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

Handling messages for the user

Only a centralized definition of messages is missing. In a large piece of software (such as a compiler), you do not want to sprinkle message strings all over the place. If there is a request to change messages or translate them into another language, then you better have them in a central place!

A simple approach is that each message has an ID (an enum member), a severity level such as Error or Warning, and a string containing the messages. In your code, you only refer to the message ID. The severity level and message string are only used when the message is printed. These three items (the ID, the security level, and the message) must be managed consistently. The LLVM libraries use the preprocessor to solve this. The data is stored in a file with the .def suffix and is wrapped in a macro name. That file is usually included several times, with different definitions for the macro. The definition is in the include/tinylang/Basic/Diagnostic.def file path...