LLVM’s Analysis and Transform Passes¶
Introduction¶
Warning
This document is not updated frequently, and the list of passesis most likely incomplete. It is possible to list passes known by the opttool usingopt-print-passes
.
This document serves as a high level summary of the optimization features thatLLVM provides. Optimizations are implemented as Passes that traverse someportion of a program to either collect information or transform the program.The table below divides the passes that LLVM provides into three categories.Analysis passes compute information that other passes can use or for debuggingor program visualization purposes. Transform passes can use (or invalidate)the analysis passes. Transform passes all mutate the program in some way.Utility passes provides some utility but don’t otherwise fit categorization.For example passes to extract functions to bitcode or write a module to bitcodeare neither analysis nor transform passes. The table of contents aboveprovides a quick summary of each pass and links to the more complete passdescription later in the document.
Analysis Passes¶
This section describes the LLVM Analysis Passes.
aa-eval
: Exhaustive Alias Analysis Precision Evaluator¶
This is a simple N^2 alias analysis accuracy evaluator. Basically, for eachfunction in the program, it simply queries to see how the alias analysisimplementation answers alias queries between each pair of pointers in thefunction.
This is inspired and adapted from code by: Naveen Neelakantam, FrancescoSpadini, and Wojciech Stryjewski.
basic-aa
: Basic Alias Analysis (stateless AA impl)¶
A basic alias analysis pass that implements identities (two different globalscannot alias, etc), but does no stateful analysis.
basiccg
: Basic CallGraph Construction¶
Yet to be written.
da
: Dependence Analysis¶
Dependence analysis framework, which is used to detect dependences in memoryaccesses.
domfrontier
: Dominance Frontier Construction¶
This pass is a simple dominator construction algorithm for finding forwarddominator frontiers.
domtree
: Dominator Tree Construction¶
This pass is a simple dominator construction algorithm for finding forwarddominators.
dot-callgraph
: Print Call Graph to “dot” file¶
This pass, only available inopt
, prints the call graph into a.dot
graph. This graph can then be processed with the “dot” tool to convert it topostscript or some other suitable format.
dot-cfg
: Print CFG of function to “dot” file¶
This pass, only available inopt
, prints the control flow graph into a.dot
graph. This graph can then be processed with thedot toolto convert it to postscript or some other suitable format.Additionally the-cfg-func-name=<substring>
option can be used to filter thefunctions that are printed. All functions that contain the specified substringwill be printed.
dot-cfg-only
: Print CFG of function to “dot” file (with no function bodies)¶
This pass, only available inopt
, prints the control flow graph into a.dot
graph, omitting the function bodies. This graph can then be processedwith thedot tool to convert it to postscript or some other suitableformat.Additionally the-cfg-func-name=<substring>
option can be used to filter thefunctions that are printed. All functions that contain the specified substringwill be printed.
dot-dom
: Print dominance tree of function to “dot” file¶
This pass, only available inopt
, prints the dominator tree into a.dot
graph. This graph can then be processed with thedot tool toconvert it to postscript or some other suitable format.
dot-dom-only
: Print dominance tree of function to “dot” file (with no function bodies)¶
This pass, only available inopt
, prints the dominator tree into a.dot
graph, omitting the function bodies. This graph can then be processed with thedot tool to convert it to postscript or some other suitable format.
dot-post-dom
: Print postdominance tree of function to “dot” file¶
This pass, only available inopt
, prints the post dominator tree into a.dot
graph. This graph can then be processed with thedot toolto convert it to postscript or some other suitable format.
dot-post-dom-only
: Print postdominance tree of function to “dot” file (with no function bodies)¶
This pass, only available inopt
, prints the post dominator tree into a.dot
graph, omitting the function bodies. This graph can then be processedwith thedot tool to convert it to postscript or some other suitableformat.
globals-aa
: Simple mod/ref analysis for globals¶
This simple pass provides alias and mod/ref information for global values thatdo not have their address taken, and keeps track of whether functions read orwrite memory (are “pure”). For this simple (but very common) case, we canprovide pretty accurate and useful information.
