[LLVMdev] Dynamically loading native code generated from LLVM IR

[Tim Northover]

Hi Baris,

> If I could produce a .so file in step 1, my problem would be solved. llc has a "-relocation-model=pic" option, but the file produced with that did not dynamically load.

That relocation-model=pic option usually necessary for a linker to be
able to produce a .so file (it changes how variables are addressed so
that more things can be decided when the .so is loaded), but it won't
produce a .so itself.

> So, my question is: Which API should I look at to emit dynamically loadable native code from LLVM IR?

The JIT sounds like it does almost exactly what you want. LLVM's JIT
isn't a classical lightweight, dynamic one like you'd see for
JavaScript or Java. All it really does is produce a native .o file in
memory, take care of the relocations for you and then jump into it (or
provide you with a function-pointer). Is there any other reason you
want to avoid it?

Otherwise, only a full linker is capable of turning a .o into
something loadable with "dlopen" or its equivalents. That's a lot of
work, though I suppose you could fork a process to the system's linker
if there is one.

Tim.