[llvm-dev] (BasicAA) PartialAlias between different fields of a structure, intentional?

Hal Finkel via llvm-dev llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org
Thu Apr 21 11:31:24 PDT 2016


----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mikael Holmén" <mikael.holmen at ericsson.com>
> To: "Hal Finkel" <hfinkel at anl.gov>, "Taewook Oh" <twoh at fb.com>
> Cc: "via llvm-dev" <llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org>
> Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2016 3:30:03 AM
> Subject: Re: [llvm-dev] (BasicAA) PartialAlias between different fields of a structure, intentional?
> 
> Hi,
> 
> We've seen a similar case recently, where BasicAA returns
> PartialAlias
> for the access of two different fields of a structure.
> 
> We noticed this since Lint complained about it when checking for
> aliasing beteen "noalias" attributed parameters:
> 
> opt -S -lint ./alias.ll
> 
> gave
> 
> Unusual: noalias argument aliases another argument
> 
> on the (silly) function:
> 
> %rec7 = type { i16, i16, i16 }
> 
> define void @fn1(i16* noalias %p1.1.par, i16* noalias %p2.2.par) {
> %s.3 = alloca %rec7
> %_tmp1 = getelementptr %rec7, %rec7* %s.3, i16 0, i32 1
> %_tmp2 = getelementptr %rec7, %rec7* %s.3, i16 0, i32 2
> call void @fn1(i16* %_tmp1, i16* %_tmp2)
> 
> ret void
> }
> 
> If accessing fields 0 and 1 instead, with
> 
> %_tmp1 = getelementptr %rec7, %rec7* %s.3, i16 0, i32 0
> %_tmp2 = getelementptr %rec7, %rec7* %s.3, i16 0, i32 1
> 
> we don't see the Lint complaint.

That's weird, and also a bug. Maybe just an off-by-one error somewhere. Please file a bug on this too!

Thanks again,
Hal

> 
> Regards,
> Mikael
> 
> On 04/21/2016 04:20 AM, Hal Finkel via llvm-dev wrote:
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >     *From: *"Taewook Oh via llvm-dev" <llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org>
> >     *To: *"via llvm-dev" <llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org>
> >     *Sent: *Friday, April 15, 2016 3:22:27 PM
> >     *Subject: *[llvm-dev] (BasicAA) PartialAlias between different
> >     fields of a structure, intentional?
> >
> >     Hello all,
> >
> >     I observed that BasicAA alias query returns PartialAlias
> >     between
> >     different fields of a structure. Following is the test program
> >     and
> >     -print–all-alias-modref-info output:
> >
> >     ---
> >
> >     ; test.ll
> >     target datalayout = "e-m:e-i64:64-f80:128-n8:16:32:64-S128"
> >     target triple = "x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu"
> >
> >     %"type" = type { [10 x i32], i64 }
> >
> >     define void @test(%"type"* %base) {
> >     entry:
> >        %int =       getelementptr inbounds %"type", %"type"* %base,
> >        i64
> >     0, i32 1
> >        %arr_first = getelementptr inbounds %"type", %"type"* %base,
> >        i64
> >     0, i32 0, i64 0
> >        %arr_last =  getelementptr inbounds %"type", %"type"* %base,
> >        i64
> >     0, i32 0, i64 9
> >        %arr_oob =   getelementptr inbounds %"type", %"type"* %base,
> >        i64
> >     0, i32 0, i64 10 ; out-of-bound access
> >
> > This is okay. Even for an inbounds GEP, addressing one-past-the-end
> > of
> > the array is allowed.
> >
> >        br label %loop
> >
> >     loop:
> >        %index = phi i64 [ 0, %entry ], [ %inc, %loop ]
> >
> >        %arr_index = getelementptr inbounds %"type", %"type"* %base,
> >        i64
> >     0, i32 0, i64 %index
> >
> >        %inc = add i64 %index, 1
> >        %cmp = icmp ult i64 %inc, 10
> >        br i1 %cmp, label %loop, label %exit
> >
> >     exit:
> >        ret void
> >     }
> >
> >     ; opt < test.ll –basicaa -aa–eval -print-all-alias-modref-info
> >     -disable-output
> >
> >        PartialAlias: %type* %base,     i64* %int
> >        MustAlias:    %type* %base,     i32* %arr_first
> >        NoAlias:      i32* %arr_first,  i64* %int
> >        PartialAlias: %type*            %base, i32* %arr_last
> >        NoAlias:      i32* %arr_last,   i64* %int
> >        NoAlias:      i32* %arr_first,  i32* %arr_last
> >        PartialAlias: %type* %base,     i32* %arr_oob
> >        MustAlias:    i32* %arr_oob,    i64* %int
> >        NoAlias:      i32* %arr_first,  i32* %arr_oob
> >        NoAlias:      i32* %arr_last,   i32* %arr_oob
> >        PartialAlias: %type* %base,     i32* %arr_index
> >        PartialAlias: i32* %arr_index,  i64* %int
> >        PartialAlias: i32* %arr_first,  i32* %arr_index
> >        PartialAlias: i32* %arr_index,  i32* %arr_last
> >        PartialAlias: i32* %arr_index,  i32* %arr_oob
> >     ===== Alias Analysis Evaluator Report =====
> >        15 Total Alias Queries Performed
> >        5 no alias responses (33.3%)
> >        0 may alias responses (0.0%)
> >        8 partial alias responses (53.3%)
> >        2 must alias responses (13.3%)
> >        Alias Analysis Evaluator Pointer Alias Summary:
> >        33%/0%/53%/13%
> >        Alias Analysis Mod/Ref Evaluator Summary: no mod/ref!
> >
> >     ---
> >
> >     As you can see, BasicAA query returns PartialAlias for
> >     %arr_index
> >     and %int. Does anyone know if it is by design to be
> >     conservative in
> >     case of undefined behavior (such as out-of-bound array access)?
> >     It
> >     seems that gcc-4.9 alias analysis tells that there is no alias
> >     between %arr_index and %int.
> >
> > Please file a bug report:
> >
> >   1. This is a correctness bug because the result should not be
> > PartialAlias, but MayAlias. PartialAlias should be returned only in
> > cases where we can prove there is a partial overlap. In this case,
> > we can't.
> >
> >   2. We're also missing an analysis opportunity here. We should be
> >   able
> > to prove that %index is never greater than 9, which should be
> > enough to
> > provide a NoAlias result.
> >
> > As a test, you might try running with -scev-aa and see if that gets
> > this
> > case.
> >
> >   -Hal
> >
> >
> >     Thanks,
> >     Taewook
> >
> >     _______________________________________________
> >     LLVM Developers mailing list
> >     llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org
> >     http://lists.llvm.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/llvm-dev
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Hal Finkel
> > Assistant Computational Scientist
> > Leadership Computing Facility
> > Argonne National Laboratory
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > LLVM Developers mailing list
> > llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org
> > http://lists.llvm.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/llvm-dev
> >
> 
> 

-- 
Hal Finkel
Assistant Computational Scientist
Leadership Computing Facility
Argonne National Laboratory


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