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<title>LLVM 1.3 Release Notes</title>
<div class="doc_title">LLVM 1.3 Release Notes</div>
<li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
<li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New?</a></li>
<li><a href="GettingStarted.html">Installation Instructions</a></li>
<li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a></li>
<li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#experimental">Experimental features included in this
release</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>
<li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a></li>
Chris Lattner
committed
<div class="doc_author">
<p>Written by the <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">LLVM team</a><p>
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<div class="doc_section">
<a name="intro">Introduction</a>
</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
<p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM compiler
infrastructure, release 1.3. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including any
known problems and bug fixes from the previous release. The most up-to-date
href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/releases/1.3/">LLVM 1.3 web site</a>. If you are
not reading this on the LLVM web pages, you should probably go there because
<p>For more information about LLVM, including information about potentially more
current releases, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">main
web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM developer's mailing
<p>Note that if you are reading this file from CVS, this document applies
to the <i>next</i> release, not the current one. To see the release notes for
the current or previous releases, see the <a
href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
</div>
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<div class="doc_section">
<a name="whatsnew">What's New?</a>
</div>
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Misha Brukman
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<p>This is the fourth public release of the LLVM compiler infrastructure. This
release primarily improves the <a href="#codequality">performance of the
code</a> produced by all aspects of the LLVM compiler and adds some <a
href="#newfeatures">new features</a>, though it does <a href="#bugfix">fix a few
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bugs</a> as well.</p>
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<p> At this time, LLVM is known to correctly compile and run all C & C++
SPEC CPU2000 benchmarks, the Olden benchmarks, and the Ptrdist benchmarks. It
has also been used to compile <b>many</b> other programs. LLVM now also works
with a broad variety of C++ programs, though it has still received less testing
than the C front-end.</p>
</div>
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<div class="doc_subsubsection">
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<a name="newfeatures">This release implements the following new features:</a>
<div class="doc_text">
<li>The LLVM <a href="LangRef.html#i_select"><tt>select</tt></a> instruction is
now fully implemented and supported by all transformations, native code
generators, and the interpreter.</li>
<li>Bugpoint can now narrow down code-generation bugs to a loop nest, where
before it could only narrow them down to a function being miscompiled.</li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR40">Bugpoint can now debug arbitrary
modes of llc</a> and lli, by passing them command line flags (e.g.,
<tt>-regalloc=linearscan</tt>, <tt>-enable-correct-eh-support</tt>, etc.) </li>
<li>The Control Flow Graph in the native code generators is no longer
constrained to be the same as the CFG for the LLVM input code.</li>
<li>The LLVM induction variable analysis routines have been rewritten.</li>
<li>LLVM now has new loop unrolling and loop unswitching passes.</li>
<li>The induction variable substitution pass performs linear function test
replacement and exit value replacement optimizations.</li>
<li>The <a href="BytecodeFormat.html">LLVM Bytecode file format</a> is now
documented.</a></li>
<li>LLVM now has first-class support for <a href="GarbageCollection.html">Accurate
Garbage Collection</a>, enabling the use of aggressive copying and generational
collectors.</li>
<li>LLVM now includes an implementation of Andersen's interprocedural alias
analysis algorithm.</li>
<li>Bugpoint can <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR327">extract individual
basic blocks</a> to track down reduce miscompilation testcases.</li>
</div>
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<div class="doc_subsubsection">
In this release, the following missing features were implemented:
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR82">LLVM cannot handle structures with
more than 256 elements</a></li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR38">[bugpoint] External functions used in
non-instruction entities, such as global constant initializer</a></li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR178">Stacker does not handle targets
with 64-bit pointers.</a></li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR290">Bugpoint doesn't support
uses of external fns by immediate constant exprs</a></li>
</div>
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<div class="doc_subsubsection">
<a name="qualityofimp">In this release, the following Quality of Implementation
issues were fixed:</a>
<div class="doc_text">
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR305">LLVM tools will happily spew
bytecode onto your terminal</a></li>
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<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR329">[llvmgcc] type names are not emitted
for structure typedefs</a></li>
<li>All documentation is now conformant to the HTML 4.01 (Strict) level.</li>
</div>
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<div class="doc_subsubsection">
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In this release, the following build problems were fixed:
<div class="doc_text">
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<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR301">Minor configure bugs with
-disable/enable-povray and -disable-spec</a></li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR289">shell scripts output by gccld don't
work if you change PATH</a></li>
</div>
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<div class="doc_subsubsection">
<a name="codequality">This release includes the following Code Quality
improvements:</a>
<div class="doc_text">
<li>Fixed: <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR309">[vmcore] Code quality problem
due to long operand of getelementptr</a></li>
<li>The X86 backend now generates substantially better code for 64-bit integer
and floating point operations.</li>
<li>The -inline pass no longer inlines mutually recursive functions until it
