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<ol class="chapter"><li class="chapter-item affix "><a href="../about-this-guide.html">About this guide</a></li><li class="chapter-item affix "><a href="../getting-started.html">Getting Started</a></li><li class="spacer"></li><li class="chapter-item affix "><li class="part-title">Building and debugging rustc</li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../building/how-to-build-and-run.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">1.</strong> How to Build and Run the Compiler</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../building/prerequisites.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">1.1.</strong> Prerequisites</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../building/suggested.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">1.2.</strong> Suggested Workflows</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../building/build-install-distribution-artifacts.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">1.3.</strong> Distribution artifacts</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../building/compiler-documenting.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">1.4.</strong> Documenting Compiler</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../rustdoc.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">1.5.</strong> Rustdoc overview</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../building/new-target.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">1.6.</strong> Adding a new target</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../tests/intro.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">2.</strong> The compiler testing framework</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../tests/running.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">2.1.</strong> Running tests</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../tests/adding.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">2.2.</strong> Adding new tests</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../compiletest.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">2.3.</strong> Using compiletest commands to control test execution</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../compiler-debugging.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">3.</strong> Debugging the Compiler</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../tracing.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">3.1.</strong> Using the tracing/logging instrumentation</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../profiling.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">4.</strong> Profiling the compiler</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../profiling/with_perf.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">4.1.</strong> with the linux perf tool</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../profiling/wpa_profiling.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">4.2.</strong> with Windows Performance Analyzer</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../crates-io.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">5.</strong> crates.io Dependencies</a></li><li class="chapter-item affix "><li class="part-title">Contributing to Rust</li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../contributing.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">6.</strong> Introduction</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../compiler-team.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">7.</strong> About the compiler team</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../git.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">8.</strong> Using Git</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../rustbot.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">9.</strong> Mastering @rustbot</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../walkthrough.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">10.</strong> Walkthrough: a typical contribution</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../bug-fix-procedure.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">11.</strong> Bug Fix Procedure</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../implementing_new_features.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">12.</strong> Implementing new features</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../stability.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">13.</strong> Stability attributes</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../stabilization_guide.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">14.</strong> Stabilizing Features</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../feature-gates.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">15.</strong> Feature Gates</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../conventions.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">16.</strong> Coding conventions</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../notification-groups/about.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">17.</strong> Notification groups</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../notification-groups/arm.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">17.1.</strong> ARM</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../notification-groups/cleanup-crew.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">17.2.</strong> Cleanup Crew</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../notification-groups/llvm.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">17.3.</strong> LLVM</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../notification-groups/risc-v.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">17.4.</strong> RISC-V</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../notification-groups/windows.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">17.5.</strong> Windows</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../licenses.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">18.</strong> Licenses</a></li><li class="chapter-item affix "><li class="part-title">High-level Compiler Architecture</li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../part-2-intro.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">19.</strong> Prologue</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../overview.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">20.</strong> Overview of the Compiler</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../compiler-src.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">21.</strong> The compiler source code</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../building/bootstrapping.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">22.</strong> Bootstrapping</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../query.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">23.</strong> Queries: demand-driven compilation</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../queries/query-evaluation-model-in-detail.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">23.1.</strong> The Query Evaluation Model in Detail</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../queries/incremental-compilation.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">23.2.</strong> Incremental compilation</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../queries/incremental-compilation-in-detail.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">23.3.</strong> Incremental compilation In Detail</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../incrcomp-debugging.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">23.4.</strong> Debugging and Testing</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../salsa.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">23.5.</strong> Salsa</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../memory.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">24.</strong> Memory Management in Rustc</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../serialization.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">25.</strong> Serialization in Rustc</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../parallel-rustc.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">26.</strong> Parallel Compilation</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../rustdoc-internals.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">27.</strong> Rustdoc internals</a></li><li class="chapter-item affix "><li class="part-title">Source Code Representation</li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../part-3-intro.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">28.</strong> Prologue</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../cli.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">29.</strong> Command-line arguments</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../rustc-driver.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">30.