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:: --check-prefixes prefix1,prefix2,...
42
43 An alias of :option:`--check-prefix` that allows multiple prefixes to be
44 specified as a comma separated list.
45
46.. option:: --input-file filename
47
48  File to check (defaults to stdin).
49
50.. option:: --match-full-lines
51
52 By default, FileCheck allows matches of anywhere on a line. This
53 option will require all positive matches to cover an entire
54 line. Leading and trailing whitespace is ignored, unless
55 :option:`--strict-whitespace` is also specified. (Note: negative
56 matches from ``CHECK-NOT`` are not affected by this option!)
57
58 Passing this option is equivalent to inserting ``{{^ *}}`` or
59 ``{{^}}`` before, and ``{{ *$}}`` or ``{{$}}`` after every positive
60 check pattern.
61
62.. option:: --strict-whitespace
63
64 By default, FileCheck canonicalizes input horizontal whitespace (spaces and
65 tabs) which causes it to ignore these differences (a space will match a tab).
66 The :option:`--strict-whitespace` argument disables this behavior. End-of-line
67 sequences are canonicalized to UNIX-style ``\n`` in all modes.
68
69.. option:: --implicit-check-not check-pattern
70
71  Adds implicit negative checks for the specified patterns between positive
72  checks. The option allows writing stricter tests without stuffing them with
73  ``CHECK-NOT``\ s.
74
75  For example, "``--implicit-check-not warning:``" can be useful when testing
76  diagnostic messages from tools that don't have an option similar to ``clang
77  -verify``. With this option FileCheck will verify that input does not contain
78  warnings not covered by any ``CHECK:`` patterns.
79
80.. option:: --enable-var-scope
81
82  Enables scope for regex variables.
83
84  Variables with names that start with ``$`` are considered global and
85  remain set throughout the file.
86
87  All other variables get undefined after each encountered ``CHECK-LABEL``.
88
89.. option:: -D<VAR=VALUE>
90
91  Sets a filecheck variable ``VAR`` with value ``VALUE`` that can be used in
92  ``CHECK:`` lines.
93
94.. option:: -version
95
96 Show the version number of this program.
97
98EXIT STATUS
99-----------
100
101If :program:`FileCheck` verifies that the file matches the expected contents,
102it exits with 0.  Otherwise, if not, or if an error occurs, it will exit with a
103non-zero value.
104
105TUTORIAL
106--------
107
108FileCheck is typically used from LLVM regression tests, being invoked on the RUN
109line of the test.  A simple example of using FileCheck from a RUN line looks
110like this:
111
112.. code-block:: llvm
113
114   ; RUN: llvm-as < %s | llc -march=x86-64 | FileCheck %s
115
116This syntax says to pipe the current file ("``%s``") into ``llvm-as``, pipe
117that into ``llc``, then pipe the output of ``llc`` into ``FileCheck``.  This
118means that FileCheck will be verifying its standard input (the llc output)
119against the filename argument specified (the original ``.ll`` file specified by
120"``%s``").  To see how this works, let's look at the rest of the ``.ll`` file
121(after the RUN line):
122
123.. code-block:: llvm
124
125   define void @sub1(i32* %p, i32 %v) {
126   entry:
127   ; CHECK: sub1:
128   ; CHECK: subl
129           %0 = tail call i32 @llvm.atomic.load.sub.i32.p0i32(i32* %p, i32 %v)
130           ret void
131   }
132
133   define void @inc4(i64* %p) {
134   entry:
135   ; CHECK: inc4:
136   ; CHECK: incq
137           %0 = tail call i64 @llvm.atomic.load.add.i64.p0i64(i64* %p, i64 1)
138           ret void
139   }
140
141Here you can see some "``CHECK:``" lines specified in comments.  Now you can
142see how the file is piped into ``llvm-as``, then ``llc``, and the machine code
143output is what we are verifying.  FileCheck checks the machine code output to
144verify that it matches what the "``CHECK:``" lines specify.
