1FileCheck - Flexible pattern matching file verifier
2===================================================
3
4SYNOPSIS
5--------
6
7**FileCheck** *match-filename* [*--check-prefix=XXX*] [*--strict-whitespace*]
8
9DESCRIPTION
10-----------
11
12**FileCheck** reads two files (one from standard input, and one specified on the
13command line) and uses one to verify the other.  This behavior is particularly
14useful for the testsuite, which wants to verify that the output of some tool
15(e.g. llc) contains the expected information (for example, a movsd from esp or
16whatever is interesting).  This is similar to using grep, but it is optimized
17for matching multiple different inputs in one file in a specific order.
18
19The *match-filename* file specifies the file that contains the patterns to
20match.  The file to verify is always read from standard input.
21
22OPTIONS
23-------
24
25**-help**
26
27 Print a summary of command line options.
28
29**--check-prefix** *prefix*
30
31 FileCheck searches the contents of *match-filename* for patterns to match.  By
32 default, these patterns are prefixed with "``CHECK:``".  If you'd like to use a
33 different prefix (e.g. because the same input file is checking multiple
34 different tool or options), the **--check-prefix** argument allows you to specify
35 a specific prefix to match.
36
37**--input-file** *filename*
38
39  File to check (defaults to stdin).
40
41**--strict-whitespace**
42
43 By default, FileCheck canonicalizes input horizontal whitespace (spaces and
44 tabs) which causes it to ignore these differences (a space will match a tab).
45 The **--strict-whitespace** argument disables this behavior.
46
47
48**-version**
49
50 Show the version number of this program.
51
52EXIT STATUS
53-----------
54
55If **FileCheck** verifies that the file matches the expected contents, it exits
56with 0.  Otherwise, if not, or if an error occurs, it will exit with a non-zero
57value.
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
70
71This syntax says to pipe the current file ("``%s``") into ``llvm-as``, pipe
72that into ``llc``, then pipe the output of ``llc`` into ``FileCheck``.  This
73means that FileCheck will be verifying its standard input (the llc output)
74against the filename argument specified (the original ``.ll`` file specified by
75"``%s``").  To see how this works, let's look at the rest of the ``.ll`` file
76(after the RUN line):
77
78.. code-block:: llvm
79
80   define void @sub1(i32* %p, i32 %v) {
81   entry:
82   ; CHECK: sub1:
83   ; CHECK: subl
84           %0 = tail call i32 @llvm.atomic.load.sub.i32.p0i32(i32* %p, i32 %v)
85           ret void
86   }
87
88   define void @inc4(i64* %p) {
89   entry:
90   ; CHECK: inc4:
91   ; CHECK: incq
92           %0 = tail call i64 @llvm.atomic.load.add.i64.p0i64(i64* %p, i64 1)
93           ret void
94   }
95
96
97Here you can see some "``CHECK:``" lines specified in comments.  Now you can
98see how the file is piped into ``llvm-as``, then ``llc``, and the machine code
99output is what we are verifying.  FileCheck checks the machine code output to
100verify that it matches what the "``CHECK:``" lines specify.
101
102The syntax of the "``CHECK:``" lines is very simple: they are fixed strings that
103must occur in order.  FileCheck defaults to ignoring horizontal whitespace
104differences (e.g. a space is allowed to match a tab) but otherwise, the contents
105of the "``CHECK:``" line is required to match some thing in the test file exactly.
106
107One nice thing about FileCheck (compared to grep) is that it allows merging
108test cases together into logical groups.  For example, because the test above
109is checking for the "``sub1:``" and "``inc4:``" labels, it will not match
110unless there is a "``subl``" in between those labels.  If it existed somewhere
111else in the file, that would not count: "``grep subl``" matches if "``subl``"
112exists anywhere in the file.
113
114The FileCheck -check-prefix option
115~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
116
117The FileCheck ``-check-prefix`` option allows multiple test configurations to be
118driven from one .ll file.  This is useful in many circumstances, for example,
119testing different architectural variants with llc.  Here's a simple example:
120
121.. code-block:: llvm
122
123   ; RUN: llvm-as < %s | llc -mtriple=i686-apple-darwin9 -mattr=sse41 \
124   ; RUN:              | FileCheck %s -check-prefix=X32
125   ; RUN: llvm-as < %s | llc -mtriple=x86_64-apple-darwin9 -mattr=sse41 \
126   ; RUN:              | FileCheck %s -check-prefix=X64
127
128   define <4 x i32> @pinsrd_1(i32 %s, <4 x i32> %tmp) nounwind {
129           %tmp1 = insertelement <4 x i32>; %tmp, i32 %s, i32 1
130           ret <4 x i32> %tmp1
131   ; X32: pinsrd_1:
132   ; X32:    pinsrd $1, 4(%esp), %xmm0
133
134   ; X64: pinsrd_1:
135   ; X64:    pinsrd $1, %edi, %xmm0
136   }
137
138In this case, we're testing that we get the expected code generation with
139both 32-bit and 64-bit code generation.
140
141The "CHECK-NEXT:" directive
142~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
143
144Sometimes you want to match lines and would like to verify that matches
145happen on exactly consecutive lines with no other lines in between them.  In
146this case, you can use "``CHECK:``" and "``CHECK-NEXT:``" directives to specify
147this.  If you specified a custom check prefix, just use "``<PREFIX>-NEXT:``".
