<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="llvm.css" type="text/css">
- <title>LLVM 1.8 Release Notes</title>
+ <title>LLVM 2.7 Release Notes</title>
</head>
<body>
-<div class="doc_title">LLVM 1.8 Release Notes</div>
-
+<div class="doc_title">LLVM 2.7 Release Notes</div>
+
<ol>
<li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
- <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New?</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#externalproj">External Projects Using LLVM 2.7</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New in LLVM 2.7?</a></li>
<li><a href="GettingStarted.html">Installation Instructions</a></li>
<li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a></li>
- <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
+ <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a></li>
<li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a></li>
</ol>
<div class="doc_author">
- <p>Written by the <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Team</a><p>
+ <p>Written by the <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Team</a></p>
</div>
+<h1 style="color:red">These are in-progress notes for the upcoming LLVM 2.7
+release.<br>
+You may prefer the
+<a href="http://llvm.org/releases/2.6/docs/ReleaseNotes.html">LLVM 2.6
+Release Notes</a>.</h1>
+
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_section">
<a name="intro">Introduction</a>
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM compiler
-infrastructure, release 1.8. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including any
-known problems and major improvements from the previous release. The most
-up-to-date version of this document (corresponding to LLVM CVS) can be found
-on the <a
-href="http://llvm.org/releases/">LLVM releases web site</a>. If you are
-not reading this on the LLVM web pages, you should probably go there because
-this document may be updated after the release.</p>
+<p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM Compiler
+Infrastructure, release 2.7. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including
+major improvements from the previous release and significant known problems.
+All LLVM releases may be downloaded from the <a
+href="http://llvm.org/releases/">LLVM releases web site</a>.</p>
<p>For more information about LLVM, including information about the latest
release, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.org/">main LLVM
web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
-href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM developer's mailing
-list</a> is a good place to send them.</p>
+href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM Developer's Mailing
+List</a> is a good place to send them.</p>
-<p>Note that if you are reading this file from CVS or the main LLVM web page,
-this document applies to the <i>next</i> release, not the current one. To see
-the release notes for the current or previous releases, see the <a
-href="http://llvm.org/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
+<p>Note that if you are reading this file from a Subversion checkout or the
+main LLVM web page, this document applies to the <i>next</i> release, not the
+current one. To see the release notes for a specific release, please see the
+<a href="http://llvm.org/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
</div>
+
+
+<!--
+Almost dead code.
+ include/llvm/Analysis/LiveValues.h => Dan
+ lib/Transforms/IPO/MergeFunctions.cpp => consider for 2.8.
+ llvm/Analysis/PointerTracking.h => Edwin wants this, consider for 2.8.
+ ABCD, SCCVN, GEPSplitterPass
+ MSIL backend?
+ AndersAA -> Unsupported, zap after branch.
+-->
+
+
+<!-- Features that need text if they're finished for 2.7:
+ gcc plugin.
+ strong phi elim
+ variable debug info for optimized code
+ postalloc scheduler: anti dependence breaking, hazard recognizer?
+ metadata
+ loop dependence analysis
+ ELF Writer? How stable?
+ <li>PostRA scheduler improvements, ARM adoption (David Goodwin).</li>
+ 2.7 supports the GDB 7.0 jit interfaces for debug info.
+ 2.7 eliminates ADT/iterator.h
+ -->
+
+ <!-- for announcement email:
+ Logo web page.
+ llvm devmtg
+ compiler_rt
+ KLEE web page at klee.llvm.org
+ Many new papers added to /pubs/
+ Mention gcc plugin.
+
+ -->
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_section">
- <a name="whatsnew">What's New?</a>
+ <a name="subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a>
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_text">
-
-<p>This is the nineth public release of the LLVM Compiler Infrastructure. This
-release incorporates a large number of enhancements and new features,
-including DWARF debugging support (C and C++ on Darwin/PPC), improved inline
-assembly support, a new <a href="http://llvm.org/nightlytest/">nightly
-tester</a>, llvm-config enhancements, many bugs
-fixed, and performance and compile time improvements.
+<p>
+The LLVM 2.7 distribution currently consists of code from the core LLVM
+repository (which roughly includes the LLVM optimizers, code generators
+and supporting tools), the Clang repository and the llvm-gcc repository. In
+addition to this code, the LLVM Project includes other sub-projects that are in
+development. Here we include updates on these subprojects.
</p>
</div>
+
<!--=========================================================================-->
<div class="doc_subsection">
-<a name="newfeatures">New Features in LLVM 1.8</a>
+<a name="clang">Clang: C/C++/Objective-C Frontend Toolkit</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>The <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/">Clang project</a> is ...</p>
+
+<p>In the LLVM 2.7 time-frame, the Clang team has made many improvements:</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li>...</li>
+</ul>
</div>
-<!--_________________________________________________________________________-->
-<div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="dwarf">DWARF debugging
-support </a></div>
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="clangsa">Clang Static Analyzer</a>
+</div>
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>The llvm-gcc4 C front-end now generates debugging info for C and C++. This
-information is propagated through the compiler and the code generator can
-currently produce DWARF debugging information from it. DWARF is a standard
-debugging format used on many platforms, but currently LLVM only includes
-target support for Mac OS X targets for the 1.8 release.
