Beef up the description of bugpoint a lot. Update for renamed options

git-svn-id: https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk@9239 91177308-0d34-0410-b5e6-96231b3b80d8
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Chris Lattner 2003-10-18 20:36:15 +00:00
parent 367e1ee5be
commit d1eb6f7984

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@ -16,29 +16,60 @@
<h3>DESCRIPTION</h3>
The <tt>bugpoint</tt> tool is a generally useful tool for narrowing down
problems in LLVM tools and passes.<p>
problems in LLVM tools and passes. It can be used to debug three types of
failures: optimizer crashes, miscompilations by optimizers, or invalid native
code generation. It aims to reduce testcases to something useful. For example,
if <tt><a href="gccas.html">gccas</a></tt> crashes while optimizing a file, it
will identify the optimization (or combination of optimizations) that causes the
crash, and reduce the file down to a small example which triggers the crash.<p>
<tt>bugpoint</tt> reads the specified list of .bc or .ll files specified on the
command-line and links them together. It then runs the specified LLVM passes on
the resultant bytecode file. If any of the passes crash, or if they produce an
LLVM module which is not verifiable, bugpoint enters "crash debugging mode".
Otherwise, <tt>bugpoint</tt> tries to run the resultant program with a code
generator. If the code generated program does not match the reference output,
it enters "miscompilation debugging mode".
<tt>bugpoint</tt> reads the specified list of <tt>.bc</tt> or <tt>.ll</tt> files
specified on the command-line and links them together. If any LLVM passes are
specified on the command line, it runs these passes on the resultant module. If
any of the passes crash, or if they produce an LLVM module which is not
verifiable, <tt>bugpoint</tt> enters <a href="#crashdebug">crash debugging
mode</a>.<p>
Otherwise, if the <a href="#opt_output"><tt>-output</tt></a> option was not
specified, <tt>bugpoint</tt> runs the initial program with the C backend (which
is assumed to generate good code) to generate a reference output. Once
<tt>bugpoint</tt> has a reference output to match, it tries executing the
original program with the <a href="#opt_run-">selected</a> code generator. If
the resultant output is different than the reference output, it exters <a
href="#codegendebug">code generator debugging mode</a>.<p>
Otherwise, <tt>bugpoint</tt> runs the LLVM program after all of the LLVM passes
have been applied to it. If the executed program matches the reference output,
there is no problem <tt>bugpoint</tt> can debug. Otherwise, it enters <a
href="#miscompilationdebug">miscompilation debugging mode</a>.<p>
<a name="crashdebug">
<h4>Crash debugging mode</h4>
If a pass crashes, bugpoint will try to narrow down the list of passes and the
code to a more manageable amount. Using a sophisticated binary-search algorithm,
<tt>bugpoint</tt> pares down the list of passes to a minimum set.
If an optimizer crashes, <tt>bugpoint</tt> will try a variety of techniques to
narrow down the list of passes and the code to a more manageable amount. First,
<tt>bugpoint</tt> figures out which combination of passes trigger the bug. This
is useful when debugging a problem exposed by <tt>gccas</tt> for example,
because it has over 30 optimization it runs.<p>
[unfinished]
Next, <tt>bugpoint</tt> tries removing functions from the module, to reduce the
size of the testcase to a reasonable amount. Usually it is able to get it down
to a single function for intraprocedural optimizations. Once the number of
functions has been reduced, it attempts to delete various edges in the control
flow graph, to reduce the size of the function as much as possible. Finally,
<tt>bugpoint</tt> deletes any individual LLVM instructions whose absense does
not eliminate the failure. At the end, <tt>bugpoint</tt> should tell you what
passes crash, give you a bytecode file, and give you instructions on how to
reproduce the failure with <tt><a href="opt.html">opt</a></tt> or
<tt><a href="analyze.html">analyze</a></tt>.<p>
<h4>Miscompilation debugging mode</h4>
<a name="codegendebug">
<h4>Code generator debugging mode</h4>
TODO
<h4>Code generator debugging mode</h4>
<a name="miscompilationdebug">
<h4>Miscompilation debugging mode</h4>
TODO
@ -65,7 +96,7 @@ TODO
Print a summary of command line options.
<p>
<li> <tt>-input &lt;filename&gt;</tt>
<a name="opt_input"><li><tt>-input &lt;filename&gt;</tt>
<br>
Specify the contents of &lt;stdin&gt; when the program must be executed.
<p>
@ -80,12 +111,12 @@ TODO
<tt>opt -load &lt;plugin.so&gt; -help</tt>
<p>
<li> <tt>-output &lt;filename&gt;</tt>
<a name="opt_output"><li><tt>-output &lt;filename&gt;</tt>
<br>
Specify a reference output for the &lt;stdout&gt; file stream.
<p>
<li> <tt>-run-(lli|jit|llc|cbe)</tt>
<a name="opt_run-"><li><tt>-run-(int|jit|llc|cbe)</tt>
<br>
Specify which code generator <tt>bugpoint</tt> should use to run the
program.