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Info file gcc.info, produced by Makeinfo, -*- Text -*- from input file gcc.texinfo. This file documents the use and the internals of the GNU compiler. Copyright (C) 1988, 1989 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the sections entitled ``GNU General Public License'' and ``Protect Your Freedom--Fight `Look And Feel''' are included exactly as in the original, and provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that the sections entitled ``GNU General Public License'' and ``Protect Your Freedom--Fight `Look And Feel''' and this permission notice may be included in translations approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in the original English. File: gcc.info, Node: Conversions, Next: RTL Declarations, Prev: Bit Fields, Up: RTL Conversions =========== All conversions between machine modes must be represented by explicit conversion operations. For example, an expression which is the sum of a byte and a full word cannot be written as `(plus:SI (reg:QI 34) (reg:SI 80))' because the `plus' operation requires two operands of the same machine mode. Therefore, the byte-sized operand is enclosed in a conversion operation, as in (plus:SI (sign_extend:SI (reg:QI 34)) (reg:SI 80)) The conversion operation is not a mere placeholder, because there may be more than one way of converting from a given starting mode to the desired final mode. The conversion operation code says how to do it. `(sign_extend:M X)' Represents the result of sign-extending the value X to machine mode M. M must be a fixed-point mode and X a fixed-point value of a mode narrower than M. `(zero_extend:M X)' Represents the result of zero-extending the value X to machine mode M. M must be a fixed-point mode and X a fixed-point value of a mode narrower than M. `(float_extend:M X)' Represents the result of extending the value X to machine mode M. M must be a floating point mode and X a floating point value of a mode narrower than M. `(truncate:M X)' Represents the result of truncating the value X to machine mode M. M must be a fixed-point mode and X a fixed-point value of a mode wider than M. `(float_truncate:M X)' Represents the result of truncating the value X to machine mode M. M must be a floating point mode and X a floating point value of a mode wider than M. `(float:M X)' Represents the result of converting fixed point value X, regarded as signed, to floating point mode M. `(unsigned_float:M X)' Represents the result of converting fixed point value X, regarded as unsigned, to floating point mode M. `(fix:M X)' When M is a fixed point mode, represents the result of converting floating point value X to mode M, regarded as signed. How rounding is done is not specified, so this operation may be used validly in compiling C code only for integer-valued operands. `(unsigned_fix:M X)' Represents the result of converting floating point value X to fixed point mode M, regarded as unsigned. How rounding is done is not specified. `(fix:M X)' When M is a floating point mode, represents the result of converting floating point value X (valid for mode M) to an integer, still represented in floating point mode M, by rounding towards zero. File: gcc.info, Node: RTL Declarations, Next: Side Effects, Prev: Conversions, Up: RTL Declarations ============ Declaration expression codes do not represent arithmetic operations but rather state assertions about their operands. `(strict_low_part (subreg:M (reg:N R) 0))' This expression code is used in only one context: operand 0 of a `set' expression. In addition, the operand of this expression must be a `subreg' expression. The presence of `strict_low_part' says that the part of the register which is meaningful in mode N, but is not part of mode M, is not to be altered. Normally, an assignment to such a subreg is allowed to have undefined effects on the rest of the register when M is less than a word. File: gcc.info, Node: Side Effects, Next: Incdec, Prev: RTL Declarations, Up: RTL Side Effect Expressions ======================= The expression codes described so far represent values, not actions. But machine instructions never produce values; they are meaningful only for their side effects on the state of the machine. Special expression codes are used to represent side effects. The body of an instruction is always one of these side effect codes; the codes described above, which represent values, appear only as the operands of these. `(set LVAL X)' Represents the action of storing the value of X into the place represented by LVAL. LVAL must be an expression representing a place that can be stored in: `reg' (or `subreg' or `strict_low_part'), `mem', `pc' or `cc0'. If LVAL is a `reg', `subreg' or `mem', it has a machine mode; then X must be valid for that mode. If LVAL is a `reg' whose machine mode is less than the full width of the register, then it means that the part of the register specified by the machine mode is given the specified value and the rest of the register receives an undefined value. Likewise, if LVAL is a `subreg' whose machine mode is narrower than `SImode', the rest of the register can be changed in an undefined way. If LVAL is a `strict_low_part' of a `subreg', then the part of the register specified by the machine mode of the `subreg' is given the value X and the rest of the register is not changed. If LVAL is `(cc0)', it has no machine mode, and X may have any mode. This represents a ``test'' or ``compare'' instruction. If LVAL is `(pc)', we have a jump instruction, and the possibilities for X are very limited. It may be a `label_ref' expression (unconditional jump). It may be an `if_then_else' (conditional