<ul>
<li><a href="#isa">The <tt>isa<></tt>, <tt>cast<></tt>
and <tt>dyn_cast<></tt> templates</a> </li>
+ <li><a href="#string_apis">Passing strings (the <tt>StringRef</tt>
+and <tt>Twine</tt> classes)</a>
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="#StringRef">The <tt>StringRef</tt> class</a> </li>
+ <li><a href="#Twine">The <tt>Twine</tt> class</a> </li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
<li><a href="#DEBUG">The <tt>DEBUG()</tt> macro and <tt>-debug</tt>
option</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#dss_stringmap">"llvm/ADT/StringMap.h"</a></li>
<li><a href="#dss_indexedmap">"llvm/ADT/IndexedMap.h"</a></li>
<li><a href="#dss_densemap">"llvm/ADT/DenseMap.h"</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#dss_valuemap">"llvm/ADT/ValueMap.h"</a></li>
<li><a href="#dss_map"><map></a></li>
<li><a href="#dss_othermap">Other Map-Like Container Options</a></li>
</ul></li>
+ <li><a href="#ds_string">String-like containers</a>
+ <!--<ul>
+ todo
+ </ul>--></li>
<li><a href="#ds_bit">BitVector-like containers</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#dss_bitvector">A dense bitvector</a></li>
</a></li>
<li><a href="#shutdown">Ending execution with <tt>llvm_shutdown()</tt></a></li>
<li><a href="#managedstatic">Lazy initialization with <tt>ManagedStatic</tt></a></li>
+ <li><a href="#llvmcontext">Achieving Isolation with <tt>LLVMContext</tt></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</div>
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="string_apis">Passing strings (the <tt>StringRef</tt>
+and <tt>Twine</tt> classes)</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>Although LLVM generally does not do much string manipulation, we do have
+several important APIs which take strings. Two important examples are the
+Value class -- which has names for instructions, functions, etc. -- and the
+StringMap class which is used extensively in LLVM and Clang.</p>
+
+<p>These are generic classes, and they need to be able to accept strings which
+may have embedded null characters. Therefore, they cannot simply take
+a <tt>const char *</tt>, and taking a <tt>const std::string&</tt> requires
+clients to perform a heap allocation which is usually unnecessary. Instead,
+many LLVM APIs use a <tt>const StringRef&</tt> or a <tt>const
+Twine&</tt> for passing strings efficiently.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection">
+ <a name="StringRef">The <tt>StringRef</tt> class</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>The <tt>StringRef</tt> data type represents a reference to a constant string
+(a character array and a length) and supports the common operations available
+on <tt>std:string</tt>, but does not require heap allocation.</p>
+
+<p>It can be implicitly constructed using a C style null-terminated string,
+an <tt>std::string</tt>, or explicitly with a character pointer and length.
+For example, the <tt>StringRef</tt> find function is declared as:</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+ iterator find(const StringRef &Key);
+</div>
+
+<p>and clients can call it using any one of:</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+<pre>
+ Map.find("foo"); <i>// Lookup "foo"</i>
+ Map.find(std::string("bar")); <i>// Lookup "bar"</i>
+ Map.find(StringRef("\0baz", 4)); <i>// Lookup "\0baz"</i>
+</pre>
+</div>
+
+<p>Similarly, APIs which need to return a string may return a <tt>StringRef</tt>
+instance, which can be used directly or converted to an <tt>std::string</tt>
+using the <tt>str</tt> member function. See
+"<tt><a href="/doxygen/classllvm_1_1StringRef_8h-source.html">llvm/ADT/StringRef.h</a></tt>"
+for more information.</p>
+
+<p>You should rarely use the <tt>StringRef</tt> class directly, because it contains
+pointers to external memory it is not generally safe to store an instance of the
+class (unless you know that the external storage will not be freed).</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection">
+ <a name="Twine">The <tt>Twine</tt> class</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>The <tt>Twine</tt> class is an efficient way for APIs to accept concatenated
+strings. For example, a common LLVM paradigm is to name one instruction based on
+the name of another instruction with a suffix, for example:</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+<pre>
+ New = CmpInst::Create(<i>...</i>, SO->getName() + ".cmp");
+</pre>
+</div>
+
+<p>The <tt>Twine</tt> class is effectively a
+lightweight <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_(computer_science)">rope</a>
+which points to temporary (stack allocated) objects. Twines can be implicitly
+constructed as the result of the plus operator applied to strings (i.e., a C
+strings, an <tt>std::string</tt>, or a <tt>StringRef</tt>). The twine delays the
+actual concatentation of strings until it is actually required, at which point
+it can be efficiently rendered directly into a character array. This avoids
+unnecessary heap allocation involved in constructing the temporary results of
+string concatenation. See
+"<tt><a href="/doxygen/classllvm_1_1Twine_8h-source.html">llvm/ADT/Twine.h</a></tt>"
+for more information.</p>
+
+<p>As with a <tt>StringRef</tt>, <tt>Twine</tt> objects point to external memory
+and should almost never be stored or mentioned directly. They are intended
+solely for use when defining a function which should be able to efficiently
+accept concatenated strings.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="DEBUG">The <tt>DEBUG()</tt> macro and <tt>-debug</tt> option</a>