</strong> The Rustc Driver and Interface</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../rustc-driver-interacting-with-the-ast.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">30.1.</strong> Ex: Type checking through rustc_interface</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../rustc-driver-getting-diagnostics.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">30.2.</strong> Ex: Getting diagnostics through rustc_interface</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../syntax-intro.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">31.</strong> Syntax and the AST</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../the-parser.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">31.1.</strong> Lexing and Parsing</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../macro-expansion.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">31.2.</strong> Macro expansion</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../name-resolution.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">31.3.</strong> Name resolution</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../test-implementation.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">31.4.</strong> #[test] Implementation</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../panic-implementation.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">31.5.</strong> Panic Implementation</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../ast-validation.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">31.6.</strong> AST Validation</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../feature-gate-ck.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">31.7.</strong> Feature Gate Checking</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../lang-items.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">31.8.</strong> Lang Items</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../hir.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">32.</strong> The HIR (High-level IR)</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../lowering.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">32.1.</strong> Lowering AST to HIR</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../hir-debugging.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">32.2.</strong> Debugging</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../thir.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">33.</strong> The THIR (Typed High-level IR)</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../mir/index.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">34.</strong> The MIR (Mid-level IR)</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../mir/construction.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">34.1.</strong> MIR construction</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../mir/visitor.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">34.2.</strong> MIR visitor and traversal</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../mir/passes.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">34.3.</strong> MIR passes: getting the MIR for a function</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../identifiers.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">35.</strong> Identifiers in the Compiler</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../closure.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">36.</strong> Closure expansion</a></li><li class="chapter-item affix "><li class="part-title">Analysis</li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../part-4-intro.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">37.</strong> Prologue</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../ty.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">38.</strong> The ty module: representing types</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../generics.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">38.1.</strong> Generics and substitutions</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../ty-fold.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">38.2.</strong> TypeFolder and TypeFoldable</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../generic_arguments.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">38.3.</strong> Generic arguments</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../constants.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">38.4.</strong> Constants in the type system</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../type-inference.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">39.</strong> Type inference</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../traits/resolution.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">40.</strong> Trait solving</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../early-late-bound.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">40.1.</strong> Early and Late Bound Parameters</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../traits/hrtb.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">40.2.</strong> Higher-ranked trait bounds</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../traits/caching.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">40.3.</strong> Caching subtleties</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../traits/specialization.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">40.4.</strong> Specialization</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../traits/chalk.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">40.5.</strong> Chalk-based trait solving</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../traits/lowering-to-logic.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">40.5.1.</strong> Lowering to logic</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../traits/goals-and-clauses.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">40.5.2.</strong> Goals and clauses</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../traits/canonical-queries.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">40.5.3.</strong> Canonical queries</a></li></ol></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../type-checking.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">41.</strong> Type checking</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../method-lookup.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">41.1.</strong> Method Lookup</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../variance.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">41.2.</strong> Variance</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../opaque-types-type-alias-impl-trait.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">41.3.</strong> Opaque Types</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../pat-exhaustive-checking.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">42.</strong> Pattern and Exhaustiveness Checking</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../mir/dataflow.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">43.</strong> MIR dataflow</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../borrow_check.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">44.</strong> The borrow checker</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../borrow_check/moves_and_initialization.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">44.1.</strong> Tracking moves and initialization</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../borrow_check/moves_and_initialization/move_paths.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">44.1.1.</strong> Move paths</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../borrow_check/type_check.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">44.2.</strong> MIR type checker</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../borrow_check/region_inference.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">44.3.</strong> Region inference</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../borrow_check/region_inference/constraint_propagation.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">44.3.1.</strong> Constraint propagation</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../borrow_check/region_inference/lifetime_parameters.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">44.3.2.</strong> Lifetime parameters</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../borrow_check/region_inference/member_constraints.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">44.3.3.</strong> Member constraints</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../borrow_check/region_inference/placeholders_and_universes.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">44.3.4.</strong> Placeholders and universes</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../borrow_check/region_inference/closure_constraints.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">44.3.5.</strong> Closure constraints</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../borrow_check/region_inference/error_reporting.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">44.3.6.