1<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" 2 "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> 3<html> 4<head> 5 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> 6 <title>Getting Started with LLVM System for Microsoft Visual Studio</title> 7 <link rel="stylesheet" href="llvm.css" type="text/css"> 8</head> 9<body> 10 11<h1> 12 Getting Started with the LLVM System using Microsoft Visual Studio 13</h1> 14 15<ul> 16 <li><a href="#overview">Overview</a> 17 <li><a href="#requirements">Requirements</a> 18 <ol> 19 <li><a href="#hardware">Hardware</a> 20 <li><a href="#software">Software</a> 21 </ol></li> 22 <li><a href="#quickstart">Getting Started</a> 23 <li><a href="#tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a> 24 <li><a href="#problems">Common Problems</a> 25 <li><a href="#links">Links</a> 26</ul> 27 28<div class="doc_author"> 29 <p>Written by: <a href="http://llvm.org/">The LLVM Team</a></p> 30</div> 31 32 33<!-- *********************************************************************** --> 34<h2> 35 <a name="overview"><b>Overview</b></a> 36</h2> 37<!-- *********************************************************************** --> 38 39<div> 40 41 <p>Welcome to LLVM on Windows! This document only covers LLVM on Windows using 42 Visual Studio, not mingw or cygwin. In order to get started, you first need to 43 know some basic information.</p> 44 45 <p>There are many different projects that compose LLVM. The first is the LLVM 46 suite. This contains all of the tools, libraries, and header files needed to 47 use the low level virtual machine. It contains an assembler, disassembler, 48 bitcode analyzer and bitcode optimizer. It also contains a test suite that can 49 be used to test the LLVM tools.</p> 50 51 <p>Another useful project on Windows is 52 <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/">clang</a>. Clang is a C family 53 ([Objective]C/C++) compiler. Clang mostly works on Windows, but does not 54 currently understand all of the Microsoft extensions to C and C++. Because of 55 this, clang cannot parse the C++ standard library included with Visual Studio, 56 nor parts of the Windows Platform SDK. However, most standard C programs do 57 compile. Clang can be used to emit bitcode, directly emit object files or 58 even linked executables using Visual Studio's <tt>link.exe</tt></p> 59 60 <p>The large LLVM test suite cannot be run on the Visual Studio port at this 61 time.</p> 62 63 <p>Most of the tools build and work. <tt>bugpoint</tt> does build, but does 64 not work.</p> 65 66 <p>Additional information about the LLVM directory structure and tool chain 67 can be found on the main <a href="GettingStarted.html">Getting Started</a> 68 page.</p> 69 70</div> 71 72<!-- *********************************************************************** --> 73<h2> 74 <a name="requirements"><b>Requirements</b></a> 75</h2> 76<!-- *********************************************************************** --> 77 78<div> 79 80 <p>Before you begin to use the LLVM system, review the requirements given 81 below. This may save you some trouble by knowing ahead of time what hardware 82 and software you will need.</p> 83 84<!-- ======================================================================= --> 85<h3> 86 <a name="hardware"><b>Hardware</b></a> 87</h3> 88 89<div> 90 91 <p>Any system that can adequately run Visual Studio .NET 2005 SP1 is fine. 92 The LLVM source tree and object files, libraries and executables will consume 93 approximately 3GB.</p> 94 95</div> 96 97<!-- ======================================================================= --> 98<h3><a name="software"><b>Software</b></a></h3> 99<div> 100 101 <p>You will need Visual Studio .NET 2005 SP1 or higher. The VS2005 SP1 102 beta and the normal VS2005 still have bugs that are not completely 103 compatible. Earlier versions of Visual Studio do not support the C++ standard 104 well enough and will not work.</p> 105 106 <p>You will also need the <a href="http://www.cmake.org/">CMake</a> build 107 system since it generates the project files you will use to build with.