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Howard Hinnant3e519522010-05-11 19:42:16[diff] [blame]18 <div class="submenu">
19 <label>libc++ Info</label>
20 <a href="/index.html">About</a>
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24 <label>Quick Links</label>
Chris Lattnerf9e7e3a2010-05-11 20:53:16[diff] [blame]25 <a href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/cfe-dev">cfe-dev</a>
26 <a href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/cfe-commits">cfe-commits</a>
Howard Hinnant3e519522010-05-11 19:42:16[diff] [blame]27 <a href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">Bug Reports</a>
Howard Hinnant38a59272010-05-11 20:51:20[diff] [blame]28 <a href="http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/libcxx/trunk/">Browse SVN</a>
29 <a href="http://llvm.org/viewvc/llvm-project/libcxx/trunk/">Browse ViewVC</a>
Howard Hinnant3e519522010-05-11 19:42:16[diff] [blame]30 </div>
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33<div id="content">
34 <!--*********************************************************************-->
35 <h1>"libc++" C++ Standard Library</h1>
36 <!--*********************************************************************-->
Howard Hinnant2807d4a2010-08-22 01:04:38[diff] [blame]37
Howard Hinnant3e519522010-05-11 19:42:16[diff] [blame]38 <p>libc++ is a new implementation of the C++ standard library, targeting
39 C++0X.</p>
40
Chris Lattner58dffe62010-11-16 21:40:19[diff] [blame^]41 <p>All of the code in libc++ is <a
42 href="http://llvm.org/docs/DeveloperPolicy.html#license">dual licensed</a>
43 under the MIT license and the UIUC License (a BSD-like license).</p>
Howard Hinnant2807d4a2010-08-22 01:04:38[diff] [blame]44
Howard Hinnant3e519522010-05-11 19:42:16[diff] [blame]45 <!--=====================================================================-->
46 <h2 id="goals">Features and Goals</h2>
47 <!--=====================================================================-->
Howard Hinnant2807d4a2010-08-22 01:04:38[diff] [blame]48
Howard Hinnant3e519522010-05-11 19:42:16[diff] [blame]49 <ul>
50 <li>Correctness as defined by the (currently draft) C++0X standard.</li>
51 <li>Fast execution.</li>
52 <li>Minimal memory use.</li>
53 <li>Fast compile times.</li>
54 <li>ABI compatibility with gcc's libstdc++ for some low-level features
55 such as exception objects, rtti and memory allocation.</li>
56 <li>Extensive unit tests.</li>
57 </ul>
58
59 <!--=====================================================================-->
Chris Lattner27de3d62010-05-12 22:21:15[diff] [blame]60 <h2 id="why">Why a new C++ Standard Library for C++'0x?</h2>
61 <!--=====================================================================-->
Howard Hinnant2807d4a2010-08-22 01:04:38[diff] [blame]62
Chris Lattner27de3d62010-05-12 22:21:15[diff] [blame]63 <p>After its initial introduction, many people have asked "why start a new
64 library instead of contributing to an existing library?" (like Apache's
65 libstdcxx, GNU's libstdc++, STLport, etc). There are many contributing
66 reasons, but some of the major ones are:</p>
Howard Hinnant2807d4a2010-08-22 01:04:38[diff] [blame]67
Chris Lattner27de3d62010-05-12 22:21:15[diff] [blame]68 <ul>
69 <li><p>From years of experience (including having implemented the standard
70 library before), we've learned many things about implementing
71 the standard containers which require ABI breakage and fundamental changes
72 to how they are implemented. For example, it is generally accepted that
73 building std::string using the "short string optimization" instead of
74 using Copy On Write (COW) is a superior approach for multicore
Chris Lattnerf005e8d2010-05-12 22:30:22[diff] [blame]75 machines (particularly in C++'0x, which has rvalue references). Breaking
76 ABI compatibility with old versions of the library was
Chris Lattner27de3d62010-05-12 22:21:15[diff] [blame]77 determined to be critical to achieving the performance goals of
78 libc++.</p></li>
Howard Hinnant2807d4a2010-08-22 01:04:38[diff] [blame]79
Chris Lattner27de3d62010-05-12 22:21:15[diff] [blame]80 <li><p>Mainline libstdc++ has switched to GPL3, a license which the developers
81 of libc++ cannot use. libstdc++ 4.2 (the last GPL2 version) could be
82 independently extended to support C++'0x, but this would be a fork of the
Chris Lattnera940b5b2010-05-12 22:33:00[diff] [blame]83 codebase (which is often seen as worse for a project than starting a new
84 independent one). Another problem with libstdc++ is that it is tightly
85 integrated with G++ development, tending to be tied fairly closely to the
86 matching version of G++.</p>
Chris Lattner27de3d62010-05-12 22:21:15[diff] [blame]87 </li>
88
89 <li><p>STLport and the Apache libstdcxx library are two other popular
90 candidates, but both lack C++'0x support. Our experience (and the
91 experience of libstdc++ developers) is that adding support for C++0x (in
92 particular rvalue references and move-only types) requires changes to
93 almost every class and function, essentially amounting to a rewrite.
