[LLVMdev] Building a stable bitcode format for PNaCl - based on LLVM IR

[Dmitri Rubinstein]

Is it possible to use PNaCl infrastructure (i.e. translation and 
execution in a sandbox) without a Chrome ?

I mean a something like a standalone VM like Java or Mono/C#.

Dmitri

Am 18.06.2013 17:22, schrieb Eli Bendersky:
> Hello,
>
> [The first paragraph is safe to skip if you already know what PNaCl is.]
> The Portable Native Client (PNaCl) project is a toolchain for producing
> portable bitcode from C and C++ code and running in securely and
> efficiently on the web via Native Client. For more details see this
> presentation from the last Google I/O:
> https://developers.google.com/events/io/sessions/325679543and
> http://www.chromium.org/nativeclient/pnacl/building-and-testing-portable-native-client
>
> PNaCl uses a subset of LLVM IR as its bitcode. Our goal is a single
> bitcode file that can be "translated" on a target machine to a sandboxed
> native executable for the target architecture and executed. This
> presents a number of challenges with architecture independence and
> backwards compatibility.
>
> This is a document we've been using internally to coordinate the effort
> to simplify LLVM IR to the level where it's suitable to serve as a
> portable, backwards compatible bitcode. After a general introduction, it
> presents concrete steps the PNaCl toolchain performs to simplify LLVM
> IR, with some discussion of their pros/cons. This is based on a few
> years of observing changes in LLVM IR and their meaning for PNaCl.
>
> We've considered the points made by Dan in his "LLVM IR is a compiler
> IR" post
> (http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvmdev/2011-October/043719.html)
> and have also discussed this with him a couple of times since then. We
> believe that the changes described by the attached document, together
> with other PNaCl-specific characteristics, make the chosen subset
> suitable for the task.
>
> Any comments and questions are very welcome. Our goal in publishing this
> is to facilitate an open discussion, as well as serve as a reference
> point for other projects interested in using LLVM IR for portable and/or
> stable use cases. Note that the document is a work-in-progress and some
> details may change. We intend to publish a more structured reference for
> PNaCl bitcode at some point in the future.
>
> The document is available as a PDF here:
> https://docs.google.com/a/chromium.org/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=Y2hyb21pdW0ub3JnfGRldnxneDo0OWYwZjVkYWFjOWNjODE1
>
> And in text here:
> https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/dev/nativeclient/pnacl/stability-of-the-pnacl-bitcode-abi
>
> Eli
>
>
>
>
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