[llvm-dev] Possible soundness issue with available_externally (split from "RFC: Add guard intrinsics")

[Chandler Carruth via llvm-dev]

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 7:10 PM Sanjoy Das via llvm-dev <
llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:

> On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 6:51 PM, Duncan P. N. Exon Smith
> <dexonsmith at apple.com> wrote:
> >> If we do not inline @foo(), and instead re-link the call site in @main
> >> to some non-optimized copy (or differently optimized copy) of @foo,
> >> then it is possible for the program to have the behavior {print("Y");
> >> print ("X")}, which was disallowed in the earlier program.
> >>
> >> In other words, opt refined the semantics of @foo() (i.e. reduced the
> >> set of behaviors it may have) in ways that would make later
> >> optimizations invalid if we de-refine the implementation of @foo().
> >
> > I'm probably missing something obvious here.  How could the result of
> > `%t0 != %t1` be different at optimization time in one file than from
> > runtime in the "real" implementation?  Doesn't this make the CSE
> > invalid?
>
> `%t0` and `%t1` are "allowed" to "always be the same", i.e. an
> implementation of @foo that always feeds in the same
> value for `%t0` and `%t1` is a valid implementation (which is why the
> CSE was valid); but it is not the *only* valid implementation.  If I
> don't CSE the two load instructions (also a valid thing to do), and
> this is a second thread writing to `%par`, then the two values loaded
> can be different, and you could end up printing `"X"` in `@foo`.
>
> Did that make sense?
>
> > Does linkonce_odr linkage have the same problem?
> > - If so, do you want to change it too?
> > - Else, why not?
>
> Going by the specification in the LangRef, I'd say it depends on how
> you define "definitive".  If you're allowed to replace the body of a
> function with a differently optimized body, then the above problem
> exists.
>

I believe that is the case, and I strongly believe the problem you outline
exists for linkonce_odr exactly as it does for available_externally.

Which is what makes this scary: every C++ inline function today can trigger
this.


>
> >> The above example is clearly fabricated, but such cases can come up
> >> even if everything is optimized to the same level.  E.g. one of the
> >> atomic loads in the unrefined implementation of @foo() could have been
> >> hidden behind a function call, whose body existed in only one module.
> >> That module would then be able to refine @foo() to `ret void` but
> >> other modules won't.
> >>
> >> The only solution I can think of is to redefine available_externally
> >> to mean "the only kind of IPO/IPA you can do over a call to this
> >> function is to inline it".  Redefining available_externally this way
> >> will also let us soundly use it to represent calls to functions that
> >> have guard intrinsics, since a failed guard intrinsic basically
> >> replaces the function with a "very de-refined" implementation (the
> >> interpreter).
> >>
> >> What do you think?  I don't think implementing the above above will be
> >> very difficult, but needless to say, it will still be a fairly
> >> non-trivial semantic change (hence I'm not directly jumping to
> >> implementation).
> >
> > This linkage is used in three places (that I know of) by clang:
> >
> >   1. C-style `inline` functions.
> >   2. Functions defined in C++ template classes with external explicit
> >      instantiations, e.g. S::foo() in:
> >
> >          template <class T> struct S { void foo() {} };
> >          void bar() { S<int>().foo(); }
> >          extern template struct S<int>;
> >
> >   3. -flto=thin cross-module function importing.
> >
> > (No comment on (1); its exact semantics are a little fuzzy to me.)
> > For (2) and (3), the current behaviour seems correct, and I'd be
> > hesitant to lose optimizing power.  (2) is under the "ODR" rule, and
> > I think we've been applying the same logic to (3).  Unless, are you
> > saying ODR isn't enough?
>
> By ODR, do you mean you only have one definition of the function in
> the whole link (i.e. across all modules you'll link together)?
> Then yes, ODR should be enough to avoid this.  But in any place where
> the linker sees two differently optimized definitions for a function
> and picks one as the definitive version all non-inlined calls link to,
> we have this problem.
>

No, different levels of optimization must be allowed within ODR. So this is
a problem within an ODR context.

(The term ODR applies to one *source* definition, not one optimized
definition)
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