specified to build only a
852 native compiler (no cross-compiler targets available). The "native" target is
853 selected as the target of the build host. You can also specify a comma
854 separated list of target names that you want available in llc. The target
855 names use all lower case. The current set of targets is: <br/>
856 <tt>alpha, ia64, powerpc, skeleton, sparc, x86</tt>.
858 <dt><i>--enable-doxygen</i></dt>
859 <dd>Look for the doxygen program and enable construction of doxygen based
860 documentation from the source code. This is disabled by default because
861 generating the documentation can take a long time and producess 100s of
862 megabytes of output.</dd>
863 <dt><i>--with-udis86</i></dt>
864 <dd>LLVM can use external disassembler library for various purposes (now it's
865 used only for examining code produced by JIT). This option will enable usage
866 of <a href="http://udis86.sourceforge.net/">udis86</a> x86 (both 32 and 64
867 bits) disassembler library.</dd>
870 <p>To configure LLVM, follow these steps:</p>
873 <li>Change directory into the object root directory:
875 <tt>cd <i>OBJ_ROOT</i></tt>
878 <li>Run the <tt>configure</tt> script located in the LLVM source tree:
880 <tt><i>SRC_ROOT</i>/configure --prefix=/install/path [other options]</tt>
886 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
887 <div class="doc_subsection">
888 <a name="compile">Compiling the LLVM Suite Source Code</a>
891 <div class="doc_text">
893 <p>Once you have configured LLVM, you can build it. There are three types of
899 These builds are the default when one types <tt>gmake</tt> (unless the
900 <tt>--enable-optimized</tt> option was used during configuration). The
901 build system will compile the tools and libraries with debugging
905 <dt>Release (Optimized) Builds
907 These builds are enabled with the <tt>--enable-optimized</tt> option to
908 <tt>configure</tt> or by specifying <tt>ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1</tt> on the
909 <tt>gmake</tt> command line. For these builds, the build system will
910 compile the tools and libraries with GCC optimizations enabled and strip
911 debugging information from the libraries and executables it generates.
916 These builds are for use with profiling. They compile profiling
917 information into the code for use with programs like <tt>gprof</tt>.
918 Profile builds must be started by specifying <tt>ENABLE_PROFILING=1</tt>
919 on the <tt>gmake</tt> command line.
922 <p>Once you have LLVM configured, you can build it by entering the
923 <i>OBJ_ROOT</i> directory and issuing the following command:</p>
925 <p><tt>gmake</tt></p>
927 <p>If the build fails, please <a href="#brokengcc">check here</a> to see if you
928 are using a version of GCC that is known not to compile LLVM.</p>
931 If you have multiple processors in your machine, you may wish to use some of
932 the parallel build options provided by GNU Make. For example, you could use the
935 <p><tt>gmake -j2</tt></p>
937 <p>There are several special targets which are useful when working with the LLVM
941 <dt><tt>gmake clean</tt>
943 Removes all files generated by the build. This includes object files,
944 generated C/C++ files, libraries, and executables.
947 <dt><tt>gmake dist-clean</tt>
949 Removes everything that <tt>gmake clean</tt> does, but also removes files
950 generated by <tt>configure</tt>. It attempts to return the source tree to the
951 original state in which it was shipped.
954 <dt><tt>gmake install</tt>
956 Installs LLVM header files, libraries, tools, and documentation in a
958 under $PREFIX, specified with <tt>./configure --prefix=[dir]</tt>, which
959 defaults to <tt>/usr/local</tt>.
962 <dt><tt>gmake -C runtime install-bytecode</tt>
964 Assuming you built LLVM into $OBJDIR, when this command is run, it will
965 install bytecode libraries into the GCC front end's bytecode library
966 directory. If you need to update your bytecode libraries,
967 this is the target to use once you've built them.
