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

Using AST numbering to generate IR code in SSA form

To generate IR code in SSA form from the AST, we can use an approach called AST numbering. The basic idea is that for each basic block, we store the current value of local variables written in this basic block.

Note

The implementation is based on the paper Simple and Efficient Construction of Static Single Assignment Form, by Braun et al., International Conference on CompilerConstruction 2013 (CC 2013), Springer (see http://individual.utoronto.ca/dfr/ece467/braun13.pdf). In its presented form, it only works for IR code that has a structured controlled flow. The paper also describes the necessary extensions if you need to support arbitrary control flow – for example, a goto statement.

Although it is simple, we will still need several steps. We will introduce the required data structure first, and after that, we will learn how to read and write values local to a basic block. Then, we will handle values that are used...