Hello LLVM Devs,
I've written a wrapper for stdio.h that allows LibC functions and constants
to be converted into a late-binding driver. The purpose for this is to allow
bitcode files written with this wrapper to access files portably cross-platform.
Since the driver is intended to be included with a generic program installer for
each supported platform, I'm interested in knowing how well the
link-time-optimization and final code generation perform when dealing with
"getter functions".
Since the constants recognized by stdio.h are implemented portably only at the
source level in conventional C headers I've replaced those constants with
functions that return the constants. Since these functions are external
references they can be resolved at link time, I need to know that LTO converts
these simple functions with an inline linkage to their return value.
If this experiment proves successful it may be possible to wrap other libraries
and headers in a portable way. If this interests anyone, please say so on the
mailing list here. I'd especially like to hear if some Linux package makers
or Mac installer techs would be interested in helping me implement portable
bitcode files for static-compiled virtual machine use.
I know I've posted the link here before when looking for testers but for
those who may be interested either in expanding this project or constructive
criticisms of the architecture I've made. The only known bug at this point
is that it contains support for deprecated functions that can be dangerous if
used (tmpfile, for example). The project page is
http://sourceforge.net/projects/llvmlibc/ and the newly updated instructions are
on the Wiki page at http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/llvmlibc/ . Also, let
me know if anyone would be interested in adding this to the standard Clang
headers since it would allow whole-program bitcodes to potentially be made using
Clang.
I'm sorry about the long post. Please let me know what you think, good or
bad.
--Sam