971 <p>Please see the <a href="MakefileGuide.html">Makefile Guide</a> for further
972 details on these <tt>make</tt> targets and descriptions of other targets
975 <p>It is also possible to override default values from <tt>configure</tt> by
976 declaring variables on the command line. The following are some examples:</p>
979 <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1</tt>
981 Perform a Release (Optimized) build.
984 <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 DISABLE_ASSERTIONS=1</tt>
986 Perform a Release (Optimized) build without assertions enabled.
989 <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_PROFILING=1</tt>
991 Perform a Profiling build.
994 <dt><tt>gmake VERBOSE=1</tt>
996 Print what <tt>gmake</tt> is doing on standard output.
999 <dt><tt>gmake TOOL_VERBOSE=1</tt></dt>
1000 <dd>Ask each tool invoked by the makefiles to print out what it is doing on
1001 the standard output. This also implies <tt>VERBOSE=1</tt>.
1005 <p>Every directory in the LLVM object tree includes a <tt>Makefile</tt> to build
1006 it and any subdirectories that it contains. Entering any directory inside the
1007 LLVM object tree and typing <tt>gmake</tt> should rebuild anything in or below
1008 that directory that is out of date.</p>
1012 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1013 <div class="doc_subsection">
1014 <a name="cross-compile">Cross-Compiling LLVM</a>
1017 <div class="doc_text">
1018 <p>It is possible to cross-compile LLVM. That is, you can create LLVM
1019 executables and libraries for a platform different than the one one which you
1020 are compiling. To do this, a few additional steps are
1021 required. <sup><a href="#ccn_1">1</a></sup> To cross-compile LLVM, use
1022 these instructions:</p>
1024 <li>Configure and build LLVM as a native compiler. You will need
1025 just <tt>TableGen</tt> from that build.
1027 <li>If you have <tt>$LLVM_OBJ_ROOT=$LLVM_SRC_ROOT</tt> just execute
1028 <tt>make -C utils/TableGen</tt> after configuring.</li>
1029 <li>Otherwise you will need to monitor building process and terminate
1030 it just after <tt>TableGen</tt> was built.</li>
1033 <li>Copy the TableGen binary to somewhere safe (out of your build tree).
1035 <li>Configure LLVM to build with a cross-compiler. To do this, supply the
1036 configure script with <tt>--build</tt> and <tt>--host</tt> options that
1037 are different. The values of these options must be legal target triples
1038 that your GCC compiler supports.</li>
1039 <li>Put the saved <tt>TableGen</tt> executable into the
1040 into <tt>$LLVM_OBJ_ROOT/{BUILD_TYPE}/bin</tt> directory (e.g. into
1041 <tt>.../Release/bin</tt> for a Release build).</li>
1042 <li>Build LLVM as usual.</li>
1044 <p>The result of such a build will produce executables that are not executable
1045 on your build host (--build option) but can be executed on your compile host
1046 (--host option).</p>
1047 <p><b>Notes:</b></p>
1048 <div class="doc_notes">
1050 <li><a name="ccn_1">Cross-compiling</a> was tested only with Linux as
1051 build platform and Windows as host using mingw32 cross-compiler. Other
1052 combinations have not been tested.</li>
1057 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1058 <div class="doc_subsection">
1059 <a name="objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a>
1062 <div class="doc_text">
1064 <p>The LLVM build system is capable of sharing a single LLVM source tree among
1065 several LLVM builds. Hence, it is possible to build LLVM for several different
1066 platforms or configurations using the same source tree.</p>
1068 <p>This is accomplished in the typical autoconf manner:</p>
1071 <li><p>Change directory to where the LLVM object files should live:</p>
1073 <p><tt>cd <i>OBJ_ROOT</i></tt></p></li>
1075 <li><p>Run the <tt>configure</tt> script found in the LLVM source
1078 <p><tt><i>SRC_ROOT</i>/configure</tt></p></li>
1081 <p>The LLVM build will place files underneath <i>OBJ_ROOT</i> in directories
1082 named after the build type:</p>
1089 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Debug/bin</tt>
1091 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Debug/lib</tt>
1099 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Release/bin</tt>
1101 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Release/lib</tt>
1109 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Profile/bin</tt>
1111 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Profile/lib</tt>
1117 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1118 <div class="doc_subsection">
1119 <a name="optionalconfig">Optional Configuration Items</a>
1122 <div class="doc_text">
1125 If you're running on a Linux system that supports the "<a
1126 href="http://www.tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de/~rguenth/linux/binfmt_misc.html">
1128 module, and you have root access on the system, you can set your system up to
1129 execute LLVM bytecode files directly. To do this, use commands like this (the
1130 first command may not be required if you are already using the module):</p>
1132 <div class="doc_code">
1134 $ mount -t binfmt_misc none /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc
1135 $ echo ':llvm:M::llvm::/path/to/lli:' > /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register
1136 $ chmod u+x hello.bc (if needed)