instcount
: Counts the various types ofInstruction
s¶
This pass collects the count of all instructions and reports them.
iv-users
: Induction Variable Users¶
Bookkeeping for “interesting” users of expressions computed from inductionvariables.
kernel-info
: GPU Kernel Info¶
Reports various statistics for codes compiled for GPUs. This pass isdocumented separately.
lazy-value-info
: Lazy Value Information Analysis¶
Interface for lazy computation of value constraint information.
lint
: Statically lint-checks LLVM IR¶
This pass statically checks for common and easily-identified constructs whichproduce undefined or likely unintended behavior in LLVM IR.
It is not a guarantee of correctness, in two ways. First, it isn’tcomprehensive. There are checks which could be done statically which are notyet implemented. Some of these are indicated by TODO comments, but thosearen’t comprehensive either. Second, many conditions cannot be checkedstatically. This pass does no dynamic instrumentation, so it can’t check forall possible problems.
Another limitation is that it assumes all code will be executed. A storethrough a null pointer in a basic block which is never reached is harmless, butthis pass will warn about it anyway.
Optimization passes may make conditions that this pass checks for more or lessobvious. If an optimization pass appears to be introducing a warning, it maybe that the optimization pass is merely exposing an existing condition in thecode.
This code may be run beforeinstcombine. In manycases, instcombine checks for the same kinds of things and turns instructionswith undefined behavior into unreachable (or equivalent). Because of this,this pass makes some effort to look through bitcasts and so on.
loops
: Natural Loop Information¶
This analysis is used to identify natural loops and determine the loop depth ofvarious nodes of the CFG. Note that the loops identified may actually beseveral natural loops that share the same header node… not just a singlenatural loop.
memdep
: Memory Dependence Analysis¶
An analysis that determines, for a given memory operation, what precedingmemory operations it depends on. It builds on alias analysis information, andtries to provide a lazy, caching interface to a common kind of aliasinformation query.
print<module-debuginfo>
: Decodes module-level debug info¶
This pass decodes the debug info metadata in a module and prints it to standard output in a(sufficiently-prepared-) human-readable form.
postdomtree
: Post-Dominator Tree Construction¶
This pass is a simple post-dominator construction algorithm for findingpost-dominators.
print-alias-sets
: Alias Set Printer¶
Yet to be written.
print-callgraph
: Print a call graph¶
This pass, only available inopt
, prints the call graph to standard errorin a human-readable form.
print-callgraph-sccs
: Print SCCs of the Call Graph¶
This pass, only available inopt
, prints the SCCs of the call graph tostandard error in a human-readable form.
print-cfg-sccs
: Print SCCs of each function CFG¶
This pass, only available inopt
, prints the SCCs of each function CFG tostandard error in a human-readable fom.
function(print)
: Print function to stderr¶
ThePrintFunctionPass
class is designed to be pipelined with otherFunctionPasses
, and prints out the functions of the module as they areprocessed.
module(print)
: Print module to stderr¶
This pass simply prints out the entire module when it is executed.
regions
: Detect single entry single exit regions¶
TheRegionInfo
pass detects single entry single exit regions in a function,where a region is defined as any subgraph that is connected to the remaininggraph at only two spots. Furthermore, a hierarchical region tree is built.
scalar-evolution
: Scalar Evolution Analysis¶
TheScalarEvolution
analysis can be used to analyze and categorize scalarexpressions in loops. It specializes in recognizing general inductionvariables, representing them with the abstract and opaqueSCEV
class.Given this analysis, trip counts of loops and other important properties can beobtained.
This analysis is primarily useful for induction variable substitution andstrength reduction.
scev-aa
: ScalarEvolution-based Alias Analysis¶
Simple alias analysis implemented in terms ofScalarEvolution
queries.