hits the inlining threshold.</li>
<li>The -inline pass no longer misses obvious inlining opportunities just
because the callee eventually calls into an external function.</li>
<li>The -simplifycfg pass can now "if convert" simple statements into the new
<tt>select</tt> instruction.</li>
<li>The -loopsimplify pass can now break <a
href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR35">natural loops with multiple backedges</a>
into multiple nested loops. This enables a variety of subsequent
optimizations.</li>
<li>The -adce pass can now eliminate calls to functions that do not not write to
memory.</li>
<li>The link-time optimizer now runs the -prune-eh pass (to remove unused
<li>The -simplifycfg pass can now eliminate simple correlated branches (such as
"<tt>if (A < B && A < B)</tt>", and can turn short-circuiting
operators into the strict versions when useful (such as "<tt>if (A < B || A
> C)</tt>" into "<tt>if (A < B | A > C)</tt>"</li>
<li>LLVM now has infrastructure for (simple and sparse conditional) constant
propagation of function calls. It currently supports a few math library
functions like sqrt/sin/cos/etc.</li>
</div>
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<div class="doc_subsubsection">
<a name="bugfix">In this release, the following bugs in the previous release
were fixed:</a>
<div class="doc_text">
<p>Bugs in the LLVM Core:</p>
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR330">[vmcore] Linker causes erroneous
asssertion</a></li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR306">[loopsimplify] Loop simplify
incorrectly updates dominator information</a></li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR310">[tailduplicate] DemoteRegToStack
breaks SSA form</a></li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR313">[X86] JIT miscompiles unsigned short
to floating point cast</a></li>
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<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR332">[adce] Crash handling unreachable
code that unwinds</a></li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR333">[sparc] LLC can't emit 2 functions
of the same name, both having constant pools</a></li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR337">[livevar] Live variables missed
physical register use of aliased definition</a></li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR340">Verifier misses malformed switch instruction</a></li>
</ol>
<p>Bugs in the C/C++ front-end:</p>
<ol>
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<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR326">[llvmgcc] Crash on use of undeclared
enum type</a></li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR298">[llvmgcc] Variable length array
indexing miscompiled</a></li>
</div>
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<div class="doc_section">
<a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
</div>
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<p>LLVM has been extensively tested on Intel and AMD machines running Red Hat
Linux. It has also been tested under FreeBSD, and on Sun UltraSPARC
workstations running Solaris 8. Additionally, LLVM works on Mac OS X 10.3 and
above, but only with the C backend and interpreter; no native machine-code
generator for the PowerPC is available yet.</p>
<p>The core LLVM infrastructure uses
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/">GNU autoconf</a> 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.</p>
Brian Gaeke
committed
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<div class="doc_subsection">
In this release, the following portability problems were fixed:
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
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<ol>
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<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR304">warnings compiling Stacker compiler
on Mac OS X</a></li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR308">Archive file reader doesn't
understand abbreviated names in headers</a></li>
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</ol>
</div>
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<div class="doc_section">
<a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
<p>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 <a
href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
there isn't already one.</p>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="experimental">Experimental features included with this release</a>
</div>
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<p>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.</p>
<ul>
<li>The following passes are incomplete or buggy: <tt>-pgmdep, -memdep,
-ipmodref, -sortstructs, -swapstructs, -cee</tt></li>
<li>The <tt>-pre</tt> pass is incomplete (there are cases it doesn't handle that
it should) and not thoroughly tested.</li>
<li>The <tt>llvm-ar</tt> tool is incomplete and probably buggy.</li>
<li>The <tt>llvm-db</tt> tool is in a very early stage of development.</li>
</ul>
</div>
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<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="core">Known problems with the LLVM Core</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<ul>
<li>In the JIT, <tt>dlsym</tt> on a symbol compiled by the JIT will not
work.</li>
<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.</li>
<li>It is not possible to <tt>dlopen</tt> an LLVM bytecode file in the JIT.</li>
<li>Linking in static archive files (.a files) is very slow (there is no symbol
<li>The gccld program <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR139">does not link
objects/archives in the order specified on the command line.</a></li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR240">The lower-invoke pass does not mark
values live across a setjmp as volatile</a>. This missing feature only affects
targets whose setjmp/longjmp libraries do not save and restore the entire
register file.</li>
</ul>
</div>
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<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="c-fe">Known problems with the C front-end</a>
</div>
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
<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);
}
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<li>Initialization of global union variables can only be done <a
href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=162">with the largest union
member</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR244">[llvm-gcc] Error when an implicitly
external function is re-declared as static</a></li>
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
<div class="doc_subsubsection">
Notes
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<ul>
<li>Inline assembly is not yet supported.</li>
<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.</li>
<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. Note that
<tt>setjmp</tt> and <tt>longjmp</tt> <em>are</em> compiled correctly.
