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Key benefits

Explore Clang, LLVM’s middle-end and backend, in a pragmatic way

Develop your LLVM skillset and get to grips with a variety of common use cases

Engage with real-world LLVM development through various coding examples

Description

Every programmer or engineer, at some point in their career, works with compilers to optimize their applications. Compilers convert a high-level programming language into low-level machine-executable code. LLVM provides the infrastructure, reusable libraries, and tools needed for developers to build their own compilers. With LLVM’s extensive set of tooling, you can effectively generate code for different backends as well as optimize them. In this book, you’ll explore the LLVM compiler infrastructure and understand how to use it to solve different problems. You’ll start by looking at the structure and design philosophy of important components of LLVM and gradually move on to using Clang libraries to build tools that help you analyze high-level source code. As you advance, the book will show you how to process LLVM IR – a powerful way to transform and optimize the source program for various purposes. Equipped with this knowledge, you’ll be able to leverage LLVM and Clang to create a wide range of useful programming language tools, including compilers, interpreters, IDEs, and source code analyzers. By the end of this LLVM book, you’ll have developed the skills to create powerful tools using the LLVM framework to overcome different real-world challenges.

Who is this book for?

This book is for software engineers of all experience levels who work with LLVM. If you are an academic researcher, this book will help you learn useful LLVM skills in a short time and enable you to build your prototypes and projects quickly. Programming language enthusiasts will also find this book useful for building a new programming language with the help of LLVM.

What you will learn

Find out how LLVM's build system works and how to reduce the building resource

Get to grips with running custom testing with LLVM's LIT framework

Build different types of plugins and extensions for Clang

Customize Clang's toolchain and compiler flags

Write LLVM passes for the new PassManager

Discover how to inspect and modify LLVM IR

Understand how to use LLVM's profile-guided optimizations (PGO) framework

Create custom compiler sanitizers

What do you get with eBook?

Instant access to your Digital eBook purchase

Download this book in EPUB and PDF formats

Access this title in our online reader with advanced features

DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want

AI Assistant (beta) to help accelerate your learning

Frequently bought together

€68.99

€41.99

LLVM Techniques, Tips, and Best Practices Clang and Middle-End Libraries

€36.99

Total € 147.97

Mitchel Dickerson May 25, 2021

I have been working hacking on LLVM full time for my research for just under two years at this point, and I can honestly say that I wish I had such good introduction material when I first started. The most common approach for learning LLVM previously has been to read the documentation and then learn from code already in LLVM that performs tasks similar to the ones you hope to achieve.This book provides what I feel is a much better approach to starting on what can be a very daunting code base. The sections to the book are well thought out and give a good overview of where to approach the compiler depending on what particular problem you are trying to tackle. If you have a project that requires work in C++ front end, the Clang sections are an excellent starting point for getting access to the tools you need to start tackling the problems you actually want to solve.If your project involves some other language that uses LLVM, then the "Middle-end" Development will get you all the tools you need to modify the IR passed on to LLVM (as a note to people starting with languages other than C or C++ that use LLVM, you will likely have to refer to the language's compiler if you want to delve in to "front end" work for that language, Rust being a notable example). Fairly quickly within the section the author presented modules and functionality that helped me to better implement my own work in LLVM.Ultimately, if you are looking to get started in LLVM and need a place to start, this is the best starting point there is. The documentation, source code, and community are important, but this book will get you started quickly and effectively.

Amazon Verified review

Amazon Customer

The book is very easy to follow and provides an introduction to many useful LLVM abstractions. It is very well written, you can see a lot of effort was put into into it, i.e. well edited. Definitely one of the best of the books I've read about compilers.

Amazon Verified review

Paul Kirth May 28, 2021

This book is a very nice introduction to development with LLVM. Many of the subtle points raised in this book can be difficult to find without extensive knowledge about the codebase. The author provides practical guidance for setting up a variety of projects within the compiler infrastructure and explains in detail the normal way compiler developers organize and modify their projects to achieve a variety of results. In particular he makes some of the more challenging aspects of starting new projects simple and straight forward. In particular, I found his descirption of the runtime components to be straight forward, when most explanations I've seen within the documentation and across various blog posts to be overly complex.LLVM is a big project, an unless you've worked across many of its various components, i.e., frontend development, analysis, instrumentation, code generation, and the runtime components getting started in a new area can be a challenge, even if you've been working on the compiler for a long time. Even though I've worked on LLVM for a long time, I'll probably reach for this as a reference for how to do a few things.While I would have liked more advanced topics to explored a bit more deeply, I look forward to the author's inevitable follow up, which will no doubt be focused on more complex compiler problems and advanced use of LLVM. Overall a must have for new LLVM developers, students, and researchers.

Amazon Verified review

Amazon Customer Jun 24, 2023

This book is a phenomenal resource for novice programmers aiming to deepen their understanding of compiler design and optimization using the LLVM infrastructure. The content is comprehensive and addresses every aspect of LLVM in a practical, relatable manner.Right from the first chapter, which efficiently explains how to reduce resource consumption when building LLVM from source, to the sections on handling AST and customizing Clang's toolchain, this book presents complex concepts in an easy-to-grasp format. Each chapter is peppered with real-world examples, code snippets, and practical use cases, enabling the reader to instantly apply the acquired knowledge.One of the book's key strengths is the way it demystifies LLVM IR (Intermediate Representation), which is a critical aspect of compiler design. The chapter on "Processing IR in a proper way" delivers insights into how to inspect and modify LLVM IR, providing a valuable foundation for developing tools for transforming and optimizing source programs.Another highlight is the exploration of LLVM's build system and the LLVM LIT framework. The book provides step-by-step guidance on building plugins, extensions, and custom compiler sanitizers. Even advanced topics like profile-guided optimization (PGO) are discussed with clarity and precision.In terms of accessibility, this book does an excellent job of catering to a wide audience. Whether you are a seasoned software engineer, an academic researcher, or a programming language enthusiast, there's something valuable to extract from this book. Furthermore, the information is presented in a logical, sequential manner, building on previous topics and facilitating a smooth learning curve.

Amazon Verified review

Jay May 21, 2021

If you’re looking to extend Clang, this is a wonderful resource.

Amazon Verified review

LLVM Techniques, Tips, and Best Practices Clang and Middle-End Libraries: Design powerful and reliable compilers using the latest libraries and tools from LLVM

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