This differs from traditional loop dependence analysis in that it tests fordependencies within a single iteration of a loop, rather than dependenciesbetween different iterations.
ScalarEvolution
has a more complete understanding of pointer arithmeticthanBasicAliasAnalysis
’ collection of ad-hoc analyses.
stack-safety
: Stack Safety Analysis¶
TheStackSafety
analysis can be used to determine if stack allocatedvariables can be considered safe from memory access bugs.
This analysis’ primary purpose is to be used by sanitizers to avoid unnecessaryinstrumentation of safe variables.
Transform Passes¶
This section describes the LLVM Transform Passes.
adce
: Aggressive Dead Code Elimination¶
ADCE aggressively tries to eliminate code. This pass is similar toDCE but it assumes that values are dead until proven otherwise. Thisis similar toSCCP, except applied to the liveness ofvalues.
always-inline
: Inliner foralways_inline
functions¶
A custom inliner that handles only functions that are marked as “alwaysinline”.
argpromotion
: Promote ‘by reference’ arguments to scalars¶
This pass promotes “by reference” arguments to be “by value” arguments. Inpractice, this means looking for internal functions that have pointerarguments. If it can prove, through the use of alias analysis, that anargument isonly loaded, then it can pass the value into the function insteadof the address of the value. This can cause recursive simplification of codeand lead to the elimination of allocas (especially in C++ template code likethe STL).
This pass also handles aggregate arguments that are passed into a function,scalarizing them if the elements of the aggregate are only loaded. Note thatit refuses to scalarize aggregates which would require passing in more thanthree operands to the function, because passing thousands of operands for alarge array or structure is unprofitable!
Note that this transformation could also be done for arguments that are onlystored to (returning the value instead), but does not currently. This casewould be best handled when and if LLVM starts supporting multiple return valuesfrom functions.
block-placement
: Profile Guided Basic Block Placement¶
This pass is a very simple profile guided basic block placement algorithm. Theidea is to put frequently executed blocks together at the start of the functionand hopefully increase the number of fall-through conditional branches. Ifthere is no profile information for a particular function, this pass basicallyorders blocks in depth-first order.
break-crit-edges
: Break critical edges in CFG¶
Break all of the critical edges in the CFG by inserting a dummy basic block.It may be “required” by passes that cannot deal with critical edges. Thistransformation obviously invalidates the CFG, but can update forward dominator(set, immediate dominators, tree, and frontier) information.
codegenprepare
: Optimize for code generation¶
This pass munges the code in the input function to better prepare it forSelectionDAG-based code generation. This works around limitations in itsbasic-block-at-a-time approach. It should eventually be removed.
constmerge
: Merge Duplicate Global Constants¶
Merges duplicate global constants together into a single constant that isshared. This is useful because some passes (i.e., TraceValues) insert a lot ofstring constants into the program, regardless of whether or not an existingstring is available.
dce
: Dead Code Elimination¶
Dead code elimination is similar to dead instruction elimination, but itrechecks instructions that were used by removed instructions to see if theyare newly dead.
deadargelim
: Dead Argument Elimination¶
This pass deletes dead arguments from internal functions. Dead argumentelimination removes arguments which are directly dead, as well as argumentsonly passed into function calls as dead arguments of other functions. Thispass also deletes dead arguments in a similar way.
This pass is often useful as a cleanup pass to run after aggressiveinterprocedural passes, which add possibly-dead arguments.
dse
: Dead Store Elimination¶
A trivial dead store elimination that only considers basic-block localredundant stores.
function-attrs
: Deduce function attributes¶
A simple interprocedural pass which walks the call-graph, looking for functionswhich do not access or only read non-local memory, and marking themreadnone
/readonly
. In addition, it marks function arguments (ofpointer type) “nocapture
” if a call to the function does not create anycopies of the pointer value that outlive the call. This more or less meansthat the pointer is only dereferenced, and not returned from the function orstored in a global. This pass is implemented as a bottom-up traversal of thecall-graph.
