1================================ 2Source Level Debugging with LLVM 3================================ 4 5.. contents:: 6 :local: 7 8Introduction 9============ 10 11This document is the central repository for all information pertaining to debug 12information in LLVM. It describes the :ref:`actual format that the LLVM debug 13information takes <format>`, which is useful for those interested in creating 14front-ends or dealing directly with the information. Further, this document 15provides specific examples of what debug information for C/C++ looks like. 16 17Philosophy behind LLVM debugging information 18-------------------------------------------- 19 20The idea of the LLVM debugging information is to capture how the important 21pieces of the source-language's Abstract Syntax Tree map onto LLVM code. 22Several design aspects have shaped the solution that appears here. The 23important ones are: 24 25* Debugging information should have very little impact on the rest of the 26 compiler. No transformations, analyses, or code generators should need to 27 be modified because of debugging information. 28 29* LLVM optimizations should interact in :ref:`well-defined and easily described 30 ways <intro_debugopt>` with the debugging information. 31 32* Because LLVM is designed to support arbitrary programming languages, 33 LLVM-to-LLVM tools should not need to know anything about the semantics of 34 the source-level-language. 35 36* Source-level languages are often **widely** different from one another. 37 LLVM should not put any restrictions of the flavor of the source-language, 38 and the debugging information should work with any language. 39 40* With code generator support, it should be possible to use an LLVM compiler 41 to compile a program to native machine code and standard debugging 42 formats. This allows compatibility with traditional machine-code level 43 debuggers, like GDB or DBX. 44 45The approach used by the LLVM implementation is to use a small set of 46:ref:`intrinsic functions <format_common_intrinsics>` to define a mapping 47between LLVM program objects and the source-level objects. The description of 48the source-level program is maintained in LLVM metadata in an 49:ref:`implementation-defined format <ccxx_frontend>` (the C/C++ front-end 50currently uses working draft 7 of the `DWARF 3 standard 51<http://www.eagercon.com/dwarf/dwarf3std.htm>`_). 52 53When a program is being debugged, a debugger interacts with the user and turns 54the stored debug information into source-language specific information. As 55such, a debugger must be aware of the source-language, and is thus tied to a 56specific language or family of languages. 57 58Debug information consumers 59--------------------------- 60 61The role of debug information is to provide meta information normally stripped 62away during the compilation process. This meta information provides an LLVM 63user a relationship between generated code and the original program source 64code. 65 66Currently, there are two backend consumers of debug info: DwarfDebug and 67CodeViewDebug. DwarfDebug produces DWARF suitable for use with GDB, LLDB, and 68other DWARF-based debuggers. :ref:`CodeViewDebug <codeview>` produces CodeView, 69the Microsoft debug info format, which is usable with Microsoft debuggers such 70as Visual Studio and WinDBG. LLVM's debug information format is mostly derived 71from and inspired by DWARF, but it is feasible to translate into other target 72debug info formats such as STABS. 73 74It would also be reasonable to use debug information to feed profiling tools 75for analysis of generated code, or, tools for reconstructing the original 76source from generated code. 77 78.. _intro_debugopt: 79 80Debug information and optimizations 81----------------------------------- 82 83An extremely high priority of LLVM debugging information is to make it interact 84well with optimizations and analysis. In particular, the LLVM debug 85information provides the following guarantees: 86 87* LLVM debug information **always provides information to accurately read 88 the source-level state of the program**, regardless of which LLVM 89 optimizations have been run, and without any modification to the 90 optimizations themselves. However, some optimizations may impact the 91 ability to modify the current state of the program with a debugger, such 92 as setting program variables, or calling functions that have been 93 deleted. 94 95* As desired, LLVM optimizations can be upgraded to be aware of debugging 96 information, allowing them to update the debugging information as they 97 perform aggressive optimizations. This means that, with effort, the LLVM 98 optimizers could optimize debug code just as well as non-debug code. 99 100* LLVM debug information does not prevent optimizations from 101 happening (for example inlining, basic block reordering/merging/cleanup, 102 tail duplication, etc). 103 104* LLVM debug information is automatically optimized along with the rest of 105 the program, using existing facilities. For example, duplicate 106 information is automatically merged by the linker, and unused information 107 is automatically removed. 108 109Basically, the debug information allows you to compile a program with 110"``-O0 -g``" and get full debug information, allowing you to arbitrarily modify 111the program as it executes from a debugger. Compiling a program with 112"``-O3 -g``" gives you full debug information that is always available and 113accurate for reading (e.g., you get accurate stack traces despite tail call 114elimination and inlining), but you might lose the ability to modify the program 115and call functions which were optimized out of the program, or inlined away 116completely. 117 118The :ref:`LLVM test suite <test-suite-quickstart>` provides a framework to test 119optimizer's handling of debugging information. It can be run like this: 120 121.. code-block:: bash 122 123 % cd llvm/projects/test-suite/MultiSource/Benchmarks # or some other level 124 % make TEST=dbgopt 125 126This will test impact of debugging information on optimization passes. If 127debugging information influences optimization passes then it will be reported 128as a failure. See :doc:`TestingGuide` for more information on LLVM test 129infrastructure and how to run various tests. 130 131.. _format: 132 133Debugging information format 134============================ 135 136LLVM debugging information has been carefully designed to make it possible for 137the optimizer to optimize the program and debugging information without 138necessarily having to know anything about debugging information. In 139particular, the use of metadata avoids duplicated debugging information from 140the beginning, and the global dead code elimination pass automatically deletes 141debugging information for a function if it decides to delete the function. 142 143To do this, most of the debugging information (descriptors for types, 144variables, functions, source files, etc) is inserted by the language front-end 145in the form of LLVM metadata. 146 147Debug information is designed to be agnostic about the target debugger and 148debugging information representation (e.g. DWARF/Stabs/etc). It uses a generic 149pass to decode the information that represents variables, types, functions, 150namespaces, etc: this allows for arbitrary source-language semantics and 151type-systems to be used, as long as there is a module written for the target 152debugger to interpret the information. 153 154To provide basic functionality, the LLVM debugger does have to make some 155assumptions about the source-level language being debugged, though it keeps 156these to a minimum. The only common features that the LLVM debugger assumes 157exist are `source files <LangRef.html#difile>`_, and `program objects 158<LangRef.html#diglobalvariable>`_. These abstract objects are used by a 159debugger to form stack traces, show information about local variables, etc. 160 161This section of the documentation first describes the representation aspects 162common to any source-language. :ref:`ccxx_frontend` describes the data layout 163conventions used by the C and C++ front-ends. 164 165Debug information descriptors are `specialized metadata nodes 166<LangRef.html#specialized-metadata>`_, first-class subclasses of ``Metadata``. 167 168.. _format_common_intrinsics: 169 170Debugger intrinsic functions 171---------------------------- 172 173LLVM uses several intrinsic functions (name prefixed with "``llvm.dbg``") to 174track source local variables through optimization and code generation. 175 176``llvm.dbg.addr`` 177^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 178 179.. code-block:: llvm 180 181 void @llvm.dbg.addr(metadata, metadata, metadata) 182 183This intrinsic provides information about a local element (e.g., variable). 