[docs] Sketch outline for HowToUpdateDebugInfo.rst

Summary:
Sketch the outline for a new document that explains how to update debug
info in various kinds of code transformations.

Some of the guidelines that belong in HowToUpdateDebugInfo.rst were in
SourceLevelDebugging.rst already under the debugify section. It seems
like the distinction between the two docs ought to be that the former is
more prescriptive, while the latter is more descriptive.

To that end I've consolidated the "how to update debug info" guidelines
which were in SourceLevelDebugging.rst into the new doc, along with the
information about using "debugify" to test transformations. Since we've
added a mir-debugify pass, I've described that as well.

Reviewers: aprantl, jmorse, chrisjackson, dsanders

Subscribers: llvm-commits

Tags: #llvm

Differential Revision: https://reviews.llvm.org/D80052
This commit is contained in:
Vedant Kumar 2020-05-15 17:13:18 -07:00
parent 74c92ba816
commit 5c16010e47
3 changed files with 359 additions and 183 deletions

View File

@ -0,0 +1,351 @@
=======================================================
How to Update Debug Info: A Guide for LLVM Pass Authors
=======================================================
.. contents::
:local:
Introduction
============
Certain kinds of code transformations can inadvertently result in a loss of
debug info, or worse, make debug info misrepresent the state of a program.
This document specifies how to correctly update debug info in various kinds of
code transformations, and offers suggestions for how to create targeted debug
info tests for arbitrary transformations.
For more on the philosophy behind LLVM debugging information, see
:doc:`SourceLevelDebugging`.
IR-level transformations
========================
Deleting an Instruction
-----------------------
When an ``Instruction`` is deleted, its debug uses change to ``undef``. This is
a loss of debug info: the value of a one or more source variables becomes
unavailable, starting with the ``llvm.dbg.value(undef, ...)``. When there is no
way to reconstitute the value of the lost instruction, this is the best
possible outcome. However, it's often possible to do better:
* If the dying instruction can be RAUW'd, do so. The
``Value::replaceAllUsesWith`` API transparently updates debug uses of the
dying instruction to point to the replacement value.
* If the dying instruction cannot be RAUW'd, call
``llvm::salvageDebugInfoOrMarkUndef`` on it. This makes a best-effort attempt
to rewrite debug uses of the dying instruction by describing its effect as a
``DIExpression``.
* If one of the **operands** of a dying instruction would become trivially
dead, use ``llvm::replaceAllDbgUsesWith`` to rewrite the debug uses of that
operand. Consider the following example function:
.. code-block:: llvm
define i16 @foo(i16 %a) {
%b = sext i16 %a to i32
%c = and i32 %b, 15
call void @llvm.dbg.value(metadata i32 %c, ...)
%d = trunc i32 %c to i16
ret i16 %d
}
Now, here's what happens after the unnecessary truncation instruction ``%d`` is
replaced with a simplified instruction:
.. code-block:: llvm
define i16 @foo(i16 %a) {
call void @llvm.dbg.value(metadata i32 undef, ...)
%simplified = and i16 %a, 15
ret i16 %simplified
}
Note that after deleting ``%d``, all uses of its operand ``%c`` become
trivially dead. The debug use which used to point to ``%c`` is now ``undef``,
and debug info is needlessly lost.
To solve this problem, do:
.. code-block:: cpp
llvm::replaceAllDbgUsesWith(%c, theSimplifiedAndInstruction, ...)
This results in better debug info because the debug use of ``%c`` is preserved:
.. code-block:: llvm
define i16 @foo(i16 %a) {
%simplified = and i16 %a, 15
call void @llvm.dbg.value(metadata i16 %simplified, ...)
ret i16 %simplified
}
You may have noticed that ``%simplified`` is narrower than ``%c``: this is not
a problem, because ``llvm::replaceAllDbgUsesWith`` takes care of inserting the
necessary conversion operations into the DIExpressions of updated debug uses.
Hoisting an Instruction
