[LLVMdev] MemoryDependenceAnalysis Bug or Feature?

[Marc de Kruijf]

Hello,

I'm taking a really good look at the MemoryDependenceAnalysis pass, but I'm
slightly confused about one little thing.  I think it's a bug but I'm not
confident enough to submit a bug report.

Is there a reason why read-only calls are considered to "clobber" pointers
in the non-load case (which is what gets returned due to the fall-through in
the switch -- see below).  It seems this should be returning a "def"
instead.  My thinking is the code should look like this (from line 288 on,
+++ marks addition):

     // See if this instruction (e.g. a call or vaarg) mod/ref's the
pointer.
     switch (AA->getModRefInfo(Inst, MemPtr, MemSize)) {
     case AliasAnalysis::NoModRef:
       // If the call has no effect on the queried pointer, just ignore it.
       continue;
     case AliasAnalysis::Mod:
       // If we're in an invariant region, we can ignore calls that ONLY
       // modify the pointer.
       if (InvariantTag) continue;
       return MemDepResult::getClobber(Inst);
     case AliasAnalysis::Ref:
       // If the call is known to never store to the pointer, and if this is
a
       // load query, we can safely ignore it (scan past it).
       if (isLoad)
         continue;
+++    return MemDepResult::getDef(Inst);
     default:
       // Otherwise, there is a potential dependence.  Return a clobber.
       return MemDepResult::getClobber(Inst);
     }

If this seems right to you too,  I've attached the patch.  If this isn't
right, can someone please explain the logic?

Thanks,
Marc
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