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Make GetStyle return Expected<FormatStyle> instead of FormatStyle
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Authored by amaiorano on Dec 23 2016, 1:42 PM.

Details

Summary

Change the contract of GetStyle so that it returns an error when an error occurs (i.e. when it writes to stderr), and only returns the fallback style when it can't find a configuration file.

Diff Detail

Event Timeline

amaiorano updated this revision to Diff 82419.Dec 23 2016, 1:42 PM
amaiorano retitled this revision from to Make GetStyle return Expected<FormatStyle> instead of FormatStyle .
amaiorano updated this object.

This change works, and passes all tests; however, I have a bunch of questions, which you'll find in the diffs. I look forward to your feedback. Thanks!

lib/Format/Format.cpp
1891

Since we won't always return a FormatStyle, we no longer construct one here. Rather, instances are created in local scopes below when required.

1901

I am unsure whether I should be returning these error strings at all. I say this because some of the functions called in this one will output to errs(), which means the caller doesn't get the full picture of what went wrong.

Maybe it's better to keep the original code that outputs to errs(), and just return an error code instead. Thoughts?

1907

I must remember to set the Language each time. I could do this right after declaring the local variable (line 1907). (NOTE: will fix formatting - ah the irony!).

1938

Better variable name IMHO. Condition checks both that it exists and is a regular file.

1972

See the TODO comment above (which will be removed obviously). Is it an error if we find no suitable config for the input language? If that happens, should the fallback style be returned?

lib/Tooling/Refactoring.cpp
87

As I wrote above, by returning the string, the caller has the burden of outputting the error. More importantly, getStyle may already have written other errors to errs(), so I'm not sure this makes sense.

If we go with only returning error code, I suppose I'd use llvm::ErrorOr<FormatStyle> as the return type.

unittests/Format/FormatTest.cpp
10948–10949

Good way to validate Expected<T>?

10967

Below, I added tests for all the error cases. Only thing is that they may output to errs(); is that okay? Will that break test bots?

10985

Test 7 below: there's an error case in getStyle where it fails to open the file. Not sure how to make it fail or whether it's even worth testing. (See Format.cpp line 1961)

amaiorano added inline comments.Dec 23 2016, 9:40 PM
unittests/Format/FormatTestObjC.cpp
70–71

In these tests, I'm assuming getStyle returns a valid FormatSyle. I could add the same types of validation as in the FormatStyle.GetStyleOfFile tests.

One more thing I forgot to mention is that this change comes from a discussion we had on this other change: https://reviews.llvm.org/D27440 where @djasper agreed that "fallback-style should only be used when there is no .clang-format file. If we find one, and it doesn't parse correctly, we should neither use the fallback style nor scan in higher-level directories (not sure whether we currently do that).".

ioeric added inline comments.Dec 27 2016, 12:01 PM
include/clang/Format/Format.h
861–862

Is this still true?

lib/Format/Format.cpp
424

Why do you need a template if you only use this function with one argument?

1891

I'd probably keep the default style so that we don't need to set Language repeatedly below.

1900

Nit: prefer no curly brace around one liners. Same below.

1901

I think returning an Expected is the right approach. I think we should consider using customized format-relayed error codes (like that in the tooling::Replacements library) to provide richer information. For example, you could use customized error codes instead of llvm::inconvertibleErrorCode when constructing a StringError to provide additional information besides the error message. Other interfaces in the format library can potentially benefit from codes as well (e.g. ParseError can be merged).

lib/Tooling/Refactoring.cpp
86–91

Is this indentation intended?

87

I don't think getStyle should write to errs() if it returns an Error.

Thank you, @ioeric for your feedback!

include/clang/Format/Format.h
861–862

No, it's not true, and I intend to update this comment. Thanks for pointing it out :)

lib/Format/Format.cpp
424

In the end, I didn't need it. But since make_error accepts variable args, I figured this was more flexible. I can simplify it in the end, I only pass a single param.

1891

The thing is, it made a lot of sense to have a default constructed FormatStyle before when we were sure to always return it. Since now we only return a Style under 2 specific conditions (found a config file, or did not return the FallbackStyle), otherwise return an error, I feel like it's more clear this way. But if you firmly disagree, I can go back.

To make returning the Style with current Language more clear, I could use a function that ties the two together and returns it (perhaps a local lambda), like StyleWithLanguage(Style, Language).

1900

Will do.

1901

I agree with you, returning more specific error codes would be useful. However, I'm thinking we go at it incrementally. The point of this change is to have getStyle return when an error occurs so that we return non-zero from main, and more importantly, not use the fallback style when this happens.

