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

View More author details

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

The TableGen programming language

In this section, we will offer a primer on the TableGen syntax. The goal here is not for you to become a TableGen programmer but to know enough so that you can understand what you read and write when working with TableGen in the rest of this book. For a more thorough explanation of the TableGen syntax, consult the Further reading section.

As you saw in the previous section, TableGen is a language used to generate records. It relies on two main constructs to describe its records:

class: A way to structure, pre-fill, and specify a type for records
def: An instantiation of a record

The general syntax to describe a record is as follows:

def [optionalName][: optionalClassA[<argN[, argM]*>][, optionalClassB[<argV[, argW]*>]]*] [{
  [type fieldName [ = value];]*
}];

In this snippet, everything between [ and ] is optional, and the * character means, as usual for regular expression, that the previous expression...