1 ============================
2 Clang Compiler User's Manual
3 ============================
11 The Clang Compiler is an open-source compiler for the C family of
12 programming languages, aiming to be the best in class implementation of
13 these languages. Clang builds on the LLVM optimizer and code generator,
14 allowing it to provide high-quality optimization and code generation
15 support for many targets. For more general information, please see the
16 `Clang Web Site <http://clang.llvm.org>`_ or the `LLVM Web
17 Site <http://llvm.org>`_.
19 This document describes important notes about using Clang as a compiler
20 for an end-user, documenting the supported features, command line
21 options, etc. If you are interested in using Clang to build a tool that
22 processes code, please see :doc:`InternalsManual`. If you are interested in the
23 `Clang Static Analyzer <http://clang-analyzer.llvm.org>`_, please see its web
26 Clang is designed to support the C family of programming languages,
27 which includes :ref:`C <c>`, :ref:`Objective-C <objc>`, :ref:`C++ <cxx>`, and
28 :ref:`Objective-C++ <objcxx>` as well as many dialects of those. For
29 language-specific information, please see the corresponding language
32 - :ref:`C Language <c>`: K&R C, ANSI C89, ISO C90, ISO C94 (C89+AMD1), ISO
34 - :ref:`Objective-C Language <objc>`: ObjC 1, ObjC 2, ObjC 2.1, plus
35 variants depending on base language.
36 - :ref:`C++ Language <cxx>`
37 - :ref:`Objective C++ Language <objcxx>`
39 In addition to these base languages and their dialects, Clang supports a
40 broad variety of language extensions, which are documented in the
41 corresponding language section. These extensions are provided to be
42 compatible with the GCC, Microsoft, and other popular compilers as well
43 as to improve functionality through Clang-specific features. The Clang
44 driver and language features are intentionally designed to be as
45 compatible with the GNU GCC compiler as reasonably possible, easing
46 migration from GCC to Clang. In most cases, code "just works".
47 Clang also provides an alternative driver, :ref:`clang-cl`, that is designed
48 to be compatible with the Visual C++ compiler, cl.exe.
50 In addition to language specific features, Clang has a variety of
51 features that depend on what CPU architecture or operating system is
52 being compiled for. Please see the :ref:`Target-Specific Features and
53 Limitations <target_features>` section for more details.
55 The rest of the introduction introduces some basic :ref:`compiler
56 terminology <terminology>` that is used throughout this manual and
57 contains a basic :ref:`introduction to using Clang <basicusage>` as a
58 command line compiler.
65 Front end, parser, backend, preprocessor, undefined behavior,
73 Intro to how to use a C compiler for newbies.
75 compile + link compile then link debug info enabling optimizations
76 picking a language to use, defaults to C11 by default. Autosenses based
77 on extension. using a makefile
82 This section is generally an index into other sections. It does not go
83 into depth on the ones that are covered by other sections. However, the
84 first part introduces the language selection and other high level
85 options like :option:`-c`, :option:`-g`, etc.
87 Options to Control Error and Warning Messages
88 ---------------------------------------------
92 Turn warnings into errors.
94 .. This is in plain monospaced font because it generates the same label as
95 .. -Werror, and Sphinx complains.
99 Turn warning "foo" into an error.
101 .. option:: -Wno-error=foo
103 Turn warning "foo" into an warning even if :option:`-Werror` is specified.
107 Enable warning "foo".
111 Disable warning "foo".
115 Disable all diagnostics.
117 .. option:: -Weverything
119 :ref:`Enable all diagnostics. <diagnostics_enable_everything>`
121 .. option:: -pedantic
123 Warn on language extensions.
125 .. option:: -pedantic-errors
127 Error on language extensions.
129 .. option:: -Wsystem-headers
131 Enable warnings from system headers.
133 .. option:: -ferror-limit=123
135 Stop emitting diagnostics after 123 errors have been produced. The default is
136 20, and the error limit can be disabled with :option:`-ferror-limit=0`.
138 .. option:: -ftemplate-backtrace-limit=123
140 Only emit up to 123 template instantiation notes within the template
141 instantiation backtrace for a single warning or error. The default is 10, and
142 the limit can be disabled with :option:`-ftemplate-backtrace-limit=0`.
144 .. _cl_diag_formatting:
146 Formatting of Diagnostics
147 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
149 Clang aims to produce beautiful diagnostics by default, particularly for
150 new users that first come to Clang. However, different people have
151 different preferences, and sometimes Clang is driven not by a human,
152 but by a program that wants consistent and easily parsable output. For
153 these cases, Clang provides a wide range of options to control the exact
154 output format of the diagnostics that it generates.
156 .. _opt_fshow-column:
158 **-f[no-]show-column**
159 Print column number in diagnostic.
161 This option, which defaults to on, controls whether or not Clang
162 prints the column number of a diagnostic. For example, when this is
163 enabled, Clang will print something like:
167 test.c:28:8: warning: extra tokens at end of #endif directive [-Wextra-tokens]
172 When this is disabled, Clang will print "test.c:28: warning..." with
175 The printed column numbers count bytes from the beginning of the
176 line; take care if your source contains multibyte characters.
178 .. _opt_fshow-source-location:
180 **-f[no-]show-source-location**
181 Print source file/line/column information in diagnostic.
183 This option, which defaults to on, controls whether or not Clang
184 prints the filename, line number and column number of a diagnostic.
185 For example, when this is enabled, Clang will print something like:
189 test.c:28:8: warning: extra tokens at end of #endif directive [-Wextra-tokens]
194 When this is disabled, Clang will not print the "test.c:28:8: "
197 .. _opt_fcaret-diagnostics:
199 **-f[no-]caret-diagnostics**
200 Print source line and ranges from source code in diagnostic.
201 This option, which defaults to on, controls whether or not Clang
202 prints the source line, source ranges, and caret when emitting a
203 diagnostic. For example, when this is enabled, Clang will print
208 test.c:28:8: warning: extra tokens at end of #endif directive [-Wextra-tokens]
213 **-f[no-]color-diagnostics**
214 This option, which defaults to on when a color-capable terminal is
215 detected, controls whether or not Clang prints diagnostics in color.
217 When this option is enabled, Clang will use colors to highlight
218 specific parts of the diagnostic, e.g.,
220 .. nasty hack to not lose our dignity
225 <b><span style="color:black">test.c:28:8: <span style="color:magenta">warning</span>: extra tokens at end of #endif directive [-Wextra-tokens]</span></b>
227 <span style="color:green">^</span>
228 <span style="color:green">//</span>
231 When this is disabled, Clang will just print:
235 test.c:2:8: warning: extra tokens at end of #endif directive [-Wextra-tokens]
240 **-fansi-escape-codes**
241 Controls whether ANSI escape codes are used instead of the Windows Console
242 API to output colored diagnostics. This option is only used on Windows and
245 .. option:: -fdiagnostics-format=clang/msvc/vi
247 Changes diagnostic output format to better match IDEs and command line tools.
249 This option controls the output format of the filename, line number,
250 and column printed in diagnostic messages. The options, and their
251 affect on formatting a simple conversion diagnostic, follow:
256 t.c:3:11: warning: conversion specifies type 'char *' but the argument has type 'int'
261 t.c(3,11) : warning: conversion specifies type 'char *' but the argument has type 'int'
266 t.c +3:11: warning: conversion specifies type 'char *' but the argument has type 'int'
268 .. _opt_fdiagnostics-show-option:
270 **-f[no-]diagnostics-show-option**
271 Enable ``[-Woption]`` information in diagnostic line.
273 This option, which defaults to on, controls whether or not Clang
274 prints the associated :ref:`warning group <cl_diag_warning_groups>`
275 option name when outputting a warning diagnostic. For example, in
280 test.c:28:8: warning: extra tokens at end of #endif directive [-Wextra-tokens]
285 Passing **-fno-diagnostics-show-option** will prevent Clang from
286 printing the [:ref:`-Wextra-tokens <opt_Wextra-tokens>`] information in
287 the diagnostic. This information tells you the flag needed to enable
288 or disable the diagnostic, either from the command line or through
289 :ref:`#pragma GCC diagnostic <pragma_GCC_diagnostic>`.
291 .. _opt_fdiagnostics-show-category:
293 .. option:: -fdiagnostics-show-category=none/id/name
295 Enable printing category information in diagnostic line.
297 This option, which defaults to "none", controls whether or not Clang
298 prints the category associated with a diagnostic when emitting it.
299 Each diagnostic may or many not have an associated category, if it
300 has one, it is listed in the diagnostic categorization field of the
301 diagnostic line (in the []'s).
303 For example, a format string warning will produce these three
304 renditions based on the setting of this option:
308 t.c:3:11: warning: conversion specifies type 'char *' but the argument has type 'int' [-Wformat]
309 t.c:3:11: warning: conversion specifies type 'char *' but the argument has type 'int' [-Wformat,1]
310 t.c:3:11: warning: conversion specifies type 'char *' but the argument has type 'int' [-Wformat,Format String]
312 This category can be used by clients that want to group diagnostics
313 by category, so it should be a high level category. We want dozens
314 of these, not hundreds or thousands of them.
316 .. _opt_fdiagnostics-fixit-info:
318 **-f[no-]diagnostics-fixit-info**
319 Enable "FixIt" information in the diagnostics output.
321 This option, which defaults to on, controls whether or not Clang
322 prints the information on how to fix a specific diagnostic
323 underneath it when it knows. For example, in this output:
327 test.c:28:8: warning: extra tokens at end of #endif directive [-Wextra-tokens]
332 Passing **-fno-diagnostics-fixit-info** will prevent Clang from
333 printing the "//" line at the end of the message. This information
334 is useful for users who may not understand what is wrong, but can be
335 confusing for machine parsing.
337 .. _opt_fdiagnostics-print-source-range-info:
339 **-fdiagnostics-print-source-range-info**
340 Print machine parsable information about source ranges.
341 This option makes Clang print information about source ranges in a machine
342 parsable format after the file/line/column number information. The
343 information is a simple sequence of brace enclosed ranges, where each range
344 lists the start and end line/column locations. For example, in this output:
348 exprs.c:47:15:{47:8-47:14}{47:17-47:24}: error: invalid operands to binary expression ('int *' and '_Complex float')
349 P = (P-42) + Gamma*4;
352 The {}'s are generated by -fdiagnostics-print-source-range-info.
354 The printed column numbers count bytes from the beginning of the
355 line; take care if your source contains multibyte characters.
