[libcxx-commits] [libcxx] [libcxx] Replace the of use custom sections for detecting overriden functions (PR #175896)

Tue Jan 13 23:15:20 PST 2026

llvmbot wrote:




@llvm/pr-subscribers-libcxx

Author: Petr Hosek (petrhosek)

<details>
<summary>Changes</summary>

…unctions

This is a follow up to #133876 and an alternative to #120805 which doesn't rely on aliases and works across both ELF and Mach-O. This mechanism is preferable in baremetal environments since it doesn't require special handling of the custom sections.

---
Full diff: https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/pull/175896.diff


1 Files Affected:

- (modified) libcxx/src/include/overridable_function.h (+26-70) 


``````````diff

diff --git a/libcxx/src/include/overridable_function.h b/libcxx/src/include/overridable_function.h
index c8d9f30c74c3e..7adf10ac19f25 100644
--- a/libcxx/src/include/overridable_function.h
+++ b/libcxx/src/include/overridable_function.h
@@ -11,11 +11,6 @@
 #define _LIBCPP_SRC_INCLUDE_OVERRIDABLE_FUNCTION_H
 
 #include <__config>
-#include <cstdint>
-
-#if __has_feature(ptrauth_calls)
-#  include <ptrauth.h>
-#endif
 
 #if !defined(_LIBCPP_HAS_NO_PRAGMA_SYSTEM_HEADER)
 #  pragma GCC system_header
@@ -38,23 +33,6 @@
 // function definition on unsupported platforms so that it can be used to define functions
 // regardless of whether detection is actually supported.
 //
-// How does this work?
-// -------------------
-//
-// Let's say we want to check whether a weak function `f` has been overridden by the user.
-// The general mechanism works by placing `f`'s definition (in the libc++ built library)
-// inside a special section, which we do using the `__section__` attribute via the
-// OVERRIDABLE_FUNCTION macro.
-//
-// Then, when comes the time to check whether the function has been overridden, we take
-// the address of the function and we check whether it falls inside the special function
-// we created. This can be done by finding pointers to the start and the end of the section
-// (which is done differently for ELF and Mach-O), and then checking whether `f` falls
-// within those bounds. If it falls within those bounds, then `f` is still inside the
-// special section and so it is the version we defined in the libc++ built library, i.e.
-// it was not overridden. Otherwise, it was overridden by the user because it falls
-// outside of the section.
-//
 // Important note
 // --------------
 //
@@ -63,63 +41,41 @@
 // want to be defining special sections inside user's executables which use our headers.
 //
 
-#if defined(_LIBCPP_OBJECT_FORMAT_MACHO)
+#if defined(_LIBCPP_OBJECT_FORMAT_MACHO) || (defined(_LIBCPP_OBJECT_FORMAT_ELF) && !defined(__NVPTX__))
 
-#  define _LIBCPP_CAN_DETECT_OVERRIDDEN_FUNCTION 1
-#  define OVERRIDABLE_FUNCTION [[gnu::weak, gnu::section("__TEXT,__lcxx_override,regular,pure_instructions")]]
-
-_LIBCPP_BEGIN_NAMESPACE_STD template <typename T, T* _Func>
-_LIBCPP_HIDE_FROM_ABI inline bool __is_function_overridden() noexcept {
-  // Declare two dummy bytes and give them these special `__asm` values. These values are
-  // defined by the linker, which means that referring to `&__lcxx_override_start` will
-  // effectively refer to the address where the section starts (and same for the end).
-  extern char __lcxx_override_start __asm("section$start$__TEXT$__lcxx_override");
-  extern char __lcxx_override_end __asm("section$end$__TEXT$__lcxx_override");
+// Template type can be partially specialized to dissect argument type, unlike
+// a template function.
+template <auto* _Func>
+struct ImplRef;
 
-  // Now get a uintptr_t out of these locations, and out of the function pointer.
-  uintptr_t __start = reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(&__lcxx_override_start);