jump), in which case either the second or the third operand must be `(pc)' (for the case which does not jump) and the other of the two must be a `label_ref' (for the case which does jump). X may also be a `mem' or `(plus:SI (pc) Y)', where Y may be a `reg' or a `mem'; these unusual patterns are used to represent jumps through branch tables. `(return)' Represents a return from the current function, on machines where this can be done with one instruction, such as Vaxes. On machines where a multi-instruction ``epilogue'' must be executed in order to return from the function, returning is done by jumping to a label which precedes the epilogue, and the `return' expression code is never used. `(call FUNCTION NARGS)' Represents a function call. FUNCTION is a `mem' expression whose address is the address of the function to be called. NARGS is an expression which can be used for two purposes: on some machines it represents the number of bytes of stack argument; on others, it represents the number of argument registers. Each machine has a standard machine mode which FUNCTION must have. The machine description defines macro `FUNCTION_MODE' to expand into the requisite mode name. The purpose of this mode is to specify what kind of addressing is allowed, on machines where the allowed kinds of addressing depend on the machine mode being addressed. `(clobber X)' Represents the storing or possible storing of an unpredictable, undescribed value into X, which must be a `reg' or `mem' expression. One place this is used is in string instructions that store standard values into particular hard registers. It may not be worth the trouble to describe the values that are stored, but it is essential to inform the compiler that the registers will be altered, lest it attempt to keep data in them across the string instruction. X may also be null--a null C pointer, no expression at all. Such a `(clobber (null))' expression means that all memory locations must be presumed clobbered. Note that the machine description classifies certain hard registers as ``call-clobbered''. All function call instructions are assumed by default to clobber these registers, so there is no need to use `clobber' expressions to indicate this fact. Also, each function call is assumed to have the potential to alter any memory location, unless the function is declared `const'. When a `clobber' expression for a register appears inside a `parallel' with other side effects, GNU CC guarantees that the register is unoccupied both before and after that insn. Therefore, it is safe for the assembler code produced by the insn to use the register as a temporary. You can clobber either a specific hard register or a pseudo register; in the latter case, GNU CC will allocate a hard register that is available there for use as a temporary. If you clobber a pseudo register in this way, use a pseudo register which appears nowhere else--generate a new one each time. Otherwise, you may confuse CSE. There is one other known use for clobbering a pseudo register in a `parallel': when one of the input operands of the insn is also clobbered by the insn. In this case, using the same pseudo register in the clobber and elsewhere in the insn produces the expected results. `(use X)' Represents the use of the value of X. It indicates that the value in X at this point in the program is needed, even though it may not be apparent why this is so. Therefore, the compiler will not attempt to delete previous instructions whose only effect is to store a value in X. X must be a `reg' expression. `(parallel [X0 X1 ...])' Represents several side effects performed in parallel. The square brackets stand for a vector; the operand of `parallel' is a vector of expressions. X0, X1 and so on are individual side effect expressions--expressions of code `set', `call', `return', `clobber' or `use'. ``In parallel'' means that first all the values used in the individual side-effects are computed, and second all the actual side-effects are performed. For example, (parallel [(set (reg:SI 1) (mem:SI (reg:SI 1))) (set (mem:SI (reg:SI 1)) (reg:SI 1))]) says unambiguously that the values of hard register 1 and the memory location addressed by it are interchanged. In both places where `(reg:SI 1)' appears as a memory address it refers to the value in register 1 *before* the execution of the insn. It follows that it is *incorrect* to use `parallel' and expect the result of one `set' to be available for the next one. For example, people sometimes attempt to represent a jump-if-zero instruction this way: (parallel [(set (cc0) (reg:SI 34)) (set (pc) (if_then_else (eq (cc0) (const_int 0)) (label_ref ...) (pc)))]) But this is incorrect, because it says that the jump condition depends on the condition code value *before* this instruction, not on the new value that is set by this instruction. Peephole optimization, which takes place in together with final assembly code output, can produce insns whose patterns consist of a `parallel' whose elements are the operands needed to output the resulting assembler code--often `reg', `mem' or constant expressions. This would not be well-formed RTL at any other stage in compilation, but it is ok then because no further optimization remains to be done. However, the definition of the macro `NOTICE_UPDATE_CC' must deal with such insns if you define any peephole optimizations. `(sequence [INSNS ...])' Represents a sequence of insns. Each of the INSNS that appears in the vector is suitable for appearing in the chain of insns, so it must be an `insn', `jump_insn', `call_insn', `code_label', `barrier' or `note'. A `sequence' RTX never appears in an actual insn. It represents the sequence