The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure

When and where

Time

7 September 2015 - 11 September 2015, 18:00 - 20:00

Place

EG306

Introduction

LLVM is an open-source compiler infrastructure used in many commercial and academic projects . It is written in C++ and has a very modular design which allows all sorts of tools to be built on top of it: compilers, interpreters, static analyzers and so on.

We intend to introduce you to the world of compilers and related tools by using LLVM as a case study.

At the end of this workshop, you will know:

How compilers in general work
How to write compiler-based tools using LLVM's libraries
What kind of optimizations to expect from a compiler
How to write better C code

Topics

The phases of the compilation process

Learn what steps the compiler takes in order to translate high level code into machine code

The general structure of LLVM

See how LLVM is organized and why

Compiler-based tools

Learn how to use various parts of LLVM in order to implement or support tools such as source-to-source translators or editors with syntax highlighting

C tips & tricks

Look at what the compiler generates for various snippets of code and see how different constructs help or hinder the compiler

Content

You can find the virtual machine that we'll be using for the workshop here. The password is studentllvm. If you're going to import it in VirtualBox, you may need to disable the USB controller in the VM's Settings in order to get it to start.