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 |   <!--*********************************************************************--> | 
 |   <h1>Hacking on Clang</h1> | 
 |   <!--*********************************************************************--> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>This document provides some hints for how to get started hacking | 
 |   on Clang for developers who are new to the Clang and/or LLVM | 
 |   codebases.</p> | 
 |     <ul> | 
 |       <li><a href="#style">Coding Standards</a></li> | 
 |       <li><a href="#docs">Developer Documentation</a></li> | 
 |       <li><a href="#debugging">Debugging</a></li> | 
 |       <li><a href="#testing">Testing</a> | 
 |       <ul> | 
 |         <li><a href="#testingNonWindows">Testing on Unix-like Systems</a></li> | 
 |         <li><a href="#testingWindows">Testing using Visual Studio on Windows</a></li> | 
 |         <li><a href="#testingCommands">Testing on the Command Line</a></li> | 
 |       </ul> | 
 |       </li> | 
 |       <li><a href="#patches">Creating Patch Files</a></li> | 
 |       <li><a href="#irgen">LLVM IR Generation</a></li> | 
 |     </ul> | 
 |  | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |   <h2 id="style">Coding Standards</h2> | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>Clang follows the | 
 |   LLVM <a href="https://llvm.org/docs/CodingStandards.html">Coding | 
 |   Standards</a>. When submitting patches, please take care to follow these standards | 
 |   and to match the style of the code to that present in Clang (for example, in | 
 |   terms of indentation, bracing, and statement spacing).</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>Clang has a few additional coding standards:</p> | 
 |   <ul> | 
 |     <li><i>cstdio is forbidden</i>: library code should not output diagnostics | 
 |       or other information using <tt>cstdio</tt>; debugging routines should | 
 |       use <tt>llvm::errs()</tt>. Other uses of <tt>cstdio</tt> impose behavior | 
 |       upon clients and block integrating Clang as a library. Libraries should | 
 |       support <tt>raw_ostream</tt> based interfaces for textual | 
 |       output. See <a href="https://llvm.org/docs/CodingStandards.html#use-raw-ostream">Coding | 
 |       Standards</a>.</li> | 
 |   </ul> | 
 |  | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |   <h2 id="docs">Developer Documentation</h2> | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>Both Clang and LLVM use doxygen to provide API documentation. Their | 
 |   respective web pages (generated nightly) are here:</p> | 
 |     <ul> | 
 |       <li><a href="https://clang.llvm.org/doxygen">Clang</a></li> | 
 |       <li><a href="https://llvm.org/doxygen">LLVM</a></li> | 
 |     </ul> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>For work on the LLVM IR generation, the LLVM assembly language | 
 |   <a href="https://llvm.org/docs/LangRef.html">reference manual</a> is | 
 |   also useful.</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |   <h2 id="debugging">Debugging</h2> | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>Inspecting data structures in a debugger:</p> | 
 |     <ul> | 
 |       <li>Many LLVM and Clang data structures provide | 
 |         a <tt>dump()</tt> method which will print a description of the | 
 |         data structure to <tt>stderr</tt>.</li> | 
 |       <li>The <a href="docs/InternalsManual.html#QualType"><tt>QualType</tt></a> | 
 |       structure is used pervasively. This is a simple value class for | 
 |       wrapping types with qualifiers; you can use | 
 |       the <tt>isConstQualified()</tt>, for example, to get one of the | 
 |       qualifiers, and the <tt>getTypePtr()</tt> method to get the | 
 |       wrapped <tt>Type*</tt> which you can then dump.</li> | 
 |       <li>For <a href="https://lldb.llvm.org"> <tt>LLDB</tt></a> users there are | 
 |       data formatters for clang data structures in | 
 |       <a href="https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/blob/main/clang/utils/ClangDataFormat.py"> | 
 |       <tt>clang/utils/ClangDataFormat.py</tt></a>.</li> | 
 |     </ul> | 
 |  | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |   <h3 id="debuggingVisualStudio">Debugging using Visual Studio</h3> | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>The files | 
 |     <a href="https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/blob/main/llvm/utils/LLVMVisualizers/llvm.natvis"> | 
 |       <tt>llvm/utils/LLVMVisualizers/llvm.natvis</tt></a> and | 
 |     <a href="https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/blob/main/clang/utils/ClangVisualizers/clang.natvis"> | 
 |       <tt>clang/utils/ClangVisualizers/clang.natvis</tt></a> provide debugger visualizers | 
 |       that make debugging of more complex data types much easier.</p> | 
 |   <p>For Visual Studio 2013 only, put the files into | 
 |     <tt>%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Visual Studio 2013\Visualizers</tt> or | 
 |     create a symbolic link so they update automatically.</p> | 
