llvm/docs/ReleaseNotes.html
2003-10-05 19:17:10 +00:00

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<html><head><title>LLVM 1.0 Release Notes</title></head>
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<tr><td>&nbsp; <font size=+3 color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino,Times,Roman"><b>LLVM 1.0 Release Notes</b></font></td>
</tr></table>
<ol>
<li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a>
<li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New?</a>
<li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
<li><a href="#install-instructions">Installation Instructions</a>
<li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
<ul>
<!-- <li><a href="#portabilityprobs">Portability Problems</a> -->
<li><a href="#core">Known problems with the LLVM Core</a>
<li><a href="#c-fe">Known problems with the C Front-end</a>
<li><a href="#c++-fe">Known problems with the C++ Front-end</a>
<li><a href="#x86-be">Known problems with the X86 Back-end</a>
<li><a href="#sparc-be">Known problems with the Sparc Back-end</a>
<li><a href="#c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
</ul>
<li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
</ul>
<p><b>Written by <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a></b><p>
</ol>
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<table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
<a name="intro">Introduction
</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
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This document contains the release notes for the LLVM compiler infrastructure,
release 1.0. The most up-to-date version of this document can be found on the
<a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/releases/1.0/ReleaseNotes.html">LLVM web
site</a>. If you are not reading this on the LLVM web pages, you should
probably go there, because this document may be updated after the release.<p>
FIXME: What is this document? Where do I find other documents?<p>
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</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
<a name="whatsnew">What's New?
</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
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This is the first public release of the LLVM compiler infrastructure. As such,
it is all new! In particular, we are providing a stable C compiler, beta C++
compiler, a C back-end, stable X86 and Sparc V9 static and JIT code generators,
as well as a large suite of scalar and interprocedural optimizations.<p>
TODO: Works on: SPEC CPU 2000<p>
TODO: Works on: Olden/Ptrdist benchmarks<p>
The What's New section should give a bulletted list of what is
included, perhaps a couple of lists (Stable, Beta).<p>
It would be useful to give a pointer to a list of the available passes (at least
for the standard compiler techniques).<p>
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</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
<a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms
</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
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LLVM has only been extensively tested on ia32-linux and sparc-solaris machines.
The core LLVM infrastructure uses "autoconf" for portability, so hopefully we
work on more platforms than that. However, it is extremely likely that we
missed something. We welcome portability patches and error messages.<p>
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</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
<a name="install-instructions">Installation Instructions
</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
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FIXME
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</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
<a name="knownproblems">Known Problems
</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
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This section contains all known problems with the LLVM system, listed by
component. As new problems are discovered, they will be added to these
sections.
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
<!--
</ul><h4><a name="portability"><hr size=0>Portability Problems</h4><ul>
-->
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
</ul><h4><a name="core"><hr size=0>Known problems with the LLVM Core</h4><ul>
<li>In the JIT, <tt>dlsym</tt> on a symbol compiled by the JIT will not work.<p>
<li>The JIT does not use mutexes to protect its internal data structures. As
such, execution of a threaded program could cause these data structures to
be corrupted.<p>
<li>It is not possible to <tt>dlopen</tt> an LLVM bytecode file in the JIT.<p>
<li>Linking in static archive files (.a files) is very slow.
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
</ul><h4><a name="c-fe"><hr size=0>Known problems with the C front-end</h4><ul>
<li>Inline assembly is not yet supported.<p>
<li>"long double" is transformed by the front-end into "double". There is no
support for floating point data types of any size other than 32 and 64 bits.
<p>
<li>C99 Variable sized arrays do not release stack memory when they go out of
scope. Thus, the following program may run out of stack space:
<pre>
for (i = 0; i != 1000000; ++i) {
int X[n];
foo(X);
}
</pre><p>
<li>The following Unix system functionality has not been tested and may not work:
<ol>
<li><tt>sigsetjmp</tt>, <tt>siglongjmp</tt> - These are not turned into the
appropriate <tt>invoke</tt>/<tt>unwind</tt> instructions.
<li><tt>getcontext</tt>, <tt>setcontext</tt>, <tt>makecontext</tt>
- These functions have not been tested.
</ol><p>
<li>Although many GCC extensions are supported, some are not. In particular,
the following extensions are known to <b>not be</b> supported:
<ol>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Local-Labels.html#Local%20Labels">Local Labels</a>: Labels local to a block.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Labels-as-Values.html#Labels%20as%20Values">Labels as Values</a>: Getting pointers to labels, and computed gotos.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Nested-Functions.html#Nested%20Functions">Nested Functions</a>: As in Algol and Pascal, lexical scoping of functions.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constructing-Calls.html#Constructing%20Calls">Constructing Calls</a>: Dispatching a call to another function.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Extended-Asm.html#Extended%20Asm">Extended Asm</a>: Assembler instructions with C expressions as operands.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constraints.html#Constraints">Constraints</a>: Constraints for asm operands
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Asm-Labels.html#Asm%20Labels">Asm Labels</a>: Specifying the assembler name to use for a C symbol.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Explicit-Reg-Vars.html#Explicit%20Reg%20Vars">Explicit Reg Vars</a>: Defining variables residing in specified registers.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Return-Address.html#Return%20Address">Return Address</a>: Getting the return or frame address of a function.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Vector-Extensions.html#Vector%20Extensions">Vector Extensions</a>: Using vector instructions through built-in functions.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Target-Builtins.html#Target%20Builtins">Target Builtins</a>: Built-in functions specific to particular targets.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Thread-Local.html#Thread-Local">Thread-Local</a>: Per-thread variables.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Pragmas.html#Pragmas">Pragmas</a>: Pragmas accepted by GCC.
