Merge pull request #22734 from JuliaLang/yyc/foreigncall

Eliminating allocation of ccall root in simple cases

base/docs/helpdb/Base.jl

@@ -115,11 +115,14 @@ getindex(collection, key...)
 """
     cconvert(T,x)
 
-Convert `x` to a value of type `T`, typically by calling `convert(T,x)`
+Convert `x` to a value to be passed to C code as type `T`, typically by calling `convert(T, x)`.
 
 In cases where `x` cannot be safely converted to `T`, unlike [`convert`](@ref), `cconvert` may
 return an object of a type different from `T`, which however is suitable for
-[`unsafe_convert`](@ref) to handle.
+[`unsafe_convert`](@ref) to handle. The result of this function should be kept valid (for the GC)
+until the result of [`unsafe_convert`](@ref) is not needed anymore.
+This can be used to allocate memory that will be accessed by the `ccall`.
+If multiple objects need to be allocated, a tuple of the objects can be used as return value.
 
 Neither `convert` nor `cconvert` should take a Julia object and turn it into a `Ptr`.
 """
@@ -881,7 +884,8 @@ trunc
 """
     unsafe_convert(T,x)
 
-Convert `x` to a value of type `T`
+Convert `x` to a C argument of type `T`
+where the input `x` must be the return value of `cconvert(T, ...)`.
 
 In cases where [`convert`](@ref) would need to take a Julia object
 and turn it into a `Ptr`, this function should be used to define and perform
@@ -895,6 +899,8 @@ but `x=[a,b,c]` is not.
 The `unsafe` prefix on this function indicates that using the result of this function after
 the `x` argument to this function is no longer accessible to the program may cause undefined
 behavior, including program corruption or segfaults, at any later time.
+
+See also [`cconvert`](@ref)
 """
 unsafe_convert
 

base/inference.jl

@@ -3687,6 +3687,10 @@ function substitute!(@nospecialize(e), na::Int, argexprs::Vector{Any}, @nospecia
                         for argt
                         in e.args[3] ]
                     e.args[3] = svec(argtuple...)
+                elseif i == 4
+                    @assert isa((e.args[4]::QuoteNode).value, Symbol)
+                elseif i == 5
+                    @assert isa(e.args[5], Int)
                 else
                     e.args[i] = substitute!(e.args[i], na, argexprs, spsig, spvals, offset)
                 end
@@ -4766,16 +4770,16 @@ function inlining_pass(e::Expr, sv::InferenceState, stmts, ins)
     # by the interpreter and inlining might put in something it can't handle,
     # like another ccall (or try to move the variables out into the function)
     if e.head === :foreigncall
-        # 3 is rewritten to 1 below to handle the callee.
-        i0 = 3
+        # 5 is rewritten to 1 below to handle the callee.
+        i0 = 5
         isccall = true
     elseif is_known_call(e, Core.Intrinsics.llvmcall, sv.src, sv.mod)
         i0 = 5
     end
     has_stmts = false # needed to preserve order-of-execution
     prev_stmts_length = length(stmts)
     for _i = length(eargs):-1:i0
-        if isccall && _i == 3
+        if isccall && _i == 5
             i = 1
             isccallee = true
         else
@@ -4830,10 +4834,21 @@ function inlining_pass(e::Expr, sv::InferenceState, stmts, ins)
     end
     if isccall
         le = length(eargs)
-        for i = 4:2:(le - 1)
-            if eargs[i] === eargs[i + 1]
-                eargs[i + 1] = 0
+        nccallargs = eargs[5]::Int
+        ccallargs = ObjectIdDict()
+        for i in 6:(5 + nccallargs)
+            ccallargs[eargs[i]] = nothing
+        end
+        i = 6 + nccallargs
+        while i <= le
+            rootarg = eargs[i]
+            if haskey(ccallargs, rootarg)
+                deleteat!(eargs, i)
+                le -= 1
+            elseif i < le
+                ccallargs[rootarg] = nothing
             end
+            i += 1
         end
     end
     if e.head !== :call
@@ -5216,6 +5231,27 @@ function occurs_outside_getfield(@nospecialize(e), @nospecialize(sym),
         if head === :(=)
             return occurs_outside_getfield(e.args[2], sym, sv,
                                            field_count, field_names)
+        elseif head === :foreigncall
+            args = e.args
+            nccallargs = args[5]::Int
+            # Only arguments escape the structure/layout of the object,
+            # GC root arguments do not.
+            # Also note that only being used in the root slot for this ccall itself
+            # does **not** mean that the object is not needed during the ccall.
+            # However, if its address is never taken
+            # and the object is never used in a way that escapes its layout, we can be sure
+            # that there's no way the user code can rely on the heap allocation of this object.
+            for i in 1:length(args)
+                a = args[i]
+                if i > 5 + nccallargs && symequal(a, sym)
+                    # No need to verify indices, uninitialized members can be
+                    # ignored in root slot.
+                    continue
+                end
+                if occurs_outside_getfield(a, sym, sv, field_count, field_names)
+                    return true
+                end
+            end
         else
             if (head === :block && isa(sym, Slot) &&
                 sv.src.slotflags[slot_id(sym)] & Slot_UsedUndef == 0)
@@ -5799,8 +5835,11 @@ end
 function replace_getfield!(e::Expr, tupname, vals, field_names, sv::InferenceState)
     for i = 1:length(e.args)
         a = e.args[i]
-        if isa(a,Expr) && is_known_call(a, getfield, sv.src, sv.mod) &&
-            symequal(a.args[2],tupname)
+        if !isa(a, Expr)
+            continue
+        end
+        a = a::Expr
+        if is_known_call(a, getfield, sv.src, sv.mod) && symequal(a.args[2], tupname)
             idx = if isa(a.args[3], Int)
                 a.args[3]
             else
@@ -5829,8 +5868,23 @@ function replace_getfield!(e::Expr, tupname, vals, field_names, sv::InferenceSta
                 end
             end
             e.args[i] = val
-        elseif isa(a, Expr)
-            replace_getfield!(a::Expr, tupname, vals, field_names, sv)
+        else
+            if a.head === :foreigncall
+                args = a.args
+                nccallargs = args[5]::Int
+                le = length(args)
+                next_i = 6 + nccallargs
+                while next_i <= le
+                    i = next_i
+                    next_i += 1
+
+                    symequal(args[i], tupname) || continue
+                    # Replace the gc root argument with its fields
+                    splice!(args, i, vals)
+                    next_i += length(vals) - 1
+                end
+            end
+            replace_getfield!(a, tupname, vals, field_names, sv)
         end
     end
 end

