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6 <title>LLVM 1.1 Release Notes</title>
10 <div class="doc_title">
11 LLVM 1.1 Release Notes
15 <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
16 <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New?</a></li>
17 <li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a></li>
18 <li><a href="#install-instructions">Installation Instructions</a></li>
19 <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
21 <!-- <li><a href="#portabilityprobs">Portability Problems</a> -->
22 <li><a href="#core">Known problems with the LLVM Core</a>
23 <li><a href="#c-fe">Known problems with the C Front-end</a>
24 <li><a href="#c++-fe">Known problems with the C++ Front-end</a>
25 <li><a href="#x86-be">Known problems with the X86 Back-end</a>
26 <li><a href="#sparc-be">Known problems with the Sparc Back-end</a>
27 <li><a href="#c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
29 <li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a></li>
32 <div class="doc_text">
33 <p><b>Written by <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a></b><p>
36 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
37 <div class="doc_section">
38 <a name="intro">Introduction</a>
40 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
42 <div class="doc_text">
44 <p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM compiler
45 infrastructure, release 1.1. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including any
46 known problems, and bug fixes from the previous release. The most up-to-date
47 version of this document can be found on the <a
48 href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/releases/1.1/">LLVM 1.1 web site</a>. If you are
49 not reading this on the LLVM web pages, you should probably go there, because
50 this document may be updated after the release.</p>
52 <p>For more information about LLVM, including information about potentially more
53 current releases, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">main
54 web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
55 href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM developer's mailing
56 list</a> is a good place to send them.</p>
58 <p>Note that if you are reading this file from CVS, that this document applies
59 to the <i>next</i> release, not the previous one. To see the release notes for
60 the previous release, see the <a
61 href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
65 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
66 <div class="doc_section">
67 <a name="whatsnew">What's New?</a>
69 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
71 <div class="doc_text">
73 <p>This is the second public release of the LLVM compiler infrastructure. This
74 release implements the following new features:</p>
78 href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvmdev/2003-November/000528.html">A new
79 LLVM profiler, similar to gprof</a> is available</li>
81 <li>LLVM and the C/C++ front-end now compile on Mac OSX! Mac OSX users can
82 now explore the LLVM optimizer with the C backend (note that LLVM requires GCC
86 href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvmdev/2003-November/000554.html">moved
87 into an 'llvm' C++ namespace</a>, for easier integration with third-party
88 code. Note that due to a bug in GDB 5.x, to debug namespacified LLVM code,
89 you will need to upgrade to GDB 6.</li>
92 The build system now copies Makefiles dynamically from the source tree to the
93 object tree as subdirectories are built. This means that:
96 New directories can be added to the source tree, and the build will
97 automatically pick them up (i.e. no need to re-run <tt>configure</tt>).
101 You will need to build LLVM from the top of the object tree once to ensure
102 that all of the Makefiles are copied into the object tree subdirectories.
108 The <tt>configure</tt> script will now configure all projects placed in the
109 <tt>llvm/projects</tt> directory.
113 <p>In this release, the following missing features were implemented:</p>
116 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR88">The interpreter does not support
117 invoke or unwind</a></li>
119 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR99">Interpreter does not support the
120 <tt>vaarg</tt> instruction</a></li>
122 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR117">llvm-nm cannot read archive
127 <p>In this release, the following Quality of Implementation issues were
132 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR29">C++ front-end is not generating
133 linkonce linkage type when it can</a></li>
135 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR84">C front-end doesn't emit
136 getelementptr for address of array element</a></li>
138 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR96">Bad path to the C/C++ frontend causes
139 build problems</a></li>
141 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR114">LLVM header files should be -Wold-style-cast clean</a></li>
143 <li>The LLVM bytecode reader has been <a
144 href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR127">sped up a lot</a> (up to 4x in some
147 <li>Methods and functions in anonymous namespaces <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR85">now get internal linkage</a>.</li>
149 <li>Constant initializers now generate loops instead of potentially <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR75">huge amounts of straight-line code</a>.</li>
151 <li>Code for running C++ destructors is now properly shared when possible. Before, the C++ front-end
152 <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR11">generated N^2 amounts of duplicated cleanup code</a> in some cases.</li>
155 <p>In this release, the following bugs in the previous release were fixed:</p>
158 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR57">[inliner] Inlining invoke with PHI in unwind target is broken</a></li>
159 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR58">[linker] linkonce globals should link successfully to external globals</a></li>
160 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR59">C++ frontend can crash when compiling virtual base classes</a></li>
161 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR62">C backend fails on constant cast expr to ptr-to-anonymous struct</a></li>
162 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR63">#ident is not recognized by C frontend</a></li>
163 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR64">[constmerge] Constant merging pass merges constants with external linkage</a></li>
