[llvm] r259619 - docs: Document how bitsets may be used to encode type information.

Tue Feb 2 18:01:08 PST 2016

Author: pcc
Date: Tue Feb  2 20:01:08 2016
New Revision: 259619

URL: http://llvm.org/viewvc/llvm-project?rev=259619&view=rev
Log:
docs: Document how bitsets may be used to encode type information.

Modified:
    llvm/trunk/docs/BitSets.rst

Modified: llvm/trunk/docs/BitSets.rst
URL: http://llvm.org/viewvc/llvm-project/llvm/trunk/docs/BitSets.rst?rev=259619&r1=259618&r2=259619&view=diff
==============================================================================

--- llvm/trunk/docs/BitSets.rst (original)
+++ llvm/trunk/docs/BitSets.rst Tue Feb  2 20:01:08 2016
@@ -22,14 +22,120 @@ Each bitset must exclusively contain eit
   The current implementation only supports functions as members of bitsets on
   the x86-32 and x86-64 architectures.
 
-This will cause a link-time optimization pass to generate bitsets from the
-memory addresses referenced from the elements of the bitset metadata. The
-pass will lay out referenced global variables consecutively, so their
-definitions must be available at LTO time.
-
-A bit set containing functions is transformed into a jump table, which
-is a block of code consisting of one branch instruction for each of the
-functions in the bit set that branches to the target function, and redirect
+An intrinsic, :ref:`llvm.bitset.test <bitset.test>`, is used to test
+whether a given pointer is a member of a bitset.
+
+Representing Type Information using Bitsets
+===========================================
+
+This section describes how Clang represents C++ type information associated with
+virtual tables using bitsets.
+
+Consider the following inheritance hierarchy:
+
+.. code-block:: c++
+
+  struct A {
+    virtual void f();
+  };
+
+  struct B : A {
+    virtual void f();
+    virtual void g();
+  };
+
+  struct C {
+    virtual void h();
+  };
+
+  struct D : A, C {
+    virtual void f();
+    virtual void h();
+  };
+
+The virtual table objects for A, B, C and D look like this (under the Itanium ABI):
+
+.. csv-table:: Virtual Table Layout for A, B, C, D
+  :header: Class, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
+
+  A, A::offset-to-top, &A::rtti, &A::f
+  B, B::offset-to-top, &B::rtti, &B::f, &B::g
+  C, C::offset-to-top, &C::rtti, &C::h
+  D, D::offset-to-top, &D::rtti, &D::f, &D::h, D::offset-to-top, &D::rtti, thunk for &D::h
+
+When an object of type A is constructed, the address of ``&A::f`` in A's
+virtual table object is stored in the object's vtable pointer.  In ABI parlance
+this address is known as an `address point`_. Similarly, when an object of type
+B is constructed, the address of ``&B::f`` is stored in the vtable pointer. In
+this way, the vtable in B's virtual table object is compatible with A's vtable.
+
+D is a little more complicated, due to the use of multiple inheritance. Its
+virtual table object contains two vtables, one compatible with A's vtable and
+the other compatible with C's vtable. Objects of type D contain two virtual
+pointers, one belonging to the A subobject and containing the address of
+the vtable compatible with A's vtable, and the other belonging to the C
+subobject and containing the address of the vtable compatible with C's vtable.
+
+The full set of compatibility information for the above class hierarchy is
+shown below. The following table shows the name of a class, the offset of an
+address point within that class's vtable and the name of one of the classes
+with which that address point is compatible.
+
+.. csv-table:: Bitsets for A, B, C, D
+  :header: VTable for, Offset, Compatible Class
+
+  A, 16, A
+  B, 16, A
+   ,   , B
+  C, 16, C
+  D, 16, A
+   ,   , D
+   , 48, C
+
+The next step is to encode this compatibility information into the IR. The way
+this is done is to create bitsets named after each of the compatible classes,
+into which we add each of the compatible address points in each vtable.
+For example, these bitset entries encode the compatibility information for
+the above hierarchy:
+
+::
+
+  !0 = !{!"_ZTS1A", [3 x i8*]* @_ZTV1A, i64 16}
+  !1 = !{!"_ZTS1A", [4 x i8*]* @_ZTV1B, i64 16}
+  !2 = !{!"_ZTS1B", [4 x i8*]* @_ZTV1B, i64 16}
+  !3 = !{!"_ZTS1C", [3 x i8*]* @_ZTV1C, i64 16}
+  !4 = !{!"_ZTS1A", [7 x i8*]* @_ZTV1D, i64 16}
+  !5 = !{!"_ZTS1D", [7 x i8*]* @_ZTV1D, i64 16}
+  !6 = !{!"_ZTS1C", [7 x i8*]* @_ZTV1D, i64 48}
+
+With these bitsets, we can now use the ``llvm.bitset.test`` intrinsic to test
+whether a given pointer is compatible with a bitset. Working backwards,
+if ``llvm.bitset.test`` returns true for a particular pointer, we can also
+statically determine the identities of the virtual functions that a particular
+virtual call may call. For example, if a program assumes a pointer to be in the
+``!"_ZST1A"`` bitset, we know that the address can be only be one of ``_ZTV1A+16``,
+``_ZTV1B+16`` or ``_ZTV1D+16`` (i.e. the address points of the vtables of A,
+B and D respectively). If we then load an address from that pointer, we know
+that the address can only be one of ``&A::f``, ``&B::f`` or ``&D::f``.
+
+.. _address point: https://mentorembedded.github.io/cxx-abi/abi.html#vtable-general
+
+Testing Bitset Addresses
+========================
+
+If a program tests an address using ``llvm.bitset.test``, this will cause
+a link-time optimization pass, ``LowerBitSets``, to replace calls to this
+intrinsic with efficient code to perform bitset tests. At a high level,
+the pass will lay out referenced globals in a consecutive memory region in
+the object file, construct bit vectors that map onto that memory region,
+and generate code at each of the ``llvm.bitset.test`` call sites to test
+pointers against those bit vectors. Because of the layout manipulation, the
+globals' definitions must be available at LTO time. For more information,
+see the `control flow integrity design document`_.
+
+A bit set containing functions is transformed into a jump table, which is a
+block of code consisting of one branch instruction for each of the functions
+in the bit set that branches to the target function. The pass will redirect
 any taken function addresses to the corresponding jump table entry. In the
 object file's symbol table, the jump table entries take the identities of
 the original functions, so that addresses taken outside the module will pass
@@ -42,9 +148,9 @@ will be the same as its identity outside
 be the jump table entry if a jump table is necessary.
 
 The `GlobalLayoutBuilder`_ class is responsible for laying out the globals
-efficiently to minimize the sizes of the underlying bitsets. An intrinsic,
-:ref:`llvm.bitset.test <bitset.test>`, generates code to test whether a
-given pointer is a member of a bitset.
+efficiently to minimize the sizes of the underlying bitsets.
+
+.. _control flow integrity design document: http://clang.llvm.org/docs/ControlFlowIntegrityDesign.html
 
 :Example:
 


