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Clang |release| |ReleaseNotesTitle|
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Written by the `LLVM Team <https://llvm.org/>`_
Introduction
============
This document contains the release notes for the Clang C/C++/Objective-C
frontend, part of the LLVM Compiler Infrastructure, release |release|. Here we
describe the status of Clang in some detail, including major
improvements from the previous release and new feature work. For the
general LLVM release notes, see `the LLVM
documentation <https://llvm.org/docs/ReleaseNotes.html>`_. All LLVM
releases may be downloaded from the `LLVM releases web
site <https://llvm.org/releases/>`_.
For more information about Clang or LLVM, including information about the
latest release, please see the `Clang Web Site <https://clang.llvm.org>`_ or the
`LLVM Web Site <https://llvm.org>`_.
Note that if you are reading this file from a Git checkout or the
main Clang web page, this document applies to the *next* release, not
the current one. To see the release notes for a specific release, please
see the `releases page <https://llvm.org/releases/>`_.
What's New in Clang |release|?
==============================
Some of the major new features and improvements to Clang are listed
here. Generic improvements to Clang as a whole or to its underlying
infrastructure are described first, followed by language-specific
sections with improvements to Clang's support for those languages.
Potentially Breaking Changes
============================
These changes are ones which we think may surprise users when upgrading to
Clang |release| because of the opportunity they pose for disruption to existing
code bases.
- The ``-Wimplicit-function-declaration`` and ``-Wimplicit-int`` warning
diagnostics are now enabled by default in C99, C11, and C17. As of C2x,
support for implicit function declarations and implicit int has been removed,
and the warning options will have no effect. Specifying ``-Wimplicit-int`` in
C89 mode will now issue warnings instead of being a noop.
*NOTE* these warnings are expected to default to an error in Clang 16. We
recommend that projects using configure scripts verify the results do not
change before/after setting ``-Werror=implicit-function-declarations`` or
``-Wimplicit-int`` to avoid incompatibility with Clang 16.
Major New Features
------------------
- Clang now supports the ``-fzero-call-used-regs`` feature for x86. The purpose
of this feature is to limit Return-Oriented Programming (ROP) exploits and
information leakage. It works by zeroing out a selected class of registers
before function return --- e.g., all GPRs that are used within the function.
There is an analogous ``zero_call_used_regs`` attribute to allow for finer
control of this feature.
- Clang now supports randomizing structure layout in C. This feature is a
compile-time hardening technique, making it more difficult for an attacker to
retrieve data from structures. Specify randomization with the
``randomize_layout`` attribute. The corresponding ``no_randomize_layout``
attribute can be used to turn the feature off.
A seed value is required to enable randomization, and is deterministic based
on a seed value. Use the ``-frandomize-layout-seed=`` or
``-frandomize-layout-seed-file=`` flags.
.. note::
Randomizing structure layout is a C-only feature.
- Clang now supports the ``-fstrict-flex-arrays=<arg>`` option to control which
array bounds lead to flexible array members. The option yields more accurate
``__builtin_object_size`` and ``__builtin_dynamic_object_size`` results in
most cases but may be overly conservative for some legacy code.
- Experimental support for HLSL has been added. The implementation is
incomplete and highly experimental. For more information about the ongoing
work to support HLSL see the `documentation
<https://clang.llvm.org/docs/HLSLSupport.html>`_, or the `GitHub project
<https://github.com/orgs/llvm/projects/4>`_.
Bug Fixes
---------
- ``CXXNewExpr::getArraySize()`` previously returned a ``llvm::Optional``
wrapping a ``nullptr`` when the ``CXXNewExpr`` did not have an array
size expression. This was fixed and ``::getArraySize()`` will now always
either return ``None`` or a ``llvm::Optional`` wrapping a valid ``Expr*``.
This fixes `Issue 53742 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/53742>`_.
- We now ignore full expressions when traversing cast subexpressions. This
fixes `Issue 53044 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/53044>`_.
- Allow ``-Wno-gnu`` to silence GNU extension diagnostics for pointer
arithmetic diagnostics. Fixes `Issue 54444
<https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/54444>`_.
- Placeholder constraints, as in ``Concept auto x = f();``, were not checked
when modifiers like ``auto&`` or ``auto**`` were added. These constraints are
now checked.
This fixes `Issue 53911 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/53911>`_
and `Issue 54443 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/54443>`_.
- Previously invalid member variables with template parameters would crash clang.
Now fixed by setting identifiers for them.
This fixes `Issue 28475 (PR28101) <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/28475>`_.
- Now allow the ``restrict`` and ``_Atomic`` qualifiers to be used in
conjunction with ``__auto_type`` to match the behavior in GCC. This fixes
`Issue 53652 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/53652>`_.
- No longer crash when specifying a variably-modified parameter type in a
function with the ``naked`` attribute. This fixes
`Issue 50541 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/50541>`_.
