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| <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" 
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|                       "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
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| <html>
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| <head>
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|   <title>LLVM bugpoint tool: design and usage</title>
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|   <link rel="stylesheet" href="llvm.css" type="text/css">
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| </head>
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| 
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| <h1>
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|   LLVM bugpoint tool: design and usage
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| </h1>
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| 
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| <ul>
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|   <li><a href="#desc">Description</a></li>
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|   <li><a href="#design">Design Philosophy</a>
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|   <ul>
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|     <li><a href="#autoselect">Automatic Debugger Selection</a></li>
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|     <li><a href="#crashdebug">Crash debugger</a></li>
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|     <li><a href="#codegendebug">Code generator debugger</a></li>
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|     <li><a href="#miscompilationdebug">Miscompilation debugger</a></li>
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|   </ul></li>
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|   <li><a href="#advice">Advice for using <tt>bugpoint</tt></a></li>
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| </ul>
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| 
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| <div class="doc_author">
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| <p>Written by <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a></p>
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| </div>
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| 
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| <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
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| <h2>
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| <a name="desc">Description</a>
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| </h2>
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| <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
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| 
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| <div>
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| 
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| <p><tt>bugpoint</tt> narrows down the source of problems in LLVM tools and
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| passes.  It can be used to debug three types of failures: optimizer crashes,
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| miscompilations by optimizers, or bad native code generation (including problems
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| in the static and JIT compilers).  It aims to reduce large test cases to small,
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| useful ones.  For example, if <tt>opt</tt> crashes while optimizing a
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| file, it will identify the optimization (or combination of optimizations) that
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| causes the crash, and reduce the file down to a small example which triggers the
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| crash.</p>
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| 
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| <p>For detailed case scenarios, such as debugging <tt>opt</tt>,
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| <tt>llvm-ld</tt>, or one of the LLVM code generators, see <a
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| href="HowToSubmitABug.html">How To Submit a Bug Report document</a>.</p>
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| 
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| </div>
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| 
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| <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
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| <h2>
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| <a name="design">Design Philosophy</a>
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| </h2>
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| <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
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| 
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| <div>
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| 
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| <p><tt>bugpoint</tt> is designed to be a useful tool without requiring any
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| hooks into the LLVM infrastructure at all.  It works with any and all LLVM
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| passes and code generators, and does not need to "know" how they work.  Because
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| of this, it may appear to do stupid things or miss obvious
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| simplifications.  <tt>bugpoint</tt> is also designed to trade off programmer
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| time for computer time in the compiler-debugging process; consequently, it may
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| take a long period of (unattended) time to reduce a test case, but we feel it
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| is still worth it. Note that <tt>bugpoint</tt> is generally very quick unless
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| debugging a miscompilation where each test of the program (which requires 
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| executing it) takes a long time.</p>
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| 
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| <!-- ======================================================================= -->
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| <h3>
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|   <a name="autoselect">Automatic Debugger Selection</a>
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| </h3>
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| 
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| <div>
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| 
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| <p><tt>bugpoint</tt> reads each <tt>.bc</tt> or <tt>.ll</tt> file specified on
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| the command line and links them together into a single module, called the test
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| program.  If any LLVM passes are specified on the command line, it runs these
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| passes on the test program.  If any of the passes crash, or if they produce
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| malformed output (which causes the verifier to abort), <tt>bugpoint</tt> starts
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| the <a href="#crashdebug">crash debugger</a>.</p>
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| 
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| <p>Otherwise, if the <tt>-output</tt> option was not specified,
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| <tt>bugpoint</tt> runs the test program with the C backend (which is assumed to
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| generate good code) to generate a reference output.  Once <tt>bugpoint</tt> has
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| a reference output for the test program, it tries executing it with the
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| selected code generator.  If the selected code generator crashes,
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| <tt>bugpoint</tt> starts the <a href="#crashdebug">crash debugger</a> on the
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| code generator.  Otherwise, if the resulting output differs from the reference
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| output, it assumes the difference resulted from a code generator failure, and
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| starts the <a href="#codegendebug">code generator debugger</a>.</p>
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| 
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| <p>Finally, if the output of the selected code generator matches the reference
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| output, <tt>bugpoint</tt> runs the test program after all of the LLVM passes
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| have been applied to it.  If its output differs from the reference output, it
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| assumes the difference resulted from a failure in one of the LLVM passes, and
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| enters the <a href="#miscompilationdebug">miscompilation debugger</a>.
