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 always read from standard input.
22
23OPTIONS
24-------
25
26.. option:: -help
27
28 Print a summary of command line options.
29
30.. option:: --check-prefix prefix
31
32 FileCheck searches the contents of ``match-filename`` for patterns to match.
33 By default, these patterns are prefixed with "``CHECK:``".  If you'd like to
34 use a different prefix (e.g. because the same input file is checking multiple
35 different tool or options), the :option:`--check-prefix` argument allows you
36 to specify a specific prefix to match.
37
38.. option:: --input-file filename
39
40  File to check (defaults to stdin).
41
42.. option:: --strict-whitespace
43
44 By default, FileCheck canonicalizes input horizontal whitespace (spaces and
45 tabs) which causes it to ignore these differences (a space will match a tab).
46 The :option:`--strict-whitespace` argument disables this behavior.
47
48.. option:: -version
49
50 Show the version number of this program.
51
52EXIT STATUS
53-----------
54
55If :program:`FileCheck` verifies that the file matches the expected contents,
56it exits with 0.  Otherwise, if not, or if an error occurs, it will exit with a
57non-zero value.
58
59TUTORIAL
60--------
61
62FileCheck is typically used from LLVM regression tests, being invoked on the RUN
63line of the test.  A simple example of using FileCheck from a RUN line looks
64like this:
65
66.. code-block:: llvm
67
68   ; RUN: llvm-as < %s | llc -march=x86-64 | FileCheck %s
69
70This syntax says to pipe the current file ("``%s``") into ``llvm-as``, pipe
71that into ``llc``, then pipe the output of ``llc`` into ``FileCheck``.  This
72means that FileCheck will be verifying its standard input (the llc output)
73against the filename argument specified (the original ``.ll`` file specified by
74"``%s``").  To see how this works, let's look at the rest of the ``.ll`` file
75(after the RUN line):
76
77.. code-block:: llvm
78
79   define void @sub1(i32* %p, i32 %v) {
80   entry:
81   ; CHECK: sub1:
82   ; CHECK: subl
83           %0 = tail call i32 @llvm.atomic.load.sub.i32.p0i32(i32* %p, i32 %v)
84           ret void
85   }
86
87   define void @inc4(i64* %p) {
88   entry:
89   ; CHECK: inc4:
90   ; CHECK: incq
91           %0 = tail call i64 @llvm.atomic.load.add.i64.p0i64(i64* %p, i64 1)
92           ret void
93   }
94
95Here you can see some "``CHECK:``" lines specified in comments.  Now you can
96see how the file is piped into ``llvm-as``, then ``llc``, and the machine code
97output is what we are verifying.  FileCheck checks the machine code output to
98verify that it matches what the "``CHECK:``" lines specify.
99
100The syntax of the "``CHECK:``" lines is very simple: they are fixed strings that
101must occur in order.  FileCheck defaults to ignoring horizontal whitespace
102differences (e.g. a space is allowed to match a tab) but otherwise, the contents
103of the "``CHECK:``" line is required to match some thing in the test file exactly.
104
105One nice thing about FileCheck (compared to grep) is that it allows merging
106test cases together into logical groups.  For example, because the test above
107is checking for the "``sub1:``" and "``inc4:``" labels, it will not match
108unless there is a "``subl``" in between those labels.  If it existed somewhere
109else in the file, that would not count: "``grep subl``" matches if "``subl``"
110exists anywhere in the file.
111
112The FileCheck -check-prefix option
113~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
114
115The FileCheck :option:`-check-prefix` option allows multiple test
116configurations to be driven from one `.ll` file.  This is useful in many
117circumstances, for example, testing different architectural variants with
118:program:`llc`.  Here's a simple example:
119
120.. code-block:: llvm
121
122   ; RUN: llvm-as < %s | llc -mtriple=i686-apple-darwin9 -mattr=sse41 \
123   ; RUN:              | FileCheck %s -check-prefix=X32
124   ; RUN: llvm-as < %s | llc -mtriple=x86_64-apple-darwin9 -mattr=sse41 \
125   ; RUN:              | FileCheck %s -check-prefix=X64
126
127   define <4 x i32> @pinsrd_1(i32 %s, <4 x i32> %tmp) nounwind {
128           %tmp1 = insertelement <4 x i32>; %tmp, i32 %s, i32 1
129           ret <4 x i32> %tmp1
130   ; X32: pinsrd_1:
131   ; X32:    pinsrd $1, 4(%esp), %xmm0
132
133   ; X64: pinsrd_1:
134   ; X64:    pinsrd $1, %edi, %xmm0
135   }
136
137In this case, we're testing that we get the expected code generation with
138both 32-bit and 64-bit code generation.
139
140The "CHECK-NEXT:" directive
141~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
142
143Sometimes you want to match lines and would like to verify that matches
144happen on exactly consecutive lines with no other lines in between them.  In
145this case, you can use "``CHECK:``" and "``CHECK-NEXT:``" directives to specify
146this.  If you specified a custom check prefix, just use "``<PREFIX>-NEXT:``".
