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

Implementing our own JIT compiler with LLJIT

The lli tool is nothing more than a thin wrapper around LLVM APIs. In the first section, we learned that the ORC engine uses a layered approach. The ExecutionSession class represents a running JIT program. Besides other items, this class holds information such as used JITDylib instances. A JITDylib instance is a symbol table that maps symbol names to addresses. For example, these can be symbols defined in an LLVM IR file or the symbols of a loaded shared library.

For executing LLVM IR, we do not need to create a JIT stack on our own, as the LLJIT class provides this functionality. You can also make use of this class when migrating from the older MCJIT implementation, as this class essentially provides the same functionality.

To illustrate the functions of the LLJIT utility, we will be creating an interactive calculator application while incorporating JIT functionality. The main source code of our JIT calculator will be extended from...