[cfe-dev] Two questions about address_space attribute

[Y Song via cfe-dev]

Hi,

Currently, I am thinking to add address_space attribute support for
x86_64 and BPF to compile linux kernel. The main goal is to get
address_space information into debug_info and then later to dwarf/BTF.
But address_space enforcement itself can also help with better code
for the kernel.

The RFC patch is here:
    https://reviews.llvm.org/D69393

During experiments, we found two issues which I would like to get
expert opinion:

issue 1: address_space attributes on function pointers
=========================================

clang does not allow address_space attribute for function pointers,
specifically, in clang/lib/Sema/SemaType.cpp,

// ISO/IEC TR 18037 S5.3 (amending C99 6.7.3): "A function type shall not be
// qualified by an address-space qualifier."
if (Type->isFunctionType()) {
  S.Diag(Attr.getLoc(), diag::err_attribute_address_function_type);
  Attr.setInvalid();
  return;
}

But linux kernel tries to annotate signal handling function pointer
with address space to indicate it is accessing user space.

typedef __signalfn_t __user *__sighandler_t;
typedef __restorefn_t __user *__sigrestore_t;

Such attribute makes sense for linux since indeed the signal handler
code resides in user space and the kernel pointer
merely points to user memory here.

What is the rationale for this restriction in standard? How we could
make clang tolerate such restrictions for X86/BPF/...?

issue 2: typeof(*ptr) where ptr has address_space attribute.

-bash-4.4$ cat t2.c
int test(int __attribute__((address_space(1))) *p) {
#ifdef NO_TYPEOF
  int t = *p;
#else
  typeof(*p) t = *p;
#endif
  return t;
}
-bash-4.4$ clang -c t2.c
t2.c:5:14: error: automatic variable qualified with an address space
  typeof(*p) t = *p;
             ^
1 error generated.
-bash-4.4$ clang -DNO_TYPEOF -c t2.c
-bash-4.4$

The IR generated without NO_TYPEOF macro:
  %p.addr = alloca i32 addrspace(1)*, align 8
  %t = alloca i32, align 4
  store i32 addrspace(1)* %p, i32 addrspace(1)** %p.addr, align 8
  %0 = load i32 addrspace(1)*, i32 addrspace(1)** %p.addr, align 8
  %1 = load i32, i32 addrspace(1)* %0, align 4
  store i32 %1, i32* %t, align 4
  %2 = load i32, i32* %t, align 4
  ret i32 %2

So we can directly load a i32 addrspacee(1)* to an i32. Maybe
typeof(*p) should just i32 and we should not emit the error at all?

Thanks,

Yonghong