• 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</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
13</h1>
14
15<ul>
16  <li><a href="#overview">Overview</a>
17  <li><a href="#quickstart">Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</a>
18  <li><a href="#requirements">Requirements</a>
19    <ol>
20      <li><a href="#hardware">Hardware</a></li>
21      <li><a href="#software">Software</a></li>
22      <li><a href="#brokengcc">Broken versions of GCC and other tools</a></li>
23    </ol></li>
24
25  <li><a href="#starting">Getting Started with LLVM</a>
26    <ol>
27      <li><a href="#terminology">Terminology and Notation</a></li>
28      <li><a href="#environment">Setting Up Your Environment</a></li>
29      <li><a href="#unpack">Unpacking the LLVM Archives</a></li>
30      <li><a href="#checkout">Checkout LLVM from Subversion</a></li>
31      <li><a href="#git_mirror">LLVM GIT mirror</a></li>
32      <li><a href="#config">Local LLVM Configuration</a></li>
33      <li><a href="#compile">Compiling the LLVM Suite Source Code</a></li>
34      <li><a href="#cross-compile">Cross-Compiling LLVM</a></li>
35      <li><a href="#objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a></li>
36      <li><a href="#optionalconfig">Optional Configuration Items</a></li>
37    </ol></li>
38
39  <li><a href="#layout">Program layout</a>
40    <ol>
41      <li><a href="#examples"><tt>llvm/examples</tt></a></li>
42      <li><a href="#include"><tt>llvm/include</tt></a></li>
43      <li><a href="#lib"><tt>llvm/lib</tt></a></li>
44      <li><a href="#projects"><tt>llvm/projects</tt></a></li>
45      <li><a href="#runtime"><tt>llvm/runtime</tt></a></li>
46      <li><a href="#test"><tt>llvm/test</tt></a></li>
47      <li><a href="#test-suite"><tt>test-suite</tt></a></li>
48      <li><a href="#tools"><tt>llvm/tools</tt></a></li>
49      <li><a href="#utils"><tt>llvm/utils</tt></a></li>
50    </ol></li>
51
52  <li><a href="#tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
53      <ol>
54         <li><a href="#tutorial4">Example with Clang</a></li>
55      </ol>
56  <li><a href="#problems">Common Problems</a>
57  <li><a href="#links">Links</a>
58</ul>
59
60<div class="doc_author">
61  <p>Written by:
62    <a href="mailto:criswell@uiuc.edu">John Criswell</a>,
63    <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a>,
64    <a href="http://misha.brukman.net/">Misha Brukman</a>,
65    <a href="http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/~vadve">Vikram Adve</a>, and
66    <a href="mailto:gshi1@uiuc.edu">Guochun Shi</a>.
67  </p>
68</div>
69
70
71<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
72<h2>
73  <a name="overview">Overview</a>
74</h2>
75<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
76
77<div>
78
79<p>Welcome to LLVM! In order to get started, you first need to know some
80basic information.</p>
81
82<p>First, LLVM comes in three pieces. The first piece is the LLVM
83suite. This contains all of the tools, libraries, and header files
84needed to use LLVM.  It contains an assembler, disassembler, bitcode
85analyzer and bitcode optimizer.  It also contains basic regression tests that
86can be used to test the LLVM tools and the Clang front end.</p>
87
88<p>The second piece is the <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/">Clang</a> front end.
89This component compiles C, C++, Objective C, and Objective C++ code into LLVM
90bitcode. Once compiled into LLVM bitcode, a program can be manipulated with the
91LLVM tools from the LLVM suite.
92</p>
93
94<p>
95There is a third, optional piece called Test Suite.  It is a suite of programs
96with a testing harness that can be used to further test LLVM's functionality
97and performance.
98</p>
99
100</div>
101
102<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
103<h2>
104  <a name="quickstart">Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</a>
105</h2>
106<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
107
108<div>
109
110<p>The LLVM Getting Started documentation may be out of date.  So, the Clang
111<a href="http://clang.llvm.org/get_started.html">Getting Started</a> page might
112also be a good place to start.</p>
113
114<p>Here's the short story for getting up and running quickly with LLVM:</p>
115
116<ol>
117  <li>Read the documentation.</li>
118  <li>Read the documentation.</li>
119  <li>Remember that you were warned twice about reading the documentation.</li>
120
121  <li>Checkout LLVM:
122  <ul>
123    <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
124    <li><tt>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk llvm</tt></li>
125  </ul>
126  </li>
127
128  <li>Checkout Clang:
129  <ul>
130    <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
131    <li><tt>cd llvm/tools</tt>
132    <li><tt>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/cfe/trunk clang</tt></li>
133  </ul>
134  </li>
135
136  <li>Checkout Compiler-RT:
137  <ul>
138    <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
139    <li><tt>cd llvm/projects</tt>
140    <li><tt>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/compiler-rt/trunk
141        compiler-rt</tt></li>
142  </ul>
143  </li>
144
145  <li>Get the Test Suite Source Code <b>[Optional]</b>
146  <ul>
147    <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
148    <li><tt>cd llvm/projects</tt>
149    <li><tt>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/test-suite/trunk test-suite</tt></li>
150  </ul>
151  </li>
152
153  <li>Configure and build LLVM and Clang:
154  <ul>
155    <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-to-build-llvm</i></tt></li>
156    <li><tt>mkdir build</tt> (for building without polluting the source dir)</li>
157    <li><tt>cd build</tt></li>
158    <li><tt>../llvm/configure [options]</tt>
159    <br>Some common options:
160
161      <ul>
162        <li><tt>--prefix=<i>directory</i></tt> -
163        Specify for <i>directory</i> the full pathname of where you
164        want the LLVM tools and libraries to be installed (default
165        <tt>/usr/local</tt>).</li>
166      </ul>
167
168      <ul>
169        <li><tt>--enable-optimized</tt> -
170        Compile with optimizations enabled (default is NO).</li>
171      </ul>
172
173      <ul>
174        <li><tt>--enable-assertions</tt> -
175        Compile with assertion checks enabled (default is YES).</li>
176      </ul>
177   </li>
178    <li><tt>make [-j]</tt> - The -j specifies the number of jobs (commands) to
179    run simultaneously.  This builds both LLVM and Clang for Debug+Asserts mode.
180    The --enabled-optimized configure option is used to specify a Release build.</li>
181    <li><tt>make check-all</tt> -
182    This run the regression tests to ensure everything is in working order.</li>
183    <li><tt>make update</tt> -
184    This command is used to update all the svn repositories at once, rather then
185    having to <tt>cd</tt> into the individual repositories and running
186    <tt>svn update</tt>.</li>
187    <li>It is also possible to use CMake instead of the makefiles. With CMake
188    it is also possible to generate project files for several IDEs: Eclipse
189    CDT4, CodeBlocks, Qt-Creator (use the CodeBlocks generator), KDevelop3.</li>
190    <li>If you get an "internal compiler error (ICE)" or test failures, see
191        <a href="#brokengcc">below</a>.</li>
192
193  </ul>
194  </li>
195
196</ol>
197
198<p>Consult the <a href="#starting">Getting Started with LLVM</a> section for
199detailed information on configuring and compiling LLVM.  See <a
200href="#environment">Setting Up Your Environment</a> for tips that simplify
201working with the Clang front end and LLVM tools.  Go to <a href="#layout">Program
202Layout</a> to learn about the layout of the source code tree.</p>
203
204</div>
205
206<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
207<h2>
208  <a name="requirements">Requirements</a>
209</h2>
210<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
211
212<div>
213
214<p>Before you begin to use the LLVM system, review the requirements given below.