184The first argument is metadata holding the address of variable, typically a 185static alloca in the function entry block. The second argument is a 186`local variable <LangRef.html#dilocalvariable>`_ containing a description of 187the variable. The third argument is a `complex expression 188<LangRef.html#diexpression>`_. An `llvm.dbg.addr` intrinsic describes the 189*address* of a source variable. 190 191.. code-block:: text 192 193 %i.addr = alloca i32, align 4 194 call void @llvm.dbg.addr(metadata i32* %i.addr, metadata !1, 195 metadata !DIExpression()), !dbg !2 196 !1 = !DILocalVariable(name: "i", ...) ; int i 197 !2 = !DILocation(...) 198 ... 199 %buffer = alloca [256 x i8], align 8 200 ; The address of i is buffer+64. 201 call void @llvm.dbg.addr(metadata [256 x i8]* %buffer, metadata !3, 202 metadata !DIExpression(DW_OP_plus, 64)), !dbg !4 203 !3 = !DILocalVariable(name: "i", ...) ; int i 204 !4 = !DILocation(...) 205 206A frontend should generate exactly one call to ``llvm.dbg.addr`` at the point 207of declaration of a source variable. Optimization passes that fully promote the 208variable from memory to SSA values will replace this call with possibly 209multiple calls to `llvm.dbg.value`. Passes that delete stores are effectively 210partial promotion, and they will insert a mix of calls to ``llvm.dbg.value`` 211and ``llvm.dbg.addr`` to track the source variable value when it is available. 212After optimization, there may be multiple calls to ``llvm.dbg.addr`` describing 213the program points where the variables lives in memory. All calls for the same 214concrete source variable must agree on the memory location. 215 216 217``llvm.dbg.declare`` 218^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 219 220.. code-block:: llvm 221 222 void @llvm.dbg.declare(metadata, metadata, metadata) 223 224This intrinsic is identical to `llvm.dbg.addr`, except that there can only be 225one call to `llvm.dbg.declare` for a given concrete `local variable 226<LangRef.html#dilocalvariable>`_. It is not control-dependent, meaning that if 227a call to `llvm.dbg.declare` exists and has a valid location argument, that 228address is considered to be the true home of the variable across its entire 229lifetime. This makes it hard for optimizations to preserve accurate debug info 230in the presence of ``llvm.dbg.declare``, so we are transitioning away from it, 231and we plan to deprecate it in future LLVM releases. 232 233 234``llvm.dbg.value`` 235^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 236 237.. code-block:: llvm 238 239 void @llvm.dbg.value(metadata, metadata, metadata) 240 241This intrinsic provides information when a user source variable is set to a new 242value. The first argument is the new value (wrapped as metadata). The second 243argument is a `local variable <LangRef.html#dilocalvariable>`_ containing a 244description of the variable. The third argument is a `complex expression 245<LangRef.html#diexpression>`_. 246 247An `llvm.dbg.value` intrinsic describes the *value* of a source variable 248directly, not its address. Note that the value operand of this intrinsic may 249be indirect (i.e, a pointer to the source variable), provided that interpreting 250the complex expression derives the direct value. 251 252Object lifetimes and scoping 253============================ 254 255In many languages, the local variables in functions can have their lifetimes or 256scopes limited to a subset of a function. In the C family of languages, for 257example, variables are only live (readable and writable) within the source 258block that they are defined in. In functional languages, values are only 259readable after they have been defined. Though this is a very obvious concept, 260it is non-trivial to model in LLVM, because it has no notion of scoping in this 261sense, and does not want to be tied to a language's scoping rules. 262 263In order to handle this, the LLVM debug format uses the metadata attached to 264llvm instructions to encode line number and scoping information. Consider the 265following C fragment, for example: 266 267.. code-block:: c 268 269 1. void foo() { 270 2. int X = 21; 271 3. int Y = 22; 272 4. { 273 5. int Z = 23; 274 6. Z = X; 275 7. } 276 8. X = Y; 277 9. } 278 279.. FIXME: Update the following example to use llvm.dbg.addr once that is the 280 default in clang. 281 282Compiled to LLVM, this function would be represented like this: 283 284.. code-block:: text 285 286 ; Function Attrs: nounwind ssp uwtable 287 define void @foo() #0 !dbg !4 { 288 entry: 289 %X = alloca i32, align 4 290 %Y = alloca i32, align 4 291 %Z = alloca i32, align 4 292 call void @llvm.dbg.declare(metadata i32* %X, metadata !11, metadata !13), !dbg !14 293 store i32 21, i32* %X, align 4, !dbg !14 294 call void @llvm.dbg.declare(metadata i32* %Y, metadata !15, metadata !13), !dbg !16 295 store i32 22, i32* %Y, align 4, !dbg !16 296 call void @llvm.dbg.declare(metadata i32* %Z, metadata !17, metadata !13), !dbg !19 297 store i32 23, i32* %Z, align 4, !dbg !19 298 %0 = load i32, i32* %X, align 4, !dbg !20 299 store i32 %0, i32* %Z, align 4, !dbg !21 300 %1 = load i32, i32* %Y, align 4, !dbg !22 301 store i32 %1, i32* %X, align 4, !dbg !23 302 ret void, !dbg !24 303 } 304 305 ; Function Attrs: nounwind readnone 306 declare void @llvm.dbg.declare(metadata, metadata, metadata) #1 307 308 attributes #0 = { nounwind ssp uwtable "less-precise-fpmad"="false" "no-frame-pointer-elim"="true" "no-frame-pointer-elim-non-leaf" "no-infs-fp-math"="false" "no-nans-fp-math"="false" "stack-protector-buffer-size"="8" "unsafe-fp-math"="false" "use-soft-float"="false" } 309 attributes #1 = { nounwind readnone } 310 311 !llvm.dbg.cu = !{!0} 312 !llvm.module.flags = !{!7, !8, !9} 313 !llvm.ident = !{!10} 314 315 !0 = !DICompileUnit(language: DW_LANG_C99, file: !1, producer: "clang version 3.7.0 (trunk 231150) (llvm/trunk 231154)", isOptimized: false, runtimeVersion: 0, emissionKind: FullDebug, enums: !2, retainedTypes: !2, subprograms: !3, globals: !2, imports: !2) 316 !1 = !DIFile(filename: "/dev/stdin", directory: "/Users/dexonsmith/data/llvm/debug-info") 317 !2 = !{} 318 !3 = !{!4} 319 !4 = distinct !DISubprogram(name: "foo", scope: !1, file: !1, line: 1, type: !5, isLocal: false, isDefinition: true, scopeLine: 1, isOptimized: false, variables: !2) 320 !5 = !DISubroutineType(types: !6) 321 !6 = !{null} 322 !7 = !{i32 2, !"Dwarf Version", i32 2} 323 !8 = !{i32 2, !"Debug Info Version", i32 3} 324 !9 = !{i32 1, !"PIC Level", i32 2} 325 !10 = !{!"clang version 3.7.0 (trunk 231150) (llvm/trunk 231154)"} 326 !11 = !DILocalVariable(name: "X", scope: !4, file: !1, line: 2, type: !12) 327 !12 = !DIBasicType(name: "int", size: 32, align: 32, encoding: DW_ATE_signed) 328 !13 = !DIExpression() 329 !14 = !DILocation(line: 2, column: 9, scope: !4) 330 !15 = !DILocalVariable(name: "Y", scope: !4, file: !1, line: 3, type: !12) 331 !16 = !DILocation(line: 3, column: 9, scope: !4) 332 !17 = !DILocalVariable(name: "Z", scope: !18, file: !1, line: 5, type: !12) 333 !18 = distinct !DILexicalBlock(scope: !4, file: !1, line: 4, column: 5) 334 !19 = !DILocation(line: 5, column: 11, scope: !18) 335 !20 = !DILocation(line: 6, column: 11, scope: !18) 336 !21 = !DILocation(line: 6, column: 9, scope: !18) 337 !22 = !DILocation(line: 8, column: 9, scope: !4) 338 !23 = !DILocation(line: 8, column: 7, scope: !4) 339 !24 = !DILocation(line: 9, column: 3, scope: !4) 340 341 342This example illustrates a few important details about LLVM debugging 343information. In particular, it shows how the ``llvm.dbg.declare`` intrinsic and 344location information, which are attached to an instruction, are applied 345together to allow a debugger to analyze the relationship between statements, 346variable definitions, and the code used to implement the function. 347 348.. code-block:: llvm 349 350 call void @llvm.dbg.declare(metadata i32* %X, metadata !11, metadata !13), !dbg !14 351 ; [debug line = 2:7] [debug variable = X] 352 353The first intrinsic ``%llvm.dbg.declare`` encodes debugging information for the 354variable ``X``. The metadata ``!dbg !14`` attached to the intrinsic provides 355scope information for the variable ``X``. 356 357.. code-block:: text 358 359 !14 = !DILocation(line: 2, column: 9, scope: !4) 360 !4 = distinct !DISubprogram(name: "foo", scope: !1, file: !1, line: 1, type: !5, 361 isLocal: false, isDefinition: true, scopeLine: 1, 362 isOptimized: false, variables: !2) 363 364Here ``!14`` is metadata providing `location information 365<LangRef.html#dilocation>`_. In this example, scope is encoded by ``!4``, a 366`subprogram descriptor <LangRef.html#disubprogram>`_. This way the location 367information attached to the intrinsics indicates that the variable ``X`` is 368declared at line number 2 at a function level scope in function ``foo``. 