148For example, something like this works as you'd expect:
149
150.. code-block:: llvm
151
152   define void @t2(<2 x double>* %r, <2 x double>* %A, double %B) {
153 	%tmp3 = load <2 x double>* %A, align 16
154 	%tmp7 = insertelement <2 x double> undef, double %B, i32 0
155 	%tmp9 = shufflevector <2 x double> %tmp3,
156                               <2 x double> %tmp7,
157                               <2 x i32> < i32 0, i32 2 >
158 	store <2 x double> %tmp9, <2 x double>* %r, align 16
159 	ret void
160
161   ; CHECK:          t2:
162   ; CHECK: 	        movl	8(%esp), %eax
163   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	movapd	(%eax), %xmm0
164   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	movhpd	12(%esp), %xmm0
165   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	movl	4(%esp), %eax
166   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	movapd	%xmm0, (%eax)
167   ; CHECK-NEXT: 	ret
168   }
169
170"``CHECK-NEXT:``" directives reject the input unless there is exactly one
171newline between it and the previous directive.  A "``CHECK-NEXT:``" cannot be
172the first directive in a file.
173
174The "CHECK-NOT:" directive
175~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
176
177The "``CHECK-NOT:``" directive is used to verify that a string doesn't occur
178between two matches (or before the first match, or after the last match).  For
179example, to verify that a load is removed by a transformation, a test like this
180can be used:
181
182.. code-block:: llvm
183
184   define i8 @coerce_offset0(i32 %V, i32* %P) {
185     store i32 %V, i32* %P
186
187     %P2 = bitcast i32* %P to i8*
188     %P3 = getelementptr i8* %P2, i32 2
189
190     %A = load i8* %P3
191     ret i8 %A
192   ; CHECK: @coerce_offset0
193   ; CHECK-NOT: load
194   ; CHECK: ret i8
195   }
196
197
198FileCheck Pattern Matching Syntax
199~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
200
201The "``CHECK:``" and "``CHECK-NOT:``" directives both take a pattern to match.
202For most uses of FileCheck, fixed string matching is perfectly sufficient.  For
203some things, a more flexible form of matching is desired.  To support this,
204FileCheck allows you to specify regular expressions in matching strings,
205surrounded by double braces: ``{{yourregex}}``.  Because we want to use fixed
206string matching for a majority of what we do, FileCheck has been designed to
207support mixing and matching fixed string matching with regular expressions.
208This allows you to write things like this:
209
210.. code-block:: llvm
211
212   ; CHECK: movhpd	{{[0-9]+}}(%esp), {{%xmm[0-7]}}
213
214In this case, any offset from the ESP register will be allowed, and any xmm
215register will be allowed.
216
217Because regular expressions are enclosed with double braces, they are
218visually distinct, and you don't need to use escape characters within the double
219braces like you would in C.  In the rare case that you want to match double
220braces explicitly from the input, you can use something ugly like
221``{{[{][{]}}`` as your pattern.
222
223FileCheck Variables
224~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
225
226It is often useful to match a pattern and then verify that it occurs again
227later in the file.  For codegen tests, this can be useful to allow any register,
228but verify that that register is used consistently later.  To do this, FileCheck
229allows named variables to be defined and substituted into patterns.  Here is a
230simple example:
231
232.. code-block:: llvm
233
234   ; CHECK: test5:
235   ; CHECK:    notw	[[REGISTER:%[a-z]+]]
236   ; CHECK:    andw	{{.*}}[[REGISTER]]
237
238The first check line matches a regex ``%[a-z]+`` and captures it into the
239variable ``REGISTER``.  The second line verifies that whatever is in
240``REGISTER`` occurs later in the file after an "``andw``".  FileCheck variable
241references are always contained in ``[[ ]]`` pairs, and their names can be
242formed with the regex ``[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]*``.  If a colon follows the name,
243then it is a definition of the variable; otherwise, it is a use.
244
245FileCheck variables can be defined multiple times, and uses always get the
246latest value.  Note that variables are all read at the start of a "``CHECK``"
247line and are all defined at the end.  This means that if you have something
248like "``CHECK: [[XYZ:.*]]x[[XYZ]]``", the check line will read the previous
249value of the ``XYZ`` variable and define a new one after the match is
250performed.  If you need to do something like this you can probably take
251advantage of the fact that FileCheck is not actually line-oriented when it
252matches, this allows you to define two separate "``CHECK``" lines that match on
253the same line.
254
255
256FileCheck Expressions
257~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
258
259
260Sometimes there's a need to verify output which refers line numbers of the match
261file, e.g. when testing compiler diagnostics. This introduces a certain
262fragility of the match file structure, as CHECK: lines contain absolute line
263numbers in the same file, which have to be updated whenever line numbers change
264due to text addition or deletion.
265
266To support this case, FileCheck allows using ``[[@LINE]]``,
267``[[@LINE+<offset>]]``, ``[[@LINE-<offset>]]`` expressions in patterns. These
268expressions expand to a number of the line where a pattern is located (with an
269optional integer offset).
270
271This way match patterns can be put near the relevant test lines and include
272relative line number references, for example:
273
274.. code-block:: c++
275
276   // CHECK: test.cpp:[[@LINE+4]]:6: error: expected ';' after top level declarator
277   // CHECK-NEXT: {{^int a}}
278   // CHECK-NEXT: {{^     \^}}
279   // CHECK-NEXT: {{^     ;}}
280   int a
281
282