- Allow multiple ``#pragma weak`` directives to name the same undeclared (if an
alias, target) identifier instead of only processing one such ``#pragma weak``
per identifier.
Fixes `Issue 28985 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/28985>`_.
- Assignment expressions in C11 and later mode now properly strip the _Atomic
qualifier when determining the type of the assignment expression. Fixes
`Issue 48742 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/48742>`_.
- Improved the diagnostic when accessing a member of an atomic structure or
union object in C; was previously an unhelpful error, but now issues a
``-Watomic-access`` warning which defaults to an error. Fixes
`Issue 54563 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/54563>`_.
- Unevaluated lambdas in dependant contexts no longer result in clang crashing.
This fixes Issues `50376 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/50376>`_,
`51414 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/51414>`_,
`51416 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/51416>`_,
and `51641 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/51641>`_.
- The builtin function __builtin_dump_struct would crash clang when the target
struct contains a bitfield. It now correctly handles bitfields.
This fixes Issue `Issue 54462 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/54462>`_.
- Statement expressions are now disabled in default arguments in general.
This fixes Issue `Issue 53488 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/53488>`_.
- According to `CWG 1394 <https://wg21.link/cwg1394>`_ and
`C++20 [dcl.fct.def.general]p2 <https://timsong-cpp.github.io/cppwp/n4868/dcl.fct.def#general-2.sentence-3>`_,
Clang should not diagnose incomplete types in function definitions if the function body is ``= delete;``.
This fixes Issue `Issue 52802 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/52802>`_.
- Unknown type attributes with a ``[[]]`` spelling are no longer diagnosed twice.
This fixes Issue `Issue 54817 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/54817>`_.
- Clang should no longer incorrectly diagnose a variable declaration inside of
a lambda expression that shares the name of a variable in a containing
if/while/for/switch init statement as a redeclaration.
This fixes `Issue 54913 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/54913>`_.
- Overload resolution for constrained function templates could use the partial
order of constraints to select an overload, even if the parameter types of
the functions were different. It now diagnoses this case correctly as an
ambiguous call and an error. Fixes
`Issue 53640 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/53640>`_.
- No longer crash when trying to determine whether the controlling expression
argument to a generic selection expression has side effects in the case where
the expression is result dependent. This fixes
`Issue 50227 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/50227>`_.
- Fixed an assertion when constant evaluating an initializer for a GCC/Clang
floating-point vector type when the width of the initialization is exactly
the same as the elements of the vector being initialized.
Fixes `Issue 50216 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/50216>`_.
- Fixed a crash when the ``__bf16`` type is used such that its size or
alignment is calculated on a target which does not support that type. This
fixes `Issue 50171 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/50171>`_.
- Fixed a false positive diagnostic about an unevaluated expression having no
side effects when the expression is of VLA type and is an operand of the
``sizeof`` operator. Fixes `Issue 48010 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/48010>`_.
- Fixed a false positive diagnostic about scoped enumerations being a C++11
extension in C mode. A scoped enumeration's enumerators cannot be named in C
because there is no way to fully qualify the enumerator name, so this
"extension" was unintentional and useless. This fixes
`Issue 42372 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/42372>`_.
- Clang will now find and emit a call to an allocation function in a
promise_type body for coroutines if there is any allocation function
declaration in the scope of promise_type. Additionally, to implement CWG2585,
a coroutine will no longer generate a call to a global allocation function
with the signature ``(std::size_t, p0, ..., pn)``.
This fixes Issue `Issue 54881 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/54881>`_.
- Implement `CWG 2394 <https://wg21.link/cwg2394>`_: Const class members
may be initialized with a defaulted default constructor under the same
conditions it would be allowed for a const object elsewhere.
- ``__has_unique_object_representations`` no longer reports that ``_BitInt`` types
have unique object representations if they have padding bits.
- Unscoped and scoped enumeration types can no longer be initialized from a
brace-init-list containing a single element of a different scoped enumeration
type.
- Allow use of an elaborated type specifier as a ``_Generic`` selection
association in C++ mode. This fixes
`Issue 55562 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/55562>`_.
- Clang will allow calling a ``consteval`` function in a default argument. This
fixes `Issue 48230 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/48230>`_.
- Fixed memory leak due to ``VarTemplateSpecializationDecl`` using
``TemplateArgumentListInfo`` instead of ``ASTTemplateArgumentListInfo``.
- An initializer for a static variable declaration, which is nested
inside a statement expression in an aggregate initializer, is now
emitted as a dynamic initializer. Previously the variable would
incorrectly be zero-initialized. In contexts where a dynamic
initializer is not allowed this is now diagnosed as an error.
- Clang now correctly emits symbols for implicitly instantiated constexpr
template function. Fixes `Issue 55560 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/55560>`_.
- Clang now checks ODR violations when merging concepts from different modules.