-</p>
+<p>Previously announced in the 2.4, 2.5, and 2.6 LLVM releases, the Clang project also
+includes an early stage static source code analysis tool for <a
+href="http://clang.llvm.org/StaticAnalysis.html">automatically finding bugs</a>
+in C and Objective-C programs. The tool performs checks to find
+bugs that occur on a specific path within a program.</p>
+
+<p>In the LLVM 2.7 time-frame, the analyzer core has ...</p>
</div>
-<!--_________________________________________________________________________-->
-<div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="inlineasm">Inline Assembly
-Support</a></div>
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="vmkit">VMKit: JVM/CLI Virtual Machine Implementation</a>
+</div>
<div class="doc_text">
+<p>
+The <a href="http://vmkit.llvm.org/">VMKit project</a> is an implementation of
+a JVM and a CLI Virtual Machine (Microsoft .NET is an
+implementation of the CLI) using LLVM for static and just-in-time
+compilation.</p>
+
+<p>
+VMKit version ?? builds with LLVM 2.7 and you can find it on its
+<a href="http://vmkit.llvm.org/releases/">web page</a>. The release includes
+bug fixes, cleanup and new features. The major changes are:</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>...</li>
+
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="compiler-rt">compiler-rt: Compiler Runtime Library</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>
+The new LLVM <a href="http://compiler-rt.llvm.org/">compiler-rt project</a>
+is a simple library that provides an implementation of the low-level
+target-specific hooks required by code generation and other runtime components.
+For example, when compiling for a 32-bit target, converting a double to a 64-bit
+unsigned integer is compiled into a runtime call to the "__fixunsdfdi"
+function. The compiler-rt library provides highly optimized implementations of
+this and other low-level routines (some are 3x faster than the equivalent
+libgcc routines).</p>
-<p>Inline assembly support is substantially improved in LLVM 1.8 over LLVM 1.7.
-Many unsupported features are now supported, and inline asm support in the X86
-backend is far better. llvm-gcc4 now supports global register variables as
-well.</p>
+<p>
+All of the code in the compiler-rt project is available under the standard LLVM
+License, a "BSD-style" license.</p>
</div>
-<!--_________________________________________________________________________-->
-<div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="loopopt">Loop Optimizer Improvements</a></div>
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="klee">KLEE: Symbolic Execution and Automatic Test Case Generator</a>
+</div>
<div class="doc_text">
+<p>
+The new LLVM <a href="http://klee.llvm.org/">KLEE project</a> is a symbolic
+execution framework for programs in LLVM bitcode form. KLEE tries to
+symbolically evaluate "all" paths through the application and records state
+transitions that lead to fault states. This allows it to construct testcases
+that lead to faults and can even be used to verify algorithms. For more
+details, please see the <a
+href="http://llvm.org/pubs/2008-12-OSDI-KLEE.html">OSDI 2008 paper</a> about
+KLEE.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="dragonegg">DragonEgg: GCC-4.5 as an LLVM frontend</a>
+</div>
-<p>The loop optimizer passes now uses "Loop-Closed SSA Form", which makes it
-easier to update SSA form as loop transformations change the code. An
-immediate benefit of this is that the loop unswitching pass can now unswitch
-loops in more cases.
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>
+The goal of <a href="http://dragonegg.llvm.org/">DragonEgg</a> is to make
+gcc-4.5 act like llvm-gcc without requiring any gcc modifications whatsoever.
+<a href="http://dragonegg.llvm.org/">DragonEgg</a> is a shared library (dragonegg.so)
+that is loaded by gcc at runtime. It ...
</p>
</div>
-<!--_________________________________________________________________________-->
-<div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="jumptab">Jump Table Support for Switches
-</a></div>
+
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="mc">llvm-mc: Machine Code Toolkit</a>
+</div>
<div class="doc_text">
+<p>
+The LLVM Machine Code (MC) Toolkit project is ...
+</p>
+
+</div>
-<p>The code generator now lowers switch statements to jump tables, providing
-significant performance boosts for applications (e.g. interpreters) whose
-performance is highly correlated to switch statement performance.</p>
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+<div class="doc_section">
+ <a name="externalproj">External Open Source Projects Using LLVM 2.7</a>
+</div>
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>An exciting aspect of LLVM is that it is used as an enabling technology for
+ a lot of other language and tools projects. This section lists some of the
+ projects that have already been updated to work with LLVM 2.7.</p>
</div>
-<!--_________________________________________________________________________-->
-<div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="jitrelease">Deallocation of JIT'd
-Machine Code
-</a></div>
+
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="Rubinius">Rubinius</a>
+</div>
<div class="doc_text">
+<p><a href="http://github.com/evanphx/rubinius">Rubinius</a> is an environment
+for running Ruby code which strives to write as much of the core class
+implementation in Ruby as possible. Combined with a bytecode interpreting VM, it
+uses LLVM to optimize and compile ruby code down to machine code. Techniques
+such as type feedback, method inlining, and uncommon traps are all used to
+remove dynamism from ruby execution and increase performance.</p>
+
+<p>Since LLVM 2.5, Rubinius has made several major leaps forward, implementing
+a counter based JIT, type feedback and speculative method inlining.
+</p>
-<p>The LLVM JIT now allows clients to deallocate machine code JIT'd to its code
-buffer. This is important for long living applications that depend on the JIT.
+</div>
+
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="macruby">MacRuby</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>
+<a href="http://macruby.org">MacRuby</a> is an implementation of Ruby on top of
+core Mac OS X technologies, such as the Objective-C common runtime and garbage
+collector and the CoreFoundation framework. It is principally developed by
+Apple and aims at enabling the creation of full-fledged Mac OS X applications.
</p>
+<p>
+MacRuby uses LLVM for optimization passes, JIT and AOT compilation of Ruby
+expressions. It also uses zero-cost DWARF exceptions to implement Ruby exception
+handling.</p>
+
</div>
-<!--_________________________________________________________________________-->
-<div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="other">Other Improvements</a></div>
+
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="pure">Pure</a>
+</div>
<div class="doc_text">
+<p>
+<a href="http://pure-lang.googlecode.com/">Pure</a>
+is an algebraic/functional programming language based on term rewriting.
