target".</li>
</ol></li>
+ <li><a href="#felangs">Source Languages</a>
+ <ol>
+ <li><a href="#langs">What source languages are supported?</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#langhlsupp">What support is there for higher level source
+ language constructs for building a compiler?</a></li>
+ </ol>
+
<li><a href="#cfe">Using the GCC Front End</a>
<ol>
<li>
When I compile code using the LLVM GCC front end, it complains that it
cannot find libcrtend.a.
</li>
+
+ <li>
+ How can I disable all optimizations when compiling code using the LLVM GCC front end?
+ </li>
+
+ <li><a href="#translatec++">Can I use LLVM to convert C++ code to C code?</a></li>
+
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#cfe_code">Questions about code generated by the GCC front-end</a>
<ol>
- <li>What is this <tt>__main()</tt> call that gets inserted into
- <tt>main()</tt>?</li>
- <li>Where did all of my code go??</li>
- <li>What is this <tt>llvm.global_ctors</tt> and
+ <li><a href="#__main">What is this <tt>__main()</tt> call that gets inserted into
+ <tt>main()</tt>?</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#iosinit">What is this <tt>llvm.global_ctors</tt> and
<tt>_GLOBAL__I__tmp_webcompile...</tt> stuff that happens when I
- #include <iostream>?</li>
+ #include <iostream>?</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#codedce">Where did all of my code go??</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#undef">What is this "<tt>undef</tt>" thing that shows up in my code?</a></li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
<div class="doc_author">
- <p>Written by <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">The LLVM Team</a></p>
+ <p>Written by <a href="http://llvm.org">The LLVM Team</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p>Yes. The modified source distribution must retain the copyright notice and
follow the three bulletted conditions listed in the <a
-href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/releases/1.3/LICENSE.TXT">LLVM license</a>.</p>
+href="http://llvm.org/releases/1.3/LICENSE.TXT">LLVM license</a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="question">
affects projects other than LLVM. Try upgrading or downgrading your GCC.</p>
</div>
-<div class="question">
-<p>
-When I use the test suite, all of the C Backend tests fail. What is
-wrong?
-</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class="answer">
-<p>
-If you build LLVM and the C Backend tests fail in <tt>llvm/test/Programs</tt>,
-then chances are good that the directory pointed to by the LLVM_LIB_SEARCH_PATH
-environment variable does not contain the libcrtend.a library.
-</p>
-
-<p>
-To fix it, verify that LLVM_LIB_SEARCH_PATH points to the correct directory
-and that libcrtend.a is inside. For pre-built LLVM GCC front ends, this
-should be the absolute path to
-<tt>cfrontend/<<i>platform</i>>/llvm-gcc/lib</tt>. If you've
-built your own LLVM GCC front end, then ensure that you've built and installed
-the libraries in <tt>llvm/runtime</tt> and have LLVM_LIB_SEARCH_PATH pointing
-to the <tt>$LLVMGCCDIR/lib</tt> subdirectory.
-</p>
-</div>
-
<div class="question">
<p>After CVS update, rebuilding gives the error "No rule to make target".</p>
</div>
rebuilding.</p>
</div>
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+<div class="doc_section"><a name="felangs">Source Languages</a></div>
+
+<div class="question"><p>
+ <a name="langs">What source languages are supported?</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="answer">
+ <p>LLVM currently has full support for C and C++ source languages. These are
+ available through a special version of GCC that LLVM calls the
+ <a href="#cfe">C Front End</a></p>
+ <p>There is an incomplete version of a Java front end available in the
+ <tt>llvm-java</tt> CVS repository. There is no documentation on this yet so
+ you'll need to download the code, compile it, and try it.</p>
+ <p>In the <tt>examples/BFtoLLVM</tt> directory is a translator for the
+ BrainF*** language (2002 Language Specification).</p>
+ <p>In the <tt>projects/Stacker</tt> directory is a compiler and runtime
+ library for the Stacker language, a "toy" language loosely based on Forth.</p>
+ <p>The PyPy developers are working on integrating LLVM into the PyPy backend
+ so that PyPy language can translate to LLVM.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="question"><a name="langhlsupp">
+ <p>What support is there for a higher level source language constructs for
+ building a compiler?</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="answer">
+ <p>Currently, there isn't much. LLVM supports an intermediate representation
+ which is useful for code representation but will not support the high level
+ (abstract syntax tree) representation needed by most compilers. There are no
+ facilities for lexical nor semantic analysis. There is, however, a <i>mostly
+ implemented</i> configuration-driven
+ <a href="CompilerDriver.html">compiler driver</a> which simplifies the task
+ of running optimizations, linking, and executable generation.</p>
+</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_section">
<a name="cfe">Using the GCC Front End</a>
<div class="answer">
<p>
-In order to find libcrtend.a, you must have the directory in which it lives in
-your LLVM_LIB_SEARCH_PATH environment variable. For the binary distribution of
-the LLVM GCC front end, this will be the full path of the <tt>lib</tt>
-directory inside of the LLVM GCC distribution.
