Clang Compiler Frontend
English | 2024 | ISBN: 1837630984 | 382 Pages | EPUB | 4 MB

Understand internals of a top-rated C/C++ compiler frontend and create your own tools

Clang is a compiler for C/C++ and Objective-C programming languages that is a part of the LLVM project. The word "Clang" can refer to either the compiler frontend, which handles parsing and semantic analysis, or the compiler itself, also known as the compiler driver. The driver is responsible for coordinating various components of the compiler, such as the frontend and middle-end, as well as the assembler and linker. This book focuses on the Clang compiler frontend, but also covers other parts of LLVM that are important for understanding the frontend. The LLVM project is constantly evolving, and the version used in this book is 15.x, released in September 2022. The book is divided into two parts. The first covers basic information about LLVM, including installation and development tools, as well as the internal architecture of Clang and its role in LLVM. The final topic in the first part is optimizing compilation performance through features like C++ modules and header maps. The second part of the book covers tools developed using the Clang/LLVM, including clang-tidy for linting, refactoring tools and IDEs support. The book includes many examples to illustrate the material.