145
146The syntax of the "``CHECK:``" lines is very simple: they are fixed strings that
147must occur in order.  FileCheck defaults to ignoring horizontal whitespace
148differences (e.g. a space is allowed to match a tab) but otherwise, the contents
149of the "``CHECK:``" line is required to match some thing in the test file exactly.
150
151One nice thing about FileCheck (compared to grep) is that it allows merging
152test cases together into logical groups.  For example, because the test above
153is checking for the "``sub1:``" and "``inc4:``" labels, it will not match
154unless there is a "``subl``" in between those labels.  If it existed somewhere
155else in the file, that would not count: "``grep subl``" matches if "``subl``"
156exists anywhere in the file.
157
158The FileCheck -check-prefix option
159~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
160
161The FileCheck `-check-prefix` option allows multiple test
162configurations to be driven from one `.ll` file.  This is useful in many
163circumstances, for example, testing different architectural variants with
164:program:`llc`.  Here's a simple example:
165
166.. code-block:: llvm
167
168   ; RUN: llvm-as < %s | llc -mtriple=i686-apple-darwin9 -mattr=sse41 \
169   ; RUN:              | FileCheck %s -check-prefix=X32
170   ; RUN: llvm-as < %s | llc -mtriple=x86_64-apple-darwin9 -mattr=sse41 \
171   ; RUN:              | FileCheck %s -check-prefix=X64
172
173   define <4 x i32> @pinsrd_1(i32 %s, <4 x i32> %tmp) nounwind {
174           %tmp1 = insertelement <4 x i32>; %tmp, i32 %s, i32 1
175           ret <4 x i32> %tmp1
176   ; X32: pinsrd_1:
177   ; X32:    pinsrd $1, 4(%esp), %xmm0
178
179   ; X64: pinsrd_1:
180   ; X64:    pinsrd $1, %edi, %xmm0
181   }
182
183In this case, we're testing that we get the expected code generation with
184both 32-bit and 64-bit code generation.
185
186The "CHECK-NEXT:" directive
187~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
188
189Sometimes you want to match lines and would like to verify that matches
190happen on exactly consecutive lines with no other lines in between them.  In
191this case, you can use "``CHECK:``" and "``CHECK-NEXT:``" directives to specify
192this.  If you specified a custom check prefix, just use "``<PREFIX>-NEXT:``".
193For example, something like this works as you'd expect:
194
195.. code-block:: llvm
196
197   define void @t2(<2 x double>* %r, <2 x double>* %A, double %B) {
198 	%tmp3 = load <2 x double>* %A, align 16
199 	%tmp7 = insertelement <2 x double> undef, double %B, i32 0
200 	%tmp9 = shufflevector <2 x double> %tmp3,
201                               <2 x double> %tmp7,
202                               <2 x i32> < i32 0, i32 2 >
203 	store <2 x double> %tmp9, <2 x double>* %r, align 16
204 	ret void
205
206   ; CHECK:          t2:
207   ; CHECK: 	        movl	8(%esp), %eax
208   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	movapd	(%eax), %xmm0
209   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	movhpd	12(%esp), %xmm0
210   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	movl	4(%esp), %eax
211   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	movapd	%xmm0, (%eax)
212   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	ret
213   }
214
215"``CHECK-NEXT:``" directives reject the input unless there is exactly one
216newline between it and the previous directive.  A "``CHECK-NEXT:``" cannot be
217the first directive in a file.
218
219The "CHECK-SAME:" directive
220~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
221
222Sometimes you want to match lines and would like to verify that matches happen
223on the same line as the previous match.  In this case, you can use "``CHECK:``"
224and "``CHECK-SAME:``" directives to specify this.  If you specified a custom
225check prefix, just use "``<PREFIX>-SAME:``".
226
227"``CHECK-SAME:``" is particularly powerful in conjunction with "``CHECK-NOT:``"
228(described below).