Note that this may possibly break existing code, and is done so intentionally.
Fixes `Issue 56310 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/56310>`_.
- Clang will now look through type sugar when checking a member function is a
move assignment operator. Fixes `Issue 56456 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/56456>`_.
- Fixed a crash when a variable with a bool enum type that has no definition
used in comparison operators. Fixes `Issue 56560 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/56560>`_.
- Fix that ``if consteval`` could evaluate to ``true`` at runtime because it was incorrectly
constant folded. Fixes `Issue 55638 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/55638>`_.
- Fixed incompatibility of Clang's ``<stdatomic.h>`` with MSVC ``<atomic>``.
Fixes `MSVC STL Issue 2862 <https://github.com/microsoft/STL/issues/2862>`_.
- Empty enums and enums with a single enumerator with value zero will be
considered to have one positive bit in order to represent the underlying
value. This effects whether we consider the store of the value one to be well
defined.
- An operator introduced to the scope via a ``using`` statement now correctly references this
statement in clangd (hover over the symbol, jump to definition) as well as in the AST dump.
This also fixes `issue 55095 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/#55095>`_ as a
side-effect.
- When including a PCH from a GCC style directory with multiple alternative PCH
files, Clang now requires all defines set on the command line while generating
the PCH and when including it to match. This matches GCC's behaviour.
Previously Clang would tolerate defines to be set when creating the PCH but
missing when used, or vice versa. This makes sure that Clang picks the
correct one, where it previously would consider multiple ones as potentially
acceptable (and erroneously use whichever one is tried first).
- Fix a crash when generating code coverage information for an
``if consteval`` statement. This fixes
`Issue 57377 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/57377>`_.
- Fix a crash when a ``btf_type_tag`` attribute is applied to the pointee of
a function pointer.
- Clang 14 predeclared some builtin POSIX library functions in ``gnu2x`` mode,
and Clang 15 accidentally stopped predeclaring those functions in that
language mode. Clang 16 now predeclares those functions again. This fixes
`Issue 56607 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/56607>`_.
Improvements to Clang's diagnostics
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- ``-Wliteral-range`` will warn on floating-point equality comparisons with
constants that are not representable in a casted value. For example,
``(float) f == 0.1`` is always false.
- ``-Winline-namespace-reopened-noninline`` now takes into account that the
``inline`` keyword must appear on the original but not necessarily all
extension definitions of an inline namespace and therefore points its note
at the original definition. This fixes `Issue 50794 (PR51452)
<https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/50794>`_.
- ``-Wunused-but-set-variable`` now also warns if the variable is only used
by unary operators.
- ``-Wunused-variable`` no longer warn for references extending the lifetime
of temporaries with side effects. This fixes `Issue 54489
<https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/54489>`_.
- Modified the behavior of ``-Wstrict-prototypes`` and added a new, related
diagnostic ``-Wdeprecated-non-prototype``. The strict prototypes warning will
now only diagnose deprecated declarations and definitions of functions
without a prototype where the behavior in C2x will remain correct. This
diagnostic remains off by default but is now enabled via ``-pedantic`` due to
it being a deprecation warning. ``-Wstrict-prototypes`` has no effect in C2x
or when ``-fno-knr-functions`` is enabled. ``-Wdeprecated-non-prototype``
will diagnose cases where the deprecated declarations or definitions of a
function without a prototype will change behavior in C2x. Additionally, it
will diagnose calls which pass arguments to a function without a prototype.
This warning is enabled only when the ``-Wdeprecated-non-prototype`` option
is enabled at the function declaration site, which allows a developer to
disable the diagnostic for all callers at the point of declaration. This
diagnostic is grouped under the ``-Wstrict-prototypes`` warning group, but is
enabled by default. ``-Wdeprecated-non-prototype`` has no effect in C2x or
when ``-fno-knr-functions`` is enabled.
- Clang now appropriately issues an error in C when a definition of a function
without a prototype and with no arguments is an invalid redeclaration of a
function with a prototype. e.g., ``void f(int); void f() {}`` is now properly
diagnosed.
- No longer issue a "declaration specifiers missing, defaulting to int"
diagnostic in C89 mode because it is not an extension in C89, it was valid
code. The diagnostic has been removed entirely as it did not have a
diagnostic group to disable it, but it can be covered wholly by
``-Wimplicit-int``.
- ``-Wmisexpect`` warns when the branch weights collected during profiling
conflict with those added by ``llvm.expect``.
- ``-Wthread-safety-analysis`` now considers overloaded compound assignment and
increment/decrement operators as writing to their first argument, thus
requiring an exclusive lock if the argument is guarded.
- ``-Wenum-conversion`` now warns on converting a signed enum of one type to an
unsigned enum of a different type (or vice versa) rather than
``-Wsign-conversion``.
