[llvm-dev] Contributing LLD for Mach-O

[Shoaib Meenai via llvm-dev]

I'd seen the first talk but not the second; I'll check that out. Thanks for the pointer.

On 3/2/20, 2:11 PM, "Fangrui Song" <maskray at google.com> wrote:

    On 2020-03-02, Shoaib Meenai wrote:
    >We are committed to maintaining this. I believe there are some people who use the old port right now though, so I'd want us to be a bit more feature complete before we take over the Darwin flavor (e.g. we should at least be able to self-host).
    
    Thanks for the commitment. I know close to zero about Mach-O, but I'll try following your development.
    
    You may already have known this, but the following two talks are helpful.
    
    https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__llvm.org_devmtg_2017-2D10_-23talk16&d=DwIDaQ&c=5VD0RTtNlTh3ycd41b3MUw&r=o3kDXzdBUE3ljQXKeTWOMw&m=GT8uVlPGTQdvVjhHId_JrQo0z146SwJ5NNsuWB5Q2fs&s=XV1y4LJ9pubNdyDEOXQQXEjK3kKmamHDIYvRFtrfmlE&e= 
    https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__archive.fosdem.org_2019_schedule_event_llvm-5Flld_&d=DwIDaQ&c=5VD0RTtNlTh3ycd41b3MUw&r=o3kDXzdBUE3ljQXKeTWOMw&m=GT8uVlPGTQdvVjhHId_JrQo0z146SwJ5NNsuWB5Q2fs&s=4wk-TRzE3PfIOqYA2wp_deDIl4oAfwTvgb9qyvqYABM&e= 
    
    >On 2/28/20, 10:40 PM, "Fangrui Song" <maskray at google.com> wrote:
    >
    >    On 2020-02-28, James Y Knight via llvm-dev wrote:
    >    >Nice!
    >    >
    >    >Your plan sounds great, and it'll be awesome to finally have a good MachO
    >    >LLD available.
    >    >
    >    >On Fri, Feb 28, 2020 at 4:32 PM Shoaib Meenai via llvm-dev <
    >    >llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:
    >    >
    >    >> Hi all,
    >    >>
    >    >> We’re planning to contribute a new implementation of LLD for Mach-O, using
    >    >> the same design as the COFF and ELF ports. This design has proven to work
    >    >> very well for those ports, and we’re keen to explore it for Mach-O as well.
    >    >> Our work is based on an initial prototype created by Peter Collingbourne
    >    >> and Rui Ueyama.
    >    >>
    >    >> Our initial commit is up for review at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__reviews.llvm.org_D75382&d=DwIDaQ&c=5VD0RTtNlTh3ycd41b3MUw&r=o3kDXzdBUE3ljQXKeTWOMw&m=ewsOF79X4LajoVfIDFOIrBvc7WiqUQNo7sNMnNPG48I&s=5X09zpWtQuKwp-Fsb1NHCSVFTJ3-63Gy1PcucIjSQTQ&e= .
    >    >> We’ve intentionally stripped down this initial commit as much as possible
    >    >> to ease reviewing; we’ve kept it to the absolute minimum needed to produce
    >    >> and test a working macOS x86-64 executable for that prints “Hello World”
    >    >> via a syscall. We have several short-term follow-ups planned to add
    >    >> important functionality, such as linking against archives, universal
    >    >> binaries, dylibs, and tbd files, performing subsection splitting
    >    >> (atomization), and producing dylibs. The follow-ups should give a good
    >    >> sense of the overall design while still keeping each piece easily
    >    >> reviewable and testable individually. Our end goal is to create a
    >    >> full-featured Mach-O linker, and we’ll be working toward that goal over the
    >    >> next several months (and years, in all likelihood). We’d appreciate
    >    >> feedback and reviews.
    >
    >    The existing Mach-O port https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__reviews.llvm.org_D38290-23882910&d=DwIDaQ&c=5VD0RTtNlTh3ycd41b3MUw&r=o3kDXzdBUE3ljQXKeTWOMw&m=ewsOF79X4LajoVfIDFOIrBvc7WiqUQNo7sNMnNPG48I&s=9tPjw9s64q0kszjhd9Yj4Shpc8NOYMOacqCyrWH5h5A&e=
    >    had been unmaintained when the ld64.lld alias was added.
    >
    >    If Jez and the team are committed to maintain the new Mach-O port and we
    >    think the existing port is a dead end, we may assign the flavor `darwin` to
    >    it (`lld -flavor darwin`) and rename the existing flavor to `darwin-old` or
    >    `darwin-legacy`.
    >
    >