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<title>Building LLVM with CMake</title>
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<div class="doc_title">
Building LLVM with CMake
</div>
<ul>
<li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
<li><a href="#quickstart">Quick start</a></li>
<li><a href="#usage">Basic CMake usage</a>
<li><a href="#options">Options and variables</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#freccmake">Frequently-used CMake variables</a></li>
<li><a href="#llvmvars">LLVM-specific variables</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href="#testing">Executing the test suite</a>
<li><a href="#cross">Cross compiling</a>
<li><a href="#embedding">Embedding LLVM in your project</a>
<li><a href="#specifics">Compiler/Platform specific topics</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#msvc">Microsoft Visual C++</a></li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
<div class="doc_author">
<p>Written by <a href="mailto:ofv@wanadoo.es">Oscar Fuentes</a></p>
</div>
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<div class="doc_section">
<a name="intro">Introduction</a>
</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
<p><a href="http://www.cmake.org/">CMake</a> is a cross-platform
build-generator tool. CMake does not build the project, it generates
the files needed by your build tool (GNU make, Visual Studio, etc) for
building LLVM.</p>
<p>If you are really anxious about getting a functional LLVM build,
go to the <a href="#quickstart">Quick start</a> section. If you
are a CMake novice, start on <a href="#usage">Basic CMake
usage</a> and then go back to the <a href="#quickstart">Quick
start</a> once you know what you are
doing. The <a href="#options">Options and variables</a> section
is a reference for customizing your build. If you already have
experience with CMake, this is the recommended starting point.
</div>
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<div class="doc_section">
<a name="quickstart">Quick start</a>
</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
<p> We use here the command-line, non-interactive CMake interface </p>
<ol>
<li><p><a href="http://www.cmake.org/cmake/resources/software.html">Download</a>
and install CMake. Version 2.6.2 is the minimum required.</p>
<li><p>Open a shell. Your development tools must be reachable from this
shell through the PATH environment variable.</p>
<li><p>Create a directory for containing the build. It is not
supported to build LLVM on the source directory. cd to this
directory:</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<p><tt>mkdir mybuilddir</tt></p>
<p><tt>cd mybuilddir</tt></p>
</div>
<li><p>Execute this command on the shell
replacing <i>path/to/llvm/source/root</i> with the path to the
root of your LLVM source tree:</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<p><tt>cmake path/to/llvm/source/root</tt></p>
</div>
<p>CMake will detect your development environment, perform a
series of test and generate the files required for building
LLVM. CMake will use default values for all build
parameters. See the <a href="#options">Options and variables</a>
section for fine-tuning your build</p>
<p>This can fail if CMake can't detect your toolset, or if it
thinks that the environment is not sane enough. On this case
make sure that the toolset that you intend to use is the only
one reachable from the shell and that the shell itself is the
correct one for you development environment. CMake will refuse
to build MinGW makefiles if you have a POSIX shell reachable
through the PATH environment variable, for instance. You can
force CMake to use a given build tool, see
the <a href="#usage">Usage</a> section.</p>
</ol>
</div>
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<div class="doc_section">
<a name="usage">Basic CMake usage</a>
</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
<p>This section explains basic aspects of CMake, mostly for
explaining those options which you may need on your day-to-day
usage.</p>
<p>CMake comes with extensive documentation in the form of html
files and on the cmake executable itself. Execute <i>cmake
--help</i> for further help options.</p>
<p>CMake requires to know for which build tool it shall generate
files (GNU make, Visual Studio, Xcode, etc). If not specified on
the command line, it tries to guess it based on you
environment. Once identified the build tool, CMake uses the
corresponding <i>Generator</i> for creating files for your build
tool. You can explicitly specify the generator with the command
line option <i>-G "Name of the generator"</i>. For knowing the
available generators on your platform, execute</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<p><tt>cmake --help</tt></p>
</div>
<p>This will list the generator's names at the end of the help
text. Generator's names are case-sensitive. Example:</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<p><tt>cmake -G "Visual Studio 8 2005" path/to/llvm/source/root</tt></p>
</div>
<p>For a given development platform there can be more than one
adequate generator. If you use Visual Studio "NMake Makefiles"
is a generator you can use for building with NMake. By default,
CMake chooses the more specific generator supported by your
development environment. If you want an alternative generator,
you must tell this to CMake with the <i>-G</i> option.</p>
<p>TODO: explain variables and cache. Move explanation here from
#options section.</p>
</div>
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<div class="doc_section">
<a name="options">Options and variables</a>
</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
<p>Variables customize how the build will be generated. Options are
boolean variables, with possible values ON/OFF. Options and