- Added the ``-Wunreachable-code-generic-assoc`` diagnostic flag (grouped under
the ``-Wunreachable-code`` flag) which is enabled by default and warns the
user about ``_Generic`` selection associations which are unreachable because
the type specified is an array type or a qualified type.
- Added the ``-Wgnu-line-marker`` diagnostic flag (grouped under the ``-Wgnu``
flag) which is a portability warning about use of GNU linemarker preprocessor
directives. Fixes `Issue 55067 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/55067>`_.
- Using ``#warning``, ``#elifdef`` and ``#elifndef`` that are incompatible with C/C++
standards before C2x/C++2b are now warned via ``-pedantic``. Additionally,
on such language mode, ``-Wpre-c2x-compat`` and ``-Wpre-c++2b-compat``
diagnostic flags report a compatibility issue.
Fixes `Issue 55306 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/55306>`_.
- Clang now checks for stack resource exhaustion when recursively parsing
declarators in order to give a diagnostic before we run out of stack space.
This fixes `Issue 51642 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/51642>`_.
- Unknown preprocessor directives in a skipped conditional block are now given
a typo correction suggestion if the given directive is sufficiently similar
to another preprocessor conditional directive. For example, if ``#esle``
appears in a skipped block, we will warn about the unknown directive and
suggest ``#else`` as an alternative. ``#elifdef`` and ``#elifndef`` are only
suggested when in C2x or C++2b mode. Fixes
`Issue 51598 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/51598>`_.
- The ``-Wdeprecated`` diagnostic will now warn on out-of-line ``constexpr``
declarations downgraded to definitions in C++1z, in addition to the
existing warning on out-of-line ``const`` declarations.
- ``-Wshift-overflow`` will not warn for signed left shifts in C++20 mode
(and newer), as it will always wrap and never overflow. This fixes
`Issue 52873 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/52873>`_.
- When using class templates without arguments, clang now tells developers
that template arguments are missing in certain contexts.
This fixes `Issue 55962 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/55962>`_.
- Printable Unicode characters within ``static_assert`` messages are no longer
escaped.
- The ``-Winfinite-recursion`` diagnostic no longer warns about
unevaluated operands of a ``typeid`` expression, as they are now
modeled correctly in the CFG. This fixes
`Issue 21668 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/21668>`_.
- ``-Wself-assign``, ``-Wself-assign-overloaded`` and ``-Wself-move`` will
suggest a fix if the decl being assigned is a parameter that shadows a data
member of the contained class.
- Added ``-Winvalid-utf8`` which diagnoses invalid UTF-8 code unit sequences in
comments.
- The ``-Wint-conversion`` warning diagnostic for implicit int <-> pointer
conversions now defaults to an error in all C language modes. It may be
downgraded to a warning with ``-Wno-error=int-conversion``, or disabled
entirely with ``-Wno-int-conversion``.
- Deprecated lax vector conversions for Altivec vectors.
The default behaviour with respect to these conversions
will switch to disable them in an upcoming release.
- On AIX, only emit XL compatibility warning when 16 byte aligned structs are
pass-by-value function arguments.
Non-comprehensive list of changes in this release
-------------------------------------------------
- Improve ``__builtin_dump_struct``:
- Support bitfields in struct and union.
- Improve the dump format, dump both bitwidth (if its a bitfield) and field
value.
- Remove anonymous tag locations and flatten anonymous struct members.
- Beautify dump format, add indent for struct members.
- Support passing additional arguments to the formatting function, allowing
use with ``fprintf`` and similar formatting functions.
- Support use within constant evaluation in C++, if a ``constexpr``
formatting function is provided.
- Support formatting of base classes in C++.
- Support calling a formatting function template in C++, which can provide
custom formatting for non-aggregate types.
- Previously disabled sanitizer options now enabled by default:
- ``ASAN_OPTIONS=detect_stack_use_after_return=1`` (only on Linux).
- ``MSAN_OPTIONS=poison_in_dtor=1``.
- Some type-trait builtins, such as ``__has_trivial_assign``, have been documented
as deprecated for a while because their semantics don't mix well with post-C++11 type-traits.
Clang now emits deprecation warnings for them under the flag ``-Wdeprecated-builtins``.
New Compiler Flags
------------------
- Added the ``-fno-knr-functions`` flag to allow users to opt into the C2x
behavior where a function with an empty parameter list is treated as though
the parameter list were ``void``. There is no ``-fknr-functions`` or
``-fno-no-knr-functions`` flag; this feature cannot be disabled in language
modes where it is required, such as C++ or C2x.
- A new ARM pass to workaround Cortex-A57 Erratum 1742098 and Cortex-A72 Erratum
1655431 can be enabled using ``-mfix-cortex-a57-aes-1742098`` or
``-mfix-cortex-a72-aes-1655431``. The pass is enabled when using either of
these cpus with ``-mcpu=`` and can be disabled using
``-mno-fix-cortex-a57-aes-1742098`` or ``-mno-fix-cortex-a72-aes-1655431``.