globaldce
: Dead Global Elimination¶
This transform is designed to eliminate unreachable internal globals from theprogram. It uses an aggressive algorithm, searching out globals that are knownto be alive. After it finds all of the globals which are needed, it deleteswhatever is left over. This allows it to delete recursive chunks of theprogram which are unreachable.
globalopt
: Global Variable Optimizer¶
This pass transforms simple global variables that never have their addresstaken. If obviously true, it marks read/write globals as constant, deletesvariables only stored to, etc.
gvn
: Global Value Numbering¶
This pass performs global value numbering to eliminate fully and partiallyredundant instructions. It also performs redundant load elimination.
indvars
: Canonicalize Induction Variables¶
This transformation analyzes and transforms the induction variables (andcomputations derived from them) into simpler forms suitable for subsequentanalysis and transformation.
This transformation makes the following changes to each loop with anidentifiable induction variable:
All loops are transformed to have asingle canonical induction variablewhich starts at zero and steps by one.
The canonical induction variable is guaranteed to be the first PHI node inthe loop header block.
Any pointer arithmetic recurrences are raised to use array subscripts.
If the trip count of a loop is computable, this pass also makes the followingchanges:
The exit condition for the loop is canonicalized to compare the inductionvalue against the exit value. This turns loops like:
for(i=7;i*i<1000;++i)into
for(i=0;i!=25;++i)
Any use outside of the loop of an expression derived from the indvar ischanged to compute the derived value outside of the loop, eliminating thedependence on the exit value of the induction variable. If the only purposeof the loop is to compute the exit value of some derived expression, thistransformation will make the loop dead.
This transformation should be followed by strength reduction after all of thedesired loop transformations have been performed. Additionally, on targetswhere it is profitable, the loop could be transformed to count down to zero(the “do loop” optimization).
inline
: Function Integration/Inlining¶
Bottom-up inlining of functions into callees.
instcombine
: Combine redundant instructions¶
Combine instructions to form fewer, simple instructions. This pass does notmodify the CFG. This pass is where algebraic simplification happens.
This pass combines things like:
%Y=addi32%X,1%Z=addi32%Y,1
into:
%Z=addi32%X,2
This is a simple worklist driven algorithm.
This pass guarantees that the following canonicalizations are performed on theprogram:
If a binary operator has a constant operand, it is moved to the right-handside.
Bitwise operators with constant operands are always grouped so that shiftsare performed first, then
or
s, thenand
s, thenxor
s.Compare instructions are converted from
<
,>
,≤
, or≥
to=
or≠
if possible.All
cmp
instructions on boolean values are replaced with logicaloperations.addX,X
is represented asmulX,2
⇒shlX,1
Multiplies with a constant power-of-two argument are transformed intoshifts.
… etc.
This pass can also simplify calls to specific well-known function calls (e.g.runtime library functions). For example, a callexit(3)
that occurs withinthemain()
function can be transformed into simplyreturn3
. Whether ornot library calls are simplified is controlled by the-function-attrs pass and LLVM’s knowledge oflibrary calls on different targets.
aggressive-instcombine
: Combine expression patterns¶
Combine expression patterns to form expressions with fewer, simple instructions.
For example, this pass reduce width of expressions post-dominated by TruncInstinto smaller width when applicable.
It differs from instcombine pass in that it can modify CFG and contains patternoptimization that requires higher complexity than the O(1), thus, it should run fewertimes than instcombine pass.
internalize
: Internalize Global Symbols¶
This pass loops over all of the functions in the input module, looking for amain function. If a main function is found, all other functions and all globalvariables with initializers are marked as internal.
ipsccp
: Interprocedural Sparse Conditional Constant Propagation¶
An interprocedural variant ofSparse Conditional Constant Propagation.
normalize
: Transforms IR into a normal form that’s easier to diff¶
This pass aims to transform LLVM Modules into a normal form by reordering andrenaming instructions while preserving the same semantics. The normalizer makesit easier to spot semantic differences while diffing two modules which haveundergone two different passes.
jump-threading
: Jump Threading¶
Jump threading tries to find distinct threads of control flow running through abasic block. This pass looks at blocks that have multiple predecessors andmultiple successors. If one or more of the predecessors of the block can beproven to always cause a jump to one of the successors, we forward the edgefrom the predecessor to the successor by duplicating the contents of thisblock.