-----------------------
TODO
Sinking an Instruction
----------------------
TODO
Cloning an Instruction
----------------------
TODO
Merging two Instructions
------------------------
TODO
Creating an artificial Instruction
----------------------------------
TODO
Mutation testing for IR-level transformations
---------------------------------------------
An IR test case for a transformation can, in many cases, be automatically
mutated to test debug info handling within that transformation. This is a
simple way to test for proper debug info handling.
The ``debugify`` utility
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The ``debugify`` testing utility is just a pair of passes: ``debugify`` and
``check-debugify``.
The first applies synthetic debug information to every instruction of the
module, and the second checks that this DI is still available after an
optimization has occurred, reporting any errors/warnings while doing so.
The instructions are assigned sequentially increasing line locations, and are
immediately used by debug value intrinsics everywhere possible.
For example, here is a module before:
.. code-block:: llvm
define void @f(i32* %x) {
entry:
%x.addr = alloca i32*, align 8
store i32* %x, i32** %x.addr, align 8
%0 = load i32*, i32** %x.addr, align 8
store i32 10, i32* %0, align 4
ret void
}
and after running ``opt -debugify``:
.. code-block:: llvm
define void @f(i32* %x) !dbg !6 {
entry:
%x.addr = alloca i32*, align 8, !dbg !12
call void @llvm.dbg.value(metadata i32** %x.addr, metadata !9, metadata !DIExpression()), !dbg !12
store i32* %x, i32** %x.addr, align 8, !dbg !13
%0 = load i32*, i32** %x.addr, align 8, !dbg !14
call void @llvm.dbg.value(metadata i32* %0, metadata !11, metadata !DIExpression()), !dbg !14
store i32 10, i32* %0, align 4, !dbg !15
ret void, !dbg !16
}
!llvm.dbg.cu = !{!0}
!llvm.debugify = !{!3, !4}
!llvm.module.flags = !{!5}
!0 = distinct !DICompileUnit(language: DW_LANG_C, file: !1, producer: "debugify", isOptimized: true, runtimeVersion: 0, emissionKind: FullDebug, enums: !2)
!1 = !DIFile(filename: "debugify-sample.ll", directory: "/")
!2 = !{}
!3 = !{i32 5}
!4 = !{i32 2}
!5 = !{i32 2, !"Debug Info Version", i32 3}
!6 = distinct !DISubprogram(name: "f", linkageName: "f", scope: null, file: !1, line: 1, type: !7, isLocal: false, isDefinition: true, scopeLine: 1, isOptimized: true, unit: !0, retainedNodes: !8)
!7 = !DISubroutineType(types: !2)
!8 = !{!9, !11}
!9 = !DILocalVariable(name: "1", scope: !6, file: !1, line: 1, type: !10)
!10 = !DIBasicType(name: "ty64", size: 64, encoding: DW_ATE_unsigned)
!11 = !DILocalVariable(name: "2", scope: !6, file: !1, line: 3, type: !10)
!12 = !DILocation(line: 1, column: 1, scope: !6)
!13 = !DILocation(line: 2, column: 1, scope: !6)
!14 = !DILocation(line: 3, column: 1, scope: !6)
!15 = !DILocation(line: 4, column: 1, scope: !6)
!16 = !DILocation(line: 5, column: 1, scope: !6)
Using ``debugify``
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A simple way to use ``debugify`` is as follows:
.. code-block:: bash
$ opt -debugify -pass-to-test -check-debugify sample.ll
This will inject synthetic DI to ``sample.ll`` run the ``pass-to-test`` and
then check for missing DI. The ``-check-debugify`` step can of course be
omitted in favor of more customizable FileCheck directives.
Some other ways to run debugify are available:
.. code-block:: bash
# Same as the above example.
$ opt -enable-debugify -pass-to-test sample.ll
# Suppresses verbose debugify output.
$ opt -enable-debugify -debugify-quiet -pass-to-test sample.ll
# Prepend -debugify before and append -check-debugify -strip after
# each pass on the pipeline (similar to -verify-each).
$ opt -debugify-each -O2 sample.ll
In order for ``check-debugify`` to work, the DI must be coming from
``debugify``. Thus, modules with existing DI will be skipped.
``debugify`` can be used to test a backend, e.g:
.. code-block:: bash
$ opt -debugify < sample.ll | llc -o -
There is also a MIR-level debugify pass that can be run before each backend