229
230For example, the following works like you'd expect:
231
232.. code-block:: llvm
233
234   !0 = !DILocation(line: 5, scope: !1, inlinedAt: !2)
235
236   ; CHECK:       !DILocation(line: 5,
237   ; CHECK-NOT:               column:
238   ; CHECK-SAME:              scope: ![[SCOPE:[0-9]+]]
239
240"``CHECK-SAME:``" directives reject the input if there are any newlines between
241it and the previous directive.  A "``CHECK-SAME:``" cannot be the first
242directive in a file.
243
244The "CHECK-NOT:" directive
245~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
246
247The "``CHECK-NOT:``" directive is used to verify that a string doesn't occur
248between two matches (or before the first match, or after the last match).  For
249example, to verify that a load is removed by a transformation, a test like this
250can be used:
251
252.. code-block:: llvm
253
254   define i8 @coerce_offset0(i32 %V, i32* %P) {
255     store i32 %V, i32* %P
256
257     %P2 = bitcast i32* %P to i8*
258     %P3 = getelementptr i8* %P2, i32 2
259
260     %A = load i8* %P3
261     ret i8 %A
262   ; CHECK: @coerce_offset0
263   ; CHECK-NOT: load
264   ; CHECK: ret i8
265   }
266
267The "CHECK-DAG:" directive
268~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
269
270If it's necessary to match strings that don't occur in a strictly sequential
271order, "``CHECK-DAG:``" could be used to verify them between two matches (or
272before the first match, or after the last match). For example, clang emits
273vtable globals in reverse order. Using ``CHECK-DAG:``, we can keep the checks
274in the natural order:
275
276.. code-block:: c++
277
278    // RUN: %clang_cc1 %s -emit-llvm -o - | FileCheck %s
279
280    struct Foo { virtual void method(); };
281    Foo f;  // emit vtable
282    // CHECK-DAG: @_ZTV3Foo =
283
284    struct Bar { virtual void method(); };
285    Bar b;
286    // CHECK-DAG: @_ZTV3Bar =
287
288``CHECK-NOT:`` directives could be mixed with ``CHECK-DAG:`` directives to
289exclude strings between the surrounding ``CHECK-DAG:`` directives. As a result,
290the surrounding ``CHECK-DAG:`` directives cannot be reordered, i.e. all
291occurrences matching ``CHECK-DAG:`` before ``CHECK-NOT:`` must not fall behind
292occurrences matching ``CHECK-DAG:`` after ``CHECK-NOT:``. For example,
293
294.. code-block:: llvm
295
296   ; CHECK-DAG: BEFORE
297   ; CHECK-NOT: NOT
298   ; CHECK-DAG: AFTER
299
300This case will reject input strings where ``BEFORE`` occurs after ``AFTER``.
301
302With captured variables, ``CHECK-DAG:`` is able to match valid topological
303orderings of a DAG with edges from the definition of a variable to its use.
304It's useful, e.g., when your test cases need to match different output
305sequences from the instruction scheduler. For example,
306
307.. code-block:: llvm
308
309   ; CHECK-DAG: add [[REG1:r[0-9]+]], r1, r2
310   ; CHECK-DAG: add [[REG2:r[0-9]+]], r3, r4
311   ; CHECK:     mul r5, [[REG1]], [[REG2]]
312
313In this case, any order of that two ``add`` instructions will be allowed.
314
315If you are defining `and` using variables in the same ``CHECK-DAG:`` block,
316be aware that the definition rule can match `after` its use.
