forked from OSchip/llvm-project
142 lines
6.3 KiB
ReStructuredText
142 lines
6.3 KiB
ReStructuredText
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.none { background-color: #FFCCCC }
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.. role:: none
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==================
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MSVC compatibility
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==================
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When Clang compiles C++ code for Windows, it attempts to be compatible with
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MSVC. There are multiple dimensions to compatibility.
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First, Clang attempts to be ABI-compatible, meaning that Clang-compiled code
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should be able to link against MSVC-compiled code successfully. However, C++
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ABIs are particularly large and complicated, and Clang's support for MSVC's C++
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ABI is a work in progress. If you don't require MSVC ABI compatibility or don't
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want to use Microsoft's C and C++ runtimes, the mingw32 toolchain might be a
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better fit for your project.
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Second, Clang implements many MSVC language extensions, such as
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``__declspec(dllexport)`` and a handful of pragmas. These are typically
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controlled by ``-fms-extensions``.
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Third, MSVC accepts some C++ code that Clang will typically diagnose as
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invalid. When these constructs are present in widely included system headers,
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Clang attempts to recover and continue compiling the user's program. Most
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parsing and semantic compatibility tweaks are controlled by
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``-fms-compatibility`` and ``-fdelayed-template-parsing``, and they are a work
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in progress.
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Finally, there is :ref:`clang-cl`, a driver program for clang that attempts to
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be compatible with MSVC's cl.exe.
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ABI features
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============
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The status of major ABI-impacting C++ features:
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* Record layout: :good:`Complete`. We've tested this with a fuzzer and have
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fixed all known bugs.
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* Class inheritance: :good:`Mostly complete`. This covers all of the standard
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OO features you would expect: virtual method inheritance, multiple
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inheritance, and virtual inheritance. Every so often we uncover a bug where
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our tables are incompatible, but this is pretty well in hand. This feature
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has also been fuzz tested.
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* Name mangling: :good:`Ongoing`. Every new C++ feature generally needs its own
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mangling. For example, member pointer template arguments have an interesting
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and distinct mangling. Fortunately, incorrect manglings usually do not result
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in runtime errors. Non-inline functions with incorrect manglings usually
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result in link errors, which are relatively easy to diagnose. Incorrect
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manglings for inline functions and templates result in multiple copies in the
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final image. The C++ standard requires that those addresses be equal, but few
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programs rely on this.
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* Member pointers: :good:`Mostly complete`. Standard C++ member pointers are
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fully implemented and should be ABI compatible. Both `#pragma
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pointers_to_members`_ and the `/vm`_ flags are supported. However, MSVC
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supports an extension to allow creating a `pointer to a member of a virtual
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base class`_. Clang does not yet support this.
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.. _#pragma pointers_to_members:
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http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/83cch5a6.aspx
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.. _/vm: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yad46a6z.aspx
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.. _pointer to a member of a virtual base class: http://llvm.org/PR15713
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* Debug info: :partial:`Minimal`. Clang emits CodeView line tables into the
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object file, similar to what MSVC emits when given the ``/Z7`` flag.
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Microsoft's link.exe will read this information and use it to create a PDB,
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enabling stack traces in all modern Windows debuggers. Clang does not emit
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any type info or description of variable layout.
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* RTTI: :good:`Complete`. Generation of RTTI data structures has been
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finished, along with support for the ``/GR`` flag.
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* Exceptions and SEH: :none:`Unstarted`. Clang can parse both constructs, but
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does not know how to emit compatible handlers.
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* Thread-safe initialization of local statics: :none:`Unstarted`. We are ABI
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compatible with MSVC 2013, which does not support thread-safe local statics.
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MSVC "14" changed the ABI to make initialization of local statics thread safe,
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and we have not yet implemented this.
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* Lambdas: :good:`Mostly complete`. Clang is compatible with Microsoft's
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implementation of lambdas except for providing overloads for conversion to
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function pointer for different calling conventions. However, Microsoft's
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extension is non-conforming.
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Template instantiation and name lookup
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======================================
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MSVC allows many invalid constructs in class templates that Clang has
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historically rejected. In order to parse widely distributed headers for
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libraries such as the Active Template Library (ATL) and Windows Runtime Library
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(WRL), some template rules have been relaxed or extended in Clang on Windows.
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The first major semantic difference is that MSVC appears to defer all parsing
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an analysis of inline method bodies in class templates until instantiation
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time. By default on Windows, Clang attempts to follow suit. This behavior is
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controlled by the ``-fdelayed-template-parsing`` flag. While Clang delays
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parsing of method bodies, it still parses the bodies *before* template argument
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substitution, which is not what MSVC does. The following compatibility tweaks
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are necessary to parse the the template in those cases.
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MSVC allows some name lookup into dependent base classes. Even on other
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platforms, this has been a `frequently asked question`_ for Clang users. A
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dependent base class is a base class that depends on the value of a template
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parameter. Clang cannot see any of the names inside dependent bases while it
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is parsing your template, so the user is sometimes required to use the
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``typename`` keyword to assist the parser. On Windows, Clang attempts to
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follow the normal lookup rules, but if lookup fails, it will assume that the
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user intended to find the name in a dependent base. While parsing the
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following program, Clang will recover as if the user had written the
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commented-out code:
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.. _frequently asked question:
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http://clang.llvm.org/compatibility.html#dep_lookup
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.. code-block:: c++
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template <typename T>
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struct Foo : T {
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void f() {
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/*typename*/ T::UnknownType x = /*this->*/unknownMember;
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}
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};
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After recovery, Clang warns the user that this code is non-standard and issues
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a hint suggesting how to fix the problem.
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As of this writing, Clang is able to compile a simple ATL hello world
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application. There are still issues parsing WRL headers for modern Windows 8
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apps, but they should be addressed soon.
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