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6 <title>Getting Started with LLVM System for Microsoft Visual Studio</title>
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11 <div class="doc_title">
12 Getting Started with the LLVM System using Microsoft Visual Studio
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>
24 <li><a href="#starting">Getting Started with LLVM</a>
26 <li><a href="#terminology">Terminology and Notation</a>
27 <li><a href="#objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a>
30 <li><a href="#tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
31 <li><a href="#problems">Common Problems</a>
32 <li><a href="#links">Links</a>
35 <div class="doc_author">
37 <a href="mailto:jeffc@jolt-lang.org">Jeff Cohen</a>
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43 <div class="doc_section">
44 <a name="overview"><b>Overview</b></a>
46 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
48 <div class="doc_text">
50 <p>The Visual Studio port at this time is experimental. It is suitable for
51 use only if you are writing your own compiler front end or otherwise have a
52 need to dynamically generate machine code. The JIT and interpreter are
53 functional, but it is currently not possible to generate assembly code which
54 is then assembled into an executable. You can indirectly create executables
55 by using the C back end.</p>
57 <p>To emphasize, there is no C/C++ front end currently available.
58 <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> is based on GCC, which cannot be bootstrapped using VC++.
59 Eventually there should be a <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> based on Cygwin or MinGW that
60 is usable. There is also the option of generating bitcode files on Unix and
61 copying them over to Windows. But be aware the odds of linking C++ code
62 compiled with <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> with code compiled with VC++ is essentially
65 <p>The LLVM test suite cannot be run on the Visual Studio port at this
68 <p>Most of the tools build and work. <tt>llvm-db</tt> does not build at this
69 time. <tt>bugpoint</tt> does build, but does not work.
71 <p>Additional information about the LLVM directory structure and tool chain
72 can be found on the main <a href="GettingStarted.html">Getting Started</a>
77 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
78 <div class="doc_section">
79 <a name="quickstart"><b>Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</b></a>
81 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
83 <div class="doc_text">
85 <p>Here's the short story for getting up and running quickly with LLVM:</p>
88 <li>Read the documentation.</li>
89 <li>Read the documentation.</li>
90 <li>Remember that you were warned twice about reading the documentation.</li>
92 <li>Get the Source Code
94 <li>With the distributed files:
96 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
97 <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-<i>version</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf -</tt>
98 <i> or use WinZip</i>
99 <li><tt>cd llvm</tt></li>
102 <li>With anonymous Subversion access:
104 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt></li>
105 <li><tt>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm-top/trunk llvm-top
107 <li><tt>make checkout MODULE=llvm</tt>
108 <li><tt>cd llvm</tt></li>
112 <li>Start Visual Studio
114 <li>Simply double click on the solution file <tt>llvm/win32/llvm.sln</tt>.
118 <li>Build the LLVM Suite:
120 <li>Simply build the solution.</li>
121 <li>The Fibonacci project is a sample program that uses the JIT. Modify
122 the project's debugging properties to provide a numeric command line
123 argument. The program will print the corresponding fibonacci value.</li>
128 <p>It is strongly encouraged that you get the latest version from Subversion as
129 changes are continually making the VS support better.</p>
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134 <div class="doc_section">
135 <a name="requirements"><b>Requirements</b></a>
137 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
139 <div class="doc_text">
141 <p>Before you begin to use the LLVM system, review the requirements given
142 below. This may save you some trouble by knowing ahead of time what hardware
143 and software you will need.</p>
147 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
148 <div class="doc_subsection">
149 <a name="hardware"><b>Hardware</b></a>
152 <div class="doc_text">
154 <p>Any system that can adequately run Visual Studio .NET 2003 is fine. The
155 LLVM source tree and object files, libraries and executables will consume
156 approximately 3GB.</p>
160 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
161 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="software"><b>Software</b></a></div>
162 <div class="doc_text">
164 <p>You will need Visual Studio .NET 2003. Earlier versions cannot open the
165 solution/project files. The VS 2005 beta can, but will migrate these files
166 to its own format in the process. While it should work with the VS 2005
167 beta, there are no guarantees and there is no support for it at this time.