317
318So, for instance, the code below will pass:
319
320.. code-block:: text
321
322  ; CHECK-DAG: vmov.32 [[REG2:d[0-9]+]][0]
323  ; CHECK-DAG: vmov.32 [[REG2]][1]
324  vmov.32 d0[1]
325  vmov.32 d0[0]
326
327While this other code, will not:
328
329.. code-block:: text
330
331  ; CHECK-DAG: vmov.32 [[REG2:d[0-9]+]][0]
332  ; CHECK-DAG: vmov.32 [[REG2]][1]
333  vmov.32 d1[1]
334  vmov.32 d0[0]
335
336While this can be very useful, it's also dangerous, because in the case of
337register sequence, you must have a strong order (read before write, copy before
338use, etc). If the definition your test is looking for doesn't match (because
339of a bug in the compiler), it may match further away from the use, and mask
340real bugs away.
341
342In those cases, to enforce the order, use a non-DAG directive between DAG-blocks.
343
344The "CHECK-LABEL:" directive
345~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
346
347Sometimes in a file containing multiple tests divided into logical blocks, one
348or more ``CHECK:`` directives may inadvertently succeed by matching lines in a
349later block. While an error will usually eventually be generated, the check
350flagged as causing the error may not actually bear any relationship to the
351actual source of the problem.
352
353In order to produce better error messages in these cases, the "``CHECK-LABEL:``"
354directive can be used. It is treated identically to a normal ``CHECK``
355directive except that FileCheck makes an additional assumption that a line
356matched by the directive cannot also be matched by any other check present in
357``match-filename``; this is intended to be used for lines containing labels or
358other unique identifiers. Conceptually, the presence of ``CHECK-LABEL`` divides
359the input stream into separate blocks, each of which is processed independently,
360preventing a ``CHECK:`` directive in one block matching a line in another block.
361If ``--enable-var-scope`` is in effect, all local variables are cleared at the
362beginning of the block.
363
364For example,
365
366.. code-block:: llvm
367
368  define %struct.C* @C_ctor_base(%struct.C* %this, i32 %x) {
369  entry:
370  ; CHECK-LABEL: C_ctor_base:
371  ; CHECK: mov [[SAVETHIS:r[0-9]+]], r0
372  ; CHECK: bl A_ctor_base
373  ; CHECK: mov r0, [[SAVETHIS]]
374    %0 = bitcast %struct.C* %this to %struct.A*
375    %call = tail call %struct.A* @A_ctor_base(%struct.A* %0)
376    %1 = bitcast %struct.C* %this to %struct.B*
377    %call2 = tail call %struct.B* @B_ctor_base(%struct.B* %1, i32 %x)
378    ret %struct.C* %this
379  }
380
381  define %struct.D* @D_ctor_base(%struct.D* %this, i32 %x) {
382  entry:
383  ; CHECK-LABEL: D_ctor_base:
384
385The use of ``CHECK-LABEL:`` directives in this case ensures that the three
386``CHECK:`` directives only accept lines corresponding to the body of the
387``@C_ctor_base`` function, even if the patterns match lines found later in
388the file. Furthermore, if one of these three ``CHECK:`` directives fail,
389FileCheck will recover by continuing to the next block, allowing multiple test
390failures to be detected in a single invocation.
391
392There is no requirement that ``CHECK-LABEL:`` directives contain strings that
393correspond to actual syntactic labels in a source or output language: they must
394simply uniquely match a single line in the file being verified.
395
396``CHECK-LABEL:`` directives cannot contain variable definitions or uses.
397
398FileCheck Pattern Matching Syntax
399~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
400
401All FileCheck directives take a pattern to match.
402For most uses of FileCheck, fixed string matching is perfectly sufficient.  For
403some things, a more flexible form of matching is desired.  To support this,
404FileCheck allows you to specify regular expressions in matching strings,
405surrounded by double braces: ``{{yourregex}}``. FileCheck implements a POSIX
406regular expression matcher; it supports Extended POSIX regular expressions
407(ERE). Because we want to use fixed string matching for a majority of what we
408do, FileCheck has been designed to support mixing and matching fixed string
409matching with regular expressions.  This allows you to write things like this:
410
411.. code-block:: llvm
412
413   ; CHECK: movhpd	{{[0-9]+}}(%esp), {{%xmm[0-7]}}
414
415In this case, any offset from the ESP register will be allowed, and any xmm
416register will be allowed.