369 370Now lets take another example. 371 372.. code-block:: llvm 373 374 call void @llvm.dbg.declare(metadata i32* %Z, metadata !17, metadata !13), !dbg !19 375 ; [debug line = 5:9] [debug variable = Z] 376 377The third intrinsic ``%llvm.dbg.declare`` encodes debugging information for 378variable ``Z``. The metadata ``!dbg !19`` attached to the intrinsic provides 379scope information for the variable ``Z``. 380 381.. code-block:: text 382 383 !18 = distinct !DILexicalBlock(scope: !4, file: !1, line: 4, column: 5) 384 !19 = !DILocation(line: 5, column: 11, scope: !18) 385 386Here ``!19`` indicates that ``Z`` is declared at line number 5 and column 387number 0 inside of lexical scope ``!18``. The lexical scope itself resides 388inside of subprogram ``!4`` described above. 389 390The scope information attached with each instruction provides a straightforward 391way to find instructions covered by a scope. 392 393.. _ccxx_frontend: 394 395C/C++ front-end specific debug information 396========================================== 397 398The C and C++ front-ends represent information about the program in a format 399that is effectively identical to `DWARF 3.0 400<http://www.eagercon.com/dwarf/dwarf3std.htm>`_ in terms of information 401content. This allows code generators to trivially support native debuggers by 402generating standard dwarf information, and contains enough information for 403non-dwarf targets to translate it as needed. 404 405This section describes the forms used to represent C and C++ programs. Other 406languages could pattern themselves after this (which itself is tuned to 407representing programs in the same way that DWARF 3 does), or they could choose 408to provide completely different forms if they don't fit into the DWARF model. 409As support for debugging information gets added to the various LLVM 410source-language front-ends, the information used should be documented here. 411 412The following sections provide examples of a few C/C++ constructs and the debug 413information that would best describe those constructs. The canonical 414references are the ``DIDescriptor`` classes defined in 415``include/llvm/IR/DebugInfo.h`` and the implementations of the helper functions 416in ``lib/IR/DIBuilder.cpp``. 417 418C/C++ source file information 419----------------------------- 420 421``llvm::Instruction`` provides easy access to metadata attached with an 422instruction. One can extract line number information encoded in LLVM IR using 423``Instruction::getDebugLoc()`` and ``DILocation::getLine()``. 424 425.. code-block:: c++ 426 427 if (DILocation *Loc = I->getDebugLoc()) { // Here I is an LLVM instruction 428 unsigned Line = Loc->getLine(); 429 StringRef File = Loc->getFilename(); 430 StringRef Dir = Loc->getDirectory(); 431 } 432 433C/C++ global variable information 434--------------------------------- 435 436Given an integer global variable declared as follows: 437 438.. code-block:: c 439 440 _Alignas(8) int MyGlobal = 100; 441 442a C/C++ front-end would generate the following descriptors: 443 444.. code-block:: text 445 446 ;; 447 ;; Define the global itself. 448 ;; 449 @MyGlobal = global i32 100, align 8, !dbg !0 450 451 ;; 452 ;; List of debug info of globals 453 ;; 454 !llvm.dbg.cu = !{!1} 455 456 ;; Some unrelated metadata. 457 !llvm.module.flags = !{!6, !7} 458 !llvm.ident = !{!8} 459 460 ;; Define the global variable itself 461 !0 = distinct !DIGlobalVariable(name: "MyGlobal", scope: !1, file: !2, line: 1, type: !5, isLocal: false, isDefinition: true, align: 64) 462 463 ;; Define the compile unit. 464 !1 = distinct !DICompileUnit(language: DW_LANG_C99, file: !2, 465 producer: "clang version 4.0.0 (http://llvm.org/git/clang.git ae4deadbea242e8ea517eef662c30443f75bd086) (http://llvm.org/git/llvm.git 818b4c1539df3e51dc7e62c89ead4abfd348827d)", 466 isOptimized: false, runtimeVersion: 0, emissionKind: FullDebug, 467 enums: !3, globals: !4) 468 469 ;; 470 ;; Define the file 471 ;; 472 !2 = !DIFile(filename: "/dev/stdin", 473 directory: "/Users/dexonsmith/data/llvm/debug-info") 474 475 ;; An empty array. 476 !3 = !{} 477 478 ;; The Array of Global Variables 479 !4 = !{!0} 480 481 ;; 482 ;; Define the type 483 ;; 484 !5 = !DIBasicType(name: "int", size: 32, encoding: DW_ATE_signed) 485 486 ;; Dwarf version to output. 487 !6 = !{i32 2, !"Dwarf Version", i32 4} 488 489 ;; Debug info schema version. 490 !7 = !{i32 2, !"Debug Info Version", i32 3} 491 492 ;; Compiler identification 493 !8 = !{!"clang version 4.0.0 (http://llvm.org/git/clang.git ae4deadbea242e8ea517eef662c30443f75bd086) (http://llvm.org/git/llvm.git 818b4c1539df3e51dc7e62c89ead4abfd348827d)"} 494 495 496The align value in DIGlobalVariable description specifies variable alignment in 497case it was forced by C11 _Alignas(), C++11 alignas() keywords or compiler 498attribute __attribute__((aligned ())). In other case (when this field is missing) 499alignment is considered default. This is used when producing DWARF output 500for DW_AT_alignment value. 501 502C/C++ function information 503-------------------------- 504 505Given a function declared as follows: 506 507.. code-block:: c 508 509 int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { 510 return 0; 511 } 512 513a C/C++ front-end would generate the following descriptors: 514 515.. code-block:: text 516 517 ;; 518 ;; Define the anchor for subprograms. 519 ;; 520 !4 = !DISubprogram(name: "main", scope: !1, file: !1, line: 1, type: !5, 521 isLocal: false, isDefinition: true, scopeLine: 1, 522 flags: DIFlagPrototyped, isOptimized: false, 523 variables: !2) 524 525 ;; 526 ;; Define the subprogram itself. 527 ;; 528 define i32 @main(i32 %argc, i8** %argv) !dbg !4 { 529 ... 530 } 531 532Debugging information format 533============================ 534 535Debugging Information Extension for Objective C Properties 536---------------------------------------------------------- 537 538Introduction 539^^^^^^^^^^^^ 540 541Objective C provides a simpler way to declare and define accessor methods using 542declared properties. The language provides features to declare a property and 543to let compiler synthesize accessor methods. 544 545The debugger lets developer inspect Objective C interfaces and their instance 546variables and class variables. However, the debugger does not know anything 547about the properties defined in Objective C interfaces. The debugger consumes 548information generated by compiler in DWARF format. The format does not support 549encoding of Objective C properties. This proposal describes DWARF extensions to 550encode Objective C properties, which the debugger can use to let developers 551inspect Objective C properties. 552 553Proposal 554^^^^^^^^ 555 556Objective C properties exist separately from class members. A property can be 557defined only by "setter" and "getter" selectors, and be calculated anew on each 558access. Or a property can just be a direct access to some declared ivar. 559Finally it can have an ivar "automatically synthesized" for it by the compiler, 560in which case the property can be referred to in user code directly using the 561standard C dereference syntax as well as through the property "dot" syntax, but 562there is no entry in the ``@interface`` declaration corresponding to this ivar. 563 564To facilitate debugging, these properties we will add a new DWARF TAG into the 565``DW_TAG_structure_type`` definition for the class to hold the description of a 566given property, and a set of DWARF attributes that provide said description. 567The property tag will also contain the name and declared type of the property. 568 569If there is a related ivar, there will also be a DWARF property attribute placed 570in the ``DW_TAG_member`` DIE for that ivar referring back to the property TAG 571for that property. And in the case where the compiler synthesizes the ivar 572directly, the compiler is expected to generate a ``DW_TAG_member`` for that 573ivar (with the ``DW_AT_artificial`` set to 1), whose name will be the name used 574to access this ivar directly in code, and with the property attribute pointing 575back to the property it is backing. 