1FileCheck - Flexible pattern matching file verifier
2===================================================
3
4SYNOPSIS
5--------
6
7:program:`FileCheck` *match-filename* [*--check-prefix=XXX*] [*--strict-whitespace*]
8
9DESCRIPTION
10-----------
11
12:program:`FileCheck` reads two files (one from standard input, and one
13specified on the command line) and uses one to verify the other.  This
14behavior is particularly useful for the testsuite, which wants to verify that
15the output of some tool (e.g. :program:`llc`) contains the expected information
16(for example, a movsd from esp or whatever is interesting).  This is similar to
17using :program:`grep`, but it is optimized for matching multiple different
18inputs in one file in a specific order.
19
20The ``match-filename`` file specifies the file that contains the patterns to
21match.  The file to verify is read from standard input unless the
22:option:`--input-file` option is used.
23
24OPTIONS
25-------
26
27.. option:: -help
28
29 Print a summary of command line options.
30
31.. option:: --check-prefix prefix
32
33 FileCheck searches the contents of ``match-filename`` for patterns to
34 match.  By default, these patterns are prefixed with "``CHECK:``".
35 If you'd like to use a different prefix (e.g. because the same input
36 file is checking multiple different tool or options), the
37 :option:`--check-prefix` argument allows you to specify one or more
38 prefixes to match. Multiple prefixes are useful for tests which might
39 change for different run options, but most lines remain the same.
40
41.. option:: --input-file filename
42
43  File to check (defaults to stdin).
44
45.. option:: --strict-whitespace
46
47 By default, FileCheck canonicalizes input horizontal whitespace (spaces and
48 tabs) which causes it to ignore these differences (a space will match a tab).
49 The :option:`--strict-whitespace` argument disables this behavior. End-of-line
50 sequences are canonicalized to UNIX-style ``\n`` in all modes.
51
52.. option:: --implicit-check-not check-pattern
53
54  Adds implicit negative checks for the specified patterns between positive
55  checks. The option allows writing stricter tests without stuffing them with
56  ``CHECK-NOT``\ s.
57
58  For example, "``--implicit-check-not warning:``" can be useful when testing
59  diagnostic messages from tools that don't have an option similar to ``clang
60  -verify``. With this option FileCheck will verify that input does not contain
61  warnings not covered by any ``CHECK:`` patterns.
62
63.. option:: -version
64
65 Show the version number of this program.
66
67EXIT STATUS
68-----------
69
70If :program:`FileCheck` verifies that the file matches the expected contents,
71it exits with 0.  Otherwise, if not, or if an error occurs, it will exit with a
72non-zero value.
73
74TUTORIAL
75--------
76
77FileCheck is typically used from LLVM regression tests, being invoked on the RUN
78line of the test.  A simple example of using FileCheck from a RUN line looks
79like this:
80
81.. code-block:: llvm
82
83   ; RUN: llvm-as < %s | llc -march=x86-64 | FileCheck %s
84
85This syntax says to pipe the current file ("``%s``") into ``llvm-as``, pipe
86that into ``llc``, then pipe the output of ``llc`` into ``FileCheck``.  This
87means that FileCheck will be verifying its standard input (the llc output)
88against the filename argument specified (the original ``.ll`` file specified by
89"``%s``").  To see how this works, let's look at the rest of the ``.ll`` file
90(after the RUN line):
91
92.. code-block:: llvm
93
94   define void @sub1(i32* %p, i32 %v) {
95   entry:
96   ; CHECK: sub1:
97   ; CHECK: subl
98           %0 = tail call i32 @llvm.atomic.load.sub.i32.p0i32(i32* %p, i32 %v)
99           ret void
100   }
101
102   define void @inc4(i64* %p) {
103   entry:
104   ; CHECK: inc4:
105   ; CHECK: incq
106           %0 = tail call i64 @llvm.atomic.load.add.i64.p0i64(i64* %p, i64 1)
107           ret void
108   }
109
110Here you can see some "``CHECK:``" lines specified in comments.  Now you can
111see how the file is piped into ``llvm-as``, then ``llc``, and the machine code
112output is what we are verifying.  FileCheck checks the machine code output to
113verify that it matches what the "``CHECK:``" lines specify.
114
115The syntax of the "``CHECK:``" lines is very simple: they are fixed strings that
116must occur in order.  FileCheck defaults to ignoring horizontal whitespace
117differences (e.g. a space is allowed to match a tab) but otherwise, the contents
118of the "``CHECK:``" line is required to match some thing in the test file exactly.