215This may save you some trouble by knowing ahead of time what hardware and
216software you will need.</p>
217
218<!-- ======================================================================= -->
219<h3>
220  <a name="hardware">Hardware</a>
221</h3>
222
223<div>
224
225<p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:</p>
226
227<table cellpadding="3" summary="Known LLVM platforms">
228<tr>
229  <th>OS</th>
230  <th>Arch</th>
231  <th>Compilers</th>
232</tr>
233<tr>
234  <td>AuroraUX</td>
235  <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
236  <td>GCC</td>
237</tr>
238<tr>
239  <td>Linux</td>
240  <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
241  <td>GCC</td>
242</tr>
243<tr>
244  <td>Linux</td>
245  <td>amd64</td>
246  <td>GCC</td>
247</tr>
248<tr>
249  <td>Solaris</td>
250  <td>V9 (Ultrasparc)</td>
251  <td>GCC</td>
252</tr>
253<tr>
254  <td>FreeBSD</td>
255  <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
256  <td>GCC</td>
257</tr>
258<tr>
259  <td>FreeBSD</td>
260  <td>amd64</td>
261  <td>GCC</td>
262</tr>
263<tr>
264  <td>MacOS X<sup><a href="#pf_2">2</a></sup></td>
265  <td>PowerPC</td>
266  <td>GCC</td>
267</tr>
268<tr>
269  <td>MacOS X<sup><a href="#pf_2">2</a>,<a href="#pf_9">9</a></sup></td>
270  <td>x86</td>
271  <td>GCC</td>
272</tr>
273<tr>
274  <td>Cygwin/Win32</td>
275  <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a>,<a href="#pf_8">8</a>,
276     <a href="#pf_11">11</a></sup></td>
277  <td>GCC 3.4.X, binutils 2.20</td>
278</tr>
279<tr>
280  <td>MinGW/Win32</td>
281  <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a>,<a href="#pf_6">6</a>,
282     <a href="#pf_8">8</a>, <a href="#pf_10">10</a>,
283     <a href="#pf_11">11</a></sup></td>
284  <td>GCC 3.4.X, binutils 2.20</td>
285</tr>
286</table>
287
288<p>LLVM has partial support for the following platforms:</p>
289
290<table summary="LLVM partial platform support">
291<tr>
292  <th>OS</th>
293  <th>Arch</th>
294  <th>Compilers</th>
295</tr>
296<tr>
297  <td>Windows</td>
298  <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
299  <td>Visual Studio 2008 or higher<sup><a href="#pf_4">4</a>,<a href="#pf_5">5</a></sup></td>
300<tr>
301  <td>AIX<sup><a href="#pf_3">3</a>,<a href="#pf_4">4</a></sup></td>
302  <td>PowerPC</td>
303  <td>GCC</td>
304</tr>
305<tr>
306  <td>Linux<sup><a href="#pf_3">3</a>,<a href="#pf_5">5</a></sup></td>
307  <td>PowerPC</td>
308  <td>GCC</td>
309</tr>
310
311<tr>
312  <td>Linux<sup><a href="#pf_7">7</a></sup></td>
313  <td>Alpha</td>
314  <td>GCC</td>
315</tr>
316<tr>
317  <td>Linux<sup><a href="#pf_7">7</a></sup></td>
318  <td>Itanium (IA-64)</td>
319  <td>GCC</td>
320</tr>
321<tr>
322  <td>HP-UX<sup><a href="#pf_7">7</a></sup></td>
323  <td>Itanium (IA-64)</td>
324  <td>HP aCC</td>
325</tr>
326<tr>
327  <td>Windows x64</td>
328  <td>x86-64</td>
329  <td>mingw-w64's GCC-4.5.x<sup><a href="#pf_12">12</a></sup></td>
330</tr>
331</table>
332
333<p><b>Notes:</b></p>
334
335<div class="doc_notes">
336<ol>
337<li><a name="pf_1">Code generation supported for Pentium processors and
338up</a></li>
339<li><a name="pf_2">Code generation supported for 32-bit ABI only</a></li>
340<li><a name="pf_3">No native code generation</a></li>
341<li><a name="pf_4">Build is not complete: one or more tools do not link or function</a></li>
342<li><a name="pf_5">The GCC-based C/C++ frontend does not build</a></li>
343<li><a name="pf_6">The port is done using the MSYS shell.</a></li>
344<li><a name="pf_7">Native code generation exists but is not complete.</a></li>
345<li><a name="pf_8">Binutils 2.20 or later is required to build the assembler
346    generated by LLVM properly.</a></li>
347<li><a name="pf_9">XCode 2.5 and gcc 4.0.1</a> (Apple Build 5370) will trip
348    internal LLVM assert messages when compiled for Release at optimization
349    levels greater than 0 (i.e., <i>"-O1"</i> and higher).
350    Add <i>OPTIMIZE_OPTION="-O0"</i> to the build command line
351    if compiling for LLVM Release or bootstrapping the LLVM toolchain.</li>
352<li><a name="pf_10">For MSYS/MinGW on Windows, be sure to install the MSYS
353    version of the perl package, and be sure it appears in your path
354    before any Windows-based versions such as Strawberry Perl and
355    ActivePerl, as these have Windows-specifics that will cause the
356    build to fail.</a></li>
357<li><a name="pf_11">To use LLVM modules on Win32-based system,
358    you may configure LLVM with <i>&quot;--enable-shared&quot;</i>.</a></li>
359<li><a name="pf_12">To compile SPU backend, you need to add
360    <tt>&quot;LDFLAGS=-Wl,--stack,16777216&quot;</tt> to configure.</a></li>
361</ol>
362</div>
363
364<p>Note that you will need about 1-3 GB of space for a full LLVM build in Debug
365mode, depending on the system (it is so large because of all the debugging
366information and the fact that the libraries are statically linked into multiple
367tools).  If you do not need many of the tools and you are space-conscious, you
368can pass <tt>ONLY_TOOLS="tools you need"</tt> to make.  The Release build
369requires considerably less space.</p>
370
371<p>The LLVM suite <i>may</i> compile on other platforms, but it is not
372guaranteed to do so.  If compilation is successful, the LLVM utilities should be
373able to assemble, disassemble, analyze, and optimize LLVM bitcode.  Code
374generation should work as well, although the generated native code may not work
375on your platform.</p>
376
377</div>
378
379<!-- ======================================================================= -->
380<h3>
381  <a name="software">Software</a>
382</h3>
383<div>
384  <p>Compiling LLVM requires that you have several software packages
385  installed. The table below lists those required packages. The Package column
386  is the usual name for the software package that LLVM depends on. The Version
387  column provides "known to work" versions of the package. The Notes column
388  describes how LLVM uses the package and provides other details.</p>
389  <table summary="Packages required to compile LLVM">
390    <tr><th>Package</th><th>Version</th><th>Notes</th></tr>
391
392    <tr>
393      <td><a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/make">GNU Make</a></td>
394      <td>3.79, 3.79.1</td>
395      <td>Makefile/build processor</td>
396    </tr>
397
398    <tr>
399      <td><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/">GCC</a></td>
400      <td>3.4.2</td>
401      <td>C/C++ compiler<sup><a href="#sf1">1</a></sup></td>
402    </tr>
403
404    <tr>
405      <td><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/">TeXinfo</a></td>
406      <td>4.5</td>
407      <td>For building the CFE</td>
408    </tr>
409
410    <tr>
411      <td><a href="http://subversion.tigris.org/project_packages.html">SVN</a></td>
412      <td>&ge;1.3</td>
413      <td>Subversion access to LLVM<sup><a href="#sf2">2</a></sup></td>
414    </tr>
415
416    <!-- FIXME:
