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+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
+ "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
+<html>
+<head>
+ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
+ <title>Getting Started with LLVM System for Microsoft Visual Studio</title>
+ <link rel="stylesheet" href="llvm.css" type="text/css">
+</head>
+<body>
+
+<div class="doc_title">
+ Getting Started with the LLVM System using Microsoft Visual Studio
+</div>
+
+<ul>
+ <li><a href="#overview">Overview</a>
+ <li><a href="#quickstart">Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</a>
+ <li><a href="#requirements">Requirements</a>
+ <ol>
+ <li><a href="#hardware">Hardware</a>
+ <li><a href="#software">Software</a>
+ </ol></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#starting">Getting Started with LLVM</a>
+ <ol>
+ <li><a href="#terminology">Terminology and Notation</a>
+ <li><a href="#objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a>
+ </ol></li>
+
+ <li><a href="#tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
+ <li><a href="#problems">Common Problems</a>
+ <li><a href="#links">Links</a>
+</ul>
+
+<div class="doc_author">
+ <p>Written by:
+ <a href="mailto:jeffc@jolt-lang.org">Jeff Cohen</a>
+ </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+<div class="doc_section">
+ <a name="overview"><b>Overview</b></a>
+</div>
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+ <p>The Visual Studio port at this time is experimental. It is suitable for
+ use only if you are writing your own compiler front end or otherwise have a
+ need to dynamically generate machine code. The JIT and interpreter are
+ functional, but it is currently not possible to generate assembly code which
+ is then assembled into an executable. You can indirectly create executables
+ by using the C back end.</p>
+
+ <p>To emphasize, there is no C/C++ front end currently available.
+ <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> is based on GCC, which cannot be bootstrapped using VC++.
+ Eventually there should be a <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> based on Cygwin or MinGW that
+ is usable. There is also the option of generating bitcode files on Unix and
+ copying them over to Windows. But be aware the odds of linking C++ code
+ compiled with <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> with code compiled with VC++ is essentially
+ zero.</p>
+
+ <p>The LLVM test suite cannot be run on the Visual Studio port at this
+ time.</p>
+
+ <p>Most of the tools build and work. <tt>bugpoint</tt> does build, but does
+ not work. The other tools 'should' work, but have not been fully tested.</p>
+
+ <p>Additional information about the LLVM directory structure and tool chain
+ can be found on the main <a href="GettingStarted.html">Getting Started</a>
+ page.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+<div class="doc_section">
+ <a name="quickstart"><b>Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</b></a>
+</div>
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>Here's the short story for getting up and running quickly with LLVM:</p>
+
+<ol>
+ <li>Read the documentation.</li>
+ <li>Seriously, read the documentation.</li>
+ <li>Remember that you were warned twice about reading the documentation.</li>
+
+ <li>Get the Source Code
+ <ul>
+ <li>With the distributed files:
+ <ol>
+ <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
+ <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-<i>version</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf -</tt>
+ <i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;or use WinZip</i>
+ <li><tt>cd llvm</tt></li>
+ </ol></li>
+
+ <li>With anonymous Subversion access:
+ <ol>
+ <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt></li>
+ <li><tt>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm-top/trunk llvm-top
+ </tt></li>
+ <li><tt>make checkout MODULE=llvm</tt>
+ <li><tt>cd llvm</tt></li>
+ </ol></li>
+ </ul></li>
+
+ <li> Use <a href="http://www.cmake.org/">CMake</a> to generate up-to-date
+ project files:
+ <ul><li>This step is currently optional as LLVM does still come with a
+ normal Visual Studio solution file, but it is not always kept up-to-date
+ and will soon be deprecated in favor of the multi-platform generator
+ CMake.</li>