119
120One nice thing about FileCheck (compared to grep) is that it allows merging
121test cases together into logical groups.  For example, because the test above
122is checking for the "``sub1:``" and "``inc4:``" labels, it will not match
123unless there is a "``subl``" in between those labels.  If it existed somewhere
124else in the file, that would not count: "``grep subl``" matches if "``subl``"
125exists anywhere in the file.
126
127The FileCheck -check-prefix option
128~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
129
130The FileCheck :option:`-check-prefix` option allows multiple test
131configurations to be driven from one `.ll` file.  This is useful in many
132circumstances, for example, testing different architectural variants with
133:program:`llc`.  Here's a simple example:
134
135.. code-block:: llvm
136
137   ; RUN: llvm-as < %s | llc -mtriple=i686-apple-darwin9 -mattr=sse41 \
138   ; RUN:              | FileCheck %s -check-prefix=X32
139   ; RUN: llvm-as < %s | llc -mtriple=x86_64-apple-darwin9 -mattr=sse41 \
140   ; RUN:              | FileCheck %s -check-prefix=X64
141
142   define <4 x i32> @pinsrd_1(i32 %s, <4 x i32> %tmp) nounwind {
143           %tmp1 = insertelement <4 x i32>; %tmp, i32 %s, i32 1
144           ret <4 x i32> %tmp1
145   ; X32: pinsrd_1:
146   ; X32:    pinsrd $1, 4(%esp), %xmm0
147
148   ; X64: pinsrd_1:
149   ; X64:    pinsrd $1, %edi, %xmm0
150   }
151
152In this case, we're testing that we get the expected code generation with
153both 32-bit and 64-bit code generation.
154
155The "CHECK-NEXT:" directive
156~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
157
158Sometimes you want to match lines and would like to verify that matches
159happen on exactly consecutive lines with no other lines in between them.  In
160this case, you can use "``CHECK:``" and "``CHECK-NEXT:``" directives to specify
161this.  If you specified a custom check prefix, just use "``<PREFIX>-NEXT:``".
162For example, something like this works as you'd expect:
163
164.. code-block:: llvm
165
166   define void @t2(<2 x double>* %r, <2 x double>* %A, double %B) {
167 	%tmp3 = load <2 x double>* %A, align 16
168 	%tmp7 = insertelement <2 x double> undef, double %B, i32 0
169 	%tmp9 = shufflevector <2 x double> %tmp3,
170                               <2 x double> %tmp7,
171                               <2 x i32> < i32 0, i32 2 >
172 	store <2 x double> %tmp9, <2 x double>* %r, align 16
173 	ret void
174
175   ; CHECK:          t2:
176   ; CHECK: 	        movl	8(%esp), %eax
177   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	movapd	(%eax), %xmm0
178   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	movhpd	12(%esp), %xmm0
179   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	movl	4(%esp), %eax
180   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	movapd	%xmm0, (%eax)
181   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	ret
182   }
183
184"``CHECK-NEXT:``" directives reject the input unless there is exactly one
185newline between it and the previous directive.  A "``CHECK-NEXT:``" cannot be
186the first directive in a file.
187
188The "CHECK-SAME:" directive
189~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
190
191Sometimes you want to match lines and would like to verify that matches happen
192on the same line as the previous match.  In this case, you can use "``CHECK:``"
193and "``CHECK-SAME:``" directives to specify this.  If you specified a custom
194check prefix, just use "``<PREFIX>-SAME:``".
195
196"``CHECK-SAME:``" is particularly powerful in conjunction with "``CHECK-NOT:``"
197(described below).
198
199For example, the following works like you'd expect:
200
201.. code-block:: llvm
202
203   !0 = !MDLocation(line: 5, scope: !1, inlinedAt: !2)
204
205   ; CHECK:       !MDLocation(line: 5,
206   ; CHECK-NOT:               column:
207   ; CHECK-SAME:              scope: ![[SCOPE:[0-9]+]]
208
209"``CHECK-SAME:``" directives reject the input if there are any newlines between
210it and the previous directive.  A "``CHECK-SAME:``" cannot be the first
211directive in a file.
