[LLVMdev] Dynamic optimalization passes in LLVM based compiler

[Wojciech Daniło]

Thank you for yours response :)
I know that LLVM Pass was designed to transform IR, but lets focus on an
example - LLVM Pass is a function that transform some set of input into
output. It can transform IR into graph of lets say strongly connected
components and then other passes can use it (that data - not IR) to
generate other data OR to manipulate the IR.

So why I can not create passes, that would need data generated by other
passes (ie. graph loaded from disk) and then transform it into LLVM IR? I
do not see any difference between these cases.
Am I wrong?

2012/11/17 David Blaikie <dblaikie at gmail.com>

> On Sat, Nov 17, 2012 at 4:44 AM, Wojciech Daniło
> <wojtek.danilo.ml at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi!
> > I'm new to LLVM but I've read tons of articles, I want to implement my
> own
> > compiler and I came across a big problem.
> > I have several questions, that I cannot answer myself:
> >
> > 1) If I'm writing custom compiler do I have to "hardcode" passes that it
> > uses (like in Kaleidoscope example:
> > http://llvm.org/docs/tutorial/LangImpl4.html) or I have to generate
> LLVM IR
> > and then use the 'opt' tool to run selected passes on generated code?
> > I think the solution with opt is not quite good, because the opt tool
> has to
> > parse the LLVM IR (or BC) input file, which is not needed, because we are
> > generating it, so we have had it in memory before.
> > Maybe there is another better solution allowing for enabling and
> disabling
> > passes in custom compiler with argument options like in opt?
>
> I believe Clang just hardcodes passes. If you a user wants to
> experiment with different pass options they can use the option to
> generate LLVM bitcode from Clang then pass that to opt themselves.
>
> > 2) I want to write compiler that does NOT generate LLVM IR by its own, it
> > should simply run one of available module passes and such pass will
> generate
> > LLVM IR.
> > The motivation behind this decision is that I want to have a graph (C++
> > serialized structure) as compiler input and I want to load this graph as
> > pass, run other passes (which will modify this graph) and then run a
> > "conversion module pass", which will convert this graph into LLVM IR.
> > Additional I want to be able to read several formats and because of that
> I
> > want to load this graph as a pass. (This pass will be of course grouped
> with
> > other "load passes")
>
> LLVM's pass system is for IR transformations only. Anything else you
> want to do you'll have to build separately/in front of LLVM. Once your
> other system generates IR, then you can pass it to LLVM.
>
> >
> > Could you please tell me what will be the best (most flexible and easy)
> > solution to do this, keeping in mind the first question?
> >
> > I have an idea of solution (which does not work completely) - the idea
> is to
> > create an compiler which will initialize the base module and will do
> nothing
> > at all. Then I can use the opt tool with my module passes, which will
> load,
> > modify graph and convert it to LLVM IR (with IRBUilder) - the problem is
> if
> > the opt could be run without input file and if it will handle correctly
> this
> > situation.
> >
> > I was researching very long and I have not found any good answer for
> these
> > problems.
> > I would be very thankful for any help!
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > LLVMdev at cs.uiuc.edu         http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu
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> >
>
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