Search icon CANCEL
Subscription
0
Cart icon
Your Cart (0 item)
Close icon
You have no products in your basket yet
Arrow left icon
Explore Products
Best Sellers
New Releases
Books
Videos
Audiobooks
Learning Hub
Conferences
Free Learning
Arrow right icon
Getting started with LLVM core libraries
Getting started with LLVM core libraries

Getting started with LLVM core libraries: Get to grips with LLVM essentials and use the core libraries to build advanced tools

eBook
£20.98 £29.99
Paperback
£36.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at £16.99p/m

What do you get with eBook?

Product feature icon Instant access to your Digital eBook purchase
Product feature icon Download this book in EPUB and PDF formats
Product feature icon Access this title in our online reader with advanced features
Product feature icon DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want
OR
Modal Close icon
Payment Processing...
tick Completed

Billing Address

Table of content icon View table of contents Preview book icon Preview Book

Getting started with LLVM core libraries

Chapter 2. External Projects

Projects that live outside the core LLVM and Clang repositories need to be separately downloaded. In this chapter, we introduce a variety of other official LLVM projects and explain how to build and install them. Readers only interested in core LLVM tools may skip this chapter or come back when required.

In this chapter, we will cover what are and how to install the following projects:

  • Clang extra tools
  • Compiler-RT
  • DragonEgg
  • LLVM test suite
  • LLDB
  • libc++

Beyond the projects covered in this chapter, there are two official LLVM projects outside the scope of this book: Polly, the polyhedral optimizer, and lld, the LLVM linker, which is currently in development.

Prebuilt binary packages do not include any of the external projects presented in this chapter, except for Compiler-RT. Therefore, unlike the previous chapter, we will only cover techniques that involve downloading the source code and build them ourselves.

Do not expect the same level of maturity as that of...

Introducing Clang extras

The most noticeable design decision of LLVM is its segregation between backend and frontend as two separate projects, LLVM core and Clang. LLVM started as a set of tools orbiting around the LLVM intermediate representation (IR) and depended on a hacked GCC to translate high-level language programs to its particular IR, stored in bitcode files. Bitcode is a term coined as a parody of Java bytecode files. An important milestone of the LLVM project happened when Clang appeared as the first frontend specifically designed by the LLVM team, bringing with it the same level of quality, clear documentation, and library organization as the core LLVM. It is not only able to convert C and C++ programs into LLVM IR but also to supervise the entire compilation process as a flexible compiler driver that strives to stay compatible with GCC.

We will henceforth refer to Clang as a frontend program rather than a driver, responsible for translating C and C++ programs to the LLVM IR...

Using the DragonEgg plugin

As explained earlier, LLVM started as a project that was dependent on GCC when it still lacked its own C/C++ frontend. In those instances, to use LLVM, you needed to download a hacked GCC source tree called llvm-gcc and compile it in its entirety. Since the compilation involved the full GCC package, it was a very time-consuming and tricky task, requiring knowledge of all the necessary GNU lore to rebuild GCC by yourself. The DragonEgg project appeared as a clever solution to leverage the GCC plugin system, separating the LLVM logic in its own and much smaller code tree. In this way, the users no longer needed to rebuild the entire GCC package, but just a plugin, and then load it into GCC. DragonEgg is also the sole project under the LLVM project umbrella that is licensed under GPL.

Even with the rise of Clang, DragonEgg persists today because Clang only handles the C and C++ languages, while GCC is able to parse a wider variety of languages. By using the DragonEgg...

Summary

The LLVM umbrella is composed of several projects; some of them are not necessary for the main compiler driver to work but are useful tools and libraries. In this chapter, we showed how one can build and install such components. Further chapters will explore in detail some of those tools. We advise the reader to come back to this chapter again for build and install instructions.

In the next chapter, we will introduce you to the design of the LLVM core libraries and tools.

Left arrow icon Right arrow icon

Description

In today’s fast-paced world of change, companies expect you to do more, with less. Drawing on over a decade of Change Management experience as a consultant with Fortune 500 companies including IBM and NCR, Emily Carr shares the secrets to making change happen smoothly.

What you will learn

  • Configure, build, and install extra LLVM open source projects including Clang tools, static analyzer, CompilerRT, LLDB, DragonEgg, libc++, and LLVM testsuite
  • Understand the LLVM library design and interaction between libraries and standalone tools
  • Increase your knowledge of source code processing stages by learning how the Clang frontend uses a lexer, parser, and syntax analysis
  • Manipulate, generate, and play with LLVM IR files while writing custom IR analyses and transformation passes
  • Write tools to use LLVM JustinTime (JIT) compilation capabilities
  • Find bugs and improve your code by using the static analyzer
  • Design source code analysis and transformation tools using LibClang, LibTooling, and the Clang plugin interface

Product Details

Country selected
Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Aug 26, 2014
Length: 314 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781782166931
Category :
Languages :
Tools :

What do you get with eBook?