+Programs are collections of equations which are used to evaluate expressions in
+a symbolic fashion. Pure offers dynamic typing, eager and lazy evaluation,
+lexical closures, a hygienic macro system (also based on term rewriting),
+built-in list and matrix support (including list and matrix comprehensions) and
+an easy-to-use C interface. The interpreter uses LLVM as a backend to
+ JIT-compile Pure programs to fast native code.</p>
+
+<p>Pure versions ??? and later have been tested and are known to work with
+LLVM 2.7 (and continue to work with older LLVM releases >= 2.3 as well).
+</p>
+</div>
-<p>This release includes many other improvements, including improvements to
- the optimizers and code generators (improving the generated code) changes to
- speed up the compiler in many ways (improving algorithms and fine tuning
- code), and changes to reduce the code size of the compiler itself.</p>
-<p>More specific changes include:</p>
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="ldc">LLVM D Compiler</a>
+</div>
-<ul>
-<li>LLVM 1.8 includes an initial ARM backend. This backend is in early
- development stages.</li>
-<li>LLVM 1.8 now includes significantly better support for mingw and
- cygwin.</li>
-<li>The <a href="CommandGuide/html/llvm-config.html">llvm-config</a> tool is
- now built by default and has several new features.</li>
-<li>The X86 and PPC backends now use the correct platform ABI for passing
- vectors as arguments to functions.</li>
-<li>The X86 backend now includes support for the Microsoft ML assembler
- ("MASM").</li>
-<li>The PowerPC backend now pattern matches the 'rlwimi' instruction more
- aggressively.</li>
-<li>Most of LLVM is now built with "-pedantic", ensuring better portability
- to more C++ Compilers.</li>
-<li>The PowerPC backend now includes initial 64-bit support. The JIT is not
- complete, and the static compiler has a couple of known bugs, but support
- is mostly in place. LLVM 1.9 will include completed PPC-64 support. </li>
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>
+<a href="http://www.dsource.org/projects/ldc">LDC</a> is an implementation of
+the D Programming Language using the LLVM optimizer and code generator.
+The LDC project works great with the LLVM 2.6 release. General improvements in
+this
+cycle have included new inline asm constraint handling, better debug info
+support, general bug fixes and better x86-64 support. This has allowed
+some major improvements in LDC, getting it much closer to being as
+fully featured as the original DMD compiler from DigitalMars.
+</p>
+</div>
-</ul>
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="RoadsendPHP">Roadsend PHP</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>
+<a href="http://code.roadsend.com/rphp">Roadsend PHP</a> (rphp) is an open
+source implementation of the PHP programming
+language that uses LLVM for its optimizer, JIT and static compiler. This is a
+reimplementation of an earlier project that is now based on LLVM.</p>
</div>
<!--=========================================================================-->
<div class="doc_subsection">
-<a name="changes">Significant Changes in LLVM 1.8</a>
+<a name="UnladenSwallow">Unladen Swallow</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
-<ul>
-<li>The LLVM "SparcV9" backend (deprecated in LLVM 1.7) has been removed in
-LLVM 1.8. The LLVM "Sparc" backend replaces it.</li>
-<li>The --version option now prints more useful information, including the
- build configuration for the tool.</li>
-</ul>
+<p>
+<a href="http://code.google.com/p/unladen-swallow/">Unladen Swallow</a> is a
+branch of <a href="http://python.org/">Python</a> intended to be fully
+compatible and significantly faster. It uses LLVM's optimization passes and JIT
+compiler.</p>
+</div>
+
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="llvm-lua">llvm-lua</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>
+<a href="http://code.google.com/p/llvm-lua/">LLVM-Lua</a> uses LLVM to add JIT
+and static compiling support to the Lua VM. Lua bytecode is analyzed to
+remove type checks, then LLVM is used to compile the bytecode down to machine
+code.</p>
</div>
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="icedtea">IcedTea Java Virtual Machine Implementation</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>
+<a href="http://icedtea.classpath.org/wiki/Main_Page">IcedTea</a> provides a
+harness to build OpenJDK using only free software build tools and to provide
+replacements for the not-yet free parts of OpenJDK. One of the extensions that
+IcedTea provides is a new JIT compiler named <a
+href="http://icedtea.classpath.org/wiki/ZeroSharkFaq">Shark</a> which uses LLVM
+to provide native code generation without introducing processor-dependent
+code.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_section">
- <a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
+ <a name="whatsnew">What's New in LLVM 2.7?</a>
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:</p>
+<p>This release includes a huge number of bug fixes, performance tweaks and
+minor improvements. Some of the major improvements and new features are listed
+in this section.
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="majorfeatures">Major New Features</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>LLVM 2.7 includes several major new capabilities:</p>
<ul>
- <li>Intel and AMD machines running Red Hat Linux, Fedora Core and FreeBSD
- (and probably other unix-like systems).</li>
-<li>Sun UltraSPARC workstations running Solaris 8.</li>
-<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 with the Cygwin libraries (limited
- support is available for native builds with Visual C++).</li>
-<li>PowerPC and X86-based Mac OS X systems, running 10.2 and above.</li>
-<li>Alpha-based machines running Debian GNU/Linux.</li>
-<li>Itanium-based machines running Linux and HP-UX.</li>
+<li>...</li>
</ul>
-<p>The core LLVM infrastructure uses
-<a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/">GNU autoconf</a> to adapt itself
-to the machine and operating system on which it is built. However, minor
-porting may be required to get LLVM to work on new platforms. We welcome your
-portability patches and reports of successful builds or error messages.</p>
-
</div>
-<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
-<div class="doc_section">
- <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="coreimprovements">LLVM IR and Core Improvements</a>
</div>
-<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_text">
+<p>LLVM IR has several new features for better support of new targets and that
+expose new optimization opportunities:</p>
-<p>This section contains all known problems with the LLVM system, listed by
-component. As new problems are discovered, they will be added to these
-sections. If you run into a problem, please check the <a
-href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
-there isn't already one.</p>
+<ul>
+<li>...</li>
+</ul>
</div>
-<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<!--=========================================================================-->
<div class="doc_subsection">
- <a name="experimental">Experimental features included with this release</a>
+<a name="optimizer">Optimizer Improvements</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>The following components of this LLVM release are either untested, known to
-be broken or unreliable, or are in early development. These components should
-not be relied on, and bugs should not be filed against them, but they may be
-useful to some people. In particular, if you would like to work on one of these
-components, please contact us on the <a href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVMdev list</a>.</p>
+<p>In addition to a large array of minor performance tweaks and bug fixes, this
+release includes a few major enhancements and additions to the optimizers:</p>
<ul>
-<li>The <tt>-cee</tt> pass is known to be buggy, and may be removed in in a
- future release.</li>
-<li>The IA64 code generator is experimental.</li>
-<li>The Alpha JIT is experimental.</li>
-<li>"<tt>-filetype=asm</tt>" (the default) is the only supported value for the
- <tt>-filetype</tt> llc option.</li>
+
+<li>...</li>
+
</ul>
</div>
-<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+
+<!--=========================================================================-->
<div class="doc_subsection">
- <a name="build">Known problems with the Build System</a>
+<a name="executionengine">Interpreter and JIT Improvements</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<ul>
-<li>none yet</li>
+<li>The JIT now <a
+href="http://llvm.org/viewvc/llvm-project?view=rev&revision=85295">defaults
+to compiling eagerly</a> to avoid a race condition in the lazy JIT.
