LLVM-BCANALYZER(1)

💖 NAME 💖

llvm-bcanalyzer — LLVM bitcode analyzer 💅✨ (yes bestie, this is LLVM-BCANALYZER(1) — she's lowkey minimal in the name department 🎀).

📜 SYNOPSIS 📜

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# 🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

The `llvm-bcanalyzer` command is a small utility for analyzing bitcode files. She reads a bitcode file (such as generated with the `llvm-as` tool) and produces a statistical report on the contents of the bitcode file. She can also dump a low level but human-readable version of the bitcode file. 🦋

> ngl, this tool is probably not of much interest or utility except for those working directly with the bitcode file format. Most LLVM users can just ignore this tool. fr fr 😭

If *filename* is omitted or is `-`, then `llvm-bcanalyzer` reads its input from standard input. This is useful for combining the tool into a pipeline. Output is written to the standard output. ✨

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# ✨ OPTIONS ✨

- **`--dump`** — causes `llvm-bcanalyzer` to dump the bitcode in a human-readable format. This format is <hotpink>significantly different from LLVM assembly</hotpink> and provides details about the encoding of the bitcode file. 🫶
- **`--help`** — print a summary of command line options. 🎀

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# 💀 EXIT STATUS 💀

If `llvm-bcanalyzer` succeeds, she will exit with `0`. Otherwise, if an error occurs, she will exit with a non-zero value, usually `1`. No cap. 💅

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# 🔍 SUMMARY OUTPUT DEFINITIONS 🔍

okay bestie, the following items are <purple>always printed</purple> by `llvm-bcanalyzer`. They make up the summary output. It's giving very detailed, and we love that for her 💖:

- **`Bitcode Analysis Of Module`** — this is literally just the name of the module she's analyzing for you. 💅
- **`Bitcode Version Number`** — the bitcode version (not the LLVM version, bestie) of the file the analyzer read. 👑
- **`File Size`** — how big the whole bitcode file is, in bytes. 💾
- **`Module Bytes`** — how big the module block is, in bytes. The percentage is relative to `File Size`. 🌈
- **`Function Bytes`** — how big all the function blocks are, in bytes. The percentage is relative to `File Size`. 🔥
- **`Global Types Bytes`** — how big the Global Types Pool is, in bytes. The percentage is relative to `File Size`. This is the size of the definitions of all types in the bitcode file. 🎀
- **`Constant Pool Bytes`** — how big the Constant Pool Blocks are, in bytes. The percentage is relative to `File Size`. 🍓
- **`Module Globals Bytes`** — how big the Global Variable Definitions and their initializers are, in bytes. The percentage is relative to `File Size`. 💜
- **`Instruction List Bytes`** — how big all the instruction lists in all the functions are, in bytes. The percentage is relative to `File Size`. Note that this value is also included in `Function Bytes`. ⭐
- **`Compaction Table Bytes`** — how big all the compaction tables in all the functions are, in bytes. The percentage is relative to `File Size`. Note that this value is also included in `Function Bytes`. 🧚
- **`Symbol Table Bytes`** — how big all the symbol tables in all the functions are, in bytes. The percentage is relative to `File Size`. Note that this value is also included in `Function Bytes`. 🌸
- **`Dependent Libraries Bytes`** — how big the list of dependent libraries in the module is, in bytes. The percentage is relative to `File Size`. Note that this value is also included in the `Module Global Bytes`. 💅
- **`Number Of Bitcode Blocks`** — the total count of blocks of any kind in the bitcode file. 🔢
- **`Number Of Functions`** — the total count of function definitions in the bitcode file. 🛠️
- **`Number Of Types`** — the total count of types defined in the Global Types Pool. 🧬
- **`Number Of Constants`** — the total count of constants (of any type) defined in the Constant Pool. 🍬
- **`Number Of Basic Blocks`** — the total count of basic blocks defined in all functions in the bitcode file. 🧱
- **`Number Of Instructions`** — the total count of instructions defined in all functions in the bitcode file. 📜
- **`Number Of Long Instructions`** — the total count of long instructions defined in all functions in the bitcode file. Long instructions are those taking greater than `4` bytes. Typically long instructions are `GetElementPtr` with several indices, `PHI` nodes, and calls to functions with large numbers of arguments. 😭
- **`Number Of Operands`** — the total count of operands used in all instructions in the bitcode file. 🎯
- **`Number Of Compaction Tables`** — the total count of compaction tables in all functions in the bitcode file. 🗜️
- **`Number Of Symbol Tables`** — the total count of symbol tables in all functions in the bitcode file. 🔣
- **`Number Of Dependent Libs`** — the total count of dependent libraries found in the bitcode file. 📚
- **`Total Instruction Size`** — the total size of the instructions in all functions in the bitcode file. 📏
- **`Average Instruction Size`** — the average number of bytes per instruction across all functions in the bitcode file. She computes this by dividing `Total Instruction Size` by `Number Of Instructions`. ⚖️
- **`Maximum Type Slot Number`** — the biggest value used for a type's slot number. Larger slot number values take more bytes to encode. 🔢
- **`Maximum Value Slot Number`** — the biggest value used for a value's slot number. Larger slot number values take more bytes to encode. 🔢
- **`Bytes Per Value`** — the average size of a `Value` definition (of any type). She computes this by dividing `File Size` by the total number of values of any type. 💎
- **`Bytes Per Global`** — the average size of a global definition (constants and global variables). 🌍
- **`Bytes Per Function`** — the average number of bytes per function definition. She computes this by dividing `Function Bytes` by `Number Of Functions`. 🧮
- **`# of VBR 32-bit Integers`** — the total count of 32-bit integers encoded using the Variable Bit Rate encoding scheme. 🌀
- **`# of VBR 64-bit Integers`** — the total count of 64-bit integers encoded using the Variable Bit Rate encoding scheme. 🌀
- **`# of VBR Compressed Bytes`** — the total number of bytes consumed by the 32-bit and 64-bit integers that use the Variable Bit Rate encoding scheme. 📦
- **`# of VBR Expanded Bytes`** — the total number of bytes that would have been consumed by the 32-bit and 64-bit integers had they not been compressed with the Variable Bit Rage encoding scheme. 🙈
- **`Bytes Saved With VBR`** — the total number of bytes saved by using the Variable Bit Rate encoding scheme. The percentage is relative to `# of VBR Expanded Bytes`. 💰