<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
-DOUT << "I am here!\n";
+DEBUG(errs() << "I am here!\n");
</pre>
</div>
<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
-DOUT << "No debug type\n";
#undef DEBUG_TYPE
+DEBUG(errs() << "No debug type\n");
#define DEBUG_TYPE "foo"
-DOUT << "'foo' debug type\n";
+DEBUG(errs() << "'foo' debug type\n");
#undef DEBUG_TYPE
#define DEBUG_TYPE "bar"
-DOUT << "'bar' debug type\n";
+DEBUG(errs() << "'bar' debug type\n"));
#undef DEBUG_TYPE
#define DEBUG_TYPE ""
-DOUT << "No debug type (2)\n";
+DEBUG(errs() << "No debug type (2)\n");
</pre>
</div>
for instruction scheduling to be enabled with <tt>-debug-type=InstrSched</tt>,
even if the source lives in multiple files.</p>
+<p>The <tt>DEBUG_WITH_TYPE</tt> macro is also available for situations where you
+would like to set <tt>DEBUG_TYPE</tt>, but only for one specific <tt>DEBUG</tt>
+statement. It takes an additional first parameter, which is the type to use. For
+example, the preceding example could be written as:</p>
+
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+<pre>
+DEBUG_WITH_TYPE("", errs() << "No debug type\n");
+DEBUG_WITH_TYPE("foo", errs() << "'foo' debug type\n");
+DEBUG_WITH_TYPE("bar", errs() << "'bar' debug type\n"));
+DEBUG_WITH_TYPE("", errs() << "No debug type (2)\n");
+</pre>
+</div>
+
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
iteration, but do not support efficient look-up based on a key.
</li>
+<li>a <a href="#ds_string">string</a> container is a specialized sequential
+ container or reference structure that is used for character or byte
+ arrays.</li>
+
<li>a <a href="#ds_bit">bit</a> container provides an efficient way to store and
perform set operations on sets of numeric id's, while automatically
eliminating duplicates. Bit containers require a maximum of 1 bit for each
</div>
+<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection">
+ <a name="dss_valuemap">"llvm/ADT/ValueMap.h"</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>
+ValueMap is a wrapper around a <a href="#dss_densemap">DenseMap</a> mapping
+Value*s (or subclasses) to another type. When a Value is deleted or RAUW'ed,
+ValueMap will update itself so the new version of the key is mapped to the same
+value, just as if the key were a WeakVH. You can configure exactly how this
+happens, and what else happens on these two events, by passing
+a <code>Config</code> parameter to the ValueMap template.</p>
+
+</div>
+
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
<div class="doc_subsubsection">
<a name="dss_map"><map></a>
</div>
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="ds_string">String-like containers</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>
+TODO: const char* vs stringref vs smallstring vs std::string. Describe twine,
+xref to #string_apis.
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="ds_bit">Bit storage containers (BitVector, SparseBitVector)</a>
for (Function::iterator i = func->begin(), e = func->end(); i != e; ++i)
// <i>Print out the name of the basic block if it has one, and then the</i>
// <i>number of instructions that it contains</i>
- llvm::cerr << "Basic block (name=" << i->getName() << ") has "
+ errs() << "Basic block (name=" << i->getName() << ") has "
<< i->size() << " instructions.\n";
</pre>
</div>
for (BasicBlock::iterator i = blk->begin(), e = blk->end(); i != e; ++i)
// <i>The next statement works since operator<<(ostream&,...)</i>
// <i>is overloaded for Instruction&</i>
- llvm::cerr << *i << "\n";
+ errs() << *i << "\n";
</pre>
</div>
<p>However, this isn't really the best way to print out the contents of a
<tt>BasicBlock</tt>! Since the ostream operators are overloaded for virtually
anything you'll care about, you could have just invoked the print routine on the
-basic block itself: <tt>llvm::cerr << *blk << "\n";</tt>.</p>
+basic block itself: <tt>errs() << *blk << "\n";</tt>.</p>
</div>
// <i>F is a pointer to a Function instance</i>
for (inst_iterator I = inst_begin(F), E = inst_end(F); I != E; ++I)
- llvm::cerr << *I << "\n";
+ errs() << *I << "\n";
</pre>
</div>
void printNextInstruction(Instruction* inst) {
BasicBlock::iterator it(inst);
++it; // <i>After this line, it refers to the instruction after *inst</i>
- if (it != inst->getParent()->end()) llvm::cerr << *it << "\n";
+ if (it != inst->getParent()->end()) errs() << *it << "\n";
}
</pre>
</div>
for (Value::use_iterator i = F->use_begin(), e = F->use_end(); i != e; ++i)
if (Instruction *Inst = dyn_cast<Instruction>(*i)) {
- llvm::cerr << "F is used in instruction:\n";
- llvm::cerr << *Inst << "\n";
+ errs() << "F is used in instruction:\n";
+ errs() << *Inst << "\n";
}
</pre>
</div>
</p>
</div>
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="llvmcontext">Achieving Isolation with <tt>LLVMContext</tt></a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>
+<tt>LLVMContext</tt> is an opaque class in the LLVM API which clients can use
+to operate multiple, isolated instances of LLVM concurrently within the same
+address space. For instance, in a hypothetical compile-server, the compilation
+of an individual translation unit is conceptually independent from all the
+others, and it would be desirable to be able to compile incoming translation
+units concurrently on independent server threads. Fortunately,
+<tt>LLVMContext</tt> exists to enable just this kind of scenario!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Conceptually, <tt>LLVMContext</tt> provides isolation. Every LLVM entity
+(<tt>Module</tt>s, <tt>Value</tt>s, <tt>Type</tt>s, <tt>Constant</tt>s, etc.)