1142 This allows you to execute LLVM bytecode files directly. Thanks to Jack
1143 Cummings for pointing this out!
1149 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1150 <div class="doc_section">
1151 <a name="layout"><b>Program Layout</b></a>
1153 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1155 <div class="doc_text">
1157 <p>One useful source of information about the LLVM source base is the LLVM <a
1158 href="http://www.doxygen.org">doxygen</a> documentation available at <tt><a
1159 href="http://llvm.org/doxygen/">http://llvm.org/doxygen/</a></tt>.
1160 The following is a brief introduction to code layout:</p>
1164 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1165 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="cvsdir"><tt>CVS</tt> directories</a></div>
1166 <div class="doc_text">
1167 <p>Every directory checked out of CVS will contain a <tt>CVS</tt> directory; for
1168 the most part these can just be ignored.</p>
1171 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1172 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="examples"><tt>llvm/examples</tt></a></div>
1173 <div class="doc_text">
1174 <p>This directory contains some simple examples of how to use the LLVM IR and
1178 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1179 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="include"><tt>llvm/include</tt></a></div>
1180 <div class="doc_text">
1182 <p>This directory contains public header files exported from the LLVM
1183 library. The three main subdirectories of this directory are:</p>
1186 <dt><tt><b>llvm/include/llvm</b></tt></dt>
1187 <dd>This directory contains all of the LLVM specific header files. This
1188 directory also has subdirectories for different portions of LLVM:
1189 <tt>Analysis</tt>, <tt>CodeGen</tt>, <tt>Target</tt>, <tt>Transforms</tt>,
1192 <dt><tt><b>llvm/include/llvm/Support</b></tt></dt>
1193 <dd>This directory contains generic support libraries that are provided with
1194 LLVM but not necessarily specific to LLVM. For example, some C++ STL utilities
1195 and a Command Line option processing library store their header files here.
1198 <dt><tt><b>llvm/include/llvm/Config</b></tt></dt>
1199 <dd>This directory contains header files configured by the <tt>configure</tt>
1200 script. They wrap "standard" UNIX and C header files. Source code can
1201 include these header files which automatically take care of the conditional
1202 #includes that the <tt>configure</tt> script generates.</dd>
1206 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1207 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="lib"><tt>llvm/lib</tt></a></div>
1208 <div class="doc_text">
1210 <p>This directory contains most of the source files of the LLVM system. In LLVM,
1211 almost all code exists in libraries, making it very easy to share code among the
1212 different <a href="#tools">tools</a>.</p>
1215 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/VMCore/</b></tt></dt>
1216 <dd> This directory holds the core LLVM source files that implement core
1217 classes like Instruction and BasicBlock.</dd>
1219 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/AsmParser/</b></tt></dt>
1220 <dd>This directory holds the source code for the LLVM assembly language parser
1223 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/ByteCode/</b></tt></dt>
1224 <dd>This directory holds code for reading and write LLVM bytecode.</dd>
1226 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Analysis/</b></tt><dd>This directory contains a variety of
1227 different program analyses, such as Dominator Information, Call Graphs,
1228 Induction Variables, Interval Identification, Natural Loop Identification,
1231 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Transforms/</b></tt></dt>
1232 <dd> This directory contains the source code for the LLVM to LLVM program