+Clients that still want the lazy JIT can switch it on by calling
+<tt>ExecutionEngine::DisableLazyCompilation(false)</tt>.</li>
+<li>It is now possible to create more than one JIT instance in the same process.
+These JITs can generate machine code in parallel,
+although <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/ProgrammersManual.html#jitthreading">you
+still have to obey the other threading restrictions</a>.</li>
</ul>
-</div>
+</div>
-<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<!--=========================================================================-->
<div class="doc_subsection">
- <a name="core">Known problems with the LLVM Core</a>
+<a name="codegen">Target Independent Code Generator Improvements</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
+<p>We have put a significant amount of work into the code generator
+infrastructure, which allows us to implement more aggressive algorithms and make
+it run faster:</p>
+
<ul>
- <li>In the JIT, <tt>dlsym()</tt> on a symbol compiled by the JIT will not
- work.</li>
+
+<li>...</li>
</ul>
</div>
-<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<!--=========================================================================-->
<div class="doc_subsection">
- <a name="c-fe">Known problems with the C front-end</a>
+<a name="x86">X86-32 and X86-64 Target Improvements</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>New features of the X86 target include:
+</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>...</li>
+
+</ul>
+
</div>
-<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
-<div class="doc_subsubsection">Bugs</div>
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="pic16">PIC16 Target Improvements</a>
+</div>
<div class="doc_text">
+<p>New features of the PIC16 target include:
+</p>
-<p>
-llvm-gcc3 has many significant problems that are fixed by llvm-gcc4.
-Two major ones include:</p>
+<ul>
+<li>...</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>Things not yet supported:</p>
<ul>
-<li>With llvm-gcc3,
- C99 variable sized arrays do not release stack memory when they go out of
- scope. Thus, the following program may run out of stack space:
-<pre>
- for (i = 0; i != 1000000; ++i) {
- int X[n];
- foo(X);
- }
-</pre></li>
-
-<li>With llvm-gcc3, Initialization of global union variables can only be done <a
-href="http://llvm.org/PR162">with the largest union member</a>.</li>
+<li>Variable arguments.</li>
+<li>Interrupts/programs.</li>
+</ul>
+
+</div>
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="ARM">ARM Target Improvements</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>New features of the ARM target include:
+</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>...</li>
</ul>
-<p>llvm-gcc4 is far more stable and produces better code than llvm-gcc3, but
-does not currently support Link-Time-Optimization or C++ Exception Handling,
-which llvm-gcc3 does.</p>
</div>
-<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
-<div class="doc_subsubsection">
- Notes
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="OtherTarget">Other Target Specific Improvements</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
+<p>New features of other targets include:
+</p>
<ul>
+<li>...</li>
+</ul>
-<li>"long double" is transformed by the front-end into "double". There is no
-support for floating point data types of any size other than 32 and 64
-bits.</li>
-
-<li>The following Unix system functionality has not been tested and may not
-work:
- <ol>
- <li><tt>sigsetjmp</tt>, <tt>siglongjmp</tt> - These are not turned into the
- appropriate <tt>invoke</tt>/<tt>unwind</tt> instructions. Note that
- <tt>setjmp</tt> and <tt>longjmp</tt> <em>are</em> compiled correctly.
- <li><tt>getcontext</tt>, <tt>setcontext</tt>, <tt>makecontext</tt>
- - These functions have not been tested.
