libc++ 3.8 documentation

Building libc++

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Building libc++

Getting Started

On Mac OS 10.7 (Lion) and later, the easiest way to get this library is to install Xcode 4.2 or later. However if you want to install tip-of-trunk from here (getting the bleeding edge), read on.

The basic steps needed to build libc++ are:

  1. Checkout LLVM:

    • cd where-you-want-llvm-to-live
    • svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk llvm

  2. Checkout libc++:

    • cd where-you-want-llvm-to-live
    • cd llvm/projects
    • svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/libcxx/trunk libcxx

  3. Checkout libc++abi:

    • cd where-you-want-llvm-to-live
    • cd llvm/projects
    • svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/libcxxabi/trunk libcxxabi

  4. Configure and build libc++ with libc++abi:

    CMake is the only supported configuration system. Unlike other LLVM projects autotools is not supported for either libc++ or libc++abi.

    Clang is the preferred compiler when building and using libc++.

    • cd where you want to build llvm
    • mkdir build
    • cd build
    • cmake -G <generator> [options] <path to llvm sources>

    For more information about configuring libc++ see CMake Options.

    • make cxx — will build libc++ and libc++abi.
    • make check-libcxx check-libcxxabi — will run the test suites.

    Shared libraries for libc++ and libc++ abi should now be present in llvm/build/lib. See using an alternate libc++ installation

  5. Optional: Install libc++ and libc++abi

    If your system already provides a libc++ installation it is important to be careful not to replace it. Remember Use the CMake option CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to select a safe place to install libc++.

    • make install-libcxx install-libcxxabi — Will install the libraries and the headers

    Warning

    • Replacing your systems libc++ installation could render the system non-functional.
    • Mac OS X will not boot without a valid copy of libc++.1.dylib in /usr/lib.

The instructions are for building libc++ on FreeBSD, Linux, or Mac using libc++abi as the C++ ABI library. On Linux, it is also possible to use libsupc++ or libcxxrt.

It is sometimes beneficial to build outside of the LLVM tree. An out-of-tree build would look like this:

$ cd where-you-want-libcxx-to-live
$ # Check out llvm, libc++ and libc++abi.
$ ``svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk llvm``
$ ``svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/libcxx/trunk libcxx``
$ ``svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/libcxxabi/trunk libcxxabi``
$ cd where-you-want-to-build
$ mkdir build && cd build
$ export CC=clang CXX=clang++
$ cmake -DLLVM_PATH=path/to/llvm \
        -DLIBCXX_CXX_ABI=libcxxabi \
        -DLIBCXX_CXX_ABI_INCLUDE_PATHS=path/to/libcxxabi/include \
        path/to/libcxx
$ make
$ make check-libcxx # optional

CMake Options

Here are some of the CMake variables that are used often, along with a brief explanation and LLVM-specific notes. For full documentation, check the CMake docs or execute cmake --help-variable VARIABLE_NAME.

CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING
Sets the build type for make based generators. Possible values are Release, Debug, RelWithDebInfo and MinSizeRel. On systems like Visual Studio the user sets the build type with the IDE settings.
CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH
Path where LLVM will be installed if “make install” is invoked or the “INSTALL” target is built.
CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER:STRING
The C++ compiler to use when building and testing libc++.

libc++ specific options

LIBCXX_ENABLE_ASSERTIONS:BOOL

Default: ON

Build libc++ with assertions enabled.

LIBCXX_BUILD_32_BITS:BOOL

Default: OFF

Build libc++ as a 32 bit library. Also see LLVM_BUILD_32_BITS.

LIBCXX_ENABLE_SHARED:BOOL

Default: ON

Build libc++ as a shared library. If OFF is specified then libc++ is built as a static library.

LIBCXX_LIBDIR_SUFFIX:STRING

Extra suffix to append to the directory where libraries are to be installed. This option overrides LLVM_LIBDIR_SUFFIX.

ABI Library Specific Options

LIBCXX_CXX_ABI:STRING

Values: none, libcxxabi, libcxxrt, libstdc++, libsupc++.