576 577The following examples will serve as illustration for our discussion: 578 579.. code-block:: objc 580 581 @interface I1 { 582 int n2; 583 } 584 585 @property int p1; 586 @property int p2; 587 @end 588 589 @implementation I1 590 @synthesize p1; 591 @synthesize p2 = n2; 592 @end 593 594This produces the following DWARF (this is a "pseudo dwarfdump" output): 595 596.. code-block:: none 597 598 0x00000100: TAG_structure_type [7] * 599 AT_APPLE_runtime_class( 0x10 ) 600 AT_name( "I1" ) 601 AT_decl_file( "Objc_Property.m" ) 602 AT_decl_line( 3 ) 603 604 0x00000110 TAG_APPLE_property 605 AT_name ( "p1" ) 606 AT_type ( {0x00000150} ( int ) ) 607 608 0x00000120: TAG_APPLE_property 609 AT_name ( "p2" ) 610 AT_type ( {0x00000150} ( int ) ) 611 612 0x00000130: TAG_member [8] 613 AT_name( "_p1" ) 614 AT_APPLE_property ( {0x00000110} "p1" ) 615 AT_type( {0x00000150} ( int ) ) 616 AT_artificial ( 0x1 ) 617 618 0x00000140: TAG_member [8] 619 AT_name( "n2" ) 620 AT_APPLE_property ( {0x00000120} "p2" ) 621 AT_type( {0x00000150} ( int ) ) 622 623 0x00000150: AT_type( ( int ) ) 624 625Note, the current convention is that the name of the ivar for an 626auto-synthesized property is the name of the property from which it derives 627with an underscore prepended, as is shown in the example. But we actually 628don't need to know this convention, since we are given the name of the ivar 629directly. 630 631Also, it is common practice in ObjC to have different property declarations in 632the @interface and @implementation - e.g. to provide a read-only property in 633the interface,and a read-write interface in the implementation. In that case, 634the compiler should emit whichever property declaration will be in force in the 635current translation unit. 636 637Developers can decorate a property with attributes which are encoded using 638``DW_AT_APPLE_property_attribute``. 639 640.. code-block:: objc 641 642 @property (readonly, nonatomic) int pr; 643 644.. code-block:: none 645 646 TAG_APPLE_property [8] 647 AT_name( "pr" ) 648 AT_type ( {0x00000147} (int) ) 649 AT_APPLE_property_attribute (DW_APPLE_PROPERTY_readonly, DW_APPLE_PROPERTY_nonatomic) 650 651The setter and getter method names are attached to the property using 652``DW_AT_APPLE_property_setter`` and ``DW_AT_APPLE_property_getter`` attributes. 653 654.. code-block:: objc 655 656 @interface I1 657 @property (setter=myOwnP3Setter:) int p3; 658 -(void)myOwnP3Setter:(int)a; 659 @end 660 661 @implementation I1 662 @synthesize p3; 663 -(void)myOwnP3Setter:(int)a{ } 664 @end 665 666The DWARF for this would be: 667 668.. code-block:: none 669 670 0x000003bd: TAG_structure_type [7] * 671 AT_APPLE_runtime_class( 0x10 ) 672 AT_name( "I1" ) 673 AT_decl_file( "Objc_Property.m" ) 674 AT_decl_line( 3 ) 675 676 0x000003cd TAG_APPLE_property 677 AT_name ( "p3" ) 678 AT_APPLE_property_setter ( "myOwnP3Setter:" ) 679 AT_type( {0x00000147} ( int ) ) 680 681 0x000003f3: TAG_member [8] 682 AT_name( "_p3" ) 683 AT_type ( {0x00000147} ( int ) ) 684 AT_APPLE_property ( {0x000003cd} ) 685 AT_artificial ( 0x1 ) 686 687New DWARF Tags 688^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 689 690+-----------------------+--------+ 691| TAG | Value | 692+=======================+========+ 693| DW_TAG_APPLE_property | 0x4200 | 694+-----------------------+--------+ 695 696New DWARF Attributes 697^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 698 699+--------------------------------+--------+-----------+ 700| Attribute | Value | Classes | 701+================================+========+===========+ 702| DW_AT_APPLE_property | 0x3fed | Reference | 703+--------------------------------+--------+-----------+ 704| DW_AT_APPLE_property_getter | 0x3fe9 | String | 705+--------------------------------+--------+-----------+ 706| DW_AT_APPLE_property_setter | 0x3fea | String | 707+--------------------------------+--------+-----------+ 708| DW_AT_APPLE_property_attribute | 0x3feb | Constant | 709+--------------------------------+--------+-----------+ 710 711New DWARF Constants 712^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 713 714+--------------------------------------+-------+ 715| Name | Value | 716+======================================+=======+ 717| DW_APPLE_PROPERTY_readonly | 0x01 | 718+--------------------------------------+-------+ 719| DW_APPLE_PROPERTY_getter | 0x02 | 720+--------------------------------------+-------+ 721| DW_APPLE_PROPERTY_assign | 0x04 | 722+--------------------------------------+-------+ 723| DW_APPLE_PROPERTY_readwrite | 0x08 | 724+--------------------------------------+-------+ 725| DW_APPLE_PROPERTY_retain | 0x10 | 726+--------------------------------------+-------+ 727| DW_APPLE_PROPERTY_copy | 0x20 | 728+--------------------------------------+-------+ 729| DW_APPLE_PROPERTY_nonatomic | 0x40 | 730+--------------------------------------+-------+ 731| DW_APPLE_PROPERTY_setter | 0x80 | 732+--------------------------------------+-------+ 733| DW_APPLE_PROPERTY_atomic | 0x100 | 734+--------------------------------------+-------+ 735| DW_APPLE_PROPERTY_weak | 0x200 | 736+--------------------------------------+-------+ 737| DW_APPLE_PROPERTY_strong | 0x400 | 738+--------------------------------------+-------+ 739| DW_APPLE_PROPERTY_unsafe_unretained | 0x800 | 740+--------------------------------------+-------+ 741| DW_APPLE_PROPERTY_nullability | 0x1000| 742+--------------------------------------+-------+ 743| DW_APPLE_PROPERTY_null_resettable | 0x2000| 744+--------------------------------------+-------+ 745| DW_APPLE_PROPERTY_class | 0x4000| 746+--------------------------------------+-------+ 747 748Name Accelerator Tables 749----------------------- 750 751Introduction 752^^^^^^^^^^^^ 753 754The "``.debug_pubnames``" and "``.debug_pubtypes``" formats are not what a 755debugger needs. The "``pub``" in the section name indicates that the entries 756in the table are publicly visible names only. This means no static or hidden 757functions show up in the "``.debug_pubnames``". No static variables or private 758class variables are in the "``.debug_pubtypes``". Many compilers add different 759things to these tables, so we can't rely upon the contents between gcc, icc, or 760clang. 761 762The typical query given by users tends not to match up with the contents of 763these tables. For example, the DWARF spec states that "In the case of the name 764of a function member or static data member of a C++ structure, class or union, 765the name presented in the "``.debug_pubnames``" section is not the simple name 766given by the ``DW_AT_name attribute`` of the referenced debugging information 767entry, but rather the fully qualified name of the data or function member." 768So the only names in these tables for complex C++ entries is a fully 769qualified name. Debugger users tend not to enter their search strings as 770"``a::b::c(int,const Foo&) const``", but rather as "``c``", "``b::c``" , or 771"``a::b::c``". So the name entered in the name table must be demangled in 772order to chop it up appropriately and additional names must be manually entered 773into the table to make it effective as a name lookup table for debuggers to 774use. 775 776All debuggers currently ignore the "``.debug_pubnames``" table as a result of 777its inconsistent and useless public-only name content making it a waste of 778space in the object file. These tables, when they are written to disk, are not 779sorted in any way, leaving every debugger to do its own parsing and sorting. 780These tables also include an inlined copy of the string values in the table 781itself making the tables much larger than they need to be on disk, especially 782for large C++ programs. 783 784Can't we just fix the sections by adding all of the names we need to this 785table? No, because that is not what the tables are defined to contain and we 786won't know the difference between the old bad tables and the new good tables. 787At best we could make our own renamed sections that contain all of the data we 788need. 789 790These tables are also insufficient for what a debugger like LLDB needs. LLDB 791uses clang for its expression parsing where LLDB acts as a PCH. LLDB is then 792often asked to look for type "``foo``" or namespace "``bar``", or list items in 793namespace "``baz``". Namespaces are not included in the pubnames or pubtypes 794tables. Since clang asks a lot of questions when it is parsing an expression, 795we need to be very fast when looking up names, as it happens a lot. Having new 796accelerator tables that are optimized for very quick lookups will benefit this 797type of debugging experience greatly. 798 799We would like to generate name lookup tables that can be mapped into memory 800from disk, and used as is, with little or no up-front parsing. We would also 801be able to control the exact content of these different tables so they contain 802exactly what we need. The Name Accelerator Tables were designed to fix these 803issues. In order to solve these issues we need to: 804 805* Have a format that can be mapped into memory from disk and used as is 806* Lookups should be very fast 807* Extensible table format so these tables can be made by many producers 808* Contain all of the names needed for typical lookups out of the box 809* Strict rules for the contents of tables 810 811Table size is important and the accelerator table format should allow the reuse 812of strings from common string tables so the strings for the names are not 813duplicated. We also want to make sure the table is ready to be used as-is by 814simply mapping the table into memory with minimal header parsing. 