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

Extending the ELF file format definition in LLVM

The ELF file format is one of the binary object file formats LLVM supports. ELF itself is defined for many CPU architectures, and there is also a definition for the M88k architecture. All we need to do is to add the definition of the relocations and some flags. The relocations are given in Chapter 4, Basics of IR Code Generation, of the System V ABI M88k Processor supplement book (see link within the Setting the stage for a new backend section at the beginning of the chapter):

  1. We need to type the following code into the llvm/include/llvm/BinaryFormat/ELFRelocs/M88k.def file:
    #ifndef ELF_RELOC
    #error "ELF_RELOC must be defined"
    #endif
    ELF_RELOC(R_88K_NONE, 0)
    ELF_RELOC(R_88K_COPY, 1)
    // Many more…
  2. We also add the following flags into the llvm/include/llvm/BinaryFormat/ELF.h file, along with the definition of the relocations:
    // M88k Specific e_flags
    enum : unsigned {
        EF_88K_NABI = 0x80000000...