• Home
  • Line#
  • Scopes#
  • Navigate#
  • Raw
  • Download
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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;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 &lt;stdio.h&gt;
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 &lt; 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