[clang] 85b113c - [Doc] [C++20] [Modules] Clarify the reachability of internal partition units (#102572)

[via cfe-commits]

Author: Chuanqi Xu
Date: 2024-08-13T16:34:32+08:00
New Revision: 85b113c381d14d69bb6f1386488308859f74feaf

URL: https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/commit/85b113c381d14d69bb6f1386488308859f74feaf
DIFF: https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/commit/85b113c381d14d69bb6f1386488308859f74feaf.diff

LOG: [Doc] [C++20] [Modules] Clarify the reachability of internal partition units (#102572)

Motivated by https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/issues/101348

Although I don't want the tool's doc to explain the standard's wording,
the wording itself has some unspecified thing. So I feel it will be
helpful to make it clear. At least it may help us receive less invalid
issue reports.

Added: 
    

Modified: 
    clang/docs/StandardCPlusPlusModules.rst

Removed: 
    


################################################################################
diff  --git a/clang/docs/StandardCPlusPlusModules.rst b/clang/docs/StandardCPlusPlusModules.rst
index 2478a77e7640c5..ccc0cb59f8e710 100644
--- a/clang/docs/StandardCPlusPlusModules.rst
+++ b/clang/docs/StandardCPlusPlusModules.rst
@@ -1230,6 +1230,58 @@ parsing their headers, those should be included after the import. If the
 imported modules don't provide such a header, one can be made manually for
 improved compile time performance.
 
+Reachability of internal partition units
+----------------------------------------
+
+The internal partition units are sometimes called implementation partition units in other documentation.
+However, the name may be confusing since implementation partition units are not implementation
+units.
+
+According to `[module.reach]p1 <https://eel.is/c++draft/module.reach#1>`_ and
+`[module.reach]p2 <https://eel.is/c++draft/module.reach#2>`_ (from N4986):
+
+  A translation unit U is necessarily reachable from a point P if U is a module
+  interface unit on which the translation unit containing P has an interface
+  dependency, or the translation unit containing P imports U, in either case
+  prior to P.
+
+  All translation units that are necessarily reachable are reachable. Additional
+  translation units on which the point within the program has an interface
+  dependency may be considered reachable, but it is unspecified which are and
+  under what circumstances.
+
+For example,
+
+.. code-block:: c++
+
+  // a.cpp
+  import B;
+  int main()
+  {
+      g<void>();
+  }
+
+  // b.cppm
+  export module B;
+  import :C;
+  export template <typename T> inline void g() noexcept
+  {
+      return f<T>();
+  }
+
+  // c.cppm
+  module B:C;
+  template<typename> inline void f() noexcept {}
+
+The internal partition unit ``c.cppm`` is not necessarily reachable by
+``a.cpp`` because ``c.cppm`` is not a module interface unit and ``a.cpp``
+doesn't import ``c.cppm``. This leaves it up to the compiler to decide if
+``c.cppm`` is reachable by ``a.cpp`` or not. Clang's behavior is that
+indirectly imported internal partition units are not reachable.
+
+The suggested approach for using an internal partition unit in Clang is
+to only import them in the implementation unit.
+
 Known Issues
 ------------