diff --git a/llvm/docs/OpaquePointers.rst b/llvm/docs/OpaquePointers.rst --- a/llvm/docs/OpaquePointers.rst +++ b/llvm/docs/OpaquePointers.rst @@ -91,7 +91,9 @@ =============== LLVM currently has many places that depend on pointee types. Each dependency on -pointee types needs to be resolved in some way or another. +pointee types needs to be resolved in some way or another. This essentially +translates to figuring out how to remove all calls to +``PointerType::getElementType`` and ``Type::getPointerElementType()``. Making everything use opaque pointers in one huge commit is infeasible. This needs to be done incrementally. The following steps need to be done, in no @@ -99,17 +101,29 @@ * Introduce the opaque pointer type -* Various ABI attributes and instructions that need a type can be changed one at - a time + * Already done - * This has already happened for many instructions like loads, stores, GEPs, +* Remove remaining in-tree users of pointee types + + * There are many miscellaneous uses that should be cleaned up individually + + * Some of the larger use cases are mentioned below + +* Various ABI attributes and instructions that rely on pointee types need to be + modified to specify the type separately + + * This has already happened for all instructions like loads, stores, GEPs, and various attributes like ``byval`` -* Fix up existing in-tree users of pointee types to not rely on LLVM pointer - pointee types + * More cases may be found as work continues - * Specifically ``PointerType::getElementType`` and - ``Type::getPointerElementType()`` +* Remove calls to and deprecate ``IRBuilder`` methods that rely on pointee types + + * For example, some of the ``IRBuilder::CreateGEP()`` methods use the pointer + operand's pointee type to determine the GEP operand type + + * Some methods are already deprecated with ``LLVM_ATTRIBUTE_DEPRECATED``, such + as some overloads of ``IRBuilder::CreateLoad()`` * Allow bitcode auto-upgrade of legacy pointer type to the new opaque pointer type (not to be turned on until ready) @@ -123,9 +137,15 @@ * This is mostly Clang, see ``clang::CodeGen::Address::getElementType()`` +* Figure out how to name overloaded intrinsics with pointer parameters + + * See ``getMangledTypeStr()`` + * Add option to internally treat all pointer types opaque pointers and see what breaks, starting with LLVM tests, then run Clang over large codebases + * We don't want to start mass-updating tests until we're fairly confident that opaque pointers won't cause major issues + * Replace legacy pointer types in LLVM tests with opaque pointer types Frontend Migration Steps