docs/LinkTimeOptimization.html - llvm - Git at Google

 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
                       "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
 <html>
 <head>
  <title>LLVM Link Time Optimization: Design and Implementation</title>
   <link rel="stylesheet" href="llvm.css" type="text/css">
 </head>

 <div class="doc_title">
   LLVM Link Time Optimization: Design and Implementation
 </div>

 <ul>
   <li><a href="#desc">Description</a></li>
   <li><a href="#design">Design Philosophy</a>
   <ul>
     <li><a href="#example1">Example of link time optimization</a></li>
     <li><a href="#alternative_approaches">Alternative Approaches</a></li>
   </ul></li>
   <li><a href="#multiphase">Multi-phase communication between LLVM and linker</a>
   <ul>
     <li><a href="#phase1">Phase 1 : Read LLVM Bytecode Files</a></li>
     <li><a href="#phase2">Phase 2 : Symbol Resolution</a></li>
     <li><a href="#phase3">Phase 3 : Optimize Bytecode Files</a></li>
     <li><a href="#phase4">Phase 4 : Symbol Resolution after optimization</a></li>
   </ul></li>
   <li><a href="#lto">LLVMlto</a>
   <ul>
     <li><a href="#llvmsymbol">LLVMSymbol</a></li>
     <li><a href="#readllvmobjectfile">readLLVMObjectFile()</a></li>
     <li><a href="#optimizemodules">optimizeModules()</a></li>
     <li><a href="#gettargettriple">getTargetTriple()</a></li>
     <li><a href="#removemodule">removeModule()</a></li>
     <li><a href="#getalignment">getAlignment()</a></li>
   </ul></li>
   <li><a href="#debug">Debugging Information</a></li>
 </ul>

 <div class="doc_author">
 <p>Written by Devang Patel</p>
 </div>

 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 <div class="doc_section">
 <a name="desc">Description</a>
 </div>
 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->

 <div class="doc_text">
 <p>
 LLVM features powerful intermodular optimizations which can be used at link
 time.  Link Time Optimization is another name for intermodular optimization
 when performed during the link stage. This document describes the interface
 and design between the LLVM intermodular optimizer and the linker.</p>
 </div>

 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 <div class="doc_section">
 <a name="design">Design Philosophy</a>
 </div>
 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->

 <div class="doc_text">
 <p>
 The LLVM Link Time Optimizer provides complete transparency, while doing
 intermodular optimization, in the compiler tool chain. Its main goal is to let
 the developer take advantage of intermodular optimizations without making any
 significant changes to the developer's makefiles or build system. This is
 achieved through tight integration with the linker. In this model, the linker
 treates LLVM bitcode files like native object files and allows mixing and
 matching among them. The linker uses <a href="#lto">LLVMlto</a>, a dynamically
 loaded library, to handle LLVM bitcode files. This tight integration between
 the linker and LLVM optimizer helps to do optimizations that are not possible
 in other models. The linker input allows the optimizer to avoid relying on
 conservative escape analysis.
 </p>
 </div>

 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 <div class="doc_subsection">
   <a name="example1">Example of link time optimization</a>
 </div>

 <div class="doc_text">
   <p>The following example illustrates the advantages of LTO's integrated
   approach and clean interface. This example requires a system linker which
   supports LTO through the interface described in this document.  Here,
   llvm-gcc transparently invokes system linker. </p>
   <ul>
     <li> Input source file <tt>a.c</tt> is compiled into LLVM bitcode form.
     <li> Input source file <tt>main.c</tt> is compiled into native object code.
   </ul>
 <div class="doc_code"><pre>
 --- a.h ---
 extern int foo1(void);
 extern void foo2(void);
 extern void foo4(void);
 --- a.c ---
 #include "a.h"

 static signed int i = 0;

 void foo2(void) {
  i = -1;
 }

 static int foo3() {
 foo4();
 return 10;
 }

 int foo1(void) {
 int data = 0;

 if (i &lt; 0) { data = foo3(); }

 data = data + 42;
 return data;
 }

 --- main.c ---
 #include &lt;stdio.h&gt;
 #include "a.h"