-  uintptr_t __end   = reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(&__lcxx_override_end);
-  uintptr_t __ptr   = reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(_Func);
-
-#  if __has_feature(ptrauth_calls)
-  // We must pass a void* to ptrauth_strip since it only accepts a pointer type. Also, in particular,
-  // we must NOT pass a function pointer, otherwise we will strip the function pointer, and then attempt
-  // to authenticate and re-sign it when casting it to a uintptr_t again, which will fail because we just
-  // stripped the function pointer. See rdar://122927845.
-  __ptr = reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(ptrauth_strip(reinterpret_cast<void*>(__ptr), ptrauth_key_function_pointer));
-#  endif
-
-  // Finally, the function was overridden if it falls outside of the section's bounds.
-  return __ptr < __start || __ptr > __end;
-}
-_LIBCPP_END_NAMESPACE_STD
-
-// The NVPTX linker cannot create '__start/__stop' sections.
-#elif defined(_LIBCPP_OBJECT_FORMAT_ELF) && !defined(__NVPTX__)
+// Partial specialization can tease out the components of the function type.
+// ImplRef<...>::Impl is expected to be defined elsewhere, so the compiler will
+// just emit assembly references to the mangled symbol with no definition.
+// This template is just saving us the trouble of doing separate manual
+// declarations for overload with some other local name for each function name
+// being overloaded (operator new, operator new[], etc.).
+template <typename _Ret, typename... _Args, _Ret (*_Func)(_Args...)>
+struct ImplRef<_Func> {
+  [[gnu::visibility("hidden")]] static _Ret Impl(_Args...);
+};
 
 #  define _LIBCPP_CAN_DETECT_OVERRIDDEN_FUNCTION 1
-#  define OVERRIDABLE_FUNCTION [[gnu::weak, gnu::section("__lcxx_override")]]
-
-// This is very similar to what we do for Mach-O above. The ELF linker will implicitly define
-// variables with those names corresponding to the start and the end of the section.
-//
-// See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16552710/how-do-you-get-the-start-and-end-addresses-of-a-custom-elf-section
-extern char __start___lcxx_override;
-extern char __stop___lcxx_override;
+#  define OVERRIDABLE_FUNCTION [[gnu::weak]]
 
 _LIBCPP_BEGIN_NAMESPACE_STD
 template <typename T, T* _Func>
 _LIBCPP_HIDE_FROM_ABI inline bool __is_function_overridden() noexcept {
-  uintptr_t __start = reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(&__start___lcxx_override);
-  uintptr_t __end   = reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(&__stop___lcxx_override);
-  uintptr_t __ptr   = reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(_Func);
-
-#  if __has_feature(ptrauth_calls)
-  // We must pass a void* to ptrauth_strip since it only accepts a pointer type. See full explanation above.
-  __ptr = reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(ptrauth_strip(reinterpret_cast<void*>(__ptr), ptrauth_key_function_pointer));
+  // This just has the compiler compare the two symbols.  For PIC mode, this will
+  // do a direct PC-relative materialization for ImplRef<...>::Impl and a GOT
+  // load for the _Func symbol.  The compiler thinks ImplRef<...>::Impl is
+  // defined elsewhere at link time and will be an undefined symbol.  It doesn't
+  // know that the __asm__ tells the assembler to define it as a local symbol.
+#  if !defined(_LIBCPP_CLANG_VER) || _LIBCPP_CLANG_VER >= 2101
+  __asm__("%cc0 = %cc1" : : "X"(ImplRef<_Func>::Impl), "X"(_Func));
+#  else
+  __asm__("%c0 = %c1" : : "X"(ImplRef<_Func>::Impl), "X"(_Func));
 #  endif
-
-  return __ptr < __start || __ptr > __end;
+  return _Func == ImplRef<_Func>::Impl;
 }
 _LIBCPP_END_NAMESPACE_STD
 

``````````

</details>


https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/pull/175896