 |   <p>For later versions of Visual Studio, no installation is required. | 
 |     Note also that later versions of Visual Studio also display better visualizations.</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |   <h2 id="testing">Testing</h2> | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |  | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |   <h3 id="testingNonWindows">Testing on Unix-like Systems</h3> | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>Clang includes a basic regression suite in the tree which can be | 
 |   run with <tt>make test</tt> from the top-level clang directory, or | 
 |   just <tt>make</tt> in the <em>test</em> sub-directory. | 
 |   <tt>make VERBOSE=1</tt> can be used to show more detail | 
 |   about what is being run.</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>If you built LLVM and Clang using CMake, the test suite can be run | 
 |   with <tt>make clang-test</tt> from the top-level LLVM directory.</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>The tests primarily consist of a test runner script running the compiler | 
 |   under test on individual test files grouped in the directories under the | 
 |   test directory.  The individual test files include comments at the | 
 |   beginning indicating the Clang compile options to use, to be read | 
 |   by the test runner. Embedded comments also can do things like telling | 
 |   the test runner that an error is expected at the current line. | 
 |   Any output files produced by the test will be placed under | 
 |   a created Output directory.</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>During the run of <tt>make test</tt>, the terminal output will | 
 |   display a line similar to the following:</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <pre>--- Running clang tests for i686-pc-linux-gnu ---</pre> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>followed by a line continually overwritten with the current test | 
 |   file being compiled, and an overall completion percentage.</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>After the <tt>make test</tt> run completes, the absence of any | 
 |   <tt>Failing Tests (count):</tt> message indicates that no tests | 
 |   failed unexpectedly.  If any tests did fail, the | 
 |   <tt>Failing Tests (count):</tt> message will be followed by a list | 
 |   of the test source file paths that failed.  For example:</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <pre> | 
 |   Failing Tests (3): | 
 |       /home/john/llvm/tools/clang/test/SemaCXX/member-name-lookup.cpp | 
 |       /home/john/llvm/tools/clang/test/SemaCXX/namespace-alias.cpp | 
 |       /home/john/llvm/tools/clang/test/SemaCXX/using-directive.cpp | 
 | </pre> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>If you used the <tt>make VERBOSE=1</tt> option, the terminal | 
 |   output will reflect the error messages from the compiler and | 
 |   test runner.</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>The regression suite can also be run with Valgrind by running | 
 |   <tt>make test VG=1</tt> in the top-level clang directory.</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>For more intensive changes, running | 
 |   the <a href="https://llvm.org/docs/TestingGuide.html#quick-start">LLVM | 
 |   Test Suite</a> with clang is recommended. Currently the best way to | 
 |   override LLVMGCC, as in: <tt>make LLVMGCC="clang -std=gnu89" | 
 |   TEST=nightly report</tt> (make sure <tt>clang</tt> is in your PATH or use the | 
 |   full path).</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |   <h3 id="testingWindows">Testing using Visual Studio on Windows</h3> | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>The Clang test suite can be run from either Visual Studio or | 
 |   the command line.</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>Note that the test runner is based on | 
 |   Python, which must be installed.  Find Python at: | 
 |   <a href="https://www.python.org/downloads/">https://www.python.org/downloads/</a>. | 
 |   Download the latest stable version.</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>The GnuWin32 tools are also necessary for running the tests. | 
 |   Get them from <a href="http://getgnuwin32.sourceforge.net/"> | 
 |   http://getgnuwin32.sourceforge.net/</a>. | 
 |   If the environment variable <tt>%PATH%</tt> does not have GnuWin32, | 
 |   or if other grep(s) supercedes GnuWin32 on <tt>%PATH%,</tt> | 
 |   you should specify <tt>LLVM_LIT_TOOLS_DIR</tt> | 
 |   to CMake explicitly.</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>The cmake build tool is set up to create Visual Studio project files | 
 |   for running the tests, "clang-test" being the root.  Therefore, to | 
 |   run the test from Visual Studio, right-click the clang-test project | 
 |   and select "Build".</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p> | 
 |     Please see also | 
 |     <a href="https://llvm.org/docs/GettingStartedVS.html">Getting Started | 