357 .. option:: -fdiagnostics-parseable-fixits
359 Print Fix-Its in a machine parseable form.
361 This option makes Clang print available Fix-Its in a machine
362 parseable format at the end of diagnostics. The following example
363 illustrates the format:
367 fix-it:"t.cpp":{7:25-7:29}:"Gamma"
369 The range printed is a half-open range, so in this example the
370 characters at column 25 up to but not including column 29 on line 7
371 in t.cpp should be replaced with the string "Gamma". Either the
372 range or the replacement string may be empty (representing strict
373 insertions and strict erasures, respectively). Both the file name
374 and the insertion string escape backslash (as "\\\\"), tabs (as
375 "\\t"), newlines (as "\\n"), double quotes(as "\\"") and
376 non-printable characters (as octal "\\xxx").
378 The printed column numbers count bytes from the beginning of the
379 line; take care if your source contains multibyte characters.
381 .. option:: -fno-elide-type
383 Turns off elision in template type printing.
385 The default for template type printing is to elide as many template
386 arguments as possible, removing those which are the same in both
387 template types, leaving only the differences. Adding this flag will
388 print all the template arguments. If supported by the terminal,
389 highlighting will still appear on differing arguments.
395 t.cc:4:5: note: candidate function not viable: no known conversion from 'vector<map<[...], map<float, [...]>>>' to 'vector<map<[...], map<double, [...]>>>' for 1st argument;
401 t.cc:4:5: note: candidate function not viable: no known conversion from 'vector<map<int, map<float, int>>>' to 'vector<map<int, map<double, int>>>' for 1st argument;
403 .. option:: -fdiagnostics-show-template-tree
405 Template type diffing prints a text tree.
407 For diffing large templated types, this option will cause Clang to
408 display the templates as an indented text tree, one argument per
409 line, with differences marked inline. This is compatible with
416 t.cc:4:5: note: candidate function not viable: no known conversion from 'vector<map<[...], map<float, [...]>>>' to 'vector<map<[...], map<double, [...]>>>' for 1st argument;
418 With :option:`-fdiagnostics-show-template-tree`:
422 t.cc:4:5: note: candidate function not viable: no known conversion for 1st argument;
430 .. _cl_diag_warning_groups:
432 Individual Warning Groups
433 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
435 TODO: Generate this from tblgen. Define one anchor per warning group.
437 .. _opt_wextra-tokens:
439 .. option:: -Wextra-tokens
441 Warn about excess tokens at the end of a preprocessor directive.
443 This option, which defaults to on, enables warnings about extra
444 tokens at the end of preprocessor directives. For example:
448 test.c:28:8: warning: extra tokens at end of #endif directive [-Wextra-tokens]
452 These extra tokens are not strictly conforming, and are usually best
453 handled by commenting them out.
455 .. option:: -Wambiguous-member-template
457 Warn about unqualified uses of a member template whose name resolves to
458 another template at the location of the use.
460 This option, which defaults to on, enables a warning in the
465 template<typename T> struct set{};
466 template<typename T> struct trait { typedef const T& type; };
468 template<typename T> void set(typename trait<T>::type value) {}
475 C++ [basic.lookup.classref] requires this to be an error, but,
476 because it's hard to work around, Clang downgrades it to a warning
479 .. option:: -Wbind-to-temporary-copy
481 Warn about an unusable copy constructor when binding a reference to a
484 This option enables warnings about binding a
485 reference to a temporary when the temporary doesn't have a usable
486 copy constructor. For example:
493 NonCopyable(const NonCopyable&);
495 void foo(const NonCopyable&);
497 foo(NonCopyable()); // Disallowed in C++98; allowed in C++11.
502 struct NonCopyable2 {
504 NonCopyable2(NonCopyable2&);
506 void foo(const NonCopyable2&);
508 foo(NonCopyable2()); // Disallowed in C++98; allowed in C++11.
511 Note that if ``NonCopyable2::NonCopyable2()`` has a default argument
512 whose instantiation produces a compile error, that error will still
513 be a hard error in C++98 mode even if this warning is turned off.
515 Options to Control Clang Crash Diagnostics
516 ------------------------------------------
518 As unbelievable as it may sound, Clang does crash from time to time.
519 Generally, this only occurs to those living on the `bleeding
520 edge <http://llvm.org/releases/download.html#svn>`_. Clang goes to great
521 lengths to assist you in filing a bug report. Specifically, Clang
522 generates preprocessed source file(s) and associated run script(s) upon
523 a crash. These files should be attached to a bug report to ease
524 reproducibility of the failure. Below are the command line options to
525 control the crash diagnostics.
527 .. option:: -fno-crash-diagnostics
529 Disable auto-generation of preprocessed source files during a clang crash.
531 The -fno-crash-diagnostics flag can be helpful for speeding the process
532 of generating a delta reduced test case.
534 Options to Emit Optimization Reports
535 ------------------------------------
537 Optimization reports trace, at a high-level, all the major decisions
538 done by compiler transformations. For instance, when the inliner
539 decides to inline function ``foo()`` into ``bar()``, or the loop unroller
540 decides to unroll a loop N times, or the vectorizer decides to
541 vectorize a loop body.
543 Clang offers a family of flags which the optimizers can use to emit
544 a diagnostic in three cases:
546 1. When the pass makes a transformation (:option:`-Rpass`).
548 2. When the pass fails to make a transformation (:option:`-Rpass-missed`).
550 3. When the pass determines whether or not to make a transformation
551 (:option:`-Rpass-analysis`).
553 NOTE: Although the discussion below focuses on :option:`-Rpass`, the exact
554 same options apply to :option:`-Rpass-missed` and :option:`-Rpass-analysis`.
556 Since there are dozens of passes inside the compiler, each of these flags
557 take a regular expression that identifies the name of the pass which should
558 emit the associated diagnostic. For example, to get a report from the inliner,
559 compile the code with:
561 .. code-block:: console
563 $ clang -O2 -Rpass=inline code.cc -o code
564 code.cc:4:25: remark: foo inlined into bar [-Rpass=inline]
565 int bar(int j) { return foo(j, j - 2); }
568 Note that remarks from the inliner are identified with `[-Rpass=inline]`.
569 To request a report from every optimization pass, you should use
570 :option:`-Rpass=.*` (in fact, you can use any valid POSIX regular
571 expression). However, do not expect a report from every transformation
572 made by the compiler. Optimization remarks do not really make sense
573 outside of the major transformations (e.g., inlining, vectorization,
574 loop optimizations) and not every optimization pass supports this
580 1. Optimization remarks that refer to function names will display the
581 mangled name of the function. Since these remarks are emitted by the
582 back end of the compiler, it does not know anything about the input
583 language, nor its mangling rules.
585 2. Some source locations are not displayed correctly. The front end has
586 a more detailed source location tracking than the locations included
587 in the debug info (e.g., the front end can locate code inside macro
588 expansions). However, the locations used by :option:`-Rpass` are
589 translated from debug annotations. That translation can be lossy,
590 which results in some remarks having no location information.
594 Clang options that that don't fit neatly into other categories.
598 When emitting a dependency file, use formatting conventions appropriate
599 for NMake or Jom. Ignored unless another option causes Clang to emit a
602 When Clang emits a dependency file (e.g., you supplied the -M option)
603 most filenames can be written to the file without any special formatting.
604 Different Make tools will treat different sets of characters as "special"
605 and use different conventions for telling the Make tool that the character
606 is actually part of the filename. Normally Clang uses backslash to "escape"
607 a special character, which is the convention used by GNU Make. The -MV
608 option tells Clang to put double-quotes around the entire filename, which
609 is the convention used by NMake and Jom.
612 Language and Target-Independent Features
613 ========================================
615 Controlling Errors and Warnings
616 -------------------------------
618 Clang provides a number of ways to control which code constructs cause
619 it to emit errors and warning messages, and how they are displayed to
622 Controlling How Clang Displays Diagnostics
623 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
625 When Clang emits a diagnostic, it includes rich information in the
626 output, and gives you fine-grain control over which information is
627 printed. Clang has the ability to print this information, and these are
628 the options that control it:
630 #. A file/line/column indicator that shows exactly where the diagnostic
631 occurs in your code [:ref:`-fshow-column <opt_fshow-column>`,
632 :ref:`-fshow-source-location <opt_fshow-source-location>`].
633 #. A categorization of the diagnostic as a note, warning, error, or
635 #. A text string that describes what the problem is.
636 #. An option that indicates how to control the diagnostic (for
637 diagnostics that support it)
638 [:ref:`-fdiagnostics-show-option <opt_fdiagnostics-show-option>`].
639 #. A :ref:`high-level category <diagnostics_categories>` for the diagnostic
640 for clients that want to group diagnostics by class (for diagnostics
642 [:ref:`-fdiagnostics-show-category <opt_fdiagnostics-show-category>`].
643 #. The line of source code that the issue occurs on, along with a caret
644 and ranges that indicate the important locations
645 [:ref:`-fcaret-diagnostics <opt_fcaret-diagnostics>`].
646 #. "FixIt" information, which is a concise explanation of how to fix the
647 problem (when Clang is certain it knows)
648 [:ref:`-fdiagnostics-fixit-info <opt_fdiagnostics-fixit-info>`].
649 #. A machine-parsable representation of the ranges involved (off by
651 [:ref:`-fdiagnostics-print-source-range-info <opt_fdiagnostics-print-source-range-info>`].
653 For more information please see :ref:`Formatting of
654 Diagnostics <cl_diag_formatting>`.
659 All diagnostics are mapped into one of these 6 classes:
668 .. _diagnostics_categories:
670 Diagnostic Categories
671 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
673 Though not shown by default, diagnostics may each be associated with a
674 high-level category. This category is intended to make it possible to
675 triage builds that produce a large number of errors or warnings in a
678 Categories are not shown by default, but they can be turned on with the
679 :ref:`-fdiagnostics-show-category <opt_fdiagnostics-show-category>` option.
680 When set to "``name``", the category is printed textually in the
681 diagnostic output. When it is set to "``id``", a category number is
682 printed. The mapping of category names to category id's can be obtained
683 by running '``clang --print-diagnostic-categories``'.
