llvm dev - Sep 2009 - [LLVMdev] ld with gold-plugin can do this?

A common followup question is "but how do I link native libraries into 
my .bc file". You don't. A .bc file is llvm ir, you can't put a
native
binary library into a .bc (barring sticking it in as a string, etc).

The build then looks like:

a) 'llvm-gcc -c -flo -O2' to generate the .bc files.
b) 'llvm-ld' to combine them into a single .bc. No, not a .so nor a .a.
c) 'llc' to turn your combined .bc into a .s
d) 'as' to turn your .s into a .o
e) 'ld' to turn your .o into a .so or final executable. This is the step
where you get to specify all the native libraries to link with.

You can use 'gcc' to merge steps d and e (it just runs as and ld for 
you). Or you can use the gold plugin to merge steps b through e, but 
with the added benefit that it will optimize slightly better. See the 
llvm LTO documentation on why.

[Sanjiv] - This is what PIC16 does. llvm-ld has an option called '-b'
that you can
use to specify the output bitcode file name. Unfortunately, llvm-ld always tries
to
generate a native executable (or a shell script) as well and currently there is
no way to disable that.
Maybe an option like '-no-native' will be come handy.


- Sanjiv

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Sanjiv.Gupta at microchip.com wrote:
> 
> 
> A common followup question is "but how do I link native libraries into
> my .bc file". You don't. A .bc file is llvm ir, you can't put
a native
> binary library into a .bc (barring sticking it in as a string, etc).
> 
> The build then looks like:
> 
> a) 'llvm-gcc -c -flo -O2' to generate the .bc files.
> b) 'llvm-ld' to combine them into a single .bc. No, not a .so nor a
.a.
> c) 'llc' to turn your combined .bc into a .s
> d) 'as' to turn your .s into a .o
> e) 'ld' to turn your .o into a .so or final executable. This is the
step
> where you get to specify all the native libraries to link with.
> 
> You can use 'gcc' to merge steps d and e (it just runs as and ld
for
> you). Or you can use the gold plugin to merge steps b through e, but
> with the added benefit that it will optimize slightly better. See the
> llvm LTO documentation on why.
> 
> [Sanjiv] - This is what PIC16 does. llvm-ld has an option called
'-b'
> that you can
> use to specify the output bitcode file name. Unfortunately, llvm-ld 
> always tries to
> generate a native executable (or a shell script) as well and currently 
> there is no way to disable that.
> Maybe an option like '-no-native' will be come handy.
Yes there is, it's -link-as-library.

Nick

Nick Lewycky wrote:
> Sanjiv.Gupta at microchip.com wrote:
>>
>>
>> A common followup question is "but how do I link native libraries
into
>> my .bc file". You don't. A .bc file is llvm ir, you can't
put a native
>> binary library into a .bc (barring sticking it in as a string, etc).
>>
>> The build then looks like:
>>
>> a) 'llvm-gcc -c -flo -O2' to generate the .bc files.
>> b) 'llvm-ld' to combine them into a single .bc. No, not a .so
nor a .a.
>> c) 'llc' to turn your combined .bc into a .s
>> d) 'as' to turn your .s into a .o
>> e) 'ld' to turn your .o into a .so or final executable. This is
the step
>> where you get to specify all the native libraries to link with.
>>
>> You can use 'gcc' to merge steps d and e (it just runs as and
ld for
>> you). Or you can use the gold plugin to merge steps b through e, but
>> with the added benefit that it will optimize slightly better. See the
>> llvm LTO documentation on why.
>>
>> [Sanjiv] - This is what PIC16 does. llvm-ld has an option called
'-b'
>> that you can
>> use to specify the output bitcode file name. Unfortunately, llvm-ld 
>> always tries to
>> generate a native executable (or a shell script) as well and 
>> currently there is no way to disable that.
>> Maybe an option like '-no-native' will be come handy.
>
> Yes there is, it's -link-as-library.
>
> Nick
Well, -link-as-library is not quite same as a building a final 
executable .bc.
The set of optimizations run is also different.

- Sanjiv