LLVM 1.4 Release Notes

1. Introduction
2. What's New?
3. Installation Instructions
4. Portability and Supported Platforms
5. Known Problems
   - Experimental features included in this release
   - Known problems with the LLVM Core
   - Known problems with the C Front-end
   - Known problems with the C++ Front-end
   - Known problems with the X86 Back-end
   - Known problems with the SparcV9 Back-end
   - Known problems with the PowerPC Back-end
   - Known problems with the C back-end
6. Additional Information

Written by the LLVM team

Introduction

This document contains the release notes for the LLVM compiler infrastructure, release 1.4. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including any known problems and bug fixes from the previous release. The most up-to-date version of this document can be found on the LLVM 1.4 web site. 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.

For more information about LLVM, including information about potentially more current releases, please check out the main web site. If you have questions or comments, the LLVM developer's mailing list is a good place to send them.

Note that if you are reading this file from CVS, this document applies to the next release, not the current one. To see the release notes for the current or previous releases, see the releases page.

What's New?

This is the fifth public release of the LLVM compiler infrastructure.

At this time, LLVM is known to correctly compile and run all C & C++ SPEC CPU95 & 2000 benchmarks, the Olden benchmarks, and the Ptrdist benchmarks, and many other C and C++ programs.

This release implements the following new features:

1. The test/Programs hierarchy has been moved out of the main LLVM tree into a separate CVS repo and tarball. This shrinks the distribution size of LLVM itself dramatically.
2. LLVM now optimizes global variables significantly more than it did before.
3. LLVM now includes the new '`undef`' value and `unreachable` instruction, which give the optimizer more information about the behavior of the program.
4. The LLVM makefiles have been improved to build LLVM much faster (2x) and includes new targets (like dist-check, uninstall). One important change is associated with PR456. The libraries and tools will now be built into `$builddir/Debug/{bin,lib}` instead of `$builddir/tools/Debug` and `$builddir/lib/Debug`. Similarly for `Release` and `Profile` builds.
5. The LLVM source code is much more compatible with Microsoft Visual C++, including the JIT and runtime-code generation, though the entire system may not work with it.
6. llvmgcc and llvmg++ now emit source line number information when '-g' is passed in. This information can be used with llvm-db or other tools and passes.

In this release, the following missing features were implemented:

1. JIT interface should support arbitrary calls
2. The `llvm-ar` tool was previously incomplete and didn't properly support other ar(1) implementations. This has been corrected. `llvm-ar` now fully supports all archive editing functions, table of contents listing, extraction, and printing. It can also read BSD4.4/MacOSX and SVR4 style archives. See llvm-ar for details.

In this release, the following Quality of Implementation issues were fixed:

1. [llvmg++] Tons of warnings are spewed when linking to libstdc++
2. include/{Support,Config} -> include/llvm/{Support,Config}

In this release, the following build problems were fixed:

This release includes the following Code Quality improvements:

1. Ugly code generated for std::min/std::max

In this release, the following bugs in the previous release were fixed:

Bugs fixed in the LLVM Core:

1. [licm] LICM invalidates alias analysis info and uses broken information (optimizer crash)
2. [asmwriter] Asmwriter is really slow for functions with lots of values
3. [anders-aa] Andersen's AA is completely broken in LLVM 1.3
4. [bcwriter] Empty compaction tables defined
5. [X86] llc output for functions w/certain names tickles GNU 'as' bugs

Bugs in the C/C++ front-end:

1. [llvmg++] not enough templates are instantiated
2. [llvmg++] Extern const globals cannot be marked 'constant' if they have nontrivial ctors or dtors

Bugs fixed in the Sparc V9 back-end:

1. [sparcv9] regalloc assertion failure with certain indirect calls

Portability and Supported Platforms

LLVM is known to work in the following platforms:

- Intel and AMD machines running Red Hat Linux and FreeBSD (and probably other unix-like systems).
- Sun UltraSPARC workstations running Solaris 8.
- Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 with the Cygwin libraries.
- PowerPC-based Mac OS X boxes, running 10.2 and above. Note that no JIT support is available yet, and LLC support is beta. The C backend can be used to produce stable code for this platform.

The core LLVM infrastructure uses GNU autoconf to adapt itself to the machine and operating system on which it is built. However, minor porting may be required to get LLVM to work on new platforms. We welcome your portability patches and reports of successful builds or error messages.