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| Otherwise, there is no problem <tt>bugpoint</tt> can debug.</p>
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| 
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| </div>
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| 
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| <!-- ======================================================================= -->
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| <h3>
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|   <a name="crashdebug">Crash debugger</a>
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| </h3>
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| 
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| <div>
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| 
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| <p>If an optimizer or code generator crashes, <tt>bugpoint</tt> will try as hard
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| as it can to reduce the list of passes (for optimizer crashes) and the size of
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| the test program.  First, <tt>bugpoint</tt> figures out which combination of
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| optimizer passes triggers the bug. This is useful when debugging a problem
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| exposed by <tt>opt</tt>, for example, because it runs over 38 passes.</p>
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| 
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| <p>Next, <tt>bugpoint</tt> tries removing functions from the test program, to
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| reduce its size.  Usually it is able to reduce a test program to a single
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| function, when debugging intraprocedural optimizations.  Once the number of
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| functions has been reduced, it attempts to delete various edges in the control
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| flow graph, to reduce the size of the function as much as possible.  Finally,
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| <tt>bugpoint</tt> deletes any individual LLVM instructions whose absence does
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| not eliminate the failure.  At the end, <tt>bugpoint</tt> should tell you what
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| passes crash, give you a bitcode file, and give you instructions on how to
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| reproduce the failure with <tt>opt</tt> or <tt>llc</tt>.</p>
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| 
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| </div>
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| 
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| <!-- ======================================================================= -->
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| <h3>
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|   <a name="codegendebug">Code generator debugger</a>
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| </h3>
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| 
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| <div>
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| 
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| <p>The code generator debugger attempts to narrow down the amount of code that
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| is being miscompiled by the selected code generator.  To do this, it takes the
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| test program and partitions it into two pieces: one piece which it compiles
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| with the C backend (into a shared object), and one piece which it runs with
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| either the JIT or the static LLC compiler.  It uses several techniques to
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| reduce the amount of code pushed through the LLVM code generator, to reduce the
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| potential scope of the problem.  After it is finished, it emits two bitcode
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| files (called "test" [to be compiled with the code generator] and "safe" [to be
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| compiled with the C backend], respectively), and instructions for reproducing
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| the problem.  The code generator debugger assumes that the C backend produces
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| good code.</p>
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| 
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| </div>
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| 
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| <!-- ======================================================================= -->
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| <h3>
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|   <a name="miscompilationdebug">Miscompilation debugger</a>
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| </h3>
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| 
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| <div>
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| 
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| <p>The miscompilation debugger works similarly to the code generator debugger.
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| It works by splitting the test program into two pieces, running the
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| optimizations specified on one piece, linking the two pieces back together, and
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| then executing the result.  It attempts to narrow down the list of passes to
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| the one (or few) which are causing the miscompilation, then reduce the portion
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| of the test program which is being miscompiled.  The miscompilation debugger
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| assumes that the selected code generator is working properly.</p>
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| 
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| </div>
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| 
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| </div>
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| 
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| <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
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| <h2>
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|   <a name="advice">Advice for using bugpoint</a>
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| </h2>
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| <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
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| 
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| <div>
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| 
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| <tt>bugpoint</tt> can be a remarkably useful tool, but it sometimes works in
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| non-obvious ways.  Here are some hints and tips:<p>
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| 
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| <ol>
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| <li>In the code generator and miscompilation debuggers, <tt>bugpoint</tt> only
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|     works with programs that have deterministic output.  Thus, if the program
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|     outputs <tt>argv[0]</tt>, the date, time, or any other "random" data,
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|     <tt>bugpoint</tt> may misinterpret differences in these data, when output,
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|     as the result of a miscompilation.  Programs should be temporarily modified
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|     to disable outputs that are likely to vary from run to run.
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| 
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| <li>In the code generator and miscompilation debuggers, debugging will go
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|     faster if you manually modify the program or its inputs to reduce the
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|     runtime, but still exhibit the problem.
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| 
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| <li><tt>bugpoint</tt> is extremely useful when working on a new optimization:
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|     it helps track down regressions quickly.  To avoid having to relink
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|     <tt>bugpoint</tt> every time you change your optimization however, have
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|     <tt>bugpoint</tt> dynamically load your optimization with the
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|     <tt>-load</tt> option.
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| 
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| <li><p><tt>bugpoint</tt> can generate a lot of output and run for a long period
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|     of time.  It is often useful to capture the output of the program to file.
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|     For example, in the C shell, you can run:</p>
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| 
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| <div class="doc_code">
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| <p><tt>bugpoint  ... |& tee bugpoint.log</tt></p>
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| </div>
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| 
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|     <p>to get a copy of <tt>bugpoint</tt>'s output in the file
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|     <tt>bugpoint.log</tt>, as well as on your terminal.</p>
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| 
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| <li><tt>bugpoint</tt> cannot debug problems with the LLVM linker. If
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|     <tt>bugpoint</tt> crashes before you see its "All input ok" message,
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|     you might try <tt>llvm-link -v</tt> on the same set of input files. If
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|     that also crashes, you may be experiencing a linker bug.
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| 
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| <li><tt>bugpoint</tt> is useful for proactively finding bugs in LLVM. 
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|     Invoking <tt>bugpoint</tt> with the <tt>-find-bugs</tt> option will cause
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|     the list of specified optimizations to be randomized and applied to the 
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|     program. This process will repeat until a bug is found or the user
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|     kills <tt>bugpoint</tt>.
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| 
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| <li><p><tt>bugpoint</tt> does not understand the <tt>-O</tt> option
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|     that is used to specify optimization level to <tt>opt</tt>. You
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|     can use e.g.</p>
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| 
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| <div class="doc_code">
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| <p><tt>opt -O2 -debug-pass=Arguments foo.bc -disable-output</tt></p>
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| </div>
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| 
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|     <p>to get a list of passes that are used with <tt>-O2</tt> and
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|     then pass this list to <tt>bugpoint</tt>.</p>
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|     
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| </ol>
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| 
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| </div>
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| 
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| <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
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| 
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| <hr>
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| <address>
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|   <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img
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| 
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|   <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a><br>
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|   <a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
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|   Last modified: $Date$
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| </address>
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| 
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| </body>
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| </html>
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