Index: lldb/docs/resources/reproducers.rst =================================================================== --- lldb/docs/resources/reproducers.rst +++ lldb/docs/resources/reproducers.rst @@ -93,6 +93,68 @@ Coming soon. +Driver Replay +````````````` + +No matter how a reproducer was captured, they can always be replayed with the +command line driver. When a reproducer is passed with the `--replay` flag, the +driver short-circuits and passes off control to the reproducer infrastructure, +effectively bypassing its normal operation. This works because the driver is +implemented using the SB API and is therefore nothing more than a sequence of +SB API calls. + +Replay is driven by the ``Registry::Replay``. As long as there's data in the +buffer holding the API data, the next SB API function call is deserialized. +Once the function is known, the registry can retrieve its signature, and use +that to deserialize its arguments. The function can then be invoked, most +commonly through the synthesized default replayer, or potentially using a +custom defined replay function. This process continues, until more data is +available or a replay error is encountered. + +During replay only a function's side effects matter. The result returned by the +replayed function is ignored because it cannot be observed beyond the driver. +This is sound, because anything that is passed into a subsequent API call will +have been serialized as an input argument. This also works for SB API objects +because the reproducers know about every object that has crossed the API +boundary, which is true by definition for object return values. + +Driver replay can be considered active, because the reproducers are replaying +the SB API functions one after each other. + +Inline Replay +````````````` + +Inline replay was added to the reproducers to support running the API test +suite against a reproducer. The API test suite is written in Python and tests +the debugger by calling into its API from Python. To make this work, the API +must transparently replay itself when called. This is what makes inline replay +different from driver replay. For the latter, it is lldb itself that's driving +replay. For inline replay, the driving factor is external, e.g. the test suite. + +In order to replay API calls, the reproducers need a way to intercept them. +Every API call is already instrumented with an ``LLDB_RECORD_*`` macro that +captures its input arguments. Furthermore, it also contains the necessary logic +to detect which calls cross the API boundary and should be intercepted. We were +able to reuse all of this to implement inline replay. + +When inline replay is enabled, nothing happens until an API is called. Inside +that API function, the macro will detect whether this call should be replayed +(i.e. crossed the API boundary). If the answer is yes, the next function is +deserialized from the SB API data and compared to the current function. If the +signature matches, we deserialize its input arguments and reinvoke the current +function with the deserialized arguments. We don't need to do anything special +to prevent us from recursively calling the replayed version again, as the API +boundary crossing logic knows that we're still behind the API boundary when we +re-invoked the current function. + +Another big difference with driver replay is the return value. While this +didn't matter for driver replay, it's key for inline replay, because that's +what gets checked by the test suite. Luckily, the ``LLDB_RECORD_*`` macros +contained sufficient type information to derive the result type. + +Inline replay can be considered passive, because a function is only replayed +once it is called through the API. + Testing -------