[LLVMdev] newbie questions about setting up a new project

[Joe Strout]

I've downloaded and built LLVM 2.2, and I'm now trying to get to the  
point where I can get through the first tutorial (which seems to  
assume that you're already to the point of writing code and linking  
against LLVM).  I've found the Projects.html doc page [1], which  
describes how to set up a project in the LLVM way.  But some things  
are still unclear to me.

(Please excuse my ignorance; I'm used to graphical IDEs and while  
I've made simple Makefiles before, there doesn't seem to be anything  
simple about integrating with the LLVM system.)

1. In the "Create a Project from the Sample Project" section, I'm  
stuck on the third simple step, "Add your source code and Makefiles  
to your source tree."  If I knew how to do that, I wouldn't need the  
sample!  :)  The sample includes literally half a dozen Makefiles (if  
you include Makefile.common).  Where exactly should I add "my"  
Makefile, and what should that file contain?

2. Under "Source Tree Layout," I see that "For each program that you  
build, you will have one directory in tools that will contain that  
program's source code."  OK, I only want to build one program, and I  
see that the sample contains a tool subdirectory named "sample".  So  
I renamed that to "tutorial-1", and inside it, I find main.d and  
main.o.  What in the world is main.d?  Can I just rename this to  
main.cpp, replace its mysterious contents with C++ code, and expect  
it to work?

3. Peeking at the Makefile inside tools/sample (now tools/ 
tutorial-1), the comments say that "sample is a dynamic library."   
I'm not sure why that is useful; I want to run a program.  Also,  
quite curiously, there are no references at all that I can find to  
main.d (which I would presume is the source file sample should be  
built from).  How would I go about modifying this to compile a gcc  
file (which I'll write following the tutorial), and make an actual  
executable?

4. With six different Makefiles lounging around in my project, which  
one would I want to invoke in order to just build my little test  
program?  The one inside tools/tutorial-1, or the one in the project  
root, or what?  (The docs do say "Typically, you will want to build  
your lib directory first followed by your tools directory" but it's  
not clear to me how I would do that, nor why I would be typically  
building libraries anyway.)

I think maybe I need a "tutorial 0" that walks me through the steps  
of setting up my first project!  Barring that, any tips you can  
provide will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
- Joe

[1] http://www.llvm.org/releases/2.2/docs/Projects.html

--
Joe Strout
Inspiring Applications, Inc.
http://www.InspiringApps.com