# Initialization and finalization

You only need to call these functions once per process invocation.

- llvmlite.binding.initialize()

    Deprecated. Initialize the LLVM core.

    This function is deprecated and will raise a `RuntimeError` when called. LLVM initialization is now handled automatically and no longer requires explicit initialization calls. Remove calls to this function and check for other behavioral changes that may have occurred due to LLVM updates.

    For code that needs to support both older and newer versions of llvmlite, you can use version-conditional initialization:

        import llvmlite
        import llvmlite.binding as llvm

        # Check llvmlite version to determine if initialization is needed
        version = [int(p) for p in llvmlite.__version__.split('.')[:2]]

        if version < [0, 45]:
             # Older versions require explicit initialization
             llvm.initialize()
        # No initialization needed for version 0.45+

- llvmlite.binding.initialize_all_targets()

    Initialize all targets. Must be called before targets can be looked up via the `Target` class.

- llvmlite.binding.initialize_all_asmprinters()

    Initialize all code generators. Must be called before generating any assembly or machine code via the `TargetMachine.emit_object()` and `TargetMachine.emit_assembly()` methods.

- llvmlite.binding.initialize_native_target()

    Initialize the native—host—target. Must be called once before doing any code generation.

- llvmlite.binding.initialize_native_asmprinter()

    Initialize the native assembly printer.

- llvmlite.binding.initialize_native_asmparser()

    Initialize the native assembly parser. Must be called for inline assembly to work.

- llvmlite.binding.shutdown()

    Shut down the LLVM core.

- llvmlite.binding.llvm_version_info

    A 3-integer tuple representing the LLVM version number.

    EXAMPLE: `(3, 7, 1)`

    Since LLVM is statically linked into the `llvmlite` DLL, this is guaranteed to represent the true LLVM version in use.