417    Do we support dg?
418    Are DejaGnu and expect obsolete?
419    Shall we mention Python? -->
420
421    <tr>
422      <td><a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/dejagnu">DejaGnu</a></td>
423      <td>1.4.2</td>
424      <td>Automated test suite<sup><a href="#sf3">3</a></sup></td>
425    </tr>
426
427    <tr>
428      <td><a href="http://www.tcl.tk/software/tcltk/">tcl</a></td>
429      <td>8.3, 8.4</td>
430      <td>Automated test suite<sup><a href="#sf3">3</a></sup></td>
431    </tr>
432
433    <tr>
434      <td><a href="http://expect.nist.gov/">expect</a></td>
435      <td>5.38.0</td>
436      <td>Automated test suite<sup><a href="#sf3">3</a></sup></td>
437    </tr>
438
439    <tr>
440      <td><a href="http://www.perl.com/download.csp">perl</a></td>
441      <td>&ge;5.6.0</td>
442      <td>Utilities</td>
443    </tr>
444
445    <tr>
446      <td><a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/m4">GNU M4</a>
447      <td>1.4</td>
448      <td>Macro processor for configuration<sup><a href="#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
449    </tr>
450
451    <tr>
452      <td><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/">GNU Autoconf</a></td>
453      <td>2.60</td>
454      <td>Configuration script builder<sup><a href="#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
455    </tr>
456
457    <tr>
458      <td><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/">GNU Automake</a></td>
459      <td>1.9.6</td>
460      <td>aclocal macro generator<sup><a href="#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
461    </tr>
462
463    <tr>
464      <td><a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/libtool">libtool</a></td>
465      <td>1.5.22</td>
466      <td>Shared library manager<sup><a href="#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
467    </tr>
468
469  </table>
470
471  <p><b>Notes:</b></p>
472  <div class="doc_notes">
473  <ol>
474    <li><a name="sf1">Only the C and C++ languages are needed so there's no
475      need to build the other languages for LLVM's purposes.</a> See
476      <a href="#brokengcc">below</a> for specific version info.</li>
477    <li><a name="sf2">You only need Subversion if you intend to build from the
478      latest LLVM sources. If you're working from a release distribution, you
479      don't need Subversion.</a></li>
480    <li><a name="sf3">Only needed if you want to run the automated test
481      suite in the <tt>llvm/test</tt> directory.</a></li>
482    <li><a name="sf4">If you want to make changes to the configure scripts,
483      you will need GNU autoconf (2.60), and consequently, GNU M4 (version 1.4
484      or higher). You will also need automake (1.9.6). We only use aclocal
485      from that package.</a></li>
486  </ol>
487  </div>
488
489  <p>Additionally, your compilation host is expected to have the usual
490  plethora of Unix utilities. Specifically:</p>
491  <ul>
492    <li><b>ar</b> - archive library builder</li>
493    <li><b>bzip2*</b> - bzip2 command for distribution generation</li>
494    <li><b>bunzip2*</b> - bunzip2 command for distribution checking</li>
495    <li><b>chmod</b> - change permissions on a file</li>
496    <li><b>cat</b> - output concatenation utility</li>
497    <li><b>cp</b> - copy files</li>
498    <li><b>date</b> - print the current date/time </li>
499    <li><b>echo</b> - print to standard output</li>
500    <li><b>egrep</b> - extended regular expression search utility</li>
501    <li><b>find</b> - find files/dirs in a file system</li>
502    <li><b>grep</b> - regular expression search utility</li>
503    <li><b>gzip*</b> - gzip command for distribution generation</li>
504    <li><b>gunzip*</b> - gunzip command for distribution checking</li>
505    <li><b>install</b> - install directories/files </li>
506    <li><b>mkdir</b> - create a directory</li>
507    <li><b>mv</b> - move (rename) files</li>
508    <li><b>ranlib</b> - symbol table builder for archive libraries</li>
509    <li><b>rm</b> - remove (delete) files and directories</li>
510    <li><b>sed</b> - stream editor for transforming output</li>
511    <li><b>sh</b> - Bourne shell for make build scripts</li>
512    <li><b>tar</b> - tape archive for distribution generation</li>
513    <li><b>test</b> - test things in file system</li>
514    <li><b>unzip*</b> - unzip command for distribution checking</li>
515    <li><b>zip*</b> - zip command for distribution generation</li>
516  </ul>
517</div>
518
519<!-- ======================================================================= -->
520<h3>
521  <a name="brokengcc">Broken versions of GCC and other tools</a>
522</h3>
523
524<div>
525
526<p>LLVM is very demanding of the host C++ compiler, and as such tends to expose
527bugs in the compiler.  In particular, several versions of GCC crash when trying
528to compile LLVM.  We routinely use GCC 4.2 (and higher) or Clang.
529Other versions of GCC will probably work as well.  GCC versions listed
530here are known to not work.  If you are using one of these versions, please try
531to upgrade your GCC to something more recent.  If you run into a problem with a
532version of GCC not listed here, please <a href="mailto:llvmdev@cs.uiuc.edu">let
533us know</a>.  Please use the "<tt>gcc -v</tt>" command to find out which version
534of GCC you are using.
535</p>
536
537<p><b>GCC versions prior to 3.0</b>: GCC 2.96.x and before had several
538problems in the STL that effectively prevent it from compiling LLVM.
539</p>
540
541<p><b>GCC 3.2.2 and 3.2.3</b>: These versions of GCC fails to compile LLVM with
542a bogus template error.  This was fixed in later GCCs.</p>
543
544<p><b>GCC 3.3.2</b>: This version of GCC suffered from a <a
545href="http://gcc.gnu.org/PR13392">serious bug</a> which causes it to crash in
546the "<tt>convert_from_eh_region_ranges_1</tt>" GCC function.</p>
547
548<p><b>Cygwin GCC 3.3.3</b>: The version of GCC 3.3.3 commonly shipped with
549   Cygwin does not work.</p>
550<p><b>SuSE GCC 3.3.3</b>: The version of GCC 3.3.3 shipped with SuSE 9.1 (and
551   possibly others) does not compile LLVM correctly (it appears that exception
552   handling is broken in some cases).  Please download the FSF 3.3.3 or upgrade
553   to a newer version of GCC.</p>
554<p><b>GCC 3.4.0 on linux/x86 (32-bit)</b>: GCC miscompiles portions of the
555   code generator, causing an infinite loop in the llvm-gcc build when built
556   with optimizations enabled (i.e. a release build).</p>
557<p><b>GCC 3.4.2 on linux/x86 (32-bit)</b>: GCC miscompiles portions of the
558   code generator at -O3, as with 3.4.0.  However gcc 3.4.2 (unlike 3.4.0)
559   correctly compiles LLVM at -O2.  A work around is to build release LLVM
560   builds with "make ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 OPTIMIZE_OPTION=-O2 ..."</p>
561<p><b>GCC 3.4.x on X86-64/amd64</b>: GCC <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1056">
562   miscompiles portions of LLVM</a>.</p>
563<p><b>GCC 3.4.4 (CodeSourcery ARM 2005q3-2)</b>: this compiler miscompiles LLVM
564   when building with optimizations enabled.  It appears to work with
565   "<tt>make ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 OPTIMIZE_OPTION=-O1</tt>" or build a debug
566   build.</p>
567<p><b>IA-64 GCC 4.0.0</b>: The IA-64 version of GCC 4.0.0 is known to
568   miscompile LLVM.</p>
569<p><b>Apple Xcode 2.3</b>: GCC crashes when compiling LLVM at -O3 (which is the
570   default with ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1.  To work around this, build with
571   "ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 OPTIMIZE_OPTION=-O2".</p>
572<p><b>GCC 4.1.1</b>: GCC fails to build LLVM with template concept check errors
573      compiling some files.  At the time of this writing, GCC mainline (4.2)
574      did not share the problem.</p>
575<p><b>GCC 4.1.1 on X86-64/amd64</b>: GCC <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1063">
576   miscompiles portions of LLVM</a> when compiling llvm itself into 64-bit
577   code.  LLVM will appear to mostly work but will be buggy, e.g. failing
578   portions of its testsuite.</p>
579<p><b>GCC 4.1.2 on OpenSUSE</b>: Seg faults during libstdc++ build and on x86_64
580platforms compiling md5.c gets a mangled constant.</p>
581<p><b>GCC 4.1.2 (20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)) on Debian</b>: Appears
582to miscompile parts of LLVM 2.4. One symptom is ValueSymbolTable complaining
583about symbols remaining in the table on destruction.</p>
584<p><b>GCC 4.1.2 20071124 (Red Hat 4.1.2-42)</b>: Suffers from the same symptoms
585as the previous one. It appears to work with ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=0 (the default).</p>
586<p><b>Cygwin GCC 4.3.2 20080827 (beta) 2</b>:
587  Users <a href="http://llvm.org/PR4145">reported</a> various problems related
588  with link errors when using this GCC version.</p>
589<p><b>Debian GCC 4.3.2 on X86</b>: Crashes building some files in LLVM 2.6.</p>
590<p><b>GCC 4.3.3 (Debian 4.3.3-10) on ARM</b>: Miscompiles parts of LLVM 2.6
591when optimizations are turned on. The symptom is an infinite loop in
592FoldingSetImpl::RemoveNode while running the code generator.</p>
593<p><b>GCC 4.3.5 and GCC 4.4.5 on ARM</b>: These can miscompile <tt>value >>
5941</tt> even at -O0. A test failure in <tt>test/Assembler/alignstack.ll</tt> is
595one symptom of the problem.
596<p><b>GNU ld 2.16.X</b>. Some 2.16.X versions of the ld linker will produce very
597long warning messages complaining that some ".gnu.linkonce.t.*" symbol was
598defined in a discarded section. You can safely ignore these messages as they are
599erroneous and the linkage is correct.  These messages disappear using ld
6002.17.</p>
601
602<p><b>GNU binutils 2.17</b>: Binutils 2.17 contains <a
603href="http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3111">a bug</a> which
604causes huge link times (minutes instead of seconds) when building LLVM.  We
605recommend upgrading to a newer version (2.17.50.0.4 or later).</p>
606
607<p><b>GNU Binutils 2.19.1 Gold</b>: This version of Gold contained
608<a href="http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=9836">a bug</a>
609which causes intermittent failures when building LLVM with position independent
610code.  The symptom is an error about cyclic dependencies.  We recommend
611upgrading to a newer version of Gold.</p>
612
613</div>
614
615</div>
616
617<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
618<h2>
619  <a name="starting">Getting Started with LLVM</a>
620</h2>
621<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
622
623<div>
624
625<p>The remainder of this guide is meant to get you up and running with
626LLVM and to give you some basic information about the LLVM environment.</p>
627
628<p>The later sections of this guide describe the <a
629href="#layout">general layout</a> of the the LLVM source tree, a <a
630href="#tutorial">simple example</a> using the LLVM tool chain, and <a
631href="#links">links</a> to find more information about LLVM or to get
632help via e-mail.</p>
633
634<!-- ======================================================================= -->
635<h3>
636  <a name="terminology">Terminology and Notation</a>
637</h3>
638
639<div>
640
641<p>Throughout this manual, the following names are used to denote paths
642specific to the local system and working environment.  <i>These are not
643environment variables you need to set but just strings used in the rest
644of this document below</i>.  In any of the examples below, simply replace
645each of these names with the appropriate pathname on your local system.