 |     with the LLVM System using Microsoft Visual Studio</a> and | 
 |     <a href="https://llvm.org/docs/CMake.html">Building LLVM with CMake</a>. | 
 |   </p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |   <h3 id="testingCommands">Testing on the Command Line</h3> | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>If you want more control over how the tests are run, it may | 
 |   be convenient to run the test harness on the command-line directly. Before | 
 |   running tests from the command line, you will need to ensure that | 
 |   <tt>lit.site.cfg</tt> files have been created for your build.  You can do | 
 |   this by running the tests as described in the previous sections. Once the | 
 |   tests have started running, you can stop them with control+C, as the | 
 |   files are generated before running any tests.</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>Once that is done, to run all the tests from the command line, | 
 |   execute a command like the following:</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <pre> | 
 |   python (path to llvm)\llvm\utils\lit\lit.py -sv | 
 |   --param=build_mode=Win32 --param=build_config=Debug | 
 |   --param=clang_site_config=(build dir)\tools\clang\test\lit.site.cfg | 
 |  (path to llvm)\llvm\tools\clang\test | 
 | </pre> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>For CMake builds e.g. on Windows with Visual Studio, you will need | 
 |   to specify your build configuration (Debug, Release, etc.) via | 
 |   <tt>--param=build_config=(build config)</tt>.  You may also need to specify | 
 |   the build mode (Win32, etc) via <tt>--param=build_mode=(build mode)</tt>.</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>Additionally, you will need to specify the lit site configuration which | 
 |   lives in (build dir)\tools\clang\test, via | 
 |   <tt>--param=clang_site_config=(build dir)\tools\clang\test\lit.site.cfg</tt>. | 
 |   </p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>To run a single test:</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <pre> | 
 |   python (path to llvm)\llvm\utils\lit\lit.py -sv | 
 |   --param=build_mode=Win32 --param=build_config=Debug | 
 |   --param=clang_site_config=(build dir)\tools\clang\test\lit.site.cfg | 
 |   (path to llvm)\llvm\tools\clang\test\(dir)\(test) | 
 | </pre> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>For example:</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <pre> | 
 |   python C:\Tools\llvm\utils\lit\lit.py -sv | 
 |   --param=build_mode=Win32 --param=build_config=Debug | 
 |   --param=clang_site_config=C:\Tools\build\tools\clang\test\lit.site.cfg | 
 |   C:\Tools\llvm\tools\clang\test\Sema\wchar.c | 
 | </pre> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>The -sv option above tells the runner to show the test output if | 
 |   any tests failed, to help you determine the cause of failure.</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>You can also pass in the --no-progress-bar option if you wish to disable | 
 |   progress indications while the tests are running.</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>Your output might look something like this:</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <pre>lit.py: lit.cfg:152: note: using clang: 'C:\Tools\llvm\bin\Release\clang.EXE' | 
 | -- Testing: Testing: 2534 tests, 4 threads -- | 
 | Testing: 0 .. 10.. 20.. 30.. 40.. 50.. 60.. 70.. 80.. 90.. | 
 | Testing Time: 81.52s | 
 |   Passed           : 2503 | 
 |   Expectedly Failed:   28 | 
 |   Unsupported      :    3 | 
 | </pre> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>The statistic, "Failed" (not shown if all tests pass), is the important one.</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |   <h2 id="patches">Creating Patch Files</h2> | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>To contribute changes to Clang see | 
 |     <a href="https://llvm.org/docs/GettingStarted.html#sending-patches">LLVM's Getting Started page</a></p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |   <h2 id="irgen">LLVM IR Generation</h2> | 
 |   <!--=====================================================================--> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>The LLVM IR generation part of clang handles conversion of the | 
 |     AST nodes output by the Sema module to the LLVM Intermediate | 
 |     Representation (IR). Historically, this was referred to as | 
 |     "codegen", and the Clang code for this lives | 
 |     in <tt>lib/CodeGen</tt>.</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <p>The output is most easily inspected using the <tt>-emit-llvm</tt> | 
 |     option to clang (possibly in conjunction with <tt>-o -</tt>). You | 
 |     can also use <tt>-emit-llvm-bc</tt> to write an LLVM bitcode file | 
 |     which can be processed by the suite of LLVM tools | 
 |     like <tt>llvm-dis</tt>, <tt>llvm-nm</tt>, etc. See the LLVM | 
 |     <a href="https://llvm.org/docs/CommandGuide/">Command Guide</a> | 
 |     for more information.</p> | 
 |  | 
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