- Added the ``-fexperimental-max-bitint-width=`` option to increase the maximum
allowed bit width of ``_BitInt`` types beyond the default of 128 bits. Some
operations, such as division or float-to-integer conversion, on ``_BitInt``
types with more than 128 bits currently crash clang. This option will be
removed in the future once clang supports all such operations.
- Added the ``-print-diagnostic-options`` option, which prints a list of
warnings the compiler supports.
- Added the ``-Warray-parameter`` warning. It diagnoses differences between
array parameters between function redeclarations (arrays of different extents,
etc). This flag is related to the same flag in GCC, but is different in that
it does not accept an explicitly- specified warning level and use of this flag
has no effect on ``-Warray-bounds``.
Deprecated Compiler Flags
-------------------------
Modified Compiler Flags
-----------------------
Removed Compiler Flags
-------------------------
- Removed the ``-fno-concept-satisfaction-caching`` flag. The flag was added
at the time when the draft of C++20 standard did not permit caching of
atomic constraints. The final standard permits such caching, see
`WG21 P2104R0 <http://wg21.link/p2104r0>`_.
New Pragmas in Clang
--------------------
- Added support for MSVC's ``#pragma function``, which tells the compiler to
generate calls to functions listed in the pragma instead of using the
builtins.
- Added support for MSVC's ``#pragma alloc_text``. The pragma names the code
section functions are placed in. The pragma only applies to functions with
C linkage.
- Added support for an empty optimization list for MSVC's ``#pragma optimize``.
The pragma takes a list of optimizations to turn on or off which applies to
all functions following the pragma. At the moment, only an empty list is
supported.
- ...
Attribute Changes in Clang
--------------------------
- Added support for parameter pack expansion in ``clang::annotate``.
- The ``overloadable`` attribute can now be written in all of the syntactic
locations a declaration attribute may appear.
This fixes `Issue 53805 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/53805>`_.
- Improved namespace attributes handling:
- Handle GNU attributes before a namespace identifier and subsequent
attributes of different kinds.
- Emit error on GNU attributes for a nested namespace definition.
- Statement attributes ``[[clang::noinline]]`` and ``[[clang::always_inline]]``
can be used to control inlining decisions at callsites.
- ``#pragma clang attribute push`` now supports multiple attributes within a single directive.
- The ``__declspec(naked)`` attribute can no longer be written on a member
function in Microsoft compatibility mode, matching the behavior of cl.exe.
- Attribute ``no_builtin`` should now affect the generated code. It now disables
builtins (corresponding to the specific names listed in the attribute) in the
body of the function the attribute is on.
- When the ``weak`` attribute is applied to a const qualified variable clang no longer
tells the backend it is allowed to optimize based on initializer value.
- Added the ``clang::annotate_type`` attribute, which can be used to add
annotations to types (see documentation for details).
- Added half float to types that can be represented by ``__attribute__((mode(XX)))``.
- The ``format`` attribute can now be applied to non-variadic functions. The
format string must correctly format the fixed parameter types of the function.
Using the attribute this way emits a GCC compatibility diagnostic.
- Support was added for ``__attribute__((function_return("thunk-extern")))``
to X86 to replace ``ret`` instructions with ``jmp __x86_return_thunk``. The
corresponding attribute to disable this,
``__attribute__((function_return("keep")))`` was added. This is intended to
be used by the Linux kernel to mitigate RETBLEED.
- Ignore the ``__preferred_name__`` attribute when writing for C++20 module interfaces.
This is a short-term workaround intentionally since clang doesn't take care of the
serialization and deserialization of ``__preferred_name__``. See
https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/56490 for example.
Windows Support
---------------
- Add support for MSVC-compatible ``/JMC``/``/JMC-`` flag in clang-cl (supports
X86/X64/ARM/ARM64). ``/JMC`` could only be used when ``/Zi`` or ``/Z7`` is
turned on. With this addition, clang-cl can be used in Visual Studio for the
JustMyCode feature. Note, you may need to manually add ``/JMC`` as additional
compile options in the Visual Studio since it currently assumes clang-cl does not support ``/JMC``.
- Implemented generation of SEH unwind information on ARM. (C++ exception
handling in MSVC mode is still unimplemented though.)
- Switched MinGW mode on ARM to use SEH instead of DWARF for unwind information.
AIX Support
-----------
- The driver no longer adds ``-mignore-xcoff-visibility`` by default for AIX
targets when no other visibility command-line options are in effect, as
ignoring hidden visibility can silently have undesirable side effects (e.g
when libraries depend on visibility to hide non-ABI facing entities). The
``-mignore-xcoff-visibility`` option can be manually specified on the
command-line to recover the previous behavior if desired.