- </ol></li>
-
-<li>Although many GCC extensions are supported, some are not. In particular,
- the following extensions are known to <b>not be</b> supported:
- <ol>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Local-Labels.html#Local%20Labels">Local Labels</a>: Labels local to a block.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Nested-Functions.html#Nested%20Functions">Nested Functions</a>: As in Algol and Pascal, lexical scoping of functions.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constructing-Calls.html#Constructing%20Calls">Constructing Calls</a>: Dispatching a call to another function.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Extended-Asm.html#Extended%20Asm">Extended Asm</a>: Assembler instructions with C expressions as operands.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constraints.html#Constraints">Constraints</a>: Constraints for asm operands.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Asm-Labels.html#Asm%20Labels">Asm Labels</a>: Specifying the assembler name to use for a C symbol.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Explicit-Reg-Vars.html#Explicit%20Reg%20Vars">Explicit Reg Vars</a>: Defining variables residing in specified registers.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Vector-Extensions.html#Vector%20Extensions">Vector Extensions</a>: Using vector instructions through built-in functions.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Target-Builtins.html#Target%20Builtins">Target Builtins</a>: Built-in functions specific to particular targets.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Thread_002dLocal.html">Thread-Local</a>: Per-thread variables.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Pragmas.html#Pragmas">Pragmas</a>: Pragmas accepted by GCC.</li>
- </ol>
-
- <p>The following GCC extensions are <b>partially</b> supported. An ignored
- attribute means that the LLVM compiler ignores the presence of the attribute,
- but the code should still work. An unsupported attribute is one which is
- ignored by the LLVM compiler and will cause a different interpretation of
- the program.</p>
-
- <ol>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Length.html#Variable%20Length">Variable Length</a>:
- Arrays whose length is computed at run time.<br>
- Supported, but allocated stack space is not freed until the function returns (noted above).</li>
-
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Attributes.html#Function%20Attributes">Function Attributes</a>:
-
- Declaring that functions have no side effects or that they can never
- return.<br>
-
- <b>Supported:</b> <tt>format</tt>, <tt>format_arg</tt>, <tt>non_null</tt>,
- <tt>noreturn</tt>, <tt>constructor</tt>, <tt>destructor</tt>,
- <tt>unused</tt>, <tt>used</tt>,
- <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>warn_unused_result</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
-
- <b>Ignored:</b> <tt>noinline</tt>,
- <tt>always_inline</tt>, <tt>pure</tt>, <tt>const</tt>, <tt>nothrow</tt>,
- <tt>malloc</tt>, <tt>no_instrument_function</tt>, <tt>cdecl</tt><br>
-
- <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>section</tt>, <tt>alias</tt>,
- <tt>visibility</tt>, <tt>regparm</tt>, <tt>stdcall</tt>,
- <tt>fastcall</tt>, all other target specific attributes</li>
-
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Attributes.html#Variable%20Attributes">Variable Attributes</a>:
- Specifying attributes of variables.<br>
- <b>Supported:</b> <tt>cleanup</tt>, <tt>common</tt>, <tt>nocommon</tt>,
- <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>transparent_union</tt>,
- <tt>unused</tt>, <tt>used</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
-
- <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>mode</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>,
- <tt>section</tt>, <tt>shared</tt>, <tt>tls_model</tt>,
- <tt>vector_size</tt>, <tt>dllimport</tt>,
- <tt>dllexport</tt>, all target specific attributes.</li>
-
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Type-Attributes.html#Type%20Attributes">Type Attributes</a>: Specifying attributes of types.<br>
- <b>Supported:</b> <tt>transparent_union</tt>, <tt>unused</tt>,
- <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>may_alias</tt><br>
-
- <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>,
- all target specific attributes.</li>
-
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Other-Builtins.html#Other%20Builtins">Other Builtins</a>:
- Other built-in functions.<br>
- We support all builtins which have a C language equivalent (e.g.,
- <tt>__builtin_cos</tt>), <tt>__builtin_alloca</tt>,
- <tt>__builtin_types_compatible_p</tt>, <tt>__builtin_choose_expr</tt>,
- <tt>__builtin_constant_p</tt>, and <tt>__builtin_expect</tt>
- (currently ignored). We also support builtins for ISO C99 floating
- point comparison macros (e.g., <tt>__builtin_islessequal</tt>),
- <tt>__builtin_prefetch</tt>, <tt>__builtin_popcount[ll]</tt>,
- <tt>__builtin_clz[ll]</tt>, and <tt>__builtin_ctz[ll]</tt>.</li>
- </ol>
-
- <p>The following extensions <b>are</b> known to be supported:</p>
-
- <ol>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Labels-as-Values.html#Labels%20as%20Values">Labels as Values</a>: Getting pointers to labels and computed gotos.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Statement-Exprs.html#Statement%20Exprs">Statement Exprs</a>: Putting statements and declarations inside expressions.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Typeof.html#Typeof">Typeof</a>: <code>typeof</code>: referring to the type of an expression.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-3.4.0/gcc/Lvalues.html#Lvalues">Lvalues</a>: Using <code>?:</code>, "<code>,</code>" and casts in lvalues.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Conditionals.html#Conditionals">Conditionals</a>: Omitting the middle operand of a <code>?:</code> expression.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Long-Long.html#Long%20Long">Long Long</a>: Double-word integers.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Complex.html#Complex">Complex</a>: Data types for complex numbers.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Hex-Floats.html#Hex%20Floats">Hex Floats</a>:Hexadecimal floating-point constants.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html#Zero%20Length">Zero Length</a>: Zero-length arrays.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Empty-Structures.html#Empty%20Structures">Empty Structures</a>: Structures with no members.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variadic-Macros.html#Variadic%20Macros">Variadic Macros</a>: Macros with a variable number of arguments.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Escaped-Newlines.html#Escaped%20Newlines">Escaped Newlines</a>: Slightly looser rules for escaped newlines.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Subscripting.html#Subscripting">Subscripting</a>: Any array can be subscripted, even if not an lvalue.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Pointer-Arith.html#Pointer%20Arith">Pointer Arith</a>: Arithmetic on <code>void</code>-pointers and function pointers.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Initializers.html#Initializers">Initializers</a>: Non-constant initializers.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Compound-Literals.html#Compound%20Literals">Compound Literals</a>: Compound literals give structures, unions,
-or arrays as values.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Designated-Inits.html#Designated%20Inits">Designated Inits</a>: Labeling elements of initializers.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Cast-to-Union.html#Cast%20to%20Union">Cast to Union</a>: Casting to union type from any member of the union.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Case-Ranges.html#Case%20Ranges">Case Ranges</a>: `case 1 ... 9' and such.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Mixed-Declarations.html#Mixed%20Declarations">Mixed Declarations</a>: Mixing declarations and code.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Prototypes.html#Function%20Prototypes">Function Prototypes</a>: Prototype declarations and old-style definitions.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C_002b_002b-Comments.html#C_002b_002b-Comments">C++ Comments</a>: C++ comments are recognized.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Dollar-Signs.html#Dollar%20Signs">Dollar Signs</a>: Dollar sign is allowed in identifiers.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Character-Escapes.html#Character%20Escapes">Character Escapes</a>: <code>\e</code> stands for the character <ESC>.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Alignment.html#Alignment">Alignment</a>: Inquiring about the alignment of a type or variable.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Inline.html#Inline">Inline</a>: Defining inline functions (as fast as macros).</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Alternate-Keywords.html#Alternate%20Keywords">Alternate Keywords</a>:<code>__const__</code>, <code>__asm__</code>, etc., for header files.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Incomplete-Enums.html#Incomplete%20Enums">Incomplete Enums</a>: <code>enum foo;</code>, with details to follow.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Names.html#Function%20Names">Function Names</a>: Printable strings which are the name of the current function.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Return-Address.html#Return%20Address">Return Address</a>: Getting the return or frame address of a function.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Unnamed-Fields.html#Unnamed%20Fields">Unnamed Fields</a>: Unnamed struct/union fields within structs/unions.</li>
- <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Attribute-Syntax.html#Attribute%20Syntax">Attribute Syntax</a>: Formal syntax for attributes.</li>
- </ol></li>
+</div>
+
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="newapis">New Useful APIs</a>
+</div>
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>This release includes a number of new APIs that are used internally, which
+ may also be useful for external clients.
