macOS
Homebrewverified · 100%
brew install wllvmlocal Homebrew formula metadata
brew / rank 5773
Install wllvm with Homebrew, Nix
Toolkit for building whole-program LLVM bitcode files. Version 1.3.1 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-22. Also installable with nix: nix profile install nixpkgs#wllvm.
install
Additional install commands
Linux
Nixverified · 92%
nix profile install nixpkgs#wllvmnixpkgs package indexes · pkgs/by-name/wl/wllvm/package.nix · source: api.github.com
overview
Package summary
Toolkit for building whole-program LLVM bitcode files
Project links
Commands and aliases
- extract-bc
- wfortran
- wllvm
- wllvm++
- wllvm-as
- wllvm-sanity-checker
- wparse-args
history
Project history and usage
WLLVM, short for Whole Program LLVM, is a Python-based wrapper toolkit for producing whole-program or whole-library LLVM bitcode from ordinary C, C++, and Fortran build systems. Its niche is not compiling new code directly, but making existing autotools, Make, and compiler-driven projects emit normal native artifacts while preserving enough per-object bitcode information for later extraction.
Project history
The public GitHub repository for travitch/whole-program-llvm was created in 2011, and the package later became available on PyPI, whose JSON metadata records release 1.0.0 in August 2016 and release 1.3.1 in April 2021. The README describes the design as a two-step compiler-wrapper approach: build real object files first, generate matching LLVM bitcode second, and record bitcode paths in a dedicated object-file section so a post-build tool can link them into a whole-program bitcode file.
WLLVM's design grew around a practical limitation of link-time optimization workflows: GCC LTO and gold-plugin approaches can work for some programs but become awkward around static libraries and build systems that expect native objects during the build. By keeping the native build intact and delaying bitcode collection until after linking, WLLVM became useful for analysis workflows that need LLVM IR without forcing upstream projects to adopt LLVM-specific build logic.
Adoption history
Adoption has remained specialized but durable in the LLVM static-analysis ecosystem. The PyPI classifiers identify developers and science/research users, while the repository has accumulated hundreds of public stars and forks. The existence of SRI-CSL's gllvm, documented as a Go port of wllvm, is a useful sign of the idea's persistence: the wrapper-plus-extract pattern was important enough to be reimplemented for users who wanted a compiled toolchain wrapper.
How it is used
A typical user exports WLLVM's compiler wrappers, builds an unmodified upstream package, then runs extract-bc on the resulting executable or archive to recover a linked LLVM bitcode module. That makes it a package-nerd tool for turning traditional Unix source packages into LLVM IR inputs for static analysis, symbolic execution, decompilation research, and whole-program optimization experiments.
Why package nerds care
WLLVM matters because it sits at the border between normal distribution builds and research tooling. It lets a package be built the way its maintainers intended while still producing LLVM bitcode artifacts that package managers and analysis frameworks can consume later.
Timeline
- 2011: travitch/whole-program-llvm public repository created on GitHub.
- 2016: wllvm 1.0.0 uploaded to PyPI.
- 2021: wllvm 1.3.1 uploaded to PyPI.
- 2020s: gllvm documents itself as a Go port of wllvm, preserving the same whole-program bitcode workflow.
Related projects
- gllvm is a Go port of WLLVM with analogous wrapper commands and a get-bc extraction workflow.
- LLVM, clang, llvm-link, and llvm-ar are the underlying compiler and bitcode tools that make WLLVM's output useful.
Sources
security posture
Risk level: green
narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.
Risk classifier
green risk · low confidence · appliance
Why
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals
Signals
- metadata:no-higher-risk-signals
Install behavior
- No Homebrew bottle metadata was recorded.
Recommended review
Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.
executables
Installed executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
extract-bc | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
wfortran | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
wllvm | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
wllvm++ | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
wllvm-as | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
wllvm-sanity-checker | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
wparse-args | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
freshness
Version and freshness
These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.
page generated2026-08-03
manager version1.3.1
manager updated2026-06-22
local dataunknown
upstreamnot available
latest detectednot detected
- okNo freshness warnings were generated.
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:wllvm |
|---|---|
| Version | 1.3.1 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Homepage | https://pypi.org/project/wllvm/ |
| Last updated | 2026-06-22T14:06:39-07:00 |
| Pulse | updated |
| Bottle | not recorded |
| Service | none declared |
source database matches
Other package-manager records
Matches are pulled from external package-manager indexes and kept separate from local Automic Vault package links.
Nix95%
wllvm
nix profile install nixpkgs#wllvm- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Wllvm
source trail
Generated from repository data
This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.
Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub.
Used sources
- Geiger risk classifier
- cross-ecosystem install command graph
- curated package history
- external package-manager database matches
- pkg.so package database
- pkgdb category and tag curation