Major New Features¶

• The __has_attribute built-in macro no longer queries for attributes across multiple attribute syntaxes (GNU, C++11, __declspec, etc). Instead, it only queries GNU-style attributes. With the addition of __has_cpp_attribute and __has_declspec_attribute, this allows for more precise coverage of attribute syntax querying.
• clang-format now supports formatting Java code.

Improvements to Clang’s diagnostics¶

Clang’s diagnostics are constantly being improved to catch more issues, explain them more clearly, and provide more accurate source information about them. The improvements since the 3.5 release include:

• Smarter typo correction. Clang now tries a bit harder to give a usable suggestion in more cases, and can now successfully recover in more situations where the suggestion changes how an expression is parsed.

New Compiler Flags¶

The -fpic option now uses small pic on PowerPC.

The __EXCEPTIONS macro¶

__EXCEPTIONS is now defined when landing pads are emitted, not when C++ exceptions are enabled. The two can be different in Objective-C files: If C++ exceptions are disabled but Objective-C exceptions are enabled, landing pads will be emitted. Clang 3.6 is switching the behavior of __EXCEPTIONS. Clang 3.5 confusingly changed the behavior of has_feature(cxx_exceptions), which used to be set if landing pads were emitted, but is now set if C++ exceptions are enabled. So there are 3 cases:

Clang before 3.5:

__EXCEPTIONS is set if C++ exceptions are enabled, cxx_exceptions enabled if C++ or ObjC exceptions are enabled

Clang 3.5:

__EXCEPTIONS is set if C++ exceptions are enabled, cxx_exceptions enabled if C++ exceptions are enabled

Clang 3.6:

__EXCEPTIONS is set if C++ or ObjC exceptions are enabled, cxx_exceptions enabled if C++ exceptions are enabled

To reliably test if C++ exceptions are enabled, use __EXCEPTIONS && __has_feature(cxx_exceptions), else things won’t work in all versions of Clang in Objective-C++ files.

New Pragmas in Clang¶

Clang now supports the #pragma unroll and #pragma nounroll directives to specify loop unrolling optimization hints. Placed just prior to the desired loop, #pragma unroll directs the loop unroller to attempt to fully unroll the loop. The pragma may also be specified with a positive integer parameter indicating the desired unroll count: #pragma unroll _value_. The unroll count parameter can be optionally enclosed in parentheses. The directive #pragma nounroll indicates that the loop should not be unrolled. These unrolling hints may also be expressed using the #pragma clang loop directive. See the Clang language extensions for details.

Windows Support¶

• Many, many bug fixes.
• Clang can now self-host using the msvc environment on x86 and x64 Windows. This means that Microsoft C++ ABI is more or less feature-complete, minus exception support.
• Added more MSVC compatibility hacks, such as allowing more lookup into dependent bases of class templates when there is a known template pattern. As a result, applications using Active Template Library (ATL) or Windows Runtime Library (WRL) headers should compile correctly.
• Added support for the Visual C++ __super keyword.
• Added support for MSVC’s __vectorcall calling convention, which is used in the upcoming Visual Studio 2015 STL.
• Added basic support for DWARF debug information in COFF files.

C Language Changes in Clang¶

• The default language mode for C compilations with Clang has been changed from C99 with GNU extensions to C11 with GNU extensions. C11 is largely backwards-compatible with C99, but if you want to restore the former behavior you can do so with the -std=gnu99 flag.

C++ Language Changes in Clang¶

• An upcoming change to C++ <http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2014/n3922.html>_ changes the semantics of certain deductions of auto from a braced initializer list. Following the intent of the C++ committee, this change will be applied to our C++11 and C++14 modes as well as our experimental C++17 mode. Clang 3.6 does not yet implement this change, but to provide a transition period, it warns on constructs whose meaning will change. The fix in all cases is to add an = prior to the left brace.
• Clang now supports putting identical constructors and destructors in the C5/D5 comdat, reducing code duplication.
• Clang will put individual .init_array/.ctors sections in comdats, reducing code duplication and speeding up startup.

OpenMP Language Changes in Clang¶

Clang 3.6 contains codegen for many individual OpenMP pragmas, but combinations are not completed yet. We plan to continue codegen code drop aiming for completion in 3.7. Please see this link for up-to-date status <https://github.com/clang-omp/clang/wiki/Status-of-supported-OpenMP-constructs>_. LLVM’s OpenMP runtime library, originally developed by Intel, has been modified to work on ARM, PowerPC, as well as X86. The Runtime Library’s compatibility with GCC 4.9 is improved - missed entry points added, barrier and fork/join code improved, one more type of barrier enabled. Support for ppc64le architecture is now available and automatically detected when using cmake system. Using makefile the new “ppc64le” arch type is available. Contributors to this work include AMD, Argonne National Lab., IBM, Intel, Texas Instruments, University of Houston and many others.