646All these paths are absolute:</p>
647
648<dl>
649    <dt>SRC_ROOT
650    <dd>
651    This is the top level directory of the LLVM source tree.
652    <br><br>
653
654    <dt>OBJ_ROOT
655    <dd>
656    This is the top level directory of the LLVM object tree (i.e. the
657    tree where object files and compiled programs will be placed.  It
658    can be the same as SRC_ROOT).
659    <br><br>
660
661</dl>
662
663</div>
664
665<!-- ======================================================================= -->
666<h3>
667  <a name="environment">Setting Up Your Environment</a>
668</h3>
669
670<div>
671
672<p>
673In order to compile and use LLVM, you may need to set some environment
674variables.
675
676<dl>
677  <dt><tt>LLVM_LIB_SEARCH_PATH</tt>=<tt>/path/to/your/bitcode/libs</tt></dt>
678  <dd>[Optional] This environment variable helps LLVM linking tools find the
679  locations of your bitcode libraries. It is provided only as a
680  convenience since you can specify the paths using the -L options of the
681  tools and the C/C++ front-end will automatically use the bitcode files
682  installed in its
683  <tt>lib</tt> directory.</dd>
684</dl>
685
686</div>
687
688<!-- ======================================================================= -->
689<h3>
690  <a name="unpack">Unpacking the LLVM Archives</a>
691</h3>
692
693<div>
694
695<p>
696If you have the LLVM distribution, you will need to unpack it before you
697can begin to compile it.  LLVM is distributed as a set of two files: the LLVM
698suite and the LLVM GCC front end compiled for your platform.  There is an
699additional test suite that is optional.  Each file is a TAR archive that is
700compressed with the gzip program.
701</p>
702
703<p>The files are as follows, with <em>x.y</em> marking the version number:
704<dl>
705  <dt><tt>llvm-x.y.tar.gz</tt></dt>
706  <dd>Source release for the LLVM libraries and tools.<br></dd>
707
708  <dt><tt>llvm-test-x.y.tar.gz</tt></dt>
709  <dd>Source release for the LLVM test-suite.</dd>
710
711  <dt><tt>llvm-gcc-4.2-x.y.source.tar.gz</tt></dt>
712  <dd>Source release of the llvm-gcc-4.2 front end.  See README.LLVM in the root
713      directory for build instructions.<br></dd>
714
715  <dt><tt>llvm-gcc-4.2-x.y-platform.tar.gz</tt></dt>
716  <dd>Binary release of the llvm-gcc-4.2 front end for a specific platform.<br></dd>
717
718</dl>
719
720</div>
721
722<!-- ======================================================================= -->
723<h3>
724  <a name="checkout">Checkout LLVM from Subversion</a>
725</h3>
726
727<div>
728
729<p>If you have access to our Subversion repository, you can get a fresh copy of
730the entire source code.  All you need to do is check it out from Subversion as
731follows:</p>
732
733<ul>
734  <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt></li>
735  <li>Read-Only: <tt>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk llvm</tt></li>
736  <li>Read-Write:<tt>svn co https://user@llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk
737    llvm</tt></li>
738</ul>
739
740
741<p>This will create an '<tt>llvm</tt>' directory in the current
742directory and fully populate it with the LLVM source code, Makefiles,
743test directories, and local copies of documentation files.</p>
744
745<p>If you want to get a specific release (as opposed to the most recent
746revision), you can checkout it from the '<tt>tags</tt>' directory (instead of
747'<tt>trunk</tt>'). The following releases are located in the following
748subdirectories of the '<tt>tags</tt>' directory:</p>
749
750<ul>
751<li>Release 2.9: <b>RELEASE_29/final</b></li>
752<li>Release 2.8: <b>RELEASE_28</b></li>
753<li>Release 2.7: <b>RELEASE_27</b></li>
754<li>Release 2.6: <b>RELEASE_26</b></li>
755<li>Release 2.5: <b>RELEASE_25</b></li>
756<li>Release 2.4: <b>RELEASE_24</b></li>
757<li>Release 2.3: <b>RELEASE_23</b></li>
758<li>Release 2.2: <b>RELEASE_22</b></li>
759<li>Release 2.1: <b>RELEASE_21</b></li>
760<li>Release 2.0: <b>RELEASE_20</b></li>
761<li>Release 1.9: <b>RELEASE_19</b></li>
762<li>Release 1.8: <b>RELEASE_18</b></li>
763<li>Release 1.7: <b>RELEASE_17</b></li>
764<li>Release 1.6: <b>RELEASE_16</b></li>
765<li>Release 1.5: <b>RELEASE_15</b></li>
766<li>Release 1.4: <b>RELEASE_14</b></li>
767<li>Release 1.3: <b>RELEASE_13</b></li>
768<li>Release 1.2: <b>RELEASE_12</b></li>
769<li>Release 1.1: <b>RELEASE_11</b></li>
770<li>Release 1.0: <b>RELEASE_1</b></li>
771</ul>
772
773<p>If you would like to get the LLVM test suite (a separate package as of 1.4),
774you get it from the Subversion repository:</p>
775
776<div class="doc_code">
777<pre>
778% cd llvm/projects
779% svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/test-suite/trunk test-suite
780</pre>
781</div>
782
783<p>By placing it in the <tt>llvm/projects</tt>, it will be automatically
784configured by the LLVM configure script as well as automatically updated when
785you run <tt>svn update</tt>.</p>
786
787</div>
788
789<!-- ======================================================================= -->
790<h3>
791  <a name="git_mirror">GIT mirror</a>
792</h3>
793
794<div>
795
796<p>GIT mirrors are available for a number of LLVM subprojects. These mirrors
797  sync automatically with each Subversion commit and contain all necessary
798  git-svn marks (so, you can recreate git-svn metadata locally). Note that right
799  now mirrors reflect only <tt>trunk</tt> for each project. You can do the
800  read-only GIT clone of LLVM via:</p>
801
802<pre class="doc_code">
803git clone http://llvm.org/git/llvm.git
804</pre>
805
806<p>If you want to check out clang too, run:</p>
807
808<pre class="doc_code">
809git clone http://llvm.org/git/llvm.git
810cd llvm/tools
811git clone http://llvm.org/git/clang.git
812</pre>
813
814<p>
815Since the upstream repository is in Subversion, you should use
816<tt>&quot;git pull --rebase&quot;</tt>
817instead of <tt>&quot;git pull&quot;</tt> to avoid generating a non-linear
818history in your clone.
819To configure <tt>&quot;git pull&quot;</tt> to pass <tt>--rebase</tt> by default
820on the master branch, run the following command:
821</p>
822
823<pre class="doc_code">
824git config branch.master.rebase true
825</pre>
826
827<h4>Sending patches with Git</h4>
828<div>
829<p>
830Please read <a href="DeveloperPolicy.html#patches">Developer Policy</a>, too.
831</p>
832
833<p>
834Assume <tt>master</tt> points the upstream and <tt>mybranch</tt> points your
835working branch, and <tt>mybranch</tt> is rebased onto <tt>master</tt>.
836At first you may check sanity of whitespaces:
837</p>
838
839<pre class="doc_code">
840git diff --check master..mybranch
841</pre>
842
843<p>
844The easiest way to generate a patch is as below:
845</p>
846
847<pre class="doc_code">
848git diff master..mybranch &gt; /path/to/mybranch.diff
849</pre>
850
851<p>
852It is a little different from svn-generated diff. git-diff-generated diff has
853prefixes like <tt>a/</tt> and <tt>b/</tt>. Don't worry, most developers might
854know it could be accepted with <tt>patch -p1 -N</tt>.
