[PATCH] D141451: [clang] report inlining decisions with -Wattribute-{warning|error}

Thu Apr 27 10:38:44 PDT 2023

cjdb added inline comments.

================
Comment at: clang/test/Frontend/backend-attribute-error-warning-optimize.c:12
   foo(); // expected-error {{call to 'foo' declared with 'error' attribute: oh no foo}}
+         // expected-note@* {{In function 'baz'}}
   if (x())
----------------
aaron.ballman wrote:
> nickdesaulniers wrote:
> > cjdb wrote:
> > > aaron.ballman wrote:
> > > > nickdesaulniers wrote:
> > > > > nickdesaulniers wrote:
> > > > > > aaron.ballman wrote:
> > > > > > > Instead of allowing this note to appear anywhere in the file, I think it's better to use "bookmark" comments. e.g.,
> > > > > > > ```
> > > > > > > void baz() { // #baz_defn
> > > > > > > }
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > void foo() {
> > > > > > >   baz(); // expected-note@#baz_defn {{whatever note text}}
> > > > > > > }
> > > > > > > ```
> > > > > > > so that we're testing where the diagnostic is emitted. (This is especially important given that the changes are about location tracking.)
> > > > > > oh, that's new (to me)! will do
> > > > > It looks like the "bookmarks" don't work because the notes do not line+col info. They follow the warning/error diagnostic which does, on the bottom most call site.
> > > > > 
> > > > > The warning is supposed to be emitted on the callsite, not the definition.
> > > > I still don't think this is reasonable for test coverage because this means we'll accept the note *anywhere* in the file. This makes it much too easy to regress the behavior accidentally (e.g., accidentally emit all the notes on line 1 of the file). I think we need *some* way to nail down where these notes are emitted in the test. However, I might be asking you to solve "please track location information through the backend" for that, so perhaps this isn't a reasonable request?
> > > > 
> > > > Also, CC @cjdb for awareness of how this kind of diagnostic is produced (Chris is working on an idea for how we emit diagnostics so we get better structured information from them, so knowing about this novel approach might impact that idea).
> > > Very interesting, thanks for the heads up! Cross-phase diagnostics are definitely something I hadn't considered, and it **does** impact the design (but not in a derailing way).
> > I think we're back at "please track location information through the backend".
> > 
> > That is the tradeoff with this approach; not measurably regressing performance when these attributes aren't used in source in exchange for Note diagnostics that lack precise line+col info, but in practice provide enough info for the user to understand what's going wrong where.
> > 
> > Your call if the tradeoff is worth it.
> Here's my thinking, please correct any misunderstandings I have:
> 
> * This functionality is primarily for use with `_FORTIFY_SOURCE` (but not solely for that purpose), and that's an important security feature used by glibc and the Linux kernel.
> * Security of C and C++ source code is Very Important, especially now that various gov't agencies [1][2] are suggesting to not use C or C++ for new projects specifically because the security posture of the languages and their tools.
> * Therefore, the ergonomics of this functionality are quite important for the intended use cases and the ecosystem as a whole.
> * Emitting only the function name but without location information does not give a good user experience, especially in circumstances where the function has multiple overloads, because it pushes the burden onto the programmer to figure out which functions are actually involved in the call chain. This issue is also present in C because of support for `__attribute__((overloadable))` and is not just a C++ concern.
> * The compile-time performance costs of tracking this location information are roughly 1%, and there are no runtime or binary size overhead costs unless other functionality is enabled (such as emitting debug info).
> * We can determine whether we need to enable this location tracking while building the AST when we see one of these two attributes being used, so we could enable this functionality selectively without burdening the user with enabling it manually via a flag. (We could still consider giving the user a flag to never track this even in the presence of the attributes if a user had a compelling use case for it.)
> 
> If this is all reasonably accurate, I think it's worth seriously considering accepting the costs. I don't want to increase our compile time overhead, but at the same time, if ~1% is a "make or break" amount of compile-time performance to lose, we should be addressing *that* issue rather than hamstringing a user-facing diagnostic feature related to security. It's hard to argue "that CVE was totally worth it because we could then compile 1% faster". That said, perhaps others have a strong contrary opinion they'd like to argue in favor of?
> 
> [1] https://media.defense.gov/2022/Nov/10/2003112742/-1/-1/0/CSI_SOFTWARE_MEMORY_SAFETY.PDF
> [2] https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.8397
> 
My attitude is that we should prioritise ergonomics and usability over speed. Yes, having to wait a little longer for stuff to build sucks, but there's a clear ergonomics issue, which is motivation enough for me in this case (adding the CVE argument is the cherry on top). Folks either aren't going to use a feature if it's difficult to get right, or they're going to use it with large amounts of stress (and I don't think this is fair).

Moreover, I think there may be some opportunities we can look into to cancel out this pessimisation.

Repository:
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  https://reviews.llvm.org/D141451/new/

https://reviews.llvm.org/D141451