NAME
clang - the Clang C and Objective-C compiler
SYNOPSIS
clang [-c|-S|-E] -std=standard -g
[-O0|-O1|-O2|-Os|-O3|-O4]
-Wwarnings... -pedantic
-Idir... -Ldir...
-Dmacro[=defn]
-ffeature-option...
-mmachine-option...
-o output-file
input-filenames
DESCRIPTION
clang is a C and Objective-C compiler which encompasses preprocessing,
parsing, optimization, code generation, assembly, and linking.
Depending on which high-level mode setting is passed, Clang will stop
before doing a full link. While Clang is highly integrated, it is
important to understand the stages of compilation, to understand how to
invoke it. These stages are:
Driver
The clang executable is actually a small driver which controls the
overall execution of other tools such as the compiler, assembler
and linker. Typically you do not need to interact with the driver,
but you transparently use it to run the other tools.
Preprocessing
This stage handles tokenization of the input source file, macro
expansion, #include expansion and handling of other preprocessor
directives. The output of this stage is typically called a ".i"
(for C) or ".mi" (for Objective-C) file.
Parsing and Semantic Analysis
This stage parses the input file, translating preprocessor tokens
into a parse tree. Once in the form of a parser tree, it applies
semantic analysis to compute types for expressions as well and
determine whether the code is well formed. This stage is
responsible for generating most of the compiler warnings as well as
parse errors. The output of this stage is an "Abstract Syntax
Tree" (AST).
Code Generation and Optimization
This stage translates an AST into low-level intermediate code
(known as "LLVM IR") and ultimately to machine code (depending on
the optimization level). This phase is responsible for optimizing
the generated code and handling target-specfic code generation.
The output of this stage is typically called a ".s" file or
"assembly" file.
Assembler
This stage runs the target assembler to translate the output of the
compiler into a target object file. The output of this stage is
typically called a ".o" file or "object" file.
Linker
This stage runs the target linker to merge multiple object files
into an executable or dynamic library. The output of this stage is
typically called an "a.out", ".dylib" or ".so" file.
The Clang compiler supports a large number of options to control each
of these stages. In addition to compilation of code, Clang also
supports other tools:
Clang Static Analyzer
The Clang Static Analyzer is a tool that scans source code to try to
find bugs though code analysis. This tool uses many parts of Clang and
is built into the same driver.
OPTIONS
Stage Selection Options
-E Run the preprocessor stage.
-fsyntax-only
Run the preprocessor, parser and type checking stages.
-S Run the previous stages as well as LLVM generation and optimization
stages and target-specific code generation, producing an assembly
file.
-c Run all of the above, plus the assembler, generating a target ".o"
object file.
no stage selection option
If no stage selection option is specified, all stages above are
run, and the linker is run to combine the results into an
executable or shared library.
--analyze
Run the Clang Static Analyzer.
Language Selection and Mode Options
-x language
Treat subsequent input files as having type language.
-std=language
Specify the language standard to compile for.
-ansi
Same as -std=c89.
-ObjC++
Treat source input files as Objective-C++ inputs.
-ObjC
Treat source input files as Objective-C inputs.
-trigraphs
Enable trigraphs.
-ffreestanding
Indicate that the file should be compiled for a freestanding, not a
hosted, environment.
-fno-builtin
Disable special handling and optimizations of builtin functions
like strlen and malloc.
-fmath-errno
Indicate that math functions should be treated as updating errno.
-fpascal-strings
Enable support for Pascal-style strings with "\pfoo".
-fms-extensions
Enable support for Microsoft extensions.
-fwritable-strings
Make all string literals default to writable. This disables
uniquing of strings and other optimizations.
-flax-vector-conversions
Allow loose type checking rules for implicit vector conversions.
-fblocks
Enable the "Blocks" language feature.
-fobjc-gc-only
Indicate that Objective-C code should be compiled in GC-only mode,
which only works when Objective-C Garbage Collection is enabled.
-fobjc-gc
Indicate that Objective-C code should be compiled in hybrid-GC
mode, which works with both GC and non-GC mode.
Target Selection Options
Clang fully supports cross compilation as an inherent part of its
design. Depending on how your version of Clang is configured, it may
have support for a number of cross compilers, or may only support a
native target.
-arch architecture
Specify the architecture to build for.
-mmacosx-version-min=version
When building for Mac OS/X, specify the minimum version supported
by your application.
-miphoneos-version-min
When building for iPhone OS, specify the minimum version supported
by your application.
-march=cpu
Specify that Clang should generate code for a specific processor
family member and later. For example, if you specify -march=i486,
the compiler is allowed to generate instructions that are valid on
i486 and later processors, but which may not exist on earlier ones.