147For example, something like this works as you'd expect:
148
149.. code-block:: llvm
150
151   define void @t2(<2 x double>* %r, <2 x double>* %A, double %B) {
152 	%tmp3 = load <2 x double>* %A, align 16
153 	%tmp7 = insertelement <2 x double> undef, double %B, i32 0
154 	%tmp9 = shufflevector <2 x double> %tmp3,
155                               <2 x double> %tmp7,
156                               <2 x i32> < i32 0, i32 2 >
157 	store <2 x double> %tmp9, <2 x double>* %r, align 16
158 	ret void
159
160   ; CHECK:          t2:
161   ; CHECK: 	        movl	8(%esp), %eax
162   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	movapd	(%eax), %xmm0
163   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	movhpd	12(%esp), %xmm0
164   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	movl	4(%esp), %eax
165   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	movapd	%xmm0, (%eax)
166   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	ret
167   }
168
169"``CHECK-NEXT:``" directives reject the input unless there is exactly one
170newline between it and the previous directive.  A "``CHECK-NEXT:``" cannot be
171the first directive in a file.
172
173The "CHECK-NOT:" directive
174~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
175
176The "``CHECK-NOT:``" directive is used to verify that a string doesn't occur
177between two matches (or before the first match, or after the last match).  For
178example, to verify that a load is removed by a transformation, a test like this
179can be used:
180
181.. code-block:: llvm
182
183   define i8 @coerce_offset0(i32 %V, i32* %P) {
184     store i32 %V, i32* %P
185
186     %P2 = bitcast i32* %P to i8*
187     %P3 = getelementptr i8* %P2, i32 2
188
189     %A = load i8* %P3
190     ret i8 %A
191   ; CHECK: @coerce_offset0
192   ; CHECK-NOT: load
193   ; CHECK: ret i8
194   }
195
196FileCheck Pattern Matching Syntax
197~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
198
199The "``CHECK:``" and "``CHECK-NOT:``" directives both take a pattern to match.
200For most uses of FileCheck, fixed string matching is perfectly sufficient.  For
201some things, a more flexible form of matching is desired.  To support this,
202FileCheck allows you to specify regular expressions in matching strings,
203surrounded by double braces: ``{{yourregex}}``.  Because we want to use fixed
204string matching for a majority of what we do, FileCheck has been designed to
205support mixing and matching fixed string matching with regular expressions.
206This allows you to write things like this:
207
208.. code-block:: llvm
209
210   ; CHECK: movhpd	{{[0-9]+}}(%esp), {{%xmm[0-7]}}
211
212In this case, any offset from the ESP register will be allowed, and any xmm
213register will be allowed.
214
215Because regular expressions are enclosed with double braces, they are
216visually distinct, and you don't need to use escape characters within the double
217braces like you would in C.  In the rare case that you want to match double
218braces explicitly from the input, you can use something ugly like
219``{{[{][{]}}`` as your pattern.
220
221FileCheck Variables
222~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
223
224It is often useful to match a pattern and then verify that it occurs again
225later in the file.  For codegen tests, this can be useful to allow any register,
226but verify that that register is used consistently later.  To do this,
227:program:`FileCheck` allows named variables to be defined and substituted into
228patterns.  Here is a simple example:
229
230.. code-block:: llvm
231
232   ; CHECK: test5:
233   ; CHECK:    notw	[[REGISTER:%[a-z]+]]
234   ; CHECK:    andw	{{.*}}[[REGISTER]]
235
236The first check line matches a regex ``%[a-z]+`` and captures it into the
237variable ``REGISTER``.  The second line verifies that whatever is in
238``REGISTER`` occurs later in the file after an "``andw``".  :program:`FileCheck`
239variable references are always contained in ``[[ ]]`` pairs, and their names can
240be formed with the regex ``[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]*``.  If a colon follows the name,
241then it is a definition of the variable; otherwise, it is a use.
242
243:program:`FileCheck` variables can be defined multiple times, and uses always
244get the latest value.  Variables can also be used later on the same line they
245were defined on. For example:
246
247.. code-block:: llvm
248
249    ; CHECK: op [[REG:r[0-9]+]], [[REG]]
250
251Can be useful if you want the operands of ``op`` to be the same register,
252and don't care exactly which register it is.
253
254FileCheck Expressions
255~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
256
257Sometimes there's a need to verify output which refers line numbers of the
258match file, e.g. when testing compiler diagnostics.  This introduces a certain
259fragility of the match file structure, as "``CHECK:``" lines contain absolute
260line numbers in the same file, which have to be updated whenever line numbers
261change due to text addition or deletion.
262
263To support this case, FileCheck allows using ``[[@LINE]]``,
264``[[@LINE+<offset>]]``, ``[[@LINE-<offset>]]`` expressions in patterns. These
265expressions expand to a number of the line where a pattern is located (with an
266optional integer offset).
267
268This way match patterns can be put near the relevant test lines and include
269relative line number references, for example:
270
271.. code-block:: c++
272
273   // CHECK: test.cpp:[[@LINE+4]]:6: error: expected ';' after top level declarator
274   // CHECK-NEXT: {{^int a}}
275   // CHECK-NEXT: {{^     \^}}
276   // CHECK-NEXT: {{^     ;}}
277   int a
278
279