You're reading from LLVM Code Generation A deep dive into compiler backend development

Product type Paperback

Published in May 2025

Publisher Packt

ISBN-13 9781837637782

Length 620 pages

Edition 1st Edition

Languages

C++

Tools

LLVM

Concepts

Programming Language

Author (1):

Quentin Colombet

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Table of Contents (30) Chapters

Preface

1. Part 1: Getting Started with LLVM

2. Building LLVM and Understanding the Directory Structure FREE CHAPTER

3. Contributing to LLVM

4. Compiler Basics and How They Map to LLVM APIs

5. Writing Your First Optimization

6. Dealing with Pass Managers

7. TableGen – LLVM Swiss Army Knife for Modeling

8. Part 2: Middle-End: LLVM IR to LLVM IR

9. Understanding LLVM IR

10. Survey of the Existing Passes

11. Introducing Target-Specific Constructs

12. Hands-On Debugging LLVM IR Passes

13. Part 3: Introduction to the Backend

14. Getting Started with the Backend

15. Getting Started with the Machine Code Layer

16. The Machine Pass Pipeline

17. Part 4: LLVM IR to Machine IR

18. Getting Started with Instruction Selection

19. Instruction Selection: The IR Building Phase

20. Instruction Selection: The Legalization Phase

21. Instruction Selection: The Selection Phase and Beyond

22. Part 5: Final Lowering and Optimizations

23. Instruction Scheduling

24. Register Allocation

25. Lowering of the Stack Layout

26. Getting Started with the Assembler

27. Unlock Your Book’s Exclusive Benefits

28. Other Books You May Enjoy

29. Index

Who this book is for

This book is for people who want to use the LLVM infrastructure to write new backends or modify/extend existing ones.

We crafted this book for people who have zero knowledge of compiler backends. This means that all the concepts used are first introduced and explained such that no prior compiler backend knowledge is necessary. We believe this book is a good introduction for anyone who wants to get started with the code generation (codegen) part of a compiler toolchain, whether they are familiar with compilers and LLVM or not. In particular, the concepts introduced in this book apply to every compiler, and LLVM is just one possible implementation of such concepts. In other words, we argue that the content of this book may be useful to students and compiler practitioners beyond LLVM. Of course, a lot of the content of this book is still LLVM-specific.

To summarize, whether you are new to compilers, new to LLVM, or new to LLVM backends, we believe you will find something useful in this book.