1233 transformations, such as Aggressive Dead Code Elimination, Sparse Conditional
1234 Constant Propagation, Inlining, Loop Invariant Code Motion, Dead Global
1235 Elimination, and many others.</dd>
1237 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Target/</b></tt></dt>
1238 <dd> This directory contains files that describe various target architectures
1239 for code generation. For example, the <tt>llvm/lib/Target/X86</tt>
1240 directory holds the X86 machine description while
1241 <tt>llvm/lib/Target/CBackend</tt> implements the LLVM-to-C converter.</dd>
1243 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/CodeGen/</b></tt></dt>
1244 <dd> This directory contains the major parts of the code generator: Instruction
1245 Selector, Instruction Scheduling, and Register Allocation.</dd>
1247 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Debugger/</b></tt></dt>
1248 <dd> This directory contains the source level debugger library that makes
1249 it possible to instrument LLVM programs so that a debugger could identify
1250 source code locations at which the program is executing.</dd>
1252 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/ExecutionEngine/</b></tt></dt>
1253 <dd> This directory contains libraries for executing LLVM bytecode directly
1254 at runtime in both interpreted and JIT compiled fashions.</dd>
1256 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Support/</b></tt></dt>
1257 <dd> This directory contains the source code that corresponds to the header
1258 files located in <tt>llvm/include/Support/</tt>.</dd>
1260 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/System/</b></tt></dt>
1261 <dd>This directory contains the operating system abstraction layer that
1262 shields LLVM from platform-specific coding.</dd>
1267 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1268 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="projects"><tt>llvm/projects</tt></a></div>
1269 <div class="doc_text">
1270 <p>This directory contains projects that are not strictly part of LLVM but are
1271 shipped with LLVM. This is also the directory where you should create your own
1272 LLVM-based projects. See <tt>llvm/projects/sample</tt> for an example of how
1273 to set up your own project. See <tt>llvm/projects/Stacker</tt> for a fully
1274 functional example of a compiler front end.</p>
1277 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1278 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="runtime"><tt>llvm/runtime</tt></a></div>
1279 <div class="doc_text">
1281 <p>This directory contains libraries which are compiled into LLVM bytecode and
1282 used when linking programs with the GCC front end. Most of these libraries are
1283 skeleton versions of real libraries; for example, libc is a stripped down
1284 version of glibc.</p>
1286 <p>Unlike the rest of the LLVM suite, this directory needs the LLVM GCC front
1291 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1292 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="test"><tt>llvm/test</tt></a></div>
1293 <div class="doc_text">
1294 <p>This directory contains feature and regression tests and other basic sanity
1295 checks on the LLVM infrastructure. These are intended to run quickly and cover
1296 a lot of territory without being exhaustive.</p>
1299 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1300 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="llvmtest"><tt>llvm-test</tt></a></div>
1301 <div class="doc_text">
1302 <p>This is not a directory in the normal llvm module; it is a separate CVS
1303 module that must be checked out (usually to <tt>projects/llvm-test</tt>). This
1304 module contains a comprehensive correctness, performance, and benchmarking
1306 suite for LLVM. It is a separate CVS module because not every LLVM user is