 void foo4(void) {
  printf ("Hi\n");
 }

 int main() {
  return foo1();
 }

 --- command lines ---
 $ llvm-gcc --emit-llvm -c a.c -o a.o  # &lt;-- a.o is LLVM bitcode file
 $ llvm-gcc -c main.c -o main.o # &lt;-- main.o is native object file
 $ llvm-gcc a.o main.o -o main # &lt;-- standard link command without any modifications
 </pre></div>
   <p>In this example, the linker recognizes that <tt>foo2()</tt> is an
   externally visible symbol defined in LLVM bitcode file. This information
   is collected using <a href="#readllvmobjectfile"> readLLVMObjectFile()</a>.
   Based on this information, the linker completes its usual symbol resolution
   pass and finds that <tt>foo2()</tt> is not used anywhere. This information
   is used by the LLVM optimizer and it removes <tt>foo2()</tt>. As soon as
   <tt>foo2()</tt> is removed, the optimizer recognizes that condition
   <tt>i &lt; 0</tt> is always false, which means <tt>foo3()</tt> is never
   used. Hence, the optimizer removes <tt>foo3()</tt>, also.  And this in turn,
   enables linker to remove <tt>foo4()</tt>.  This example illustrates the
   advantage of tight integration with the linker. Here, the optimizer can not
   remove <tt>foo3()</tt> without the linker's input.
   </p>
 </div>

 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 <div class="doc_subsection">
   <a name="alternative_approaches">Alternative Approaches</a>
 </div>

 <div class="doc_text">
   <dl>
     <dt><b>Compiler driver invokes link time optimizer separately.</b></dt>
     <dd>In this model the link time optimizer is not able to take advantage of
     information collected during the linker's normal symbol resolution phase.
     In the above example, the optimizer can not remove <tt>foo2()</tt> without
     the linker's input because it is externally visible. This in turn prohibits
     the optimizer from removing <tt>foo3()</tt>.</dd>
     <dt><b>Use separate tool to collect symbol information from all object
     files.</b></dt>
     <dd>In this model, a new, separate, tool or library replicates the linker's
     capability to collect information for link time optimization. Not only is
     this code duplication difficult to justify, but it also has several other
     disadvantages.  For example, the linking semantics and the features
     provided by the linker on various platform are not unique. This means,
     this new tool needs to support all such features and platforms in one
     super tool or a separate tool per platform is required. This increases
     maintance cost for link time optimizer significantly, which is not
     necessary. This approach also requires staying synchronized with linker
     developements on various platforms, which is not the main focus of the link
     time optimizer. Finally, this approach increases end user's build time due
     to the duplication of work done by this separate tool and the linker itself.
     </dd>
   </dl>
 </div>

 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 <div class="doc_section">
   <a name="multiphase">Multi-phase communication between LLVM and linker</a>
 </div>

 <div class="doc_text">
   <p>The linker collects information about symbol defininitions and uses in
   various link objects which is more accurate than any information collected
   by other tools during typical build cycles.  The linker collects this
   information by looking at the definitions and uses of symbols in native .o
   files and using symbol visibility information. The linker also uses
   user-supplied information, such as a list of exported symbols. LLVM
   optimizer collects control flow information, data flow information and knows
   much more about program structure from the optimizer's point of view.
   Our goal is to take advantage of tight intergration between the linker and
   the optimizer by sharing this information during various linking phases.
 </p>
 </div>

 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 <div class="doc_subsection">
   <a name="phase1">Phase 1 : Read LLVM Bitcode Files</a>
 </div>

 <div class="doc_text">
   <p>The linker first reads all object files in natural order and collects
   symbol information. This includes native object files as well as LLVM bitcode
   files.  In this phase, the linker uses
   <a href="#readllvmobjectfile"> readLLVMObjectFile() </a>  to collect symbol
   information from each LLVM bitcode files and updates its internal global
   symbol table accordingly. The intent of this interface is to avoid overhead
   in the non LLVM case, where all input object files are native object files,
   by putting this code in the error path of the linker. When the linker sees
   the first llvm .o file, it <tt>dlopen()</tt>s the dynamic library. This is
   to allow changes to the LLVM LTO code without relinking the linker.
 </p>
 </div>