<li><tt>getcontext</tt>, <tt>setcontext</tt>, <tt>makecontext</tt>
- These functions have not been tested.
</ol></li>
<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>
<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>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constructing-Calls.html#Constructing%20Calls">Constructing Calls</a>: Dispatching a call to another function.</li>
<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>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constraints.html#Constraints">Constraints</a>: Constraints for asm operands.</li>
<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>
<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>
<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>
<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>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Thread-Local.html#Thread-Local">Thread-Local</a>: Per-thread variables.</li>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Pragmas.html#Pragmas">Pragmas</a>: Pragmas accepted by GCC.</li>
<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 and will cause a different interpretation of
<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>
<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>
<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.</li>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Type-Attributes.html#Type%20Attributes">Type Attributes</a>: Specifying attributes of types.<br>
<b>Supported:</b> <tt>transparent_union</tt>, <tt>unused</tt>,
<tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>may_alias</tt><br>
<b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>,
all target specific attributes.</li>
<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).</li>
<p>The following extensions <b>are</b> known to be supported:</p>
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<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>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Statement-Exprs.html#Statement%20Exprs">Statement Exprs</a>: Putting statements and declarations inside expressions.</li>
<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>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Lvalues.html#Lvalues">Lvalues</a>: Using <code>?:</code>, "<code>,</code>" and casts in lvalues.</li>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Conditionals.html#Conditionals">Conditionals</a>: Omitting the middle operand of a <code>?:</code> expression.</li>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Long-Long.html#Long%20Long">Long Long</a>: Double-word integers.</li>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Complex.html#Complex">Complex</a>: Data types for complex numbers.</li>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Hex-Floats.html#Hex%20Floats">Hex Floats</a>:Hexadecimal floating-point constants.</li>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html#Zero%20Length">Zero Length</a>: Zero-length arrays.</li>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Empty-Structures.html#Empty%20Structures">Empty Structures</a>: Structures with no members.</li>
<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>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Escaped-Newlines.html#Escaped%20Newlines">Escaped Newlines</a>: Slightly looser rules for escaped newlines.</li>
<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>
<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>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Initializers.html#Initializers">Initializers</a>: Non-constant initializers.</li>
<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>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Designated-Inits.html#Designated%20Inits">Designated Inits</a>: Labeling elements of initializers.</li>
<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>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Case-Ranges.html#Case%20Ranges">Case Ranges</a>: `case 1 ... 9' and such.</li>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Mixed-Declarations.html#Mixed%20Declarations">Mixed Declarations</a>: Mixing declarations and code.</li>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Prototypes.html#Function%20Prototypes">Function Prototypes</a>: Prototype declarations and old-style definitions.</li>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C---Comments.html#C++%20Comments">C++ Comments</a>: C++ comments are recognized.</li>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Dollar-Signs.html#Dollar%20Signs">Dollar Signs</a>: Dollar sign is allowed in identifiers.</li>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Character-Escapes.html#Character%20Escapes">Character Escapes</a>: <code>\e</code> stands for the character <ESC>.</li>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Alignment.html#Alignment">Alignment</a>: Inquiring about the alignment of a type or variable.</li>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Inline.html#Inline">Inline</a>: Defining inline functions (as fast as macros).</li>
<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>
<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>
<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>
<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>
<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>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Attribute-Syntax.html#Attribute%20Syntax">Attribute Syntax</a>: Formal syntax for attributes.</li>
</ol></li>
</ul>
<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).</p>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="c++-fe">Known problems with the C++ front-end</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<p>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.</p>
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
<li>The C++ front-end inherits all problems afflicting the <a href="#c-fe">C
</div>
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
<div class="doc_subsubsection">
Notes
</div>
<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>.</li>
<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
<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
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<ul>
Chris Lattner
committed
<li>None so far.
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the Sparc back-end</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<ul>
<li>There are several programs in the LLVM testsuite that the Sparc code generator is known to miscompile.</li>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<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
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR33">Initializers for global variables</a>
cannot include special floating point numbers like Not-A-Number or
Infinity.</li>
<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR56">Zero arg vararg functions are not
supported</a>. This should not affect LLVM produced by the C or C++
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_section">
<a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_text">
<p>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 "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p>
<p>If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact
us via the <a href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">mailing
lists</a>.</p>
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