of insns that result from a `define_expand' *before* those insns are passed to `emit_insn' to insert them in the chain of insns. When actually inserted, the individual sub-insns are separated out and the `sequence' is forgotten. Three expression codes appear in place of a side effect, as the body of an insn, though strictly speaking they do not describe side effects as such: `(asm_input S)' Represents literal assembler code as described by the string S. `(addr_vec:M [LR0 LR1 ...])' Represents a table of jump addresses. The vector elements LR0, etc., are `label_ref' expressions. The mode M specifies how much space is given to each address; normally M would be `Pmode'. `(addr_diff_vec:M BASE [LR0 LR1 ...])' Represents a table of jump addresses expressed as offsets from BASE. The vector elements LR0, etc., are `label_ref' expressions and so is BASE. The mode M specifies how much space is given to each address-difference. File: gcc.info, Node: Incdec, Next: Assembler, Prev: Side Effects, Up: RTL Embedded Side-Effects on Addresses ================================== Four special side-effect expression codes appear as memory addresses. `(pre_dec:M X)' Represents the side effect of decrementing X by a standard amount and represents also the value that X has after being decremented. X must be a `reg' or `mem', but most machines allow only a `reg'. M must be the machine mode for pointers on the machine in use. The amount X is decremented by is the length in bytes of the machine mode of the containing memory reference of which this expression serves as the address. Here is an example of its use: (mem:DF (pre_dec:SI (reg:SI 39))) This says to decrement pseudo register 39 by the length of a `DFmode' value and use the result to address a `DFmode' value. `(pre_inc:M X)' Similar, but specifies incrementing X instead of decrementing it. `(post_dec:M X)' Represents the same side effect as `pre_dec' but a different value. The value represented here is the value X has before being decremented. `(post_inc:M X)' Similar, but specifies incrementing X instead of decrementing it. These embedded side effect expressions must be used with care. Instruction patterns may not use them. Until the `flow' pass of the compiler, they may occur only to represent pushes onto the stack. The `flow' pass finds cases where registers are incremented or decremented in one instruction and used as an address shortly before or after; these cases are then transformed to use pre- or post-increment or -decrement. Explicit popping of the stack could be represented with these embedded side effect operators, but that would not be safe; the instruction combination pass could move the popping past pushes, thus changing the meaning of the code. An instruction that can be represented with an embedded side effect could also be represented using `parallel' containing an additional `set' to describe how the address register is altered. This is not done because machines that allow these operations at all typically allow them wherever a memory address is called for. Describing them as additional parallel stores would require doubling the number of entries in the machine description. File: gcc.info, Node: Assembler, Next: Insns, Prev: IncDec, Up: RTL Assembler Instructions as Expressions ===================================== The RTX code `asm_operands' represents a value produced by a user-specified assembler instruction. It is used to represent an `asm' statement with arguments. An `asm' statement with a single output operand, like this: asm ("foo %1,%2,%0" : "=a" (outputvar) : "g" (x + y), "di" (*z)); is represented using a single `asm_operands' RTX which represents the value that is stored in `outputvar': (set RTX-FOR-OUTPUTVAR (asm_operands "foo %1,%2,%0" "a" 0 [RTX-FOR-ADDITION-RESULT RTX-FOR-*Z] [(asm_input:M1 "g") (asm_input:M2 "di")])) Here the operands of the `asm_operands' RTX are the assembler template string, the output-operand's constraint, the index-number of the output operand among the output operands specified, a vector of input operand RTX's, and a vector of input-operand modes and constraints. The mode M1 is the mode of the sum `x+y'; M2 is that of `*z'. When an `asm' statement has multiple output values, its insn has several such `set' RTX's inside of a `parallel'. Each `set' contains a `asm_operands'; all of these share the same assembler template and vectors, but each contains the constraint for the respective output operand. They are also distinguished by the output-operand index number, which is 0, 1, ... for successive output operands. File: gcc.info, Node: Insns, Next: Calls, Prev: Assembler, Up: RTL Insns ===== The RTL representation of the code for a function is a doubly-linked chain of objects called "insns". Insns are expressions with special codes that are used for no other purpose. Some insns are actual instructions; others represent dispatch tables for `switch' statements; others represent labels to jump to or various sorts of declarative information. In addition to its own specific data, each insn must have a unique id-number that distinguishes it from all other insns in the current function, and chain pointers to the preceding and following insns. These three fields occupy the same position in every insn, independent of the expression code of the insn. They could be accessed with `XEXP' and `XINT', but instead three special macros are always used: `INSN_UID (I)' Accesses the unique id of insn I. `PREV_INSN (I)' Accesses the chain pointer to the insn preceding I. If I is the first insn, this is a null pointer. `NEXT_INSN (I)' Accesses the chain pointer to the insn following I. If I is the last insn, this is a null