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<!--*********************************************************************-->
<h1>"libc++" C++ Standard Library</h1>
<!--*********************************************************************-->
<p>libc++ is a new implementation of the C++ standard library, targeting
C++0X.</p>
<p>All of the code in libc++ is <a
href="http://llvm.org/docs/DeveloperPolicy.html#license">dual licensed</a>
under the MIT license and the UIUC License (a BSD-like license).</p>
<!--=====================================================================-->
<h2 id="goals">Features and Goals</h2>
<!--=====================================================================-->
<ul>
<li>Correctness as defined by the (currently draft) C++0X standard.</li>
<li>Fast execution.</li>
<li>Minimal memory use.</li>
<li>Fast compile times.</li>
<li>ABI compatibility with gcc's libstdc++ for some low-level features
such as exception objects, rtti and memory allocation.</li>
<li>Extensive unit tests.</li>
</ul>
<!--=====================================================================-->
<h2 id="why">Why a new C++ Standard Library for C++'0x?</h2>
<!--=====================================================================-->
<p>After its initial introduction, many people have asked "why start a new
library instead of contributing to an existing library?" (like Apache's
libstdcxx, GNU's libstdc++, STLport, etc). There are many contributing
reasons, but some of the major ones are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>From years of experience (including having implemented the standard
library before), we've learned many things about implementing
the standard containers which require ABI breakage and fundamental changes
to how they are implemented. For example, it is generally accepted that
building std::string using the "short string optimization" instead of
using Copy On Write (COW) is a superior approach for multicore
machines (particularly in C++'0x, which has rvalue references). Breaking
ABI compatibility with old versions of the library was
determined to be critical to achieving the performance goals of
libc++.</p></li>
<li><p>Mainline libstdc++ has switched to GPL3, a license which the developers
of libc++ cannot use. libstdc++ 4.2 (the last GPL2 version) could be
independently extended to support C++'0x, but this would be a fork of the
codebase (which is often seen as worse for a project than starting a new
independent one). Another problem with libstdc++ is that it is tightly
integrated with G++ development, tending to be tied fairly closely to the
matching version of G++.</p>
</li>
<li><p>STLport and the Apache libstdcxx library are two other popular
candidates, but both lack C++'0x support. Our experience (and the
experience of libstdc++ developers) is that adding support for C++0x (in
particular rvalue references and move-only types) requires changes to
almost every class and function, essentially amounting to a rewrite.
Faced with a rewrite, we decided to start from scratch and evaluate every
design decision from first principles based on experience.</p>
<p>Further, both projects are apparently abandoned: STLport 5.2.1 was
released in Oct'08, and STDCXX 4.2.1 in May'08.</p>
</ul>
<!--=====================================================================-->
<h2 id="requirements">Platform Support</h2>
<!--=====================================================================-->
<p>libc++ is known to work on the following platforms, using g++-4.2 and
clang (lack of C++0X language support disables some functionality).</p>
<ul>
<li>Mac OS X i386</li>
<li>Mac OS X x86_64</li>
</ul>
<!--=====================================================================-->
<h2 id="dir-structure">Current Status</h2>
<!--=====================================================================-->
<p>libc++ is still under development. It has about 98% of
<a href="http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2010/n3126.pdf">N3126</a>
implemented/tested. C++'98 support is fully featured, and most of C++'0x
support is as well. The only major missing piece of C++'0x support is
<code><atomic></code>.</p>
<p>libc++ is currently dependent upon a separate library for the low-level
ABI compatibility with gcc. As a workaround it can be linked against
gcc's libstdc++, or on Mac OS X
<a href="http://home.roadrunner.com/~hinnant/libcppabi.zip">this library</a>.</p>
<p><a href="libcxx_by_chapter.pdf">Here</a> is a by-chapter breakdown of what
is passing tests and what isn't. This chart is currently based on testing
against g++-4.4.0 with -std=c++0x. </p>
<!--=====================================================================-->
<h2>Get it and get involved!</h2>
<!--=====================================================================-->
<p>To check out the code, use:</p>
<ul>
<li><code>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/libcxx/trunk libcxx</code></li>
<li><code>cd libcxx/lib</code></li>
<li><code>./buildit</code></li>
</ul>
<p>To run the libc++ test suit (recommended):</p>
<ul>
<li><code>cd libcxx/test</code></li>
<li><code>./testit</code></li>
</ul>
<p>Send discussions to the
(<a href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/cfe-dev">clang mailing list</a>).</p>
<!--=====================================================================-->
<h2>Design Documents</h2>
<!--=====================================================================-->
<ul>
<li><a href="atomic_design.html"><tt><atomic></tt></a></li>
</ul>
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