[llvm-dev] RFC: Strong GC References in LLVM

[Philip Reames via llvm-dev]

It sounds like this new analysis could basically subsume the existing 
OrderedBasicBlock.

Thinking about update semantics, what types of updates need to be 
recorded to make this efficient?
- Adding maythrow instructions is obvious required, figuring out how to 
update clearly requires OBB info.
- Adding arithmetic instructions - only requires OBB update

I'm thinking that some form of lazy update might be the best path 
forward here.  Have the results re-calculated via a linear scan of the 
block only once a) a change has happened and been marked and b) the 
request information is required.  This would allow batch updates for 
instance.  We could potentially try to incremental update the motion 
barriers, but that seems like potentially too much work.

Also, I'm now thinking that first and last isn't enough information.  
Once I ask the speculation question, I think need to ask what the *next* 
ordering barrier is.  I thinking code of the following variety:
for block I want to skip:
   if not has ordering barrier:
     continue
   if can speculate over block
     continue
   barrier = last barrier in block
   while can speculate over barrier:
     barrier = previous barrier
   return next(barrier) as insert pt
return first instruction in function entry

On 07/21/2016 12:17 PM, Daniel Berlin wrote:
> Okay, so it sounds like it might actually be better to be even more 
> low level, call it "ExtendedBBInfo" or something, and rename what it 
> provides to be more clearly structural:
>
> A. Inst * FirstIsGuaranteedToTransferExecutionToSuccessor(BB) (naming 
> bikeshed open on this one :P)
> B. Inst * LastIsGuaranteedToTransferExecutionToSuccessor(BB)
> C. Inst *FirstMayThrow(BB)
> D. Inst *LastMayThrow(BB)
>
>
> Most things want to know if a given inst is before or after these.
>
> Since we have to touch the entire set of instructions for a bb anyway, 
> we could also provide dominates (like orderedbasicblock) to give you 
> the answer to that question for free (otherwise everything has to 
> rewalk the entire inst list again)
>
> Rather than make it part of the API for this class, this would 
> basically be making OrderedBasicBlock an interface, and this class 
> happens to be able to provide a pointer to something satisfying that 
> interface as well.
>
> (IE getOrderedBasicBlock() on EBBInfo will return you something that 
>  has locallyDominates())
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 21, 2016 at 11:59 AM, Philip Reames 
> <listmail at philipreames.com <mailto:listmail at philipreames.com>> wrote:
>
>
>
>     On 07/21/2016 10:30 AM, Daniel Berlin wrote:
>>
>>
>>     On Thu, Jul 21, 2016 at 9:39 AM, Daniel Berlin
>>     <dberlin at dberlin.org <mailto:dberlin at dberlin.org>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>         On Thu, Jul 21, 2016 at 9:26 AM, Andrew Trick
>>         <atrick at apple.com <mailto:atrick at apple.com>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>             On Jul 21, 2016, at 7:45 AM, Philip Reames
>>>             <listmail at philipreames.com
>>>             <mailto:listmail at philipreames.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>             Joining in very late, but the tangent here has been
>>>             interesting (if rather OT for the original thread).
>>>
>>>             I agree with Danny that we might want to take a close
>>>             look at how we model things like maythrow calls, no
>>>             return, and other implicit control flow.  I'm not
>>>             convinced that moving to a pure explicit model is the
>>>             right idea because we get a lot of gain in practice from
>>>             being able to reason about what are essentially a
>>>             limited form of extended basic blocks.  I would welcome
>>>             a design discussion about this, preferably in person,
>>>             but also don't want to block any current (or future
>>>             honestly) work on this until we have a reasonable firm
>>>             plan of action.
>>>
>>>             One idea would be to explicitly acknowledge that our
>>>             "basic blocks" are actually "extended basic blocks" with
>>>             internal exits due to exception propagation, noreturn,
>>>             and (recently) guards.  I could see a couple of
>>>             implementation strategies here:
>>>             1) Extend BasicBlock to explicitly track potential early
>>>             exiting instructions. This would probably have to be
>>>             conservative so that things like nothrow inference
>>>             aren't required to update all callers in one go.
>>>             2) Conservative assume that BasicBlock has an unknown
>>>             number of early exiting instructions and write an
>>>             analysis pass which answers questions about where those
>>>             early exits are.  Any pass which does code motion would
>>>             require this analysis.  (This is essentially the
>>>             principled version of our current hacks.)
>>
>>             This analysis can be lazy/incremental. Most passes only
>>             do “safe” speculation and code sinking without side effects.
>>
>>
>>         While I agree it can be lazy, and should be an analysis, i'm,
>>         again, really not sure which passes you are thinking about
>>         here that do code sinking/speculation that won't need it.
>>
>>         Here's the list definitely needing it right now:
>>         GVN
>>         GVNHoist
>>         LICM
>>         LoadCombine
>>         LoopReroll
>>         LoopUnswitch
>>         LoopVersioningLICM
>>         MemCpyOptimizer
>>         MergedLoadStoreMotion
>>         Sink
>>
>>         The list is almost certainly larger than this, this was a
>>         pretty trivial grep and examination.
>>         (and doesn't take into account bugs, etc)
>>
>>
>>
>>     (Note, this list is stuff in the Scalar directory only.
>>     Everything in Vectorize would n eed it, etc)
>>
>>     And in case folks want more evidence that reasonable llvm
>>     developers need something that just gives easy and right answers,
>>     see https://reviews.llvm.org/D22547 from just yesterday :)
>>
>>     To move this along, i will go build the analysis (I already have
>>     it mostly done, actually).  If someone updates our docs to make
>>     this stuff clear and obvious, that would be wonderful :)
>>
>>     The analysis currently computes, internally, for a given BB:
>>
>>     EarliestLoadHoistBarrier (used to see if you can move something
>>     out of a block)
>>     LatestLoadHoistBarrier (used to find the latest safe insertion
>>     point in a block, if any)
>>     EarliestStoreSinkBarrier (insertion)
>>     LatestStoreSinkBarrier (movement)
>>
>>
>>     (stores are maythrow dependent, loads are
>>     isGuaranteedToTransferExecutionToSuccessor dependent)
>>
>>     I'm still coming up with the external API, the users all want to
>>     know either:
>>
>>     1. Can i move a load up out of this block to a direct predecessor
>>     2. Can i move a store down out of this block to a direct successor
>     I would argue that we should have this analysis *only* report the
>     EBB information.  Doing this in the form of the information you've
>     mentioned is fine, but I would not want to see this become our
>     deref analysis for instance.  I think that needs to be a separate
>     analysis which is well layered on top of this one.  (i.e. once I
>     encounter a hoist barrier, I need to then ask if a load is safe to
>     speculate beyond that point as a separate question.)
>>
>>     GVN's current load PRE is complex to get "right" from it's
>>     current standpoint, the APi that will provide the easiest way to
>>     fix it will be:
>>
>>     3. What is the latest insertion point in a block for a load, if
>>     it is safe (IE the block does not end in an instruction you
>>     cannot move the load before).
>>
>>     Nothing is doing global store sinking right now that i see, so
>>     nothing needs the analogous store api.
>>
>
>

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