417
418Because regular expressions are enclosed with double braces, they are
419visually distinct, and you don't need to use escape characters within the double
420braces like you would in C.  In the rare case that you want to match double
421braces explicitly from the input, you can use something ugly like
422``{{[{][{]}}`` as your pattern.
423
424FileCheck Variables
425~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
426
427It is often useful to match a pattern and then verify that it occurs again
428later in the file.  For codegen tests, this can be useful to allow any register,
429but verify that that register is used consistently later.  To do this,
430:program:`FileCheck` allows named variables to be defined and substituted into
431patterns.  Here is a simple example:
432
433.. code-block:: llvm
434
435   ; CHECK: test5:
436   ; CHECK:    notw	[[REGISTER:%[a-z]+]]
437   ; CHECK:    andw	{{.*}}[[REGISTER]]
438
439The first check line matches a regex ``%[a-z]+`` and captures it into the
440variable ``REGISTER``.  The second line verifies that whatever is in
441``REGISTER`` occurs later in the file after an "``andw``".  :program:`FileCheck`
442variable references are always contained in ``[[ ]]`` pairs, and their names can
443be formed with the regex ``[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*``.  If a colon follows the name,
444then it is a definition of the variable; otherwise, it is a use.
445
446:program:`FileCheck` variables can be defined multiple times, and uses always
447get the latest value.  Variables can also be used later on the same line they
448were defined on. For example:
449
450.. code-block:: llvm
451
452    ; CHECK: op [[REG:r[0-9]+]], [[REG]]
453
454Can be useful if you want the operands of ``op`` to be the same register,
455and don't care exactly which register it is.
456
457If ``--enable-var-scope`` is in effect, variables with names that
458start with ``$`` are considered to be global. All others variables are
459local.  All local variables get undefined at the beginning of each
460CHECK-LABEL block. Global variables are not affected by CHECK-LABEL.
461This makes it easier to ensure that individual tests are not affected
462by variables set in preceding tests.
463
464FileCheck Expressions
465~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
466
467Sometimes there's a need to verify output which refers line numbers of the
468match file, e.g. when testing compiler diagnostics.  This introduces a certain
469fragility of the match file structure, as "``CHECK:``" lines contain absolute
470line numbers in the same file, which have to be updated whenever line numbers
471change due to text addition or deletion.
472
473To support this case, FileCheck allows using ``[[@LINE]]``,
474``[[@LINE+<offset>]]``, ``[[@LINE-<offset>]]`` expressions in patterns. These
475expressions expand to a number of the line where a pattern is located (with an
476optional integer offset).
477
478This way match patterns can be put near the relevant test lines and include
479relative line number references, for example:
480
481.. code-block:: c++
482
483   // CHECK: test.cpp:[[@LINE+4]]:6: error: expected ';' after top level declarator
484   // CHECK-NEXT: {{^int a}}
485   // CHECK-NEXT: {{^     \^}}
486   // CHECK-NEXT: {{^     ;}}
487   int a
488
489Matching Newline Characters
490~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
491
492To match newline characters in regular expressions the character class
493``[[:space:]]`` can be used. For example, the following pattern:
494
495.. code-block:: c++
496
497   // CHECK: DW_AT_location [DW_FORM_sec_offset] ([[DLOC:0x[0-9a-f]+]]){{[[:space:]].*}}"intd"
498
499matches output of the form (from llvm-dwarfdump):
500
501.. code-block:: text
502
503       DW_AT_location [DW_FORM_sec_offset]   (0x00000233)
504       DW_AT_name [DW_FORM_strp]  ( .debug_str[0x000000c9] = "intd")
505
506letting us set the :program:`FileCheck` variable ``DLOC`` to the desired value
507``0x00000233``, extracted from the line immediately preceding "``intd``".
508