diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 10613c6..8c4be57 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -18,3 +18,4 @@ build
 CTestTestfile.cmake
 DartConfiguration.tcl
 *.cmake
+*.ll
diff --git a/src/llvm/backend.c b/src/llvm/backend.c
index dc24897..04c23f0 100644
--- a/src/llvm/backend.c
+++ b/src/llvm/backend.c
@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@ Target create_native_target() {
     DEBUG("creating native target...");
     Target target;
 
+    target.name.str = "tmp";
+    target.name.allocation = NONE;
+
     target.triple.str = LLVMGetDefaultTargetTriple();
     target.triple.allocation = LLVM;
     assert(target.triple.str != NULL);
diff --git a/src/llvm/parser.c b/src/llvm/parser.c
index e7d8287..4bda673 100644
--- a/src/llvm/parser.c
+++ b/src/llvm/parser.c
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ BackendError export_IR(LLVMBackendCompileUnit* unit, const Target* target) {
     char* ir = LLVMPrintModuleToString(unit->module);
 
     // construct file name
-    char* filename = alloca(strlen(target->name.str) + 2);
+    char* filename = alloca(strlen(target->name.str) + 4);
     sprintf(filename, "%s.ll", target->name.str);
 
     INFO("Writing LLVM-IR to %s", filename);
@@ -64,6 +64,10 @@ BackendError export_object(LLVMBackendCompileUnit* unit, const Target* target) {
     LLVMTargetRef llvm_target = NULL;
     char* error = NULL;
 
+    LLVMInitializeAllTargets();
+    LLVMInitializeAllTargetInfos();
+    LLVMInitializeAllTargetMCs();
+
     DEBUG("creating target...");
     if (LLVMGetTargetFromTriple(target->triple.str, &llvm_target, &error) !=
         0) {
diff --git a/tests/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/CMakeLists.txt
index 1228d2b..57c4c80 100644
--- a/tests/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -9,4 +9,5 @@ set(CTEST_BINARY_DIRECTORY ${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/tests)
 add_subdirectory(logging)
 add_subdirectory(input_file)
 add_subdirectory(ast)
-add_subdirectory(glib)
\ No newline at end of file
+add_subdirectory(glib)
+add_subdirectory(llvm)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/llvm/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/llvm/CMakeLists.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e4dcdc9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/llvm/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+include(CTest)
+
+include_directories(${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/src)
+include_directories(PRIVATE ${GLIB_INCLUDE_DIRS})
+
+find_package(PkgConfig REQUIRED)
+pkg_search_module(GLIB REQUIRED IMPORTED_TARGET glib-2.0)
+link_libraries(PkgConfig::GLIB)    
+
+# ------------------------------------------------ #
+#  LLVM backend                                    #
+# ------------------------------------------------ #
+
+# Fetch LLVM link configuration
+execute_process(COMMAND llvm-config --libs all
+                OUTPUT_VARIABLE LLVM_LIBS)
+# Strip whitespace from output
+string(STRIP "${LLVM_LIBS}" LLVM_LIBS)
+# Link all targets to LLVM
+link_libraries(${LLVM_LIBS})
+
+# ------------------------------------------------------- #
+# CTEST 1
+# test llvm backend codegen for global variables
+
+file(GLOB_RECURSE SOURCE_FILES ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/src/*.c)
+list(REMOVE_ITEM SOURCE_FILES ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/src/main.c)
+add_executable(global_vars
+global_vars.c ${SOURCE_FILES})
+set_target_properties(global_vars
+        PROPERTIES
+        OUTPUT_NAME "global_vars"
+        RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY ${GEMSTONE_BINARY_DIR}/tests/llvm)
+add_test(NAME global_vars
+        WORKING_DIRECTORY ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/tests/llvm
+        COMMAND ${GEMSTONE_BINARY_DIR}/tests/llvm/global_vars)
diff --git a/tests/llvm/global_vars.c b/tests/llvm/global_vars.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aca3d42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/llvm/global_vars.c
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+
+#include <codegen/backend.h>
+#include <llvm/backend.h>
+#include <sys/log.h>
+#include <set/types.h>
+
+// NOTE: unused
+AST_NODE_PTR root;
+
+Module* create_module() {
+    Module* module = malloc(sizeof(Module));
+
+    module->boxes = g_hash_table_new(g_str_hash, g_str_equal);
+    module->functions = g_hash_table_new(g_str_hash, g_str_equal);
+    module->imports = g_array_new(FALSE, FALSE, sizeof(Type));
+    module->variables = g_hash_table_new(g_str_hash, g_str_equal);
+    module->types = g_hash_table_new(g_str_hash, g_str_equal);
+
+    return module;
+}
+
+int main() {
+    log_init();
+
+    Module* module = create_module();
+
+    llvm_backend_init();
+
+    BackendError err;
+    err = init_backend();
+    if (err.kind != Success) {
+        PANIC("%ld: at [%p] %s", err.kind, err.impl.ast_node, err.impl.message);
+    }
+
+    err = generate_code(module, NULL);
+    if (err.kind != Success) {
+        PANIC("%ld: at [%p] %s", err.kind, err.impl.ast_node, err.impl.message);
+    }
+
+    err = deinit_backend();
+    if (err.kind != Success) {
+        PANIC("%ld: at [%p] %s", err.kind, err.impl.ast_node, err.impl.message);
+    }
+}