Book Image

Learn LLVM 17 - Second Edition

By : Kai Nacke, Amy Kwan
Book Image

Learn LLVM 17 - Second Edition

By: Kai Nacke, Amy Kwan

Overview of this book

LLVM was built to bridge the gap between the theoretical knowledge found in compiler textbooks and the practical demands of compiler development. With a modular codebase and advanced tools, LLVM empowers developers to build compilers with ease. This book serves as a practical introduction to LLVM, guiding you progressively through complex scenarios and ensuring that you navigate the challenges of building and working with compilers like a pro. The book starts by showing you how to configure, build, and install LLVM libraries, tools, and external projects. You’ll then be introduced to LLVM's design, unraveling its applications in each compiler stage: frontend, optimizer, and backend. Using a real programming language subset, you'll build a frontend, generate LLVM IR, optimize it through the pipeline, and generate machine code. Advanced chapters extend your expertise, covering topics such as extending LLVM with a new pass, using LLVM tools for debugging, and enhancing the quality of your code. You'll also focus on just-in-time compilation issues and the current state of JIT-compilation support with LLVM. Finally, you’ll develop a new backend for LLVM, gaining insights into target description and how instruction selection works. By the end of this book, you'll have hands-on experience with the LLVM compiler development framework through real-world examples and source code snippets.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
1
Part 1: The Basics of Compiler Construction with LLVM
4
Part 2: From Source to Machine Code Generation
10
Part 3: Taking LLVM to the Next Level
14
Part 4: Roll Your Own Backend

JIT Compilation

The LLVM core libraries come with the ExecutionEngine component that allows the compilation and execution of intermediate representation (IR) code in memory. Using this component, we can build just-in-time (JIT) compilers, which allows for direct execution of IR code. A JIT compiler works more like an interpreter because no object code needs to be stored on secondary storage.

In this chapter, you will learn about applications for JIT compilers, and how the LLVM JIT compiler works in principle. You will explore the LLVM dynamic compiler and interpreter and learn how to implement JIT compiler tools on your own. Furthermore, you will also learn how to use a JIT compiler as part of a static compiler, and the associated challenges.

This chapter will cover the following topics:

  • Getting an overview of LLVM’s JIT implementation and use cases
  • Using JIT compilation for direct execution
  • Implementing your own JIT compiler from existing classes
  • Implementing...