[clang] f8006a5 - [analyzer][NFC] Add some docs for LazyCompoundValue (#97407)

[via cfe-commits]

Author: Kristóf Umann
Date: 2024-07-25T13:26:59+02:00
New Revision: f8006a5932b1ccdf3a1eed7b20b5cb608c0a020c

URL: https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/commit/f8006a5932b1ccdf3a1eed7b20b5cb608c0a020c
DIFF: https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/commit/f8006a5932b1ccdf3a1eed7b20b5cb608c0a020c.diff

LOG: [analyzer][NFC] Add some docs for LazyCompoundValue (#97407)

Yes, I basically copy-pasted some posts from discord and Artem's book,
but these make for a rather decent docs.

---------

Co-authored-by: Artem Dergachev <noqnoqneo at gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Donát Nagy <donat.nagy at ericsson.com>
Co-authored-by: Balazs Benics <benicsbalazs at gmail.com>

Added: 
    

Modified: 
    clang/include/clang/StaticAnalyzer/Core/PathSensitive/SVals.h

Removed: 
    


################################################################################
diff  --git a/clang/include/clang/StaticAnalyzer/Core/PathSensitive/SVals.h b/clang/include/clang/StaticAnalyzer/Core/PathSensitive/SVals.h
index 3a4b087257149..def2970d448d4 100644
--- a/clang/include/clang/StaticAnalyzer/Core/PathSensitive/SVals.h
+++ b/clang/include/clang/StaticAnalyzer/Core/PathSensitive/SVals.h
@@ -326,6 +326,10 @@ class LocAsInteger : public NonLoc {
   static bool classof(SVal V) { return V.getKind() == LocAsIntegerKind; }
 };
 
+/// The simplest example of a concrete compound value is nonloc::CompoundVal,
+/// which represents a concrete r-value of an initializer-list or a string.
+/// Internally, it contains an llvm::ImmutableList of SVal's stored inside the
+/// literal.
 class CompoundVal : public NonLoc {
   friend class ento::SValBuilder;
 
@@ -346,6 +350,36 @@ class CompoundVal : public NonLoc {
   static bool classof(SVal V) { return V.getKind() == CompoundValKind; }
 };
 
+/// While nonloc::CompoundVal covers a few simple use cases,
+/// nonloc::LazyCompoundVal is a more performant and flexible way to represent
+/// an rvalue of record type, so it shows up much more frequently during
+/// analysis. This value is an r-value that represents a snapshot of any
+/// structure "as a whole" at a given moment during the analysis. Such value is
+/// already quite far from being referred to as "concrete", as many fields
+/// inside it would be unknown or symbolic. nonloc::LazyCompoundVal operates by
+/// storing two things:
+///   * a reference to the TypedValueRegion being snapshotted (yes, it is always
+///     typed), and also
+///   * a reference to the whole Store object, obtained from the ProgramState in
+///     which the nonloc::LazyCompoundVal was created.
+///
+/// Note that the old ProgramState and its Store is kept alive during the
+/// analysis because these are immutable functional data structures and each new
+/// Store value is represented as "earlier Store" + "additional binding".
+///
+/// Essentially, nonloc::LazyCompoundVal is a performance optimization for the
+/// analyzer. Because Store is immutable, creating a nonloc::LazyCompoundVal is
+/// a very cheap operation. Note that the Store contains all region bindings in
+/// the program state, not only related to the region. Later, if necessary, such
+/// value can be unpacked -- eg. when it is assigned to another variable.
+///
+/// If you ever need to inspect the contents of the LazyCompoundVal, you can use
+/// StoreManager::iterBindings(). It'll iterate through all values in the Store,
+/// but you're only interested in the ones that belong to
+/// LazyCompoundVal::getRegion(); other bindings are immaterial.
+///
+/// NOTE: LazyCompoundVal::getRegion() itself is also immaterial (see the actual
+/// method docs for details).
 class LazyCompoundVal : public NonLoc {
   friend class ento::SValBuilder;
 
@@ -363,6 +397,18 @@ class LazyCompoundVal : public NonLoc {
   /// It might return null.
   const void *getStore() const;
 
+  /// This function itself is immaterial. It is only an implementation detail.
+  /// LazyCompoundVal represents only the rvalue, the data (known or unknown)
+  /// that *was* stored in that region *at some point in the past*. The region
+  /// should not be used for any purpose other than figuring out what part of
+  /// the frozen Store you're interested in. The value does not represent the
+  /// *current* value of that region. Sometimes it may, but this should not be
+  /// relied upon. Instead, if you want to figure out what region it represents,
+  /// you typically need to see where you got it from in the first place. The
+  /// region is absolutely not analogous to the C++ "this" pointer. It is also
+  /// not a valid way to "materialize" the prvalue into a glvalue in C++,
+  /// because the region represents the *old* storage (sometimes very old), not
+  /// the *future* storage.
   LLVM_ATTRIBUTE_RETURNS_NONNULL
   const TypedValueRegion *getRegion() const;