 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 <div class="doc_subsection">
   <a name="phase2">Phase 2 : Symbol Resolution</a>
 </div>

 <div class="doc_text">
   <p>In this stage, the linker resolves symbols using global symbol table
   information to report undefined symbol errors, read archive members, resolve
   weak symbols, etc. The linker is able to do this seamlessly even though it
   does not know the exact content of input LLVM bitcode files because it uses
   symbol information provided by
   <a href="#readllvmobjectfile">readLLVMObjectFile()</a>.  If dead code
   stripping is enabled then the linker collects the list of live symbols.
   </p>
 </div>

 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 <div class="doc_subsection">
   <a name="phase3">Phase 3 : Optimize Bitcode Files</a>
 </div>
 <div class="doc_text">
   <p>After symbol resolution, the linker updates symbol information supplied
   by LLVM bitcode files appropriately. For example, whether certain LLVM
   bitcode supplied symbols are used or not. In the example above, the linker
   reports that <tt>foo2()</tt> is not used anywhere in the program, including
   native <tt>.o</tt> files. This information is used by the LLVM interprocedural
   optimizer. The linker uses <a href="#optimizemodules">optimizeModules()</a>
   and requests an optimized native object file of the LLVM portion of the
   program.
 </p>
 </div>

 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 <div class="doc_subsection">
   <a name="phase4">Phase 4 : Symbol Resolution after optimization</a>
 </div>

 <div class="doc_text">
   <p>In this phase, the linker reads optimized a native object file and
   updates the internal global symbol table to reflect any changes. The linker
   also collects information about any changes in use of external symbols by
   LLVM bitcode files. In the examle above, the linker notes that
   <tt>foo4()</tt> is not used any more. If dead code stripping is enabled then
   the linker refreshes the live symbol information appropriately and performs
   dead code stripping.</p>
   <p>After this phase, the linker continues linking as if it never saw LLVM
   bitcode files.</p>
 </div>

 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 <div class="doc_section">
 <a name="lto">LLVMlto</a>
 </div>

 <div class="doc_text">
   <p><tt>LLVMlto</tt> is a dynamic library that is part of the LLVM tools, and
   is intended for use by a linker. <tt>LLVMlto</tt> provides an abstract C++
   interface to use the LLVM interprocedural optimizer without exposing details
   of LLVM's internals. The intention is to keep the interface as stable as
   possible even when the LLVM optimizer continues to evolve.</p>
 </div>

 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 <div class="doc_subsection">
   <a name="llvmsymbol">LLVMSymbol</a>
 </div>

 <div class="doc_text">
   <p>The <tt>LLVMSymbol</tt> class is used to describe the externally visible
   functions and global variables, defined in LLVM bitcode files, to the linker.
   This includes symbol visibility information. This information is used by
   the linker to do symbol resolution. For example: function <tt>foo2()</tt> is
   defined inside an LLVM bitcode module and it is an externally visible symbol.
   This helps the linker connect the use of <tt>foo2()</tt> in native object
   files with a future definition of the symbol <tt>foo2()</tt>. The linker
   will see the actual definition of <tt>foo2()</tt> when it receives the
   optimized native object file in
   <a href="#phase4">Symbol Resolution after optimization</a> phase. If the
   linker does not find any uses of <tt>foo2()</tt>, it updates LLVMSymbol
   visibility information to notify LLVM intermodular optimizer that it is dead.
   The LLVM intermodular optimizer takes advantage of such information to
   generate better code.</p>
 </div>

 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 <div class="doc_subsection">
   <a name="readllvmobjectfile">readLLVMObjectFile()</a>
 </div>

 <div class="doc_text">
   <p>The <tt>readLLVMObjectFile()</tt> function is used by the linker to read
   LLVM bitcode files and collect LLVMSymbol information. This routine also
   supplies a list of externally defined symbols that are used by LLVM bitcode
   files. The linker uses this symbol information to do symbol resolution.
   Internally, <a href="#lto">LLVMlto</a> maintains LLVM bitcode modules in
   memory. This function also provides a list of external references used by
   bitcode files.</p>
 </div>