1307 interested in downloading or building such a comprehensive test suite. For
1308 further details on this test suite, please see the
1309 <a href="TestingGuide.html">Testing Guide</a> document.</p>
1312 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1313 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="tools"><tt>llvm/tools</tt></a></div>
1314 <div class="doc_text">
1316 <p>The <b>tools</b> directory contains the executables built out of the
1317 libraries above, which form the main part of the user interface. You can
1318 always get help for a tool by typing <tt>tool_name --help</tt>. The
1319 following is a brief introduction to the most important tools. More detailed
1320 information is in the <a href="CommandGuide/index.html">Command Guide</a>.</p>
1324 <dt><tt><b>bugpoint</b></tt></dt>
1325 <dd><tt>bugpoint</tt> is used to debug
1326 optimization passes or code generation backends by narrowing down the
1327 given test case to the minimum number of passes and/or instructions that
1328 still cause a problem, whether it is a crash or miscompilation. See <a
1329 href="HowToSubmitABug.html">HowToSubmitABug.html</a> for more information
1330 on using <tt>bugpoint</tt>.</dd>
1332 <dt><tt><b>llvmc</b></tt></dt>
1333 <dd>The LLVM Compiler Driver. This program can
1334 be configured to utilize both LLVM and non-LLVM compilation tools to enable
1335 pre-processing, translation, optimization, assembly, and linking of programs
1336 all from one command line. <tt>llvmc</tt> also takes care of processing the
1337 dependent libraries found in bytecode. This reduces the need to get the
1338 traditional <tt>-l<name></tt> options right on the command line. Please
1339 note that this tool, while functional, is still experimental and not feature
1342 <dt><tt><b>llvm-ar</b></tt></dt>
1343 <dd>The archiver produces an archive containing
1344 the given LLVM bytecode files, optionally with an index for faster
1347 <dt><tt><b>llvm-as</b></tt></dt>
1348 <dd>The assembler transforms the human readable LLVM assembly to LLVM
1351 <dt><tt><b>llvm-dis</b></tt></dt>
1352 <dd>The disassembler transforms the LLVM bytecode to human readable
1355 <dt><tt><b>llvm-ld</b></tt></dt>
1356 <dd><tt>llvm-ld</tt> is a general purpose and extensible linker for LLVM.
1357 This is the linker invoked by <tt>llvmc</tt>. It performsn standard link time
1358 optimizations and allows optimization modules to be loaded and run so that
1359 language specific optimizations can be applied at link time.</dd>
1361 <dt><tt><b>llvm-link</b></tt></dt>
1362 <dd><tt>llvm-link</tt>, not surprisingly, links multiple LLVM modules into
1363 a single program.</dd>
1365 <dt><tt><b>lli</b></tt></dt>
1366 <dd><tt>lli</tt> is the LLVM interpreter, which
1367 can directly execute LLVM bytecode (although very slowly...). In addition
1368 to a simple interpreter, <tt>lli</tt> also has a tracing mode (entered by
1369 specifying <tt>-trace</tt> on the command line). Finally, for
1370 architectures that support it (currently x86, Sparc, and PowerPC), by default,
1371 <tt>lli</tt> will function as a Just-In-Time compiler (if the
1372 functionality was compiled in), and will execute the code <i>much</i>
1373 faster than the interpreter.</dd>
1375 <dt><tt><b>llc</b></tt></dt>
1376 <dd> <tt>llc</tt> is the LLVM backend compiler, which
1377 translates LLVM bytecode to a native code assembly file or to C code (with
1378 the -march=c option).</dd>
1380 <dt><tt><b>llvm-gcc</b></tt></dt>
1381 <dd><tt>llvm-gcc</tt> is a GCC-based C frontend that has been retargeted to
1382 use LLVM as its backend instead of GCC's RTL backend. It can also emit LLVM
1383 byte code or assembly (with the <tt>-emit-llvm</tt> option) instead of the
1384 usual machine code output. It works just like any other GCC compiler,
1385 taking the typical <tt>-c, -S, -E, -o</tt> options that are typically used.