212
213The "CHECK-NOT:" directive
214~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
215
216The "``CHECK-NOT:``" directive is used to verify that a string doesn't occur
217between two matches (or before the first match, or after the last match).  For
218example, to verify that a load is removed by a transformation, a test like this
219can be used:
220
221.. code-block:: llvm
222
223   define i8 @coerce_offset0(i32 %V, i32* %P) {
224     store i32 %V, i32* %P
225
226     %P2 = bitcast i32* %P to i8*
227     %P3 = getelementptr i8* %P2, i32 2
228
229     %A = load i8* %P3
230     ret i8 %A
231   ; CHECK: @coerce_offset0
232   ; CHECK-NOT: load
233   ; CHECK: ret i8
234   }
235
236The "CHECK-DAG:" directive
237~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
238
239If it's necessary to match strings that don't occur in a strictly sequential
240order, "``CHECK-DAG:``" could be used to verify them between two matches (or
241before the first match, or after the last match). For example, clang emits
242vtable globals in reverse order. Using ``CHECK-DAG:``, we can keep the checks
243in the natural order:
244
245.. code-block:: c++
246
247    // RUN: %clang_cc1 %s -emit-llvm -o - | FileCheck %s
248
249    struct Foo { virtual void method(); };
250    Foo f;  // emit vtable
251    // CHECK-DAG: @_ZTV3Foo =
252
253    struct Bar { virtual void method(); };
254    Bar b;
255    // CHECK-DAG: @_ZTV3Bar =
256
257``CHECK-NOT:`` directives could be mixed with ``CHECK-DAG:`` directives to
258exclude strings between the surrounding ``CHECK-DAG:`` directives. As a result,
259the surrounding ``CHECK-DAG:`` directives cannot be reordered, i.e. all
260occurrences matching ``CHECK-DAG:`` before ``CHECK-NOT:`` must not fall behind
261occurrences matching ``CHECK-DAG:`` after ``CHECK-NOT:``. For example,
262
263.. code-block:: llvm
264
265   ; CHECK-DAG: BEFORE
266   ; CHECK-NOT: NOT
267   ; CHECK-DAG: AFTER
268
269This case will reject input strings where ``BEFORE`` occurs after ``AFTER``.
270
271With captured variables, ``CHECK-DAG:`` is able to match valid topological
272orderings of a DAG with edges from the definition of a variable to its use.
273It's useful, e.g., when your test cases need to match different output
274sequences from the instruction scheduler. For example,
275
276.. code-block:: llvm
277
278   ; CHECK-DAG: add [[REG1:r[0-9]+]], r1, r2
279   ; CHECK-DAG: add [[REG2:r[0-9]+]], r3, r4
280   ; CHECK:     mul r5, [[REG1]], [[REG2]]
281
282In this case, any order of that two ``add`` instructions will be allowed.
283
284If you are defining `and` using variables in the same ``CHECK-DAG:`` block,
285be aware that the definition rule can match `after` its use.
286
287So, for instance, the code below will pass:
288
289.. code-block:: llvm
290
291  ; CHECK-DAG: vmov.32 [[REG2:d[0-9]+]][0]
292  ; CHECK-DAG: vmov.32 [[REG2]][1]
293  vmov.32 d0[1]
294  vmov.32 d0[0]
295
296While this other code, will not:
297
298.. code-block:: llvm
299
300  ; CHECK-DAG: vmov.32 [[REG2:d[0-9]+]][0]
301  ; CHECK-DAG: vmov.32 [[REG2]][1]
302  vmov.32 d1[1]
303  vmov.32 d0[0]
304
305While this can be very useful, it's also dangerous, because in the case of
306register sequence, you must have a strong order (read before write, copy before
307use, etc). If the definition your test is looking for doesn't match (because
308of a bug in the compiler), it may match further away from the use, and mask
309real bugs away.
310
311In those cases, to enforce the order, use a non-DAG directive between DAG-blocks.
312
313The "CHECK-LABEL:" directive
314~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
315
316Sometimes in a file containing multiple tests divided into logical blocks, one
317or more ``CHECK:`` directives may inadvertently succeed by matching lines in a
318later block. While an error will usually eventually be generated, the check
319flagged as causing the error may not actually bear any relationship to the
320actual source of the problem.
321
322In order to produce better error messages in these cases, the "``CHECK-LABEL:``"
323directive can be used. It is treated identically to a normal ``CHECK``
324directive except that FileCheck makes an additional assumption that a line
325matched by the directive cannot also be matched by any other check present in
326``match-filename``; this is intended to be used for lines containing labels or
327other unique identifiers. Conceptually, the presence of ``CHECK-LABEL`` divides
328the input stream into separate blocks, each of which is processed independently,
329preventing a ``CHECK:`` directive in one block matching a line in another block.