685 Controlling Diagnostics via Command Line Flags
686 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
688 TODO: -W flags, -pedantic, etc
690 .. _pragma_gcc_diagnostic:
692 Controlling Diagnostics via Pragmas
693 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
695 Clang can also control what diagnostics are enabled through the use of
696 pragmas in the source code. This is useful for turning off specific
697 warnings in a section of source code. Clang supports GCC's pragma for
698 compatibility with existing source code, as well as several extensions.
700 The pragma may control any warning that can be used from the command
701 line. Warnings may be set to ignored, warning, error, or fatal. The
702 following example code will tell Clang or GCC to ignore the -Wall
707 #pragma GCC diagnostic ignored "-Wall"
709 In addition to all of the functionality provided by GCC's pragma, Clang
710 also allows you to push and pop the current warning state. This is
711 particularly useful when writing a header file that will be compiled by
712 other people, because you don't know what warning flags they build with.
714 In the below example :option:`-Wmultichar` is ignored for only a single line of
715 code, after which the diagnostics return to whatever state had previously
720 #pragma clang diagnostic push
721 #pragma clang diagnostic ignored "-Wmultichar"
723 char b = 'df'; // no warning.
725 #pragma clang diagnostic pop
727 The push and pop pragmas will save and restore the full diagnostic state
728 of the compiler, regardless of how it was set. That means that it is
729 possible to use push and pop around GCC compatible diagnostics and Clang
730 will push and pop them appropriately, while GCC will ignore the pushes
731 and pops as unknown pragmas. It should be noted that while Clang
732 supports the GCC pragma, Clang and GCC do not support the exact same set
733 of warnings, so even when using GCC compatible #pragmas there is no
734 guarantee that they will have identical behaviour on both compilers.
736 In addition to controlling warnings and errors generated by the compiler, it is
737 possible to generate custom warning and error messages through the following
742 // The following will produce warning messages
743 #pragma message "some diagnostic message"
744 #pragma GCC warning "TODO: replace deprecated feature"
746 // The following will produce an error message
747 #pragma GCC error "Not supported"
749 These pragmas operate similarly to the ``#warning`` and ``#error`` preprocessor
750 directives, except that they may also be embedded into preprocessor macros via
751 the C99 ``_Pragma`` operator, for example:
756 #define DEFER(M,...) M(__VA_ARGS__)
757 #define CUSTOM_ERROR(X) _Pragma(STR(GCC error(X " at line " DEFER(STR,__LINE__))))
759 CUSTOM_ERROR("Feature not available");
761 Controlling Diagnostics in System Headers
762 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
764 Warnings are suppressed when they occur in system headers. By default,
765 an included file is treated as a system header if it is found in an
766 include path specified by ``-isystem``, but this can be overridden in
769 The ``system_header`` pragma can be used to mark the current file as
770 being a system header. No warnings will be produced from the location of
771 the pragma onwards within the same file.
775 char a = 'xy'; // warning
777 #pragma clang system_header
779 char b = 'ab'; // no warning
781 The :option:`--system-header-prefix=` and :option:`--no-system-header-prefix=`
782 command-line arguments can be used to override whether subsets of an include
783 path are treated as system headers. When the name in a ``#include`` directive
784 is found within a header search path and starts with a system prefix, the
785 header is treated as a system header. The last prefix on the
786 command-line which matches the specified header name takes precedence.
789 .. code-block:: console
791 $ clang -Ifoo -isystem bar --system-header-prefix=x/ \
792 --no-system-header-prefix=x/y/
794 Here, ``#include "x/a.h"`` is treated as including a system header, even
795 if the header is found in ``foo``, and ``#include "x/y/b.h"`` is treated
796 as not including a system header, even if the header is found in
799 A ``#include`` directive which finds a file relative to the current
800 directory is treated as including a system header if the including file
801 is treated as a system header.
803 .. _diagnostics_enable_everything:
805 Enabling All Diagnostics
806 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
808 In addition to the traditional ``-W`` flags, one can enable **all**
809 diagnostics by passing :option:`-Weverything`. This works as expected
811 :option:`-Werror`, and also includes the warnings from :option:`-pedantic`.
813 Note that when combined with :option:`-w` (which disables all warnings), that
816 Controlling Static Analyzer Diagnostics
817 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
819 While not strictly part of the compiler, the diagnostics from Clang's
820 `static analyzer <http://clang-analyzer.llvm.org>`_ can also be
821 influenced by the user via changes to the source code. See the available
822 `annotations <http://clang-analyzer.llvm.org/annotations.html>`_ and the
824 page <http://clang-analyzer.llvm.org/faq.html#exclude_code>`_ for more
827 .. _usersmanual-precompiled-headers:
832 `Precompiled headers <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precompiled_header>`__
833 are a general approach employed by many compilers to reduce compilation
834 time. The underlying motivation of the approach is that it is common for
835 the same (and often large) header files to be included by multiple
836 source files. Consequently, compile times can often be greatly improved
837 by caching some of the (redundant) work done by a compiler to process
838 headers. Precompiled header files, which represent one of many ways to
839 implement this optimization, are literally files that represent an
840 on-disk cache that contains the vital information necessary to reduce
841 some of the work needed to process a corresponding header file. While
842 details of precompiled headers vary between compilers, precompiled
843 headers have been shown to be highly effective at speeding up program
844 compilation on systems with very large system headers (e.g., Mac OS X).
846 Generating a PCH File
847 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
849 To generate a PCH file using Clang, one invokes Clang with the
850 :option:`-x <language>-header` option. This mirrors the interface in GCC
851 for generating PCH files:
853 .. code-block:: console
855 $ gcc -x c-header test.h -o test.h.gch
856 $ clang -x c-header test.h -o test.h.pch
861 A PCH file can then be used as a prefix header when a :option:`-include`
862 option is passed to ``clang``:
864 .. code-block:: console
866 $ clang -include test.h test.c -o test
868 The ``clang`` driver will first check if a PCH file for ``test.h`` is
869 available; if so, the contents of ``test.h`` (and the files it includes)
870 will be processed from the PCH file. Otherwise, Clang falls back to
871 directly processing the content of ``test.h``. This mirrors the behavior
876 Clang does *not* automatically use PCH files for headers that are directly
877 included within a source file. For example:
879 .. code-block:: console
881 $ clang -x c-header test.h -o test.h.pch
884 $ clang test.c -o test
886 In this example, ``clang`` will not automatically use the PCH file for
887 ``test.h`` since ``test.h`` was included directly in the source file and not
888 specified on the command line using :option:`-include`.
890 Relocatable PCH Files
891 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
893 It is sometimes necessary to build a precompiled header from headers
894 that are not yet in their final, installed locations. For example, one
895 might build a precompiled header within the build tree that is then
896 meant to be installed alongside the headers. Clang permits the creation
897 of "relocatable" precompiled headers, which are built with a given path
898 (into the build directory) and can later be used from an installed
901 To build a relocatable precompiled header, place your headers into a
902 subdirectory whose structure mimics the installed location. For example,
903 if you want to build a precompiled header for the header ``mylib.h``
904 that will be installed into ``/usr/include``, create a subdirectory
905 ``build/usr/include`` and place the header ``mylib.h`` into that
906 subdirectory. If ``mylib.h`` depends on other headers, then they can be
907 stored within ``build/usr/include`` in a way that mimics the installed
910 Building a relocatable precompiled header requires two additional
911 arguments. First, pass the ``--relocatable-pch`` flag to indicate that
912 the resulting PCH file should be relocatable. Second, pass
913 :option:`-isysroot /path/to/build`, which makes all includes for your library
914 relative to the build directory. For example:
916 .. code-block:: console
918 # clang -x c-header --relocatable-pch -isysroot /path/to/build /path/to/build/mylib.h mylib.h.pch
920 When loading the relocatable PCH file, the various headers used in the
921 PCH file are found from the system header root. For example, ``mylib.h``
922 can be found in ``/usr/include/mylib.h``. If the headers are installed
923 in some other system root, the :option:`-isysroot` option can be used provide
924 a different system root from which the headers will be based. For
925 example, :option:`-isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk` will look for
926 ``mylib.h`` in ``/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk/usr/include/mylib.h``.
928 Relocatable precompiled headers are intended to be used in a limited
929 number of cases where the compilation environment is tightly controlled
930 and the precompiled header cannot be generated after headers have been
933 .. _controlling-code-generation:
935 Controlling Code Generation
936 ---------------------------
938 Clang provides a number of ways to control code generation. The options
941 **-f[no-]sanitize=check1,check2,...**
942 Turn on runtime checks for various forms of undefined or suspicious
945 This option controls whether Clang adds runtime checks for various
946 forms of undefined or suspicious behavior, and is disabled by
947 default. If a check fails, a diagnostic message is produced at
948 runtime explaining the problem. The main checks are:
950 - .. _opt_fsanitize_address:
952 ``-fsanitize=address``:
953 :doc:`AddressSanitizer`, a memory error
955 - ``-fsanitize=integer``: Enables checks for undefined or
956 suspicious integer behavior.
957 - .. _opt_fsanitize_thread:
959 ``-fsanitize=thread``: :doc:`ThreadSanitizer`, a data race detector.
960 - .. _opt_fsanitize_memory:
962 ``-fsanitize=memory``: :doc:`MemorySanitizer`,
963 an *experimental* detector of uninitialized reads. Not ready for
965 - .. _opt_fsanitize_undefined:
967 ``-fsanitize=undefined``: Fast and compatible undefined behavior
968 checker. Enables the undefined behavior checks that have small
969 runtime cost and no impact on address space layout or ABI. This
970 includes all of the checks listed below other than
971 ``unsigned-integer-overflow``.
973 - ``-fsanitize=undefined-trap``: This is a deprecated alias for
974 ``-fsanitize=undefined``.
976 - ``-fsanitize=dataflow``: :doc:`DataFlowSanitizer`, a general data
978 - ``-fsanitize=cfi``: :doc:`control flow integrity <ControlFlowIntegrity>`
979 checks. Requires ``-flto``.
980 - ``-fsanitize=safe-stack``: :doc:`safe stack <SafeStack>`
981 protection against stack-based memory corruption errors.