+</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li>...</li>
</ul>
-<p>If you run into GCC extensions which have not been included in any of these
-lists, please let us know (also including whether or not they work).</p>
</div>
-<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<!--=========================================================================-->
<div class="doc_subsection">
- <a name="c++-fe">Known problems with the C++ front-end</a>
+<a name="otherimprovements">Other Improvements and New Features</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
+<p>Other miscellaneous features include:</p>
-<p>For this release, the C++ front-end is considered to be fully
-tested and works for a number of non-trivial programs, including LLVM
-itself.</p>
+<ul>
+<li>...</li>
+</ul>
</div>
-<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
-<div class="doc_subsubsection">Bugs</div>
+
+<!--=========================================================================-->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+<a name="changes">Major Changes and Removed Features</a>
+</div>
<div class="doc_text">
+<p>If you're already an LLVM user or developer with out-of-tree changes based
+on LLVM 2.6, this section lists some "gotchas" that you may run into upgrading
+from the previous release.</p>
+
<ul>
-<li>The C++ front-end inherits all problems afflicting the <a href="#c-fe">C
- front-end</a>.</li>
+<li>The LLVM interpreter now defaults to <em>not</em> using <tt>libffi</tt> even
+if you have it installed. This makes it more likely that an LLVM built on one
+system will work when copied to a similar system. To use <tt>libffi</tt>,
+configure with <tt>--enable-libffi</tt>.
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>In addition, many APIs have changed in this release. Some of the major LLVM
+API changes are:</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li><tt>ModuleProvider</tt> has been <a
+href="http://llvm.org/viewvc/llvm-project?view=rev&revision=94686">removed</a>
+and its methods moved to <tt>Module</tt> and <tt>GlobalValue</tt>.
+Most clients can remove uses of <tt>ExistingModuleProvider</tt>,
+replace <tt>getBitcodeModuleProvider</tt> with
+<tt>getLazyBitcodeModule</tt>, and pass their <tt>Module</tt> to
+functions that used to accept <tt>ModuleProvider</tt>. Clients who
+wrote their own <tt>ModuleProvider</tt>s will need to derive from
+<tt>GVMaterializer</tt> instead and use
+<tt>Module::setMaterializer</tt> to attach it to a
+<tt>Module</tt>.</li>
+
+<li><tt>GhostLinkage</tt> has given up the ghost.
+<tt>GlobalValue</tt>s that have not yet been read from their backing
+storage have the same linkage they will have after being read in.
+Clients must replace calls to
+<tt>GlobalValue::hasNotBeenReadFromBitcode</tt> with
+<tt>GlobalValue::isMaterializable</tt>.</li>
+
+<li>FIXME: Debug info has been totally redone. Add pointers to new APIs. Substantial caveats about compatibility of .ll and .bc files.</li>
+
+<li>The <tt>llvm/Support/DataTypes.h</tt> header has moved
+to <tt>llvm/System/DataTypes.h</tt>.</li>
+
+<li>The <tt>isInteger</tt>, <tt>isIntOrIntVector</tt>, <tt>isFloatingPoint</tt>,
+<tt>isFPOrFPVector</tt> and <tt>isFPOrFPVector</tt> methods have been renamed
+<tt>isIntegerTy</tt>, <tt>isIntOrIntVectorTy</tt>, <tt>isFloatingPointTy</tt>,
+<tt>isFPOrFPVectorTy</tt> and <tt>isFPOrFPVectorTy</tt> respectively.</li>
</ul>
</div>
-<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
-<div class="doc_subsubsection">
- Notes
+
+
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+<div class="doc_section">
+ <a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
</div>
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_text">
+<p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:</p>
+
<ul>
+<li>Intel and AMD machines (IA32, X86-64, AMD64, EMT-64) running Red Hat
+ Linux, Fedora Core, FreeBSD and AuroraUX (and probably other unix-like
+ systems).</li>
+<li>PowerPC and X86-based Mac OS X systems, running 10.3 and above in 32-bit
+ and 64-bit modes.</li>
+<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 using MinGW libraries (native).</li>
+<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 with the Cygwin libraries (limited
+ support is available for native builds with Visual C++).</li>
+<li>Sun x86 and AMD64 machines running Solaris 10, OpenSolaris 0906.</li>
+<li>Alpha-based machines running Debian GNU/Linux.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>The core LLVM infrastructure uses GNU autoconf to adapt itself
+to the machine and operating system on which it is built. However, minor
+porting may be required to get LLVM to work on new platforms. We welcome your
+portability patches and reports of successful builds or error messages.</p>
-<li>Destructors for local objects are not always run when a <tt>longjmp</tt> is
- performed. In particular, destructors for objects in the <tt>longjmp</tt>ing
- function and in the <tt>setjmp</tt> receiver function may not be run.