</ol><p>
The following GCC extensions are <b>partially</b> supported. An ignored
attribute means that the LLVM compiler ignores the presence of the attribute,
but the code should still work. An unsupported attribute is one which is
ignored by the LLVM compiler, which will cause a different interpretation of
the program.<p>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Length.html#Variable%20Length">Variable Length</a>:
Arrays whose length is computed at run time.<br>
Supported, but allocated stack space is not freed until the function returns (noted above).
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Attributes.html#Function%20Attributes">Function Attributes</a>:
Declaring that functions have no side effects, or that they can never return.<br>
<b>Supported:</b> <tt>format</tt>, <tt>format_arg</tt>, <tt>non_null</tt>, <tt>constructor</tt>, <tt>destructor</tt>, <tt>unused</tt>, <tt>deprecated</tt>,
<tt>warn_unused_result</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
<b>Ignored:</b> <tt>noreturn</tt>, <tt>noinline</tt>, <tt>always_inline</tt>, <tt>pure</tt>, <tt>const</tt>, <tt>nothrow</tt>, <tt>malloc</tt>
<tt>no_instrument_function</tt>, <tt>cdecl</tt><br>
<b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>used</tt>, <tt>section</tt>, <tt>alias</tt>, <tt>visibility</tt>, <tt>regparm</tt>, <tt>stdcall</tt>,
<tt>fastcall</tt>, all other target specific attributes
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Attributes.html#Variable%20Attributes">Variable Attributes</a>:
Specifying attributes of variables.<br>
<b>Supported:</b> <tt>cleanup</tt>, <tt>common</tt>, <tt>nocommon</tt>,
<tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>transparent_union</tt>,
<tt>unused</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
<b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>mode</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>,
<tt>section</tt>, <tt>shared</tt>, <tt>tls_model</tt>,
<tt>vector_size</tt>, <tt>dllimport</tt>,
<tt>dllexport</tt>, all target specific attributes.<br>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Type-Attributes.html#Type%20Attributes">Type Attributes</a>: Specifying attributes of types.
<b>Supported:</b> <tt>transparent_union</tt>, <tt>unused</tt>,
<tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>may_alias</tt>
<b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>
all target specific attributes.<br>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Other-Builtins.html#Other%20Builtins">Other Builtins</a>:
Other built-in functions.<br>
We support all builtins which have a C language equivalent (e.g.,
<tt>__builtin_cos</tt>), <tt>__builtin_alloca</tt>,
<tt>__builtin_types_compatible_p</tt>, <tt>__builtin_choose_expr</tt>,
<tt>__builtin_constant_p</tt>, and <tt>__builtin_expect</tt> (ignored).
</ol><p>
The following extensions <b>are</b> known to be supported:
<ol>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Statement-Exprs.html#Statement%20Exprs">Statement Exprs</a>: Putting statements and declarations inside expressions.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Typeof.html#Typeof">Typeof</a>: <code>typeof</code>: referring to the type of an expression.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Lvalues.html#Lvalues">Lvalues</a>: Using <code>?:</code>, "<code>,</code>" and casts in lvalues.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Conditionals.html#Conditionals">Conditionals</a>: Omitting the middle operand of a <code>?:</code> expression.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Long-Long.html#Long%20Long">Long Long</a>: Double-word integers.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Complex.html#Complex">Complex</a>: Data types for complex numbers.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Hex-Floats.html#Hex%20Floats">Hex Floats</a>:Hexadecimal floating-point constants.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html#Zero%20Length">Zero Length</a>: Zero-length arrays.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Empty-Structures.html#Empty%20Structures">Empty Structures</a>: Structures with no members.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variadic-Macros.html#Variadic%20Macros">Variadic Macros</a>: Macros with a variable number of arguments.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Escaped-Newlines.html#Escaped%20Newlines">Escaped Newlines</a>: Slightly looser rules for escaped newlines.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Subscripting.html#Subscripting">Subscripting</a>: Any array can be subscripted, even if not an lvalue.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Pointer-Arith.html#Pointer%20Arith">Pointer Arith</a>:Arithmetic on <code>void</code>-pointers and function pointers.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Initializers.html#Initializers">Initializers</a>: Non-constant initializers.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Compound-Literals.html#Compound%20Literals">Compound Literals</a>: Compound literals give structures, unions or arrays as values.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Designated-Inits.html#Designated%20Inits">Designated Inits</a>: Labeling elements of initializers.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Cast-to-Union.html#Cast%20to%20Union">Cast to Union</a>:Casting to union type from any member of the union.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Case-Ranges.html#Case%20Ranges">Case Ranges</a>: `case 1 ... 9' and such.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Mixed-Declarations.html#Mixed%20Declarations">Mixed Declarations</a>: Mixing declarations and code.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Prototypes.html#Function%20Prototypes">Function Prototypes</a>: Prototype declarations and old-style definitions.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C---Comments.html#C++%20Comments">C++ Comments</a>: C++ comments are recognized.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Dollar-Signs.html#Dollar%20Signs">Dollar Signs</a>: Dollar sign is allowed in identifiers.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Character-Escapes.html#Character%20Escapes">Character Escapes</a>: <code>\e</code> stands for the character &lt;ESC&gt;.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Alignment.html#Alignment">Alignment</a>: Inquiring about the alignment of a type or variable.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Inline.html#Inline">Inline</a>: Defining inline functions (as fast as macros).