815 816The name lookups need to be fast and optimized for the kinds of lookups that 817debuggers tend to do. Optimally we would like to touch as few parts of the 818mapped table as possible when doing a name lookup and be able to quickly find 819the name entry we are looking for, or discover there are no matches. In the 820case of debuggers we optimized for lookups that fail most of the time. 821 822Each table that is defined should have strict rules on exactly what is in the 823accelerator tables and documented so clients can rely on the content. 824 825Hash Tables 826^^^^^^^^^^^ 827 828Standard Hash Tables 829"""""""""""""""""""" 830 831Typical hash tables have a header, buckets, and each bucket points to the 832bucket contents: 833 834.. code-block:: none 835 836 .------------. 837 | HEADER | 838 |------------| 839 | BUCKETS | 840 |------------| 841 | DATA | 842 `------------' 843 844The BUCKETS are an array of offsets to DATA for each hash: 845 846.. code-block:: none 847 848 .------------. 849 | 0x00001000 | BUCKETS[0] 850 | 0x00002000 | BUCKETS[1] 851 | 0x00002200 | BUCKETS[2] 852 | 0x000034f0 | BUCKETS[3] 853 | | ... 854 | 0xXXXXXXXX | BUCKETS[n_buckets] 855 '------------' 856 857So for ``bucket[3]`` in the example above, we have an offset into the table 8580x000034f0 which points to a chain of entries for the bucket. Each bucket must 859contain a next pointer, full 32 bit hash value, the string itself, and the data 860for the current string value. 861 862.. code-block:: none 863 864 .------------. 865 0x000034f0: | 0x00003500 | next pointer 866 | 0x12345678 | 32 bit hash 867 | "erase" | string value 868 | data[n] | HashData for this bucket 869 |------------| 870 0x00003500: | 0x00003550 | next pointer 871 | 0x29273623 | 32 bit hash 872 | "dump" | string value 873 | data[n] | HashData for this bucket 874 |------------| 875 0x00003550: | 0x00000000 | next pointer 876 | 0x82638293 | 32 bit hash 877 | "main" | string value 878 | data[n] | HashData for this bucket 879 `------------' 880 881The problem with this layout for debuggers is that we need to optimize for the 882negative lookup case where the symbol we're searching for is not present. So 883if we were to lookup "``printf``" in the table above, we would make a 32-bit 884hash for "``printf``", it might match ``bucket[3]``. We would need to go to 885the offset 0x000034f0 and start looking to see if our 32 bit hash matches. To 886do so, we need to read the next pointer, then read the hash, compare it, and 887skip to the next bucket. Each time we are skipping many bytes in memory and 888touching new pages just to do the compare on the full 32 bit hash. All of 889these accesses then tell us that we didn't have a match. 890 891Name Hash Tables 892"""""""""""""""" 893 894To solve the issues mentioned above we have structured the hash tables a bit 895differently: a header, buckets, an array of all unique 32 bit hash values, 896followed by an array of hash value data offsets, one for each hash value, then 897the data for all hash values: 898 899.. code-block:: none 900 901 .-------------. 902 | HEADER | 903 |-------------| 904 | BUCKETS | 905 |-------------| 906 | HASHES | 907 |-------------| 908 | OFFSETS | 909 |-------------| 910 | DATA | 911 `-------------' 912 913The ``BUCKETS`` in the name tables are an index into the ``HASHES`` array. By 914making all of the full 32 bit hash values contiguous in memory, we allow 915ourselves to efficiently check for a match while touching as little memory as 916possible. Most often checking the 32 bit hash values is as far as the lookup 917goes. If it does match, it usually is a match with no collisions. So for a 918table with "``n_buckets``" buckets, and "``n_hashes``" unique 32 bit hash 919values, we can clarify the contents of the ``BUCKETS``, ``HASHES`` and 920``OFFSETS`` as: 921 922.. code-block:: none 923 924 .-------------------------. 925 | HEADER.magic | uint32_t 926 | HEADER.version | uint16_t 927 | HEADER.hash_function | uint16_t 928 | HEADER.bucket_count | uint32_t 929 | HEADER.hashes_count | uint32_t 930 | HEADER.header_data_len | uint32_t 931 | HEADER_DATA | HeaderData 932 |-------------------------| 933 | BUCKETS | uint32_t[n_buckets] // 32 bit hash indexes 934 |-------------------------| 935 | HASHES | uint32_t[n_hashes] // 32 bit hash values 936 |-------------------------| 937 | OFFSETS | uint32_t[n_hashes] // 32 bit offsets to hash value data 938 |-------------------------| 939 | ALL HASH DATA | 940 `-------------------------' 941 942So taking the exact same data from the standard hash example above we end up 943with: 944 945.. code-block:: none 946 947 .------------. 948 | HEADER | 949 |------------| 950 | 0 | BUCKETS[0] 951 | 2 | BUCKETS[1] 952 | 5 | BUCKETS[2] 953 | 6 | BUCKETS[3] 954 | | ... 955 | ... | BUCKETS[n_buckets] 956 |------------| 957 | 0x........ | HASHES[0] 958 | 0x........ | HASHES[1] 959 | 0x........ | HASHES[2] 960 | 0x........ | HASHES[3] 961 | 0x........ | HASHES[4] 962 | 0x........ | HASHES[5] 963 | 0x12345678 | HASHES[6] hash for BUCKETS[3] 964 | 0x29273623 | HASHES[7] hash for BUCKETS[3] 965 | 0x82638293 | HASHES[8] hash for BUCKETS[3] 966 | 0x........ | HASHES[9] 967 | 0x........ | HASHES[10] 968 | 0x........ | HASHES[11] 969 | 0x........ | HASHES[12] 970 | 0x........ | HASHES[13] 971 | 0x........ | HASHES[n_hashes] 972 |------------| 973 | 0x........ | OFFSETS[0] 974 | 0x........ | OFFSETS[1] 975 | 0x........ | OFFSETS[2] 976 | 0x........ | OFFSETS[3] 977 | 0x........ | OFFSETS[4] 978 | 0x........ | OFFSETS[5] 979 | 0x000034f0 | OFFSETS[6] offset for BUCKETS[3] 980 | 0x00003500 | OFFSETS[7] offset for BUCKETS[3] 981 | 0x00003550 | OFFSETS[8] offset for BUCKETS[3] 982 | 0x........ | OFFSETS[9] 983 | 0x........ | OFFSETS[10] 984 | 0x........ | OFFSETS[11] 985 | 0x........ | OFFSETS[12] 986 | 0x........ | OFFSETS[13] 987 | 0x........ | OFFSETS[n_hashes] 988 |------------| 989 | | 990 | | 991 | | 992 | | 993 | | 994 |------------| 995 0x000034f0: | 0x00001203 | .debug_str ("erase") 996 | 0x00000004 | A 32 bit array count - number of HashData with name "erase" 997 | 0x........ | HashData[0] 998 | 0x........ | HashData[1] 999 | 0x........ | HashData[2] 1000 | 0x........ | HashData[3] 1001 | 0x00000000 | String offset into .debug_str (terminate data for hash) 1002 |------------| 1003 0x00003500: | 0x00001203 | String offset into .debug_str ("collision") 1004 | 0x00000002 | A 32 bit array count - number of HashData with name "collision" 1005 | 0x........ | HashData[0] 1006 | 0x........ | HashData[1] 1007 | 0x00001203 | String offset into .debug_str ("dump") 1008 | 0x00000003 | A 32 bit array count - number of HashData with name "dump" 1009 | 0x........ | HashData[0] 1010 | 0x........ | HashData[1] 1011 | 0x........ | HashData[2] 1012 | 0x00000000 | String offset into .debug_str (terminate data for hash) 1013 |------------| 1014 0x00003550: | 0x00001203 | String offset into .debug_str ("main") 1015 | 0x00000009 | A 32 bit array count - number of HashData with name "main" 1016 | 0x........ | HashData[0] 1017 | 0x........ | HashData[1] 1018 | 0x........ | HashData[2] 1019 | 0x........ | HashData[3] 1020 | 0x........ | HashData[4] 1021 | 0x........ | HashData[5] 1022 | 0x........ | HashData[6] 1023 | 0x........ | HashData[7] 1024 | 0x........ | HashData[8] 1025 | 0x00000000 | String offset into .debug_str (terminate data for hash) 1026 `------------' 1027 1028So we still have all of the same data, we just organize it more efficiently for 1029debugger lookup. If we repeat the same "``printf``" lookup from above, we 1030would hash "``printf``" and find it matches ``BUCKETS[3]`` by taking the 32 bit 1031hash value and modulo it by ``n_buckets``. ``BUCKETS[3]`` contains "6" which 1032is the index into the ``HASHES`` table. We would then compare any consecutive 103332 bit hashes values in the ``HASHES`` array as long as the hashes would be in 1034``BUCKETS[3]``. We do this by verifying that each subsequent hash value modulo 1035``n_buckets`` is still 3. In the case of a failed lookup we would access the 1036memory for ``BUCKETS[3]``, and then compare a few consecutive 32 bit hashes 1037before we know that we have no match. We don't end up marching through 1038multiple words of memory and we really keep the number of processor data cache 1039lines being accessed as small as possible. 1040 1041The string hash that is used for these lookup tables is the Daniel J. 1042Bernstein hash which is also used in the ELF ``GNU_HASH`` sections. It is a 1043very good hash for all kinds of names in programs with very few hash 1044collisions. 1045 1046Empty buckets are designated by using an invalid hash index of ``UINT32_MAX``. 