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 a new machine function pass to LLVM

In this section, we will explore how to implement a new machine function pass within LLVM that runs after instruction selection. Specifically, a MachineFunctionPass class will be created, which is a subset of the original FunctionPass class within LLVM that can be run with opt. This class adapts the original infrastructure to allow for the implementation of passes that operate on the MachineFunction representation in the backend through llc.

It is important to note that the implementation of passes within the backend utilizes the interfaces of the legacy pass manager, rather than the new pass manager. This is because LLVM currently does not have a complete working implementation of the new pass manager within the backend. Due to this, this chapter will follow the method of adding a new pass within the legacy pass manager pipeline.

In terms of the actual implementation, such as function passes, machine function passes optimize a single...