[llvm-commits] [release_14] CVS: llvm/docs/LangRef.html
John Criswell
criswell at cs.uiuc.edu
Thu Dec 9 09:46:41 PST 2004
Changes in directory llvm/docs:
LangRef.html updated: 1.77.2.1 -> 1.77.2.2
---
Log message:
Merge in Chris's updates which add a discussion of constansts, re-organizes
some of the content, and describes the new undef keyword.
---
Diffs of the changes: (+418 -168)
Index: llvm/docs/LangRef.html
diff -u llvm/docs/LangRef.html:1.77.2.1 llvm/docs/LangRef.html:1.77.2.2
--- llvm/docs/LangRef.html:1.77.2.1 Wed Dec 8 22:26:53 2004
+++ llvm/docs/LangRef.html Thu Dec 9 11:46:26 2004
@@ -17,6 +17,14 @@
<li><a href="#abstract">Abstract</a></li>
<li><a href="#introduction">Introduction</a></li>
<li><a href="#identifiers">Identifiers</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#highlevel">High Level Structure</a>
+ <ol>
+ <li><a href="#modulestructure">Module Structure</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#linkage">Linkage Types</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#globalvars">Global Variables</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#functionstructure">Function Structure</a></li>
+ </ol>
+ </li>
<li><a href="#typesystem">Type System</a>
<ol>
<li><a href="#t_primitive">Primitive Types</a>
@@ -35,11 +43,13 @@
</li>
</ol>
</li>
- <li><a href="#highlevel">High Level Structure</a>
+ <li><a href="#constants">Constants</a>
<ol>
- <li><a href="#modulestructure">Module Structure</a></li>
- <li><a href="#globalvars">Global Variables</a></li>
- <li><a href="#functionstructure">Function Structure</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#simpleconstants">Simple Constants</a>
+ <li><a href="#aggregateconstants">Aggregate Constants</a>
+ <li><a href="#globalconstants">Global Variable and Function Addresses</a>
+ <li><a href="#undefvalues">Undefined Values</a>
+ <li><a href="#constantexprs">Constant Expressions</a>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#instref">Instruction Reference</a>
@@ -218,71 +228,256 @@
purposes:</p>
<ol>
- <li>Numeric constants are represented as you would expect: 12, -3
-123.421, etc. Floating point constants have an optional hexadecimal
-notation.</li>
- <li>Named values are represented as a string of characters with a '%'
-prefix. For example, %foo, %DivisionByZero,
-%a.really.long.identifier. The actual regular expression used is '<tt>%[a-zA-Z$._][a-zA-Z$._0-9]*</tt>'.
-Identifiers which require other characters in their names can be
-surrounded with quotes. In this way, anything except a <tt>"</tt>
-character can be used in a name.</li>
- <li>Unnamed values are represented as an unsigned numeric value with
-a '%' prefix. For example, %12, %2, %44.</li>
+ <li>Named values are represented as a string of characters with a '%' prefix.
+ For example, %foo, %DivisionByZero, %a.really.long.identifier. The actual
+ regular expression used is '<tt>%[a-zA-Z$._][a-zA-Z$._0-9]*</tt>'.