An example of when this can occur is code like this:
if(){...X=4;}if(X<3){
In this case, the unconditional branch at the end of the first if can berevectored to the false side of the second if.
lcssa
: Loop-Closed SSA Form Pass¶
This pass transforms loops by placing phi nodes at the end of the loops for allvalues that are live across the loop boundary. For example, it turns the leftinto the right code:
for(...)for(...)if(c)if(c)X1=...X1=...elseelseX2=...X2=...X3=phi(X1,X2)X3=phi(X1,X2)...=X3+4X4=phi(X3)...=X4+4
This is still valid LLVM; the extra phi nodes are purely redundant, and will betrivially eliminated byInstCombine
. The major benefit of thistransformation is that it makes many other loop optimizations, such asLoopUnswitch
ing, simpler. You can read more in theloop terminology section for the LCSSA form.
licm
: Loop Invariant Code Motion¶
This pass performs loop invariant code motion, attempting to remove as muchcode from the body of a loop as possible. It does this by either hoisting codeinto the preheader block, or by sinking code to the exit blocks if it is safe.This pass also promotes must-aliased memory locations in the loop to live inregisters, thus hoisting and sinking “invariant” loads and stores.
Hoisting operations out of loops is a canonicalization transform. It enablesand simplifies subsequent optimizations in the middle-end. Rematerializationof hoisted instructions to reduce register pressure is the responsibility ofthe back-end, which has more accurate information about register pressure andalso handles other optimizations than LICM that increase live-ranges.
This pass uses alias analysis for two purposes:
Moving loop invariant loads and calls out of loops. If we can determinethat a load or call inside of a loop never aliases anything stored to, wecan hoist it or sink it like any other instruction.
Scalar Promotion of Memory. If there is a store instruction inside of theloop, we try to move the store to happen AFTER the loop instead of inside ofthe loop. This can only happen if a few conditions are true:
The pointer stored through is loop invariant.
There are no stores or loads in the loop whichmay alias the pointer.There are no calls in the loop which mod/ref the pointer.
If these conditions are true, we can promote the loads and stores in theloop of the pointer to use a temporary alloca’d variable. We then use themem2reg functionality to construct the appropriateSSA form for the variable.
loop-deletion
: Delete dead loops¶
This file implements the Dead Loop Deletion Pass. This pass is responsible foreliminating loops with non-infinite computable trip counts that have no sideeffects or volatile instructions, and do not contribute to the computation ofthe function’s return value.
loop-extract
: Extract loops into new functions¶
A pass wrapper around theExtractLoop()
scalar transformation to extracteach top-level loop into its own new function. If the loop is theonly loopin a given function, it is not touched. This is a pass most useful fordebugging via bugpoint.
loop-reduce
: Loop Strength Reduction¶
This pass performs a strength reduction on array references inside loops thathave as one or more of their components the loop induction variable. This isaccomplished by creating a new value to hold the initial value of the arrayaccess for the first iteration, and then creating a new GEP instruction in theloop to increment the value by the appropriate amount.
loop-rotate
: Rotate Loops¶
A simple loop rotation transformation. A summary of it can be found inLoop Terminology for Rotated Loops.
loop-simplify
: Canonicalize natural loops¶
This pass performs several transformations to transform natural loops into asimpler form, which makes subsequent analyses and transformations simpler andmore effective. A summary of it can be found inLoop Terminology, Loop Simplify Form.
Loop pre-header insertion guarantees that there is a single, non-critical entryedge from outside of the loop to the loop header. This simplifies a number ofanalyses and transformations, such asLICM.
