[LLVMdev] loads from a null address and optimizations

[Kenneth Uildriks]

On Sun, Sep 6, 2009 at 6:52 AM, Kenneth Uildriks<kennethuil at gmail.com> wrote:
> How about this:
>
> 1. A custom pass run at the beginning that inserts a null check before
> every load/store:
>
> if ( ptr == null )
>  trap;
>
> Then if any pointers get optimized to null, the if condition becomes a
> constant true,and the trap call should become unconditional.
>
> 2. A custom pass at the end that takes out every remaining null check
> that your first pass inserted.  It should first check whether the
> condition is in fact a constant true (since that reduction might not
> have been run after ptr became a constant null) and turn it into an
> unconditional trap.

On second thought...

You'd like the program to behave correctly (whatever you mean by that)
whether any optimization passes are run or not.  So have your
front-end emit the null-pointer checks with the explicit trap call,
and then you'll only need the pass at the end to take them out; but
leaving them in will still have your program behaving correctly,
although running a bit slower.