1047 1048Details 1049^^^^^^^ 1050 1051These name hash tables are designed to be generic where specializations of the 1052table get to define additional data that goes into the header ("``HeaderData``"), 1053how the string value is stored ("``KeyType``") and the content of the data for each 1054hash value. 1055 1056Header Layout 1057""""""""""""" 1058 1059The header has a fixed part, and the specialized part. The exact format of the 1060header is: 1061 1062.. code-block:: c 1063 1064 struct Header 1065 { 1066 uint32_t magic; // 'HASH' magic value to allow endian detection 1067 uint16_t version; // Version number 1068 uint16_t hash_function; // The hash function enumeration that was used 1069 uint32_t bucket_count; // The number of buckets in this hash table 1070 uint32_t hashes_count; // The total number of unique hash values and hash data offsets in this table 1071 uint32_t header_data_len; // The bytes to skip to get to the hash indexes (buckets) for correct alignment 1072 // Specifically the length of the following HeaderData field - this does not 1073 // include the size of the preceding fields 1074 HeaderData header_data; // Implementation specific header data 1075 }; 1076 1077The header starts with a 32 bit "``magic``" value which must be ``'HASH'`` 1078encoded as an ASCII integer. This allows the detection of the start of the 1079hash table and also allows the table's byte order to be determined so the table 1080can be correctly extracted. The "``magic``" value is followed by a 16 bit 1081``version`` number which allows the table to be revised and modified in the 1082future. The current version number is 1. ``hash_function`` is a ``uint16_t`` 1083enumeration that specifies which hash function was used to produce this table. 1084The current values for the hash function enumerations include: 1085 1086.. code-block:: c 1087 1088 enum HashFunctionType 1089 { 1090 eHashFunctionDJB = 0u, // Daniel J Bernstein hash function 1091 }; 1092 1093``bucket_count`` is a 32 bit unsigned integer that represents how many buckets 1094are in the ``BUCKETS`` array. ``hashes_count`` is the number of unique 32 bit 1095hash values that are in the ``HASHES`` array, and is the same number of offsets 1096are contained in the ``OFFSETS`` array. ``header_data_len`` specifies the size 1097in bytes of the ``HeaderData`` that is filled in by specialized versions of 1098this table. 1099 1100Fixed Lookup 1101"""""""""""" 1102 1103The header is followed by the buckets, hashes, offsets, and hash value data. 1104 1105.. code-block:: c 1106 1107 struct FixedTable 1108 { 1109 uint32_t buckets[Header.bucket_count]; // An array of hash indexes into the "hashes[]" array below 1110 uint32_t hashes [Header.hashes_count]; // Every unique 32 bit hash for the entire table is in this table 1111 uint32_t offsets[Header.hashes_count]; // An offset that corresponds to each item in the "hashes[]" array above 1112 }; 1113 1114``buckets`` is an array of 32 bit indexes into the ``hashes`` array. The 1115``hashes`` array contains all of the 32 bit hash values for all names in the 1116hash table. Each hash in the ``hashes`` table has an offset in the ``offsets`` 1117array that points to the data for the hash value. 1118 1119This table setup makes it very easy to repurpose these tables to contain 1120different data, while keeping the lookup mechanism the same for all tables. 1121This layout also makes it possible to save the table to disk and map it in 1122later and do very efficient name lookups with little or no parsing. 1123 1124DWARF lookup tables can be implemented in a variety of ways and can store a lot 1125of information for each name. We want to make the DWARF tables extensible and 1126able to store the data efficiently so we have used some of the DWARF features 1127that enable efficient data storage to define exactly what kind of data we store 1128for each name. 1129 1130The ``HeaderData`` contains a definition of the contents of each HashData chunk. 1131We might want to store an offset to all of the debug information entries (DIEs) 1132for each name. To keep things extensible, we create a list of items, or 1133Atoms, that are contained in the data for each name. First comes the type of 1134the data in each atom: 1135 1136.. code-block:: c 1137 1138 enum AtomType 1139 { 1140 eAtomTypeNULL = 0u, 1141 eAtomTypeDIEOffset = 1u, // DIE offset, check form for encoding 1142 eAtomTypeCUOffset = 2u, // DIE offset of the compiler unit header that contains the item in question 1143 eAtomTypeTag = 3u, // DW_TAG_xxx value, should be encoded as DW_FORM_data1 (if no tags exceed 255) or DW_FORM_data2 1144 eAtomTypeNameFlags = 4u, // Flags from enum NameFlags 1145 eAtomTypeTypeFlags = 5u, // Flags from enum TypeFlags 1146 }; 1147 1148The enumeration values and their meanings are: 1149 1150.. code-block:: none 1151 1152 eAtomTypeNULL - a termination atom that specifies the end of the atom list 1153 eAtomTypeDIEOffset - an offset into the .debug_info section for the DWARF DIE for this name 1154 eAtomTypeCUOffset - an offset into the .debug_info section for the CU that contains the DIE 1155 eAtomTypeDIETag - The DW_TAG_XXX enumeration value so you don't have to parse the DWARF to see what it is 1156 eAtomTypeNameFlags - Flags for functions and global variables (isFunction, isInlined, isExternal...) 1157 eAtomTypeTypeFlags - Flags for types (isCXXClass, isObjCClass, ...) 1158 1159Then we allow each atom type to define the atom type and how the data for each 1160atom type data is encoded: 1161 1162.. code-block:: c 1163 1164 struct Atom 1165 { 1166 uint16_t type; // AtomType enum value 1167 uint16_t form; // DWARF DW_FORM_XXX defines 1168 }; 1169 1170The ``form`` type above is from the DWARF specification and defines the exact 1171encoding of the data for the Atom type. See the DWARF specification for the 1172``DW_FORM_`` definitions. 1173 1174.. code-block:: c 1175 1176 struct HeaderData 1177 { 1178 uint32_t die_offset_base; 1179 uint32_t atom_count; 1180 Atoms atoms[atom_count0]; 1181 }; 1182 1183``HeaderData`` defines the base DIE offset that should be added to any atoms 1184that are encoded using the ``DW_FORM_ref1``, ``DW_FORM_ref2``, 1185``DW_FORM_ref4``, ``DW_FORM_ref8`` or ``DW_FORM_ref_udata``. It also defines 1186what is contained in each ``HashData`` object -- ``Atom.form`` tells us how large 1187each field will be in the ``HashData`` and the ``Atom.type`` tells us how this data 1188should be interpreted. 1189 1190For the current implementations of the "``.apple_names``" (all functions + 1191globals), the "``.apple_types``" (names of all types that are defined), and 1192the "``.apple_namespaces``" (all namespaces), we currently set the ``Atom`` 1193array to be: 1194 1195.. code-block:: c 1196 1197 HeaderData.atom_count = 1; 1198 HeaderData.atoms[0].type = eAtomTypeDIEOffset; 1199 HeaderData.atoms[0].form = DW_FORM_data4; 1200 1201This defines the contents to be the DIE offset (eAtomTypeDIEOffset) that is 1202encoded as a 32 bit value (DW_FORM_data4). This allows a single name to have 1203multiple matching DIEs in a single file, which could come up with an inlined 1204function for instance. Future tables could include more information about the 1205DIE such as flags indicating if the DIE is a function, method, block, 1206or inlined. 1207 1208The KeyType for the DWARF table is a 32 bit string table offset into the 1209".debug_str" table. The ".debug_str" is the string table for the DWARF which 1210may already contain copies of all of the strings. This helps make sure, with 1211help from the compiler, that we reuse the strings between all of the DWARF 1212sections and keeps the hash table size down. Another benefit to having the 1213compiler generate all strings as DW_FORM_strp in the debug info, is that 1214DWARF parsing can be made much faster. 1215 1216After a lookup is made, we get an offset into the hash data. The hash data 1217needs to be able to deal with 32 bit hash collisions, so the chunk of data 1218at the offset in the hash data consists of a triple: 1219 1220.. code-block:: c 1221 1222 uint32_t str_offset 1223 uint32_t hash_data_count 1224 HashData[hash_data_count] 1225 1226If "str_offset" is zero, then the bucket contents are done. 99.9% of the 1227hash data chunks contain a single item (no 32 bit hash collision): 1228 1229.. code-block:: none 1230 1231 .------------. 1232 | 0x00001023 | uint32_t KeyType (.debug_str[0x0001023] => "main") 1233 | 0x00000004 | uint32_t HashData count 1234 | 0x........ | uint32_t HashData[0] DIE offset 1235 | 0x........ | uint32_t HashData[1] DIE offset 1236 | 0x........ | uint32_t HashData[2] DIE offset 1237 | 0x........ | uint32_t HashData[3] DIE offset 1238 | 0x00000000 | uint32_t KeyType (end of hash chain) 1239 `------------' 1240 1241If there are collisions, you will have multiple valid string offsets: 1242 1243.. code-block:: none 1244 1245 .