[LLVMdev] c char translated to i8 signext

[Jonathan S. Shapiro]

Ryan:

Not sure if this helps, but...

In the absence of an explicit signed/unsigned qualifier, the ANSI C
standard states that the signedness of char is implementation defined.

In the absence of a prototype, the compiler is obliged to pass that char
as a word, which (if char is signed) requires sign extend.

In the presence of a prototype, the sign extend is probably not strictly
required, but doing it regardless is a partial defense against certain
classes of common programming errors (not sure if this is what is going
on here).

So: if you don't have a prototype visible at the call site, add one and
see what happens.


shap


On Wed, 2008-04-30 at 12:55 -0500, Ryan M. Lefever wrote:
> I have a c function that takes a char as a parameter.  When it is 
> compiled to bytecode, it gets translated to i8 signext.  Why is signext 
> getting added to the type?  It doesn't get added if the parameter is an 
> int.  Is there a way to alter the parameter in the c code so that it 
> simply gets translated to an i8, or is there a way in LLVM to modify the 
> parameter's type?
> 
> By the way, I am using LLVM 2.1 in case this has been changed since then.
> 
> Regards,
> Ryan
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