Minor edits to Description section.

Add Design Philosophy as a separate subsection.  Clarify its last sentence.
Give Automatic Mode Selection a uniquely-named anchor.
Always call the program the "test program", instead of the "initial program",
 the "LLVM program", the "test case", the "resultant module", etc.
Try to explain the assumptions a little more, instead of just describing the
 process.

llvm-svn: 9255
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Brian Gaeke 2003-10-19 17:20:15 +00:00
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<img src="../Debugging.gif" width=444 height=314 align=right>
<h3>DESCRIPTION</h3>
The <tt>bugpoint</tt> tool is a generally useful tool for narrowing down
The <tt>bugpoint</tt> tool narrows down the source of
problems in LLVM tools and passes. It can be used to debug three types of
failures: optimizer crashes, miscompilations by optimizers, or invalid native
code generation. It aims to reduce test cases to something useful. For example,
code generation. It aims to reduce large test cases to small, useful ones.
For example,
if <tt><a href="gccas.html">gccas</a></tt> crashes while optimizing a file, it
will identify the optimization (or combination of optimizations) that causes the
crash, and reduce the file down to a small example which triggers the crash.<p>
<a name="designphilosophy">
<h4>Design Philosophy</h4>
<tt>bugpoint</tt> has been designed to be a useful tool without requiring any
hooks into the LLVM infrastructure at all. It works with any and all LLVM
passes and code generators, and does not need to "know" how they work. Because
of this, it may appear to do a lot of stupid things or miss obvious
simplifications. Remember, however, that computer time is much cheaper than
programmer time, so if it takes a long time to reduce a test case it is still
worth it. :)<p>
simplifications. <tt>bugpoint</tt> is also designed to trade off programmer
time for computer time in the compiler-debugging process; consequently, it may
take a long period of (unattended) time to reduce a test case, but we feel it
is still worth it. :-) <p>
<a name="crashdebug">
<a name="automaticmodeselection">
<h4>Automatic Mode Selection</h4>
<tt>bugpoint</tt> reads the specified list of <tt>.bc</tt> or <tt>.ll</tt> files
specified on the command-line and links them together. If any LLVM passes are
specified on the command line, it runs these passes on the resultant module. If
<tt>bugpoint</tt> reads each <tt>.bc</tt> or <tt>.ll</tt> file
specified on the command line and links them together into a single module,
called the test program. If any LLVM passes are
specified on the command line, it runs these passes on the test program. If
any of the passes crash, or if they produce a malformed LLVM module,
<tt>bugpoint</tt> enters <a href="#crashdebug">crash debugging mode</a>.<p>
Otherwise, if the <a href="#opt_output"><tt>-output</tt></a> option was not
specified, <tt>bugpoint</tt> runs the initial program with the C backend (which
specified, <tt>bugpoint</tt> runs the test program with the C backend (which
is assumed to generate good code) to generate a reference output. Once
<tt>bugpoint</tt> has a reference output to match, it tries executing the
original program with the <a href="#opt_run-">selected</a> code generator. If
the resultant output is different than the reference output, it enters <a
href="#codegendebug">code generator debugging mode</a>.<p>
<tt>bugpoint</tt> has a reference output for the test program, it tries
executing it
with the <a href="#opt_run-">selected</a> code generator. If
the resulting output differs from the reference output, it assumes the
difference resulted from a code generator failure, and enters
<a href="#codegendebug">code generator debugging mode</a>.<p>
Otherwise, <tt>bugpoint</tt> runs the LLVM program after all of the LLVM passes
have been applied to it. If the executed program matches the reference output,
there is no problem <tt>bugpoint</tt> can debug. Otherwise, it enters <a
href="#miscompilationdebug">miscompilation debugging mode</a>.<p>
Otherwise, <tt>bugpoint</tt> runs the test program after all of the LLVM passes
have been applied to it. If its output differs from the reference output,
it assumes the difference resulted from a failure in one of the LLVM passes,
and enters
<a href="#miscompilationdebug">miscompilation debugging mode</a>. Otherwise,
there is no problem <tt>bugpoint</tt> can debug.<p>
<a name="crashdebug">
<h4>Crash debugging mode</h4>
If an optimizer crashes, <tt>bugpoint</tt> will try a variety of techniques to
narrow down the list of passes and the code to a more manageable amount. First,
<tt>bugpoint</tt> figures out which combination of passes trigger the bug. This
is useful when debugging a problem exposed by <tt>gccas</tt> for example,
If an optimizer crashes, <tt>bugpoint</tt> will try as hard as it can to
reduce the list of passes and the size of the test program. First,
<tt>bugpoint</tt> figures out which combination of passes triggers the bug. This
is useful when debugging a problem exposed by <tt>gccas</tt>, for example,
because it runs over 30 optimizations.<p>
Next, <tt>bugpoint</tt> tries removing functions from the module, to reduce the
size of the test case to a reasonable amount. Usually it is able to get it down
to a single function for intraprocedural optimizations. Once the number of
size of the test program. Usually it is able to reduce a test program
to a single function, when debugging intraprocedural optimizations. Once the
number of
functions has been reduced, it attempts to delete various edges in the control
flow graph, to reduce the size of the function as much as possible. Finally,
<tt>bugpoint</tt> deletes any individual LLVM instructions whose absence does