In that respect, what I'm wondering is whether I should just leave the errs() output in getStyle, and simply return an error code, or keep what I've done (returning StringError) as a stepping stone in the right direction - that is, eventually returning customized format-relayed error codes, as you say.

lib/Tooling/Refactoring.cpp
86–91

No. I will definitely do a formatting pass. I'm using Visual Studio with the clang-format extension, which works alright, but Visual Studio fights against it with its own formatting. Indeed, the reason I even started contributing to clang-format was because I wanted to improve the VS extension. I've already pushed a few changes to it, and intend to do a little more to make the experience simpler. In any case, my next diff upload will have proper formatting everywhere.

ioeric added inline comments.Dec 28 2016, 12:57 AM
lib/Format/Format.cpp
1891

I'd go with the old way with some comments, which should be clear enough.

1901

I think the interface should no longer write to errs() if we want to introduce error handling (either with error codes or llvm::Error).

StringError does not really collide with error codes AFAICT - it can also carry error codes which you would have return directly. And even if you just return error codes, you would need some sort of customized error codes right?

amaiorano added inline comments.Dec 28 2016, 11:47 AM
lib/Format/Format.cpp
1972

@ioeric Do you have any thoughts on my question here? Say the user specified "-file" and a fallback style, and we find files but they are not suitable (for a different language), do we use the fallback style, since it's as if we found no config file. If so, then we wouldn't consider this an error, and therefore would not print nor return the message that we see here ("Configuration file(s) do(es) not support...").

The fact that the original code output to errs() here leads me to believe that this should be considered an error condition, in which case I should keep my change - that is, return an error here and _not_ return the fallback style.

ioeric added inline comments.Dec 29 2016, 1:24 AM
lib/Format/Format.cpp
1972

I don't have strong opinion here, but I am inclined to return an error.

amaiorano updated this revision to Diff 82708.Dec 29 2016, 4:56 PM

Updated with the changes @ioeric suggested.

Hello everyone, so after a few more tests, I've uncovered a bug and perhaps a different meaning for fallback style. First, the bug: if you set fallback style to "none", clang-format will perform no replacements. This happens because getStyle will first initialize its local Style variable to LLVM style, and then because a fallback style is set, will then set it to the "none" style, will ends up setting Style.DisableFormatting to true. After that, when we parse YAML (either from Style arg or a config file), we use the Style variable as the "template" for fields that haven't been set. In this case, the "none" fallback style causes DisableFormatting to remain true, so no formatting will take place.

As it happens, my first diff patch uploaded here fixed this issue by accident. Instead of reusing the same local Style variable, I declared one for each case where we'd need to parse. The fallback style case would use its own variable, FallbackStyle, which would not be used as the template style when parsing the YAML config.

What's interesting is that the way the code is originally written allows you to use fallback style as a way to set the "base" configuration for which the subsequently parsed YAML overlays. For example, if I don't set fallback style, the assumed base style is "LLVM", and any YAML parsed modifies this LLVM base style. But if I pass a fallback style of "Mozilla", then this becomes the base style over which the YAML overlays.

So to my mind, we have 2 approaches to fix the "none" style bug:

  1. Go with a similar approach to what I did originally; that is, we always assume LLVM as the base style, and make sure that the fallback style is not used as the base style, but rather only as the style to return if none is found. I think this is what FallbackStyle was originally intended for.
  1. Allow fallback style to maintain its current meaning - that is, as a way to set the base style when "style" is "file" or YAML. In this case, I believe the right thing is to treat FallbackStyle set to "none" as though no fallback style were passed in at all. Concretely, we might want t to modify getPredefinedStyle to return LLVM style when "none" is passed in, instead of what it does now. I personally think this is more confusing, and also introduces more risk.

Let me know what you think. If we go with option 1, I could fold the fix into this change.

lib/Format/Format.cpp
1900–1902

Going over my diff, I realize that I didn't revert this local FormatStyle instance to make use of the top-level declared "FormatStyle Style" local variable. I will revert this one too.

amaiorano added inline comments.Jan 1 2017, 10:26 AM
lib/Format/Format.cpp
1900–1902

I wrote the above comment before realizing there was a bug when fallback style is "none". As I explained in my long comment, we may actually want to keep this as a separate variable to fix the bug and ensure fallback style is only ever returned when no config is found, which is exactly what my change currently does.

ioeric edited edge metadata.Jan 2 2017, 1:25 AM

Hello everyone, so after a few more tests, I've uncovered a bug and perhaps a different meaning for fallback style. First, the bug: if you set fallback style to "none", clang-format will perform no replacements. This happens because getStyle will first initialize its local Style variable to LLVM style, and then because a fallback style is set, will then set it to the "none" style, will ends up setting Style.DisableFormatting to true. After that, when we parse YAML (either from Style arg or a config file), we use the Style variable as the "template" for fields that haven't been set. In this case, the "none" fallback style causes DisableFormatting to remain true, so no formatting will take place.