983 The following more fine-grained checks are also available:
985 - ``-fsanitize=alignment``: Use of a misaligned pointer or creation
986 of a misaligned reference.
987 - ``-fsanitize=bool``: Load of a ``bool`` value which is neither
988 ``true`` nor ``false``.
989 - ``-fsanitize=bounds``: Out of bounds array indexing, in cases
990 where the array bound can be statically determined.
991 - ``-fsanitize=cfi-cast-strict``: Enables :ref:`strict cast checks
993 - ``-fsanitize=cfi-derived-cast``: Base-to-derived cast to the wrong
994 dynamic type. Requires ``-flto``.
995 - ``-fsanitize=cfi-unrelated-cast``: Cast from ``void*`` or another
996 unrelated type to the wrong dynamic type. Requires ``-flto``.
997 - ``-fsanitize=cfi-nvcall``: Non-virtual call via an object whose vptr is of
998 the wrong dynamic type. Requires ``-flto``.
999 - ``-fsanitize=cfi-vcall``: Virtual call via an object whose vptr is of the
1000 wrong dynamic type. Requires ``-flto``.
1001 - ``-fsanitize=enum``: Load of a value of an enumerated type which
1002 is not in the range of representable values for that enumerated
1004 - ``-fsanitize=float-cast-overflow``: Conversion to, from, or
1005 between floating-point types which would overflow the
1007 - ``-fsanitize=float-divide-by-zero``: Floating point division by
1009 - ``-fsanitize=function``: Indirect call of a function through a
1010 function pointer of the wrong type (Linux, C++ and x86/x86_64 only).
1011 - ``-fsanitize=integer-divide-by-zero``: Integer division by zero.
1012 - ``-fsanitize=nonnull-attribute``: Passing null pointer as a function
1013 parameter which is declared to never be null.
1014 - ``-fsanitize=null``: Use of a null pointer or creation of a null
1016 - ``-fsanitize=object-size``: An attempt to use bytes which the
1017 optimizer can determine are not part of the object being
1018 accessed. The sizes of objects are determined using
1019 ``__builtin_object_size``, and consequently may be able to detect
1020 more problems at higher optimization levels.
1021 - ``-fsanitize=return``: In C++, reaching the end of a
1022 value-returning function without returning a value.
1023 - ``-fsanitize=returns-nonnull-attribute``: Returning null pointer
1024 from a function which is declared to never return null.
1025 - ``-fsanitize=shift``: Shift operators where the amount shifted is
1026 greater or equal to the promoted bit-width of the left hand side
1027 or less than zero, or where the left hand side is negative. For a
1028 signed left shift, also checks for signed overflow in C, and for
1029 unsigned overflow in C++. You can use ``-fsanitize=shift-base`` or
1030 ``-fsanitize=shift-exponent`` to check only left-hand side or
1031 right-hand side of shift operation, respectively.
1032 - ``-fsanitize=signed-integer-overflow``: Signed integer overflow,
1033 including all the checks added by ``-ftrapv``, and checking for
1034 overflow in signed division (``INT_MIN / -1``).
1035 - ``-fsanitize=unreachable``: If control flow reaches
1036 ``__builtin_unreachable``.
1037 - ``-fsanitize=unsigned-integer-overflow``: Unsigned integer
1039 - ``-fsanitize=vla-bound``: A variable-length array whose bound
1040 does not evaluate to a positive value.
1041 - ``-fsanitize=vptr``: Use of an object whose vptr indicates that
1042 it is of the wrong dynamic type, or that its lifetime has not
1043 begun or has ended. Incompatible with ``-fno-rtti``.
1045 You can turn off or modify checks for certain source files, functions
1046 or even variables by providing a special file:
1048 - ``-fsanitize-blacklist=/path/to/blacklist/file``: disable or modify
1049 sanitizer checks for objects listed in the file. See
1050 :doc:`SanitizerSpecialCaseList` for file format description.
1051 - ``-fno-sanitize-blacklist``: don't use blacklist file, if it was
1052 specified earlier in the command line.
1054 Extra features of MemorySanitizer (require explicit
1055 ``-fsanitize=memory``):
1057 - ``-fsanitize-memory-track-origins[=level]``: Enables origin tracking in
1058 MemorySanitizer. Adds a second section to MemorySanitizer
1059 reports pointing to the heap or stack allocation the
1060 uninitialized bits came from. Slows down execution by additional
1063 Possible values for level are 0 (off), 1, 2 (default). Level 2
1064 adds more sections to MemorySanitizer reports describing the
1065 order of memory stores the uninitialized value went
1066 through. This mode may use extra memory in programs that copy
1067 uninitialized memory a lot.
1068 - ``-fsanitize-memory-use-after-dtor``: Enables use-after-destruction
1069 detection in MemorySanitizer. After invocation of the destructor,
1070 the object is considered no longer readable. Facilitates the
1071 detection of use-after-destroy bugs.
1073 Setting the MSAN_OPTIONS=poison_in_dtor=1 enables the poisoning of
1074 memory at runtime. Any subsequent access to the destroyed object
1075 fails at runtime. This feature is still experimental, but this
1076 environment variable must be set to 1 in order for the above flag
1079 The ``-fsanitize=`` argument must also be provided when linking, in
1080 order to link to the appropriate runtime library. When using
1081 ``-fsanitize=vptr`` (or a group that includes it, such as
1082 ``-fsanitize=undefined``) with a C++ program, the link must be
1083 performed by ``clang++``, not ``clang``, in order to link against the
1084 C++-specific parts of the runtime library.
1086 It is not possible to combine more than one of the ``-fsanitize=address``,
1087 ``-fsanitize=thread``, and ``-fsanitize=memory`` checkers in the same
1088 program. The ``-fsanitize=undefined`` checks can only be combined with
1089 ``-fsanitize=address``.
1091 **-f[no-]sanitize-recover=check1,check2,...**
1093 Controls which checks enabled by ``-fsanitize=`` flag are non-fatal.
1094 If the check is fatal, program will halt after the first error
1095 of this kind is detected and error report is printed.
1097 By default, non-fatal checks are those enabled by UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer,
1098 except for ``-fsanitize=return`` and ``-fsanitize=unreachable``. Some
1099 sanitizers (e.g. :doc:`AddressSanitizer`) may not support recovery,
1100 and always crash the program after the issue is detected.
1102 Note that the ``-fsanitize-trap`` flag has precedence over this flag.
1103 This means that if a check has been configured to trap elsewhere on the
1104 command line, or if the check traps by default, this flag will not have
1105 any effect unless that sanitizer's trapping behavior is disabled with
1106 ``-fno-sanitize-trap``.
1108 For example, if a command line contains the flags ``-fsanitize=undefined
1109 -fsanitize-trap=undefined``, the flag ``-fsanitize-recover=alignment``
1110 will have no effect on its own; it will need to be accompanied by
1111 ``-fno-sanitize-trap=alignment``.
1113 **-f[no-]sanitize-trap=check1,check2,...**
1115 Controls which checks enabled by the ``-fsanitize=`` flag trap. This
1116 option is intended for use in cases where the sanitizer runtime cannot
1117 be used (for instance, when building libc or a kernel module), or where
1118 the binary size increase caused by the sanitizer runtime is a concern.
1120 This flag is only compatible with ``local-bounds``,
1121 ``unsigned-integer-overflow``, sanitizers in the ``cfi`` group and
1122 sanitizers in the ``undefined`` group other than ``vptr``. If this flag
1123 is supplied together with ``-fsanitize=undefined``, the ``vptr`` sanitizer
1124 will be implicitly disabled.
1126 This flag is enabled by default for sanitizers in the ``cfi`` group.
1128 **-f[no-]sanitize-coverage=[type,features,...]**
1130 Enable simple code coverage in addition to certain sanitizers.
1131 See :doc:`SanitizerCoverage` for more details.
1133 .. option:: -fsanitize-undefined-trap-on-error
1135 Deprecated alias for ``-fsanitize-trap=undefined``.
1137 .. option:: -fno-assume-sane-operator-new
1139 Don't assume that the C++'s new operator is sane.
1141 This option tells the compiler to do not assume that C++'s global
1142 new operator will always return a pointer that does not alias any
1143 other pointer when the function returns.
1145 .. option:: -ftrap-function=[name]
1147 Instruct code generator to emit a function call to the specified
1148 function name for ``__builtin_trap()``.
1150 LLVM code generator translates ``__builtin_trap()`` to a trap
1151 instruction if it is supported by the target ISA. Otherwise, the
1152 builtin is translated into a call to ``abort``. If this option is
1153 set, then the code generator will always lower the builtin to a call
1154 to the specified function regardless of whether the target ISA has a
1155 trap instruction. This option is useful for environments (e.g.
1156 deeply embedded) where a trap cannot be properly handled, or when
1157 some custom behavior is desired.
1159 .. option:: -ftls-model=[model]
1161 Select which TLS model to use.
1163 Valid values are: ``global-dynamic``, ``local-dynamic``,
1164 ``initial-exec`` and ``local-exec``. The default value is
1165 ``global-dynamic``. The compiler may use a different model if the
1166 selected model is not supported by the target, or if a more
1167 efficient model can be used. The TLS model can be overridden per
1168 variable using the ``tls_model`` attribute.
1170 .. option:: -femulated-tls
1172 Select emulated TLS model, which overrides all -ftls-model choices.
1174 In emulated TLS mode, all access to TLS variables are converted to
1175 calls to __emutls_get_address in the runtime library.
1177 .. option:: -mhwdiv=[values]
1179 Select the ARM modes (arm or thumb) that support hardware division
1182 Valid values are: ``arm``, ``thumb`` and ``arm,thumb``.
1183 This option is used to indicate which mode (arm or thumb) supports
1184 hardware division instructions. This only applies to the ARM
1187 .. option:: -m[no-]crc
1189 Enable or disable CRC instructions.
1191 This option is used to indicate whether CRC instructions are to
1192 be generated. This only applies to the ARM architecture.
1194 CRC instructions are enabled by default on ARMv8.
1196 .. option:: -mgeneral-regs-only
1198 Generate code which only uses the general purpose registers.
1200 This option restricts the generated code to use general registers
1201 only. This only applies to the AArch64 architecture.