pass, see:
:ref:`Mutation testing for MIR-level transformations`.
``debugify`` in regression tests
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The output of the ``debugify`` pass must be stable enough to use in regression
tests. Changes to this pass are not allowed to break existing tests.
.. note::
Regression tests must be robust. Avoid hardcoding line/variable numbers in
check lines. In cases where this can't be avoided (say, if a test wouldn't
be precise enough), moving the test to its own file is preferred.
MIR-level transformations
=========================
Deleting a MachineInstr
-----------------------
TODO
Hoisting a MachineInstr
-----------------------
TODO
Sinking a MachineInstr
----------------------
TODO
Cloning a MachineInstr
----------------------
TODO
Creating an artificial MachineInstr
-----------------------------------
TODO
Mutation testing for MIR-level transformations
----------------------------------------------
A varaint of the ``debugify`` utility described in :ref:`Mutation testing for
IR-level transformations` can be used for MIR-level transformations as well:
much like the IR-level pass, ``mir-debugify`` inserts sequentially increasing
line locations to each ``MachineInstr`` in a ``Module`` (although there is no
equivalent MIR-level ``check-debugify`` pass).
For example, here is a snippet before:
.. code-block:: llvm
name: test
body: |
bb.1 (%ir-block.0):
%0:_(s32) = IMPLICIT_DEF
%1:_(s32) = IMPLICIT_DEF
%2:_(s32) = G_CONSTANT i32 2
%3:_(s32) = G_ADD %0, %2
%4:_(s32) = G_SUB %3, %1
and after running ``llc -run-pass=mir-debugify``:
.. code-block:: llvm
name: test
body: |
bb.0 (%ir-block.0):
%0:_(s32) = IMPLICIT_DEF debug-location !12
DBG_VALUE %0(s32), $noreg, !9, !DIExpression(), debug-location !12
%1:_(s32) = IMPLICIT_DEF debug-location !13
DBG_VALUE %1(s32), $noreg, !11, !DIExpression(), debug-location !13
%2:_(s32) = G_CONSTANT i32 2, debug-location !14
DBG_VALUE %2(s32), $noreg, !9, !DIExpression(), debug-location !14
%3:_(s32) = G_ADD %0, %2, debug-location !DILocation(line: 4, column: 1, scope: !6)
DBG_VALUE %3(s32), $noreg, !9, !DIExpression(), debug-location !DILocation(line: 4, column: 1, scope: !6)
%4:_(s32) = G_SUB %3, %1, debug-location !DILocation(line: 5, column: 1, scope: !6)
DBG_VALUE %4(s32), $noreg, !9, !DIExpression(), debug-location !DILocation(line: 5, column: 1, scope: !6)
By default, ``mir-debugify`` inserts ``DBG_VALUE`` instructions **everywhere**
it is legal to do so. In particular, every (non-PHI) machine instruction that
defines a register should be followed by a ``DBG_VALUE`` use of that def. If
an instruction does not define a register, but can be followed by a debug inst,
MIRDebugify inserts a ``DBG_VALUE`` that references a constant. Insertion of
``DBG_VALUE``'s can be disabled by setting ``-debugify-level=locations``.
To run MIRDebugify once, simply insert ``mir-debugify`` into your ``llc``
invocation, like:
.. code-block:: bash
# Before some other pass.
$ llc -run-pass=mir-debugify,other-pass ...
# After some other pass.
$ llc -run-pass=other-pass,mir-debugify ...
To run MIRDebugify before each pass in a pipeline, use
``-debugify-and-strip-all-safe``. This can be combined with ``-start-before``
and ``-start-after``. For example:
.. code-block:: bash
$ llc -debugify-and-strip-all-safe -run-pass=... <other llc args>
$ llc -debugify-and-strip-all-safe -O1 <other llc args>
To strip out all debug info from a test, use ``mir-strip-debug``, like:
.. code-block:: bash
$ llc -run-pass=mir-debugify,other-pass,mir-strip-debug
It can be useful to combine ``mir-debugify`` and ``mir-strip-debug`` to
identify backend transformations which break in the presence of debug info.
For example, to run the AArch64 backend tests with all normal passes
"sandwiched" in between MIRDebugify and MIRStripDebugify mutation passes, run:
.. code-block:: bash
$ llvm-lit test/CodeGen/AArch64 -Dllc="llc -debugify-and-strip-all-safe"
Using the LostDebugLocObserver
------------------------------
TODO

