LLVM and Clang in 30 Study Days

Day 13 of 30 · Clang frontend

Navigate the Clang source tree

Time
About 150 minutes: 40 reading, 80 lab, 20 testing, 10 notes.
Prerequisites
Day 02: Prepare a reproducible learning environment, Day 12: Connect IR learning to the C++ compiler

Toolchain: current-main build

Use build/bin/clang++ and build/bin/llvm-lit from your llvm-main checkout, not whichever clang++ is first on PATH. Reproduce upstream behavior on current main and record the commit SHA. Setup guide

Learn

  • Lex, Parse, AST, Sema, Basic and CodeGen.

Read Reading

Reading budgets cover selected sections, not whole chapters. Link to the book; this site does not reproduce it.

Build Build or investigate

  1. Locate clang/lib/Lex, Parse, AST, Sema and CodeGen, plus clang/include/clang/Basic and clang/test.
  2. Search for a diagnostic you can trigger.
  3. Follow its definition to a caller.
  4. Keep a source map with paths and one responsibility each.

Done when

A source map and one diagnostic traced from output text into implementation.

Recall question

Which directories would you investigate for a valid program rejected during type checking?

Completion checks

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Required to complete day 13

Notes

Saved only in this browser. Keep it short enough to finish in ten minutes; none of the prompts are required. All notes, export and import