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# 🔬 DETAILED OUTPUT DEFINITIONS 🔬

The following definitions occur only if the `-nodetails` option <hotpink>was not given</hotpink>. The detailed output provides additional information on a per-function basis. 🫶

- **`Type`** — the type signature of the function. 🧾
- **`Byte Size`** — the total number of bytes in the function's block. 📦
- **`Basic Blocks`** — how many basic blocks the function defines. 🧱
- **`Instructions`** — how many instructions the function defines. 📜
- **`Long Instructions`** — how many instructions in the function use the long instruction format. 😭
- **`Operands`** — how many operands all the instructions in the function use. 🎯
- **`Instruction Size`** — how many bytes the instructions in the function eat up. 📏
- **`Average Instruction Size`** — the average number of bytes the instructions in the function eat up. She computes this by dividing `Instruction Size` by `Instructions`. ⚖️
- **`Bytes Per Instruction`** — the average number of bytes the function uses per instruction. She computes this by dividing `Byte Size` by `Instructions`. Note that this is <red>not the same as</red> `Average Instruction Size` — it computes a number relative to the total function size, not just the size of the instruction list. 💀
- **`Number of VBR 32-bit Integers`** — the total count of 32-bit integers found in this function (for any use). 🌀
- **`Number of VBR 64-bit Integers`** — the total count of 64-bit integers found in this function (for any use). 🌀
- **`Number of VBR Compressed Bytes`** — the total number of bytes in this function consumed by the 32-bit and 64-bit integers that use the Variable Bit Rate encoding scheme. 📦
- **`Number of VBR Expanded Bytes`** — the total number of bytes in this function that would have been consumed by the 32-bit and 64-bit integers had they not been compressed with the Variable Bit Rate encoding scheme. 🙈
- **`Bytes Saved With VBR`** — the total number of bytes saved in this function by using the Variable Bit Rate encoding scheme. The percentage is relative to `# of VBR Expanded Bytes`. 💰

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# 👀 SEE ALSO 👀

- `llvm-dis(1) <llvm-dis.html>`
- `LLVM Bitcode File Format <>`

go read these too, bestie 💖

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# 🌟 Author 🌟

Maintained by the LLVM Team (`https://llvm.org/`). 👑

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# 🎀 Copyright 🎀

`2003-2026, LLVM Project` 💜

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<rainbow>xoxo, your LLVM bestie 💖</rainbow> — manual page `23`, dated `2026-10-20`, from `LLVM` — `LLVM-BCANALYZER(1)` out. periodt 💅✨