+ Identifiers which require other characters in their names can be surrounded
+ with quotes. In this way, anything except a <tt>"</tt> character can be used
+ in a name.</li>
+
+ <li>Unnamed values are represented as an unsigned numeric value with a '%'
+ prefix. For example, %12, %2, %44.</li>
+
+ <li>Constants, which are described in <a href="#constants">section about
+ constants</a></li>
</ol>
-<p>LLVM requires that values start with a '%' sign for two reasons:
-Compilers don't need to worry about name clashes with reserved words,
-and the set of reserved words may be expanded in the future without
-penalty. Additionally, unnamed identifiers allow a compiler to quickly
-come up with a temporary variable without having to avoid symbol table
-conflicts.</p>
+
+<p>LLVM requires that values start with a '%' sign for two reasons: Compilers
+don't need to worry about name clashes with reserved words, and the set of
+reserved words may be expanded in the future without penalty. Additionally,
+unnamed identifiers allow a compiler to quickly come up with a temporary
+variable without having to avoid symbol table conflicts.</p>
+
<p>Reserved words in LLVM are very similar to reserved words in other
languages. There are keywords for different opcodes ('<tt><a
- href="#i_add">add</a></tt>', '<tt><a href="#i_cast">cast</a></tt>', '<tt><a
- href="#i_ret">ret</a></tt>', etc...), for primitive type names ('<tt><a
- href="#t_void">void</a></tt>', '<tt><a href="#t_uint">uint</a></tt>',
-etc...), and others. These reserved words cannot conflict with
-variable names, because none of them start with a '%' character.</p>
-<p>Here is an example of LLVM code to multiply the integer variable '<tt>%X</tt>'
-by 8:</p>
+href="#i_add">add</a></tt>', '<tt><a href="#i_cast">cast</a></tt>', '<tt><a
+href="#i_ret">ret</a></tt>', etc...), for primitive type names ('<tt><a
+href="#t_void">void</a></tt>', '<tt><a href="#t_uint">uint</a></tt>', etc...),
+and others. These reserved words cannot conflict with variable names, because
+none of them start with a '%' character.</p>
+
+<p>Here is an example of LLVM code to multiply the integer variable
+'<tt>%X</tt>' by 8:</p>
+
<p>The easy way:</p>
-<pre> %result = <a href="#i_mul">mul</a> uint %X, 8<br></pre>
+
+<pre>
+ %result = <a href="#i_mul">mul</a> uint %X, 8
+</pre>
+
<p>After strength reduction:</p>
-<pre> %result = <a href="#i_shl">shl</a> uint %X, ubyte 3<br></pre>
+
+<pre>
+ %result = <a href="#i_shl">shl</a> uint %X, ubyte 3
+</pre>
+
<p>And the hard way:</p>
-<pre> <a href="#i_add">add</a> uint %X, %X <i>; yields {uint}:%0</i>
- <a
- href="#i_add">add</a> uint %0, %0 <i>; yields {uint}:%1</i>
- %result = <a
- href="#i_add">add</a> uint %1, %1<br></pre>
+
+<pre>
+ <a href="#i_add">add</a> uint %X, %X <i>; yields {uint}:%0</i>
+ <a href="#i_add">add</a> uint %0, %0 <i>; yields {uint}:%1</i>
+ %result = <a href="#i_add">add</a> uint %1, %1
+</pre>
+
<p>This last way of multiplying <tt>%X</tt> by 8 illustrates several
important lexical features of LLVM:</p>
+
<ol>
- <li>Comments are delimited with a '<tt>;</tt>' and go until the end
-of line.</li>
- <li>Unnamed temporaries are created when the result of a computation
-is not assigned to a named value.</li>
+
+ <li>Comments are delimited with a '<tt>;</tt>' and go until the end of
+ line.</li>
+
+ <li>Unnamed temporaries are created when the result of a computation is not
+ assigned to a named value.</li>
+
<li>Unnamed temporaries are numbered sequentially</li>
+
</ol>
-<p>...and it also show a convention that we follow in this document.
-When demonstrating instructions, we will follow an instruction with a
-comment that defines the type and name of value produced. Comments are
-shown in italic text.</p>
-<p>The one non-intuitive notation for constants is the optional
-hexidecimal form of floating point constants. For example, the form '<tt>double
-0x432ff973cafa8000</tt>' is equivalent to (but harder to read than) '<tt>double
-4.5e+15</tt>' which is also supported by the parser. The only time
-hexadecimal floating point constants are useful (and the only time that
-they are generated by the disassembler) is when an FP constant has to
-be emitted that is not representable as a decimal floating point number
-exactly. For example, NaN's, infinities, and other special cases are
-represented in their IEEE hexadecimal format so that assembly and
-disassembly do not cause any bits to change in the constants.</p>
+
+<p>...and it also show a convention that we follow in this document. When