1203 **-f[no-]max-unknown-pointer-align=[number]**
1204 Instruct the code generator to not enforce a higher alignment than the given
1205 number (of bytes) when accessing memory via an opaque pointer or reference.
1206 This cap is ignored when directly accessing a variable or when the pointee
1207 type has an explicit “aligned” attribute.
1209 The value should usually be determined by the properties of the system allocator.
1210 Some builtin types, especially vector types, have very high natural alignments;
1211 when working with values of those types, Clang usually wants to use instructions
1212 that take advantage of that alignment. However, many system allocators do
1213 not promise to return memory that is more than 8-byte or 16-byte-aligned. Use
1214 this option to limit the alignment that the compiler can assume for an arbitrary
1215 pointer, which may point onto the heap.
1217 This option does not affect the ABI alignment of types; the layout of structs and
1218 unions and the value returned by the alignof operator remain the same.
1220 This option can be overridden on a case-by-case basis by putting an explicit
1221 “aligned” alignment on a struct, union, or typedef. For example:
1223 .. code-block:: console
1225 #include <immintrin.h>
1226 // Make an aligned typedef of the AVX-512 16-int vector type.
1227 typedef __v16si __aligned_v16si __attribute__((aligned(64)));
1229 void initialize_vector(__aligned_v16si *v) {
1230 // The compiler may assume that ‘v’ is 64-byte aligned, regardless of the
1231 // value of -fmax-unknown-pointer-align.
1235 Profile Guided Optimization
1236 ---------------------------
1238 Profile information enables better optimization. For example, knowing that a
1239 branch is taken very frequently helps the compiler make better decisions when
1240 ordering basic blocks. Knowing that a function ``foo`` is called more
1241 frequently than another function ``bar`` helps the inliner.
1243 Clang supports profile guided optimization with two different kinds of
1244 profiling. A sampling profiler can generate a profile with very low runtime
1245 overhead, or you can build an instrumented version of the code that collects
1246 more detailed profile information. Both kinds of profiles can provide execution
1247 counts for instructions in the code and information on branches taken and
1248 function invocation.
1250 Regardless of which kind of profiling you use, be careful to collect profiles
1251 by running your code with inputs that are representative of the typical
1252 behavior. Code that is not exercised in the profile will be optimized as if it
1253 is unimportant, and the compiler may make poor optimization choices for code
1254 that is disproportionately used while profiling.
1256 Differences Between Sampling and Instrumentation
1257 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1259 Although both techniques are used for similar purposes, there are important
1260 differences between the two:
1262 1. Profile data generated with one cannot be used by the other, and there is no
1263 conversion tool that can convert one to the other. So, a profile generated
1264 via ``-fprofile-instr-generate`` must be used with ``-fprofile-instr-use``.
1265 Similarly, sampling profiles generated by external profilers must be
1266 converted and used with ``-fprofile-sample-use``.
1268 2. Instrumentation profile data can be used for code coverage analysis and
1271 3. Sampling profiles can only be used for optimization. They cannot be used for
1272 code coverage analysis. Although it would be technically possible to use
1273 sampling profiles for code coverage, sample-based profiles are too
1274 coarse-grained for code coverage purposes; it would yield poor results.
1276 4. Sampling profiles must be generated by an external tool. The profile
1277 generated by that tool must then be converted into a format that can be read
1278 by LLVM. The section on sampling profilers describes one of the supported
1279 sampling profile formats.
1282 Using Sampling Profilers
1283 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1285 Sampling profilers are used to collect runtime information, such as
1286 hardware counters, while your application executes. They are typically
1287 very efficient and do not incur a large runtime overhead. The
1288 sample data collected by the profiler can be used during compilation
1289 to determine what the most executed areas of the code are.
1291 Using the data from a sample profiler requires some changes in the way
1292 a program is built. Before the compiler can use profiling information,
1293 the code needs to execute under the profiler. The following is the
1294 usual build cycle when using sample profilers for optimization:
1296 1. Build the code with source line table information. You can use all the
1297 usual build flags that you always build your application with. The only
1298 requirement is that you add ``-gline-tables-only`` or ``-g`` to the
1299 command line. This is important for the profiler to be able to map
1300 instructions back to source line locations.
1302 .. code-block:: console
1304 $ clang++ -O2 -gline-tables-only code.cc -o code
1306 2. Run the executable under a sampling profiler. The specific profiler
1307 you use does not really matter, as long as its output can be converted
1308 into the format that the LLVM optimizer understands. Currently, there
1309 exists a conversion tool for the Linux Perf profiler
1310 (https://perf.wiki.kernel.org/), so these examples assume that you
1311 are using Linux Perf to profile your code.
1313 .. code-block:: console
1315 $ perf record -b ./code
1317 Note the use of the ``-b`` flag. This tells Perf to use the Last Branch
1318 Record (LBR) to record call chains. While this is not strictly required,
1319 it provides better call information, which improves the accuracy of
1322 3. Convert the collected profile data to LLVM's sample profile format.
1323 This is currently supported via the AutoFDO converter ``create_llvm_prof``.
1324 It is available at http://github.com/google/autofdo. Once built and
1325 installed, you can convert the ``perf.data`` file to LLVM using
1328 .. code-block:: console
1330 $ create_llvm_prof --binary=./code --out=code.prof
1332 This will read ``perf.data`` and the binary file ``./code`` and emit
1333 the profile data in ``code.prof``. Note that if you ran ``perf``
1334 without the ``-b`` flag, you need to use ``--use_lbr=false`` when
1335 calling ``create_llvm_prof``.
1337 4. Build the code again using the collected profile. This step feeds
1338 the profile back to the optimizers. This should result in a binary
1339 that executes faster than the original one. Note that you are not
1340 required to build the code with the exact same arguments that you
1341 used in the first step. The only requirement is that you build the code
1342 with ``-gline-tables-only`` and ``-fprofile-sample-use``.
1344 .. code-block:: console
1346 $ clang++ -O2 -gline-tables-only -fprofile-sample-use=code.prof code.cc -o code
1349 Sample Profile Formats
1350 """"""""""""""""""""""
1352 Since external profilers generate profile data in a variety of custom formats,
1353 the data generated by the profiler must be converted into a format that can be
1354 read by the backend. LLVM supports three different sample profile formats:
1356 1. ASCII text. This is the easiest one to generate. The file is divided into
1357 sections, which correspond to each of the functions with profile
1358 information. The format is described below. It can also be generated from
1359 the binary or gcov formats using the ``llvm-profdata`` tool.
1361 2. Binary encoding. This uses a more efficient encoding that yields smaller
1362 profile files. This is the format generated by the ``create_llvm_prof`` tool
1363 in http://github.com/google/autofdo.
1365 3. GCC encoding. This is based on the gcov format, which is accepted by GCC. It
1366 is only interesting in environments where GCC and Clang co-exist. This
1367 encoding is only generated by the ``create_gcov`` tool in
1368 http://github.com/google/autofdo. It can be read by LLVM and
1369 ``llvm-profdata``, but it cannot be generated by either.
1371 If you are using Linux Perf to generate sampling profiles, you can use the
1372 conversion tool ``create_llvm_prof`` described in the previous section.
1373 Otherwise, you will need to write a conversion tool that converts your
1374 profiler's native format into one of these three.
1377 Sample Profile Text Format
1378 """"""""""""""""""""""""""
1380 This section describes the ASCII text format for sampling profiles. It is,
1381 arguably, the easiest one to generate. If you are interested in generating any
1382 of the other two, consult the ``ProfileData`` library in in LLVM's source tree
1383 (specifically, ``include/llvm/ProfileData/SampleProfReader.h``).
1385 .. code-block:: console
1387 function1:total_samples:total_head_samples
1388 offset1[.discriminator]: number_of_samples [fn1:num fn2:num ... ]
1389 offset2[.discriminator]: number_of_samples [fn3:num fn4:num ... ]
1391 offsetN[.discriminator]: number_of_samples [fn5:num fn6:num ... ]
1392 offsetA[.discriminator]: fnA:num_of_total_samples
1393 offsetA1[.discriminator]: number_of_samples [fn7:num fn8:num ... ]
1394 offsetA1[.discriminator]: number_of_samples [fn9:num fn10:num ... ]
1395 offsetB[.discriminator]: fnB:num_of_total_samples
1396 offsetB1[.discriminator]: number_of_samples [fn11:num fn12:num ... ]
1398 This is a nested tree in which the identation represents the nesting level
1399 of the inline stack. There are no blank lines in the file. And the spacing
1400 within a single line is fixed. Additional spaces will result in an error
1401 while reading the file.
1403 Any line starting with the '#' character is completely ignored.
1405 Inlined calls are represented with indentation. The Inline stack is a
1406 stack of source locations in which the top of the stack represents the
1407 leaf function, and the bottom of the stack represents the actual
1408 symbol to which the instruction belongs.
1410 Function names must be mangled in order for the profile loader to
1411 match them in the current translation unit. The two numbers in the
1412 function header specify how many total samples were accumulated in the
1413 function (first number), and the total number of samples accumulated
1414 in the prologue of the function (second number). This head sample
1415 count provides an indicator of how frequently the function is invoked.
1417 There are two types of lines in the function body.
1419 - Sampled line represents the profile information of a source location.
1420 ``offsetN[.discriminator]: number_of_samples [fn5:num fn6:num ... ]``
1422 - Callsite line represents the profile information of an inlined callsite.
1423 ``offsetA[.discriminator]: fnA:num_of_total_samples``
1425 Each sampled line may contain several items. Some are optional (marked
1428 a. Source line offset. This number represents the line number
1429 in the function where the sample was collected. The line number is
1430 always relative to the line where symbol of the function is
1431 defined. So, if the function has its header at line 280, the offset
1432 13 is at line 293 in the file.
1434 Note that this offset should never be a negative number. This could
1435 happen in cases like macros. The debug machinery will register the
1436 line number at the point of macro expansion. So, if the macro was
1437 expanded in a line before the start of the function, the profile
1438 converter should emit a 0 as the offset (this means that the optimizers
1439 will not be able to associate a meaningful weight to the instructions
1442 b. [OPTIONAL] Discriminator. This is used if the sampled program
1443 was compiled with DWARF discriminator support
1444 (http://wiki.dwarfstd.org/index.php?title=Path_Discriminators).