Note that the LLVM build system does not currently support directories with spaces on them when running on Win32/cygwin. We strongly recommend running LLVM and the C frontend out of a top-level directory without spaces (e.g., `/cygdrive/c/llvm`). Also, make sure to install all of the cygwin packages. By default, many important tools are not installed that are needed by the LLVM build process or test suite (e.g., /bin/time). Finally, please make sure that there are no directories with spaces in them in your PATH environment variable.

Known Problems

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. If you run into a problem, please check the LLVM bug database and submit a bug if there isn't already one.

Experimental features included with this release

The following components of this LLVM release are either untested, known to be broken or unreliable, or are in early development. These components should not be relied on, and bugs should not be filed against them, but they may be useful to some people. In particular, if you would like to work on one of these components, please contact us on the llvmdev list.

- The PowerPC backend is incomplete and is known to miscompile several SPEC benchmarks. The file `llvm/lib/Target/PowerPC/README.txt` has details.
- The following passes are incomplete or buggy: `-pgmdep, -memdep, -ipmodref, -cee, -branch-combine, -instloops, -paths`
- The `-pre` pass is incomplete (there are cases it doesn't handle that it should) and not thoroughly tested.
- The `llvm-db` tool is in a very early stage of development.

Known problems with the LLVM Core

- In the JIT, `dlsym` on a symbol compiled by the JIT will not work.
- 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.
- Linking in static archive files (.a files) is slow (there is no symbol table in the archive).
- The gccld program does not link objects/archives in the order specified on the command line.
- The lower-invoke pass does not mark values live across a setjmp as volatile. This missing feature only affects targets whose setjmp/longjmp libraries do not save and restore the entire register file.

Known problems with the C front-end
Bugs

- 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:

          for (i = 0; i != 1000000; ++i) {
            int X[n];
            foo(X);
          }

- Initialization of global union variables can only be done with the largest union member.
- [llvm-gcc] Error when an implicitly external function is re-declared as static

Notes

- Inline assembly is not yet supported.
- "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.
- The following Unix system functionality has not been tested and may not work:
  1. `sigsetjmp`, `siglongjmp` - These are not turned into the appropriate `invoke`/`unwind` instructions. Note that `setjmp` and `longjmp` are compiled correctly.
  2. `getcontext`, `setcontext`, `makecontext` - These functions have not been tested.
- Although many GCC extensions are supported, some are not. In particular, the following extensions are known to not be supported:
  1. Local Labels: Labels local to a block.
  2. Nested Functions: As in Algol and Pascal, lexical scoping of functions.
  3. Constructing Calls: Dispatching a call to another function.
  4. Extended Asm: Assembler instructions with C expressions as operands.
  5. Constraints: Constraints for asm operands.
  6. Asm Labels: Specifying the assembler name to use for a C symbol.
  7. Explicit Reg Vars: Defining variables residing in specified registers.
  8. Vector Extensions: Using vector instructions through built-in functions.
  9. Target Builtins: Built-in functions specific to particular targets.
  10. Thread-Local: Per-thread variables.
  11. Pragmas: Pragmas accepted by GCC.

  The following GCC extensions are partially 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 and will cause a different interpretation of the program.

  1. Variable Length: Arrays whose length is computed at run time.
     Supported, but allocated stack space is not freed until the function returns (noted above).
  2. Function Attributes: Declaring that functions have no side effects or that they can never return.
     Supported: `format`, `format_arg`, `non_null`, `constructor`, `destructor`, `unused`, `deprecated`, `warn_unused_result`, `weak`
     Ignored: `noreturn`, `noinline`, `always_inline`, `pure`, `const`, `nothrow`, `malloc`, `no_instrument_function`, `cdecl`
     Unsupported: `used`, `section`, `alias`, `visibility`, `regparm`, `stdcall`, `fastcall`, all other target specific attributes
  3. Variable Attributes: Specifying attributes of variables.
     Supported: `cleanup`, `common`, `nocommon`, `deprecated`, `transparent_union`, `unused`, `weak`
     Unsupported: `aligned`, `mode`, `packed`, `section`, `shared`, `tls_model`, `vector_size`, `dllimport`, `dllexport`, all target specific attributes.
  4. Type Attributes: Specifying attributes of types.
     Supported: `transparent_union`, `unused`, `deprecated`, `may_alias`
     Unsupported: `aligned`, `packed`, all target specific attributes.
  5. Other Builtins: Other built-in functions.
     We support all builtins which have a C language equivalent (e.g., `__builtin_cos`), `__builtin_alloca`, `__builtin_types_compatible_p`, `__builtin_choose_expr`, `__builtin_constant_p`, and `__builtin_expect` (currently ignored). We also support builtins for ISO C99 floating point comparison macros (e.g., `__builtin_islessequal`).