164 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR65">C front-end miscompiles the builtin_expect intrinsic!</a></li>
165 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR66">[scalarrepl] Scalar Replacement of aggregates is decimating structures it shouldn't be</a></li>
166 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR67">1.0 precompiled libstdc++ does not include wchar_t support</a></li>
167 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR68">llvmgcc asserts when compiling functions renamed with asm's</a></li>
168 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR69">C frontend crashes on some programs with lots of types.</a></li>
169 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR70">[instcombine] Resolving invoke inserts cast after terminator</a></li>
170 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR71">llvm-as crashes when labels are used in phi nodes</a></li>
171 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR72">[build problem] Callgraph.cpp not pulled in from libipa.a</a></li>
172 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR77">Variables in scope of output setjmp
173 calls should be volatile</a>. Note that this does not effect correctness on
174 many platforms, such as X86.</li>
175 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR79">llvm-gcc crashes compiling global union initializer</a></li>
176 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR80">C front-end crash on empty structure</a></li>
177 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR81">CFrontend crashes when compiling C99 compound expressions</a></li>
178 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR83">[X86] Emission of global bool initializers broken</a></li>
179 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR87">llvm-gcc infinite loops on "case MAXINT:"</a></li>
180 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR89">[C++] Catch blocks make unparsable labels</a></li>
181 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR90">[C++] Initializing array with constructable objects fail</a></li>
182 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR91">[gccld] The -r (relinking) option does not work correctly</a></li>
183 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR92">[bcreader] Cannot read shift constant expressions from bytecode file</a></li>
184 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR93">[lowersetjmp] Lowersetjmp pass breaks dominance properties!</a></li>
185 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR94">llvm-gcc tries to add bools</a></li>
186 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR95">SymbolTable::getUniqueName is very inefficient</a></li>
187 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR98">[buildscripts] Building into objdir with .o in it fails</a></li>
188 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR101">[setjmp/longjmp] Linking C programs which use setjmp/longjmp sometimes fail with references to the C++ runtime library!</a></li>
189 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR104">[c++] C++ Frontend lays out superclasses like anonymous bitfields!</a></li>
190 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR107">AsmParser Misses Symbol Redefinition Error</a></li>
191 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR108">gccld -Lfoo -lfoo fails to find ./foo/libfoo.a</a></li>
192 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR110">[bcreader] Incorrect cast causes misread forward constant references</a></li>
193 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR112">Casting a string constant to void crashes llvm-gcc</a></li>
194 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR116">[adce] ADCE considers blocks without postdominators to be unreachable</a></li>
195 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR54">C front-end miscompiles unsigned enums whose LLVM types are signed</a></li>
196 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR123">[X86] div and rem constant exprs invalidate iterators!</a></li>
197 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR125">[llvmg++] Enum types are incorrectly shrunk to smaller than 'int' size</a></li>
198 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR128">[llvmg++] Cannot use pointer to member to initialize global</a></li>
199 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR130">[vmcore] Symbol table doesn't rename colliding variables during type resolution</a></li>
200 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR131">[llvm-gcc] ?: operator as lvalue not implemented</a></li>
201 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR133">[C/C++] Bogus warning about taking the address of 'register' variable</a></li>
202 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR97">bugpoint must not pass -R<directory> to Mach-O linker</a></li>
203 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR113">crash assigning into an array in a struct which contains a bitfield</a>.</li>
204 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR6">Oversized integer bitfields cause crash</a></li>
205 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR140">gccld produces a runner script that includes command-line options to load the necessary shared objects</a></li>
206 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR141">[llvm-gcc] Bitfields & large array don't mix well</a></li>
207 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR132">[llvm-gcc] Complex division is not supported</a></li>
208 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR143">[llvm-gcc] Illegal union field reference</a></li>
209 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR148">[llvmg++] Front-end attempts to return structure by value</a></li>
210 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR152">[llvmg++] Pointer to member initializers not supported in constructors</a></li>
211 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR155">[llvm-gcc] crash on union initialization</a></li>
212 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR124">[llvm-g++] ?: expressions do not run correct number of destructors!</a></li>
213 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR157">[llvm-gcc] Pointer & constant results in invalid shift</a></li>
216 <p>At this time, LLVM is known to work properly with SPEC CPU 2000 (X86 only),
217 the Olden benchmarks, and the Ptrdist benchmarks among many other programs.