C Language Changes in Clang
---------------------------
C2x Feature Support
-------------------
- Implemented `WG14 N2674 The noreturn attribute <http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2764.pdf>`_.
- Implemented `WG14 N2935 Make false and true first-class language features <http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2935.pdf>`_.
- Implemented `WG14 N2763 Adding a fundamental type for N-bit integers <http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2763.pdf>`_.
- Implemented `WG14 N2775 Literal suffixes for bit-precise integers <http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2775.pdf>`_.
- Implemented the ``*_WIDTH`` macros to complete support for
`WG14 N2412 Two's complement sign representation for C2x <https://www9.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2412.pdf>`_.
- Implemented `WG14 N2418 Adding the u8 character prefix <http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2418.pdf>`_.
- Removed support for implicit function declarations. This was a C89 feature
that was removed in C99, but cannot be supported in C2x because it requires
support for functions without prototypes, which no longer exist in C2x.
- Implemented `WG14 N2841 No function declarators without prototypes <https://www9.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2841.htm>`_
and `WG14 N2432 Remove support for function definitions with identifier lists <https://www9.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2432.pdf>`_.
- Implemented `WG14 N2836 Identifier Syntax using Unicode Standard Annex 31 <https://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2836.pdf>`_.
C++ Language Changes in Clang
-----------------------------
- Improved ``-O0`` code generation for calls to ``std::move``, ``std::forward``,
``std::move_if_noexcept``, ``std::addressof``, and ``std::as_const``. These
are now treated as compiler builtins and implemented directly, rather than
instantiating the definition from the standard library.
- Fixed mangling of nested dependent names such as ``T::a::b``, where ``T`` is a
template parameter, to conform to the Itanium C++ ABI and be compatible with
GCC. This breaks binary compatibility with code compiled with earlier versions
of clang; use the ``-fclang-abi-compat=14`` option to get the old mangling.
- Preprocessor character literals with a ``u8`` prefix are now correctly treated as
unsigned character literals. This fixes `Issue 54886 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/54886>`_.
- Stopped allowing constraints on non-template functions to be compliant with
dcl.decl.general p4.
- Improved `copy elision` optimization. It's possible to apply `NRVO` for an object if at the moment when
any return statement of this object is executed, the `return slot` won't be occupied by another object.
C++20 Feature Support
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- Diagnose consteval and constexpr issues that happen at namespace scope. This
partially addresses `Issue 51593 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/51593>`_.
- No longer attempt to evaluate a consteval UDL function call at runtime when
it is called through a template instantiation. This fixes
`Issue 54578 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/54578>`_.
- Implemented ``__builtin_source_location()``, which enables library support
for ``std::source_location``.
- The mangling scheme for C++20 modules has incompatibly changed. The
initial mangling was discovered not to be reversible, and the weak
ownership design decision did not give the backwards compatibility
that was hoped for. C++20 since added ``extern "C++"`` semantics
that can be used for such compatibility. The demangler now demangles
symbols with named module attachment.
- Enhanced the support for C++20 Modules, including: Partitions,
Reachability, Header Unit and ``extern "C++"`` semantics.
- Implemented `P1103R3: Merging Modules <https://wg21.link/P1103R3>`_.
- Implemented `P1779R3: ABI isolation for member functions <https://wg21.link/P1779R3>`_.
- Implemented `P1874R1: Dynamic Initialization Order of Non-Local Variables in Modules <https://wg21.link/P1874R1>`_.
- Partially implemented `P1815R2: Translation-unit-local entities <https://wg21.link/P1815R2>`_.
- As per "Conditionally Trivial Special Member Functions" (P0848), it is
now possible to overload destructors using concepts. Note that the rest
of the paper about other special member functions is not yet implemented.
- Skip rebuilding lambda expressions in arguments of immediate invocations.
This fixes `GH56183 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/56183>`_,
`GH51695 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/51695>`_,
`GH50455 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/50455>`_,
`GH54872 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/54872>`_,
`GH54587 <https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/54587>`_.
C++2b Feature Support
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- Implemented `P2128R6: Multidimensional subscript operator <https://wg21.link/P2128R6>`_.
- Implemented `P0849R8: auto(x): decay-copy in the language <https://wg21.link/P0849R8>`_.
- Implemented `P2242R3: Non-literal variables (and labels and gotos) in constexpr functions <https://wg21.link/P2242R3>`_.
- Implemented `LWG3659: Consider ATOMIC_FLAG_INIT undeprecation <https://wg21.link/LWG3659>`_.
- Implemented `P2290R3 Delimited escape sequences <https://wg21.link/P2290R3>`_.
This feature is available as an extension in all C and C++ language modes.
- Implemented `P2071R2 Named universal character escapes <https://wg21.link/P2290R2>`_.
This feature is available as an extension in all C and C++ language modes.
