[libcxx-commits] [libcxx] [libcxx] reorganises the hardening documentation (PR #73159)

[Will Hawkins via libcxx-commits]

================
@@ -15,61 +15,71 @@ assertions that prevent undefined behavior caused by violating preconditions of
 the standard library. Different hardening modes make different trade-offs
 between the amount of checking and runtime performance. The available hardening
 modes are:
-- fast mode;
-- extensive mode;
-- debug mode.
-
-The fast mode contains a set of security-critical checks that can be done with
-relatively little overhead in constant time and are intended to be used in
-production. We recommend most projects to adopt the fast mode.
-
-The extensive mode contains all the checks from the fast mode and additionally
-some checks for undefined behavior that incur relatively little overhead but
-aren't security-critical. While the performance penalty is somewhat more
-significant compared to the fast mode, the extensive mode is still intended to
-be usable in production.
-
-The debug mode enables all the available checks in the library, including
-internal assertions, some of which might be very expensive. This mode is
-intended to be used for testing, not in production.
-
-Vendors can set the default hardening mode by using the
-``LIBCXX_HARDENING_MODE`` variable at CMake configuration time with the possible
-values of ``none``, ``fast``, ``extensive`` and ``debug``. The default value is
-``none`` which doesn't enable any hardening checks (this mode is sometimes
-called the ``unchecked`` mode).
-
-When hardening is enabled, the compiled library is built with the corresponding
-mode enabled, **and** user code will be built with the same mode enabled by
-default. If the mode is set to "none" at the CMake configuration time, the
-compiled library will not contain any assertions and the default when building
-user code will be to have assertions disabled. As a user, you can consult your
-vendor to know which level of hardening is enabled by default.
-
-Furthermore, independently of any vendor-selected default, users can always
-control which level of hardening is enabled in their code by defining the macro
-``_LIBCPP_HARDENING_MODE`` before including any libc++ headers (preferably by
-passing ``-D_LIBCPP_HARDENING_MODE=X`` to the compiler). The macro can be
-set to one of the following possible values:
-
-- ``_LIBCPP_HARDENING_MODE_NONE``;
-- ``_LIBCPP_HARDENING_MODE_FAST``;
-- ``_LIBCPP_HARDENING_MODE_EXTENSIVE``;
-- ``_LIBCPP_HARDENING_MODE_DEBUG``.
-
-The exact numeric values of these macros are unspecified and users should not
-rely on them (e.g. expect the values to be sorted in any way).
-
-Note that if the compiled library was built by the vendor with the hardening
-mode set to "none", functions compiled inside the static or shared library won't
-have any hardening enabled even if the user compiles with hardening enabled (the
-same is true for the inverse case where the static or shared library was
-compiled **with** hardening enabled but the user tries to disable it). However,
-most of the code in libc++ is in the headers, so the user-selected value for
-``_LIBCPP_HARDENING_MODE``, if any, will usually be respected.
-
-Enabling hardening has no impact on the ABI.
+
+- **Unchecked mode/none**, which disables all hardening checks.
+- **Fast mode**, which contains a set of security-critical checks that can be
+  done with relatively little overhead in constant time and are intended to be
+  used in production. We recommend most projects to adopt the fast mode.
----------------
hawkinsw wrote:

Thanks for weighing in @var-const -- that was the reason I suggested capitalization. I just wanted them to stand out a little!

https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/pull/73159