- Objects in intervening stack frames will be destroyed, however (which is
- better than most compilers).</li>
-
-<li>The LLVM C++ front-end follows the <a
- href="http://www.codesourcery.com/cxx-abi">Itanium C++ ABI</a>.
- This document, which is not Itanium specific, specifies a standard for name
- mangling, class layout, v-table layout, RTTI formats, and other C++
- representation issues. Because we use this API, code generated by the LLVM
- compilers should be binary compatible with machine code generated by other
- Itanium ABI C++ compilers (such as G++, the Intel and HP compilers, etc).
- <i>However</i>, the exception handling mechanism used by LLVM is very
- different from the model used in the Itanium ABI, so <b>exceptions will not
- interact correctly</b>. </li>
+</div>
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+<div class="doc_section">
+ <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
+</div>
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>This section contains significant known problems with the LLVM system,
+listed by component. If you run into a problem, please check the <a
+href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
+there isn't already one.</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li>The llvm-gcc bootstrap will fail with some versions of binutils (e.g. 2.15)
+ with a message of "<tt><a href="http://llvm.org/PR5004">Error: can not do 8
+ byte pc-relative relocation</a></tt>" when building C++ code. We intend to
+ fix this on mainline, but a workaround is to upgrade to binutils 2.17 or
+ later.</li>
+
+<li>LLVM will not correctly compile on Solaris and/or OpenSolaris
+using the stock GCC 3.x.x series 'out the box',
+See: <a href="GettingStarted.html#brokengcc">Broken versions of GCC and other tools</a>.
+However, A <a href="http://pkg.auroraux.org/GCC">Modern GCC Build</a>
+for x86/x86-64 has been made available from the third party AuroraUX Project
+that has been meticulously tested for bootstrapping LLVM & Clang.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
- <a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
+ <a name="experimental">Experimental features included with this release</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
+<p>The following components of this LLVM release are either untested, known to
+be broken or unreliable, or are in early development. These components should
+not be relied on, and bugs should not be filed against them, but they may be
+useful to some people. In particular, if you would like to work on one of these
+components, please contact us on the <a
+href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVMdev list</a>.</p>
+
<ul>
+<li>The MSIL, Alpha, SPU, MIPS, PIC16, Blackfin, MSP430 and SystemZ backends are
+ experimental.</li>
+<li>The <tt>llc</tt> "<tt>-filetype=asm</tt>" (the default) is the only
+ supported value for this option. The ELF writer is experimental.</li>
+<li>The implementation of Andersen's Alias Analysis has many known bugs.</li>
+</ul>
-<li>The C back-end produces code that violates the ANSI C Type-Based Alias
-Analysis rules. As such, special options may be necessary to compile the code
-(for example, GCC requires the <tt>-fno-strict-aliasing</tt> option). This
-problem probably cannot be fixed.</li>
+</div>
-<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR56">Zero arg vararg functions are not
-supported</a>. This should not affect LLVM produced by the C or C++
-frontends.</li>
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a>
+</div>
-<li>The C backend does not correctly implement the <a
-href="LangRef.html#i_stacksave"><tt>llvm.stacksave</tt></a> or
-<a href="LangRef.html#i_stackrestore"><tt>llvm.stackrestore</tt></a>
-intrinsics. This means that some code compiled by it can run out of stack
-space if they depend on these (e.g. C99 varargs).</li>
+<div class="doc_text">
+<ul>
+ <li>The X86 backend does not yet support
+ all <a href="http://llvm.org/PR879">inline assembly that uses the X86
+ floating point stack</a>. It supports the 'f' and 't' constraints, but not
+ 'u'.</li>
+ <li>The X86 backend generates inefficient floating point code when configured
+ to generate code for systems that don't have SSE2.</li>
+ <li>Win64 code generation wasn't widely tested. Everything should work, but we
+ expect small issues to happen. Also, llvm-gcc cannot build the mingw64
+ runtime currently due
+ to <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2255">several</a>
+ <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2257">bugs</a> and due to lack of support for
+ the
+ 'u' inline assembly constraint and for X87 floating point inline assembly.</li>
+ <li>The X86-64 backend does not yet support the LLVM IR instruction
+ <tt>va_arg</tt>. Currently, the llvm-gcc and front-ends support variadic
+ argument constructs on X86-64 by lowering them manually.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
- <a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a>
+ <a name="ppc-be">Known problems with the PowerPC back-end</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<ul>
-<li>none yet.</li>
+<li>The Linux PPC32/ABI support needs testing for the interpreter and static
+compilation, and lacks support for debug information.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
- <a name="ppc-be">Known problems with the PowerPC back-end</a>
+ <a name="arm-be">Known problems with the ARM back-end</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<ul>
-<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR642">PowerPC backend does not correctly
-implement ordered FP comparisons</a>.</li>
+<li>Support for the Advanced SIMD (Neon) instruction set is still incomplete
+and not well tested. Some features may not work at all, and the code quality
+may be poor in some cases.</li>
+<li>Thumb mode works only on ARMv6 or higher processors. On sub-ARMv6
+processors, thumb programs can crash or produce wrong
+results (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1388">PR1388</a>).</li>
+<li>Compilation for ARM Linux OABI (old ABI) is supported but not fully tested.