855</p>
856
857<p>
858But you may generate patchset with git-format-patch. It generates
859by-each-commit patchset. To generate patch files to attach to your article:
860</p>
861
862<pre class="doc_code">
863git format-patch --no-attach master..mybranch -o /path/to/your/patchset
864</pre>
865
866<p>
867If you would like to send patches directly, you may use git-send-email or
868git-imap-send. Here is an example to generate the patchset in Gmail's [Drafts].
869</p>
870
871<pre class="doc_code">
872git format-patch --attach master..mybranch --stdout | git imap-send
873</pre>
874
875<p>
876Then, your .git/config should have [imap] sections.
877</p>
878
879<pre class="doc_code">
880[imap]
881        host = imaps://imap.gmail.com
882        user = <em>your.gmail.account</em>@gmail.com
883        pass = <em>himitsu!</em>
884        port = 993
885        sslverify = false
886; in English
887        folder = "[Gmail]/Drafts"
888; example for Japanese, "Modified UTF-7" encoded.
889        folder = "[Gmail]/&amp;Tgtm+DBN-"
890; example for Traditional Chinese
891        folder = "[Gmail]/&amp;g0l6Pw-"
892</pre>
893
894</div>
895
896<h4>For developers to work with git-svn</h4>
897<div>
898
899<p>To set up clone from which you can submit code using
900   <tt>git-svn</tt>, run:</p>
901
902<pre class="doc_code">
903git clone http://llvm.org/git/llvm.git
904cd llvm
905git svn init https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk --username=&lt;username>
906git config svn-remote.svn.fetch :refs/remotes/origin/master
907git svn rebase -l  # -l avoids fetching ahead of the git mirror.
908
909# If you have clang too:
910cd tools
911git clone http://llvm.org/git/clang.git
912cd clang
913git svn init https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/cfe/trunk --username=&lt;username>
914git config svn-remote.svn.fetch :refs/remotes/origin/master
915git svn rebase -l
916</pre>
917
918<p>To update this clone without generating git-svn tags that conflict
919with the upstream git repo, run:</p>
920
921<pre class="doc_code">
922git fetch && (cd tools/clang && git fetch)  # Get matching revisions of both trees.
923git checkout master
924git svn rebase -l
925(cd tools/clang &&
926 git checkout master &&
927 git svn rebase -l)
928</pre>
929
930<p>This leaves your working directories on their master branches, so
931you'll need to <tt>checkout</tt> each working branch individually and
932<tt>rebase</tt> it on top of its parent branch.  (Note: This script is
933intended for relative newbies to git.  If you have more experience,
934you can likely improve on it.)</p>
935
936<p>The git-svn metadata can get out of sync after you mess around with
937branches and <code>dcommit</code>. When that happens, <code>git svn
938dcommit</code> stops working, complaining about files with uncommitted
939changes. The fix is to rebuild the metadata:</p>
940
941<pre class="doc_code">
942rm -rf .git/svn
943git svn rebase -l
944</pre>
945
946</div>
947
948</div>
949
950<!-- ======================================================================= -->
951<h3>
952  <a name="config">Local LLVM Configuration</a>
953</h3>
954
955<div>
956
957  <p>Once checked out from the Subversion repository, the LLVM suite source
958  code must be
959configured via the <tt>configure</tt> script.  This script sets variables in the
960various <tt>*.in</tt> files, most notably <tt>llvm/Makefile.config</tt> and
961<tt>llvm/include/Config/config.h</tt>.  It also populates <i>OBJ_ROOT</i> with
962the Makefiles needed to begin building LLVM.</p>
963
964<p>The following environment variables are used by the <tt>configure</tt>
965script to configure the build system:</p>
966
967<table summary="LLVM configure script environment variables">
968  <tr><th>Variable</th><th>Purpose</th></tr>
969  <tr>
970    <td>CC</td>
971    <td>Tells <tt>configure</tt> which C compiler to use.  By default,
972        <tt>configure</tt> will look for the first GCC C compiler in
973        <tt>PATH</tt>.  Use this variable to override
974        <tt>configure</tt>'s default behavior.</td>
975  </tr>
976  <tr>
977    <td>CXX</td>
978    <td>Tells <tt>configure</tt> which C++ compiler to use.  By default,
979       <tt>configure</tt> will look for the first GCC C++ compiler in
980       <tt>PATH</tt>.  Use this variable to override
981       <tt>configure</tt>'s default behavior.</td>
982  </tr>
983</table>
984
985<p>The following options can be used to set or enable LLVM specific options:</p>
986
987<dl>
988  <dt><i>--enable-optimized</i></dt>
989  <dd>
990    Enables optimized compilation (debugging symbols are removed
991    and GCC optimization flags are enabled). Note that this is the default
992    setting     if you are using the LLVM distribution. The default behavior
993    of an Subversion checkout is to use an unoptimized build (also known as a
994    debug build).
995    <br><br>
996  </dd>
997  <dt><i>--enable-debug-runtime</i></dt>
998  <dd>
999    Enables debug symbols in the runtime libraries. The default is to strip
1000    debug symbols from the runtime libraries.
1001  </dd>
1002  <dt><i>--enable-jit</i></dt>
1003  <dd>
1004    Compile the Just In Time (JIT) compiler functionality.  This is not
1005    available
1006    on all platforms.  The default is dependent on platform, so it is best
1007    to explicitly enable it if you want it.
1008    <br><br>
1009  </dd>
1010  <dt><i>--enable-targets=</i><tt>target-option</tt></dt>
1011  <dd>Controls which targets will be built and linked into llc. The default
1012  value for <tt>target_options</tt> is "all" which builds and links all
1013  available targets.  The value "host-only" can be specified to build only a
1014  native compiler (no cross-compiler targets available). The "native" target is
1015  selected as the target of the build host. You can also specify a comma
1016  separated list of target names that you want available in llc. The target
1017  names use all lower case. The current set of targets is: <br>
1018  <tt>arm, cbe, cpp, hexagon, mblaze, mips, mipsel, msp430, powerpc, ptx, sparc, spu, x86, x86_64, xcore</tt>.
1019  <br><br></dd>
1020  <dt><i>--enable-doxygen</i></dt>
1021  <dd>Look for the doxygen program and enable construction of doxygen based
1022  documentation from the source code. This is disabled by default because
1023  generating the documentation can take a long time and producess 100s of
1024  megabytes of output.</dd>
1025  <dt><i>--with-udis86</i></dt>
1026  <dd>LLVM can use external disassembler library for various purposes (now it's
1027  used only for examining code produced by JIT). This option will enable usage
1028  of <a href="http://udis86.sourceforge.net/">udis86</a> x86 (both 32 and 64
1029  bits) disassembler library.</dd>
1030</dl>
1031
1032<p>To configure LLVM, follow these steps:</p>
1033
1034<ol>
1035    <li><p>Change directory into the object root directory:</p>
1036
1037    <div class="doc_code"><pre>% cd <i>OBJ_ROOT</i></pre></div></li>
1038
1039    <li><p>Run the <tt>configure</tt> script located in the LLVM source
1040    tree:</p>
1041
1042    <div class="doc_code">
1043    <pre>% <i>SRC_ROOT</i>/configure --prefix=/install/path [other options]</pre>
1044    </div></li>
1045</ol>
1046
1047</div>
1048
1049<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1050<h3>
1051  <a name="compile">Compiling the LLVM Suite Source Code</a>
1052</h3>
1053
1054<div>
1055
1056<p>Once you have configured LLVM, you can build it.  There are three types of
1057builds:</p>
1058
1059<dl>
1060    <dt>Debug Builds
1061    <dd>
1062    These builds are the default when one is using an Subversion checkout and
1063    types <tt>gmake</tt> (unless the <tt>--enable-optimized</tt> option was
1064    used during configuration).  The build system will compile the tools and
1065    libraries with debugging information.  To get a Debug Build using the
1066    LLVM distribution the <tt>--disable-optimized</tt> option must be passed
1067    to <tt>configure</tt>.
1068    <br><br>
1069
1070    <dt>Release (Optimized) Builds
1071    <dd>
1072    These builds are enabled with the <tt>--enable-optimized</tt> option to
1073    <tt>configure</tt> or by specifying <tt>ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1</tt> on the
1074    <tt>gmake</tt> command line.  For these builds, the build system will
1075    compile the tools and libraries with GCC optimizations enabled and strip
1076    debugging information from the libraries and executables it generates.
1077    Note that Release Builds are default when using an LLVM distribution.
1078    <br><br>
1079
1080    <dt>Profile Builds
1081    <dd>
1082    These builds are for use with profiling.  They compile profiling
1083    information into the code for use with programs like <tt>gprof</tt>.