+demonstrating instructions, we will follow an instruction with a comment that
+defines the type and name of value produced. Comments are shown in italic
+text.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+<div class="doc_section"> <a name="highlevel">High Level Structure</a> </div>
+<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="modulestructure">Module Structure</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>LLVM programs are composed of "Module"s, each of which is a
+translation unit of the input programs. Each module consists of
+functions, global variables, and symbol table entries. Modules may be
+combined together with the LLVM linker, which merges function (and
+global variable) definitions, resolves forward declarations, and merges
+symbol table entries. Here is an example of the "hello world" module:</p>
+
+<pre><i>; Declare the string constant as a global constant...</i>
+<a href="#identifiers">%.LC0</a> = <a href="#linkage_internal">internal</a> <a
+ href="#globalvars">constant</a> <a href="#t_array">[13 x sbyte]</a> c"hello world\0A\00" <i>; [13 x sbyte]*</i>
+
+<i>; External declaration of the puts function</i>
+<a href="#functionstructure">declare</a> int %puts(sbyte*) <i>; int(sbyte*)* </i>
+
+<i>; Definition of main function</i>
+int %main() { <i>; int()* </i>
+ <i>; Convert [13x sbyte]* to sbyte *...</i>
+ %cast210 = <a
+ href="#i_getelementptr">getelementptr</a> [13 x sbyte]* %.LC0, long 0, long 0 <i>; sbyte*</i>
+
+ <i>; Call puts function to write out the string to stdout...</i>
+ <a
+ href="#i_call">call</a> int %puts(sbyte* %cast210) <i>; int</i>
+ <a
+ href="#i_ret">ret</a> int 0<br>}<br></pre>
+
+<p>This example is made up of a <a href="#globalvars">global variable</a>
+named "<tt>.LC0</tt>", an external declaration of the "<tt>puts</tt>"
+function, and a <a href="#functionstructure">function definition</a>
+for "<tt>main</tt>".</p>
+
+<p>In general, a module is made up of a list of global values,
+where both functions and global variables are global values. Global values are
+represented by a pointer to a memory location (in this case, a pointer to an
+array of char, and a pointer to a function), and have one of the following <a
+href="#linkage">linkage types</a>.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="linkage">Linkage Types</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>
+All Global Variables and Functions have one of the following types of linkage:
+</p>
+
+<dl>
+
+ <dt><tt><b><a name="linkage_internal">internal</a></b></tt> </dt>
+
+ <dd>Global values with internal linkage are only directly accessible by
+ objects in the current module. In particular, linking code into a module with
+ an internal global value may cause the internal to be renamed as necessary to
+ avoid collisions. Because the symbol is internal to the module, all
+ references can be updated. This corresponds to the notion of the
+ '<tt>static</tt>' keyword in C, or the idea of "anonymous namespaces" in C++.
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><tt><b><a name="linkage_linkonce">linkonce</a></b></tt>: </dt>
+
+ <dd>"<tt>linkonce</tt>" linkage is similar to <tt>internal</tt> linkage, with
+ the twist that linking together two modules defining the same
+ <tt>linkonce</tt> globals will cause one of the globals to be discarded. This
+ is typically used to implement inline functions. Unreferenced
+ <tt>linkonce</tt> globals are allowed to be discarded.
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><tt><b><a name="linkage_weak">weak</a></b></tt>: </dt>
+
+ <dd>"<tt>weak</tt>" linkage is exactly the same as <tt>linkonce</tt> linkage,
+ except that unreferenced <tt>weak</tt> globals may not be discarded. This is
+ used to implement constructs in C such as "<tt>int X;</tt>" at global scope.
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><tt><b><a name="linkage_appending">appending</a></b></tt>: </dt>
+
+ <dd>"<tt>appending</tt>" linkage may only be applied to global variables of
+ pointer to array type. When two global variables with appending linkage are
+ linked together, the two global arrays are appended together. This is the
+ LLVM, typesafe, equivalent of having the system linker append together
+ "sections" with identical names when .o files are linked.
+ </dd>
+
+ <dt><tt><b><a name="linkage_external">externally visible</a></b></tt>:</dt>
+
+ <dd>If none of the above identifiers are used, the global is externally
+ visible, meaning that it participates in linkage and can be used to resolve
+ external symbol references.