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the SPARC back-end</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<ul>
+<li>The SPARC backend only supports the 32-bit SPARC ABI (-m32); it does not
+ support the 64-bit SPARC ABI (-m64).</li>
+</ul>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="mips-be">Known problems with the MIPS back-end</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<ul>
+<li>64-bit MIPS targets are not supported yet.</li>
</ul>
</div>
appropriate nops inserted to ensure restartability.</li>
</ul>
-
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
- <a name="ia64-be">Known problems with the IA64 back-end</a>
+ <a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<ul>
+<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR802">The C backend has only basic support for
+ inline assembly code</a>.</li>
+<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR1658">The C backend violates the ABI of common
+ C++ programs</a>, preventing intermixing between C++ compiled by the CBE and
+ C++ code compiled with <tt>llc</tt> or native compilers.</li>
+<li>The C backend does not support all exception handling constructs.</li>
+<li>The C backend does not support arbitrary precision integers.</li>
+</ul>
+
+</div>
-<li>C++ programs are likely to fail on IA64, as calls to <tt>setjmp</tt> are
-made where the argument is not 16-byte aligned, as required on IA64. (Strictly
-speaking this is not a bug in the IA64 back-end; it will also be encountered
-when building C++ programs using the C back-end.)</li>
-<li>The C++ front-end does not use <a href="http://llvm.org/PR406">IA64
-ABI compliant layout of v-tables</a>. In particular, it just stores function
-pointers instead of function descriptors in the vtable. This bug prevents
-mixing C++ code compiled with LLVM with C++ objects compiled by other C++
-compilers.</li>
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="c-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C front-end</a>
+</div>
-<li>There are a few ABI violations which will lead to problems when mixing LLVM
-output with code built with other compilers, particularly for floating-point
-programs.</li>
+<div class="doc_text">
-<li>Defining vararg functions is not supported (but calling them is ok).</li>
+<p>The only major language feature of GCC not supported by llvm-gcc is
+ the <tt>__builtin_apply</tt> family of builtins. However, some extensions
+ are only supported on some targets. For example, trampolines are only
+ supported on some targets (these are used when you take the address of a
+ nested function).</p>
-</ul>
+<p>If you run into GCC extensions which are not supported, please let us know.
+</p>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
- <a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the SPARC back-end</a>
+ <a name="c++-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C++ front-end</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
+<p>The C++ front-end is considered to be fully
+tested and works for a number of non-trivial programs, including LLVM
+itself, Qt, Mozilla, etc.</p>
+
<ul>
-<li>The SPARC backend only supports the 32-bit SPARC ABI (-m32), it does not
- support the 64-bit SPARC ABI (-m64).</li>
+<li>Exception handling works well on the X86 and PowerPC targets. Currently
+ only Linux and Darwin targets are supported (both 32 and 64 bit).</li>
</ul>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
- <a name="arm-be">Known problems with the ARM back-end</a>
+ <a name="fortran-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Fortran front-end</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
+<ul>
+<li>Fortran support generally works, but there are still several unresolved bugs
+ in <a href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">Bugzilla</a>. Please see the
+ tools/gfortran component for details.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="ada-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Ada front-end</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+The llvm-gcc 4.2 Ada compiler works fairly well; however, this is not a mature
+technology, and problems should be expected.
<ul>
-<li>The ARM backend is currently in early development stages, it is not
-ready for production use.</li>
+<li>The Ada front-end currently only builds on X86-32. This is mainly due
+to lack of trampoline support (pointers to nested functions) on other platforms.
+However, it <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2006">also fails to build on X86-64</a>
+which does support trampolines.</li>
+<li>The Ada front-end <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2007">fails to bootstrap</a>.
+This is due to lack of LLVM support for <tt>setjmp</tt>/<tt>longjmp</tt> style
+exception handling, which is used internally by the compiler.
+Workaround: configure with <tt>--disable-bootstrap</tt>.</li>
+<li>The c380004, <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2010">c393010</a>
+and <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2421">cxg2021</a> ACATS tests fail
+(c380004 also fails with gcc-4.2 mainline).
+If the compiler is built with checks disabled then <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2010">c393010</a>
+causes the compiler to go into an infinite loop, using up all system memory.</li>
+<li>Some GCC specific Ada tests continue to crash the compiler.</li>
+<li>The <tt>-E</tt> binder option (exception backtraces)
+<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1982">does not work</a> and will result in programs
+crashing if an exception is raised. Workaround: do not use <tt>-E</tt>.</li>
+<li>Only discrete types <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1981">are allowed to start
+or finish at a non-byte offset</a> in a record. Workaround: do not pack records
+or use representation clauses that result in a field of a non-discrete type
+starting or finishing in the middle of a byte.</li>
+<li>The <tt>lli</tt> interpreter <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2009">considers
+'main' as generated by the Ada binder to be invalid</a>.
+Workaround: hand edit the file to use pointers for <tt>argv</tt> and
+<tt>envp</tt> rather than integers.</li>
+<li>The <tt>-fstack-check</tt> option <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2008">is
+ignored</a>.</li>
</ul>
+</div>
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="ocaml-bindings">Known problems with the O'Caml bindings</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>The <tt>Llvm.Linkage</tt> module is broken, and has incorrect values. Only
+<tt>Llvm.Linkage.External</tt>, <tt>Llvm.Linkage.Available_externally</tt>, and
+<tt>Llvm.Linkage.Link_once</tt> will be correct. If you need any of the other linkage
+modes, you'll have to write an external C library in order to expose the
+functionality. This has been fixed in the trunk.</p>
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_text">
<p>A wide variety of additional information is available on the <a
-href="http://llvm.org">LLVM web page</a>, including <a
-href="http://llvm.org/docs/">documentation</a> and <a
-href="http://llvm.org/pubs/">publications describing algorithms and
-components implemented in LLVM</a>. The web page also contains versions of the
-API documentation which is up-to-date with the CVS version of the source code.
+href="http://llvm.org">LLVM web page</a>, in particular in the <a
+href="http://llvm.org/docs/">documentation</a> section. The web page also
+contains versions of the API documentation which is up-to-date with the
+Subversion version of the source code.
You can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going
into the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p>
<hr>
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