Understanding LLVM today
Nowadays, the LLVM project has grown and holds a huge collection of compiler-related tools. In fact, the name LLVM might refer to any of the following:
- The LLVM project/infrastructure: This is an umbrella for several projects that, together, form a complete compiler: frontends, backends, optimizers, assemblers, linkers, libc++, compiler-rt, and a JIT engine. The word "LLVM" has this meaning, for example, in the following sentence: "LLVM is comprised of several projects".
- An LLVM-based compiler: This is a compiler built partially or completely with the LLVM infrastructure. For example, a compiler might use LLVM for the frontend and backend but use GCC and GNU system libraries to perform the final link. LLVM has this meaning in the following sentence, for example: "I used LLVM to compile C programs to a MIPS platform".
- LLVM libraries: This is the reusable code portion of the LLVM infrastructure. For example, LLVM has this meaning in the...
