| .. _index: |
| |
| lld - The LLVM Linker |
| ===================== |
| |
| lld contains two linkers whose architectures are different from each other. |
| One is a linker that implements native features directly. |
| They are in `COFF` or `ELF` directories. Other directories contains the other |
| implementation that is designed to be a set of modular code for creating |
| linker tools. This document covers mainly the latter. |
| For the former, please read README.md in `COFF` directory. |
| |
| * End-User Features: |
| |
| * Compatible with existing linker options |
| * Reads standard Object Files (e.g. ELF, Mach-O, PE/COFF) |
| * Writes standard Executable Files (e.g. ELF, Mach-O, PE) |
| * Remove clang's reliance on "the system linker" |
| * Uses the LLVM `"UIUC" BSD-Style license`__. |
| |
| * Applications: |
| |
| * Modular design |
| * Support cross linking |
| * Easy to add new CPU support |
| * Can be built as static tool or library |
| |
| * Design and Implementation: |
| |
| * Extensive unit tests |
| * Internal linker model can be dumped/read to textual format |
| * Additional linking features can be plugged in as "passes" |
| * OS specific and CPU specific code factored out |
| |
| Why a new linker? |
| ----------------- |
| |
| The fact that clang relies on whatever linker tool you happen to have installed |
| means that clang has been very conservative adopting features which require a |
| recent linker. |
| |
| In the same way that the MC layer of LLVM has removed clang's reliance on the |
| system assembler tool, the lld project will remove clang's reliance on the |
| system linker tool. |
| |
| |
| Current Status |
| -------------- |
| |
| lld can self host on x86-64 FreeBSD and Linux and x86 Windows. |
| |
| All SingleSource tests in test-suite pass on x86-64 Linux. |
| |
| All SingleSource and MultiSource tests in the LLVM test-suite |
| pass on MIPS 32-bit little-endian Linux. |
| |
| Source |
| ------ |
| |
| lld is available in the LLVM SVN repository:: |
| |
| svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/lld/trunk lld |
| |
| lld is also available via the read-only git mirror:: |
| |
| git clone http://llvm.org/git/lld.git |
| |
| Put it in llvm's tools/ directory, rerun cmake, then build target lld. |
| |
| Contents |
| -------- |
| |
| .. toctree:: |
| :maxdepth: 2 |
| |
| design |
| getting_started |
| development |
| windows_support |
| open_projects |
| sphinx_intro |
| |
| Indices and tables |
| ------------------ |
| |
| * :ref:`genindex` |
| * :ref:`search` |
| |
| __ http://llvm.org/docs/DeveloperPolicy.html#license |