+ </dd>
+</dl>
+
+<p><a name="linkage_external">For example, since the "<tt>.LC0</tt>"
+variable is defined to be internal, if another module defined a "<tt>.LC0</tt>"
+variable and was linked with this one, one of the two would be renamed,
+preventing a collision. Since "<tt>main</tt>" and "<tt>puts</tt>" are
+external (i.e., lacking any linkage declarations), they are accessible
+outside of the current module. It is illegal for a function <i>declaration</i>
+to have any linkage type other than "externally visible".</a></p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="globalvars">Global Variables</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>Global variables define regions of memory allocated at compilation
+time instead of run-time. Global variables may optionally be
+initialized. A variable may be defined as a global "constant", which
+indicates that the contents of the variable will never be modified
+(enabling better optimization, allowing the global data to be placed in the
+read-only section of an executable, etc).</p>
+
+<p>As SSA values, global variables define pointer values that are in
+scope (i.e. they dominate) all basic blocks in the program. Global
+variables always define a pointer to their "content" type because they
+describe a region of memory, and all memory objects in LLVM are
+accessed through pointers.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="functionstructure">Functions</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>LLVM function definitions are composed of a (possibly empty) argument list,
+an opening curly brace, a list of basic blocks, and a closing curly brace. LLVM
+function declarations are defined with the "<tt>declare</tt>" keyword, a
+function name, and a function signature.</p>
+
+<p>A function definition contains a list of basic blocks, forming the CFG for
+the function. Each basic block may optionally start with a label (giving the
+basic block a symbol table entry), contains a list of instructions, and ends
+with a <a href="#terminators">terminator</a> instruction (such as a branch or
+function return).</p>
+
+<p>The first basic block in program is special in two ways: it is immediately
+executed on entrance to the function, and it is not allowed to have predecessor
+basic blocks (i.e. there can not be any branches to the entry block of a
+function). Because the block can have no predecessors, it also cannot have any
+<a href="#i_phi">PHI nodes</a>.</p>
+
+<p>LLVM functions are identified by their name and type signature. Hence, two
+functions with the same name but different parameter lists or return values are
+considered different functions, and LLVM will resolves references to each
+appropriately.</p>
+
</div>
+
+
+
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_section"> <a name="typesystem">Type System</a> </div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+
<div class="doc_text">
+
<p>The LLVM type system is one of the most important features of the
intermediate representation. Being typed enables a number of
optimizations to be performed on the IR directly, without having to do
@@ -290,9 +485,9 @@
system makes it easier to read the generated code and enables novel
analyses and transformations that are not feasible to perform on normal
three address code representations.</p>
-<!-- The written form for the type system was heavily influenced by the
-syntactic problems with types in the C language<sup><a
-href="#rw_stroustrup">1</a></sup>.<p> --> </div>
+
+</div>
+
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="t_primitive">Primitive Types</a> </div>
<div class="doc_text">
@@ -378,25 +573,39 @@
instructions. This means that all structures and arrays must be
manipulated either by pointer or by component.</p>
</div>
+
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="t_derived">Derived Types</a> </div>
+
<div class="doc_text">
+
<p>The real power in LLVM comes from the derived types in the system.
This is what allows a programmer to represent arrays, functions,
pointers, and other useful types. Note that these derived types may be
recursive: For example, it is possible to have a two dimensional array.</p>
+
</div>
+
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
<div class="doc_subsubsection"> <a name="t_array">Array Type</a> </div>
+
<div class="doc_text">
+
<h5>Overview:</h5>
+
<p>The array type is a very simple derived type that arranges elements
sequentially in memory. The array type requires a size (number of
elements) and an underlying data type.</p>
+
<h5>Syntax:</h5>
-<pre> [<# elements> x <elementtype>]<br></pre>
+
+<pre>
+ [<# elements> x <elementtype>]
+</pre>
+
<p>The number of elements is a constant integer value, elementtype may
be any type with a size.</p>
+
<h5>Examples:</h5>
<table class="layout">
<tr class="layout">
@@ -558,166 +767,203 @@
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
-<div class="doc_section"> <a name="highlevel">High Level Structure</a> </div>
+<div class="doc_section"> <a name="constants">Constants</a> </div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>LLVM has several different basic types of constants. This section describes
+them all and their syntax.</p>
+
+</div>
+
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
-<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="modulestructure">Module Structure</a>
+<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="simpleconstants">Simple Constants</a>
</div>
+
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>LLVM programs are composed of "Module"s, each of which is a
-translation unit of the input programs. Each module consists of
-functions, global variables, and symbol table entries. Modules may be
-combined together with the LLVM linker, which merges function (and
-global variable) definitions, resolves forward declarations, and merges
-symbol table entries. Here is an example of the "hello world" module:</p>
-<pre><i>; Declare the string constant as a global constant...</i>
-<a href="#identifiers">%.LC0</a> = <a href="#linkage_internal">internal</a> <a
- href="#globalvars">constant</a> <a href="#t_array">[13 x sbyte]</a> c"hello world\0A\00" <i>; [13 x sbyte]*</i>
-<i>; External declaration of the puts function</i>
-<a href="#functionstructure">declare</a> int %puts(sbyte*) <i>; int(sbyte*)* </i>
+<dl>
+ <dt><b>Boolean constants</b></dt>
-<i>; Definition of main function</i>
-int %main() { <i>; int()* </i>
- <i>; Convert [13x sbyte]* to sbyte *...</i>
- %cast210 = <a
- href="#i_getelementptr">getelementptr</a> [13 x sbyte]* %.LC0, long 0, long 0 <i>; sbyte*</i>
+ <dd>The two strings '<tt>true</tt>' and '<tt>false</tt>' are both valid
+ constants of the <tt><a href="#t_primitive">bool</a></tt> type.