</strong> Error reporting</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../borrow_check/two_phase_borrows.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">44.4.</strong> Two-phase-borrows</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../param_env.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">45.</strong> Parameter Environments</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../diagnostics.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">46.</strong> Errors and Lints</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../diagnostics/sessiondiagnostic.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">46.1.</strong> Creating Errors With SessionDiagnostic</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../diagnostics/lintstore.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">46.2.</strong> LintStore</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../diagnostics/diagnostic-codes.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">46.3.</strong> Diagnostic Codes</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../diagnostics/diagnostic-items.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">46.4.</strong> Diagnostic Items</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><li class="part-title">MIR to Binaries</li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../part-5-intro.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">47.</strong> Prologue</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../mir/optimizations.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">48.</strong> MIR optimizations</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../mir/debugging.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">49.</strong> Debugging</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../const-eval.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">50.</strong> Constant evaluation</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../miri.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">50.1.</strong> miri const evaluator</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../backend/monomorph.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">51.</strong> Monomorphization</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../backend/lowering-mir.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">52.</strong> Lowering MIR</a></li><li class="chapter-item expanded "><a href="../backend/codegen.html" class="active"><strong aria-hidden="true">53.</strong> Code Generation</a><a class="toggle"><div></div></a></li><li><ol class="section"><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../backend/updating-llvm.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">53.1.</strong> Updating LLVM</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../backend/debugging.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">53.2.</strong> Debugging LLVM</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../backend/backend-agnostic.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">53.3.</strong> Backend Agnostic Codegen</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../backend/implicit-caller-location.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">53.4.</strong> Implicit Caller Location</a></li></ol></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../backend/libs-and-metadata.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">54.</strong> Libraries and Metadata</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../profile-guided-optimization.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">55.</strong> Profile-guided Optimization</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../llvm-coverage-instrumentation.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">56.</strong> LLVM Source-Based Code Coverage</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../sanitizers.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">57.</strong> Sanitizers Support</a></li><li class="chapter-item "><a href="../debugging-support-in-rustc.html"><strong aria-hidden="true">58.</strong> Debugging Support in the Rust Compiler</a></li><li class="spacer"></li><li class="chapter-item affix "><a href="../appendix/background.html">Appendix A: Background topics</a></li><li class="chapter-item affix "><a href="../appendix/glossary.html">Appendix B: Glossary</a></li><li class="chapter-item affix "><a href="../appendix/code-index.html">Appendix C: Code Index</a></li><li class="chapter-item affix "><a href="../appendix/compiler-lecture.html">Appendix D: Compiler Lecture Series</a></li><li class="chapter-item affix "><a href="../appendix/bibliography.html">Appendix E: Bibliography</a></li><li class="chapter-item affix "><a href="../appendix/humorust.html">Appendix Z: HumorRust</a></li><li class="spacer"></li></ol>
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<h1 id="code-generation"><a class="header" href="#code-generation">Code generation</a></h1>
<p>Code generation or &quot;codegen&quot; is the part of the compiler that actually
generates an executable binary. Usually, rustc uses LLVM for code generation;
there is also support for <a href="https://github.com/bytecodealliance/wasmtime/tree/HEAD/cranelift">Cranelift</a>. The key is that rustc doesn't implement
codegen itself. It's worth noting, though, that in the rust source code, many
parts of the backend have <code>codegen</code> in their names (there are no hard
boundaries).</p>
<blockquote>
<p>NOTE: If you are looking for hints on how to debug code generation bugs,
please see <a href="./debugging.html">this section of the debugging chapter</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 id="what-is-llvm"><a class="header" href="#what-is-llvm">What is LLVM?</a></h2>
<p><a href="https://llvm.org">LLVM</a> is &quot;a collection of modular and reusable compiler and
toolchain technologies&quot;. In particular, the LLVM project contains a pluggable
compiler backend (also called &quot;LLVM&quot;), which is used by many compiler projects,
including the <code>clang</code> C compiler and our beloved <code>rustc</code>.</p>
<p>LLVM takes input in the form of LLVM IR. It is basically assembly code with
additional low-level types and annotations added. These annotations are helpful
for doing optimizations on the LLVM IR and outputted machine code. The end
result of all this is (at long last) something executable (e.g. an ELF object,
an EXE, or wasm).</p>
<p>There are a few benefits to using LLVM:</p>
<ul>
<li>We don't have to write a whole compiler backend. This reduces implementation
and maintenance burden.</li>
<li>We benefit from the large suite of advanced optimizations that the LLVM
project has been collecting.</li>
<li>We can automatically compile Rust to any of the platforms for which LLVM has
support. For example, as soon as LLVM added support for wasm, voila! rustc,
clang, and a bunch of other languages were able to compile to wasm! (Well,
there was some extra stuff to be done, but we were 90% there anyway).</li>
<li>We and other compiler projects benefit from each other. For example, when the
<a href="https://meltdownattack.com/">Spectre and Meltdown security vulnerabilities</a> were discovered,
only LLVM needed to be patched.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="running-llvm-linking-and-metadata-generation"><a class="header" href="#running-llvm-linking-and-metadata-generation">Running LLVM, linking, and metadata generation</a></h2>
<p>Once LLVM IR for all of the functions and statics, etc is built, it is time to
start running LLVM and its optimization passes. LLVM IR is grouped into
&quot;modules&quot;. Multiple &quot;modules&quot; can be codegened at the same time to aid in
multi-core utilization. These &quot;modules&quot; are what we refer to as <em>codegen
units</em>. These units were established way back during monomorphization
collection phase.</p>
<p>Once LLVM produces objects from these modules, these objects are passed to the
linker along with, optionally, the metadata object and an archive or an
executable is produced.</p>
<p>It is not necessarily the codegen phase described above that runs the
optimizations. With certain kinds of LTO, the optimization might happen at the
linking time instead. It is also possible for some optimizations to happen
before objects are passed on to the linker and some to happen during the
linking.</p>
<p>This all happens towards the very end of compilation. The code for this can be
found in <a href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_codegen_ssa/back/index.html"><code>rustc_codegen_ssa::back</code></a> and
<a href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_codegen_llvm/back/index.html"><code>rustc_codegen_llvm::back</code></a>. Sadly, this piece of code is not
really well-separated into LLVM-dependent code; the <a href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_codegen_ssa/index.html"><code>rustc_codegen_ssa</code></a>
contains a fair amount of code specific to the LLVM backend.</p>
<p>Once these components are done with their work you end up with a number of
files in your filesystem corresponding to the outputs you have requested.</p>
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