Debug Info Assignment Tracking — LLVM 21.1.4 documentation

# Debug Info Assignment Tracking

Assignment Tracking is an alternative technique for tracking variable location debug info through optimisations in LLVM. It provides accurate variable locations for assignments where a local variable (or a field of one) is the LHS. In rare and complicated circumstances indirect assignments might be optimized away without being tracked, but otherwise we make our best effort to track all variable locations.

The core idea is to track more information about source assignments in order and preserve enough information to be able to defer decisions about whether to use non-memory locations (register, constant) or memory locations until after middle end optimisations have run. This is in opposition to using `#dbg_declare` and `#dbg_value`, which is to make the decision for most variables early on, which can result in suboptimal variable locations that may be either incorrect or incomplete.

A secondary goal of assignment tracking is to cause minimal additional work for LLVM pass writers, and minimal disruption to LLVM in general.

## Status and usage

Status: Enabled by default in Clang but disabled under some circumstances (which can be overridden with the `forced` option, see below). `opt` will not run the pass unless asked (`-passes=declare-to-assign`).

Flag: `-Xclang -fexperimental-assignment-tracking=<disabled|enabled|forced>`

When enabled Clang gets LLVM to run the pass `declare-to-assign`. The pass converts conventional debug records to assignment tracking metadata and sets the module flag `debug-info-assignment-tracking` to the value `i1 true`. To check whether assignment tracking is enabled for a module call `isAssignmentTrackingEnabled(const Module &M)` (from `llvm/IR/DebugInfo.h`).

## Design and implementation

### Assignment markers: `#dbg_assign`

`#dbg_value`, a conventional debug record, marks out a position in the IR where a variable takes a particular value. Similarly, Assignment Tracking marks out the position of assignments with a record called `#dbg_assign`.

In order to know where in IR it is appropriate to use a memory location for a variable, each assignment marker must in some way refer to the store, if any (or multiple!), that performs the assignment. That way, the position of the store and marker can be considered together when making that choice. Another important benefit of referring to the store is that we can then build a two-way mapping of stores<->markers that can be used to find markers that need to be updated when stores are modified.

An `#dbg_assign` marker that is not linked to any instruction signals that the store that performed the assignment has been optimised out, and therefore the memory location will not be valid for at least some part of the program.

Here’s the `#dbg_assign` signature. `Value *` type parameters are first wrapped in `ValueAsMetadata`:

      #dbg_assign(Value *Value,
                  DIExpression *ValueExpression,
                  DILocalVariable *Variable,
                  DIAssignID *ID,
                  Value *Address,
                  DIExpression *AddressExpression)

The first three parameters look and behave like an `#dbg_value`. `ID` is a reference to a store (see next section). `Address` is the destination address of the store and it is modified by `AddressExpression`. An empty/undef/poison address means the address component has been killed (the memory address is no longer a valid location). LLVM currently encodes variable fragment information in `DIExpression`s, so as an implementation quirk the `FragmentInfo` for `Variable` is contained within `ValueExpression` only.

### Instruction link: `DIAssignID`

`DIAssignID` metadata is the mechanism that is currently used to encode the store<->marker link. The metadata node has no operands and all instances are `distinct`; equality is checked for by comparing addresses.

`#dbg_assign` records use a `DIAssignID` metadata node instance as an operand. This way it refers to any store-like instruction that has the same `DIAssignID` attachment. E.g. For this test.cpp,

    int fun(int a) {
      return a;
    }

compiled without optimisations:

    $ clang++ test.cpp -o test.ll -emit-llvm -S -g -O0 -Xclang -fexperimental-assignment-tracking=enabled

we get:

    define dso_local noundef i32 @_Z3funi(i32 noundef %a) #0 !dbg !8 {
    entry:
      %a.addr = alloca i32, align 4, !DIAssignID !13
        #dbg_assign(i1 undef, !14, !DIExpression(), !13, i32* %a.addr, !DIExpression(), !15)
      store i32 %a, i32* %a.addr, align 4, !DIAssignID !16
        #dbg_assign(i32 %a, !14, !DIExpression(), !16, i32* %a.addr, !DIExpression(), !15)
      %0 = load i32, i32* %a.addr, align 4, !dbg !17
      ret i32 %0, !dbg !18
    }

    ...
    !13 = distinct !DIAssignID()
    !14 = !DILocalVariable(name: "a", ...)
    ...
    !16 = distinct !DIAssignID()

The first `#dbg_assign` refers to the `alloca` through `!DIAssignID !13`, and the second refers to the `store` through `!DIAssignID !16`.

### Store-like instructions

In the absence of a linked `#dbg_assign`, a store to an address that is known to be the backing storage for a variable is considered to represent an assignment to that variable.

This gives us a safe fall-back in cases where `#dbg_assign` records have been deleted, the `DIAssignID` attachment on the store has been dropped, or the optimiser has made a once-indirect store (not tracked with Assignment Tracking) direct.