+ </dd>
- <i>; Call puts function to write out the string to stdout...</i>
- <a
- href="#i_call">call</a> int %puts(sbyte* %cast210) <i>; int</i>
- <a
- href="#i_ret">ret</a> int 0<br>}<br></pre>
-<p>This example is made up of a <a href="#globalvars">global variable</a>
-named "<tt>.LC0</tt>", an external declaration of the "<tt>puts</tt>"
-function, and a <a href="#functionstructure">function definition</a>
-for "<tt>main</tt>".</p>
-<a name="linkage"> In general, a module is made up of a list of global
-values, where both functions and global variables are global values.
-Global values are represented by a pointer to a memory location (in
-this case, a pointer to an array of char, and a pointer to a function),
-and have one of the following linkage types:</a>
-<p> </p>
-<dl>
- <dt><tt><b><a name="linkage_internal">internal</a></b></tt> </dt>
- <dd>Global values with internal linkage are only directly accessible
-by objects in the current module. In particular, linking code into a
-module with an internal global value may cause the internal to be
-renamed as necessary to avoid collisions. Because the symbol is
-internal to the module, all references can be updated. This
-corresponds to the notion of the '<tt>static</tt>' keyword in C, or the
-idea of "anonymous namespaces" in C++.
- <p> </p>
+ <dt><b>Integer constants</b></dt>
+
+ <dd>Standard integers (such as '4') are constants of <a
+ href="#t_integer">integer</a> type. Negative numbers may be used with signed
+ integer types.
</dd>
- <dt><tt><b><a name="linkage_linkonce">linkonce</a></b></tt>: </dt>
- <dd>"<tt>linkonce</tt>" linkage is similar to <tt>internal</tt>
-linkage, with the twist that linking together two modules defining the
-same <tt>linkonce</tt> globals will cause one of the globals to be
-discarded. This is typically used to implement inline functions.
-Unreferenced <tt>linkonce</tt> globals are allowed to be discarded.
- <p> </p>
+
+ <dt><b>Floating point constants</b></dt>
+
+ <dd>Floating point constants use standard decimal notation (e.g. 123.421),
+ exponential notation (e.g. 1.23421e+2), or a more precise hexadecimal
+ notation. etc. Floating point constants have an optional hexadecimal
+ notation (see below). Floating point constants must have a <a
+ href="#t_floating">floating point</a> type. </dd>
+
+ <dt><b>Null pointer constants</b></dt>
+
+ <dd>The identifier '<tt>null</tt>' is recognized as a null pointer constant,
+ and must be of <a href="#t_pointer">pointer type</a>.</dd>
+
+</dl>
+
+<p>The one non-intuitive notation for constants is the optional hexidecimal form
+of floating point constants. For example, the form '<tt>double
+0x432ff973cafa8000</tt>' is equivalent to (but harder to read than) '<tt>double
+4.5e+15</tt>'. The only time hexadecimal floating point constants are required
+(and the only time that they are generated by the disassembler) is when an FP
+constant has to be emitted that is not representable as a decimal floating point
+number exactly. For example, NaN's, infinities, and other special cases are
+represented in their IEEE hexadecimal format so that assembly and disassembly do
+not cause any bits to change in the constants.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="aggregateconstants">Aggregate Constants</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<dl>
+ <dt><b>Structure constants</b></dt>
+
+ <dd>Structure constants are represented with notation similar to structure
+ type definitions (a comma separated list of elements, surrounded by braces
+ (<tt>{}</tt>). For example: "<tt>{ int 4, float 17.0 }</tt>". Structure
+ constants must have <a href="#t_struct">structure type</a>, and the number and
+ types of elements must match those specified by the type.
