| ================================================================== |
| Getting Started with the LLVM System using Microsoft Visual Studio |
| ================================================================== |
| |
| .. contents:: |
| :local: |
| |
| |
| Overview |
| ======== |
| Welcome to LLVM on Windows! This document only covers LLVM on Windows using |
| Visual Studio, not mingw or cygwin. In order to get started, you first need to |
| know some basic information. |
| |
| There are many different projects that compose LLVM. The first piece is the |
| LLVM suite. This contains all of the tools, libraries, and header files needed |
| to use LLVM. It contains an assembler, disassembler, bitcode analyzer and |
| bitcode optimizer. It also contains basic regression tests that can be used to |
| test the LLVM tools and the Clang front end. |
| |
| The second piece is the `Clang <http://clang.llvm.org/>`_ front end. This |
| component compiles C, C++, Objective C, and Objective C++ code into LLVM |
| bitcode. Clang typically uses LLVM libraries to optimize the bitcode and emit |
| machine code. LLVM fully supports the COFF object file format, which is |
| compatible with all other existing Windows toolchains. |
| |
| The last major part of LLVM, the execution Test Suite, does not run on Windows, |
| and this document does not discuss it. |
| |
| Additional information about the LLVM directory structure and tool chain |
| can be found on the main :doc:`GettingStarted` page. |
| |
| |
| Requirements |
| ============ |
| 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. |
| |
| Hardware |
| -------- |
| Any system that can adequately run Visual Studio 2015 is fine. The LLVM |
| source tree and object files, libraries and executables will consume |
| approximately 3GB. |
| |
| Software |
| -------- |
| You will need Visual Studio 2015 or higher, with the latest Update installed. |
| |
| You will also need the `CMake <http://www.cmake.org/>`_ build system since it |
| generates the project files you will use to build with. |
| |
| If you would like to run the LLVM tests you will need `Python |
| <http://www.python.org/>`_. Version 2.7 and newer are known to work. You will |
| need `GnuWin32 <http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/>`_ tools, too. |
| |
| Do not install the LLVM directory tree into a path containing spaces (e.g. |
| ``C:\Documents and Settings\...``) as the configure step will fail. |
| |
| |
| Getting Started |
| =============== |
| Here's the short story for getting up and running quickly with LLVM: |
| |
| 1. Read the documentation. |
| 2. Seriously, read the documentation. |
| 3. Remember that you were warned twice about reading the documentation. |
| 4. Get the Source Code |
| |
| * With the distributed files: |
| |
| 1. ``cd <where-you-want-llvm-to-live>`` |
| 2. ``gunzip --stdout llvm-VERSION.tar.gz | tar -xvf -`` |
| (*or use WinZip*) |
| 3. ``cd llvm`` |
| |
| * With anonymous Subversion access: |
| |
| *Note:* some regression tests require Unix-style line ending (``\n``). To |
| pass all regression tests, please add two lines *enable-auto-props = yes* |
| and *\* = svn:mime-type=application/octet-stream* to |
| ``C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Subversion\config``. |
| |
| 1. ``cd <where-you-want-llvm-to-live>`` |
| 2. ``svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk llvm`` |
| 3. ``cd llvm`` |
| |
| 5. Use `CMake <http://www.cmake.org/>`_ to generate up-to-date project files: |
| |
| * Once CMake is installed then the simplest 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 CMake complains that it cannot find the compiler, make sure that |
| you have the Visual Studio C++ Tools installed, not just Visual Studio |
| itself (trying to create a C++ project in Visual Studio will generally |
| download the C++ tools if they haven't already been). |
| * See the :doc:`LLVM CMake guide <CMake>` for detailed information about |
| how to configure the LLVM build. |
| * CMake generates project files for all build types. To select a specific |
