-# Work in progress cranelift codegen backend for rust
+# WIP Cranelift codegen backend for rust
-> ⚠⚠⚠ This doesn't do anything useful yet ⚠⚠⚠
+> ⚠⚠⚠ Certain kinds of FFI don't work yet. ⚠⚠⚠
-## Building
+The goal of this project is to create an alternative codegen backend for the rust compiler based on [Cranelift](https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/blob/main/cranelift).
+This has the potential to improve compilation times in debug mode.
+If your project doesn't use any of the things listed under "Not yet supported", it should work fine.
+If not please open an issue.
+
+## Building and testing
```bash
$ git clone https://github.com/bjorn3/rustc_codegen_cranelift.git
$ cd rustc_codegen_cranelift
-$ rustup override set nightly
-$ git submodule update --init
-$ cargo build
+$ ./prepare.sh # download and patch sysroot src and install hyperfine for benchmarking
+$ ./build.sh
```
+To run the test suite replace the last command with:
+
+```bash
+$ ./test.sh
+```
+
+This will implicitly build cg_clif too. Both `build.sh` and `test.sh` accept a `--debug` argument to
+build in debug mode.
+
+Alternatively you can download a pre built version from [GHA]. It is listed in the artifacts section
+of workflow runs. Unfortunately due to GHA restrictions you need to be logged in to access it.
+
+[GHA]: https://github.com/bjorn3/rustc_codegen_cranelift/actions?query=branch%3Amaster+event%3Apush+is%3Asuccess
+
## Usage
+rustc_codegen_cranelift can be used as a near-drop-in replacement for `cargo build` or `cargo run` for existing projects.
+
+Assuming `$cg_clif_dir` is the directory you cloned this repo into and you followed the instructions (`prepare.sh` and `build.sh` or `test.sh`).
+
+### Cargo
+
+In the directory with your project (where you can do the usual `cargo build`), run:
+
```bash
-$ rustc -Zcodegen-backend=$(pwd)/target/debug/librustc_codegen_cranelift.so my_crate.rs --crate-type lib -Og
+$ $cg_clif_dir/build/cargo.sh run
```
-> You must compile with `-Og`, because checked binops are not yet supported.
+This should build and run your project with rustc_codegen_cranelift instead of the usual LLVM backend.
+
+### Rustc
-## Building libcore
+> You should prefer using the Cargo method.
```bash
-$ rustup component add rust-src
-$ ./prepare_libcore.sh
-$ ./build.sh
+$ $cg_clif_dir/build/bin/cg_clif my_crate.rs
```
-> ⚠⚠⚠ You will get a panic because of unimplemented stuff ⚠⚠⚠
+### Jit mode
-## Not yet supported
+In jit mode cg_clif will immediately execute your code without creating an executable file.
-* [ ] Checked binops
-* [ ] Statics
-* [ ] Drop glue
+> This requires all dependencies to be available as dynamic library.
+> The jit mode will probably need cargo integration to make this possible.
-* [ ] Building libraries
-* [ ] Other call abi's
-* [ ] Unsized types
-* [ ] Slice indexing
-* [ ] Sub slice
-* [ ] Closures
-* [ ] Some rvalue's
+```bash
+$ $cg_clif_dir/build/cargo.sh jit
+```
-* [ ] Inline assembly
-* [ ] Custom sections
+or
-## Known errors
+```bash
+$ $cg_clif_dir/build/bin/cg_clif -Cllvm-args=mode=jit -Cprefer-dynamic my_crate.rs
+```
+
+There is also an experimental lazy jit mode. In this mode functions are only compiled once they are
+first called. It currently does not work with multi-threaded programs. When a not yet compiled
+function is called from another thread than the main thread, you will get an ICE.
+
+```bash
+$ $cg_clif_dir/build/cargo.sh lazy-jit
+```
+
+### Shell
+
+These are a few functions that allow you to easily run rust code from the shell using cg_clif as jit.
+
+```bash
+function jit_naked() {
+ echo "$@" | $cg_clif_dir/build/bin/cg_clif - -Cllvm-args=mode=jit -Cprefer-dynamic
+}
+
+function jit() {
+ jit_naked "fn main() { $@ }"
+}
+
+function jit_calc() {
+ jit 'println!("0x{:x}", ' $@ ');';
+}
+```
+
+## Env vars
+
+[see env_vars.md](docs/env_vars.md)
+
+## Not yet supported
-* [ ] cranelift-module api seems to be used wrong, thus causing panic for some consts
-* [ ] cranelift-codegen doesn't have encodings for some instructions for types smaller than I32
+* Good non-rust abi support ([several problems](https://github.com/bjorn3/rustc_codegen_cranelift/issues/10))
+* Inline assembly ([no cranelift support](https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/issues/1041)
+ * On Linux there is support for invoking an external assembler for `global_asm!` and `asm!`.
+ `llvm_asm!` will remain unimplemented forever. `asm!` doesn't yet support reg classes. You
+ have to specify specific registers instead.
+* SIMD ([tracked here](https://github.com/bjorn3/rustc_codegen_cranelift/issues/171), some basic things work)
projects / rust.git / blobdiff