+The only way this can happen is if you haven't installed the runtime library. To
+correct this, do:</p>
+<pre>
+ % cd llvm/runtime
+ % make clean ; make install-bytecode
+</pre>
+</div>
+
+<div class="question">
+<p>
+How can I disable all optimizations when compiling code using the LLVM GCC front end?
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="answer">
+<p>
+Passing "-Wa,-disable-opt -Wl,-disable-opt" will disable *all* cleanup and
+optimizations done at the llvm level, leaving you with the truly horrible
+code that you desire.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="question">
+<p>
+<a name="translatec++">Can I use LLVM to convert C++ code to C code?</a>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="answer">
+<p>Yes, you can use LLVM to convert code from any language LLVM supports to C.
+Note that the generated C code will be very low level (all loops are lowered
+to gotos, etc) and not very pretty (comments are stripped, original source
+formatting is totally lost, variables are renamed, expressions are regrouped),
+so this may not be what you're looking for. However, this is a good way to add
+C++ support for a processor that does not otherwise have a C++ compiler.
+</p>
+
+<p>Use commands like this:</p>
+
+<ol>
+<li><p>Compile your program as normal with llvm-g++:</p></li>
+
+<div class="doc_code">$ llvm-g++ x.cpp -o program</div>
+
+<p>or:</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+ llvm-g++ a.cpp -c
+ llvm-g++ b.cpp -c
+ llvm-g++ a.o b.o -o program
+</div>
+
+<p>With llvm-gcc3, this will generate program and program.bc. The .bc file is
+the LLVM version of the program all linked together.</p>
+
+<li><p>Convert the LLVM code to C code, using the LLC tool with the C
+backend:</p></li>
+
+<div class="doc_code">$ llc -march=c program.bc -o program.c</div>
+
+<li><p>Finally, compile the c file:</p></li>
+
+<div class="doc_code">$ cc x.c</div>
+
+</ol>
+
+<p>Note that, by default, the C backend does not support exception handling.
+If you want/need it for a certain program, you can enable it by passing
+"-enable-correct-eh-support" to the llc program. The resultant code will
+use setjmp/longjmp to implement exception support that is correct but
+relatively slow.
</p>
</div>
+
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_section">
<a name="cfe_code">Questions about code generated by the GCC front-end</a>
</div>
<div class="question"><p>
+<a name="__main"></a>
What is this <tt>__main()</tt> call that gets inserted into <tt>main()</tt>?
</p></div>
<!--=========================================================================-->
-<div class="question"><p>
-Where did all of my code go??
-</p></div>
-
-<div class="answer">
-<p>
-If you are using the LLVM demo page, you may often wonder what happened to all
-of the code that you typed in. Remember that the demo script is running the
-code through the LLVM optimizers, so if your code doesn't actually do anything
-useful, it might all be deleted.
-</p>
-
-<p>
-To prevent this, make sure that the code is actually needed. For example, if
-you are computing some expression, return the value from the function instead of
-leaving it in a local variable. If you really want to constrain the optimizer,
-you can read from and assign to <tt>volatile</tt> global variables.
-</p>
-</div>
-
-<!--=========================================================================-->
-
<div class="question">
+<a name="iosinit"></a>
<p> What is this <tt>llvm.global_ctors</tt> and
<tt>_GLOBAL__I__tmp_webcompile...</tt> stuff that happens when I #include
<iostream>?</p>
</div>
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+
+<div class="question"><p>
+<a name="codedce"></a>
+Where did all of my code go??
+</p></div>
+
+<div class="answer">
+<p>
+If you are using the LLVM demo page, you may often wonder what happened to all
+of the code that you typed in. Remember that the demo script is running the
+code through the LLVM optimizers, so if your code doesn't actually do anything
+useful, it might all be deleted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To prevent this, make sure that the code is actually needed. For example, if
+you are computing some expression, return the value from the function instead of
+leaving it in a local variable. If you really want to constrain the optimizer,
+you can read from and assign to <tt>volatile</tt> global variables.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+
+<div class="question"><p>
+<a name="undef"></a>
+<p>What is this "<tt>undef</tt>" thing that shows up in my code?
+</p></div>
+
+<div class="answer">
+<p>
+<a href="LangRef.html#undef"><tt>undef</tt></a> is the LLVM way of representing
+a value that is not defined. You can get these if you do not initialize a
+variable before you use it. For example, the C function:</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+ <tt>int X() { int i; return i; }</tt>
+</div>
+
+<p>Is compiled to "<tt>ret int undef</tt>" because "i" never has a value
+specified for it.
+</p>
+</div>
+
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
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src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401" alt="Valid HTML 4.01!"></a>
- <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
+ <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
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