- Implemented `P2327R1 De-deprecating volatile compound operations <https://wg21.link/P2327R1>`_
CUDA/HIP Language Changes in Clang
----------------------------------
- Added ``__noinline__`` as a keyword to avoid diagnostics due to usage of
``__attribute__((__noinline__))`` in CUDA/HIP programs.
Objective-C Language Changes in Clang
-------------------------------------
OpenCL Kernel Language Changes in Clang
---------------------------------------
- Improved/fixed misc issues in the builtin function support and diagnostics.
- Improved diagnostics for unknown extension pragma, subgroup functions and
implicit function prototype.
- Added ``-cl-ext`` flag to the Clang driver to toggle extensions/features
compiled for.
- Added ``cl_khr_subgroup_rotate`` extension.
- Removed some ``printf`` and ``hostcall`` related diagnostics when compiling
for AMDGPU.
- Fixed alignment of pointer types in kernel arguments.
ABI Changes in Clang
--------------------
- When compiling C for ARM or AArch64, a zero-length bitfield in a ``struct``
(e.g. ``int : 0``) no longer prevents the structure from being considered a
homogeneous floating-point or vector aggregate. The new behavior agrees with
the AAPCS specification, and matches the similar bug fix in GCC 12.1.
- Targeting AArch64, since D127209 LLVM now only preserves the z8-z23
and p4-p15 registers across a call if the registers z0-z7 or p0-p3 are
used to pass data into or out of a subroutine. The new behavior
matches the AAPCS. Previously LLVM preserved z8-z23 and p4-p15 across
a call if the callee had an SVE type anywhere in its signature. This
would cause an incorrect use of the caller-preserved z8-z23 and p4-p15
ABI for example if the 9th argument or greater were the first SVE type
in the signature of a function.
- All copy constructors can now be trivial if they are not user-provided,
regardless of the type qualifiers of the argument of the defaulted constructor,
fixing dr2171.
You can switch back to the old ABI behavior with the flag:
``-fclang-abi-compat=14.0``.
OpenMP Support in Clang
-----------------------
* Added the support for ``atomic compare`` and ``atomic compare capture``
(``-fopenmp-version=51`` is required).
...
CUDA Support in Clang
---------------------
- ...
X86 Support in Clang
--------------------
- Support ``-mharden-sls=[none|all|return|indirect-jmp]`` for straight-line
speculation hardening.
- Support for the ``_Float16`` type has been added for all targets with SSE2.
When AVX512-FP16 is not available, arithmetic on ``_Float16`` is emulated
using ``float``.
- Added the ``-m[no-]rdpru`` flag to enable/disable the RDPRU instruction
provided by AMD Zen2 and later processors. Defined intrinsics for using
this instruction (see rdpruintrin.h).
- Support ``-mstack-protector-guard-symbol=[SymbolName]`` to use the given
symbol for addressing the stack protector guard.
- ``-mfunction-return=thunk-extern`` support was added to clang for x86. This
will be used by Linux kernel mitigations for RETBLEED. The corresponding flag
``-mfunction-return=keep`` may be appended to disable the feature.
The ``_Float16`` type requires SSE2 feature and above due to the instruction
limitations. When using it on i386 targets, you need to specify ``-msse2``
explicitly.
For targets without F16C feature or above, please make sure:
- Use GCC 12.0 and above if you are using libgcc.
- If you are using compiler-rt, use the same version with the compiler.
Early versions provided FP16 builtins in a different ABI. A workaround is to use
a small code snippet to check the ABI if you cannot make sure of it.
- If you are using downstream runtimes that provide FP16 conversions, update
them with the new ABI.
DWARF Support in Clang
----------------------
- clang now adds DWARF information for inline strings in C/C++ programs,
allowing ``line:column`` symbolization of strings. Some debugging programs may
require updating, as this takes advantage of DWARF ``DW_TAG_variable``
structures *without* a ``DW_AT_name`` field, which is valid DWARF, but may be
handled incorrectly by some software (e.g. new failures with incorrect
assertions).
Arm and AArch64 Support in Clang
--------------------------------
- clang now supports the Cortex-M85 CPU, which can be chosen with
``-mcpu=cortex-m85``. By default, this has PACBTI turned on, but it can be
disabled with ``-mcpu=cortex-m85+nopacbti``.
- clang now supports using C/C++ operators on sizeless SVE vectors such as
``svint32_t``. The set of supported operators is shown in the table Vector
Operations found in the :ref:`Clang Language Extensions <Vector Operations>`
document.
RISC-V Support in Clang
-----------------------
- Updates to the RISC-V vector intrinsics to align with ongoing additions to
the RISC-V Vector intrinsics specification. Additionally, these intrinsics
are now generated lazily, resulting a substantial improvement in
compile-time for code including the vector intrinsics header.
- Intrinsics added for the RISC-V scalar crypto ('K') extensions.
