Commit a5b80d46 authored by Matthew Dempsky's avatar Matthew Dempsky

cmd/compile: update liveness comments

The explanation about VARDEF/VARKILL is from when liveness analysis
was performed on Progs. Now that it's performed on SSA, it should
reference their corresponding SSA ops (OpVarDef/OpVarKill) instead.

Change-Id: Icc4385b52768f6987cda162824b75340aee0b223
Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/76313Reviewed-by: 's avatarRobert Griesemer <gri@golang.org>
parent 2f2e8f9c
......@@ -27,22 +27,16 @@ import (
"strings"
)
// TODO(mdempsky): Update to reference OpVar{Def,Kill,Live} instead.
// VARDEF is an annotation for the liveness analysis, marking a place
// OpVarDef is an annotation for the liveness analysis, marking a place
// where a complete initialization (definition) of a variable begins.
// Since the liveness analysis can see initialization of single-word
// variables quite easy, gvardef is usually only called for multi-word
// or 'fat' variables, those satisfying isfat(n->type).
// However, gvardef is also called when a non-fat variable is initialized
// via a block move; the only time this happens is when you have
// return f()
// for a function with multiple return values exactly matching the return
// types of the current function.
// variables quite easy, OpVarDef is only needed for multi-word
// variables satisfying isfat(n.Type). For simplicity though, buildssa
// emits OpVarDef regardless of variable width.
//
// A 'VARDEF x' annotation in the instruction stream tells the liveness
// An 'OpVarDef x' annotation in the instruction stream tells the liveness
// analysis to behave as though the variable x is being initialized at that
// point in the instruction stream. The VARDEF must appear before the
// point in the instruction stream. The OpVarDef must appear before the
// actual (multi-instruction) initialization, and it must also appear after
// any uses of the previous value, if any. For example, if compiling:
//
......@@ -51,12 +45,12 @@ import (
// it is important to generate code like:
//
// base, len, cap = pieces of x[1:]
// VARDEF x
// OpVarDef x
// x = {base, len, cap}
//
// If instead the generated code looked like:
//
// VARDEF x
// OpVarDef x
// base, len, cap = pieces of x[1:]
// x = {base, len, cap}
//
......@@ -66,12 +60,12 @@ import (
//
// base, len, cap = pieces of x[1:]
// x = {base, len, cap}
// VARDEF x
// OpVarDef x
//
// then the liveness analysis will not preserve the new value of x, because
// the VARDEF appears to have "overwritten" it.
// the OpVarDef appears to have "overwritten" it.
//
// VARDEF is a bit of a kludge to work around the fact that the instruction
// OpVarDef is a bit of a kludge to work around the fact that the instruction
// stream is working on single-word values but the liveness analysis
// wants to work on individual variables, which might be multi-word
// aggregates. It might make sense at some point to look into letting
......@@ -79,8 +73,8 @@ import (
// there are complications around interface values, slices, and strings,
// all of which cannot be treated as individual words.
//
// VARKILL is the opposite of VARDEF: it marks a value as no longer needed,
// even if its address has been taken. That is, a VARKILL annotation asserts
// OpVarKill is the opposite of OpVarDef: it marks a value as no longer needed,
// even if its address has been taken. That is, an OpVarKill annotation asserts
// that its argument is certainly dead, for use when the liveness analysis
// would not otherwise be able to deduce that fact.
......
Markdown is supported
0% or
You are about to add 0 people to the discussion. Proceed with caution.
Finish editing this message first!
Please register or to comment