Loop exit-block insertion guarantees that all exit blocks from the loop (blockswhich are outside of the loop that have predecessors inside of the loop) onlyhave predecessors from inside of the loop (and are thus dominated by the loopheader). This simplifies transformations such as store-sinking that are builtinto LICM.
This pass also guarantees that loops will have exactly one backedge.
Note that thesimplifycfg pass will clean up blockswhich are split out but end up being unnecessary, so usage of this pass shouldnot pessimize generated code.
This pass obviously modifies the CFG, but updates loop information anddominator information.
loop-unroll
: Unroll loops¶
This pass implements a simple loop unroller. It works best when loops havebeen canonicalized by theindvars pass, allowing it todetermine the trip counts of loops easily.
loop-unroll-and-jam
: Unroll and Jam loops¶
This pass implements a simple unroll and jam classical loop optimisation pass.It transforms loop from:
fori..i+=1fori..i+=4forj..forj..code(i,j)code(i,j)code(i+1,j)code(i+2,j)code(i+3,j)remainderloop
Which can be seen as unrolling the outer loop and “jamming” (fusing) the innerloops into one. When variables or loads can be shared in the new inner loop, thiscan lead to significant performance improvements. It usesDependence Analysis for proving the transformations are safe.
lower-global-dtors
: Lower global destructors¶
This pass lowers global module destructors (llvm.global_dtors
) by creatingwrapper functions that are registered as global constructors inllvm.global_ctors
and which contain a call to__cxa_atexit
to registertheir destructor functions.
lower-atomic
: Lower atomic intrinsics to non-atomic form¶
This pass lowers atomic intrinsics to non-atomic form for use in a knownnon-preemptible environment.
The pass does not verify that the environment is non-preemptible (in generalthis would require knowledge of the entire call graph of the program includingany libraries which may not be available in bitcode form); it simply lowersevery atomic intrinsic.
lower-invoke
: Lower invokes to calls, for unwindless code generators¶
This transformation is designed for use by code generators which do not yetsupport stack unwinding. This pass convertsinvoke
instructions tocall
instructions, so that any exception-handlinglandingpad
blocksbecome dead code (which can be removed by running the-simplifycfg
passafterwards).
lower-switch
: LowerSwitchInst
s to branches¶
Rewrites switch instructions with a sequence of branches, which allows targetsto get away with not implementing the switch instruction until it isconvenient.
mem2reg
: Promote Memory to Register¶
This file promotes memory references to be register references. It promotesalloca instructions which only have loads and stores as uses. Analloca
istransformed by using dominator frontiers to place phi nodes, then traversingthe function in depth-first order to rewrite loads and stores as appropriate.This is just the standard SSA construction algorithm to construct “pruned” SSAform.
memcpyopt
: MemCpy Optimization¶
This pass performs various transformations related to eliminatingmemcpy
calls, or transforming sets of stores intomemset
s.
mergefunc
: Merge Functions¶
This pass looks for equivalent functions that are mergeable and folds them.
Total-ordering is introduced among the functions set: we define comparisonthat answers for every two functions which of them is greater. It allows toarrange functions into the binary tree.
For every new function we check for equivalent in tree.
If equivalent exists we fold such functions. If both functions are overridable,we move the functionality into a new internal function and leave twooverridable thunks to it.
If there is no equivalent, then we add this function to tree.
Lookup routine has O(log(n)) complexity, while whole merging process hascomplexity of O(n*log(n)).
Readthisarticle for more details.
mergereturn
: Unify function exit nodes¶
Ensure that functions have at most oneret
instruction in them.Additionally, it keeps track of which node is the new exit node of the CFG.
partial-inliner
: Partial Inliner¶
This pass performs partial inlining, typically by inlining anif
statementthat surrounds the body of the function.
reassociate
: Reassociate expressions¶
This pass reassociates commutative expressions in an order that is designed topromote better constant propagation, GCSE,LICM, PRE, etc.