1084    Profile builds must be started by specifying <tt>ENABLE_PROFILING=1</tt>
1085    on the <tt>gmake</tt> command line.
1086</dl>
1087
1088<p>Once you have LLVM configured, you can build it by entering the
1089<i>OBJ_ROOT</i> directory and issuing the following command:</p>
1090
1091<div class="doc_code"><pre>% gmake</pre></div>
1092
1093<p>If the build fails, please <a href="#brokengcc">check here</a> to see if you
1094are using a version of GCC that is known not to compile LLVM.</p>
1095
1096<p>
1097If you have multiple processors in your machine, you may wish to use some of
1098the parallel build options provided by GNU Make.  For example, you could use the
1099command:</p>
1100
1101<div class="doc_code"><pre>% gmake -j2</pre></div>
1102
1103<p>There are several special targets which are useful when working with the LLVM
1104source code:</p>
1105
1106<dl>
1107  <dt><tt>gmake clean</tt>
1108  <dd>
1109  Removes all files generated by the build.  This includes object files,
1110  generated C/C++ files, libraries, and executables.
1111  <br><br>
1112
1113  <dt><tt>gmake dist-clean</tt>
1114  <dd>
1115  Removes everything that <tt>gmake clean</tt> does, but also removes files
1116  generated by <tt>configure</tt>.  It attempts to return the source tree to the
1117  original state in which it was shipped.
1118  <br><br>
1119
1120  <dt><tt>gmake install</tt>
1121  <dd>
1122  Installs LLVM header files, libraries, tools, and documentation in a
1123  hierarchy
1124  under $PREFIX, specified with <tt>./configure --prefix=[dir]</tt>, which
1125  defaults to <tt>/usr/local</tt>.
1126  <br><br>
1127
1128  <dt><tt>gmake -C runtime install-bytecode</tt>
1129  <dd>
1130  Assuming you built LLVM into $OBJDIR, when this command is run, it will
1131  install bitcode libraries into the GCC front end's bitcode library
1132  directory.  If you need to update your bitcode libraries,
1133  this is the target to use once you've built them.
1134  <br><br>
1135</dl>
1136
1137<p>Please see the <a href="MakefileGuide.html">Makefile Guide</a> for further
1138details on these <tt>make</tt> targets and descriptions of other targets
1139available.</p>
1140
1141<p>It is also possible to override default values from <tt>configure</tt> by
1142declaring variables on the command line.  The following are some examples:</p>
1143
1144<dl>
1145  <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1</tt>
1146  <dd>
1147  Perform a Release (Optimized) build.
1148  <br><br>
1149
1150  <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 DISABLE_ASSERTIONS=1</tt>
1151  <dd>
1152  Perform a Release (Optimized) build without assertions enabled.
1153  <br><br>
1154
1155  <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=0</tt>
1156  <dd>
1157  Perform a Debug build.
1158  <br><br>
1159
1160  <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_PROFILING=1</tt>
1161  <dd>
1162  Perform a Profiling build.
1163  <br><br>
1164
1165  <dt><tt>gmake VERBOSE=1</tt>
1166  <dd>
1167  Print what <tt>gmake</tt> is doing on standard output.
1168  <br><br>
1169
1170  <dt><tt>gmake TOOL_VERBOSE=1</tt></dt>
1171  <dd>Ask each tool invoked by the makefiles to print out what it is doing on
1172  the standard output. This also implies <tt>VERBOSE=1</tt>.
1173  <br><br></dd>
1174</dl>
1175
1176<p>Every directory in the LLVM object tree includes a <tt>Makefile</tt> to build
1177it and any subdirectories that it contains.  Entering any directory inside the
1178LLVM object tree and typing <tt>gmake</tt> should rebuild anything in or below
1179that directory that is out of date.</p>
1180
1181</div>
1182
1183<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1184<h3>
1185  <a name="cross-compile">Cross-Compiling LLVM</a>
1186</h3>
1187
1188<div>
1189  <p>It is possible to cross-compile LLVM itself. That is, you can create LLVM
1190  executables and libraries to be hosted on a platform different from the
1191  platform where they are build (a Canadian Cross build). To configure a
1192  cross-compile, supply the configure script with <tt>--build</tt> and
1193  <tt>--host</tt> options that are different. The values of these options must
1194  be legal target triples that your GCC compiler supports.</p>
1195
1196  <p>The result of such a build is executables that are not runnable on
1197  on the build host (--build option) but can be executed on the compile host
1198  (--host option).</p>
1199</div>
1200
1201<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1202<h3>
1203  <a name="objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a>
1204</h3>
1205
1206<div>
1207
1208<p>The LLVM build system is capable of sharing a single LLVM source tree among
1209several LLVM builds.  Hence, it is possible to build LLVM for several different
1210platforms or configurations using the same source tree.</p>
1211
1212<p>This is accomplished in the typical autoconf manner:</p>
1213
1214<ul>
1215  <li><p>Change directory to where the LLVM object files should live:</p>
1216
1217      <div class="doc_code"><pre>% cd <i>OBJ_ROOT</i></pre></div></li>
1218
1219  <li><p>Run the <tt>configure</tt> script found in the LLVM source
1220      directory:</p>
1221
1222      <div class="doc_code"><pre>% <i>SRC_ROOT</i>/configure</pre></div></li>
1223</ul>
1224
1225<p>The LLVM build will place files underneath <i>OBJ_ROOT</i> in directories
1226named after the build type:</p>
1227
1228<dl>
1229  <dt>Debug Builds with assertions enabled (the default)
1230  <dd>
1231  <dl>
1232    <dt>Tools
1233    <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Debug+Asserts/bin</tt>
1234    <dt>Libraries
1235    <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Debug+Asserts/lib</tt>
1236  </dl>
1237  <br><br>
1238
1239  <dt>Release Builds
1240  <dd>
1241  <dl>
1242    <dt>Tools
1243    <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Release/bin</tt>
1244    <dt>Libraries
1245    <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Release/lib</tt>
1246  </dl>
1247  <br><br>
1248
1249  <dt>Profile Builds
1250  <dd>
1251  <dl>
1252    <dt>Tools
1253    <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Profile/bin</tt>
1254    <dt>Libraries
1255    <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Profile/lib</tt>
1256  </dl>
1257</dl>
1258
1259</div>
1260
1261<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1262<h3>
1263  <a name="optionalconfig">Optional Configuration Items</a>
1264</h3>
1265
1266<div>
1267
1268<p>
1269If you're running on a Linux system that supports the "<a
1270href="http://www.tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de/~rguenth/linux/binfmt_misc.html">binfmt_misc</a>"
1271module, and you have root access on the system, you can set your system up to
1272execute LLVM bitcode files directly. To do this, use commands like this (the
1273first command may not be required if you are already using the module):</p>
1274
1275<div class="doc_code">
1276<pre>
1277$ mount -t binfmt_misc none /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc
1278$ echo ':llvm:M::BC::/path/to/lli:' &gt; /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register
1279$ chmod u+x hello.bc   (if needed)
1280$ ./hello.bc
1281</pre>
1282</div>
1283
1284<p>
1285This allows you to execute LLVM bitcode files directly.  On Debian, you
1286can also use this command instead of the 'echo' command above:
1287</p>
1288
1289<div class="doc_code">
1290<pre>
1291$ sudo update-binfmts --install llvm /path/to/lli --magic 'BC'
1292</pre>
1293</div>
1294
1295</div>
1296
1297</div>
1298
1299<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1300<h2>
1301  <a name="layout">Program Layout</a>
1302</h2>
1303<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1304
1305<div>
1306
1307<p>One useful source of information about the LLVM source base is the LLVM <a
1308href="http://www.doxygen.org/">doxygen</a> documentation available at <tt><a
1309href="http://llvm.org/doxygen/">http://llvm.org/doxygen/</a></tt>.
1310The following is a brief introduction to code layout:</p>
1311
1312<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1313<h3>
1314  <a name="examples"><tt>llvm/examples</tt></a>
1315</h3>
1316
1317<div>
1318  <p>This directory contains some simple examples of how to use the LLVM IR and
1319  JIT.</p>
1320</div>
1321
1322<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1323<h3>
1324  <a name="include"><tt>llvm/include</tt></a>
1325</h3>
1326
1327<div>
1328
1329<p>This directory contains public header files exported from the LLVM
1330library. The three main subdirectories of this directory are:</p>
1331
1332<dl>
1333  <dt><tt><b>llvm/include/llvm</b></tt></dt>
1334  <dd>This directory contains all of the LLVM specific header files.  This
1335  directory also has subdirectories for different portions of LLVM:
1336  <tt>Analysis</tt>, <tt>CodeGen</tt>, <tt>Target</tt>, <tt>Transforms</tt>,
1337  etc...</dd>
1338
1339  <dt><tt><b>llvm/include/llvm/Support</b></tt></dt>
1340  <dd>This directory contains generic support libraries that are provided with
1341  LLVM but not necessarily specific to LLVM. For example, some C++ STL utilities
1342  and a Command Line option processing library store their header files here.