</dd>
- <dt><tt><b><a name="linkage_weak">weak</a></b></tt>: </dt>
- <dd>"<tt>weak</tt>" linkage is exactly the same as <tt>linkonce</tt>
-linkage, except that unreferenced <tt>weak</tt> globals may not be
-discarded. This is used to implement constructs in C such as "<tt>int
-X;</tt>" at global scope.
- <p> </p>
+
+ <dt><b>Array constants</b></dt>
+
+ <dd>Array constants are represented with notation similar to array type
+ definitions (a comma separated list of elements, surrounded by square brackets
+ (<tt>[]</tt>). For example: "<tt>[ int 42, int 11, int 74 ]</tt>". Array
+ constants must have <a href="#t_array">array type</a>, and the number and
+ types of elements must match those specified by the type.
</dd>
- <dt><tt><b><a name="linkage_appending">appending</a></b></tt>: </dt>
- <dd>"<tt>appending</tt>" linkage may only be applied to global
-variables of pointer to array type. When two global variables with
-appending linkage are linked together, the two global arrays are
-appended together. This is the LLVM, typesafe, equivalent of having
-the system linker append together "sections" with identical names when
-.o files are linked.
- <p> </p>
+
+ <dt><b>Packed constants</b></dt>
+
+ <dd>Packed constants are represented with notation similar to packed type
+ definitions (a comma separated list of elements, surrounded by
+ less-than/greater-than's (<tt><></tt>). For example: "<tt>< int 42,
+ int 11, int 74, int 100 ></tt>". Packed constants must have <a
+ href="#t_packed">packed type</a>, and the number and types of elements must
+ match those specified by the type.
</dd>
- <dt><tt><b><a name="linkage_external">externally visible</a></b></tt>:</dt>
- <dd>If none of the above identifiers are used, the global is
-externally visible, meaning that it participates in linkage and can be
-used to resolve external symbol references.
- <p> </p>
+
+ <dt><b>Zero initialization</b></dt>
+
+ <dd>The string '<tt>zeroinitializer</tt>' can be used to zero initialize a
+ value to zero of <em>any</em> type, including scalar and aggregate types.
+ This is often used to avoid having to print large zero initializers (e.g. for
+ large arrays), and is always exactly equivalent to using explicit zero
+ initializers.
</dd>
</dl>
-<p> </p>
-<p><a name="linkage_external">For example, since the "<tt>.LC0</tt>"
-variable is defined to be internal, if another module defined a "<tt>.LC0</tt>"
-variable and was linked with this one, one of the two would be renamed,
-preventing a collision. Since "<tt>main</tt>" and "<tt>puts</tt>" are
-external (i.e., lacking any linkage declarations), they are accessible
-outside of the current module. It is illegal for a function <i>declaration</i>
-to have any linkage type other than "externally visible".</a></p>
+
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
- <a name="globalvars">Global Variables</a>
+ <a name="globalconstants">Global Variable and Function Addresses</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>Global variables define regions of memory allocated at compilation
-time instead of run-time. Global variables may optionally be
-initialized. A variable may be defined as a global "constant", which
-indicates that the contents of the variable will never be modified
-(opening options for optimization).</p>
+<p>The addresses of <a href="#globalvars">global variables</a> and <a
+href="#functionstructure">functions</a> are always implicitly valid (link-time)
+constants. These constants explicitly referenced when the <a
+href="#identifiers">identifier for the global</a> is used, and always have <a
+href="#t_pointer">pointer</a> type. For example, the following is a legal LLVM
+file:</p>
-<p>As SSA values, global variables define pointer values that are in
-scope (i.e. they dominate) for all basic blocks in the program. Global
-variables always define a pointer to their "content" type because they
-describe a region of memory, and all memory objects in LLVM are
-accessed through pointers.</p>
+<pre>
+ %X = global int 17
+ %Y = global int 42
+ %Z = global [2 x int*] [ int* %X, int* %Y ]
+</pre>
+
+</div>
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="undefvalues">Undefined Values</a>
</div>
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>The string '<tt>undef</tt>' is recognized as a filler that has no specified
+value. Undefined values may be of any type, and be used anywhere a constant
+is.</p>
+
+<p>Undefined values are used to indicate the compiler that the program is well
+defined no matter what value is used, giving it more freedom.</p>
