diff --git a/llvm/docs/AMDGPUDwarfExtensionAllowLocationDescriptionOnTheDwarfExpressionStack/AMDGPUDwarfExtensionAllowLocationDescriptionOnTheDwarfExpressionStack.md b/llvm/docs/AMDGPUDwarfExtensionAllowLocationDescriptionOnTheDwarfExpressionStack/AMDGPUDwarfExtensionAllowLocationDescriptionOnTheDwarfExpressionStack.md --- a/llvm/docs/AMDGPUDwarfExtensionAllowLocationDescriptionOnTheDwarfExpressionStack/AMDGPUDwarfExtensionAllowLocationDescriptionOnTheDwarfExpressionStack.md +++ b/llvm/docs/AMDGPUDwarfExtensionAllowLocationDescriptionOnTheDwarfExpressionStack/AMDGPUDwarfExtensionAllowLocationDescriptionOnTheDwarfExpressionStack.md @@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ - [3.2.3 Variable Location in Memory](#variable-location-in-memory) - [3.2.4 Variable Spread Across Different Locations](#variable-spread-across-different-locations) - [3.2.5 Offsetting a Composite Location](#offsetting-a-composite-location) + - [3.2.6 Pointer to Member](#pointer-to-member) - [3.3 Limitations](#limitations) - [4. Extension Solution](#extension-solution) - [4.1 Location Description](#location-description) @@ -443,6 +444,192 @@ This illustrates that operations on stack values are not composable with operations on location descriptions. +### 3.2.6 Pointer to Member + +> NOTE: Without loss of generality, DWARF 4 is used in this example as full +> support for DWARF 5 is not present in the versions of the tools used. No +> feature of DWARF 5 provides a remedy for this issue. + +This example highlights the inability of DWARF 5 to describe C++ +pointer-to-member use semantics. + +The mechanism DWARF 5 provides for describing pointer-to-member use is +`DW_AT_use_location`, which is defined as encoding a location description which +computes the address of the member pointed to by a pointer-to-member, given the +pointer-to-member object and the address of the containing object. + +That is, when a debug agent wishes to evaluate a pointer-to-member access +operation, it first pushes two values onto the DWARF expression stack: + +* The pointer-to-member object +* The address of the containing object + +It then evaluates the location description associated with the +`DW_AT_use_location` of the pointer-to-member type, and interprets the result +as the address of the member pointed to by the pointer-to-member. + +Consider the following C++ source file `s.cc`: + +```cpp +struct s { + int m; + int n; +}; +int s::* p; +``` + +When compiled with GCC and inspected with dwarfdump: + +``` +$ g++ -gdwarf-5 -O3 -c s.cc +$ dwarfdump s.o +< 1><0x0000001e> DW_TAG_structure_type + DW_AT_name s + DW_AT_byte_size 0x00000008 + DW_AT_sibling <0x0000003c> +< 2><0x00000029> DW_TAG_member + DW_AT_name m + DW_AT_type <0x0000003c> + DW_AT_data_member_location 0 +< 2><0x00000032> DW_TAG_member + DW_AT_name n + DW_AT_type <0x0000003c> + DW_AT_data_member_location 4 +< 1><0x0000003c> DW_TAG_base_type + DW_AT_byte_size 0x00000004 + DW_AT_encoding DW_ATE_signed + DW_AT_name int +< 1><0x00000043> DW_TAG_ptr_to_member_type + DW_AT_containing_type <0x0000001e> + DW_AT_type <0x0000003c> + DW_AT_use_location len 0x0001: 22: DW_OP_plus +< 1><0x0000004e> DW_TAG_variable + DW_AT_name p + DW_AT_type <0x00000043> + DW_AT_external yes(1) + DW_AT_location len 0x0009: 030000000000000000: DW_OP_addr 0x00000000 +``` + +Note the location description for `DW_AT_use_location` is `DW_OP_plus`, which +reflects the GCC implementation of the pointer-to-member as an integral byte +offset within the containing object. For example, the value of `&s::m` in this +implementation is `offsetof(s, m)` and the value of `&s::n` is `offsetof(s, n)`: + +```cpp +struct s { + int m; // offsetof(s, m) == 0 + int n; // offsetof(s, n) == 4 +} o; // &o == 0xff00 +int s::* p; +int *i; + +p = &s::m; // p == 0 +i = &(o.*p); // i == 0xff00 + 0 +p = &s::n; // p == 4 +i = &(o.*p); // i == 0xff00 + 4 +``` + +The expression `DW_OP_plus` accurately describes this implementation so long as +the entire containing object resides in memory in the default address space. + +However, what if the containing object or the member pointed to are not at any +default address space address? + +The compiler may store the containing object in memory in any address space, +in a register, recompute its value at each use, or compose any of these in +arbitrary ways. + +The richness of the existing DWARF 5 expression language is a reflection of the +diversity of possible implementation strategies and optimization choices +affecting the location of an object in a program, and (modulo address spaces) +it can describe all of these locations for variables. However, the moment we +look at a pointer-to-member use we are restricted to only objects residing in a +contiguous piece of memory in the default address space. + +To demonstrate the problem, consider a program which GCC chooses to optimize in +such a way that the containing object is not in memory at all: + +ptm.h: +```cpp +struct s { + int m; + int n; +}; +void i(int); +extern int t; +void f(s x, int s::* p); +``` + +ptm.cc: +```cpp +#include "ptm.h" +void f(s x, int s::* p) { + for (int a = 0; a < t; ++a) { + x.m += a + x.n; + i(x.*p); + } +} +``` + +main.cc: +```cpp +#include "ptm.h" +int t = 100; +void i(int) {} +int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { + s x = { 0, 1 }; + f(x, &s::m); +} +``` + +When compiled and run under GDB: + +``` +$ g++-9 -gdwarf-4 -O3 -c main.cc -o main.o +$ g++-9 -gdwarf-4 -O3 -c ptm.cc -o ptm.o +$ g++-9 main.o ptm.o -o use_location.out +$ gdb ./use_location.out +(gdb) maint set dwarf always-disassemble +(gdb) b ptm.cc:5 +Breakpoint 1 at 0x119e: file ptm.cc, line 5. +(gdb) r + +Breakpoint 1, f (x=..., p=) at ptm.cc:5 +5 i(x.*p); +``` + +Note that the compiler has promoted the entire object `x` into register `rdi` +for the body of the loop: + +``` +(gdb) info addr x +Symbol "x" is multi-location: + Range 0x555555555160-0x5555555551af: a complex DWARF expression: + 0: DW_OP_reg5 [$rdi] + + Range 0x5555555551af-0x5555555551ba: a complex DWARF expression: + 0: DW_OP_fbreg -56 + +. +(gdb) p $pc +$1 = (void (*)(void)) 0x55555555519e +``` + +And so it is impossible to interpret `DW_OP_use_location` in this case: + +``` +(gdb) p x.*p +Address requested for identifier "x" which is in register $rdi +``` + +With location descriptions on the stack, the definition of `DW_OP_use_location` +can be modified by replacing every instance of "address" with "location +description", as is described in [A.5 Type Entries](#a-5-type-entries). + +To implement the fully generalized version of this attribute, GCC would only +need to change the expression from `DW_OP_plus` to `DW_OP_swap, +DW_OP_LLVM_offset`. + ## 3.3 Limitations DWARF 5 is unable to describe variables in runtime indexed parts of registers.