1445 DWARF discriminators are unsigned integer values that allow the
1446 compiler to distinguish between multiple execution paths on the
1447 same source line location.
1449 For example, consider the line of code ``if (cond) foo(); else bar();``.
1450 If the predicate ``cond`` is true 80% of the time, then the edge
1451 into function ``foo`` should be considered to be taken most of the
1452 time. But both calls to ``foo`` and ``bar`` are at the same source
1453 line, so a sample count at that line is not sufficient. The
1454 compiler needs to know which part of that line is taken more
1457 This is what discriminators provide. In this case, the calls to
1458 ``foo`` and ``bar`` will be at the same line, but will have
1459 different discriminator values. This allows the compiler to correctly
1460 set edge weights into ``foo`` and ``bar``.
1462 c. Number of samples. This is an integer quantity representing the
1463 number of samples collected by the profiler at this source
1466 d. [OPTIONAL] Potential call targets and samples. If present, this
1467 line contains a call instruction. This models both direct and
1468 number of samples. For example,
1470 .. code-block:: console
1472 130: 7 foo:3 bar:2 baz:7
1474 The above means that at relative line offset 130 there is a call
1475 instruction that calls one of ``foo()``, ``bar()`` and ``baz()``,
1476 with ``baz()`` being the relatively more frequently called target.
1478 As an example, consider a program with the call chain ``main -> foo -> bar``.
1479 When built with optimizations enabled, the compiler may inline the
1480 calls to ``bar`` and ``foo`` inside ``main``. The generated profile
1481 could then be something like this:
1483 .. code-block:: console
1491 This profile indicates that there were a total of 35,504 samples
1492 collected in main. All of those were at line 1 (the call to ``foo``).
1493 Of those, 31,977 were spent inside the body of ``bar``. The last line
1494 of the profile (``2: 0``) corresponds to line 2 inside ``main``. No
1495 samples were collected there.
1497 Profiling with Instrumentation
1498 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1500 Clang also supports profiling via instrumentation. This requires building a
1501 special instrumented version of the code and has some runtime
1502 overhead during the profiling, but it provides more detailed results than a
1503 sampling profiler. It also provides reproducible results, at least to the
1504 extent that the code behaves consistently across runs.
1506 Here are the steps for using profile guided optimization with
1509 1. Build an instrumented version of the code by compiling and linking with the
1510 ``-fprofile-instr-generate`` option.
1512 .. code-block:: console
1514 $ clang++ -O2 -fprofile-instr-generate code.cc -o code
1516 2. Run the instrumented executable with inputs that reflect the typical usage.
1517 By default, the profile data will be written to a ``default.profraw`` file
1518 in the current directory. You can override that default by setting the
1519 ``LLVM_PROFILE_FILE`` environment variable to specify an alternate file.
1520 Any instance of ``%p`` in that file name will be replaced by the process
1521 ID, so that you can easily distinguish the profile output from multiple
1524 .. code-block:: console
1526 $ LLVM_PROFILE_FILE="code-%p.profraw" ./code
1528 3. Combine profiles from multiple runs and convert the "raw" profile format to
1529 the input expected by clang. Use the ``merge`` command of the
1530 ``llvm-profdata`` tool to do this.
1532 .. code-block:: console
1534 $ llvm-profdata merge -output=code.profdata code-*.profraw
1536 Note that this step is necessary even when there is only one "raw" profile,
1537 since the merge operation also changes the file format.
1539 4. Build the code again using the ``-fprofile-instr-use`` option to specify the
1540 collected profile data.
1542 .. code-block:: console
1544 $ clang++ -O2 -fprofile-instr-use=code.profdata code.cc -o code
1546 You can repeat step 4 as often as you like without regenerating the
1547 profile. As you make changes to your code, clang may no longer be able to
1548 use the profile data. It will warn you when this happens.
1550 Profile generation and use can also be controlled by the GCC-compatible flags
1551 ``-fprofile-generate`` and ``-fprofile-use``. Although these flags are
1552 semantically equivalent to their GCC counterparts, they *do not* handle
1553 GCC-compatible profiles. They are only meant to implement GCC's semantics
1554 with respect to profile creation and use.
1556 .. option:: -fprofile-generate[=<dirname>]
1558 Without any other arguments, ``-fprofile-generate`` behaves identically to
1559 ``-fprofile-instr-generate``. When given a directory name, it generates the
1560 profile file ``default.profraw`` in the directory named ``dirname``. If
1561 ``dirname`` does not exist, it will be created at runtime. The environment
1562 variable ``LLVM_PROFILE_FILE`` can be used to override the directory and
1563 filename for the profile file at runtime. For example,
1565 .. code-block:: console
1567 $ clang++ -O2 -fprofile-generate=yyy/zzz code.cc -o code
1569 When ``code`` is executed, the profile will be written to the file
1570 ``yyy/zzz/default.profraw``. This can be altered at runtime via the
1571 ``LLVM_PROFILE_FILE`` environment variable:
1573 .. code-block:: console
1575 $ LLVM_PROFILE_FILE=/tmp/myprofile/code.profraw ./code
1577 The above invocation will produce the profile file
1578 ``/tmp/myprofile/code.profraw`` instead of ``yyy/zzz/default.profraw``.
1579 Notice that ``LLVM_PROFILE_FILE`` overrides the directory *and* the file
1580 name for the profile file.
1582 .. option:: -fprofile-use[=<pathname>]
1584 Without any other arguments, ``-fprofile-use`` behaves identically to
1585 ``-fprofile-instr-use``. Otherwise, if ``pathname`` is the full path to a
1586 profile file, it reads from that file. If ``pathname`` is a directory name,
1587 it reads from ``pathname/default.profdata``.
1589 Disabling Instrumentation
1590 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1592 In certain situations, it may be useful to disable profile generation or use
1593 for specific files in a build, without affecting the main compilation flags
1594 used for the other files in the project.
1596 In these cases, you can use the flag ``-fno-profile-instr-generate`` (or
1597 ``-fno-profile-generate``) to disable profile generation, and
1598 ``-fno-profile-instr-use`` (or ``-fno-profile-use``) to disable profile use.
1600 Note that these flags should appear after the corresponding profile
1601 flags to have an effect.
1603 Controlling Size of Debug Information
1604 -------------------------------------
1606 Debug info kind generated by Clang can be set by one of the flags listed
1607 below. If multiple flags are present, the last one is used.
1611 Don't generate any debug info (default).
1613 .. option:: -gline-tables-only
1615 Generate line number tables only.
1617 This kind of debug info allows to obtain stack traces with function names,
1618 file names and line numbers (by such tools as ``gdb`` or ``addr2line``). It
1619 doesn't contain any other data (e.g. description of local variables or
1620 function parameters).
1622 .. option:: -fstandalone-debug
1624 Clang supports a number of optimizations to reduce the size of debug
1625 information in the binary. They work based on the assumption that
1626 the debug type information can be spread out over multiple
1627 compilation units. For instance, Clang will not emit type
1628 definitions for types that are not needed by a module and could be
1629 replaced with a forward declaration. Further, Clang will only emit
1630 type info for a dynamic C++ class in the module that contains the
1631 vtable for the class.
1633 The **-fstandalone-debug** option turns off these optimizations.
1634 This is useful when working with 3rd-party libraries that don't come
1635 with debug information. Note that Clang will never emit type
1636 information for types that are not referenced at all by the program.
1638 .. option:: -fno-standalone-debug
1640 On Darwin **-fstandalone-debug** is enabled by default. The
1641 **-fno-standalone-debug** option can be used to get to turn on the
1642 vtable-based optimization described above.
1646 Generate complete debug info.
1648 Comment Parsing Options
1649 -----------------------
1651 Clang parses Doxygen and non-Doxygen style documentation comments and attaches
1652 them to the appropriate declaration nodes. By default, it only parses
1653 Doxygen-style comments and ignores ordinary comments starting with ``//`` and
1656 .. option:: -Wdocumentation
1658 Emit warnings about use of documentation comments. This warning group is off
1661 This includes checking that ``\param`` commands name parameters that actually
1662 present in the function signature, checking that ``\returns`` is used only on
1663 functions that actually return a value etc.
1665 .. option:: -Wno-documentation-unknown-command
1667 Don't warn when encountering an unknown Doxygen command.
1669 .. option:: -fparse-all-comments
1671 Parse all comments as documentation comments (including ordinary comments
1672 starting with ``//`` and ``/*``).
1674 .. option:: -fcomment-block-commands=[commands]
1676 Define custom documentation commands as block commands. This allows Clang to
1677 construct the correct AST for these custom commands, and silences warnings
1678 about unknown commands. Several commands must be separated by a comma
1679 *without trailing space*; e.g. ``-fcomment-block-commands=foo,bar`` defines
1680 custom commands ``\foo`` and ``\bar``.
1682 It is also possible to use ``-fcomment-block-commands`` several times; e.g.
1683 ``-fcomment-block-commands=foo -fcomment-block-commands=bar`` does the same
1691 The support for standard C in clang is feature-complete except for the
1692 C99 floating-point pragmas.
1694 Extensions supported by clang
1695 -----------------------------
1697 See :doc:`LanguageExtensions`.
1699 Differences between various standard modes
1700 ------------------------------------------
1702 clang supports the -std option, which changes what language mode clang
1703 uses. The supported modes for C are c89, gnu89, c94, c99, gnu99, c11,
1704 gnu11, and various aliases for those modes. If no -std option is
1705 specified, clang defaults to gnu11 mode. Many C99 and C11 features are
1706 supported in earlier modes as a conforming extension, with a warning. Use
1707 ``-pedantic-errors`` to request an error if a feature from a later standard
1708 revision is used in an earlier mode.
1710 Differences between all ``c*`` and ``gnu*`` modes:
1712 - ``c*`` modes define "``__STRICT_ANSI__``".
1713 - Target-specific defines not prefixed by underscores, like "linux",
1714 are defined in ``gnu*`` modes.
1715 - Trigraphs default to being off in ``gnu*`` modes; they can be enabled by
1716 the -trigraphs option.
1717 - The parser recognizes "asm" and "typeof" as keywords in ``gnu*`` modes;
1718 the variants "``__asm__``" and "``__typeof__``" are recognized in all
1720 - The Apple "blocks" extension is recognized by default in ``gnu*`` modes
1721 on some platforms; it can be enabled in any mode with the "-fblocks"
1723 - Arrays that are VLA's according to the standard, but which can be
1724 constant folded by the frontend are treated as fixed size arrays.
