Move IR Compiler
Summary
The Move IR compiler compiles the Move IR down to its bytecode representation.
Overview
The Move IR compiler compiles modules and scripts written in Move down to
their respective bytecode representations. The two data types used to
represent these outputs are CompiledModule and CompiledScript. These
data types are defined in file_format.rs.
Beyond translating Move IR to Move bytecode, the compiler's purpose is as a testing tool for the bytecode verifier. Because of this, its job is to output bytecode programs that correspond as closely as possible to the input IR; optimizations and advanced semantic checks are specifically not performed during the compilation process. In fact, the compiler goes out of its way to push these semantic checks into the bytecode, and compile semantically invalid code in the Move IR to equivalent — semantically invalid — bytecode programs. The semantics of the compiled bytecode is then verified by the bytecode verifier. The compiler command line automatically calls the bytecode verifier at the end of compilation.
Command-line options
USAGE:
compiler [FLAGS] [OPTIONS]
FLAGS:
-h, --help Prints help information
-l, --list_dependencies Instead of compiling the source, emit a dependency list of the compiled source
-m, --module Treat input file as a module (default is to treat file as a script)
--no-stdlib Do not automatically compile stdlib dependencies
--no-verify Do not automatically run the bytecode verifier
-V, --version Prints version information
OPTIONS:
-a, --address Account address used for publishing
--deps Path to the list of modules that we want to link with
-o, --output Serialize and write the compiled output to this file
ARGS:
Path to the Move IR source to compile
Example Usage
cargo build --bin compiler
- This will build the compiler + verifier binary.
- The binary can be found at
libra/target/debug/compiler. - Alternatively, the binary can be run directly with
cargo run -p compiler.
To compile and verify foo.mvir, which contains a Move IR module:
compiler -m foo.mvir
To compile and verify bar.mvir, which contains a transaction script:
compiler bar.mvir
Folder Structure
compiler # Main compiler crate. This depends on stdlib.
├── ir-to-bytecode # Core backend compiler logic, independent of stdlib.
│ ├── src
│ │ ├── compiler.rs # Main compiler logic - converts an AST generated by `syntax.rs` to a `CompiledModule` or `CompiledScript`.
│ │ └── parser.rs # Wrapper around Move IR syntax crate.
│ └── syntax # Crate containing Move IR syntax.
│ └── src
│ ├── ast.rs # Contains all the data structures used to build the AST representing the parsed Move IR input.
│ ├── lexer.rs # Lexer for the Move IR language.
| └── syntax.rs # Parser for the Move IR language.
└── src
├── main.rs # Compiler driver - parses command line options and calls the parser, compiler, and bytecode verifier.
└── util.rs # Misc compiler utilities.