1386 Additionally, the the source code for <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> is available as a
1387 separate CVS module.</dd>
1389 <dt><tt><b>opt</b></tt></dt>
1390 <dd><tt>opt</tt> reads LLVM bytecode, applies a series of LLVM to LLVM
1391 transformations (which are specified on the command line), and then outputs
1392 the resultant bytecode. The '<tt>opt --help</tt>' command is a good way to
1393 get a list of the program transformations available in LLVM.<br/>
1394 <dd><tt>opt</tt> can also be used to run a specific analysis on an input
1395 LLVM bytecode file and print out the results. It is primarily useful for
1396 debugging analyses, or familiarizing yourself with what an analysis does.</dd>
1400 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1401 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="utils"><tt>llvm/utils</tt></a></div>
1402 <div class="doc_text">
1404 <p>This directory contains utilities for working with LLVM source code, and some
1405 of the utilities are actually required as part of the build process because they
1406 are code generators for parts of LLVM infrastructure.</p>
1409 <dt><tt><b>codegen-diff</b></tt> <dd><tt>codegen-diff</tt> is a script
1410 that finds differences between code that LLC generates and code that LLI
1411 generates. This is a useful tool if you are debugging one of them,
1412 assuming that the other generates correct output. For the full user
1413 manual, run <tt>`perldoc codegen-diff'</tt>.<br><br>
1415 <dt><tt><b>cvsupdate</b></tt> <dd><tt>cvsupdate</tt> is a script that will
1416 update your CVS tree, but produce a much cleaner and more organized output
1417 than simply running <tt>`cvs -z3 up -dP'</tt> will. For example, it will group
1418 together all the new and updated files and modified files in separate
1419 sections, so you can see at a glance what has changed. If you are at the
1420 top of your LLVM CVS tree, running <tt>utils/cvsupdate</tt> is the
1421 preferred way of updating the tree.<br><br>
1423 <dt><tt><b>emacs/</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>emacs</tt> directory contains
1424 syntax-highlighting files which will work with Emacs and XEmacs editors,
1425 providing syntax highlighting support for LLVM assembly files and TableGen
1426 description files. For information on how to use the syntax files, consult
1427 the <tt>README</tt> file in that directory.<br><br>
1429 <dt><tt><b>getsrcs.sh</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>getsrcs.sh</tt> script finds
1430 and outputs all non-generated source files, which is useful if one wishes
1431 to do a lot of development across directories and does not want to
1432 individually find each file. One way to use it is to run, for example:
1433 <tt>xemacs `utils/getsources.sh`</tt> from the top of your LLVM source
1436 <dt><tt><b>llvmgrep</b></tt></dt>
1437 <dd>This little tool performs an "egrep -H -n" on each source file in LLVM and
1438 passes to it a regular expression provided on <tt>llvmgrep</tt>'s command
1439 line. This is a very efficient way of searching the source base for a
1440 particular regular expression.</dd>
1442 <dt><tt><b>makellvm</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>makellvm</tt> script compiles all
1443 files in the current directory and then compiles and links the tool that
1444 is the first argument. For example, assuming you are in the directory
1445 <tt>llvm/lib/Target/Sparc</tt>, if <tt>makellvm</tt> is in your path,
1446 simply running <tt>makellvm llc</tt> will make a build of the current
1447 directory, switch to directory <tt>llvm/tools/llc</tt> and build it,
1448 causing a re-linking of LLC.<br><br>
1450 <dt><tt><b>NightlyTest.pl</b></tt> and
1451 <tt><b>NightlyTestTemplate.html</b></tt> <dd>These files are used in a
1452 cron script to generate nightly status reports of the functionality of
1453 tools, and the results can be seen by following the appropriate link on
1454 the <a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM homepage</a>.<br><br>
1456 <dt><tt><b>TableGen/</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>TableGen</tt> directory contains
1457 the tool used to generate register descriptions, instruction set
1458 descriptions, and even assemblers from common TableGen description
1461 <dt><tt><b>vim/</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>vim</tt> directory contains
1462 syntax-highlighting files which will work with the VIM editor, providing
1463 syntax highlighting support for LLVM assembly files and TableGen
1464 description files. For information on how to use the syntax files, consult
1465 the <tt>README</tt> file in that directory.<br><br>
1471 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1472 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="win32"><tt>llvm/win32</tt></a></div>
1473 <div class="doc_text">
1474 <p>This directory contains build scripts and project files for use with
1475 Visual C++. This allows developers on Windows to build LLVM without the need
1476 for Cygwin. The contents of this directory should be considered experimental
1480 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1481 <div class="doc_section">
1482 <a name="tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
1484 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1486 <div class="doc_text">
1487 <p>This section gives an example of using LLVM. llvm-gcc3 is now obsolete,
1488 so we only include instructiosn for llvm-gcc4.