Chris Lattnerd55fd112010-05-12 22:34:21[diff] [blame]94 Faced with a rewrite, we decided to start from scratch and evaluate every
95 design decision from first principles based on experience.</p>
Howard Hinnant2807d4a2010-08-22 01:04:38[diff] [blame]96
Chris Lattner27de3d62010-05-12 22:21:15[diff] [blame]97 <p>Further, both projects are apparently abandoned: STLport 5.2.1 was
98 released in Oct'08, and STDCXX 4.2.1 in May'08.</p>
99
100 </ul>
101
102 <!--=====================================================================-->
Howard Hinnant3e519522010-05-11 19:42:16[diff] [blame]103 <h2 id="requirements">Platform Support</h2>
104 <!--=====================================================================-->
105
106 <p>libc++ is known to work on the following platforms, using g++-4.2 and
107 clang (lack of C++0X language support disables some functionality).</p>
108
109 <ul>
110 <li>Mac OS X i386</li>
111 <li>Mac OS X x86_64</li>
112 </ul>
113
114 <!--=====================================================================-->
115 <h2 id="dir-structure">Current Status</h2>
116 <!--=====================================================================-->
117
Howard Hinnanteea166d2010-09-05 17:31:48[diff] [blame]118 <p>libc++ is still under development. It has about 98% of
119 <a href="http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2010/n3126.pdf">N3126</a>
Chris Lattner27de3d62010-05-12 22:21:15[diff] [blame]120 implemented/tested. C++'98 support is fully featured, and most of C++'0x
Howard Hinnanteea166d2010-09-05 17:31:48[diff] [blame]121 support is as well. The only major missing piece of C++'0x support is
122 <code>&lt;atomic&gt;</code>.</p>
Howard Hinnant3e519522010-05-11 19:42:16[diff] [blame]123
124 <p>libc++ is currently dependent upon a separate library for the low-level
125 ABI compatibility with gcc. As a workaround it can be linked against
Howard Hinnanteea166d2010-09-05 17:31:48[diff] [blame]126 gcc's libstdc++, or on Mac OS X
127 <a href="http://home.roadrunner.com/~hinnant/libcppabi.zip">this library</a>.</p>
Howard Hinnant3e519522010-05-11 19:42:16[diff] [blame]128
Howard Hinnant97ae3d52010-05-13 20:10:39[diff] [blame]129 <p><a href="libcxx_by_chapter.pdf">Here</a> is a by-chapter breakdown of what
130 is passing tests and what isn't. This chart is currently based on testing
Dan Gohmanf4e31c82010-06-04 14:16:02[diff] [blame]131 against g++-4.4.0 with -std=c++0x. </p>
Howard Hinnant97ae3d52010-05-13 20:10:39[diff] [blame]132
Howard Hinnant3e519522010-05-11 19:42:16[diff] [blame]133 <!--=====================================================================-->
134 <h2>Get it and get involved!</h2>
135 <!--=====================================================================-->
Howard Hinnant2807d4a2010-08-22 01:04:38[diff] [blame]136
Howard Hinnant3e519522010-05-11 19:42:16[diff] [blame]137 <p>To check out the code, use:</p>
Howard Hinnant2807d4a2010-08-22 01:04:38[diff] [blame]138
Howard Hinnant3e519522010-05-11 19:42:16[diff] [blame]139 <ul>
Chris Lattner6f12a7f2010-05-11 20:37:52[diff] [blame]140 <li><code>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/libcxx/trunk libcxx</code></li>
141 <li><code>cd libcxx/lib</code></li>
Howard Hinnant3e519522010-05-11 19:42:16[diff] [blame]142 <li><code>./buildit</code></li>
143 </ul>
144
145 <p>To run the libc++ test suit (recommended):</p>
146
147 <ul>
Chris Lattner6f12a7f2010-05-11 20:37:52[diff] [blame]148 <li><code>cd libcxx/test</code></li>
Howard Hinnant3e519522010-05-11 19:42:16[diff] [blame]149 <li><code>./testit</code></li>
150 </ul>
151
Howard Hinnant2807d4a2010-08-22 01:04:38[diff] [blame]152 <p>Send discussions to the
Howard Hinnant180e1d72010-05-11 19:53:34[diff] [blame]153 (<a href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/cfe-dev">clang mailing list</a>).</p>
154
Howard Hinnant1de22662010-10-05 16:44:40[diff] [blame]155 <!--=====================================================================-->
156 <h2>Design Documents</h2>
157 <!--=====================================================================-->
158
159<ul>
160<li><a href="atomic_design.html"><tt>&lt;atomic&gt;</tt></a></li>
161</ul>
162
Howard Hinnant3e519522010-05-11 19:42:16[diff] [blame]163</div>
164</body>
Chris Lattner6f12a7f2010-05-11 20:37:52[diff] [blame]165</html>