View File

@ -86,11 +86,12 @@ information provides the following guarantees:
* LLVM debug information **always provides information to accurately read
the source-level state of the program**, regardless of which LLVM
optimizations have been run, and without any modification to the
optimizations themselves. However, some optimizations may impact the
ability to modify the current state of the program with a debugger, such
as setting program variables, or calling functions that have been
deleted.
optimizations have been run. :doc:`HowToUpdateDebugInfo` specifies how debug
info should be updated in various kinds of code transformations to avoid
breaking this guarantee, and how to preserve as much useful debug info as
possible. Note that some optimizations may impact the ability to modify the
current state of the program with a debugger, such as setting program
variables, or calling functions that have been deleted.
* As desired, LLVM optimizations can be upgraded to be aware of debugging
information, allowing them to update the debugging information as they
@ -1993,180 +1994,3 @@ Improving LLVM's CodeView support is a process of finding interesting type
records, constructing a C++ test case that makes MSVC emit those records,
dumping the records, understanding them, and then generating equivalent records
in LLVM's backend.
Testing Debug Info Preservation in Optimizations
================================================
The following paragraphs are an introduction to the debugify utility
and examples of how to use it in regression tests to check debug info
preservation after optimizations.
The ``debugify`` utility
------------------------
The ``debugify`` synthetic debug info testing utility consists of two
main parts. The ``debugify`` pass and the ``check-debugify`` one. They are
meant to be used with ``opt`` for development purposes.
The first applies synthetic debug information to every instruction of the module,
while the latter checks that this DI is still available after an optimization
has occurred, reporting any errors/warnings while doing so.
The instructions are assigned sequentially increasing line locations,
and are immediately used by debug value intrinsics when possible.
For example, here is a module before:
.. code-block:: llvm
define void @f(i32* %x) {
entry:
%x.addr = alloca i32*, align 8
store i32* %x, i32** %x.addr, align 8
%0 = load i32*, i32** %x.addr, align 8
store i32 10, i32* %0, align 4
ret void
}
and after running ``opt -debugify`` on it we get:
.. code-block:: text
define void @f(i32* %x) !dbg !6 {
entry:
%x.addr = alloca i32*, align 8, !dbg !12
call void @llvm.dbg.value(metadata i32** %x.addr, metadata !9, metadata !DIExpression()), !dbg !12
store i32* %x, i32** %x.addr, align 8, !dbg !13
%0 = load i32*, i32** %x.addr, align 8, !dbg !14
call void @llvm.dbg.value(metadata i32* %0, metadata !11, metadata !DIExpression()), !dbg !14
store i32 10, i32* %0, align 4, !dbg !15
ret void, !dbg !16
}
!llvm.dbg.cu = !{!0}
!llvm.debugify = !{!3, !4}
!llvm.module.flags = !{!5}
!0 = distinct !DICompileUnit(language: DW_LANG_C, file: !1, producer: "debugify", isOptimized: true, runtimeVersion: 0, emissionKind: FullDebug, enums: !2)
!1 = !DIFile(filename: "debugify-sample.ll", directory: "/")
!2 = !{}
!3 = !{i32 5}
!4 = !{i32 2}
!5 = !{i32 2, !"Debug Info Version", i32 3}
!6 = distinct !DISubprogram(name: "f", linkageName: "f", scope: null, file: !1, line: 1, type: !7, isLocal: false, isDefinition: true, scopeLine: 1, isOptimized: true, unit: !0, retainedNodes: !8)
!7 = !DISubroutineType(types: !2)
!8 = !{!9, !11}
!9 = !DILocalVariable(name: "1", scope: !6, file: !1, line: 1, type: !10)
!10 = !DIBasicType(name: "ty64", size: 64, encoding: DW_ATE_unsigned)
!11 = !DILocalVariable(name: "2", scope: !6, file: !1, line: 3, type: !10)
!12 = !DILocation(line: 1, column: 1, scope: !6)
!13 = !DILocation(line: 2, column: 1, scope: !6)
!14 = !DILocation(line: 3, column: 1, scope: !6)
!15 = !DILocation(line: 4, column: 1, scope: !6)
!16 = !DILocation(line: 5, column: 1, scope: !6)
The following is an example of the -check-debugify output:
.. code-block:: none
$ opt -enable-debugify -loop-vectorize llvm/test/Transforms/LoopVectorize/i8-induction.ll -disable-output