As it happens, my first diff patch uploaded here fixed this issue by accident. Instead of reusing the same local Style variable, I declared one for each case where we'd need to parse. The fallback style case would use its own variable, FallbackStyle, which would not be used as the template style when parsing the YAML config.

What's interesting is that the way the code is originally written allows you to use fallback style as a way to set the "base" configuration for which the subsequently parsed YAML overlays. For example, if I don't set fallback style, the assumed base style is "LLVM", and any YAML parsed modifies this LLVM base style. But if I pass a fallback style of "Mozilla", then this becomes the base style over which the YAML overlays.

So to my mind, we have 2 approaches to fix the "none" style bug:

  1. Go with a similar approach to what I did originally; that is, we always assume LLVM as the base style, and make sure that the fallback style is not used as the base style, but rather only as the style to return if none is found. I think this is what FallbackStyle was originally intended for.
  1. Allow fallback style to maintain its current meaning - that is, as a way to set the base style when "style" is "file" or YAML. In this case, I believe the right thing is to treat FallbackStyle set to "none" as though no fallback style were passed in at all. Concretely, we might want t to modify getPredefinedStyle to return LLVM style when "none" is passed in, instead of what it does now. I personally think this is more confusing, and also introduces more risk.

Let me know what you think. If we go with option 1, I could fold the fix into this change.

This is a good YAQ, which IMO should be tackled in a separate patch. In this patch though, it might be easier to proceed by keeping the original behavior and leaving a FIXME. In general, reviewers like smaller patches with single purpose :)

amaiorano updated this revision to Diff 82814.Jan 2 2017, 1:01 PM
amaiorano edited edge metadata.

Reverted the FallbackStyle code and added a FIXME as @ioeric suggested. I'll fix the fallback style "none" bug in a separate change.

ioeric added a comment.Jan 2 2017, 1:38 PM

Some nits. Some is almost good :)

BTW, do you have clang-tools-extra in your source tree? There are also some references in the subtree to the changed interface. It would be nice if you could also fix them in a separate patch and commit these two patches together (I mean, within a short period of time) so that you wouldn't break build bots.

References should be found in these files:

extra/change-namespace/ChangeNamespace.cpp
extra/clang-move/ClangMove.cpp
extra/include-fixer/tool/ClangIncludeFixer.cpp	 
extra/clang-apply-replacements/tool/ClangApplyReplacementsMain.cpp
extra/clang-tidy/ClangTidy.cpp

Thanks!

lib/Format/Format.cpp
424

Maybe make this inline?

1901

I'd state the problem with a specific solution only if I am sure it is the best solution.

1952–1953

Redundant braces. Same below.

lib/Tooling/Refactoring.cpp
86–91

There is a NewReplacements below which is also llvm::Expected<T>. FormatStyleOrError is a fine name, but to be we have been naming Expected types without OrError postfix, so I'd go without OrError postfix for consistency append OrError postfix to other expected variables. Personally, I find expected variables without OrError postfix easier to understand, especially in error checking. For example, if (!FormatStyleOrError) is a bit awkward to read while if (!FormatStyle) is more straight-forward IMO.

Same for other changes.

unittests/Format/FormatTest.cpp
10972

This is a bit strange... Just llvm::consumeError(Style.takeError()) if you don't bother to check the error message, e.g. with llvm::StringRef::starswith or RE match.

unittests/Format/FormatTestObjC.cpp
70–71

Please add proper checking as above for returned values.

ioeric added a comment.Jan 2 2017, 1:39 PM

Oops, sorry about the typo. I mean, code is almost good! :)

ioeric added a subscriber: cfe-commits.

Some nits. Some is almost good :)

BTW, do you have clang-tools-extra in your source tree? There are also some references in the subtree to the changed interface. It would be nice if you could also fix them in a separate patch and commit these two patches together (I mean, within a short period of time) so that you wouldn't break build bots.

References should be found in these files:

extra/change-namespace/ChangeNamespace.cpp
extra/clang-move/ClangMove.cpp
extra/include-fixer/tool/ClangIncludeFixer.cpp	 
extra/clang-apply-replacements/tool/ClangApplyReplacementsMain.cpp
extra/clang-tidy/ClangTidy.cpp

Thanks!

I'll grab clang-tools-extras and make the second patch as you suggest. Btw, can you explain how I would avoid breaking build bots? I assume you mean that clang-tools-extras gets built separately against some version of clang, which gets auto-updated. When would I know the right time to push the second patch through?

Also, I assume I'd have to get this second patch approved before ever pushing the first, right?

lib/Format/Format.cpp
424

Yes.

