[LLVMdev] The LLVMLinux Project

[Behan Webster]

I'd like to announce the LLVMLinux project. This project aims to fully 
build the Linux kernel using Clang/LLVM on the various architectures 
supported by the Linux kernel. The project consolidates the work of the 
lll-project, the PAX team, and Mark Charlebois' work on the ARM kernel.

http://llvm.linuxfoundation.org <http://llvm.linuxfoundation.org/>

The hope is that this project will help reduce duplicate work, as well 
as concentrate, and accelerate efforts around this subject matter in 
order to allow Linux Kernel developers, and system integrators to have 
the choice of a Clang compiled Linux kernel. The goal is for this 
project to be a testing/proving ground for these updates and to get 
patches that make this possible upstream to their respective projects 
(Clang/LLVM and the Linux Kernel).

Currently the work is centred around the ARM, x86 and x86_64 
architectures but contributions to support other architectures are 
welcome. Patches accepted!

The Linux Kernel has some issues with being compiled with Clang; these 
are issues which the LLVMLinux project is attempting to fix in the Linux 
Kernel code base and pushed upstream:

* The use of variable length arrays in structs (VLAIS)
* Kbuild support for Clang (currently Kbuild is gcc specific)
* Use of explicit register variables
* Extra __refdata annotations needed to overcome segment reference errors
* EXPORT_SYMBOL of inline functions

However, there are some things in Clang/LLVM which also need to be 
addressed in order to make a Clang compiled Linux Kernel possible. 
Amongst other things these are:

* The Linux kernel currently uses compiler flags which are unsupported 
in Clang:
   * -fdelete-null-pointer-checks
   * --fno-inline-functions-called-once
   * --Wno-unused-but-set-variable vs --Wno-unused-variable (GCC 4.6)
   * --mabi=aapcs-linux (Bug 11326)
* Clang also reports errors for redefinitions of posix functions used in 
Linux kernel. It should be possible to suppress this.

The LLVMLinux project is certainly following and hope to contribute to 
issues listed in the LLVM Meta bug 4068.

But let me finish by thanking you all for the LLVM project and Clang 
toolchain. They are truly an awesome accomplishment.

Behan

-- 
Behan Webster
behanw at converseincode.com

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