+in LLVM's in-memory IR belongs to an <tt>LLVMContext</tt>. Entities in
+different contexts <em>cannot</em> interact with each other: <tt>Module</tt>s in
+different contexts cannot be linked together, <tt>Function</tt>s cannot be added
+to <tt>Module</tt>s in different contexts, etc. What this means is that is is
+safe to compile on multiple threads simultaneously, as long as no two threads
+operate on entities within the same context.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In practice, very few places in the API require the explicit specification of a
+<tt>LLVMContext</tt>, other than the <tt>Type</tt> creation/lookup APIs.
+Because every <tt>Type</tt> carries a reference to its owning context, most
+other entities can determine what context they belong to by looking at their
+own <tt>Type</tt>. If you are adding new entities to LLVM IR, please try to
+maintain this interface design.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For clients that do <em>not</em> require the benefits of isolation, LLVM
+provides a convenience API <tt>getGlobalContext()</tt>. This returns a global,
+lazily initialized <tt>LLVMContext</tt> that may be used in situations where
+isolation is not a concern.
+</p>
+</div>
+
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_section">
<a name="advanced">Advanced Topics</a>
<dt><tt>VectorType</tt></dt>
<dd>Subclass of SequentialType for vector types. A
vector type is similar to an ArrayType but is distinguished because it is
- a first class type wherease ArrayType is not. Vector types are used for
+ a first class type whereas ArrayType is not. Vector types are used for
vector operations and are usually small vectors of of an integer or floating
point type.</dd>
<dt><tt>StructType</tt></dt>
<a href="#Value"><tt>Value</tt></a></p>
<p>The <tt>Function</tt> class represents a single procedure in LLVM. It is
-actually one of the more complex classes in the LLVM heirarchy because it must
+actually one of the more complex classes in the LLVM hierarchy because it must
keep track of a large amount of data. The <tt>Function</tt> class keeps track
of a list of <a href="#BasicBlock"><tt>BasicBlock</tt></a>s, a list of formal
<a href="#Argument"><tt>Argument</tt></a>s, and a
<p>The list of <a href="#BasicBlock"><tt>BasicBlock</tt></a>s is the most
commonly used part of <tt>Function</tt> objects. The list imposes an implicit
ordering of the blocks in the function, which indicate how the code will be
-la
yed out by the backend. Additionally, the first <a
+la
id out by the backend. Additionally, the first <a
href="#BasicBlock"><tt>BasicBlock</tt></a> is the implicit entry node for the
<tt>Function</tt>. It is not legal in LLVM to explicitly branch to this initial
block. There are no implicit exit nodes, and in fact there may be multiple exit
<a href="#User"><tt>User</tt></a>,
<a href="#Value"><tt>Value</tt></a></p>
-<p>Global variables are represented with the (suprise suprise)
+<p>Global variables are represented with the (surprise surprise)
<tt>GlobalVariable</tt> class. Like functions, <tt>GlobalVariable</tt>s are also
subclasses of <a href="#GlobalValue"><tt>GlobalValue</tt></a>, and as such are
always referenced by their address (global values must live in memory, so their
<li><tt><a href="#Constant">Constant</a> *getInitializer()</tt>
- <p>Returns the intial value for a <tt>GlobalVariable</tt>. It is not legal
+ <p>Returns the initial value for a <tt>GlobalVariable</tt>. It is not legal
to call this method if there is no initializer.</p></li>
</ul>
<p><tt>#include "<a
href="/doxygen/BasicBlock_8h-source.html">llvm/BasicBlock.h</a>"</tt><br>
-doxygen info: <a href="/doxygen/structllvm_1_1BasicBlock.html">BasicBlock
+doxygen info: <a href="/doxygen/classllvm_1_1BasicBlock.html">BasicBlock
Class</a><br>
Superclass: <a href="#Value"><tt>Value</tt></a></p>
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