[PATCH] D127762: [Clang][AArch64] Add ACLE attributes for SME.

Wed Nov 16 10:54:38 PST 2022

rsandifo-arm added inline comments.

================
Comment at: clang/include/clang/Basic/DiagnosticSemaKinds.td:2000
   "overridden virtual function is here">;
+def err_conflicting_overriding_attributes : Error<
+  "virtual function %0 has different attributes "
----------------
aaron.ballman wrote:
> aaron.ballman wrote:
> > rsandifo-arm wrote:
> > > sdesmalen wrote:
> > > > aaron.ballman wrote:
> > > > > sdesmalen wrote:
> > > > > > aaron.ballman wrote:
> > > > > > > This error and the one below make me wonder whether an attribute spelling is the appropriate way to surface this functionality as opposed to a keyword. Attributes don't typically don't cause errors in these situations, but because these attributes are strongly coupled to their type system effects I can see why you want these to be errors.
> > > > > > > This error and the one below make me wonder whether an attribute spelling is the appropriate way to surface this functionality as opposed to a keyword. 
> > > > > > I'm not sure I understand what you mean, do you have an example?
> > > > > `override` and `final` could have been surfaced via attributes, and in Clang we semantically express them as such (see `Final` and `Override` in Attr.td), but instead they are surfaced to the user as keywords in the language standard. You're not under the same constraints as the standard (you're making a vendor-specific attribute). We're not super consistent with whether we use the same approach as the standard (we have some type attributes that are spelled as attributes like `vector_size` and others that are spelled via keywords like `_Nullable`.
> > > > > 
> > > > > So you could spell your type attributes the way you have been with `__attribute__`, or you could come up with keywords for them (so instead of using `GNU<"whatever">` for the attribute, you could use `Keyword<_Whatever>` or `Keyword<__whatever>` (you'd also need to add them as recognized keyword tokens, parse them as appropriate, etc).
> > > > > 
> > > > > Note: I don't insist on you using a keyword for these, but I am wondering if that approach was considered or not given how non-portable the attributes are (if an implementation ignores this attribute, it sounds like the program semantics are unlikely to be correct).
> > > > @rsandifo-arm can you shed some light on whether using a keyword instead of an `attribute` was considered?
> > > Thanks @aaron.ballman for the reviews.
> > >  
> > > Yeah, we did consider using keywords instead.  The main reason for sticking with GNU attributes is that they were specifically designed as an extensible way of attaching information or requirements to the source code, and they provide well-settled semantics.  It seemed better to reuse an existing mechanism rather than invent something new.
> > > 
> > > Also, as C++ evolves, the semantics of GNU attributes evolve to match.  If we surface the SME features as GNU attributes, we inherit this development in the underlying semantics, without having to maintain our own evolving specification for where the keywords can be placed.  For example, when lambdas were introduced, GNU attributes were extended to support lambdas.  Something similar could happen in future.
> > > 
> > > We could have defined the semantics of the keywords to be that they behave exactly like GNU attributes.  However:
> > > 
> > > # If we do that, the advantage of using a keyword is less obvious.  (I can see the argument that the syntax looks nicer though.)
> > > # Like you say in the review, the semantics of GNU attributes carry some historical baggage.  If would be difficult to justify keeping that historical baggage for something that is ostensibly new and not a GNU attribute as such.
> > > 
> > > A minor, but still nontrivial, reason is that there is less appetite in the GCC community for supporting target-specific extensions to the core language.  Adding a target-specific keyword is likely to be rejected.  It would be acceptable to make the “keyword” be a predefined macro that expands to a GNU attribute under the hood, but I don't think that would address the core issue.
> > > 
> > > I can definitely understand the unease about using attributes for things that affect semantics.  Like you say, that's going against a core principle of the standard-defined attributes.  But I think in a way, it's unfortunate that GNU-style attributes and standard-defined attributes are both called “attributes”, because I don't think there's a prohibition (even in theory) against GNU attributes affecting semantics.  I think GNU attributes are designed to be more general than that, probably through historical accretion rather than an up-front choice.
> > > 
> > > Like you say, `vector_size` is one example of something that significantly affect semantics.  But there are quite a few others too.  For example:
> > > * GNU targets traditionally provide access to naked functions and interrupt handlers through attributes.