- Intrinsics added for the RISC-V CLZ and CTZ instructions in the Zbb
extension.
- An ABI lowering bug (resulting in incorrect LLVM IR generation) was fixed.
The bug could be triggered in particular circumstances in C++ when passing a
data-only struct that inherits from another struct.
SPIR-V Support in Clang
-----------------------
- Added flag ``-fintegrated-objemitter`` to enable use of experimental
integrated LLVM backend when generating SPIR-V binary.
- The SPIR-V generator continues to produce typed pointers in this release
despite the general switch of LLVM to opaque pointers.
Floating Point Support in Clang
-------------------------------
Internal API Changes
--------------------
- Added a new attribute flag ``AcceptsExprPack`` that when set allows
expression pack expansions in the parsed arguments of the corresponding
attribute. Additionally it introduces delaying of attribute arguments, adding
common handling for creating attributes that cannot be fully initialized
prior to template instantiation.
Build System Changes
--------------------
* CMake ``-DCLANG_DEFAULT_PIE_ON_LINUX=ON`` is now the default. This is used by
linux-gnu systems to decide whether ``-fPIE -pie`` is the default (instead of
``-fno-pic -no-pie``). This matches GCC installations on many Linux distros.
Note: linux-android and linux-musl always default to ``-fPIE -pie``, ignoring
this variable. ``-DCLANG_DEFAULT_PIE_ON_LINUX`` may be removed in the future.
AST Matchers
------------
- Expanded ``isInline`` narrowing matcher to support C++17 inline variables.
- Added ``forEachTemplateArgument`` matcher which creates a match every
time a ``templateArgument`` matches the matcher supplied to it.
- Added ``objcStringLiteral`` matcher which matches ObjectiveC String
literal expressions.
clang-format
------------
- **Important change**: Renamed ``IndentRequires`` to ``IndentRequiresClause``
and changed the default for all styles from ``false`` to ``true``.
- Reworked and improved handling of concepts and requires. Added the
``RequiresClausePosition`` option as part of that.
- Changed ``BreakBeforeConceptDeclarations`` from ``Boolean`` to an enum.
- Option ``InsertBraces`` has been added to insert optional braces after control
statements.
clang-extdef-mapping
--------------------
- clang-extdef-mapping now accepts .ast files as input. This is faster than to
recompile the files from sources when extracting method definitons. This can
be really beneficial when creating .ast files for input to the clang-static-analyzer.
libclang
--------
- Introduce new option ``CLANG_FORCE_MATCHING_LIBCLANG_SOVERSION`` that defaults to ON.
This means that by default libclang's SOVERSION matches the major version of LLVM.
Setting this to OFF makes the SOVERSION be the ABI compatible version (currently 13).
See `discussion <https://discourse.llvm.org/t/rationale-for-removing-versioned-libclang-middle-ground-to-keep-it-behind-option/64410>`_
here.
Static Analyzer
---------------
- `New CTU implementation
<https://discourse.llvm.org/t/rfc-much-faster-cross-translation-unit-ctu-analysis-implementation/61728>`_
that keeps the slow-down around 2x compared to the single-TU analysis, even
in case of complex C++ projects. Still, it finds the majority of the "old"
CTU findings. Besides, not more than ~3% of the bug reports are lost compared
to single-TU analysis, the lost reports are highly likely to be false
positives.
- Added a new checker ``alpha.unix.cstring.UninitializedRead`` this will check for uninitialized reads
from common memory copy/manipulation functions such as ``memcpy``, ``mempcpy``, ``memmove``, ``memcmp``,
``strcmp``, ``strncmp``, ``strcpy``, ``strlen``, ``strsep`` and many more. Although
this checker currently is in list of alpha checkers due to a false positive.
- Added a new checker ``alpha.unix.Errno``. This can find the first read
of ``errno`` after successful standard function calls, such use of ``errno``
could be unsafe.
- Deprecate the ``-analyzer-store region`` and
``-analyzer-opt-analyze-nested-blocks`` analyzer flags.
These flags are still accepted, but a warning will be displayed.
These flags will be rejected, thus turned into a hard error starting with
``clang-16``.
.. _release-notes-ubsan:
Undefined Behavior Sanitizer (UBSan)
------------------------------------
Core Analysis Improvements
==========================
- ...
New Issues Found
================
- ...
Python Binding Changes
----------------------
The following methods have been added:
- ...
Significant Known Problems
==========================
Additional Information
======================
A wide variety of additional information is available on the `Clang web
page <https://clang.llvm.org/>`_. The web page contains versions of the
API documentation which are up-to-date with the Git version of
the source code. You can access versions of these documents specific to
this release by going into the "``clang/docs/``" directory in the Clang
tree.
If you have any questions or comments about Clang, please feel free to
contact us on the `Discourse forums (Clang Frontend category)
<https://discourse.llvm.org/c/clang/6>`_.
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