1725 This occurs for things like "int X[(1, 2)];", which is technically a
1726 VLA. ``c*`` modes are strictly compliant and treat these as VLAs.
1728 Differences between ``*89`` and ``*99`` modes:
1730 - The ``*99`` modes default to implementing "inline" as specified in C99,
1731 while the ``*89`` modes implement the GNU version. This can be
1732 overridden for individual functions with the ``__gnu_inline__``
1734 - Digraphs are not recognized in c89 mode.
1735 - The scope of names defined inside a "for", "if", "switch", "while",
1736 or "do" statement is different. (example: "``if ((struct x {int
1738 - ``__STDC_VERSION__`` is not defined in ``*89`` modes.
1739 - "inline" is not recognized as a keyword in c89 mode.
1740 - "restrict" is not recognized as a keyword in ``*89`` modes.
1741 - Commas are allowed in integer constant expressions in ``*99`` modes.
1742 - Arrays which are not lvalues are not implicitly promoted to pointers
1744 - Some warnings are different.
1746 Differences between ``*99`` and ``*11`` modes:
1748 - Warnings for use of C11 features are disabled.
1749 - ``__STDC_VERSION__`` is defined to ``201112L`` rather than ``199901L``.
1751 c94 mode is identical to c89 mode except that digraphs are enabled in
1752 c94 mode (FIXME: And ``__STDC_VERSION__`` should be defined!).
1754 GCC extensions not implemented yet
1755 ----------------------------------
1757 clang tries to be compatible with gcc as much as possible, but some gcc
1758 extensions are not implemented yet:
1760 - clang does not support #pragma weak (`bug
1761 3679 <http://llvm.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=3679>`_). Due to the uses
1762 described in the bug, this is likely to be implemented at some point,
1764 - clang does not support decimal floating point types (``_Decimal32`` and
1765 friends) or fixed-point types (``_Fract`` and friends); nobody has
1766 expressed interest in these features yet, so it's hard to say when
1767 they will be implemented.
1768 - clang does not support nested functions; this is a complex feature
1769 which is infrequently used, so it is unlikely to be implemented
1770 anytime soon. In C++11 it can be emulated by assigning lambda
1771 functions to local variables, e.g:
1775 auto const local_function = [&](int parameter) {
1781 - clang does not support global register variables; this is unlikely to
1782 be implemented soon because it requires additional LLVM backend
1784 - clang does not support static initialization of flexible array
1785 members. This appears to be a rarely used extension, but could be
1786 implemented pending user demand.
1787 - clang does not support
1788 ``__builtin_va_arg_pack``/``__builtin_va_arg_pack_len``. This is
1789 used rarely, but in some potentially interesting places, like the
1790 glibc headers, so it may be implemented pending user demand. Note
1791 that because clang pretends to be like GCC 4.2, and this extension
1792 was introduced in 4.3, the glibc headers will not try to use this
1793 extension with clang at the moment.
1794 - clang does not support the gcc extension for forward-declaring
1795 function parameters; this has not shown up in any real-world code
1796 yet, though, so it might never be implemented.
1798 This is not a complete list; if you find an unsupported extension
1799 missing from this list, please send an e-mail to cfe-dev. This list
1800 currently excludes C++; see :ref:`C++ Language Features <cxx>`. Also, this
1801 list does not include bugs in mostly-implemented features; please see
1803 tracker <http://llvm.org/bugs/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=product%3Aclang+component%3A-New%2BBugs%2CAST%2CBasic%2CDriver%2CHeaders%2CLLVM%2BCodeGen%2Cparser%2Cpreprocessor%2CSemantic%2BAnalyzer>`_
1804 for known existing bugs (FIXME: Is there a section for bug-reporting
1805 guidelines somewhere?).
1807 Intentionally unsupported GCC extensions
1808 ----------------------------------------
1810 - clang does not support the gcc extension that allows variable-length
1811 arrays in structures. This is for a few reasons: one, it is tricky to
1812 implement, two, the extension is completely undocumented, and three,
1813 the extension appears to be rarely used. Note that clang *does*
1814 support flexible array members (arrays with a zero or unspecified
1815 size at the end of a structure).
1816 - clang does not have an equivalent to gcc's "fold"; this means that
1817 clang doesn't accept some constructs gcc might accept in contexts
1818 where a constant expression is required, like "x-x" where x is a
1820 - clang does not support ``__builtin_apply`` and friends; this extension
1821 is extremely obscure and difficult to implement reliably.
1825 Microsoft extensions
1826 --------------------
1828 clang has some experimental support for extensions from Microsoft Visual
1829 C++; to enable it, use the ``-fms-extensions`` command-line option. This is
1830 the default for Windows targets. Note that the support is incomplete.
1831 Some constructs such as ``dllexport`` on classes are ignored with a warning,
1832 and others such as `Microsoft IDL annotations
1833 <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8tesw2eh.aspx>`_ are silently
1836 clang has a ``-fms-compatibility`` flag that makes clang accept enough
1837 invalid C++ to be able to parse most Microsoft headers. For example, it
1838 allows `unqualified lookup of dependent base class members
1839 <http://clang.llvm.org/compatibility.html#dep_lookup_bases>`_, which is
1840 a common compatibility issue with clang. This flag is enabled by default
1841 for Windows targets.
1843 ``-fdelayed-template-parsing`` lets clang delay parsing of function template
1844 definitions until the end of a translation unit. This flag is enabled by
1845 default for Windows targets.
1847 - clang allows setting ``_MSC_VER`` with ``-fmsc-version=``. It defaults to
1848 1700 which is the same as Visual C/C++ 2012. Any number is supported
1849 and can greatly affect what Windows SDK and c++stdlib headers clang
1851 - clang does not support the Microsoft extension where anonymous record
1852 members can be declared using user defined typedefs.
1853 - clang supports the Microsoft ``#pragma pack`` feature for controlling
1854 record layout. GCC also contains support for this feature, however
1855 where MSVC and GCC are incompatible clang follows the MSVC
1857 - clang supports the Microsoft ``#pragma comment(lib, "foo.lib")`` feature for
1858 automatically linking against the specified library. Currently this feature
1859 only works with the Visual C++ linker.
1860 - clang supports the Microsoft ``#pragma comment(linker, "/flag:foo")`` feature
1861 for adding linker flags to COFF object files. The user is responsible for
1862 ensuring that the linker understands the flags.
1863 - clang defaults to C++11 for Windows targets.
1867 C++ Language Features
1868 =====================
1870 clang fully implements all of standard C++98 except for exported
1871 templates (which were removed in C++11), and all of standard C++11
1872 and the current draft standard for C++1y.
1874 Controlling implementation limits
1875 ---------------------------------
1877 .. option:: -fbracket-depth=N
1879 Sets the limit for nested parentheses, brackets, and braces to N. The
1882 .. option:: -fconstexpr-depth=N
1884 Sets the limit for recursive constexpr function invocations to N. The
1887 .. option:: -ftemplate-depth=N
1889 Sets the limit for recursively nested template instantiations to N. The
1892 .. option:: -foperator-arrow-depth=N
1894 Sets the limit for iterative calls to 'operator->' functions to N. The
1899 Objective-C Language Features
1900 =============================
1904 Objective-C++ Language Features
1905 ===============================
1912 Clang supports all OpenMP 3.1 directives and clauses. In addition, some
1913 features of OpenMP 4.0 are supported. For example, ``#pragma omp simd``,
1914 ``#pragma omp for simd``, ``#pragma omp parallel for simd`` directives, extended
1915 set of atomic constructs, ``proc_bind`` clause for all parallel-based
1916 directives, ``depend`` clause for ``#pragma omp task`` directive (except for
1917 array sections), ``#pragma omp cancel`` and ``#pragma omp cancellation point``
1918 directives, and ``#pragma omp taskgroup`` directive.
1920 OpenMP support is disabled by default. Use :option:`-fopenmp=libomp` to enable
1921 it. Support for OpenMP can be disabled with :option:`-fno-openmp`.
1923 Controlling implementation limits
1924 ---------------------------------
1926 .. option:: -fopenmp-use-tls
1928 Controls code generation for OpenMP threadprivate variables. In presence of
1929 this option all threadprivate variables are generated the same way as thread
1930 local variables, using TLS support. If :option:`-fno-openmp-use-tls`
1931 is provided or target does not support TLS, code generation for threadprivate
1932 variables relies on OpenMP runtime library.
1934 .. _target_features:
1936 Target-Specific Features and Limitations
1937 ========================================
1939 CPU Architectures Features and Limitations
1940 ------------------------------------------
1945 The support for X86 (both 32-bit and 64-bit) is considered stable on
1946 Darwin (Mac OS X), Linux, FreeBSD, and Dragonfly BSD: it has been tested
1947 to correctly compile many large C, C++, Objective-C, and Objective-C++
1950 On ``x86_64-mingw32``, passing i128(by value) is incompatible with the
1951 Microsoft x64 calling convention. You might need to tweak
1952 ``WinX86_64ABIInfo::classify()`` in lib/CodeGen/TargetInfo.cpp.
1954 For the X86 target, clang supports the :option:`-m16` command line
1955 argument which enables 16-bit code output. This is broadly similar to
1956 using ``asm(".code16gcc")`` with the GNU toolchain. The generated code
1957 and the ABI remains 32-bit but the assembler emits instructions
1958 appropriate for a CPU running in 16-bit mode, with address-size and
1959 operand-size prefixes to enable 32-bit addressing and operations.
1964 The support for ARM (specifically ARMv6 and ARMv7) is considered stable
1965 on Darwin (iOS): it has been tested to correctly compile many large C,
1966 C++, Objective-C, and Objective-C++ codebases. Clang only supports a
1967 limited number of ARM architectures. It does not yet fully support
1973 The support for PowerPC (especially PowerPC64) is considered stable
1974 on Linux and FreeBSD: it has been tested to correctly compile many
1975 large C and C++ codebases. PowerPC (32bit) is still missing certain
1976 features (e.g. PIC code on ELF platforms).
1981 clang currently contains some support for other architectures (e.g. Sparc);
1982 however, significant pieces of code generation are still missing, and they
1983 haven't undergone significant testing.