 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 <div class="doc_subsection">
   <a name="optimizemodules">optimizeModules()</a>
 </div>

 <div class="doc_text">
   <p>The linker invokes <tt>optimizeModules</tt> to optimize already read
   LLVM bitcode files by applying LLVM intermodular optimization techniques.
   This function runs the LLVM intermodular optimizer and generates native
   object code as <tt>.o</tt> files at the name and location provided by the
   linker.</p>
 </div>

 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 <div class="doc_subsection">
   <a name="gettargettriple">getTargetTriple()</a>
 </div>

 <div class="doc_text">
   <p>The linker may use <tt>getTargetTriple()</tt> to query target architecture
   while validating LLVM bitcode file.</p>
 </div>

 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 <div class="doc_subsection">
   <a name="removemodule">removeModule()</a>
 </div>

 <div class="doc_text">
   <p>Internally, <a href="#lto">LLVMlto</a> maintains LLVM bitcode modules in
   memory. The linker may use <tt>removeModule()</tt> method to remove desired
   modules from memory. </p>
 </div>

 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 <div class="doc_subsection">
   <a name="getalignment">getAlignment()</a>
 </div>

 <div class="doc_text">
   <p>The linker may use <a href="#llvmsymbol">LLVMSymbol</a> method
   <tt>getAlignment()</tt> to query symbol alignment information.</p>
 </div>

 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 <div class="doc_section">
   <a name="debug">Debugging Information</a>
 </div>
 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->

 <div class="doc_text">

 <p><tt> ... To be completed ... </tt></p>

 </div>

 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->

 <hr>
 <address>
   <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img
   src="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/images/vcss" alt="Valid CSS!"></a>
   <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img
   src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401" alt="Valid HTML 4.01!"></a>

   Devang Patel<br>
   <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
   Last modified: $Date$
 </address>

 </body>
 </html>
	<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
	"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
	<html>
	<head>
	<title>LLVM Link Time Optimization: Design and Implementation</title>
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="llvm.css" type="text/css">
	</head>

	<div class="doc_title">
	LLVM Link Time Optimization: Design and Implementation
	</div>

	<ul>
	<li><a href="#desc">Description</a></li>
	<li><a href="#design">Design Philosophy</a>
	<ul>
	<li><a href="#example1">Example of link time optimization</a></li>
	<li><a href="#alternative_approaches">Alternative Approaches</a></li>
	</ul></li>
	<li><a href="#multiphase">Multi-phase communication between LLVM and linker</a>
	<ul>
	<li><a href="#phase1">Phase 1 : Read LLVM Bytecode Files</a></li>
	<li><a href="#phase2">Phase 2 : Symbol Resolution</a></li>
	<li><a href="#phase3">Phase 3 : Optimize Bytecode Files</a></li>
	<li><a href="#phase4">Phase 4 : Symbol Resolution after optimization</a></li>
	</ul></li>
	<li><a href="#lto">LLVMlto</a>
	<ul>
	<li><a href="#llvmsymbol">LLVMSymbol</a></li>
	<li><a href="#readllvmobjectfile">readLLVMObjectFile()</a></li>
	<li><a href="#optimizemodules">optimizeModules()</a></li>
	<li><a href="#gettargettriple">getTargetTriple()</a></li>
	<li><a href="#removemodule">removeModule()</a></li>
	<li><a href="#getalignment">getAlignment()</a></li>
	</ul></li>
	<li><a href="#debug">Debugging Information</a></li>
	</ul>

	<div class="doc_author">
	<p>Written by Devang Patel</p>
	</div>

	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
	<div class="doc_section">
	<a name="desc">Description</a>
	</div>
	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->

	<div class="doc_text">
	<p>
	LLVM features powerful intermodular optimizations which can be used at link
	time. Link Time Optimization is another name for intermodular optimization
	when performed during the link stage. This document describes the interface
	and design between the LLVM intermodular optimizer and the linker.</p>
	</div>

	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
	<div class="doc_section">
	<a name="design">Design Philosophy</a>
	</div>
	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->