pointer. The `NEXT_INSN' and `PREV_INSN' pointers must always correspond: if INSN is not the first insn, NEXT_INSN (PREV_INSN (INSN)) == INSN is always true. Every insn has one of the following six expression codes: `insn' The expression code `insn' is used for instructions that do not jump and do not do function calls. Insns with code `insn' have four additional fields beyond the three mandatory ones listed above. These four are described in a table below. `jump_insn' The expression code `jump_insn' is used for instructions that may jump (or, more generally, may contain `label_ref' expressions). `jump_insn' insns have the same extra fields as `insn' insns, accessed in the same way. `call_insn' The expression code `call_insn' is used for instructions that may do function calls. It is important to distinguish these instructions because they imply that certain registers and memory locations may be altered unpredictably. `call_insn' insns have the same extra fields as `insn' insns, accessed in the same way. `code_label' A `code_label' insn represents a label that a jump insn can jump to. It contains one special field of data in addition to the three standard ones. It is used to hold the "label number", a number that identifies this label uniquely among all the labels in the compilation (not just in the current function). Ultimately, the label is represented in the assembler output as an assembler label `LN' where N is the label number. `barrier' Barriers are placed in the instruction stream after unconditional jump instructions to indicate that the jumps are unconditional. They contain no information beyond the three standard fields. `note' `note' insns are used to represent additional debugging and declarative information. They contain two nonstandard fields, an integer which is accessed with the macro `NOTE_LINE_NUMBER' and a string accessed with `NOTE_SOURCE_FILE'. If `NOTE_LINE_NUMBER' is positive, the note represents the position of a source line and `NOTE_SOURCE_FILE' is the source file name that the line came from. These notes control generation of line number data in the assembler output. Otherwise, `NOTE_LINE_NUMBER' is not really a line number but a code with one of the following values (and `NOTE_SOURCE_FILE' must contain a null pointer): `NOTE_INSN_DELETED' Such a note is completely ignorable. Some passes of the compiler delete insns by altering them into notes of this kind. `NOTE_INSN_BLOCK_BEG' `NOTE_INSN_BLOCK_END' These types of notes indicate the position of the beginning and end of a level of scoping of variable names. They control the output of debugging information. `NOTE_INSN_LOOP_BEG' `NOTE_INSN_LOOP_END' These types of notes indicate the position of the beginning and end of a `while' or `for' loop. They enable the loop optimizer to find loops quickly. `NOTE_INSN_FUNCTION_END' Appears near the end of the function body, just before the label that `return' statements jump to (on machine where a single instruction does not suffice for returning). This note may be deleted by jump optimization. `NOTE_INSN_SETJMP' Appears following each call to `setjmp' or a related function. `NOTE_INSN_LOOP_BEG' Appears at the place in a loop that `continue' statements jump to. These codes are printed symbolically when they appear in debugging dumps. The machine mode of an insn is normally zero (`VOIDmode'), but the reload pass sets it to `QImode' if the insn needs reloading. Here is a table of the extra fields of `insn', `jump_insn' and `call_insn' insns: `PATTERN (I)' An expression for the side effect performed by this insn. `INSN_CODE (I)' An integer that says which pattern in the machine description matches this insn, or -1 if the matching has not yet been attempted. Such matching is never attempted and this field is not used on an insn whose pattern consists of a single `use', `clobber', `asm', `addr_vec' or `addr_diff_vec' expression. `LOG_LINKS (I)' A list (chain of `insn_list' expressions) of previous ``related'' insns: insns which store into registers values that are used for the first time in this insn. (An additional constraint is that neither a jump nor a label may come between the related insns). This list is set up by the flow analysis pass; it is a null pointer until then. `REG_NOTES (I)' A list (chain of `expr_list' expressions) giving information about the usage of registers in this insn. This list is set up by the flow analysis pass; it is a null pointer until then. The `LOG_LINKS' field of an insn is a chain of `insn_list' expressions. Each of these has two operands: the first is an insn, and the second is another `insn_list' expression (the next one in the chain). The last `insn_list' in the chain has a null pointer as second operand. The significant thing about the chain is which insns appear in it (as first operands of `insn_list' expressions). Their order is not significant. The `REG_NOTES' field of an insn is a similar chain but of `expr_list' expressions instead of `insn_list'. There are several kinds of register notes, which are distinguished by the machine mode of the `expr_list', which in a register note is really understood as being an `enum reg_note'. The first operand OP of the `expr_list' is data whose meaning depends on the kind of note. Here are the kinds of register note: `REG_DEAD' The register OP dies in this insn; that is to say, altering the value immediately after this insn would not affect the future behavior of the program. `REG_INC' The register OP is incremented (or decremented; at this level there is no distinction) by an embedded side effect inside this insn. This means it appears in a `post_inc', `pre_inc', `post_dec' or `pre_dec' RTX. `REG_EQUIV' The