</p> 108 109 <p>If you would like to run the LLVM tests you will need 110 <a href="http://www.python.org/">Python</a>. Versions 2.4-2.7 are known to 111 work. You will need <a href="http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/">"GnuWin32"</a> 112 tools, too.</p> 113 114 <p>Do not install the LLVM directory tree into a path containing spaces (e.g. 115 C:\Documents and Settings\...) as the configure step will fail.</p> 116 117</div> 118 119</div> 120 121<!-- *********************************************************************** --> 122<h2> 123 <a name="quickstart"><b>Getting Started</b></a> 124</h2> 125<!-- *********************************************************************** --> 126 127<div> 128 129<p>Here's the short story for getting up and running quickly with LLVM:</p> 130 131<ol> 132 <li>Read the documentation.</li> 133 <li>Seriously, read the documentation.</li> 134 <li>Remember that you were warned twice about reading the documentation.</li> 135 136 <li>Get the Source Code 137 <ul> 138 <li>With the distributed files: 139 <ol> 140 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt> 141 <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-<i>version</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf -</tt> 142 <i> or use WinZip</i> 143 <li><tt>cd llvm</tt></li> 144 </ol></li> 145 146 <li>With anonymous Subversion access: 147 <ol> 148 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt></li> 149 <li><tt>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk llvm</tt></li> 150 <li><tt>cd llvm</tt></li> 151 </ol></li> 152 </ul></li> 153 154 <li> Use <a href="http://www.cmake.org/">CMake</a> to generate up-to-date 155 project files: 156 <ul> 157 <li>Once CMake is installed then the simplest way is to just start the 158 CMake GUI, select the directory where you have LLVM extracted to, and the 159 default options should all be fine. One option you may really want to 160 change, regardless of anything else, might be the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX 161 setting to select a directory to INSTALL to once compiling is complete, 162 although installation is not mandatory for using LLVM. Another important 163 option is LLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD, which controls the LLVM target 164 architectures that are included on the build. 165 <li>See the <a href="CMake.html">LLVM CMake guide</a> for 166 detailed information about how to configure the LLVM 167 build.</li> 168 </ul> 169 </li> 170 171 <li>Start Visual Studio 172 <ul> 173 <li>In the directory you created the project files will have 174 an <tt>llvm.sln</tt> file, just double-click on that to open 175 Visual Studio.</li> 176 </ul></li> 177 178 <li>Build the LLVM Suite: 179 <ul> 180 <li>The projects may still be built individually, but 181 to build them all do not just select all of them in batch build (as some 182 are meant as configuration projects), but rather select and build just 183 the ALL_BUILD project to build everything, or the INSTALL project, which 184 first builds the ALL_BUILD project, then installs the LLVM headers, libs, 185 and other useful things to the directory set by the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX 186 setting when you first configured CMake.</li> 187 <li>The Fibonacci project is a sample program that uses the JIT. 188 Modify the project's debugging properties to provide a numeric 189 command line argument or run it from the command line. The 190 program will print the corresponding fibonacci value.</li> 191 </ul></li> 192 193 <li>Test LLVM on Visual Studio: 194 <ul> 195 <li>If %PATH% does not contain GnuWin32, you may specify LLVM_LIT_TOOLS_DIR 196 on CMake for the path to GnuWin32.</li> 197 <li>You can run LLVM tests by merely building the project 198 "check". The test results will be shown in the VS output 199 window.</li> 200 </ul> 201 </li> 202 203 <!-- FIXME: Is it up-to-date? --> 204 <li>Test LLVM: 205 <ul> 206 <li>The LLVM tests can be run by <tt>cd</tt>ing to the llvm source directory 207 and running: 208 209<div class="doc_code"> 210<pre> 211% llvm-lit test 212</pre> 213</div> 214 215 <p>Note that quite a few of these test will fail.