218 Note however that the Sparc and X86 backends do not currently support exception
219 throwing or long jumping (including 253.perlbmk in SPEC). For these programs,
220 you must use the C backend.</p>
224 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
225 <div class="doc_section">
226 <a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
228 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
230 <div class="doc_text">
232 <p>LLVM has been extensively tested on Intel and AMD machines running Red
233 Hat Linux, and Sun UltraSPARC workstations running Solaris 8. Additionally,
234 LLVM works on Mac OS/X 10.3 and above, but only with the C back-end (no native
235 backend for the PowerPC is available yet).
236 The core LLVM infrastructure uses "autoconf" for portability, so hopefully we
237 work on more platforms than that. However, it is likely that we
238 missed something, and that minor porting is required to get LLVM to work on
239 new platforms. We welcome portability patches and error messages.</p>
243 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
244 <div class="doc_section">
245 <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
247 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
249 <div class="doc_text">
251 <p>This section contains all known problems with the LLVM system, listed by
252 component. As new problems are discovered, they will be added to these
257 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
259 </ul><h4><a name="portability"><hr size=0>Portability Problems</h4><ul>
263 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
264 <div class="doc_subsection">
265 <a name="core">Known problems with the LLVM Core</a>
268 <div class="doc_text">
272 <li>In the JIT, <tt>dlsym</tt> on a symbol compiled by the JIT will not
275 <li>The JIT does not use mutexes to protect its internal data structures. As
276 such, execution of a threaded program could cause these data structures to be
279 <li>It is not possible to <tt>dlopen</tt> an LLVM bytecode file in the JIT.</li>
281 <li>Linking in static archive files (.a files) is very slow (there is no symbol
282 table in the archive).</li>
284 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR82">LLVM cannot handle structures with
285 more than 256 elements</a>.</li>
291 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
292 <div class="doc_subsection">
293 <a name="c-fe">Known problems with the C front-end</a>
296 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
297 <div class="doc_subsubsection">
301 <div class="doc_text">
305 <li>C99 Variable sized arrays do not release stack memory when they go out of
306 scope. Thus, the following program may run out of stack space:
308 for (i = 0; i != 1000000; ++i) {
318 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
319 <div class="doc_subsubsection">
323 <div class="doc_text">
327 <li>Inline assembly is not yet supported.</li>
329 <li>"long double" is transformed by the front-end into "double". There is no
330 support for floating point data types of any size other than 32 and 64
333 <li>The following Unix system functionality has not been tested and may not
336 <li><tt>sigsetjmp</tt>, <tt>siglongjmp</tt> - These are not turned into the
337 appropriate <tt>invoke</tt>/<tt>unwind</tt> instructions. Note that
338 <tt>setjmp</tt> and <tt>longjmp</tt> <em>are</em> compiled correctly.
339 <li><tt>getcontext</tt>, <tt>setcontext</tt>, <tt>makecontext</tt>
340 - These functions have not been tested.