Select the ABI library to build libc++ against.

LIBCXX_CXX_ABI_INCLUDE_PATHS:PATHS

Provide additional search paths for the ABI library headers.

LIBCXX_CXX_ABI_LIBRARY_PATH:PATH

Provide the path to the ABI library that libc++ should link against.

LIBCXX_ENABLE_STATIC_ABI_LIBRARY:BOOL

Default: OFF

If this option is enabled, libc++ will try and link the selected ABI library statically.

LIBCXX_ENABLE_ABI_LINKER_SCRIPT:BOOL

Default: ON by default on UNIX platforms other than Apple unless ‘LIBCXX_ENABLE_STATIC_ABI_LIBRARY’ is ON. Otherwise the default value is OFF.

This option generate and installs a linker script as libc++.so which links the correct ABI library.

LIBCXXABI_USE_LLVM_UNWINDER:BOOL

Default: OFF

Build and use the LLVM unwinder. Note: This option can only be used when libc++abi is the C++ ABI library used.

libc++ Feature options

LIBCXX_ENABLE_EXCEPTIONS:BOOL

Default: ON

Build libc++ with exception support.

LIBCXX_ENABLE_RTTI:BOOL

Default: ON

Build libc++ with run time type information.

libc++ Feature options

The following options allow building libc++ for a different ABI version.

LIBCXX_ABI_VERSION:STRING

Default: 1

Defines the target ABI version of libc++.

LIBCXX_ABI_UNSTABLE:BOOL

Default: OFF

Build the “unstable” ABI version of libc++. Includes all ABI changing features on top of the current stable version.

LLVM-specific options

LLVM_LIBDIR_SUFFIX:STRING

Extra suffix to append to the directory where libraries are to be installed. On a 64-bit architecture, one could use -DLLVM_LIBDIR_SUFFIX=64 to install libraries to /usr/lib64.

LLVM_BUILD_32_BITS:BOOL

Build 32-bits executables and libraries on 64-bits systems. This option is available only on some 64-bits unix systems. Defaults to OFF.

LLVM_LIT_ARGS:STRING

Arguments given to lit. make check and make clang-test are affected. By default, '-sv --no-progress-bar' on Visual C++ and Xcode, '-sv' on others.

Using Alternate ABI libraries

Using libsupc++ on Linux

You will need libstdc++ in order to provide libsupc++.

Figure out where the libsupc++ headers are on your system. On Ubuntu this is /usr/include/c++/<version> and /usr/include/c++/<version>/<target-triple>

You can also figure this out by running

$ echo | g++ -Wp,-v -x c++ - -fsyntax-only
ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/local/include/x86_64-linux-gnu"
ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.7/../../../../x86_64-linux-gnu/include"
#include "..." search starts here:
#include &lt;...&gt; search starts here:
/usr/include/c++/4.7
/usr/include/c++/4.7/x86_64-linux-gnu
/usr/include/c++/4.7/backward
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.7/include
/usr/local/include
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.7/include-fixed
/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu
/usr/include
End of search list.

Note that the first two entries happen to be what we are looking for. This may not be correct on other platforms.

We can now run CMake:

$ CC=clang CXX=clang++ cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" \
  -DLIBCXX_CXX_ABI=libstdc++ \
  -DLIBCXX_CXX_ABI_INCLUDE_PATHS="/usr/include/c++/4.7/;/usr/include/c++/4.7/x86_64-linux-gnu/" \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr \
  <libc++-source-dir>

You can also substitute -DLIBCXX_CXX_ABI=libsupc++ above, which will cause the library to be linked to libsupc++ instead of libstdc++, but this is only recommended if you know that you will never need to link against libstdc++ in the same executable as libc++. GCC ships libsupc++ separately but only as a static library. If a program also needs to link against libstdc++, it will provide its own copy of libsupc++ and this can lead to subtle problems.

$ make cxx
$ make install

You can now run clang with -stdlib=libc++.

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