1491 <p><b>Note:</b> The <i>gcc4</i> frontend's invocation is <b><i>considerably different</i></b>
1492 from the previous <i>gcc3</i> frontend. In particular, the <i>gcc4</i> frontend <b><i>does not</i></b>
1493 create bytecode by default: <i>gcc4</i> produces native code. As the example below illustrates,
1494 the '--emit-llvm' flag is needed to produce LLVM bytecode output. For <i>makefiles</i> and
1495 <i>configure</i> scripts, the CFLAGS variable needs '--emit-llvm' to produce bytecode
1499 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1500 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="tutorial4">Example with llvm-gcc4</a></div>
1502 <div class="doc_text">
1505 <li>First, create a simple C file, name it 'hello.c':
1507 #include <stdio.h>
1509 printf("hello world\n");
1514 <li><p>Next, compile the C file into a native executable:</p>
1516 <p><tt>% llvm-gcc hello.c -o hello</tt></p>
1518 <p>Note that llvm-gcc works just like GCC by default. The standard -S and
1519 -c arguments work as usual (producing a native .s or .o file,
1522 <li><p>Next, compile the C file into a LLVM bytecode file:</p>
1523 <p><tt>% llvm-gcc -O3 -emit-llvm hello.c -c -o hello.bc</tt></p>
1525 <p>The -emit-llvm option can be used with the -S or -c options to emit an
1526 LLVM ".ll" or ".bc" file (respectively) for the code. This allows you
1527 to use the <a href="CommandGuide/index.html">standard LLVM tools</a> on
1528 the bytecode file.</p>
1530 <p>Unlike llvm-gcc3, llvm-gcc4 correctly responds to -O[0123] arguments.
1533 <li><p>Run the program in both forms. To run the program, use:</p>
1535 <p><tt>% ./hello</tt></p>
1539 <p><tt>% lli hello.bc</tt></p>
1541 <p>The second examples shows how to invoke the LLVM JIT, <a
1542 href="CommandGuide/html/lli.html">lli</a>.</p></li>
1544 <li><p>Use the <tt>llvm-dis</tt> utility to take a look at the LLVM assembly
1547 <p><tt>% llvm-dis < hello.bc | less</tt><br><br></li>
1549 <li><p>Compile the program to native assembly using the LLC code
1552 <p><tt>% llc hello.bc -o hello.s</tt></p>
1554 <li><p>Assemble the native assembly language file into a program:</p>
1556 <p><b>Solaris:</b><tt>% /opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc -xarch=v9 hello.s -o hello.native</tt></p>
1557 <p><b>Others:</b><tt>% gcc hello.s -o hello.native</tt></p>
1559 <li><p>Execute the native code program:</p>
1561 <p><tt>% ./hello.native</tt></p>
1563 <p>Note that using llvm-gcc to compile directly to native code (i.e. when
1564 the -emit-llvm option is not present) does steps 6/7/8 for you.</p>
1572 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1573 <div class="doc_section">
1574 <a name="problems">Common Problems</a>
1576 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1578 <div class="doc_text">
1580 <p>If you are having problems building or using LLVM, or if you have any other
1581 general questions about LLVM, please consult the <a href="FAQ.html">Frequently
1582 Asked Questions</a> page.</p>
1586 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1587 <div class="doc_section">
1588 <a name="links">Links</a>
1590 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1592 <div class="doc_text">
1594 <p>This document is just an <b>introduction</b> to how to use LLVM to do
1595 some simple things... there are many more interesting and complicated things
1596 that you can do that aren't documented here (but we'll gladly accept a patch
1597 if you want to write something up!). For more information about LLVM, check
1601 <li><a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM homepage</a></li>
1602 <li><a href="http://llvm.org/doxygen/">LLVM doxygen tree</a></li>
1603 <li><a href="http://llvm.org/docs/Projects.html">Starting a Project
1604 that Uses LLVM</a></li>
1609 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
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1618 <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a><br>
1619 <a href="http://llvm.x10sys.com/rspencer/">Reid Spencer</a><br>
1620 <a href="http://llvm.org">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
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