	<div class="doc_text">
	<p>
	The LLVM Link Time Optimizer provides complete transparency, while doing
	intermodular optimization, in the compiler tool chain. Its main goal is to let
	the developer take advantage of intermodular optimizations without making any
	significant changes to the developer's makefiles or build system. This is
	achieved through tight integration with the linker. In this model, the linker
	treates LLVM bitcode files like native object files and allows mixing and
	matching among them. The linker uses <a href="#lto">LLVMlto</a>, a dynamically
	loaded library, to handle LLVM bitcode files. This tight integration between
	the linker and LLVM optimizer helps to do optimizations that are not possible
	in other models. The linker input allows the optimizer to avoid relying on
	conservative escape analysis.
	</p>
	</div>

	<!-- ======================================================================= -->
	<div class="doc_subsection">
	<a name="example1">Example of link time optimization</a>
	</div>

	<div class="doc_text">
	<p>The following example illustrates the advantages of LTO's integrated
	approach and clean interface. This example requires a system linker which
	supports LTO through the interface described in this document. Here,
	llvm-gcc transparently invokes system linker. </p>
	<ul>
	<li> Input source file <tt>a.c</tt> is compiled into LLVM bitcode form.
	<li> Input source file <tt>main.c</tt> is compiled into native object code.
	</ul>
	<div class="doc_code"><pre>
	--- a.h ---
	extern int foo1(void);
	extern void foo2(void);
	extern void foo4(void);
	--- a.c ---
	#include "a.h"

	static signed int i = 0;

	void foo2(void) {
	i = -1;
	}

	static int foo3() {
	foo4();
	return 10;
	}

	int foo1(void) {
	int data = 0;

	if (i < 0) { data = foo3(); }

	data = data + 42;
	return data;
	}

	--- main.c ---
	#include <stdio.h>
	#include "a.h"

	void foo4(void) {
	printf ("Hi\n");
	}

	int main() {
	return foo1();
	}

	--- command lines ---
	$ llvm-gcc --emit-llvm -c a.c -o a.o # <-- a.o is LLVM bitcode file
	$ llvm-gcc -c main.c -o main.o # <-- main.o is native object file
	$ llvm-gcc a.o main.o -o main # <-- standard link command without any modifications
	</pre></div>
	<p>In this example, the linker recognizes that <tt>foo2()</tt> is an
	externally visible symbol defined in LLVM bitcode file. This information
	is collected using <a href="#readllvmobjectfile"> readLLVMObjectFile()</a>.
	Based on this information, the linker completes its usual symbol resolution
	pass and finds that <tt>foo2()</tt> is not used anywhere. This information
	is used by the LLVM optimizer and it removes <tt>foo2()</tt>. As soon as
	<tt>foo2()</tt> is removed, the optimizer recognizes that condition
	<tt>i < 0</tt> is always false, which means <tt>foo3()</tt> is never
	used. Hence, the optimizer removes <tt>foo3()</tt>, also. And this in turn,
	enables linker to remove <tt>foo4()</tt>. This example illustrates the
	advantage of tight integration with the linker. Here, the optimizer can not
	remove <tt>foo3()</tt> without the linker's input.
	</p>
	</div>

	<!-- ======================================================================= -->
	<div class="doc_subsection">
	<a name="alternative_approaches">Alternative Approaches</a>
	</div>

	<div class="doc_text">
	<dl>
	<dt><b>Compiler driver invokes link time optimizer separately.</b></dt>
	<dd>In this model the link time optimizer is not able to take advantage of
	information collected during the linker's normal symbol resolution phase.
	In the above example, the optimizer can not remove <tt>foo2()</tt> without
	the linker's input because it is externally visible. This in turn prohibits
	the optimizer from removing <tt>foo3()</tt>.</dd>
	<dt><b>Use separate tool to collect symbol information from all object
	files.</b></dt>
	<dd>In this model, a new, separate, tool or library replicates the linker's
	capability to collect information for link time optimization. Not only is
	this code duplication difficult to justify, but it also has several other
	disadvantages. For example, the linking semantics and the features
	provided by the linker on various platform are not unique. This means,
	this new tool needs to support all such features and platforms in one
	super tool or a separate tool per platform is required. This increases
	maintance cost for link time optimizer significantly, which is not
	necessary. This approach also requires staying synchronized with linker
	developements on various platforms, which is not the main focus of the link
	time optimizer. Finally, this approach increases end user's build time due
	to the duplication of work done by this separate tool and the linker itself.
	</dd>
	</dl>
	</div>

