1.4 Test project – syntax check with a Clang tool

For our first test project, we will create a simple Clang tool that runs the compiler and checks the syntax for the provided source file. We will create a so-called out-of-tree LLVM project, that is, a project that will use LLVM but will be located outside the main LLVM source tree.

Several actions are required to create the project:

• The required LLVM libraries and headers have to be built and installed

• We have to create a build configuration file for our test project

• The source code that uses LLVM has to be created

We will start with the first step and install the Clang support libraries and headers. We will use the following configuration command for CMake:

cmake -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=../install -DLLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD="X86" -DLLVM_ENABLE_PROJECTS="clang" -DLLVM_USE_LINKER=gold -DLLVM_USE_SPLIT_DWARF=ON -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON ../llvm

Figure 1.12: LLVM CMake configuration...