168 It has been reported that VC++ Express also works.</p>
170 <p>If you plan to modify any .y or .l files, you will need to have bison
171 and/or flex installed where Visual Studio can find them. Otherwise, you do
172 not need them and the pre-generated files that come with the source tree
177 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
178 <div class="doc_section">
179 <a name="starting"><b>Getting Started with LLVM</b></a>
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183 <div class="doc_text">
185 <p>The remainder of this guide is meant to get you up and running with
186 LLVM using Visual Studio and to give you some basic information about the LLVM
191 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
192 <div class="doc_subsection">
193 <a name="terminology">Terminology and Notation</a>
196 <div class="doc_text">
198 <p>Throughout this manual, the following names are used to denote paths
199 specific to the local system and working environment. <i>These are not
200 environment variables you need to set but just strings used in the rest
201 of this document below</i>. In any of the examples below, simply replace
202 each of these names with the appropriate pathname on your local system.
203 All these paths are absolute:</p>
208 This is the top level directory of the LLVM source tree.
213 This is the top level directory of the LLVM object tree (i.e. the
214 tree where object files and compiled programs will be placed. It
215 is fixed at SRC_ROOT/win32).
221 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
222 <div class="doc_subsection">
223 <a name="objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a>
226 <div class="doc_text">
228 <p>The object files are placed under <tt>OBJ_ROOT/Debug</tt> for debug builds
229 and <tt>OBJ_ROOT/Release</tt> for release (optimized) builds. These include
230 both executables and libararies that your application can link against.
232 <p>The files that <tt>configure</tt> would create when building on Unix are
233 created by the <tt>Configure</tt> project and placed in
234 <tt>OBJ_ROOT/llvm</tt>. You application must have OBJ_ROOT in its include
235 search path just before <tt>SRC_ROOT/include</tt>.
239 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
240 <div class="doc_section">
241 <a name="tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
243 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
245 <div class="doc_text">
248 <li>First, create a simple C file, name it 'hello.c':
250 #include <stdio.h>
252 printf("hello world\n");
257 <li><p>Next, compile the C file into a LLVM bitcode file:</p>
258 <p><tt>% llvm-gcc -c hello.c -emit-llvm -o hello.bc</tt></p>
260 <p>This will create the result file <tt>hello.bc</tt> which is the LLVM
261 bitcode that corresponds the the compiled program and the library
262 facilities that it required. You can execute this file directly using
263 <tt>lli</tt> tool, compile it to native assembly with the <tt>llc</tt>,
264 optimize or analyze it further with the <tt>opt</tt> tool, etc.</p>
266 <p><b>Note: while you cannot do this step on Windows, you can do it on a
267 Unix system and transfer <tt>hello.bc</tt> to Windows. Important:
268 transfer as a binary file!</b></p></li>
270 <li><p>Run the program using the just-in-time compiler:</p>
272 <p><tt>% lli hello.bc</tt></p></li>
274 <p>Note: this will only work for trivial C programs. Non-trivial programs
275 (and any C++ program) will have dependencies on the GCC runtime that
276 won't be satisfied by the Microsoft runtime libraries.</p>
278 <li><p>Use the <tt>llvm-dis</tt> utility to take a look at the LLVM assembly
281 <p><tt>% llvm-dis < hello.bc | more</tt><p></li>
283 <li><p>Compile the program to C using the LLC code generator:</p>
285 <p><tt>% llc -march=c hello.bc</tt></p></li>
287 <li><p>Compile to binary using Microsoft C:</p>
289 <p><tt>% cl hello.cbe.c</tt></p></li>
291 <p>Note: this will only work for trivial C programs. Non-trivial programs
292 (and any C++ program) will have dependencies on the GCC runtime that
293 won't be satisfied by the Microsoft runtime libraries.</p>
295 <li><p>Execute the native code program:</p>
297 <p><tt>% hello.cbe.exe</tt></p></li>
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304 <div class="doc_section">
305 <a name="problems">Common Problems</a>
307 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
309 <div class="doc_text">
311 <p>If you are having problems building or using LLVM, or if you have any other
312 general questions about LLVM, please consult the <a href="FAQ.html">Frequently
313 Asked Questions</a> page.</p>
317 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
318 <div class="doc_section">
319 <a name="links">Links</a>
321 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
323 <div class="doc_text">
325 <p>This document is just an <b>introduction</b> to how to use LLVM to do
326 some simple things... there are many more interesting and complicated things
327 that you can do that aren't documented here (but we'll gladly accept a patch
328 if you want to write something up!). For more information about LLVM, check
332 <li><a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM homepage</a></li>
333 <li><a href="http://llvm.org/doxygen/">LLVM doxygen tree</a></li>
334 <li><a href="http://llvm.org/docs/Projects.html">Starting a Project
335 that Uses LLVM</a></li>
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349 <a href="mailto:jeffc@jolt-lang.org">Jeff Cohen</a><br>
350 <a href="http://llvm.org">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
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