For example: 4 + (x + 5) ⇒ x + (4 + 5)
In the implementation of this algorithm, constants are assigned rank = 0,function arguments are rank = 1, and other values are assigned rankscorresponding to the reverse post order traversal of current function (startingat 2), which effectively gives values in deep loops higher rank than values notin loops.
rel-lookup-table-converter
: Relative lookup table converter¶
This pass converts lookup tables to PIC-friendly relative lookup tables.
reg2mem
: Demote all values to stack slots¶
This file demotes all registers to memory references. It is intended to be theinverse ofmem2reg. By converting toload
instructions, the only values live across basic blocks arealloca
instructions andload
instructions beforephi
nodes. It is intendedthat this should make CFG hacking much easier. To make later hacking easier,the entry block is split into two, such that all introducedalloca
instructions (and nothing else) are in the entry block.
sroa
: Scalar Replacement of Aggregates¶
The well-known scalar replacement of aggregates transformation. This transformbreaks upalloca
instructions of aggregate type (structure or array) intoindividualalloca
instructions for each member if possible. Then, ifpossible, it transforms the individualalloca
instructions into nice cleanscalar SSA form.
sccp
: Sparse Conditional Constant Propagation¶
Sparse conditional constant propagation and merging, which can be summarizedas:
Assumes values are constant unless proven otherwise
Assumes BasicBlocks are dead unless proven otherwise
Proves values to be constant, and replaces them with constants
Proves conditional branches to be unconditional
Note that this pass has a habit of making definitions be dead. It is a goodidea to run aDCE pass sometime after running this pass.
simplifycfg
: Simplify the CFG¶
Performs dead code elimination and basic block merging. Specifically:
Removes basic blocks with no predecessors.
Merges a basic block into its predecessor if there is only one and thepredecessor only has one successor.
Eliminates PHI nodes for basic blocks with a single predecessor.
Eliminates a basic block that only contains an unconditional branch.
sink
: Code sinking¶
This pass moves instructions into successor blocks, when possible, so that theyaren’t executed on paths where their results aren’t needed.
simple-loop-unswitch
: Unswitch loops¶
This pass transforms loops that contain branches on loop-invariant conditionsto have multiple loops. For example, it turns the left into the right code:
for(...)if(lic)Afor(...)if(lic)A;B;CBelseCfor(...)A;C
This can increase the size of the code exponentially (doubling it every time aloop is unswitched) so we only unswitch if the resultant code will be smallerthan a threshold.
This pass expectsLICM to be run before it to hoistinvariant conditions out of the loop, to make the unswitching opportunityobvious.
strip
: Strip all symbols from a module¶
Performs code stripping. This transformation can delete:
names for virtual registers
symbols for internal globals and functions
debug information
Note that this transformation makes code much less readable, so it should onlybe used in situations where the strip utility would be used, such as reducingcode size or making it harder to reverse engineer code.
strip-dead-debug-info
: Strip debug info for unused symbols¶
Performs code stripping. Similar to strip, but only strips debug info forunused symbols.
strip-dead-prototypes
: Strip Unused Function Prototypes¶
This pass loops over all of the functions in the input module, looking for deaddeclarations and removes them. Dead declarations are declarations of functionsfor which no implementation is available (i.e., declarations for unused libraryfunctions).
strip-debug-declare
: Strip allllvm.dbg.declare
intrinsics and#dbg_declare
records.——————————————————————-
Performs code stripping. Similar to strip, but only stripsllvm.dbg.declare
intrinsics.
strip-nondebug
: Strip all symbols, except dbg symbols, from a module¶
Performs code stripping. Similar to strip, but dbg info is preserved.
tailcallelim
: Tail Call Elimination¶
This file transforms calls of the current function (self recursion) followed bya return instruction with a branch to the entry of the function, creating aloop. This pass also implements the following extensions to the basicalgorithm:
Trivial instructions between the call and return do not prevent thetransformation from taking place, though currently the analysis cannotsupport moving any really useful instructions (only dead ones).
