[llvm-dev] Shipping LLVM.dll for the C API with the Windows installer.

[John Brawn via llvm-dev]

We already half-have this, the LLVM_BUILD_LLVM_C_DYLIB cmake option builds
a shared object which exports the llvm-c interface but it only works on
Darwin.

tools/llvm-shlib/CMakeLists.txt is where how this is done is defined, and it
looks like it does it by:
 * build LLVM.so
 * use nm+awk+sed to pick out the symbols starting with LLVM
 * build LLVM-C.so using a -reexport_library linker option

I'm thinking that maybe we could make this not-darwin-specific by making
use of utils/extract_symbols.py:
 * edit extract_symbols.py to add a --only_unmangled option (or maybe
   --only_prefix=LLVM or something like that)
 * on non-darwin use that instead of the existing command to get the
   symbols to export (or: make extract_symbols.py work on Darwin)
 * instead of building LLVM-C.so from LLVM.so using this -reexport_library
   option, instead build LLVM-C.so from the same libraries that LLVM.so
   is built from
 (where I use .so above, it also applies to .dll)

John

> -----Original Message-----
> From: llvm-dev [mailto:llvm-dev-bounces at lists.llvm.org] On Behalf Of
> Jakob Bornecrantz via llvm-dev
> Sent: 05 April 2017 12:51
> To: llvm-dev
> Subject: Re: [llvm-dev] Shipping LLVM.dll for the C API with the Windows
> installer.
> 
> On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 4:46 PM, Jakob Bornecrantz
> <wallbraker at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hello list!
> >
> > So I'm wondering if there is a will to ship a DLL with the C API
> > exported? LLVM currently ships with LTO.dll which has some C api
> > functions exported, made from the export file tools/lto/lto.exports,
> > so it would not be the first DLL LLVM shipped.
> >
> > Currently I (and the users of my project[1]) are building it ourselves
> > using this script[2] derived from the LLVMSharp script[3]. Which adds
> > a extra long step for all users of ours and other projects like
> > LLVMSharp in order to use them.
> >
> > The resulting LLVM.dll exports 809 functions and weighs in at around
> > 18mb, so it would make the installer larger. There is also the cost of
> > maintaining a lists of export for the DLL, but hopefully we can use
> > the llvm-echo to test it on the windows nodes so any failure to add
> > new exports gets detected early.
> >
> > Now for the bike-shed questions, do we call it LLVM-c.dll or just
> > LLVM.dll? Annotate all functions with a LLVM_EXPORT define or use a
> > llvm-c.exports file?
> >
> > Thoughts and feedback welcome.
> >
> > Cheers, Jakob.
> >
> > [1] http://volt-lang.org
> > [2] https://github.com/VoltLang/GenLLVMDLLPy/blob/master/GenLLVMDLL.py
> > [3]
> https://github.com/Microsoft/LLVMSharp/blob/master/tools/GenLLVMDLL.ps1
> 
> Ping? Any thoughts?
> 
> What would be the best way to proceed? My cmake-fu is very weak so any
> pointers here from those knowledgeable and stakeholders in the code
> would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Cheers, Jakob.
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