343 <li>Although many GCC extensions are supported, some are not. In particular,
344 the following extensions are known to <b>not be</b> supported:
346 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Local-Labels.html#Local%20Labels">Local Labels</a>: Labels local to a block.</li>
347 <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>
348 <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>
349 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constructing-Calls.html#Constructing%20Calls">Constructing Calls</a>: Dispatching a call to another function.</li>
350 <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>
351 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constraints.html#Constraints">Constraints</a>: Constraints for asm operands</li>
352 <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>
353 <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>
354 <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>
355 <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>
356 <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>
357 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Thread-Local.html#Thread-Local">Thread-Local</a>: Per-thread variables.</li>
358 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Pragmas.html#Pragmas">Pragmas</a>: Pragmas accepted by GCC.</li>
361 <p>The following GCC extensions are <b>partially</b> supported. An ignored
362 attribute means that the LLVM compiler ignores the presence of the attribute,
363 but the code should still work. An unsupported attribute is one which is
364 ignored by the LLVM compiler, which will cause a different interpretation of
368 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Length.html#Variable%20Length">Variable Length</a>:
369 Arrays whose length is computed at run time.<br>
370 Supported, but allocated stack space is not freed until the function returns (noted above).</li>
372 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Attributes.html#Function%20Attributes">Function Attributes</a>:
374 Declaring that functions have no side effects, or that they can never
377 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>format</tt>, <tt>format_arg</tt>, <tt>non_null</tt>,
378 <tt>constructor</tt>, <tt>destructor</tt>, <tt>unused</tt>,
379 <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>warn_unused_result</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
381 <b>Ignored:</b> <tt>noreturn</tt>, <tt>noinline</tt>,
382 <tt>always_inline</tt>, <tt>pure</tt>, <tt>const</tt>, <tt>nothrow</tt>,
383 <tt>malloc</tt>, <tt>no_instrument_function</tt>, <tt>cdecl</tt><br>
385 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>used</tt>, <tt>section</tt>, <tt>alias</tt>,
386 <tt>visibility</tt>, <tt>regparm</tt>, <tt>stdcall</tt>,
387 <tt>fastcall</tt>, all other target specific attributes</li>
389 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Attributes.html#Variable%20Attributes">Variable Attributes</a>:
390 Specifying attributes of variables.<br>
391 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>cleanup</tt>, <tt>common</tt>, <tt>nocommon</tt>,
392 <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>transparent_union</tt>,
393 <tt>unused</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
395 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>mode</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>,
396 <tt>section</tt>, <tt>shared</tt>, <tt>tls_model</tt>,
397 <tt>vector_size</tt>, <tt>dllimport</tt>,
398 <tt>dllexport</tt>, all target specific attributes.</li>
400 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Type-Attributes.html#Type%20Attributes">Type Attributes</a>: Specifying attributes of types.
401 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>transparent_union</tt>, <tt>unused</tt>,
402 <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>may_alias</tt>
404 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>,
405 all target specific attributes.</li>
407 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Other-Builtins.html#Other%20Builtins">Other Builtins</a>:
408 Other built-in functions.<br>
409 We support all builtins which have a C language equivalent (e.g.,
410 <tt>__builtin_cos</tt>), <tt>__builtin_alloca</tt>,
411 <tt>__builtin_types_compatible_p</tt>, <tt>__builtin_choose_expr</tt>,
412 <tt>__builtin_constant_p</tt>, and <tt>__builtin_expect</tt> (ignored).</li>
416 <p>The following extensions <b>are</b> known to be supported:</p>
419 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Statement-Exprs.html#Statement%20Exprs">Statement Exprs</a>: Putting statements and declarations inside expressions.</li>
420 <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>
421 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Lvalues.html#Lvalues">Lvalues</a>: Using <code>?:</code>, "<code>,</code>" and casts in lvalues.</li>
422 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Conditionals.html#Conditionals">Conditionals</a>: Omitting the middle operand of a <code>?:</code> expression.</li>
423 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Long-Long.html#Long%20Long">Long Long</a>: Double-word integers.</li>
424 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Complex.html#Complex">Complex</a>: Data types for complex numbers.</li>
425 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Hex-Floats.html#Hex%20Floats">Hex Floats</a>:Hexadecimal floating-point constants.</li>
426 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html#Zero%20Length">Zero Length</a>: Zero-length arrays.</li>
427 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Empty-Structures.html#Empty%20Structures">Empty Structures</a>: Structures with no members.</li>
428 <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>
429 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Escaped-Newlines.html#Escaped%20Newlines">Escaped Newlines</a>: Slightly looser rules for escaped newlines.</li>
430 <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>
431 <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>
432 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Initializers.html#Initializers">Initializers</a>: Non-constant initializers.</li>
433 <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>
434 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Designated-Inits.html#Designated%20Inits">Designated Inits</a>: Labeling elements of initializers.</li>
435 <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>
436 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Case-Ranges.html#Case%20Ranges">Case Ranges</a>: `case 1 ... 9' and such.</li>
