llvm/docs/GettingStartedVS.html
Oscar Fuentes 96b5f7113a Updated GettingStartedVS.html to reflect current state.
Reorganized it too.

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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
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<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<title>Getting Started with LLVM System for Microsoft Visual Studio</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="llvm.css" type="text/css">
</head>
<body>
<div class="doc_title">
Getting Started with the LLVM System using Microsoft Visual Studio
</div>
<ul>
<li><a href="#overview">Overview</a>
<li><a href="#requirements">Requirements</a>
<ol>
<li><a href="#hardware">Hardware</a>
<li><a href="#software">Software</a>
</ol></li>
<li><a href="#quickstart">Getting Started</a>
<li><a href="#tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
<li><a href="#problems">Common Problems</a>
<li><a href="#links">Links</a>
</ul>
<div class="doc_author">
<p>Written by:
<a href="mailto:jeffc@jolt-lang.org">Jeff Cohen</a>
</p>
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_section">
<a name="overview"><b>Overview</b></a>
</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
<p>The Visual Studio port has some limitations. It is suitable for
use if you are writing your own compiler front end or otherwise have a
need to dynamically generate machine code. The JIT and interpreter are
functional, but it is currently not possible to generate assembly code which
is then assembled into an executable. You can output object files
in COFF format, though. You can also indirectly create executables
by using the C backend.</p>
<p><tt>llvm-gcc</tt> is based on GCC, which cannot be bootstrapped
using VC++. There are <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> binaries based on MinGW
available on the
LLVM <a href="http://www.llvm.org/releases/download.html"> download
page</a>. Eventually, <a href="http://clang.llvm.org">Clang</a>
will be able to produce executables on Windows.</p>
<p><tt>bugpoint</tt> does build, but does not work. The other tools
'should' work, but have not been fully tested.</p>
<p>Additional information about the LLVM directory structure and tool chain
can be found on the main <a href="GettingStarted.html">Getting Started</a>
page.</p>
</div>
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<div class="doc_section">
<a name="requirements"><b>Requirements</b></a>
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_text">
<p>Before you begin to use the LLVM system, review the requirements given
below. This may save you some trouble by knowing ahead of time what hardware
and software you will need.</p>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="hardware"><b>Hardware</b></a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<p>Any system that can adequately run Visual Studio .NET 2005 SP1 is fine.
The LLVM source tree and object files, libraries and executables will consume
approximately 3GB.</p>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="software"><b>Software</b></a></div>
<div class="doc_text">
<p>You will need Visual Studio .NET 2005 SP1 or higher. The VS2005 SP1
beta and the normal VS2005 still have bugs that are not completely
compatible. VS2003 would work except (at last check) it has a bug with
friend classes that you can work-around with some minor code rewriting
(and please submit a patch if you do). Earlier versions of Visual Studio
do not support the C++ standard well enough and will not work.</p>
<p>You will also need the <a href="http://www.cmake.org/">CMake</a> build
system since it generates the project files you will use to build with.</p>
<p>
Do not install the LLVM directory tree into a path containing spaces (e.g.
C:\Documents and Settings\...) as the configure step will fail.</p>
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_section">
<a name="quickstart"><b>Getting Started</b></a>
</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
<p>Here's the short story for getting up and running quickly with LLVM:</p>
<ol>
<li>Read the documentation.</li>
<li>Seriously, read the documentation.</li>
<li>Remember that you were warned twice about reading the documentation.</li>
<li>Get the Source Code
<ul>
<li>With the distributed files:
<ol>
<li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
<li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-<i>version</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf -</tt>
<i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;or use WinZip</i>
<li><tt>cd llvm</tt></li>
</ol></li>
<li>With anonymous Subversion access:
<ol>
<li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt></li>
<li><tt>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm-top/trunk llvm-top
</tt></li>
<li><tt>make checkout MODULE=llvm</tt>
<li><tt>cd llvm</tt></li>
</ol></li>
</ul></li>
<li> Use <a href="http://www.cmake.org/">CMake</a> to generate up-to-date
project files:
<ul>
<li>Once CMake is installed then the most simple way is to just
start the CMake GUI, select the directory where you have LLVM
extracted to, and the default options should all be fine. One
option you may really want to change, regardless of anything
else, might be the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX setting to select a
directory to INSTALL to once compiling is complete, although
installation is not mandatory for using LLVM. Another
important option is LLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD, which controls the
LLVM target architectures that are included on the build. If
you want to run the <a href="#tutorial">example described
below</a> you must set that variable to "X86;CBackend".</li>
<li>See the <a href="CMake.html">LLVM CMake guide</a> for
detailed information about how to configure the LLVM
build.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Start Visual Studio
<ul>
<li>In the directory you created the project files will have
an <tt>llvm.sln</tt> file, just double-click on that to open
Visual Studio.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Build the LLVM Suite:
<ul>
<li>The projects may still be built individually, but
to build them all do not just select all of them in batch build (as some
are meant as configuration projects), but rather select and build just
the ALL_BUILD project to build everything, or the INSTALL project, which
first builds the ALL_BUILD project, then installs the LLVM headers, libs,
and other useful things to the directory set by the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX
setting when you first configured CMake.</li>
<li>The Fibonacci project is a sample program that uses the JIT.