base/refpointer.jl

@@ -54,9 +54,16 @@ convert(::Type{Ref{T}}, x) where {T} = RefValue{T}(x)
 
 function unsafe_convert(P::Type{Ptr{T}}, b::RefValue{T}) where T
     if isbits(T)
-        return convert(P, data_pointer_from_objref(b))
+        return convert(P, pointer_from_objref(b))
+    elseif isleaftype(T)
+        return convert(P, pointer_from_objref(b.x))
     else
-        return convert(P, data_pointer_from_objref(b.x))
+        # If the slot is not leaf type, it could be either isbits or not.
+        # If it is actually an isbits type and the type inference can infer that
+        # it can rebox the `b.x` if we simply call `pointer_from_objref(b.x)` on it.
+        # Instead, explicitly load the pointer from the `RefValue` so that the pointer
+        # is the same as the one rooted in the `RefValue` object.
+        return convert(P, pointerref(Ptr{Ptr{Void}}(pointer_from_objref(b)), 1, 0))
     end
 end
 function unsafe_convert(P::Type{Ptr{Any}}, b::RefValue{Any})

doc/src/devdocs/llvm.md

@@ -260,7 +260,7 @@ pointer which drops the reference to the array value. However, we of course
 need to make sure that the array does stay alive while we're doing the `ccall`.
 To understand how this is done, first recall the lowering of the above code:
 ```julia
-return $(Expr(:foreigncall, :(:foo), Void, svec(Ptr{Float64}), :($(Expr(:foreigncall, :(:jl_array_ptr), Ptr{Float64}, svec(Any), :(A), 0))), :(A)))
+return $(Expr(:foreigncall, :(:foo), Void, svec(Ptr{Float64}), :(:ccall), 1, :($(Expr(:foreigncall, :(:jl_array_ptr), Ptr{Float64}, svec(Any), :(:ccall), 1, :(A)))), :(A)))
 ```
 The last `:(A)`, is an extra argument list inserted during lowering that informs
 the code generator which Julia level values need to be kept alive for the

doc/src/manual/calling-c-and-fortran-code.md

@@ -255,8 +255,9 @@ ccall((:foo, "libfoo"), Void, (Int32, Float64),
 ```
 
 [`Base.cconvert()`](@ref) normally just calls [`convert()`](@ref), but can be defined to return an
-arbitrary new object more appropriate for passing to C. For example, this is used to convert an
-`Array` of objects (e.g. strings) to an array of pointers.
+arbitrary new object more appropriate for passing to C.
+This should be used to perform all allocations of memory that will be accessed by the C code.
+For example, this is used to convert an `Array` of objects (e.g. strings) to an array of pointers.
 
 [`Base.unsafe_convert()`](@ref) handles conversion to `Ptr` types. It is considered unsafe because
 converting an object to a native pointer can hide the object from the garbage collector, causing