register that is set by this insn will be equal to OP at run time, and could validly be replaced in all its occurrences by OP. (``Validly'' here refers to the data flow of the program; simple replacement may make some insns invalid.) The value which the insn explicitly copies into the register may look different from OP, but they will be equal at run time. For example, when a constant is loaded into a register that is never assigned any other value, this kind of note is used. When a parameter is copied into a pseudo-register at entry to a function, a note of this kind records that the register is equivalent to the stack slot where the parameter was passed. Although in this case the register may be set by other insns, it is still valid to replace the register by the stack slot throughout the function. `REG_EQUAL' The register that is set by this insn will be equal to OP at run time at the end of this insn (but not necessarily elsewhere in the function). The RTX OP is typically an arithmetic expression. For example, when a sequence of insns such as a library call is used to perform an arithmetic operation, this kind of note is attached to the insn that produces or copies the final value. It tells the CSE pass how to think of that value. `REG_RETVAL' This insn copies the value of a library call, and OP is the first insn that was generated to set up the arguments for the library call. Flow analysis uses this note to delete all of a library call whose result is dead. `REG_WAS_0' The register OP contained zero before this insn. You can rely on this note if it is present; its absence implies nothing. `REG_LIBCALL' This is the inverse of `REG_RETVAL': it is placed on the first insn of a library call, and it points to the last one. Loop optimization uses this note to move an entire library call out of a loop when its value is constant. `REG_NONNEG' The register OP is known to have nonnegative value when this insn is reached. For convenience, the machine mode in an `insn_list' or `expr_list' is printed using these symbolic codes in debugging dumps. The only difference between the expression codes `insn_list' and `expr_list' is that the first operand of an `insn_list' is assumed to be an insn and is printed in debugging dumps as the insn's unique id; the first operand of an `expr_list' is printed in the ordinary way as an expression. File: gcc.info, Node: Calls, Next: Sharing, Prev: Insns, Up: RTL RTL Representation of Function-Call Insns ========================================= Insns that call subroutines have the RTL expression code `call_insn'. These insns must satisfy special rules, and their bodies must use a special RTL expression code, `call'. A `call' expression has two operands, as follows: (call (mem:FM ADDR) NBYTES) Here NBYTES is an operand that represents the number of bytes of argument data being passed to the subroutine, FM is a machine mode (which must equal as the definition of the `FUNCTION_MODE' macro in the machine description) and ADDR represents the address of the subroutine. For a subroutine that returns no value, the `call' RTX as shown above is the entire body of the insn. For a subroutine that returns a value whose mode is not `BLKmode', the value is returned in a hard register. If this register's number is R, then the body of the call insn looks like this: (set (reg:M R) (call (mem:FM ADDR) NBYTES)) This RTL expression makes it clear (to the optimizer passes) that the appropriate register receives a useful value in this insn. Immediately after RTL generation, if the value of the subroutine is actually used, this call insn is always followed closely by an insn which refers to the register R. This remains true through all the optimizer passes until cross jumping occurs. The following insn has one of two forms. Either it copies the value into a pseudo-register, like this: (set (reg:M P) (reg:M R)) or (in the case where the calling function will simply return whatever value the call produced, and no operation is needed to do this): (use (reg:M R)) Between the call insn and this following insn there may intervene only a stack-adjustment insn (and perhaps some `note' insns). When a subroutine returns a `BLKmode' value, it is handled by passing to the subroutine the address of a place to store the value. So the call insn itself does not ``return'' any value, and it has the same RTL form as a call that returns nothing. File: gcc.info, Node: Sharing, Prev: Calls, Up: RTL Structure Sharing Assumptions ============================= The compiler assumes that certain kinds of RTL expressions are unique; there do not exist two distinct objects representing the same value. In other cases, it makes an opposite assumption: that no RTL expression object of a certain kind appears in more than one place in the containing structure. These assumptions refer to a single function; except for the RTL objects that describe global variables and external functions, no RTL objects are common to two functions. * Each pseudo-register has only a single `reg' object to represent it, and therefore only a single machine mode. * For any symbolic label, there is only one `symbol_ref' object referring to it. * There is only one `const_int' expression with value zero, and only one with value one. * There is only one `pc' expression. * There is only one `cc0' expression. * There is only one `const_double' expression with mode `SFmode' and value zero, and only one with mode `DFmode' and value zero. * No `label_ref' appears in more than one place in the RTL structure; in other words, it is safe to do a tree-walk of all the insns in the function and assume that each time a `label_ref' is seen it is distinct from all