RFC: LLVM - lld - Add visual studio compatible diagnostics output to lld

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#1

RFC: lld- Add visual studio compatible diagnostics output to lld

Hello all,

We have a proposal to extend the diagnostics output capabilities of lld.

Problem

MS Visual Studio expects the diagnostic output of build tools to conform to a specific format, described here: [1] and [2] . Currently lld cannot emit warnings and errors in this format. lld prefixes diagnostic output with args[0], which can be a full path to the lld executable. If a diagnostic message of this format is clicked within visual studio, the program
attempts to open the linker executable for edit, as this is interpreted as a source code file. Normally this causes visual studio
to become unresponsive until the file open operation times out. This output in its current format is displayed in visual studio as:

------ Build started: Project: lldDiagnostics, Configuration: Debug ------
X:\bin\lld.exe : error : undefined symbol: foo

referenced by diagMain.cpp:5 (X:\lldDiagnostics\lldDiagnostics\diagMain.cpp:5)
Debug\diagMain.o:(main)
Done building project “lldDiagnostics.vcxproj” – FAILED.
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========

Proposed Solution

We propose the addition of an option to output diagnostics that fully conform to [1]. There is currently an option in clang that enables VS compatible output, ‘-fdiagnostics-format=msvc’ [3] [4]. This will enable visual studio to parse the full diagnostic. This will
result in clickable links so that the IDE can display the source from which the error or warning originates, as well as adding errors and warnings to the error list.

A visual studio conformant diagnostics output would look something like:

X:\lldDiagnostics\lldDiagnostics\diagMain.cpp(5) : error : undefined symbol ‘foo’ referenced in function ‘main’ in file ‘Debug\diagMain.o’

VS would be display this as:

------ Build started: Project: Project1, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
Link : error : L0039: reference to undefined symbol foo' in file "X:\lldDiagnostics\lldDiagnostics\diagMain\diagMain.o" X:\lldDiagnostics\lldDiagnostics\diagMain.cpp : error : L0039: reference to undefined symbol foo’ in file
“X:\lldDiagnostics\lldDiagnostics\diagMain\diagMainSource.o”
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========

Thanks.

Best Regards,

Chris

[1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/ide/formatting-the-output-of-a-custom-build-step-or-build-event
[2] https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/msbuild/2006/11/02/msbuild-visual-studio-aware-error-messages-and-message-formats/
[3] https://clang.llvm.org/docs/UsersManual.html#cmdoption-fdiagnostics-format
[4] http://lists.llvm.org/pipermail/cfe-dev/2011-May/015115.html

#2

Hi,

I understand that making lld’s error message compatible with MSVC makes it easy to use in IDEs. But at the same time I personally prefer the current style of lld’s error message because it’s easier to read particularly when filenames or symbol names are long (which is a norm in modern projects).

I’d start with experimenting your idea with a small change. I guess that the error message you want to format in the MSVC style is almost always “missing symbol” error. You could change only that message locally so that lld prints it out in the MSVC style. If that works for you, then I guess you can demonstrate that to convince broader audiences, and we can discuss how we will adopt that change. What do you think?

#3

Hi,

We would like to see that change, too, especially for lld/ELF.

Chris, do you have a patch or just looking for help?

#4

Hello,

thanks for the responses.

Rui, I think you’re correct that frequently that will be the error and I will probably initially work on formatting that message to MSVC style.

Igor, I intend to work on an initial patch that is broadly in line with the clang functionality I referenced, to demonstrate the functionality as Rui suggested,

Best Regards,

Chris