+ <li>If CMake is installed then the most simple way is to just start the
+ CMake GUI, select the directory where you have LLVM extracted to, and
+ the default options should all be fine. The one option you may really
+ want to change, regardless of anything else, might be the
+ CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX setting to select a directory to INSTALL to once
+ compiling is complete.</li>
+ <li>If you use CMake to generate the Visual Studio solution and project
+ files, then the Solution will have a few extra options compared to the
+ current included one. The projects may still be built individually, but
+ to build them all do not just select all of them in batch build (as some
+ are meant as configuration projects), but rather select and build just
+ the ALL_BUILD project to build everything, or the INSTALL project, which
+ first builds the ALL_BUILD project, then installs the LLVM headers, libs,
+ and other useful things to the directory set by the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX
+ setting when you first configured CMake.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+
+ <li>Start Visual Studio
+ <ul>
+ <li>If you did not use CMake, then simply double click on the solution
+ file <tt>llvm/win32/llvm.sln</tt>.</li>
+ <li>If you used CMake, then the directory you created the project files,
+ the root directory will have an <tt>llvm.sln</tt> file, just
+ double-click on that to open Visual Studio.</li>
+ </ul></li>
+
+ <li>Build the LLVM Suite:
+ <ul>
+ <li>Simply build the solution.</li>
+ <li>The Fibonacci project is a sample program that uses the JIT. Modify
+ the project's debugging properties to provide a numeric command line
+ argument. The program will print the corresponding fibonacci value.</li>
+ </ul></li>
+
+</ol>
+
+<p>It is strongly encouraged that you get the latest version from Subversion as
+changes are continually making the VS support better.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+<div class="doc_section">
+ <a name="requirements"><b>Requirements</b></a>
+</div>
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+ <p>Before you begin to use the LLVM system, review the requirements given
+ below. This may save you some trouble by knowing ahead of time what hardware
+ and software you will need.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="hardware"><b>Hardware</b></a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+ <p>Any system that can adequately run Visual Studio .NET 2005 SP1 is fine.
+ The LLVM source tree and object files, libraries and executables will consume
+ approximately 3GB.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="software"><b>Software</b></a></div>
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+ <p>You will need Visual Studio .NET 2005 SP1 or higher. The VS2005 SP1
+ beta and the normal VS2005 still have bugs that are not completely
+ compatible. VS2003 would work except (at last check) it has a bug with
+ friend classes that you can work-around with some minor code rewriting
+ (and please submit a patch if you do). Earlier versions of Visual Studio
+ do not support the C++ standard well enough and will not work.</p>
+
+ <p>You will also need the <a href="http://www.cmake.org/">CMake</a> build
+ system since it generates the project files you will use to build with.</p>
+
+ <p>
+ Do not install the LLVM directory tree into a path containing spaces (e.g.
+ C:\Documents and Settings\...) as the configure step will fail.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+<div class="doc_section">
+ <a name="starting"><b>Getting Started with LLVM</b></a>
+</div>
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>The remainder of this guide is meant to get you up and running with
+LLVM using Visual Studio and to give you some basic information about the LLVM
+environment.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="terminology">Terminology and Notation</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>Throughout this manual, the following names are used to denote paths
+specific to the local system and working environment. <i>These are not
+environment variables you need to set but just strings used in the rest
+of this document below</i>. In any of the examples below, simply replace
+each of these names with the appropriate pathname on your local system.