1985 clang contains limited support for the MSP430 embedded processor, but
1986 both the clang support and the LLVM backend support are highly
1989 Other platforms are completely unsupported at the moment. Adding the
1990 minimal support needed for parsing and semantic analysis on a new
1991 platform is quite easy; see ``lib/Basic/Targets.cpp`` in the clang source
1992 tree. This level of support is also sufficient for conversion to LLVM IR
1993 for simple programs. Proper support for conversion to LLVM IR requires
1994 adding code to ``lib/CodeGen/CGCall.cpp`` at the moment; this is likely to
1995 change soon, though. Generating assembly requires a suitable LLVM
1998 Operating System Features and Limitations
1999 -----------------------------------------
2004 Thread Sanitizer is not supported.
2009 Clang has experimental support for targeting "Cygming" (Cygwin / MinGW)
2012 See also :ref:`Microsoft Extensions <c_ms>`.
2017 Clang works on Cygwin-1.7.
2022 Clang works on some mingw32 distributions. Clang assumes directories as
2025 - ``C:/mingw/include``
2027 - ``C:/mingw/lib/gcc/mingw32/4.[3-5].0/include/c++``
2029 On MSYS, a few tests might fail.
2034 For 32-bit (i686-w64-mingw32), and 64-bit (x86\_64-w64-mingw32), Clang
2037 - ``GCC versions 4.5.0 to 4.5.3, 4.6.0 to 4.6.2, or 4.7.0 (for the C++ header search path)``
2038 - ``some_directory/bin/gcc.exe``
2039 - ``some_directory/bin/clang.exe``
2040 - ``some_directory/bin/clang++.exe``
2041 - ``some_directory/bin/../include/c++/GCC_version``
2042 - ``some_directory/bin/../include/c++/GCC_version/x86_64-w64-mingw32``
2043 - ``some_directory/bin/../include/c++/GCC_version/i686-w64-mingw32``
2044 - ``some_directory/bin/../include/c++/GCC_version/backward``
2045 - ``some_directory/bin/../x86_64-w64-mingw32/include``
2046 - ``some_directory/bin/../i686-w64-mingw32/include``
2047 - ``some_directory/bin/../include``
2049 This directory layout is standard for any toolchain you will find on the
2050 official `MinGW-w64 website <http://mingw-w64.sourceforge.net>`_.
2052 Clang expects the GCC executable "gcc.exe" compiled for
2053 ``i686-w64-mingw32`` (or ``x86_64-w64-mingw32``) to be present on PATH.
2055 `Some tests might fail <http://llvm.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=9072>`_ on
2056 ``x86_64-w64-mingw32``.
2063 clang-cl is an alternative command-line interface to Clang driver, designed for
2064 compatibility with the Visual C++ compiler, cl.exe.
2066 To enable clang-cl to find system headers, libraries, and the linker when run
2067 from the command-line, it should be executed inside a Visual Studio Native Tools
2068 Command Prompt or a regular Command Prompt where the environment has been set
2069 up using e.g. `vcvars32.bat <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/f2ccy3wt.aspx>`_.
2071 clang-cl can also be used from inside Visual Studio by using an LLVM Platform
2074 Command-Line Options
2075 --------------------
2077 To be compatible with cl.exe, clang-cl supports most of the same command-line
2078 options. Those options can start with either ``/`` or ``-``. It also supports
2079 some of Clang's core options, such as the ``-W`` options.
2081 Options that are known to clang-cl, but not currently supported, are ignored
2082 with a warning. For example:
2086 clang-cl.exe: warning: argument unused during compilation: '/AI'
2088 To suppress warnings about unused arguments, use the ``-Qunused-arguments`` option.
2090 Options that are not known to clang-cl will cause errors. If they are spelled with a
2091 leading ``/``, they will be mistaken for a filename:
2095 clang-cl.exe: error: no such file or directory: '/foobar'
2097 Please `file a bug <http://llvm.org/bugs/enter_bug.cgi?product=clang&component=Driver>`_
2098 for any valid cl.exe flags that clang-cl does not understand.
2100 Execute ``clang-cl /?`` to see a list of supported options:
2104 CL.EXE COMPATIBILITY OPTIONS:
2105 /? Display available options
2106 /arch:<value> Set architecture for code generation
2107 /C Don't discard comments when preprocessing
2109 /D <macro[=value]> Define macro
2110 /EH<value> Exception handling model
2111 /EP Disable linemarker output and preprocess to stdout
2112 /E Preprocess to stdout
2113 /fallback Fall back to cl.exe if clang-cl fails to compile
2114 /FA Output assembly code file during compilation
2115 /Fa<file or directory> Output assembly code to this file during compilation (with /FA)
2116 /Fe<file or directory> Set output executable file or directory (ends in / or \)
2117 /FI <value> Include file before parsing
2118 /Fi<file> Set preprocess output file name (with /P)
2119 /Fo<file or directory> Set output object file, or directory (ends in / or \) (with /c)
2125 /GA Assume thread-local variables are defined in the executable
2126 /GF- Disable string pooling
2127 /GR- Disable emission of RTTI data
2128 /GR Enable emission of RTTI data
2129 /Gs<value> Set stack probe size
2130 /Gw- Don't put each data item in its own section
2131 /Gw Put each data item in its own section
2132 /Gy- Don't put each function in its own section
2133 /Gy Put each function in its own section
2134 /help Display available options
2135 /I <dir> Add directory to include search path
2136 /J Make char type unsigned
2137 /LDd Create debug DLL
2139 /link <options> Forward options to the linker
2140 /MDd Use DLL debug run-time
2141 /MD Use DLL run-time
2142 /MTd Use static debug run-time
2143 /MT Use static run-time
2144 /Ob0 Disable inlining
2145 /Od Disable optimization
2146 /Oi- Disable use of builtin functions
2147 /Oi Enable use of builtin functions
2148 /Os Optimize for size
2149 /Ot Optimize for speed
2150 /Oy- Disable frame pointer omission
2151 /Oy Enable frame pointer omission
2152 /O<value> Optimization level
2153 /o <file or directory> Set output file or directory (ends in / or \)
2154 /P Preprocess to file
2155 /Qvec- Disable the loop vectorization passes
2156 /Qvec Enable the loop vectorization passes
2157 /showIncludes Print info about included files to stderr
2158 /TC Treat all source files as C
2159 /Tc <filename> Specify a C source file
2160 /TP Treat all source files as C++
2161 /Tp <filename> Specify a C++ source file
2162 /U <macro> Undefine macro
2163 /vd<value> Control vtordisp placement
2164 /vmb Use a best-case representation method for member pointers
2165 /vmg Use a most-general representation for member pointers
2166 /vmm Set the default most-general representation to multiple inheritance
2167 /vms Set the default most-general representation to single inheritance
2168 /vmv Set the default most-general representation to virtual inheritance
2169 /volatile:iso Volatile loads and stores have standard semantics
2170 /volatile:ms Volatile loads and stores have acquire and release semantics
2171 /W0 Disable all warnings
2177 /WX- Do not treat warnings as errors
2178 /WX Treat warnings as errors
2179 /w Disable all warnings
2180 /Z7 Enable CodeView debug information in object files
2181 /Zc:sizedDealloc- Disable C++14 sized global deallocation functions
2182 /Zc:sizedDealloc Enable C++14 sized global deallocation functions
2183 /Zc:strictStrings Treat string literals as const
2184 /Zc:threadSafeInit- Disable thread-safe initialization of static variables
2185 /Zc:threadSafeInit Enable thread-safe initialization of static variables
2186 /Zc:trigraphs- Disable trigraphs (default)
2187 /Zc:trigraphs Enable trigraphs
2188 /Zi Alias for /Z7. Does not produce PDBs.
2189 /Zl Don't mention any default libraries in the object file
2190 /Zp Set the default maximum struct packing alignment to 1
2191 /Zp<value> Specify the default maximum struct packing alignment
2192 /Zs Syntax-check only
2195 -### Print (but do not run) the commands to run for this compilation
2196 --analyze Run the static analyzer
2197 -fansi-escape-codes Use ANSI escape codes for diagnostics
2198 -fcolor-diagnostics Use colors in diagnostics
2199 -fdiagnostics-parseable-fixits
2200 Print fix-its in machine parseable form
2201 -fms-compatibility-version=<value>
2202 Dot-separated value representing the Microsoft compiler version
2203 number to report in _MSC_VER (0 = don't define it (default))
2204 -fmsc-version=<value> Microsoft compiler version number to report in _MSC_VER (0 = don't
2205 define it (default))
2206 -fno-sanitize-coverage=<value>
2207 Disable specified features of coverage instrumentation for Sanitizers
2208 -fno-sanitize-recover=<value>
2209 Disable recovery for specified sanitizers
2210 -fno-sanitize-trap=<value>
2211 Disable trapping for specified sanitizers
2212 -fsanitize-blacklist=<value>
2213 Path to blacklist file for sanitizers
2214 -fsanitize-coverage=<value>
2215 Specify the type of coverage instrumentation for Sanitizers
2216 -fsanitize-recover=<value>
2217 Enable recovery for specified sanitizers
2218 -fsanitize-trap=<value> Enable trapping for specified sanitizers
2219 -fsanitize=<check> Turn on runtime checks for various forms of undefined or suspicious
2220 behavior. See user manual for available checks
2221 -gcodeview Generate CodeView debug information
2222 -mllvm <value> Additional arguments to forward to LLVM's option processing
2223 -Qunused-arguments Don't emit warning for unused driver arguments
2224 -R<remark> Enable the specified remark
2225 --target=<value> Generate code for the given target
2226 -v Show commands to run and use verbose output
2227 -W<warning> Enable the specified warning
2228 -Xclang <arg> Pass <arg> to the clang compiler
2230 The /fallback Option
2231 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2233 When clang-cl is run with the ``/fallback`` option, it will first try to
2234 compile files itself. For any file that it fails to compile, it will fall back
2235 and try to compile the file by invoking cl.exe.
2237 This option is intended to be used as a temporary means to build projects where
2238 clang-cl cannot successfully compile all the files. clang-cl may fail to compile
2239 a file either because it cannot generate code for some C++ feature, or because
2240 it cannot parse some Microsoft language extension.