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

How to further evolve the backend

With the code from this and the previous chapter, we have created a backend that can translate some LLVM IR into machine code. It is very satisfying to see the backend working, but it is far from being usable for serious tasks. Much more coding is needed. Here is a recipe for how you can further evolve the backend:

  • The first decision you should make is if you want to use GlobalISel or the selection DAG. In our experience, GlobalISel is easier to understand and develop, but all targets in the LLVM source tree implement the selection DAG, and you may already have experience in using it.
  • Next, you should define the instructions for adding and subtracting integer values, which can be done similarly to the bitwise and instruction.
  • After, you should implement the load and store instructions. This is more involved since you need to translate the different addressing modes. Most likely, you will deal with indexing, for example, to address an...