	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
	<div class="doc_section">
	<a name="multiphase">Multi-phase communication between LLVM and linker</a>
	</div>

	<div class="doc_text">
	<p>The linker collects information about symbol defininitions and uses in
	various link objects which is more accurate than any information collected
	by other tools during typical build cycles. The linker collects this
	information by looking at the definitions and uses of symbols in native .o
	files and using symbol visibility information. The linker also uses
	user-supplied information, such as a list of exported symbols. LLVM
	optimizer collects control flow information, data flow information and knows
	much more about program structure from the optimizer's point of view.
	Our goal is to take advantage of tight intergration between the linker and
	the optimizer by sharing this information during various linking phases.
	</p>
	</div>

	<!-- ======================================================================= -->
	<div class="doc_subsection">
	<a name="phase1">Phase 1 : Read LLVM Bitcode Files</a>
	</div>

	<div class="doc_text">
	<p>The linker first reads all object files in natural order and collects
	symbol information. This includes native object files as well as LLVM bitcode
	files. In this phase, the linker uses
	<a href="#readllvmobjectfile"> readLLVMObjectFile() </a> to collect symbol
	information from each LLVM bitcode files and updates its internal global
	symbol table accordingly. The intent of this interface is to avoid overhead
	in the non LLVM case, where all input object files are native object files,
	by putting this code in the error path of the linker. When the linker sees
	the first llvm .o file, it <tt>dlopen()</tt>s the dynamic library. This is
	to allow changes to the LLVM LTO code without relinking the linker.
	</p>
	</div>

	<!-- ======================================================================= -->
	<div class="doc_subsection">
	<a name="phase2">Phase 2 : Symbol Resolution</a>
	</div>

	<div class="doc_text">
	<p>In this stage, the linker resolves symbols using global symbol table
	information to report undefined symbol errors, read archive members, resolve
	weak symbols, etc. The linker is able to do this seamlessly even though it
	does not know the exact content of input LLVM bitcode files because it uses
	symbol information provided by
	<a href="#readllvmobjectfile">readLLVMObjectFile()</a>. If dead code
	stripping is enabled then the linker collects the list of live symbols.
	</p>
	</div>

	<!-- ======================================================================= -->
	<div class="doc_subsection">
	<a name="phase3">Phase 3 : Optimize Bitcode Files</a>
	</div>
	<div class="doc_text">
	<p>After symbol resolution, the linker updates symbol information supplied
	by LLVM bitcode files appropriately. For example, whether certain LLVM
	bitcode supplied symbols are used or not. In the example above, the linker
	reports that <tt>foo2()</tt> is not used anywhere in the program, including
	native <tt>.o</tt> files. This information is used by the LLVM interprocedural
	optimizer. The linker uses <a href="#optimizemodules">optimizeModules()</a>
	and requests an optimized native object file of the LLVM portion of the
	program.
	</p>
	</div>

	<!-- ======================================================================= -->
	<div class="doc_subsection">
	<a name="phase4">Phase 4 : Symbol Resolution after optimization</a>
	</div>

	<div class="doc_text">
	<p>In this phase, the linker reads optimized a native object file and
	updates the internal global symbol table to reflect any changes. The linker
	also collects information about any changes in use of external symbols by
	LLVM bitcode files. In the examle above, the linker notes that
	<tt>foo4()</tt> is not used any more. If dead code stripping is enabled then
	the linker refreshes the live symbol information appropriately and performs
	dead code stripping.</p>
	<p>After this phase, the linker continues linking as if it never saw LLVM
	bitcode files.</p>
	</div>

	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
	<div class="doc_section">
	<a name="lto">LLVMlto</a>
	</div>

