llvm dev - Jul 2008 - [LLVMdev] MS assembler support

Hello, Benedict
>As far as I can tell it seems that the LLVM x86 backend targets GNU
>assembler with DWARF for debug and there is not a way, currently, to
>output for MS assembler with COFF debug info. Is this correct or am I
>just looking at the wrong part?
Multiple issues here, actually.

First of all, there is "X86IntelAsmPrinter", which outputs
MASM-compatible assembler. You
can select assembler flavour via command line, for example. However, MASM is
really weak to
support all necessary features for compilation of something huge and complex (MS
tools do
not emit assembler directly, their assembler listings are pure listings, they
cannot be used
for recompilaiton. This is especially true if you generate them from some C++
code), so only
small and easy things will work.

This is not limitation of LLVM itself, but limitation of vendor-provided tools.

As for COFF debugging format- are you referring to 'plain' COFF
debugging format or to
proprietary CV format used by Microsoft? 
--
WBR, Anton Korobeynikov

Hi Anton,

Ok maybe I should have stated what it was that I wanted to do. In this
context I would like to compile C code, with LLVM, to MS proprietary CV
format that can be linked and debugged with Visual Studio, but from what
you are saying this is not currently possible.

Thanks,

Ben

-----Original Message-----
From: llvmdev-bounces at cs.uiuc.edu [mailto:llvmdev-bounces at cs.uiuc.edu]
On Behalf Of Anton Korobeynikov
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 5:07 PM
To: LLVM Developers Mailing List
Subject: Re: [LLVMdev] MS assembler support

Hello, Benedict
>As far as I can tell it seems that the LLVM x86 backend targets GNU
>assembler with DWARF for debug and there is not a way, currently, to
>output for MS assembler with COFF debug info. Is this correct or am I
>just looking at the wrong part?
Multiple issues here, actually.

First of all, there is "X86IntelAsmPrinter", which outputs
MASM-compatible assembler. You 
can select assembler flavour via command line, for example. However,
MASM is really weak to 
support all necessary features for compilation of something huge and
complex (MS tools do 
not emit assembler directly, their assembler listings are pure listings,
they cannot be used 
for recompilaiton. This is especially true if you generate them from
some C++ code), so only 
small and easy things will work.

This is not limitation of LLVM itself, but limitation of vendor-provided
tools.

As for COFF debugging format- are you referring to 'plain' COFF
debugging format or to 
proprietary CV format used by Microsoft? 
--
WBR, Anton Korobeynikov 
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On Jul 15, 2008, at 9:14 AM, Gaster, Benedict wrote:
> Hi Anton,
>
> Ok maybe I should have stated what it was that I wanted to do. In this
> context I would like to compile C code, with LLVM, to MS proprietary  
> CV
> format that can be linked and debugged with Visual Studio, but from  
> what
> you are saying this is not currently possible.
If the assembler is a limitation, the best solution would be to add a  
direct PECOFF writer. There is a start of direct ELF and Macho writers  
already in the tree.  They are not production quality, but could be a  
useful place to start looking.

-Chris