+
+</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
-<div class="doc_subsection">
- <a name="functionstructure">Functions</a>
+<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="constantexprs">Constant Expressions</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>LLVM function definitions are composed of a (possibly empty) argument list,
-an opening curly brace, a list of basic blocks, and a closing curly brace. LLVM
-function declarations are defined with the "<tt>declare</tt>" keyword, a
-function name, and a function signature.</p>
+<p>Constant expressions are used to allow expressions involving other constants
+to be used as constants. Constant expressions may be of any <a
+href="#t_firstclass">first class</a> type, and may involve any LLVM operation
+that does not have side effects (e.g. load and call are not supported). The
+following is the syntax for constant expressions:</p>
-<p>A function definition contains a list of basic blocks, forming the CFG for
-the function. Each basic block may optionally start with a label (giving the
-basic block a symbol table entry), contains a list of instructions, and ends
-with a <a href="#terminators">terminator</a> instruction (such as a branch or
-function return).</p>
+<dl>
+ <dt><b><tt>cast ( CST to TYPE )</tt></b></dt>
-<p>The first basic block in program is special in two ways: it is immediately
-executed on entrance to the function, and it is not allowed to have predecessor
-basic blocks (i.e. there can not be any branches to the entry block of a
-function). Because the block can have no predecessors, it also cannot have any
-<a href="#i_phi">PHI nodes</a>.</p>
+ <dd>Cast a constant to another type.</dd>
-<p>LLVM functions are identified by their name and type signature. Hence, two
-functions with the same name but different parameter lists or return values are
-considered different functions, and LLVM will resolves references to each
-appropriately.</p>
+ <dt><b><tt>getelementptr ( CSTPTR, IDX0, IDX1, ... )</tt></b></dt>
-</div>
+ <dd>Perform the <a href="#i_getelementptr">getelementptr operation</a> on
+ constants. As with the <a href="#i_getelementptr">getelementptr</a>
+ instruction, the index list may have zero or more indexes, which are required
+ to make sense for the type of "CSTPTR".</dd>
+
+ <dt><b><tt>OPCODE ( LHS, RHS )</tt></b></dt>
+
+ <dd>Perform the specied operation of the LHS and RHS constants. OPCODE may be
+ any of the <a href="#binaryops">binary</a> or <a href="#bitwiseops">bitwise
+ binary</a> operations. The constraints on operands are the same as those for
+ the corresponding instruction (e.g. no bitwise operations on floating point
+ are allowed).</dd>
+
+</dl>
+</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_section"> <a name="instref">Instruction Reference</a> </div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
+
<div class="doc_text">
+
<p>The LLVM instruction set consists of several different
classifications of instructions: <a href="#terminators">terminator
instructions</a>, <a href="#binaryops">binary instructions</a>, <a
href="#memoryops">memory instructions</a>, and <a href="#otherops">other
instructions</a>.</p>
+
</div>
+
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection"> <a name="terminators">Terminator
Instructions</a> </div>
+
<div class="doc_text">
+
<p>As mentioned <a href="#functionstructure">previously</a>, every
basic block in a program ends with a "Terminator" instruction, which
indicates which block should be executed after the current block is
@@ -730,7 +976,9 @@
the '<a href="#i_invoke"><tt>invoke</tt></a>' instruction, the '<a
href="#i_unwind"><tt>unwind</tt></a>' instruction, and the '<a
href="#i_unreachable"><tt>unreachable</tt></a>' instruction.</p>
+
</div>
+
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
<div class="doc_subsubsection"> <a name="i_ret">'<tt>ret</tt>'
Instruction</a> </div>
@@ -2308,7 +2556,9 @@
<h5>Syntax:</h5>
<pre>
- call void (<integer type>, <integer type>)* %llvm.writeport (<integer type> <value>, <integer type> <address>)
+ call void (<integer type>, <integer type>)*
+ %llvm.writeport (<integer type> <value>,
+ <integer type> <address>)
</pre>
<h5>Overview:</h5>
@@ -2670,7 +2920,7 @@
<a href="mailto:sabre at nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a><br>
<a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
- Last modified: $Date: 2004/12/09 04:26:53 $
+ Last modified: $Date: 2004/12/09 17:46:26 $
</address>
</body>
</html>
More information about the llvm-commits
mailing list