------------. 1246 | 0x00001023 | uint32_t KeyType (.debug_str[0x0001023] => "main") 1247 | 0x00000004 | uint32_t HashData count 1248 | 0x........ | uint32_t HashData[0] DIE offset 1249 | 0x........ | uint32_t HashData[1] DIE offset 1250 | 0x........ | uint32_t HashData[2] DIE offset 1251 | 0x........ | uint32_t HashData[3] DIE offset 1252 | 0x00002023 | uint32_t KeyType (.debug_str[0x0002023] => "print") 1253 | 0x00000002 | uint32_t HashData count 1254 | 0x........ | uint32_t HashData[0] DIE offset 1255 | 0x........ | uint32_t HashData[1] DIE offset 1256 | 0x00000000 | uint32_t KeyType (end of hash chain) 1257 `------------' 1258 1259Current testing with real world C++ binaries has shown that there is around 1 126032 bit hash collision per 100,000 name entries. 1261 1262Contents 1263^^^^^^^^ 1264 1265As we said, we want to strictly define exactly what is included in the 1266different tables. For DWARF, we have 3 tables: "``.apple_names``", 1267"``.apple_types``", and "``.apple_namespaces``". 1268 1269"``.apple_names``" sections should contain an entry for each DWARF DIE whose 1270``DW_TAG`` is a ``DW_TAG_label``, ``DW_TAG_inlined_subroutine``, or 1271``DW_TAG_subprogram`` that has address attributes: ``DW_AT_low_pc``, 1272``DW_AT_high_pc``, ``DW_AT_ranges`` or ``DW_AT_entry_pc``. It also contains 1273``DW_TAG_variable`` DIEs that have a ``DW_OP_addr`` in the location (global and 1274static variables). All global and static variables should be included, 1275including those scoped within functions and classes. For example using the 1276following code: 1277 1278.. code-block:: c 1279 1280 static int var = 0; 1281 1282 void f () 1283 { 1284 static int var = 0; 1285 } 1286 1287Both of the static ``var`` variables would be included in the table. All 1288functions should emit both their full names and their basenames. For C or C++, 1289the full name is the mangled name (if available) which is usually in the 1290``DW_AT_MIPS_linkage_name`` attribute, and the ``DW_AT_name`` contains the 1291function basename. If global or static variables have a mangled name in a 1292``DW_AT_MIPS_linkage_name`` attribute, this should be emitted along with the 1293simple name found in the ``DW_AT_name`` attribute. 1294 1295"``.apple_types``" sections should contain an entry for each DWARF DIE whose 1296tag is one of: 1297 1298* DW_TAG_array_type 1299* DW_TAG_class_type 1300* DW_TAG_enumeration_type 1301* DW_TAG_pointer_type 1302* DW_TAG_reference_type 1303* DW_TAG_string_type 1304* DW_TAG_structure_type 1305* DW_TAG_subroutine_type 1306* DW_TAG_typedef 1307* DW_TAG_union_type 1308* DW_TAG_ptr_to_member_type 1309* DW_TAG_set_type 1310* DW_TAG_subrange_type 1311* DW_TAG_base_type 1312* DW_TAG_const_type 1313* DW_TAG_file_type 1314* DW_TAG_namelist 1315* DW_TAG_packed_type 1316* DW_TAG_volatile_type 1317* DW_TAG_restrict_type 1318* DW_TAG_atomic_type 1319* DW_TAG_interface_type 1320* DW_TAG_unspecified_type 1321* DW_TAG_shared_type 1322 1323Only entries with a ``DW_AT_name`` attribute are included, and the entry must 1324not be a forward declaration (``DW_AT_declaration`` attribute with a non-zero 1325value). For example, using the following code: 1326 1327.. code-block:: c 1328 1329 int main () 1330 { 1331 int *b = 0; 1332 return *b; 1333 } 1334 1335We get a few type DIEs: 1336 1337.. code-block:: none 1338 1339 0x00000067: TAG_base_type [5] 1340 AT_encoding( DW_ATE_signed ) 1341 AT_name( "int" ) 1342 AT_byte_size( 0x04 ) 1343 1344 0x0000006e: TAG_pointer_type [6] 1345 AT_type( {0x00000067} ( int ) ) 1346 AT_byte_size( 0x08 ) 1347 1348The DW_TAG_pointer_type is not included because it does not have a ``DW_AT_name``. 1349 1350"``.apple_namespaces``" section should contain all ``DW_TAG_namespace`` DIEs. 1351If we run into a namespace that has no name this is an anonymous namespace, and 1352the name should be output as "``(anonymous namespace)``" (without the quotes). 1353Why? This matches the output of the ``abi::cxa_demangle()`` that is in the 1354standard C++ library that demangles mangled names. 1355 1356 1357Language Extensions and File Format Changes 1358^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 1359 1360Objective-C Extensions 1361"""""""""""""""""""""" 1362 1363"``.apple_objc``" section should contain all ``DW_TAG_subprogram`` DIEs for an 1364Objective-C class. The name used in the hash table is the name of the 1365Objective-C class itself. If the Objective-C class has a category, then an 1366entry is made for both the class name without the category, and for the class 1367name with the category. So if we have a DIE at offset 0x1234 with a name of 1368method "``-[NSString(my_additions) stringWithSpecialString:]``", we would add 1369an entry for "``NSString``" that points to DIE 0x1234, and an entry for 1370"``NSString(my_additions)``" that points to 0x1234. This allows us to quickly 1371track down all Objective-C methods for an Objective-C class when doing 1372expressions. It is needed because of the dynamic nature of Objective-C where 1373anyone can add methods to a class. The DWARF for Objective-C methods is also 1374emitted differently from C++ classes where the methods are not usually 1375contained in the class definition, they are scattered about across one or more 1376compile units. Categories can also be defined in different shared libraries. 1377So we need to be able to quickly find all of the methods and class functions 1378given the Objective-C class name, or quickly find all methods and class 1379functions for a class + category name. This table does not contain any 1380selector names, it just maps Objective-C class names (or class names + 1381category) to all of the methods and class functions. The selectors are added 1382as function basenames in the "``.debug_names``" section. 1383 1384In the "``.apple_names``" section for Objective-C functions, the full name is 1385the entire function name with the brackets ("``-[NSString 1386stringWithCString:]``") and the basename is the selector only 1387("``stringWithCString:``"). 1388 1389Mach-O Changes 1390"""""""""""""" 1391 1392The sections names for the apple hash tables are for non-mach-o files. For 1393mach-o files, the sections should be contained in the ``__DWARF`` segment with 1394names as follows: 1395 1396* "``.apple_names``" -> "``__apple_names``" 1397* "``.apple_types``" -> "``__apple_types``" 1398* "``.apple_namespaces``" -> "``__apple_namespac``" (16 character limit) 1399* "``.apple_objc``" -> "``__apple_objc``" 1400 1401.. _codeview: 1402 1403CodeView Debug Info Format 1404========================== 1405 1406LLVM supports emitting CodeView, the Microsoft debug info format, and this 1407section describes the design and implementation of that support. 1408 1409Format Background 1410----------------- 1411 1412CodeView as a format is clearly oriented around C++ debugging, and in C++, the 1413majority of debug information tends to be type information. Therefore, the 1414overriding design constraint of CodeView is the separation of type information 1415from other "symbol" information so that type information can be efficiently 1416merged across translation units. Both type information and symbol information is 1417generally stored as a sequence of records, where each record begins with a 141816-bit record size and a 16-bit record kind. 1419 1420Type information is usually stored in the ``.debug$T`` section of the object 1421file. All other debug info, such as line info, string table, symbol info, and 1422inlinee info, is stored in one or more ``.debug$S`` sections. There may only be 1423one ``.debug$T`` section per object file, since all other debug info refers to 1424it. If a PDB (enabled by the ``/Zi`` MSVC option) was used during compilation, 1425the ``.debug$T`` section will contain only an ``LF_TYPESERVER2`` record pointing 1426to the PDB. When using PDBs, symbol information appears to remain in the object 1427file ``.debug$S`` sections. 1428 1429Type records are referred to by their index, which is the number of records in 1430the stream before a given record plus ``0x1000``. Many common basic types, such 1431as the basic integral types and unqualified pointers to them, are represented 1432using type indices less than ``0x1000``. Such basic types are built in to 1433CodeView consumers and do not require type records. 1434 1435Each type record may only contain type indices that are less than its own type 1436index. This ensures that the graph of type stream references is acyclic. While 1437the source-level type graph may contain cycles through pointer types (consider a 1438linked list struct), these cycles are removed from the type stream by always 1439referring to the forward declaration record of user-defined record types. Only 1440"symbol" records in the ``.debug$S`` streams may refer to complete, 1441non-forward-declaration type records. 