variables are defined on the CMake command line like this:</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<p><tt>cmake -DVARIABLE=value path/to/llvm/source</tt></p>
</div>
<p>You can set a variable after the initial CMake invocation for
changing its value. You can also undefine a variable:</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<p><tt>cmake -UVARIABLE path/to/llvm/source</tt></p>
</div>
<p>Variables are stored on the CMake cache. This is a file
named <tt>CMakeCache.txt</tt> on the root of the build
directory. Do not hand-edit it.</p>
<p>Variables are listed here appending its type after a colon. It is
correct to write the variable and the type on the CMake command
line:</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<p><tt>cmake -DVARIABLE:TYPE=value path/to/llvm/source</tt></p>
</div>
</div>
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<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="freccmake">Frequently-used CMake variables</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<p>Here are listed some of the CMake variables that are used often,
along with a brief explanation and LLVM-specific notes. For full
documentation, check the CMake docs or execute <i>cmake
--help-variable VARIABLE_NAME</i>.</p>
<dl>
<dt><b>CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE</b>:STRING</dt>
<dd>Sets the build type for <i>make</i> based generators. Possible
values are Release, Debug, RelWithDebInfo and MiniSizeRel. On
systems like Visual Studio the user sets the build type with the IDE
settings.</dd>
<dt><b>CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX</b>:PATH</dt>
<dd>Path where LLVM will be installed if "make install" is invoked
or the "INSTALL" target is built.</dd>
<dt><b>LLVM_LIBDIR_SUFFIX</b>:STRING</dt>
<dd>Extra suffix to append to the directory where libraries are to
be installed. On a 64-bit architecture, one could use
-DLLVM_LIBDIR_SUFFIX=64 to install libraries to /usr/lib64.</dd>
<dt><b>CMAKE_C_FLAGS</b>:STRING</dt>
<dd>Extra flags to use when compiling C source files.</dd>
<dt><b>CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS</b>:STRING</dt>
<dd>Extra flags to use when compiling C++ source files.</dd>
<dt><b>BUILD_SHARED_LIBS</b>:BOOL</dt>
<dd>Flag indicating is shared libraries will be built. Its default
value is OFF. Shared libraries are not supported on Windows and
not recommended in the other OSes.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
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<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="llvmvars">LLVM-specific variables</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<dl>
<dt><b>LLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD</b>:STRING</dt>
<dd>Semicolon-separated list of targets to build, or <i>all</i> for
building all targets. Case-sensitive. For Visual C++ defaults
to <i>X86</i>. On the other cases defaults to <i>all</i>. Example:
<i>-DLLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD="X86;PowerPC;Alpha"</i>.</dd>
<dt><b>LLVM_BUILD_TOOLS</b>:BOOL</dt>
<dd>Build LLVM tools. Defaults to ON.</dd>
<dt><b>LLVM_BUILD_EXAMPLES</b>:BOOL</dt>
<dd>Build LLVM examples. Defaults to ON.</dd>
<dt><b>LLVM_ENABLE_THREADS</b>:BOOL</dt>
<dd>Build with threads support, if available. Defaults to ON.</dd>
<dt><b>LLVM_ENABLE_ASSERTIONS</b>:BOOL</dt>
<dd>Enables code assertions. Defaults to ON if and only if
CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE is <i>Release</i>.</dd>
<dt><b>LLVM_ENABLE_PIC</b>:BOOL</dt>
<dd>Add the <i>-fPIC</i> flag for the compiler command-line, if the
compiler supports this flag. Some systems, like Windows, do not
need this flag. Defaults to ON.</dd>
<dt><b>LLVM_BUILD_32_BITS</b>:BOOL</dt>
<dd>Build 32-bits executables and libraries on 64-bits systems. This
option is available only on some 64-bits unix systems. Defaults to
OFF.</dd>
<dt><b>LLVM_TABLEGEN</b>:STRING</dt>
<dd>Full path to a native TableGen executable (usually
named <i>tblgen</i>). This is intented for cross-compiling: if the
user sets this variable, no native TableGen will be created.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
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<div class="doc_section">
<a name="testing">Executing the test suite</a>
</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
<p>LLVM testing is not supported on Visual Studio.</p>
<p>TODO</p>
</div>
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<div class="doc_section">
<a name="cross">Cross compiling</a>
</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
<p>See <a href="http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/CMake_Cross_Compiling">this
wiki page</a> for generic instructions on how to cross-compile
with CMake. It goes into detailed explanations and may seem
daunting, but it is not. On the wiki page there are several
examples including toolchain files. Go directly to
<a href="http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/CMake_Cross_Compiling#Information_how_to_set_up_various_cross_compiling_toolchains">this
section</a> for a quick solution.</p>
</div>
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<div class="doc_section">
<a name="embedding">Embedding LLVM in your project</a>
</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
<p>TODO</p>
</div>
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<div class="doc_section">
<a name="specifics">Compiler/Platform specific topics</a>
</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
<p>Notes for specific compilers and/or platforms.</p>
</div>
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<a href="mailto:ofv@wanadoo.es">Oscar Fuentes</a><br>
<a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
Last modified: $Date: 2008-12-31 03:59:36 +0100 (Wed, 31 Dec 2008) $
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