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17. Passes and Files of the Compiler

The overall control structure of the compiler is in `toplev.c'. This file is responsible for initialization, decoding arguments, opening and closing files, and sequencing the passes.

The parsing pass is invoked only once, to parse the entire input. A high level tree representation is then generated from the input, one function at a time. This tree code is then transformed into RTL intermediate code, and processed. The files involved in transforming the trees into RTL are `expr.c', `expmed.c', and `stmt.c'. The order of trees that are processed, is not necessarily the same order they are generated from the input, due to deferred inlining, and other considerations.

Each time the parsing pass reads a complete function definition or top-level declaration, it calls either the function rest_of_compilation, or the function rest_of_decl_compilation in `toplev.c', which are responsible for all further processing necessary, ending with output of the assembler language. All other compiler passes run, in sequence, within rest_of_compilation. When that function returns from compiling a function definition, the storage used for that function definition's compilation is entirely freed, unless it is an inline function, or was deferred for some reason (this can occur in templates, for example). (see section An Inline Function is As Fast As a Macro).

Here is a list of all the passes of the compiler and their source files. Also included is a description of where debugging dumps can be requested with `-d' options.

Some additional files are used by all or many passes:


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