Code Generation Options
-O0 -O1 -O2 -Os -O3 -O4
Specify which optimization level to use. -O0 means "no
optimization": this level compiles the fastest and generates the
most debuggable code. -O2 is a moderate level of optimization
which enables most optimizations. -Os is like -O2 with extra
optimizations to reduce code size. -O3 is like -O2, except that it
enables optimizations that take longer to perform or that may
generate larger code (in an attempt to make the program run
faster). On supported platforms, -O4 enables link-time
optimization; object files are stored in the LLVM bitcode file
format and whole program optimization is done at link time. -O1 is
somewhere between -O0 and -O2.
-g Generate debug information. Note that Clang debug information
works best at -O0. At higher optimization levels, only line number
information is currently available.
-fexceptions
Enable generation of unwind information, this allows exceptions to
be thrown through Clang compiled stack frames. This is on by
default in x86-64.
-ftrapv
Generate code to catch integer overflow errors. Signed integer
overflow is undefined in C, with this flag, extra code is generated
to detect this and abort when it happens.
-fvisibility
This flag sets the default visibility level.
-fcommon
This flag specifies that variables without initializers get common
linkage. It can be disabled with -fno-common.
-flto -emit-llvm
Generate output files in LLVM formats, suitable for link time
optimization. When used with -S this generates LLVM intermediate
language assembly files, otherwise this generates LLVM bitcode
format object files (which may be passed to the linker depending on
the stage selection options).
Driver Options
-###
Print the commands to run for this compilation.
--help
Display available options.
-Qunused-arguments
Don't emit warning for unused driver arguments.
-Wa,args
Pass the comma separated arguments in args to the assembler.
-Wl,args
Pass the comma separated arguments in args to the linker.
-Wp,args
Pass the comma separated arguments in args to the preprocessor.
-Xanalyzer arg
Pass arg to the static analyzer.
-Xassembler arg
Pass arg to the assembler.
-Xclang arg
Pass arg to the clang compiler.
-Xlinker arg
Pass arg to the linker.
-Xpreprocessor arg
Pass arg to the preprocessor.
-o file
Write output to file.
-print-file-name=file
Print the full library path of file.
-print-libgcc-file-name
Print the library path for "libgcc.a".
-print-prog-name=name
Print the full program path of name.
-print-search-dirs
Print the paths used for finding libraries and programs.
-save-temps
Save intermediate compilation results.
-time
Time individual commands.
-ftime-report
Print timing summary of each stage of compilation.
-v Show commands to run and use verbose output.
Diagnostics Options
-fshow-column -fshow-source-location -fcaret-diagnostics
-fdiagnostics-fixit-info -fdiagnostics-print-source-range-info
-fprint-source-range-info -fdiagnostics-show-option -fmessage-length
These options control how Clang prints out information about
diagnostics (errors and warnings). Please see the Clang User's
Manual for more information.
Preprocessor Options
-Dmacroname=value
Adds an implicit #define into the predefines buffer which is read
before the source file is preprocessed.
-Umacroname
Adds an implicit #undef into the predefines buffer which is read
before the source file is preprocessed.
-include filename
Adds an implicit #include into the predefines buffer which is read
before the source file is preprocessed.
-Idirectory
Add the specified directory to the search path for include files.
-Fdirectory
Add the specified directory to the search path for framework
include files.
-nostdinc
Do not search the standard system directories for include files.
-nobuiltininc
Do not search clang's builtin directory for include files.
ENVIRONMENT
TMPDIR, TEMP, TMP
These environment variables are checked, in order, for the location
to write temporary files used during the compilation process.
CPATH
If this environment variable is present, it is treated as a
delimited list of paths to be added to the default system include
path list. The delimiter is the platform dependent delimitor, as
used in the PATH environment variable.
Empty components in the environment variable are ignored.
C_INCLUDE_PATH, OBJC_INCLUDE_PATH, CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH,
OBJCPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH
These environment variables specify additional paths, as for CPATH,
which are only used when processing the appropriate language.
MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET
If -mmacosx-version-min is unspecified, the default deployment
target is read from this environment variable. This option only
affects darwin targets.
BUGS
Clang currently does not have C++ support, and this manual page is
incomplete. To report bugs, please visit <http://llvm.org/bugs/>.
Most bug reports should include preprocessed source files (use the -E
option) and the full output of the compiler, along with information to
reproduce.
SEE ALSO
as(1), ld(1)
AUTHOR
Maintained by the Clang / LLVM Team (<http://clang.llvm.org>).