	<div class="doc_text">
	<p><tt>LLVMlto</tt> is a dynamic library that is part of the LLVM tools, and
	is intended for use by a linker. <tt>LLVMlto</tt> provides an abstract C++
	interface to use the LLVM interprocedural optimizer without exposing details
	of LLVM's internals. The intention is to keep the interface as stable as
	possible even when the LLVM optimizer continues to evolve.</p>
	</div>

	<!-- ======================================================================= -->
	<div class="doc_subsection">
	<a name="llvmsymbol">LLVMSymbol</a>
	</div>

	<div class="doc_text">
	<p>The <tt>LLVMSymbol</tt> class is used to describe the externally visible
	functions and global variables, defined in LLVM bitcode files, to the linker.
	This includes symbol visibility information. This information is used by
	the linker to do symbol resolution. For example: function <tt>foo2()</tt> is
	defined inside an LLVM bitcode module and it is an externally visible symbol.
	This helps the linker connect the use of <tt>foo2()</tt> in native object
	files with a future definition of the symbol <tt>foo2()</tt>. The linker
	will see the actual definition of <tt>foo2()</tt> when it receives the
	optimized native object file in
	<a href="#phase4">Symbol Resolution after optimization</a> phase. If the
	linker does not find any uses of <tt>foo2()</tt>, it updates LLVMSymbol
	visibility information to notify LLVM intermodular optimizer that it is dead.
	The LLVM intermodular optimizer takes advantage of such information to
	generate better code.</p>
	</div>

	<!-- ======================================================================= -->
	<div class="doc_subsection">
	<a name="readllvmobjectfile">readLLVMObjectFile()</a>
	</div>

	<div class="doc_text">
	<p>The <tt>readLLVMObjectFile()</tt> function is used by the linker to read
	LLVM bitcode files and collect LLVMSymbol information. This routine also
	supplies a list of externally defined symbols that are used by LLVM bitcode
	files. The linker uses this symbol information to do symbol resolution.
	Internally, <a href="#lto">LLVMlto</a> maintains LLVM bitcode modules in
	memory. This function also provides a list of external references used by
	bitcode files.</p>
	</div>

	<!-- ======================================================================= -->
	<div class="doc_subsection">
	<a name="optimizemodules">optimizeModules()</a>
	</div>

	<div class="doc_text">
	<p>The linker invokes <tt>optimizeModules</tt> to optimize already read
	LLVM bitcode files by applying LLVM intermodular optimization techniques.
	This function runs the LLVM intermodular optimizer and generates native
	object code as <tt>.o</tt> files at the name and location provided by the
	linker.</p>
	</div>

	<!-- ======================================================================= -->
	<div class="doc_subsection">
	<a name="gettargettriple">getTargetTriple()</a>
	</div>

	<div class="doc_text">
	<p>The linker may use <tt>getTargetTriple()</tt> to query target architecture
	while validating LLVM bitcode file.</p>
	</div>

	<!-- ======================================================================= -->
	<div class="doc_subsection">
	<a name="removemodule">removeModule()</a>
	</div>

	<div class="doc_text">
	<p>Internally, <a href="#lto">LLVMlto</a> maintains LLVM bitcode modules in
	memory. The linker may use <tt>removeModule()</tt> method to remove desired
	modules from memory. </p>
	</div>

	<!-- ======================================================================= -->
	<div class="doc_subsection">
	<a name="getalignment">getAlignment()</a>
	</div>

	<div class="doc_text">
	<p>The linker may use <a href="#llvmsymbol">LLVMSymbol</a> method
	<tt>getAlignment()</tt> to query symbol alignment information.</p>
	</div>

	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
	<div class="doc_section">
	<a name="debug">Debugging Information</a>
	</div>
	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->

	<div class="doc_text">

	<p><tt> ... To be completed ... </tt></p>

	</div>

	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->

	<hr>
	<address>
	<a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img
	src="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/images/vcss" alt="Valid CSS!"></a>
	<a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img
	src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401" alt="Valid HTML 4.01!"></a>

	Devang Patel<br>
	<a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
	Last modified: $Date$
	</address>

	</body>
	</html>