1901

Good point, will remove the solution.

lib/Tooling/Refactoring.cpp
86–91

Agreed. For consistency, would you prefer I also use 'auto' for the return type rather than llvm::Expected<format::FormatStyle> as is done for NewReplacements?

unittests/Format/FormatTest.cpp
10972

Yeah, I'll go with the consumeError.

unittests/Format/FormatTestObjC.cpp
70–71

Hmm, so I could replace the Style member of the fixture class with Expected<FormatStyle>, and then change all "Style." with "Style->" in the rest of the test file, or only in this specific test, I could store the result in a local Expected<FormatStyle>, check that it's valid, and then assign to Style. The latter is simpler; only question I have is how to name the local variable - can I go with StyleOrError? Style2?

amaiorano added inline comments.Jan 2 2017, 7:54 PM
unittests/Format/FormatTestObjC.cpp
70–71

Another option here is to make this a non-fixture TEST and just declare a local Expected<FormatStyle> Style for this specific test, which would work fine.

amaiorano updated this revision to Diff 82831.Jan 2 2017, 8:17 PM

More changes as suggested by @ioeric. I asked a question earlier about clang-tools-extras and understanding how not to break the build bots. If you can shed some light on that, I'd appreciate it, thanks :)

ioeric added a comment.Jan 3 2017, 1:20 AM

The patch LGTM now. I'll accept both this and the one for clang-tool-extra when it is ready.

Regarding builbots, we have bots that continually run builds/tests (http://lab.llvm.org:8011/). Many buildbots test llvm and clang as well as clang-tools-extra (e.g. with ninja check-all) at some revision. Also note that although llvm/clang and clang-tools-extra are different repos, they do share the same revision sequence. So if clang-tools-extra is in a inconsistent state, many buildbots can fail and affect llvm/clang builds. Unfortunately, there is no atomic way to commit two revisions to two repositories, so we just commit them quickly one after another so that we do less damage. Do you have commit access to LLVM btw?

lib/Format/Format.cpp
1900–1902

maybe "format is disabled" is clearer?

lib/Tooling/Refactoring.cpp
86–91

auto is fine.

unittests/Format/FormatTestObjC.cpp
70–71

Yeah, making this non-fixture sounds like a better idea. StyleOrError is fine here.

amaiorano updated this revision to Diff 82896.Jan 3 2017, 8:41 AM

Minor comment change, turned the ObjC test into a non-fixture test, and renamed FormatStyleOrError to FormatStyle in format function.

The patch LGTM now. I'll accept both this and the one for clang-tool-extra when it is ready.

Regarding builbots, we have bots that continually run builds/tests (http://lab.llvm.org:8011/). Many buildbots test llvm and clang as well as clang-tools-extra (e.g. with ninja check-all) at some revision. Also note that although llvm/clang and clang-tools-extra are different repos, they do share the same revision sequence. So if clang-tools-extra is in a inconsistent state, many buildbots can fail and affect llvm/clang builds. Unfortunately, there is no atomic way to commit two revisions to two repositories, so we just commit them quickly one after another so that we do less damage. Do you have commit access to LLVM btw?

I do have commit access. I'll get to work on the clang-tools-extras and open a new review for it once it's ready. Thanks.

@ioeric I think you removed cfe-commits as a reviewer, then added it back, but it didn't work. Should I re-add?

EDIT: never mind, just realized you're supposed to add cfe-commits as subscriber, not reviewer.

alexander-shaposhnikov added inline comments.
lib/Format/Format.cpp
424

regarding this function and some other helper functions in this file:

  1. why aren't they static ?

(if this stuff is not used outside of this .cpp - but yeah, i assume i'm missing smth)

  1. http://llvm.org/docs/CodingStandards.html naming conventions are

"Function names should be verb phrases (as they represent actions), and command-like function should be imperative. The name should be camel case, and start with a lower case letter (e.g. openFile() or isFoo())"

amaiorano updated this revision to Diff 83949.Jan 11 2017, 3:58 AM

Fixed Format/style-on-command-line.cpp test to match new expected output.

amaiorano added inline comments.Jan 14 2017, 10:08 PM
lib/Format/Format.cpp
424
  1. IMHO I think inline is a valid substitute for static. Even though inline functions have external linkage by default, in practice they get inlined and not seen by the linker, or handled properly by the linker (it picks one).
  1. You're right, but the reason I went with make_error_code was because I'm wrapping a call to llvm::make_error, which already breaks the camel case convention. But I have no problem renaming this makeErrorCode, just let me know.
amaiorano updated this revision to Diff 84538.Jan 16 2017, 3:34 AM

Rebased changes on latest, no functional change in this diff.

ioeric accepted this revision.Jan 16 2017, 5:16 AM
ioeric edited edge metadata.

Lgtm. Thanks!

This revision is now accepted and ready to land.Jan 16 2017, 5:16 AM
This revision was automatically updated to reflect the committed changes.