[LLVMdev] Clarification on the backward compatibility promises

[Eric Christopher]

On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 11:29 AM, Evan Cheng <evan.cheng at apple.com> wrote:
>
>> On Jul 9, 2014, at 9:52 PM, Eric Christopher <echristo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 9:33 PM, Owen Anderson <resistor at mac.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Jul 9, 2014, at 3:51 PM, Eric Christopher <echristo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 3:12 PM, Evan Cheng <evan.cheng at apple.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jun 17, 2014, at 2:10 PM, Eric Christopher <echristo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> 2. Metadata compatibility. We already had precedence of introducing
>>> incompatible changes into metadata format in the past within release.
>>> Should we use relaxes rules for metadata compatibility?
>>>
>>>
>>> I think we have a special case for debug metadata (and should document
>>> that), but otherwise I think we should hold metadata to the same
>>> standard as the rest of the IR.
>>>
>>>
>>> The idea with metadata is that it can be removed and everything still
>>> works. I'm definitely not ready to lock down the debug metadata format
>>> and I really don't think we should for any of the other uses since
>>> stripping already works. (Note, I don't consider function attributes
>>> etc as metadata)
>>>
>>>
>>> We may need to rethink this. If metadata is used only as optimization /
>>> codegen hints, then yes I agree they can be dropped. But I suspect there is
>>> a need for metadata that’s *required* for correctness. As LLVM continues to
>>> gain clients beyond “just” compilers, we will need to be sensitive to their
>>> needs. I anticipate use of LLVM bitcode files as persistent object format.
>>>
>>>
>>> I think that metadata that's required for correctness should be baked
>>> into the IR and not be metadata - so if there's something we need for
>>> correctness we need to come up with an IR extension. See the recent
>>> comdat work as an example.
>>>
>>>
>>> That’s not really a practical suggestion for clients that aren’t essentially
>>> clang.  The bar to changing the IR is (correctly) very high, essentially
>>> unreachable if the client is out-of-tree.
>>>
>>
>> Sure, but they likely have their own metadata format with their own
>> needs and can keep their own local patches for their out of tree
>> extensions right? As far as I know we don't have any metadata
>> extensions in tree that are required for any correctness. If so,
>> they've explicitly gone against the rules we set for metadata a long
>> time back:
>>
>> http://blog.llvm.org/2010/04/extensible-metadata-in-llvm-ir.html
>>
>> Unless I'm missing your point completely of course :)
>
> I don’t disagree with this. I am only cautioning against taking an absolutely hardline attitude towards metadata compatibility. As long as we take a pragmatic approach by providing ways for clients to maintain backward compatibility, I don’t think anyone will have problems with the stated policy. We will need to be very careful if / when we propose fundamental changes.
>

I'm not inclined to change any metadata consumer just for kicks, and
if we want to change how metadata itself works then that should be a
more reasoned and careful change.

I.e. I see a user of metadata as something that we don't guarantee
compatibility for, but the metadata system itself I can see as a more
formal IR construct.

Make sense?

-eric