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

Adding the M88k backend to LLVM

We have not yet discussed where to place the target description files. Each backend in LLVM has a subdirectory in llvm/lib/Target. We create the M88k directory here and copy the target description files into it.

Of course, just adding the TableGen files is not enough. LLVM uses a registry to look up instances of a target implementation, and it expects certain global functions to register those instances. And since some parts are generated, we can already provide an implementation.

All information about a target, like the target triple and factory function for the target machine, assembler, disassembler, and so on, are stored in an instance of the Target class. Each target holds a static instance of this class, and this instance is registered in the central registry:

  1. The implementation is in the M88kTargetInfo.cpp file in the TargetInfo subdirectory in our target. The single instance of the Target class is held inside the getTheM88kTarget...