1442 1443Working with CodeView 1444--------------------- 1445 1446These are instructions for some common tasks for developers working to improve 1447LLVM's CodeView support. Most of them revolve around using the CodeView dumper 1448embedded in ``llvm-readobj``. 1449 1450* Testing MSVC's output:: 1451 1452 $ cl -c -Z7 foo.cpp # Use /Z7 to keep types in the object file 1453 $ llvm-readobj -codeview foo.obj 1454 1455* Getting LLVM IR debug info out of Clang:: 1456 1457 $ clang -g -gcodeview --target=x86_64-windows-msvc foo.cpp -S -emit-llvm 1458 1459 Use this to generate LLVM IR for LLVM test cases. 1460 1461* Generate and dump CodeView from LLVM IR metadata:: 1462 1463 $ llc foo.ll -filetype=obj -o foo.obj 1464 $ llvm-readobj -codeview foo.obj > foo.txt 1465 1466 Use this pattern in lit test cases and FileCheck the output of llvm-readobj 1467 1468Improving LLVM's CodeView support is a process of finding interesting type 1469records, constructing a C++ test case that makes MSVC emit those records, 1470dumping the records, understanding them, and then generating equivalent records 1471in LLVM's backend. 1472 1473Testing Debug Info Preservation in Optimizations 1474================================================ 1475 1476The following paragraphs are an introduction to the debugify utility 1477and examples of how to use it in regression tests to check debug info 1478preservation after optimizations. 1479 1480The ``debugify`` utility 1481------------------------ 1482 1483The ``debugify`` synthetic debug info testing utility consists of two 1484main parts. The ``debugify`` pass and the ``check-debugify`` one. They are 1485meant to be used with ``opt`` for development purposes. 1486 1487The first applies synthetic debug information to every instruction of the module, 1488while the latter checks that this DI is still available after an optimization 1489has occurred, reporting any errors/warnings while doing so. 1490 1491The instructions are assigned sequentially increasing line locations, 1492and are immediately used by debug value intrinsics when possible. 1493 1494For example, here is a module before: 1495 1496.. code-block:: llvm 1497 1498 define dso_local void @f(i32* %x) { 1499 entry: 1500 %x.addr = alloca i32*, align 8 1501 store i32* %x, i32** %x.addr, align 8 1502 %0 = load i32*, i32** %x.addr, align 8 1503 store i32 10, i32* %0, align 4 1504 ret void 1505 } 1506 1507and after running ``opt -debugify`` on it we get: 1508 1509.. code-block:: llvm 1510 1511 define dso_local void @f(i32* %x) !dbg !6 { 1512 entry: 1513 %x.addr = alloca i32*, align 8, !dbg !12 1514 call void @llvm.dbg.value(metadata i32** %x.addr, metadata !9, metadata !DIExpression()), !dbg !12 1515 store i32* %x, i32** %x.addr, align 8, !dbg !13 1516 %0 = load i32*, i32** %x.addr, align 8, !dbg !14 1517 call void @llvm.dbg.value(metadata i32* %0, metadata !11, metadata !DIExpression()), !dbg !14 1518 store i32 10, i32* %0, align 4, !dbg !15 1519 ret void, !dbg !16 1520 } 1521 1522 !llvm.dbg.cu = !{!0} 1523 !llvm.debugify = !{!3, !4} 1524 !llvm.module.flags = !{!5} 1525 1526 !0 = distinct !DICompileUnit(language: DW_LANG_C, file: !1, producer: "debugify", isOptimized: true, runtimeVersion: 0, emissionKind: FullDebug, enums: !2) 1527 !1 = !DIFile(filename: "debugify-sample.ll", directory: "/") 1528 !2 = !{} 1529 !3 = !{i32 5} 1530 !4 = !{i32 2} 1531 !5 = !{i32 2, !"Debug Info Version", i32 3} 1532 !6 = distinct !DISubprogram(name: "f", linkageName: "f", scope: null, file: !1, line: 1, type: !7, isLocal: false, isDefinition: true, scopeLine: 1, isOptimized: true, unit: !0, retainedNodes: !8) 1533 !7 = !DISubroutineType(types: !2) 1534 !8 = !{!9, !11} 1535 !9 = !DILocalVariable(name: "1", scope: !6, file: !1, line: 1, type: !10) 1536 !10 = !DIBasicType(name: "ty64", size: 64, encoding: DW_ATE_unsigned) 1537 !11 = !DILocalVariable(name: "2", scope: !6, file: !1, line: 3, type: !10) 1538 !12 = !DILocation(line: 1, column: 1, scope: !6) 1539 !13 = !DILocation(line: 2, column: 1, scope: !6) 1540 !14 = !DILocation(line: 3, column: 1, scope: !6) 1541 !15 = !DILocation(line: 4, column: 1, scope: !6) 1542 !16 = !DILocation(line: 5, column: 1, scope: !6) 1543 1544The following is an example of the -check-debugify output: 1545 1546.. code-block:: none 1547 1548 $ opt -enable-debugify -loop-vectorize llvm/test/Transforms/LoopVectorize/i8-induction.ll -disable-output 1549 ERROR: Instruction with empty DebugLoc in function f -- %index = phi i32 [ 0, %vector.ph ], [ %index.next, %vector.body ] 1550 1551Errors/warnings can range from instructions with empty debug location to an 1552instruction having a type that's incompatible with the source variable it describes, 1553all the way to missing lines and missing debug value intrinsics. 1554 1555Fixing errors 1556^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 1557 1558Each of the errors above has a relevant API available to fix it. 1559 1560* In the case of missing debug location, ``Instruction::setDebugLoc`` or possibly 1561 ``IRBuilder::setCurrentDebugLocation`` when using a Builder and the new location 1562 should be reused. 1563 1564* When a debug value has incompatible type ``llvm::replaceAllDbgUsesWith`` can be used. 1565 After a RAUW call an incompatible type error can occur because RAUW does not handle 1566 widening and narrowing of variables while ``llvm::replaceAllDbgUsesWith`` does. It is 1567 also capable of changing the DWARF expression used by the debugger to describe the variable. 1568 It also prevents use-before-def by salvaging or deleting invalid debug values. 1569 1570* When a debug value is missing ``llvm::salvageDebugInfo`` can be used when no replacement 1571 exists, or ``llvm::replaceAllDbgUsesWith`` when a replacement exists. 1572 1573Using ``debugify`` 1574------------------ 1575 1576In order for ``check-debugify`` to work, the DI must be coming from 1577``debugify``. Thus, modules with existing DI will be skipped. 1578 1579The most straightforward way to use ``debugify`` is as follows:: 1580 1581 $ opt -debugify -pass-to-test -check-debugify sample.ll 1582 1583This will inject synthetic DI to ``sample.ll`` run the ``pass-to-test`` 1584and then check for missing DI. 1585 1586Some other ways to run debugify are avaliable: 1587 1588.. code-block:: bash 1589 1590 # Same as the above example. 1591 $ opt -enable-debugify -pass-to-test sample.ll 1592 1593 # Suppresses verbose debugify output. 1594 $ opt -enable-debugify -debugify-quiet -pass-to-test sample.ll 1595 1596 # Prepend -debugify before and append -check-debugify -strip after 1597 # each pass on the pipeline (similar to -verify-each). 1598 $ opt -debugify-each -O2 sample.ll 1599 1600``debugify`` can also be used to test a backend, e.g: 1601 1602.. code-block:: bash 1603 1604 $ opt -debugify < sample.ll | llc -o - 1605 1606``debugify`` in regression tests 1607^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 1608 1609The ``-debugify`` pass is especially helpful when it comes to testing that 1610a given pass preserves DI while transforming the module. For this to work, 1611the ``-debugify`` output must be stable enough to use in regression tests. 1612Changes to this pass are not allowed to break existing tests. 1613 1614It allows us to test for DI loss in the same tests we check that the 1615transformation is actually doing what it should. 1616 1617Here is an example from ``test/Transforms/InstCombine/cast-mul-select.ll``: 1618 1619.. code-block:: llvm 1620 1621 ; RUN: opt < %s -debugify -instcombine -S | FileCheck %s --check-prefix=DEBUGINFO 1622 1623 define i32 @mul(i32 %x, i32 %y) { 1624 ; DBGINFO-LABEL: @mul( 1625 ; DBGINFO-NEXT: [[C:%.*]] = mul i32 {{.*}} 1626 ; DBGINFO-NEXT: call void @llvm.dbg.value(metadata i32 [[C]] 1627 ; DBGINFO-NEXT: [[D:%.*]] = and i32 {{.*}} 1628 ; DBGINFO-NEXT: call void @llvm.dbg.value(metadata i32 [[D]] 1629 1630 %A = trunc i32 %x to i8 1631 %B = trunc i32 %y to i8 1632 %C = mul i8 %A, %B 1633 %D = zext i8 %C to i32 1634 ret i32 %D 1635 } 1636 1637Here we test that the two ``dbg.value`` instrinsics are preserved and 1638are correctly pointing to the ``[[C]]`` and ``[[D]]`` variables. 1639 1640.. note:: 1641 1642 Note, that when writing this kind of regression tests, it is important 1643 to make them as robust as possible. That's why we should try to avoid 1644 hardcoding line/variable numbers in check lines. If for example you test 1645 for a ``DILocation`` to have a specific line number, and someone later adds 1646 an instruction before the one we check the test will fail. In the cases this 1647 can't be avoided (say, if a test wouldn't be precise enough), moving the 1648 test to it's own file is preferred. 1649