1343  </dd>
1344
1345  <dt><tt><b>llvm/include/llvm/Config</b></tt></dt>
1346  <dd>This directory contains header files configured by the <tt>configure</tt>
1347  script.  They wrap "standard" UNIX and C header files.  Source code can
1348  include these header files which automatically take care of the conditional
1349  #includes that the <tt>configure</tt> script generates.</dd>
1350</dl>
1351</div>
1352
1353<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1354<h3>
1355  <a name="lib"><tt>llvm/lib</tt></a>
1356</h3>
1357
1358<div>
1359
1360<p>This directory contains most of the source files of the LLVM system. In LLVM,
1361almost all code exists in libraries, making it very easy to share code among the
1362different <a href="#tools">tools</a>.</p>
1363
1364<dl>
1365  <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/VMCore/</b></tt></dt>
1366  <dd> This directory holds the core LLVM source files that implement core
1367  classes like Instruction and BasicBlock.</dd>
1368
1369  <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/AsmParser/</b></tt></dt>
1370  <dd>This directory holds the source code for the LLVM assembly language parser
1371  library.</dd>
1372
1373  <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/BitCode/</b></tt></dt>
1374  <dd>This directory holds code for reading and write LLVM bitcode.</dd>
1375
1376  <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Analysis/</b></tt><dd>This directory contains a variety of
1377  different program analyses, such as Dominator Information, Call Graphs,
1378  Induction Variables, Interval Identification, Natural Loop Identification,
1379  etc.</dd>
1380
1381  <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Transforms/</b></tt></dt>
1382  <dd> This directory contains the source code for the LLVM to LLVM program
1383  transformations, such as Aggressive Dead Code Elimination, Sparse Conditional
1384  Constant Propagation, Inlining, Loop Invariant Code Motion, Dead Global
1385  Elimination, and many others.</dd>
1386
1387  <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Target/</b></tt></dt>
1388  <dd> This directory contains files that describe various target architectures
1389  for code generation.  For example, the <tt>llvm/lib/Target/X86</tt>
1390  directory holds the X86 machine description while
1391  <tt>llvm/lib/Target/ARM</tt> implements the ARM backend.</dd>
1392
1393  <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/CodeGen/</b></tt></dt>
1394  <dd> This directory contains the major parts of the code generator: Instruction
1395  Selector, Instruction Scheduling, and Register Allocation.</dd>
1396
1397  <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/MC/</b></tt></dt>
1398  <dd>(FIXME: T.B.D.)</dd>
1399
1400  <!--FIXME: obsoleted -->
1401  <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Debugger/</b></tt></dt>
1402  <dd> This directory contains the source level debugger library that makes
1403  it possible to instrument LLVM programs so that a debugger could identify
1404  source code locations at which the program is executing.</dd>
1405
1406  <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/ExecutionEngine/</b></tt></dt>
1407  <dd> This directory contains libraries for executing LLVM bitcode directly
1408  at runtime in both interpreted and JIT compiled fashions.</dd>
1409
1410  <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Support/</b></tt></dt>
1411  <dd> This directory contains the source code that corresponds to the header
1412  files located in <tt>llvm/include/ADT/</tt>
1413  and <tt>llvm/include/Support/</tt>.</dd>
1414</dl>
1415
1416</div>
1417
1418<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1419<h3>
1420  <a name="projects"><tt>llvm/projects</tt></a>
1421</h3>
1422
1423<div>
1424  <p>This directory contains projects that are not strictly part of LLVM but are
1425  shipped with LLVM. This is also the directory where you should create your own
1426  LLVM-based projects. See <tt>llvm/projects/sample</tt> for an example of how
1427  to set up your own project.</p>
1428</div>
1429
1430<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1431<h3>
1432  <a name="runtime"><tt>llvm/runtime</tt></a>
1433</h3>
1434
1435<div>
1436
1437<p>This directory contains libraries which are compiled into LLVM bitcode and
1438used when linking programs with the Clang front end.  Most of these libraries are
1439skeleton versions of real libraries; for example, libc is a stripped down
1440version of glibc.</p>
1441
1442<p>Unlike the rest of the LLVM suite, this directory needs the LLVM GCC front
1443end to compile.</p>
1444
1445</div>
1446
1447<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1448<h3>
1449  <a name="test"><tt>llvm/test</tt></a>
1450</h3>
1451
1452<div>
1453  <p>This directory contains feature and regression tests and other basic sanity
1454  checks on the LLVM infrastructure. These are intended to run quickly and cover
1455  a lot of territory without being exhaustive.</p>
1456</div>
1457
1458<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1459<h3>
1460  <a name="test-suite"><tt>test-suite</tt></a>
1461</h3>
1462
1463<div>
1464  <p>This is not a directory in the normal llvm module; it is a separate
1465  Subversion
1466  module that must be checked out (usually to <tt>projects/test-suite</tt>).
1467  This
1468  module contains a comprehensive correctness, performance, and benchmarking
1469  test
1470  suite for LLVM. It is a separate Subversion module because not every LLVM
1471  user is
1472  interested in downloading or building such a comprehensive test suite. For
1473  further details on this test suite, please see the
1474  <a href="TestingGuide.html">Testing Guide</a> document.</p>
1475</div>
1476
1477<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1478<h3>
1479  <a name="tools"><tt>llvm/tools</tt></a>
1480</h3>
1481
1482<div>
1483
1484<p>The <b>tools</b> directory contains the executables built out of the
1485libraries above, which form the main part of the user interface.  You can
1486always get help for a tool by typing <tt>tool_name -help</tt>.  The
1487following is a brief introduction to the most important tools.  More detailed
1488information is in the <a href="CommandGuide/index.html">Command Guide</a>.</p>
1489
1490<dl>
1491
1492  <dt><tt><b>bugpoint</b></tt></dt>
1493  <dd><tt>bugpoint</tt> is used to debug
1494  optimization passes or code generation backends by narrowing down the
1495  given test case to the minimum number of passes and/or instructions that
1496  still cause a problem, whether it is a crash or miscompilation. See <a
1497  href="HowToSubmitABug.html">HowToSubmitABug.html</a> for more information
1498  on using <tt>bugpoint</tt>.</dd>
1499
1500  <dt><tt><b>llvm-ar</b></tt></dt>
1501  <dd>The archiver produces an archive containing
1502  the given LLVM bitcode files, optionally with an index for faster
1503  lookup.</dd>
1504
1505  <dt><tt><b>llvm-as</b></tt></dt>
1506  <dd>The assembler transforms the human readable LLVM assembly to LLVM
1507  bitcode.</dd>
1508
1509  <dt><tt><b>llvm-dis</b></tt></dt>
1510  <dd>The disassembler transforms the LLVM bitcode to human readable
1511  LLVM assembly.</dd>
1512
1513  <dt><tt><b>llvm-ld</b></tt></dt>
1514  <dd><tt>llvm-ld</tt> is a general purpose and extensible linker for LLVM.
1515  It performs standard link time optimizations and allows optimization
1516  modules to be loaded and run so that language specific optimizations can
1517  be applied at link time.</dd>
1518
1519  <dt><tt><b>llvm-link</b></tt></dt>
1520  <dd><tt>llvm-link</tt>, not surprisingly, links multiple LLVM modules into
1521  a single program.</dd>
1522
1523  <dt><tt><b>lli</b></tt></dt>
1524  <dd><tt>lli</tt> is the LLVM interpreter, which
1525  can directly execute LLVM bitcode (although very slowly...). For architectures
1526  that support it (currently x86, Sparc, and PowerPC), by default, <tt>lli</tt>
1527  will function as a Just-In-Time compiler (if the functionality was compiled
1528  in), and will execute the code <i>much</i> faster than the interpreter.</dd>
1529
1530  <dt><tt><b>llc</b></tt></dt>
1531  <dd> <tt>llc</tt> is the LLVM backend compiler, which
1532  translates LLVM bitcode to a native code assembly file or to C code (with
1533  the -march=c option).</dd>
1534
1535  <dt><tt><b>llvm-gcc</b></tt></dt>
1536  <dd><tt>llvm-gcc</tt> is a GCC-based C frontend that has been retargeted to
1537  use LLVM as its backend instead of GCC's RTL backend. It can also emit LLVM
1538  bitcode or assembly (with the <tt>-emit-llvm</tt> option) instead of the
1539  usual machine code output.  It works just like any other GCC compiler,
1540  taking the typical <tt>-c, -S, -E, -o</tt> options that are typically used.