| build type, use the Configuration manager from the VS IDE or the |
| ``/property:Configuration`` command line option when using MSBuild. |
| * By default, the Visual Studio project files generated by CMake use the |
| 32-bit toolset. If you are developing on a 64-bit version of Windows and |
| want to use the 64-bit toolset, pass the ``-Thost=x64`` flag when |
| generating the Visual Studio solution. This requires CMake 3.8.0 or later. |
| |
| 6. Start Visual Studio |
| |
| * In the directory you created the project files will have an ``llvm.sln`` |
| file, just double-click on that to open Visual Studio. |
| |
| 7. Build the LLVM Suite: |
| |
| * 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. |
| * 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. |
| |
| 8. Test LLVM in Visual Studio: |
| |
| * If ``%PATH%`` does not contain GnuWin32, you may specify |
| ``LLVM_LIT_TOOLS_DIR`` on CMake for the path to GnuWin32. |
| * You can run LLVM tests by merely building the project "check". The test |
| results will be shown in the VS output window. |
| |
| 9. Test LLVM on the command line: |
| |
| * The LLVM tests can be run by changing directory to the llvm source |
| directory and running: |
| |
| .. code-block:: bat |
| |
| C:\..\llvm> python ..\build\bin\llvm-lit --param build_config=Win32 --param build_mode=Debug --param llvm_site_config=../build/test/lit.site.cfg test |
| |
| This example assumes that Python is in your PATH variable, you |
| have built a Win32 Debug version of llvm with a standard out of |
| line build. You should not see any unexpected failures, but will |
| see many unsupported tests and expected failures. |
| |
| A specific test or test directory can be run with: |
| |
| .. code-block:: bat |
| |
| C:\..\llvm> python ..\build\bin\llvm-lit --param build_config=Win32 --param build_mode=Debug --param llvm_site_config=../build/test/lit.site.cfg test/path/to/test |
| |
| |
| An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain |
| ==================================== |
| |
| 1. First, create a simple C file, name it '``hello.c``': |
| |
| .. code-block:: c |
| |
| #include <stdio.h> |
| int main() { |
| printf("hello world\n"); |
| return 0; |
| } |
| |
| 2. Next, compile the C file into an LLVM bitcode file: |
| |
| .. code-block:: bat |
| |
| C:\..> clang -c hello.c -emit-llvm -o hello.bc |
| |
| This will create the result file ``hello.bc`` which is the LLVM bitcode |
| that corresponds the compiled program and the library facilities that |
| it required. You can execute this file directly using ``lli`` tool, |
| compile it to native assembly with the ``llc``, optimize or analyze it |
| further with the ``opt`` tool, etc. |
| |
| Alternatively you can directly output an executable with clang with: |
| |
| .. code-block:: bat |
| |
| C:\..> clang hello.c -o hello.exe |
| |
| The ``-o hello.exe`` is required because clang currently outputs ``a.out`` |
| when neither ``-o`` nor ``-c`` are given. |
| |
| 3. Run the program using the just-in-time compiler: |
| |
| .. code-block:: bat |
| |
| C:\..> lli hello.bc |
| |
| 4. Use the ``llvm-dis`` utility to take a look at the LLVM assembly code: |
| |
| .. code-block:: bat |
| |
| C:\..> llvm-dis < hello.bc | more |
| |
| 5. Compile the program to object code using the LLC code generator: |
| |
| .. code-block:: bat |
| |
| C:\..> llc -filetype=obj hello.bc |
| |
| 6. Link to binary using Microsoft link: |
| |
| .. code-block:: bat |
| |
| C:\..> link hello.obj -defaultlib:libcmt |
| |
| 7. Execute the native code program: |
| |
| .. code-block:: bat |
| |
| C:\..> hello.exe |
| |
| |
| Common Problems |
| =============== |
| If you are having problems building or using LLVM, or if you have any other |
| general questions about LLVM, please consult the :doc:`Frequently Asked Questions |
| <FAQ>` page. |
| |
| |
| Links |
| ===== |
| This document is just an **introduction** 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: |
| |
| * `LLVM homepage <http://llvm.org/>`_ |
| * `LLVM doxygen tree <http://llvm.org/doxygen/>`_ |
| |