[clang] [Doc] Update documentation for no-transitive-change (PR #96453)

[Chuanqi Xu via cfe-commits]

================
@@ -652,6 +652,141 @@ in the future. The expected roadmap for Reduced BMIs as of Clang 19.x is:
    comes, the term BMI will refer to the Reduced BMI and the Full BMI will only
    be meaningful to build systems which elect to support two-phase compilation.
 
+Experimental No Transitive Change
+---------------------------------
+
+This section is primarily for build system vendors. For end compiler users,
+if you don't want to read it all, this is helpful to reduce recompilations
+We encourage build system vendors and end users try this out and bring feedbacks
+
+Before Clang 19, a change in BMI of any (transitive) dependency would case the
+outputs of the BMI to change. Starting with Clang 19, changes to non-direct
+dependencies should not directly affect the output BMI, unless they affect the
+results of the compilations. We expect that there are many more opportunities
+for this optimization than we currently have realized and would appreaciate 
+feedback about missed optimization opportunities. For example,
+
+.. code-block:: c++
+
+  // m-partA.cppm
+  export module m:partA;
+
+  // m-partB.cppm
+  export module m:partB;
+  export int getB() { return 44; }
+
+  // m.cppm
+  export module m;
+  export import :partA;
+  export import :partB;
+
+  // useBOnly.cppm
+  export module useBOnly;
+  import m;
+  export int B() {
+    return getB();
+  }
+
+  // Use.cc
+  import useBOnly;
+  int get() {
+    return B();
+  }
+
+To compile the project (for brevity, some commands are omitted.):
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+  $ clang++ -std=c++20 m-partA.cppm --precompile -o m-partA.pcm
+  $ clang++ -std=c++20 m-partB.cppm --precompile -o m-partB.pcm
+  $ clang++ -std=c++20 m.cppm --precompile -o m.pcm -fprebuilt-module-path=.
+  $ clang++ -std=c++20 useBOnly.cppm --precompile -o useBOnly.pcm -fprebuilt-module-path=.
+  $ md5sum useBOnly.pcm
+  07656bf4a6908626795729295f9608da  useBOnly.pcm
+
+If the interface of ``m-partA.cppm`` is changed to:
+
+.. code-block:: c++
+
+  // m-partA.v1.cppm
+  export module m:partA;
+  export int getA() { return 43; }
+
+and the BMI for ``useBOnly`` is recompiled as in:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+  $ clang++ -std=c++20 m-partA.cppm --precompile -o m-partA.pcm
+  $ clang++ -std=c++20 m-partB.cppm --precompile -o m-partB.pcm
+  $ clang++ -std=c++20 m.cppm --precompile -o m.pcm -fprebuilt-module-path=.
+  $ clang++ -std=c++20 useBOnly.cppm --precompile -o useBOnly.pcm -fprebuilt-module-path=.
+  $ md5sum useBOnly.pcm
+  07656bf4a6908626795729295f9608da  useBOnly.pcm
+
+then the contents of ``useBOnly.pcm`` remain unchanged.
+Consequently, if the build system only bases recompilation decisions on directly imported modules,
+it becomes possible to skip the recompilation of ``Use.cc``.
+It should be fine because the altered interfaces do not affect ``Use.cc`` in any way;
+there are no transitive changes.
+
+When clang generates a BMI, it records the hash values of all potentially contributory BMIs
+for the BMI being produced. This ensures that build systems are not required to consider
+transitively imported modules when deciding whether to recompile.
+
+What is considered to be a potential contributory BMIs is currently unspecified.
+However, it is a severe bug for a BMI to remain unchanged following an observable change
+that affects its consumers.
+
+We recommend that build systems support this feature as a configurable option so that users
+can go back to the transitive change mode safely at any time.
----------------
ChuanqiXu9 wrote:

In the higher level, after offering an experimental option to enable the mode, I think what build systems to do is, when considering the recompilations, the build system don't need to consider the indirectly imported modules. And for `-MF`, as far as I know, it will collect the included headers and headers shouldn't take part in here.

For example,

```
// a.cpp
#include "a.h"
import a;
...
```

If `a.h` changes, I think we should recompile `a.cpp`.

For implementations, I don't know the implementations of cmake. But I remember you said somewhere that it might be possible to make it by a compile-and-swap action.

https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/pull/96453