> > > * Different calling conventions also use attributes.
> > > * The `target` attribute switches between ISAs in ways that do affect semantics.
> > > * `always_inline` functions must be inlined for correctness.
> > > * `weak` and `visibility` in effect alter the ODR.
> > > * In GCC, functions that return twice (like `setjmp`) must be declared `returns_twice`.
> > > 
> > > It's unfortunate that using SME attributes will only trigger a warning in older compilers.  The warning is enabled by default though.  And in practice, I think most SME code would rely on other constructs that older compilers wouldn't provide, such as intrinsics.
> > > Yeah, we did consider using keywords instead. The main reason for sticking with GNU attributes is that they were specifically designed as an extensible way of attaching information or requirements to the source code, and they provide well-settled semantics. It seemed better to reuse an existing mechanism rather than invent something new.
> > 
> > If this is extra information the compiler is free to ignore without impacting program correctness, then I think an attribute is fine. But if the user's code will silently break if the attribute is ignored (e.g., an attribute ignored warning happens but the program successfully translates and does bad things at runtime), in some ways use of an attribute is far less ideal than use of a keyword-based attribute specifically because of the syntax error the user would get. Some users really like the "unknown attribute ignored" warning (like me!) and ensure it stays enabled and others users really don't like that warning and disable it. So it's dangerous to assume there's anything there worth relying on if the attributes have security implications at runtime.
> > 
> > > Also, as C++ evolves, the semantics of GNU attributes evolve to match. 
> > 
> > Errr does it? https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/extensions-to-the-c-language-family/attribute-syntax.html#attribute-syntax "There are some problems with the semantics of attributes in C++. For example, there are no manglings for attributes, although they may affect code generation, so problems may arise when attributed types are used in conjunction with templates or overloading. Similarly, typeid does not distinguish between types with different attributes. Support for attributes in C++ may be restricted in future to attributes on declarations only, but not on nested declarators." doesn't really seem to support that position.
> > 
> > > A minor, but still nontrivial, reason is that there is less appetite in the GCC community for supporting target-specific extensions to the core language. 
> > 
> > That's unfortunate given that `_Keywords` are reserved to the implementation specifically for this sort of thing. `_Nullable` is a good example of a successful attribute keyword. Attributes are a target-specific extension to the core language regardless of what syntax they use, so to me the driving question is more "what user experience do you want?" and less "is this an extension to the core language?"
> Re-pinging this part of the thread -- the more I review this, the more it sounds like ignoring these attributes will cause a significant likelihood of the user's program silently misbehaving. Is that accurate? If so, I would reconsider whether using a keyword gives a more appropriate user experience for portability. With an attribute, the user has a very real chance of their code continuing to compile but not work. With a keyword, the user will get errors when porting to a compiler that doesn't support the keyword and are more protected from miscompiles. We can still reuse the vast majority of the implementation work already done here, so it should not be a major change to the implementation (a bit of extra parsing work for the keywords is really the only thing missing).
I accept your points about the dangers of ignoring unsupported attributes.  But this isn't an SME-specific issue.  Ignoring the other GNU attributes I mentioned would also silently generate wrong code.  I think this is a very strong argument against suppressing warnings about unrecognised GNU attributes by default, even if warnings about unrecognised standard attributes are eventually suppressed by default.  (Perhaps they should even be controllable separately?)  Like I say, there doesn't seem to have been a principle that GNU attributes provide information that the compiler is free to ignore.

If we did add keywords, would you be OK with giving them exactly the same semantics as GNU attributes?  In other words, would it be acceptable to treat the keywords as essentially a one-for-one parsing replacement for GNU attributes?  Or would you want the keyword to follow the same distinction between type properties and object properties as the standard attributes do?

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  https://reviews.llvm.org/D127762/new/

https://reviews.llvm.org/D127762