+All these paths are absolute:</p>
+
+<dl>
+ <dt>SRC_ROOT</dt>
+ <dd><p>This is the top level directory of the LLVM source tree.</p></dd>
+
+ <dt>OBJ_ROOT</dt>
+ <dd><p>This is the top level directory of the LLVM object tree (i.e. the
+ tree where object files and compiled programs will be placed. It is
+ fixed at SRC_ROOT/win32).</p></dd>
+</dl>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+ <p>The object files are placed under <tt>OBJ_ROOT/Debug</tt> for debug builds
+ and <tt>OBJ_ROOT/Release</tt> for release (optimized) builds. These include
+ both executables and libararies that your application can link against.</p>
+
+ <p>The files that <tt>configure</tt> would create when building on Unix are
+ created by the <tt>Configure</tt> project and placed in
+ <tt>OBJ_ROOT/llvm</tt>. You application must have OBJ_ROOT in its include
+ search path just before <tt>SRC_ROOT/include</tt>.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+<div class="doc_section">
+ <a name="tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
+</div>
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<ol>
+ <li><p>First, create a simple C file, name it 'hello.c':</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+<pre>
+#include &lt;stdio.h&gt;
+int main() {
+ printf("hello world\n");
+ return 0;
+}
+</pre></div></li>
+
+ <li><p>Next, compile the C file into a LLVM bitcode file:</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+<pre>
+% llvm-gcc -c hello.c -emit-llvm -o hello.bc
+</pre>
+</div>
+
+ <p>This will create the result file <tt>hello.bc</tt> which is the LLVM
+ bitcode that corresponds the the compiled program and the library
+ facilities that it required. You can execute this file directly using
+ <tt>lli</tt> tool, compile it to native assembly with the <tt>llc</tt>,
+ optimize or analyze it further with the <tt>opt</tt> tool, etc.</p>
+
+ <p><b>Note: while you cannot do this step on Windows, you can do it on a
+ Unix system and transfer <tt>hello.bc</tt> to Windows. Important:
+ transfer as a binary file!</b></p></li>
+
+ <li><p>Run the program using the just-in-time compiler:</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+<pre>
+% lli hello.bc
+</pre>
+</div>
+
+ <p>Note: this will only work for trivial C programs. Non-trivial programs
+ (and any C++ program) will have dependencies on the GCC runtime that
+ won't be satisfied by the Microsoft runtime libraries.</p></li>
+
+ <li><p>Use the <tt>llvm-dis</tt> utility to take a look at the LLVM assembly
+ code:</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+<pre>
+% llvm-dis &lt; hello.bc | more
+</pre>
+</div></li>
+
+ <li><p>Compile the program to C using the LLC code generator:</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+<pre>
+% llc -march=c hello.bc
+</pre>
+</div></li>
+
+ <li><p>Compile to binary using Microsoft C:</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+<pre>
+% cl hello.cbe.c
+</pre>
+</div>
+
+ <p>Note: this will only work for trivial C programs. Non-trivial programs
+ (and any C++ program) will have dependencies on the GCC runtime that won't
+ be satisfied by the Microsoft runtime libraries.</p></li>
+
+ <li><p>Execute the native code program:</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+<pre>
+% hello.cbe.exe
+</pre>
+</div></li>
+</ol>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+<div class="doc_section">
+ <a name="problems">Common Problems</a>
+</div>
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+ <ul>
+ <li>In Visual C++, if you are linking with the x86 target statically, the
+ linker will remove the x86 target library from your generated executable or
+ shared library because there are no references to it. You can force the
+ linker to include these references by using
+ <tt>"/INCLUDE:_X86TargetMachineModule"</tt> when linking. In the Visual
+ Studio IDE, this can be added in
+<tt>Project&nbsp;Properties->Linker->Input->Force&nbsp;Symbol&nbsp;References</tt>.
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+
+<p>If you are having problems building or using LLVM, or if you have any other
+general questions about LLVM, please consult the <a href="FAQ.html">Frequently
+Asked Questions</a> page.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+<div class="doc_section">
+ <a name="links">Links</a>
+</div>
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>This document is just an <b>introduction</b> to how to use LLVM to do
+some simple things... there are many more interesting and complicated things
+that you can do that aren't documented here (but we'll gladly accept a patch
+if you want to write something up!). For more information about LLVM, check
+out:</p>
+
+<ul>
+ <li><a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM homepage</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://llvm.org/doxygen/">LLVM doxygen tree</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://llvm.org/docs/Projects.html">Starting a Project
+ that Uses LLVM</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+
+<hr>
+<address>
+ <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img
+ src="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/images/vcss-blue" alt="Valid CSS"></a>
+ <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img
+ src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401-blue" alt="Valid HTML 4.01"></a>
+
+ <a href="mailto:jeffc@jolt-lang.org">Jeff Cohen</a><br>
+ <a href="http://llvm.org">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
+ Last modified: $Date$
+</address>
+</body>
+</html>