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Alternate-Keywords.html#Alternate%20Keywords">Alternate Keywords</a>:<code>__const__</code>, <code>__asm__</code>, etc., for header files.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Incomplete-Enums.html#Incomplete%20Enums">Incomplete Enums</a>: <code>enum foo;</code>, with details to follow.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Names.html#Function%20Names">Function Names</a>: Printable strings which are the name of the current function.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Unnamed-Fields.html#Unnamed%20Fields">Unnamed Fields</a>: Unnamed struct/union fields within structs/unions.
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Attribute-Syntax.html#Attribute%20Syntax">Attribute Syntax</a>: Formal syntax for attributes.
</ol><p>
If you run into GCC extensions which have not been included in any of these
lists, please let us know (also including whether or not they work).
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
</ul><h4><a name="c++-fe"><hr size=0>Known problems with the C++ front-end</h4><ul>
For this release, the C++ front-end is considered to be of <b>beta</b> quality.
It works for a large number of simple programs, but has not been extensively
tested. We welcome bug reports though!<p>
<li>The C++ front-end inherits all problems afflicting the <a href="#c-fe">C
front-end</a><p>
<li>The C++ front-end is based on a pre-release of the GCC 3.4 C++ parser. This
parser is significantly more standards compliant (and picky) than prior GCC
versions. For more information, see the C++ section of the <a
href="http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-3.4/changes.html">GCC 3.4 release notes</a>.<p>
<li>Destructors for local objects are not always run when a <tt>longjmp</tt> is
performed. In particular, destructors for objects in the <tt>longjmp</tt>ing
function and in the <tt>setjmp</tt> receiver function may not be run.
Objects in intervening stack frames will be destroyed however (which is
better than most compilers).<p>
<li>The LLVM C++ front-end follows the <a
href="http://www.codesourcery.com/cxx-abi">Itanium C++ ABI</a>.
This document, which is not Itanium specific, specifies a standard for name
mangling, class layout, v-table layout, RTTI formats, and other C++
representation issues. Because we use this API, code generated by the LLVM
compilers should be binary compatible with machine code generated by other
Itanium ABI C++ compilers (such as G++, the Intel and HP compilers, etc).
<i>However</i>, the exception handling mechanism used by LLVM is very
different from the model used in the Itanium ABI, so <b>exceptions will not
interact correctly</b> .
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
</ul><h4><a name="x86-be"><hr size=0>Known problems with the X86 back-end</h4><ul>
<li>The X86 code generator does not currently support the <tt>unwind</tt>
instruction, so code that throws a C++ exception or calls the C <tt>longjmp</tt>
function will abort.<p>
<li>Some executables produced by LLC seem to intermittently crash (extremely
infrequently). The cause of the problem has not been diagnosed, and does not
affect the JIT.<p>
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
</ul><h4><a name="sparc-be"><hr size=0>Known problems with the Sparc back-end</h4><ul>
<li>The Sparc code generator does not currently support the <tt>unwind</tt>
instruction, so code that throws a C++ exception or calls the C <tt>longjmp</tt>
function will abort.<p>
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
</ul><h4><a name="c-be"><hr size=0>Known problems with the C back-end</h4><ul>
<li>The C back-end produces code that violates the ANSI C Type-Based Alias
Analysis rules. As such, special options may be necessary to compile the code
(for example, GCC requires the <tt>-fno-strict-aliasing</tt> option). This
problem probably cannot be fixed.<p>
<li>Initializers for global variables that include floating point numbers may
not be initialized with exactly the right floating point number, if the number
is not accurately representable in decimal. This prevents the Olden "power"
benchmark from producing exactly the right results with the C back-end.<p>
<li>The code produces by the C back-end has only been tested with the Sun CC and
GCC compilers. It is possible that it will have to be adjusted to support other
C compilers.<p>
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</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
<a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information
</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
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A wide variety of additional information is available on the LLVM web page,
including mailing lists publications describing algorithms and components
implemented in LLVM. The web page also contains versions of the API
documentation which is up-to-date with the CVS version of the source code. You
can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going into
the "<tt>llvm/www/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.<p>
If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact us
via the mailing lists.<p>
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</ul>
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<hr><font size-1>
<address>By: <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a></address>
<!-- Created: Wed Oct 1 17:38:54 CDT 2003 -->
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