330For example,
331
332.. code-block:: llvm
333
334  define %struct.C* @C_ctor_base(%struct.C* %this, i32 %x) {
335  entry:
336  ; CHECK-LABEL: C_ctor_base:
337  ; CHECK: mov [[SAVETHIS:r[0-9]+]], r0
338  ; CHECK: bl A_ctor_base
339  ; CHECK: mov r0, [[SAVETHIS]]
340    %0 = bitcast %struct.C* %this to %struct.A*
341    %call = tail call %struct.A* @A_ctor_base(%struct.A* %0)
342    %1 = bitcast %struct.C* %this to %struct.B*
343    %call2 = tail call %struct.B* @B_ctor_base(%struct.B* %1, i32 %x)
344    ret %struct.C* %this
345  }
346
347  define %struct.D* @D_ctor_base(%struct.D* %this, i32 %x) {
348  entry:
349  ; CHECK-LABEL: D_ctor_base:
350
351The use of ``CHECK-LABEL:`` directives in this case ensures that the three
352``CHECK:`` directives only accept lines corresponding to the body of the
353``@C_ctor_base`` function, even if the patterns match lines found later in
354the file. Furthermore, if one of these three ``CHECK:`` directives fail,
355FileCheck will recover by continuing to the next block, allowing multiple test
356failures to be detected in a single invocation.
357
358There is no requirement that ``CHECK-LABEL:`` directives contain strings that
359correspond to actual syntactic labels in a source or output language: they must
360simply uniquely match a single line in the file being verified.
361
362``CHECK-LABEL:`` directives cannot contain variable definitions or uses.
363
364FileCheck Pattern Matching Syntax
365~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
366
367All FileCheck directives take a pattern to match.
368For most uses of FileCheck, fixed string matching is perfectly sufficient.  For
369some things, a more flexible form of matching is desired.  To support this,
370FileCheck allows you to specify regular expressions in matching strings,
371surrounded by double braces: ``{{yourregex}}``.  Because we want to use fixed
372string matching for a majority of what we do, FileCheck has been designed to
373support mixing and matching fixed string matching with regular expressions.
374This allows you to write things like this:
375
376.. code-block:: llvm
377
378   ; CHECK: movhpd	{{[0-9]+}}(%esp), {{%xmm[0-7]}}
379
380In this case, any offset from the ESP register will be allowed, and any xmm
381register will be allowed.
382
383Because regular expressions are enclosed with double braces, they are
384visually distinct, and you don't need to use escape characters within the double
385braces like you would in C.  In the rare case that you want to match double
386braces explicitly from the input, you can use something ugly like
387``{{[{][{]}}`` as your pattern.
388
389FileCheck Variables
390~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
391
392It is often useful to match a pattern and then verify that it occurs again
393later in the file.  For codegen tests, this can be useful to allow any register,
394but verify that that register is used consistently later.  To do this,
395:program:`FileCheck` allows named variables to be defined and substituted into
396patterns.  Here is a simple example:
397
398.. code-block:: llvm
399
400   ; CHECK: test5:
401   ; CHECK:    notw	[[REGISTER:%[a-z]+]]
402   ; CHECK:    andw	{{.*}}[[REGISTER]]
403
404The first check line matches a regex ``%[a-z]+`` and captures it into the
405variable ``REGISTER``.  The second line verifies that whatever is in
406``REGISTER`` occurs later in the file after an "``andw``".  :program:`FileCheck`
407variable references are always contained in ``[[ ]]`` pairs, and their names can
408be formed with the regex ``[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]*``.  If a colon follows the name,
409then it is a definition of the variable; otherwise, it is a use.
410
411:program:`FileCheck` variables can be defined multiple times, and uses always
412get the latest value.  Variables can also be used later on the same line they
413were defined on. For example:
414
415.. code-block:: llvm
416
417    ; CHECK: op [[REG:r[0-9]+]], [[REG]]
418
419Can be useful if you want the operands of ``op`` to be the same register,
420and don't care exactly which register it is.
421
422FileCheck Expressions
423~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
424
425Sometimes there's a need to verify output which refers line numbers of the
426match file, e.g. when testing compiler diagnostics.  This introduces a certain
427fragility of the match file structure, as "``CHECK:``" lines contain absolute
428line numbers in the same file, which have to be updated whenever line numbers
429change due to text addition or deletion.
430
431To support this case, FileCheck allows using ``[[@LINE]]``,
432``[[@LINE+<offset>]]``, ``[[@LINE-<offset>]]`` expressions in patterns. These
433expressions expand to a number of the line where a pattern is located (with an
434optional integer offset).
435
436This way match patterns can be put near the relevant test lines and include
437relative line number references, for example:
438
439.. code-block:: c++
440
441   // CHECK: test.cpp:[[@LINE+4]]:6: error: expected ';' after top level declarator
442   // CHECK-NEXT: {{^int a}}
443   // CHECK-NEXT: {{^     \^}}
444   // CHECK-NEXT: {{^     ;}}
445   int a
446
447