• Russ Cox's avatar
    cmd/gc: emit explicit type information for local variables · 1d5dc4fd
    Russ Cox authored
    The type information is (and for years has been) included
    as an extra field in the address chunk of an instruction.
    Unfortunately, suppose there is a string at a+24(FP) and
    we have an instruction reading its length. It will say:
    
            MOVQ x+32(FP), AX
    
    and the type of *that* argument is int (not slice), because
    it is the length being read. This confuses the picture seen
    by debuggers and now, worse, by the garbage collector.
    
    Instead of attaching the type information to all uses,
    emit an explicit list of TYPE instructions with the information.
    The TYPE instructions are no-ops whose only role is to
    provide an address to attach type information to.
    
    For example, this function:
    
            func f(x, y, z int) (a, b string) {
                    return
            }
    
    now compiles into:
    
            --- prog list "f" ---
            0000 (/Users/rsc/x.go:3) TEXT    f+0(SB),$0-56
            0001 (/Users/rsc/x.go:3) LOCALS  ,
            0002 (/Users/rsc/x.go:3) TYPE    x+0(FP){int},$8
            0003 (/Users/rsc/x.go:3) TYPE    y+8(FP){int},$8
            0004 (/Users/rsc/x.go:3) TYPE    z+16(FP){int},$8
            0005 (/Users/rsc/x.go:3) TYPE    a+24(FP){string},$16
            0006 (/Users/rsc/x.go:3) TYPE    b+40(FP){string},$16
            0007 (/Users/rsc/x.go:3) MOVQ    $0,b+40(FP)
            0008 (/Users/rsc/x.go:3) MOVQ    $0,b+48(FP)
            0009 (/Users/rsc/x.go:3) MOVQ    $0,a+24(FP)
            0010 (/Users/rsc/x.go:3) MOVQ    $0,a+32(FP)
            0011 (/Users/rsc/x.go:4) RET     ,
    
    The { } show the formerly hidden type information.
    The { } syntax is used when printing from within the gc compiler.
    It is not accepted by the assemblers.
    
    The same type information is now included on global variables:
    
    0055 (/Users/rsc/x.go:15) GLOBL   slice+0(SB){[]string},$24(AL*0)
    
    This more accurate type information fixes a bug in the
    garbage collector's precise heap collection.
    
    The linker only cares about globals right now, but having the
    local information should make things a little nicer for Carl
    in the future.
    
    Fixes #4907.
    
    R=ken2
    CC=golang-dev
    https://golang.org/cl/7395056
    1d5dc4fd
peep.c 16.9 KB