### Middle-end: Considerations for pass-writers

#### Non-debug instruction updates

Cloning an instruction: nothing new to do. Cloning automatically clones a `DIAssignID` attachment. Multiple instructions may have the same `DIAssignID` instruction. In this case, the assignment is considered to take place in multiple positions in the program.

Moving a non-debug instruction: nothing new to do. Instructions linked to a `#dbg_assign` have their initial IR position marked by the position of the `#dbg_assign`.

Deleting a non-debug instruction: nothing new to do. Simple DSE does not require any change; it’s safe to delete an instruction with a `DIAssignID` attachment. A `#dbg_assign` that uses a `DIAssignID` that is not attached to any instruction indicates that the memory location isn’t valid.

Merging stores: In many cases no change is required as `DIAssignID` attachments are automatically merged if `combineMetadata` is called. One way or another, the `DIAssignID` attachments must be merged such that new store becomes linked to all the `#dbg_assign` records that the merged stores were linked to. This can be achieved simply by calling a helper function `Instruction::mergeDIAssignID`.

Inlining stores: As stores are inlined we generate `#dbg_assign` records and `DIAssignID` attachments as if the stores represent source assignments, just like the in frontend. This isn’t perfect, as stores may have been moved, modified or deleted before inlining, but it does at least keep the information about the variable correct within the non-inlined scope.

Splitting stores: SROA and passes that split stores treat `#dbg_assign` records similarly to `#dbg_declare` records. Clone the `#dbg_assign` records linked to the store, update the FragmentInfo in the `ValueExpression`, and give the split stores (and cloned records) new `DIAssignID` attachments each. In other words, treat the split stores as separate assignments. For partial DSE (e.g. shortening a memset), we do the same except that `#dbg_assign` for the dead fragment gets an `Undef` `Address`.

Promoting allocas and store/loads: `#dbg_assign` records implicitly describe joined values in memory locations at CFG joins, but this is not necessarily the case after promoting (or partially promoting) the variable. Passes that promote variables are responsible for inserting `#dbg_assign` records after the resultant PHIs generated during promotion. `mem2reg` already has to do this (with `#dbg_value`) for `#dbg_declare`s. Where a store has no linked record, the store is assumed to represent an assignment for variables stored at the destination address.

#### Debug record updates

Moving a debug record: avoid moving `#dbg_assign` records where possible, as they represent a source-level assignment, whose position in the program should not be affected by optimization passes.

Deleting a debug record: Nothing new to do. Just like for conventional debug records, unless it is unreachable, it’s almost always incorrect to delete a `#dbg_assign` record.

### Lowering `#dbg_assign` to MIR

To begin with only SelectionDAG ISel will be supported. `#dbg_assign` records are lowered to MIR `DBG_INSTR_REF` instructions. Before this happens we need to decide where it is appropriate to use memory locations and where we must use a non-memory location (or no location) for each variable. In order to make those decisions we run a standard fixed-point dataflow analysis that makes the choice at each instruction, iteratively joining the results for each block.

### TODO list

Outstanding improvements:

- As mentioned in test llvm/test/DebugInfo/assignment-tracking/X86/diamond-3.ll, the analysis should treat escaping calls like untagged stores.

- The system expects locals to be backed by a local alloca. This isn’t always the case - sometimes a pointer to storage is passed into a function (e.g. sret, byval). We need to be able to handle those cases. See llvm/test/DebugInfo/Generic/assignment-tracking/track-assignments.ll and clang/test/CodeGen/assignment-tracking/assignment-tracking.cpp for examples.

- `trackAssignments` doesn’t yet work for variables that have their `#dbg_declare` location modified by a `DIExpression`, e.g. when the address of the variable is itself stored in an `alloca` with the `#dbg_declare` using `DIExpression(DW_OP_deref)`. See `indirectReturn` in llvm/test/DebugInfo/Generic/assignment-tracking/track-assignments.ll and in clang/test/CodeGen/assignment-tracking/assignment-tracking.cpp for an example.

- In order to solve the first bullet-point we need to be able to specify that a memory location is available without using a `DIAssignID`. This is because the storage address is not computed by an instruction (it’s an argument value) and therefore we have nowhere to put the metadata attachment. To solve this we probably need another marker record to denote “the variable’s stack home is X address” - similar to `#dbg_declare` except that it needs to compose with `#dbg_assign` records such that the stack home address is only selected as a location for the variable when the `#dbg_assign` records agree it should be.

- Given the above (a special “the stack home is X” record), and the fact that we can only track assignments with fixed offsets and sizes, I think we can probably get rid of the address and address-expression part, since it will always be computable with the info we have.

- Assignment tracking is disabled by default for LTO and thinLTO builds, and if LLDB debugger tuning has been specified. We should remove these restrictions. See EmitAssemblyHelper::RunOptimizationPipeline in clang/lib/CodeGen/BackendUtil.cpp.