others that are seen. * Only one `mem' object is normally created for each static variable or stack slot, so these objects are frequently shared in all the places they appear. However, separate but equal objects for these variables are occasionally made. * When a single `asm' statement has multiple output operands, a distinct `asm_operands' RTX is made for each output operand. However, these all share the vector which contains the sequence of input operands. Because this sharing is used later on to test whether two `asm_operands' RTX's come from the same statement, the sharing must be guaranteed to be preserved. * No RTL object appears in more than one place in the RTL structure except as described above. Many passes of the compiler rely on this by assuming that they can modify RTL objects in place without unwanted side-effects on other insns. * During initial RTL generation, shared structure is freely introduced. After all the RTL for a function has been generated, all shared structure is copied by `unshare_all_rtl' in `emit-rtl.c', after which the above rules are guaranteed to be followed. * During the combiner pass, shared structure with an insn can exist temporarily. However, the shared structure is copied before the combiner is finished with the insn. This is done by `copy_substitutions' in `combine.c'. File: gcc.info, Node: Machine Desc, Next: Machine Macros, Prev: RTL, Up: Top Machine Descriptions ******************** A machine description has two parts: a file of instruction patterns (`.md' file) and a C header file of macro definitions. The `.md' file for a target machine contains a pattern for each instruction that the target machine supports (or at least each instruction that is worth telling the compiler about). It may also contain comments. A semicolon causes the rest of the line to be a comment, unless the semicolon is inside a quoted string. See the next chapter for information on the C header file. * Menu: * Patterns:: How to write instruction patterns. * Example:: An explained example of a `define_insn' pattern. * RTL Template:: The RTL template defines what insns match a pattern. * Output Template:: The output template says how to make assembler code from such an insn. * Output Statement:: For more generality, write C code to output the assembler code. * Constraints:: When not all operands are general operands. * Standard Names:: Names mark patterns to use for code generation. * Pattern Ordering:: When the order of patterns makes a difference. * Dependent Patterns:: Having one pattern may make you need another. * Jump Patterns:: Special considerations for patterns for jump insns. * Peephole Definitions::Defining machine-specific peephole optimizations. * Expander Definitions::Generating a sequence of several RTL insns for a standard operation. File: gcc.info, Node: Patterns, Next: Example, Prev: Machine Desc, Up: Machine Desc Everything about Instruction Patterns ===================================== Each instruction pattern contains an incomplete RTL expression, with pieces to be filled in later, operand constraints that restrict how the pieces can be filled in, and an output pattern or C code to generate the assembler output, all wrapped up in a `define_insn' expression. A `define_insn' is an RTL expression containing four or five operands: 1. An optional name. The presence of a name indicate that this instruction pattern can perform a certain standard job for the RTL-generation pass of the compiler. This pass knows certain names and will use the instruction patterns with those names, if the names are defined in the machine description. The absence of a name is indicated by writing an empty string where the name should go. Nameless instruction patterns are never used for generating RTL code, but they may permit several simpler insns to be combined later on. Names that are not thus known and used in RTL-generation have no effect; they are equivalent to no name at all. 2. The "RTL template" (*note RTL Template::.) is a vector of incomplete RTL expressions which show what the instruction should look like. It is incomplete because it may contain `match_operand' and `match_dup' expressions that stand for operands of the instruction. If the vector has only one element, that element is what the instruction should look like. If the vector has multiple elements, then the instruction looks like a `parallel' expression containing that many elements as described. 3. A condition. This is a string which contains a C expression that is the final test to decide whether an insn body matches this pattern. For a named pattern, the condition (if present) may not depend on the data in the insn being matched, but only the target-machine-type flags. The compiler needs to test these conditions during initialization in order to learn exactly which named instructions are available in a particular run. For nameless patterns, the condition is applied only when matching an individual insn, and only after the insn has matched the pattern's recognition template. The insn's operands may be found in the vector `operands'. 4. The "output template": a string that says how to output matching insns as assembler code. `%' in this string specifies where to substitute the value of an operand. *Note Output Template::. When simple substitution isn't general enough, you can specify a piece of C code to compute the output. *Note Output Statement::. 