ERROR: Instruction with empty DebugLoc in function f -- %index = phi i32 [ 0, %vector.ph ], [ %index.next, %vector.body ]
Errors/warnings can range from instructions with empty debug location to an
instruction having a type that's incompatible with the source variable it describes,
all the way to missing lines and missing debug value intrinsics.
Fixing errors
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Each of the errors above has a relevant API available to fix it.
* In the case of missing debug location, ``Instruction::setDebugLoc`` or possibly
``IRBuilder::setCurrentDebugLocation`` when using a Builder and the new location
should be reused.
* When a debug value has incompatible type ``llvm::replaceAllDbgUsesWith`` can be used.
After a RAUW call an incompatible type error can occur because RAUW does not handle
widening and narrowing of variables while ``llvm::replaceAllDbgUsesWith`` does. It is
also capable of changing the DWARF expression used by the debugger to describe the variable.
It also prevents use-before-def by salvaging or deleting invalid debug values.
* When a debug value is missing ``llvm::salvageDebugInfo`` can be used when no replacement
exists, or ``llvm::replaceAllDbgUsesWith`` when a replacement exists.
Using ``debugify``
------------------
In order for ``check-debugify`` to work, the DI must be coming from
``debugify``. Thus, modules with existing DI will be skipped.
The most straightforward way to use ``debugify`` is as follows::
$ opt -debugify -pass-to-test -check-debugify sample.ll
This will inject synthetic DI to ``sample.ll`` run the ``pass-to-test``
and then check for missing DI.
Some other ways to run debugify are available:
.. code-block:: bash
# Same as the above example.
$ opt -enable-debugify -pass-to-test sample.ll
# Suppresses verbose debugify output.
$ opt -enable-debugify -debugify-quiet -pass-to-test sample.ll
# Prepend -debugify before and append -check-debugify -strip after
# each pass on the pipeline (similar to -verify-each).
$ opt -debugify-each -O2 sample.ll
``debugify`` can also be used to test a backend, e.g:
.. code-block:: bash
$ opt -debugify < sample.ll | llc -o -
``debugify`` in regression tests
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The ``-debugify`` pass is especially helpful when it comes to testing that
a given pass preserves DI while transforming the module. For this to work,
the ``-debugify`` output must be stable enough to use in regression tests.
Changes to this pass are not allowed to break existing tests.
It allows us to test for DI loss in the same tests we check that the
transformation is actually doing what it should.
Here is an example from ``test/Transforms/InstCombine/cast-mul-select.ll``:
.. code-block:: llvm
; RUN: opt < %s -debugify -instcombine -S | FileCheck %s --check-prefix=DEBUGINFO
define i32 @mul(i32 %x, i32 %y) {
; DBGINFO-LABEL: @mul(
; DBGINFO-NEXT: [[C:%.*]] = mul i32 {{.*}}
; DBGINFO-NEXT: call void @llvm.dbg.value(metadata i32 [[C]]
; DBGINFO-NEXT: [[D:%.*]] = and i32 {{.*}}
; DBGINFO-NEXT: call void @llvm.dbg.value(metadata i32 [[D]]
%A = trunc i32 %x to i8
%B = trunc i32 %y to i8
%C = mul i8 %A, %B
%D = zext i8 %C to i32
ret i32 %D
}
Here we test that the two ``dbg.value`` instrinsics are preserved and
are correctly pointing to the ``[[C]]`` and ``[[D]]`` variables.
.. note::
Note, that when writing this kind of regression tests, it is important
to make them as robust as possible. That's why we should try to avoid
hardcoding line/variable numbers in check lines. If for example you test
for a ``DILocation`` to have a specific line number, and someone later adds
an instruction before the one we check the test will fail. In the cases this
can't be avoided (say, if a test wouldn't be precise enough), moving the
test to its own file is preferred.

View File

@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ intermediate LLVM representation.
HowToBuildWithPGO
HowToCrossCompileBuiltinsOnArm
HowToCrossCompileLLVM
HowToUpdateDebugInfo
LinkTimeOptimization
LoopTerminology
MarkdownQuickstartTemplate
@ -196,4 +197,4 @@ Additional Topics
:doc:`AMDGPUDwarfProposalForHeterogeneousDebugging`
This document describes a DWARF proposal to support heterogeneous debugging
for targets such as the AMDGPU backend.
for targets such as the AMDGPU backend.