1541  Additionally, the the source code for <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> is available as a
1542  separate Subversion module.</dd>
1543
1544  <dt><tt><b>opt</b></tt></dt>
1545  <dd><tt>opt</tt> reads LLVM bitcode, applies a series of LLVM to LLVM
1546  transformations (which are specified on the command line), and then outputs
1547  the resultant bitcode.  The '<tt>opt -help</tt>' command is a good way to
1548  get a list of the program transformations available in LLVM.<br>
1549  <dd><tt>opt</tt> can also be used to run a specific analysis on an input
1550  LLVM bitcode file and print out the results.  It is primarily useful for
1551  debugging analyses, or familiarizing yourself with what an analysis does.</dd>
1552</dl>
1553</div>
1554
1555<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1556<h3>
1557  <a name="utils"><tt>llvm/utils</tt></a>
1558</h3>
1559
1560<div>
1561
1562<p>This directory contains utilities for working with LLVM source code, and some
1563of the utilities are actually required as part of the build process because they
1564are code generators for parts of LLVM infrastructure.</p>
1565
1566<dl>
1567  <dt><tt><b>codegen-diff</b></tt> <dd><tt>codegen-diff</tt> is a script
1568  that finds differences between code that LLC generates and code that LLI
1569  generates. This is a useful tool if you are debugging one of them,
1570  assuming that the other generates correct output. For the full user
1571  manual, run <tt>`perldoc codegen-diff'</tt>.<br><br>
1572
1573  <dt><tt><b>emacs/</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>emacs</tt> directory contains
1574  syntax-highlighting files which will work with Emacs and XEmacs editors,
1575  providing syntax highlighting support for LLVM assembly files and TableGen
1576  description files. For information on how to use the syntax files, consult
1577  the <tt>README</tt> file in that directory.<br><br>
1578
1579  <dt><tt><b>getsrcs.sh</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>getsrcs.sh</tt> script finds
1580  and outputs all non-generated source files, which is useful if one wishes
1581  to do a lot of development across directories and does not want to
1582  individually find each file. One way to use it is to run, for example:
1583  <tt>xemacs `utils/getsources.sh`</tt> from the top of your LLVM source
1584  tree.<br><br>
1585
1586  <dt><tt><b>llvmgrep</b></tt></dt>
1587  <dd>This little tool performs an "egrep -H -n" on each source file in LLVM and
1588  passes to it a regular expression provided on <tt>llvmgrep</tt>'s command
1589  line. This is a very efficient way of searching the source base for a
1590  particular regular expression.</dd>
1591
1592  <dt><tt><b>makellvm</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>makellvm</tt> script compiles all
1593  files in the current directory and then compiles and links the tool that
1594  is the first argument. For example, assuming you are in the directory
1595  <tt>llvm/lib/Target/Sparc</tt>, if <tt>makellvm</tt> is in your path,
1596  simply running <tt>makellvm llc</tt> will make a build of the current
1597  directory, switch to directory <tt>llvm/tools/llc</tt> and build it,
1598  causing a re-linking of LLC.<br><br>
1599
1600  <dt><tt><b>TableGen/</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>TableGen</tt> directory contains
1601  the tool used to generate register descriptions, instruction set
1602  descriptions, and even assemblers from common TableGen description
1603  files.<br><br>
1604
1605  <dt><tt><b>vim/</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>vim</tt> directory contains
1606  syntax-highlighting files which will work with the VIM editor, providing
1607  syntax highlighting support for LLVM assembly files and TableGen
1608  description files. For information on how to use the syntax files, consult
1609  the <tt>README</tt> file in that directory.<br><br>
1610
1611</dl>
1612
1613</div>
1614
1615</div>
1616
1617<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1618<h2>
1619  <a name="tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
1620</h2>
1621<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1622
1623<div>
1624<p>This section gives an example of using LLVM with the Clang front end.</p>
1625
1626<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1627<h3>
1628  <a name="tutorial4">Example with clang</a>
1629</h3>
1630
1631<div>
1632
1633<ol>
1634  <li><p>First, create a simple C file, name it 'hello.c':</p>
1635
1636<div class="doc_code">
1637<pre>
1638#include &lt;stdio.h&gt;
1639
1640int main() {
1641  printf("hello world\n");
1642  return 0;
1643}
1644</pre></div></li>
1645
1646  <li><p>Next, compile the C file into a native executable:</p>
1647
1648      <div class="doc_code"><pre>% clang hello.c -o hello</pre></div>
1649
1650      <p>Note that clang works just like GCC by default.  The standard -S and
1651        -c arguments work as usual (producing a native .s or .o file,
1652        respectively).</p></li>
1653
1654  <li><p>Next, compile the C file into a LLVM bitcode file:</p>
1655
1656      <div class="doc_code">
1657      <pre>% clang -O3 -emit-llvm hello.c -c -o hello.bc</pre></div>
1658
1659      <p>The -emit-llvm option can be used with the -S or -c options to emit an
1660         LLVM ".ll" or ".bc" file (respectively) for the code.  This allows you
1661         to use the <a href="CommandGuide/index.html">standard LLVM tools</a> on
1662         the bitcode file.</p></li>
1663
1664  <li><p>Run the program in both forms. To run the program, use:</p>
1665
1666      <div class="doc_code"><pre>% ./hello</pre></div>
1667
1668      <p>and</p>
1669
1670      <div class="doc_code"><pre>% lli hello.bc</pre></div>
1671
1672      <p>The second examples shows how to invoke the LLVM JIT, <a
1673       href="CommandGuide/html/lli.html">lli</a>.</p></li>
1674
1675  <li><p>Use the <tt>llvm-dis</tt> utility to take a look at the LLVM assembly
1676      code:</p>
1677
1678<div class="doc_code">
1679<pre>llvm-dis &lt; hello.bc | less</pre>
1680</div></li>
1681
1682  <li><p>Compile the program to native assembly using the LLC code
1683      generator:</p>
1684
1685      <div class="doc_code"><pre>% llc hello.bc -o hello.s</pre></div></li>
1686
1687  <li><p>Assemble the native assembly language file into a program:</p>
1688
1689<div class="doc_code">
1690<pre>
1691<b>Solaris:</b> % /opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc -xarch=v9 hello.s -o hello.native
1692
1693<b>Others:</b>  % gcc hello.s -o hello.native
1694</pre>
1695</div></li>
1696
1697  <li><p>Execute the native code program:</p>
1698
1699      <div class="doc_code"><pre>% ./hello.native</pre></div>
1700
1701      <p>Note that using clang to compile directly to native code (i.e. when
1702         the -emit-llvm option is not present) does steps 6/7/8 for you.</p>
1703        </li>
1704
1705</ol>
1706
1707</div>
1708
1709</div>
1710
1711<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1712<h2>
1713  <a name="problems">Common Problems</a>
1714</h2>
1715<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1716
1717<div>
1718
1719<p>If you are having problems building or using LLVM, or if you have any other
1720general questions about LLVM, please consult the <a href="FAQ.html">Frequently
1721Asked Questions</a> page.</p>
1722
1723</div>
1724
1725<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1726<h2>
1727  <a name="links">Links</a>
1728</h2>
1729<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1730
1731<div>
1732
1733<p>This document is just an <b>introduction</b> on how to use LLVM to do
1734some simple things... there are many more interesting and complicated things
1735that you can do that aren't documented here (but we'll gladly accept a patch
1736if you want to write something up!).  For more information about LLVM, check
1737out:</p>
1738
1739<ul>
1740  <li><a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM homepage</a></li>
1741  <li><a href="http://llvm.org/doxygen/">LLVM doxygen tree</a></li>
1742  <li><a href="http://llvm.org/docs/Projects.html">Starting a Project
1743  that Uses LLVM</a></li>
1744</ul>
1745
1746</div>
1747
1748<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1749
1750<hr>
1751<address>
1752  <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img
1753  src="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/images/vcss-blue" alt="Valid CSS"></a>
1754  <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img
1755  src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401-blue" alt="Valid HTML 4.01"></a>
1756
1757  <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a><br>
1758  <a href="http://llvm.x10sys.com/rspencer/">Reid Spencer</a><br>
1759  <a href="http://llvm.org/">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
1760  Last modified: $Date$
1761</address>
1762</body>
1763</html>
1764