5. Optionally, some "machine-specific information". The meaning of this information is defined only by an individual machine description; typically it might say whether this insn alters the condition codes, or how many bytes of output it generates. This operand is written as a string containing a C initializer (complete with braces) for the structure type `INSN_MACHINE_INFO', whose definition is up to you (*note Misc::.). File: gcc.info, Node: Example, Next: RTL Template, Prev: Patterns, Up: Machine Desc Example of `define_insn' ======================== Here is an actual example of an instruction pattern, for the 68000/68020. (define_insn "tstsi" [(set (cc0) (match_operand:SI 0 "general_operand" "rm"))] "" "* { if (TARGET_68020 || ! ADDRESS_REG_P (operands[0])) return \"tstl %0\"; return \"cmpl #0,%0\"; }") This is an instruction that sets the condition codes based on the value of a general operand. It has no condition, so any insn whose RTL description has the form shown may be handled according to this pattern. The name `tstsi' means ``test a `SImode' value'' and tells the RTL generation pass that, when it is necessary to test such a value, an insn to do so can be constructed using this pattern. The output control string is a piece of C code which chooses which output template to return based on the kind of operand and the specific type of CPU for which code is being generated. `"rm"' is an operand constraint. Its meaning is explained below. File: gcc.info, Node: RTL Template, Next: Output Template, Prev: Example, Up: Machine Desc RTL Template for Generating and Recognizing Insns ================================================= The RTL template is used to define which insns match the particular pattern and how to find their operands. For named patterns, the RTL template also says how to construct an insn from specified operands. Construction involves substituting specified operands into a copy of the template. Matching involves determining the values that serve as the operands in the insn being matched. Both of these activities are controlled by special expression types that direct matching and substitution of the operands. `(match_operand:M N PRED CONSTRAINT)' This expression is a placeholder for operand number N of the insn. When constructing an insn, operand number N will be substituted at this point. When matching an insn, whatever appears at this position in the insn will be taken as operand number N; but it must satisfy PRED or this instruction pattern will not match at all. Operand numbers must be chosen consecutively counting from zero in each instruction pattern. There may be only one `match_operand' expression in the pattern for each operand number. Usually operands are numbered in the order of appearance in `match_operand' expressions. PRED is a string that is the name of a C function that accepts two arguments, an expression and a machine mode. During matching, the function will be called with the putative operand as the expression and M as the mode argument. If it returns zero, this instruction pattern fails to match. PRED may be an empty string; then it means no test is to be done on the operand, so anything which occurs in this position is valid. CONSTRAINT controls reloading and the choice of the best register class to use for a value, as explained later (*note Constraints::.). People are often unclear on the difference between the constraint and the predicate. The predicate helps decide whether a given insn matches the pattern. The constraint plays no role in this decision; instead, it controls various decisions in the case of an insn which does match. Most often, PRED is `"general_operand"'. This function checks that the putative operand is either a constant, a register or a memory reference, and that it is valid for mode M. For an operand that must be a register, PRED should be `"register_operand"'. It would be valid to use `"general_operand"', since the reload pass would copy any non-register operands through registers, but this would make GNU CC do extra work, and it would prevent the register allocator from doing the best possible job. For an operand that must be a constant, either PRED should be `"immediate_operand"', or the instruction pattern's extra condition should check for constants, or both. You cannot expect the constraints to do this work! If the constraints allow only constants, but the predicate allows something else, the compiler will crash when that case arises. `(match_dup N)' This expression is also a placeholder for operand number N. It is used when the operand needs to appear more than once in the insn. In construction, `match_dup' behaves exactly like `match_operand': the operand is substituted into the insn being constructed. But in matching, `match_dup' behaves differently. It assumes that operand number N has already been determined by a `match_operand' appearing earlier in the recognition template, and it matches only an identical-looking expression. `(match_operator:M N "PREDICATE" [OPERANDS...])' This pattern is a kind of placeholder for a variable RTL expression code. When constructing an insn, it stands for an RTL expression whose expression code is taken from that of operand N, and whose operands are constructed from the patterns OPERANDS. When matching an expression, it matches an expression if the function PREDICATE returns nonzero on that expression *and* the patterns OPERANDS match the operands of the expression. Suppose that the function `commutative_operator' is defined as follows, to match any expression whose operator is one of the six commutative arithmetic operators of RTL and whose mode is MODE: int commutative_operator (x, mode) rtx x; enum machine_mode mode; { enum rtx_code code = GET_CODE (x); if (GET_MODE (x) != mode) return 0; return (code == PLUS || code == MULT || code == UMULT || code == AND || code == IOR || code == XOR); } Then the following pattern will match any RTL expression