437 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Mixed-Declarations.html#Mixed%20Declarations">Mixed Declarations</a>: Mixing declarations and code.</li>
438 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Prototypes.html#Function%20Prototypes">Function Prototypes</a>: Prototype declarations and old-style definitions.</li>
439 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C---Comments.html#C++%20Comments">C++ Comments</a>: C++ comments are recognized.</li>
440 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Dollar-Signs.html#Dollar%20Signs">Dollar Signs</a>: Dollar sign is allowed in identifiers.</li>
441 <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>
442 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Alignment.html#Alignment">Alignment</a>: Inquiring about the alignment of a type or variable.</li>
443 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Inline.html#Inline">Inline</a>: Defining inline functions (as fast as macros).</li>
444 <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>
445 <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>
446 <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>
447 <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>
448 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Attribute-Syntax.html#Attribute%20Syntax">Attribute Syntax</a>: Formal syntax for attributes.</li>
453 <p>If you run into GCC extensions which have not been included in any of these
454 lists, please let us know (also including whether or not they work).</p>
458 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
459 <div class="doc_subsection">
460 <a name="c++-fe">Known problems with the C++ front-end</a>
463 <div class="doc_text">
465 <p>For this release, the C++ front-end is considered to be fully functional but
466 of <b>beta</b> quality. It has been tested and works for a number of simple
467 programs that collectively exercise most of the language. Nevertheless, it has
468 not been in use as long as the C front-end. Please report any bugs or
473 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
474 <div class="doc_subsubsection">
478 <div class="doc_text">
481 <li>The C++ front-end inherits all problems afflicting the <a href="#c-fe">C
487 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
488 <div class="doc_subsubsection">
492 <div class="doc_text">
496 <li>The C++ front-end is based on a pre-release of the GCC 3.4 C++ parser. This
497 parser is significantly more standards compliant (and picky) than prior GCC
498 versions. For more information, see the C++ section of the <a
499 href="http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-3.4/changes.html">GCC 3.4 release notes</a>.<p>
501 <li>Destructors for local objects are not always run when a <tt>longjmp</tt> is
502 performed. In particular, destructors for objects in the <tt>longjmp</tt>ing
503 function and in the <tt>setjmp</tt> receiver function may not be run.
504 Objects in intervening stack frames will be destroyed however (which is
505 better than most compilers).</li>
507 <li>The LLVM C++ front-end follows the <a
508 href="http://www.codesourcery.com/cxx-abi">Itanium C++ ABI</a>.
509 This document, which is not Itanium specific, specifies a standard for name
510 mangling, class layout, v-table layout, RTTI formats, and other C++
511 representation issues. Because we use this API, code generated by the LLVM
512 compilers should be binary compatible with machine code generated by other
513 Itanium ABI C++ compilers (such as G++, the Intel and HP compilers, etc).
514 <i>However</i>, the exception handling mechanism used by LLVM is very
515 different from the model used in the Itanium ABI, so <b>exceptions will not
516 interact correctly</b>. </li>
522 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
523 <div class="doc_subsection">
524 <a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a>
527 <div class="doc_text">
531 <li>The X86 code generator <a
532 href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR16">does not currently
533 support the <tt>unwind</tt> instruction</a>, so code that throws a C++ exception
534 or calls the C <tt>longjmp</tt> function will abort.</li>
540 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
541 <div class="doc_subsection">
542 <a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the Sparc back-end</a>
545 <div class="doc_text">
549 <li>The Sparc code generator <a
550 href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR15">does not currently
551 support the <tt>unwind</tt> instruction</a>, so code that throws a C++ exception
552 or calls the C <tt>longjmp</tt> function will abort.</li>
558 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
559 <div class="doc_subsection">
560 <a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
563 <div class="doc_text">
567 <li>The C back-end produces code that violates the ANSI C Type-Based Alias
568 Analysis rules. As such, special options may be necessary to compile the code
569 (for example, GCC requires the <tt>-fno-strict-aliasing</tt> option). This
570 problem probably cannot be fixed.</li>
572 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR33">Initializers for global variables</a>
573 cannot include special floating point numbers like Not-A-Number or
576 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR56">Zero arg vararg functions are not
577 supported</a>. This should not affect LLVM produced by the C or C++
580 <li>The code produces by the C back-end has only been tested with the Sun CC,
581 GCC, and Intel compilers. It is possible that it will have to be adjusted to
582 support other C compilers.</li>
588 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
589 <div class="doc_section">
590 <a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
592 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
594 <div class="doc_text">
596 <p>A wide variety of additional information is available on the LLVM web page,
597 including mailing lists publications describing algorithms and components
598 implemented in LLVM. The web page also contains versions of the API
599 documentation which is up-to-date with the CVS version of the source code. You
600 can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going into
601 the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p>
603 <p>If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact
604 us via the mailing lists.</p>
608 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
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