This pass transforms functions that are prevented from being tail recursiveby an associative expression to use an accumulator variable, thus compilingthe typical naive factorial or fib implementation into efficient code.
TRE is performed if the function returns void, if the return returns theresult returned by the call, or if the function returns a run-time constanton all exits from the function. It is possible, though unlikely, that thereturn returns something else (like constant 0), and can still be TRE’d. Itcan be TRE’d ifall other return instructions in the function return theexact same value.
If it can prove that callees do not access their caller stack frame, theyare marked as eligible for tail call elimination (by the code generator).
Utility Passes¶
This section describes the LLVM Utility Passes.
deadarghaX0r
: Dead Argument Hacking (BUGPOINT USE ONLY; DO NOT USE)¶
Same as dead argument elimination, but deletes arguments to functions which areexternal. This is only for use bybugpoint.
extract-blocks
: Extract Basic Blocks From Module (for bugpoint use)¶
This pass is used by bugpoint to extract all blocks from the module into theirown functions.
instnamer
: Assign names to anonymous instructions¶
This is a little utility pass that gives instructions names, this is mostlyuseful when diffing the effect of an optimization because deleting an unnamedinstruction can change all other instruction numbering, making the diff verynoisy.
verify
: Module Verifier¶
Verifies an LLVM IR code. This is useful to run after an optimization which isundergoing testing. Note that llvm-as verifies its input before emittingbitcode, and also that malformed bitcode is likely to make LLVM crash. Alllanguage front-ends are therefore encouraged to verify their output beforeperforming optimizing transformations.
Both of a binary operator’s parameters are of the same type.
Verify that the indices of mem access instructions match other operands.
Verify that arithmetic and other things are only performed on first-classtypes. Verify that shifts and logicals only happen on integrals f.e.
All of the constants in a switch statement are of the correct type.
The code is in valid SSA form.
It is illegal to put a label into any other type (like a structure) or toreturn one.
Only phi nodes can be self referential:
%x=addi32%x
,%x
isinvalid.PHI nodes must have an entry for each predecessor, with no extras.
PHI nodes must be the first thing in a basic block, all grouped together.
PHI nodes must have at least one entry.
All basic blocks should only end with terminator insts, not contain them.
The entry node to a function must not have predecessors.
All Instructions must be embedded into a basic block.
Functions cannot take a void-typed parameter.
Verify that a function’s argument list agrees with its declared type.
It is illegal to specify a name for a void value.
It is illegal to have an internal global value with no initializer.
It is illegal to have a
ret
instruction that returns a value that doesnot agree with the function return value type.Function call argument types match the function prototype.
All other things that are tested by asserts spread about the code.
Note that this does not provide full security verification (like Java), butinstead just tries to ensure that code is well-formed.
view-cfg
: View CFG of function¶
Displays the control flow graph using the GraphViz tool.Additionally the-cfg-func-name=<substring>
option can be used to filter thefunctions that are displayed. All functions that contain the specified substringwill be displayed.
view-cfg-only
: View CFG of function (with no function bodies)¶
Displays the control flow graph using the GraphViz tool, but omitting functionbodies.Additionally the-cfg-func-name=<substring>
option can be used to filter thefunctions that are displayed. All functions that contain the specified substringwill be displayed.
view-dom
: View dominance tree of function¶
Displays the dominator tree using the GraphViz tool.
view-dom-only
: View dominance tree of function (with no function bodies)¶
Displays the dominator tree using the GraphViz tool, but omitting functionbodies.
view-post-dom
: View postdominance tree of function¶
Displays the post dominator tree using the GraphViz tool.
view-post-dom-only
: View postdominance tree of function (with no function bodies)¶
Displays the post dominator tree using the GraphViz tool, but omitting functionbodies.
transform-warning
: Report missed forced transformations¶
Emits warnings about not yet applied forced transformations (e.g. from#pragmaompsimd
).