consisting of a commutative operator applied to two general operands: (match_operator:SI 2 "commutative_operator" [(match_operand:SI 3 "general_operand" "g") (match_operand:SI 4 "general_operand" "g")]) Here the vector `[OPERANDS...]' contains two patterns because the expressions to be matched all contain two operands. When this pattern does match, the two operands of the commutative operator are recorded as operands 3 and 4 of the insn. (This is done by the two instances of `match_operand'.) Operand 2 of the insn will be the entire commutative expression: use `GET_CODE (operands[2])' to see which commutative operator was used. The machine mode M of `match_operator' works like that of `match_operand': it is passed as the second argument to the predicate function, and that function is solely responsible for deciding whether the expression to be matched ``has'' that mode. When constructing an insn, argument 2 of the gen-function will specify the operation (i.e. the expression code) for the expression to be made. It should be an RTL expression, whose expression code is copied into a new expression whose operands are arguments 3 and 4 of the gen-function. The subexpressions of argument 2 are not used; only its expression code matters. There is no way to specify constraints in `match_operator'. The operand of the insn which corresponds to the `match_operator' never has any constraints because it is never reloaded as a whole. However, if parts of its OPERANDS are matched by `match_operand' patterns, those parts may have constraints of their own. `(address (match_operand:M N "address_operand" ""))' This complex of expressions is a placeholder for an operand number N in a ``load address'' instruction: an operand which specifies a memory location in the usual way, but for which the actual operand value used is the address of the location, not the contents of the location. `address' expressions never appear in RTL code, only in machine descriptions. And they are used only in machine descriptions that do not use the operand constraint feature. When operand constraints are in use, the letter `p' in the constraint serves this purpose. M is the machine mode of the *memory location being addressed*, not the machine mode of the address itself. That mode is always the same on a given target machine (it is `Pmode', which normally is `SImode'), so there is no point in mentioning it; thus, no machine mode is written in the `address' expression. If some day support is added for machines in which addresses of different kinds of objects appear differently or are used differently (such as the PDP-10), different formats would perhaps need different machine modes and these modes might be written in the `address' expression. File: gcc.info, Node: Output Template, Next: Output Statement, Prev: RTL Template, Up: Machine Desc Output Templates and Operand Substitution ========================================= The "output template" is a string which specifies how to output the assembler code for an instruction pattern. Most of the template is a fixed string which is output literally. The character `%' is used to specify where to substitute an operand; it can also be used to identify places where different variants of the assembler require different syntax. In the simplest case, a `%' followed by a digit N says to output operand N at that point in the string. `%' followed by a letter and a digit says to output an operand in an alternate fashion. Four letters have standard, built-in meanings described below. The machine description macro `PRINT_OPERAND' can define additional letters with nonstandard meanings. `%cDIGIT' can be used to substitute an operand that is a constant value without the syntax that normally indicates an immediate operand. `%nDIGIT' is like `%cDIGIT' except that the value of the constant is negated before printing. `%aDIGIT' can be used to substitute an operand as if it were a memory reference, with the actual operand treated as the address. This may be useful when outputting a ``load address'' instruction, because often the assembler syntax for such an instruction requires you to write the operand as if it were a memory reference. `%lDIGIT' is used to substitute a `label_ref' into a jump instruction. `%' followed by a punctuation character specifies a substitution that does not use an operand. Only one case is standard: `%%' outputs a `%' into the assembler code. Other nonstandard cases can be defined in the `PRINT_OPERAND' macro. You must also define which punctuation characters are valid with the `PRINT_OPERAND_PUNCT_VALID_P' macro. The template may generate multiple assembler instructions. Write the text for the instructions, with `\;' between them. When the RTL contains two operands which are required by constraint to match each other, the output template must refer only to the lower-numbered operand. Matching operands are not always identical, and the rest of the compiler arranges to put the proper RTL expression for printing into the lower-numbered operand. One use of nonstandard letters or punctuation following `%' is to distinguish between different assembler languages for the same machine; for example, Motorola syntax versus MIT syntax for the 68000. Motorola syntax requires periods in most opcode names, while MIT syntax does not. For example, the opcode `movel' in MIT syntax is `move.l' in Motorola syntax. The same file of patterns is used for both kinds of output syntax, but the character sequence `%.' is used in each place where Motorola syntax wants a period. The `PRINT_OPERAND' macro for Motorola syntax defines the sequence to output a period; the macro for MIT syntax defines it to do nothing.