Modify the project's debugging properties to provide a numeric
command line argument or run it from the command line. The
program will print the corresponding fibonacci value.</li>
</ul></li>
</ol>
</div>
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<div class="doc_section">
<a name="tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_text">
<ol>
<li><p>First, create a simple C file, name it 'hello.c':</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
#include &lt;stdio.h&gt;
int main() {
printf("hello world\n");
return 0;
}
</pre></div></li>
<li><p>Next, compile the C file into a LLVM bitcode file:</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
% llvm-gcc -c hello.c -emit-llvm -o hello.bc
</pre>
</div>
<p>This will create the result file <tt>hello.bc</tt> which is the LLVM
bitcode that corresponds the the compiled program and the library
facilities that it required. You can execute this file directly using
<tt>lli</tt> tool, compile it to native assembly with the <tt>llc</tt>,
optimize or analyze it further with the <tt>opt</tt> tool, etc.</p>
<p><b>Note: you will need the llvm-gcc binaries from the
LLVM <a href="http://www.llvm.org/releases/download.html">
download page</a></b></p></li>
<li><p>Run the program using the just-in-time compiler:</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
% lli hello.bc
</pre>
</div>
<p>Note: this will only work for trivial C programs. Non-trivial programs
(and any C++ program) will have dependencies on the GCC runtime that
won't be satisfied by the Microsoft runtime libraries.</p></li>
<li><p>Use the <tt>llvm-dis</tt> utility to take a look at the LLVM assembly
code:</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
% llvm-dis &lt; hello.bc | more
</pre>
</div></li>
<li><p>Compile the program to C using the LLC code generator:</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
% llc -march=c hello.bc
</pre>
<p><b>Note: you need to add the C backend to the LLVM build,
which amounts to setting the CMake
variable <i>LLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD</i> to "X86;CBackend" when
you generate the VS solution files. See
the <a href="CMake.html">LLVM CMake guide</a> for more
information about how to configure the LLVM
build.</b></p></li>
</div></li>
<li><p>Compile to binary using Microsoft C:</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
% cl hello.cbe.c
</pre>
</div>
<p>Note: this will only work for trivial C programs. Non-trivial programs
(and any C++ program) will have dependencies on the GCC runtime that won't
be satisfied by the Microsoft runtime libraries.</p></li>
<li><p>Execute the native code program:</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
% hello.cbe.exe
</pre>
</div></li>
</ol>
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_section">
<a name="problems">Common Problems</a>
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_text">
<p>If you are having problems building or using LLVM, or if you have any other
general questions about LLVM, please consult the <a href="FAQ.html">Frequently
Asked Questions</a> page.</p>
</div>
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<div class="doc_section">
<a name="links">Links</a>
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_text">
<p>This document is just an <b>introduction</b> to how to use LLVM to do
some simple things... there are many more interesting and complicated things
that you can do that aren't documented here (but we'll gladly accept a patch
if you want to write something up!). For more information about LLVM, check
out:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM homepage</a></li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.org/doxygen/">LLVM doxygen tree</a></li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.org/docs/Projects.html">Starting a Project
that Uses LLVM</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
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<a href="mailto:jeffc@jolt-lang.org">Jeff Cohen</a><br>
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