  The following extensions are known to be supported:

  1. Labels as Values: Getting pointers to labels and computed gotos.
  2. Statement Exprs: Putting statements and declarations inside expressions.
  3. Typeof: `typeof`: referring to the type of an expression.
  4. Lvalues: Using `?:`, "`,`" and casts in lvalues.
  5. Conditionals: Omitting the middle operand of a `?:` expression.
  6. Long Long: Double-word integers.
  7. Complex: Data types for complex numbers.
  8. Hex Floats:Hexadecimal floating-point constants.
  9. Zero Length: Zero-length arrays.
  10. Empty Structures: Structures with no members.
  11. Variadic Macros: Macros with a variable number of arguments.
  12. Escaped Newlines: Slightly looser rules for escaped newlines.
  13. Subscripting: Any array can be subscripted, even if not an lvalue.
  14. Pointer Arith: Arithmetic on `void`-pointers and function pointers.
  15. Initializers: Non-constant initializers.
  16. Compound Literals: Compound literals give structures, unions, or arrays as values.
  17. Designated Inits: Labeling elements of initializers.
  18. Cast to Union: Casting to union type from any member of the union.
  19. Case Ranges: `case 1 ... 9' and such.
  20. Mixed Declarations: Mixing declarations and code.
  21. Function Prototypes: Prototype declarations and old-style definitions.
  22. C++ Comments: C++ comments are recognized.
  23. Dollar Signs: Dollar sign is allowed in identifiers.
  24. Character Escapes: `\e` stands for the character <ESC>.
  25. Alignment: Inquiring about the alignment of a type or variable.
  26. Inline: Defining inline functions (as fast as macros).
  27. Alternate Keywords:`__const__`, `__asm__`, etc., for header files.
  28. Incomplete Enums: `enum foo;`, with details to follow.
  29. Function Names: Printable strings which are the name of the current function.
  30. Return Address: Getting the return or frame address of a function.
  31. Unnamed Fields: Unnamed struct/union fields within structs/unions.
  32. Attribute Syntax: Formal syntax for attributes.

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).

Known problems with the C++ front-end

For this release, the C++ front-end is considered to be fully functional but has not been tested as thoroughly as the C front-end. It has been tested and works for a number of non-trivial programs, but there may be lurking bugs. Please report any bugs or problems.

Bugs

- The C++ front-end inherits all problems afflicting the C front-end.
- IA-64 specific: The C++ front-end does not use IA64 ABI compliant layout of v-tables. In particular, it just stores function pointers instead of function descriptors in the vtable. This bug prevents mixing C++ code compiled with LLVM with C++ objects compiled by other C++ compilers.

Notes

- 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 GCC 3.4 release notes.
- Destructors for local objects are not always run when a `longjmp` is performed. In particular, destructors for objects in the `longjmp`ing function and in the `setjmp` receiver function may not be run. Objects in intervening stack frames will be destroyed, however (which is better than most compilers).
- The LLVM C++ front-end follows the Itanium C++ ABI. 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). However, the exception handling mechanism used by LLVM is very different from the model used in the Itanium ABI, so exceptions will not interact correctly.

Known problems with the X86 back-end

- none yet

Known problems with the SparcV9 back-end

- [sparcv9] SparcV9 backend miscompiles several programs in the LLVM test suite

Known problems with the PowerPC back-end

- none yet

Known problems with the C back-end

- 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 `-fno-strict-aliasing` option). This problem probably cannot be fixed.
- Initializers for global variables cannot include special floating point numbers like Not-A-Number or Infinity.
- Zero arg vararg functions are not supported. This should not affect LLVM produced by the C or C++ frontends.

Additional Information

A wide variety of additional information is available on the LLVM web page, including mailing lists and 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 "`llvm/doc/`" directory in the LLVM tree.

If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact us via the mailing lists.