</p> 216 </li> 217 218 <li>A specific test or test directory can be run with: 219 220<div class="doc_code"> 221<pre> 222% llvm-lit test/path/to/test 223</pre> 224</div> 225 </li> 226 </ul> 227</ol> 228 229</div> 230 231<!-- *********************************************************************** --> 232<h2> 233 <a name="tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a> 234</h2> 235<!-- *********************************************************************** --> 236 237<div> 238 239<ol> 240 <li><p>First, create a simple C file, name it 'hello.c':</p> 241 242<div class="doc_code"> 243<pre> 244#include <stdio.h> 245int main() { 246 printf("hello world\n"); 247 return 0; 248} 249</pre></div></li> 250 251 <li><p>Next, compile the C file into a LLVM bitcode file:</p> 252 253<div class="doc_code"> 254<pre> 255% clang -c hello.c -emit-llvm -o hello.bc 256</pre> 257</div> 258 259 <p>This will create the result file <tt>hello.bc</tt> which is the LLVM 260 bitcode that corresponds the the compiled program and the library 261 facilities that it required. You can execute this file directly using 262 <tt>lli</tt> tool, compile it to native assembly with the <tt>llc</tt>, 263 optimize or analyze it further with the <tt>opt</tt> tool, etc.</p> 264 265 <p>Alternatively you can directly output an executable with clang with: 266 </p> 267 268<div class="doc_code"> 269<pre> 270% clang hello.c -o hello.exe 271</pre> 272</div> 273 274 <p>The <tt>-o hello.exe</tt> is required because clang currently outputs 275 <tt>a.out</tt> when neither <tt>-o</tt> nor <tt>-c</tt> are given.</p> 276 277 <li><p>Run the program using the just-in-time compiler:</p> 278 279<div class="doc_code"> 280<pre> 281% lli hello.bc 282</pre> 283</div> 284 285 <li><p>Use the <tt>llvm-dis</tt> utility to take a look at the LLVM assembly 286 code:</p> 287 288<div class="doc_code"> 289<pre> 290% llvm-dis < hello.bc | more 291</pre> 292</div></li> 293 294 <li><p>Compile the program to object code using the LLC code generator:</p> 295 296<div class="doc_code"> 297<pre> 298% llc -filetype=obj hello.bc 299</pre> 300</div></li> 301 302 <li><p>Link to binary using Microsoft link:</p> 303 304<div class="doc_code"> 305<pre> 306% link hello.obj -defaultlib:libcmt 307</pre> 308</div> 309 310 <li><p>Execute the native code program:</p> 311 312<div class="doc_code"> 313<pre> 314% hello.exe 315</pre> 316</div></li> 317</ol> 318 319</div> 320 321<!-- *********************************************************************** --> 322<h2> 323 <a name="problems">Common Problems</a> 324</h2> 325<!-- *********************************************************************** --> 326 327<div> 328 329<p>If you are having problems building or using LLVM, or if you have any other 330general questions about LLVM, please consult the <a href="FAQ.html">Frequently 331Asked Questions</a> page.</p> 332 333</div> 334 335<!-- *********************************************************************** --> 336<h2> 337 <a name="links">Links</a> 338</h2> 339<!-- *********************************************************************** --> 340 341<div> 342 343<p>This document is just an <b>introduction</b> to how to use LLVM to do 344some simple things... there are many more interesting and complicated things 345that you can do that aren't documented here (but we'll gladly accept a patch 346if you want to write something up!). For more information about LLVM, check 347out:</p> 348 349<ul> 350 <li><a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM homepage</a></li> 351 <li><a href="http://llvm.org/doxygen/">LLVM doxygen tree</a></li> 352</ul> 353 354</div> 355 356<!-- *********************************************************************** --> 357 358<hr> 359<address> 360 <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img 361 src="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/images/vcss-blue" alt="Valid CSS"></a> 362 <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img 363 src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401-blue" alt="Valid HTML 4.01"></a> 364 365 <a href="http://llvm.org/">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br> 366 Last modified: $Date: 2011-04-22 20:30:22 -0400 (Fri, 22 Apr 2011) $ 367</address> 368</body> 369</html> 370