Product feature icon Instant access to your Digital eBook purchase
Product feature icon Download this book in EPUB and PDF formats
Product feature icon Access this title in our online reader with advanced features
Product feature icon DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want
OR
Modal Close icon
Payment Processing...
tick Completed

Billing Address

Product Details

Publication date : Aug 26, 2014
Length: 314 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781782166931
Category :
Languages :
Tools :

Packt Subscriptions

See our plans and pricing
Modal Close icon
£16.99 billed monthly
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Simple pricing, no contract
£169.99 billed annually
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just £5 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts
£234.99 billed in 18 months
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just £5 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts

Frequently bought together


Stars icon
Total £ 94.97
LLVM Cookbook
£36.99
Getting started with LLVM core libraries
£36.99
LLVM Essentials
£20.99
Total £ 94.97 Stars icon

Table of Contents

11 Chapters
1. Build and Install LLVM Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. External Projects Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Tools and Design Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. The Frontend Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. The LLVM Intermediate Representation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. The Backend Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. The Just-in-Time Compiler Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Cross-platform Compilation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. The Clang Static Analyzer Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Clang Tools with LibTooling Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Top Reviews
Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.3
(18 Ratings)
5 star 66.7%
4 star 22.2%
3 star 0%
2 star 0%
1 star 11.1%
Filter icon Filter
Top Reviews

Filter reviews by




mahdi hamzeh Oct 31, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
A book like this has been well overdue. A well written book which presents enough information to start hacking llvm.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Moslem Dec 05, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Very useful book.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Volker Floeder Nov 29, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Excellent book to get started with LLVM.Beginning with very basic things like getting the source code and the original documentation to let you build everything from scratch, the book quickly lets you dig into various parts of the toolchain, enabling you to use parts of them for your own purposes.However, the book uses the 3.4 version, giving some hints regarding the actual 3.5 version - so if you want to walk through the book without surprises, I recommend to use the 3.4 version of LLVM first and update later. - Be aware, that if you bootstrap the toolchain, your current compiler might also have some impact on how smoothly you get through the build process.So if you want to install LLVM and get a good understanding of how the various parts work together then this is the book that you have been waiting for.However, I also recommend it If you are looking for a book that lets you get a deeper insight of various central mechanisms and data-structures of LLVM, just skip the very basic parts.Well, I have learned a lot, so I definitely recommend it!
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Sandeep Dasgupta Nov 30, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
One of the problems that I faced with the online tutorials is that many of them are not updated to the recent version and the information seems to be scattered and there is no clear guidance on where to start from. This book is the first of its kind to give the most updated information also covering up the most basic requirement. Also it is a very good tutorials for learning llvm IR as it explains that with many good choozen examples. For those interested in learning the back end of the compiler this book is an excellent start.Overall i liked this book because of the depth it covers with good lucidity.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Devchandra Meetei L Oct 25, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
One of much needed book on LLVM,For a long time, It was felt that book is required. I have been keep delaying learning LLVM/clang.Prima facie, This gives me in succinct way on conquering LLVM. But will keep updated on the coverage later
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Get free access to Packt library with over 7500+ books and video courses for 7 days!
Start Free Trial

FAQs

How do I buy and download an eBook? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Where there is an eBook version of a title available, you can buy it from the book details for that title. Add either the standalone eBook or the eBook and print book bundle to your shopping cart. Your eBook will show in your cart as a product on its own. After completing checkout and payment in the normal way, you will receive your receipt on the screen containing a link to a personalised PDF download file. This link will remain active for 30 days. You can download backup copies of the file by logging in to your account at any time.

If you already have Adobe reader installed, then clicking on the link will download and open the PDF file directly. If you don't, then save the PDF file on your machine and download the Reader to view it.

Please Note: Packt eBooks are non-returnable and non-refundable.

Packt eBook and Licensing When you buy an eBook from Packt Publishing, completing your purchase means you accept the terms of our licence agreement. Please read the full text of the agreement. In it we have tried to balance the need for the ebook to be usable for you the reader with our needs to protect the rights of us as Publishers and of our authors. In summary, the agreement says:

  • You may make copies of your eBook for your own use onto any machine
  • You may not pass copies of the eBook on to anyone else
How can I make a purchase on your website? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

If you want to purchase a video course, eBook or Bundle (Print+eBook) please follow below steps:

  1. Register on our website using your email address and the password.
  2. Search for the title by name or ISBN using the search option.
  3. Select the title you want to purchase.
  4. Choose the format you wish to purchase the title in; if you order the Print Book, you get a free eBook copy of the same title. 
  5. Proceed with the checkout process (payment to be made using Credit Card, Debit Cart, or PayPal)
Where can I access support around an eBook? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
  • If you experience a problem with using or installing Adobe Reader, the contact Adobe directly.
  • To view the errata for the book, see www.packtpub.com/support and view the pages for the title you have.
  • To view your account details or to download a new copy of the book go to www.packtpub.com/account
  • To contact us directly if a problem is not resolved, use www.packtpub.com/contact-us
What eBook formats do Packt support? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Our eBooks are currently available in a variety of formats such as PDF and ePubs. In the future, this may well change with trends and development in technology, but please note that our PDFs are not Adobe eBook Reader format, which has greater restrictions on security.

You will need to use Adobe Reader v9 or later in order to read Packt's PDF eBooks.

What are the benefits of eBooks? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
  • You can get the information you need immediately
  • You can easily take them with you on a laptop
  • You can download them an unlimited number of times
  • You can print them out
  • They are copy-paste enabled
  • They are searchable
  • There is no password protection
  • They are lower price than print
  • They save resources and space
What is an eBook? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Packt eBooks are a complete electronic version of the print edition, available in PDF and ePub formats. Every piece of content down to the page numbering is the same. Because we save the costs of printing and shipping the book to you, we are able to offer eBooks at a lower cost than print editions.

When you have purchased an eBook, simply login to your account and click on the link in Your Download Area. We recommend you saving the file to your hard drive before opening it.

For optimal viewing of our eBooks, we recommend you download and install the free Adobe Reader version 9.