Options for Dumping the SIL¶

Often it is not sufficient to dump the SIL at the begin or end of the optimization pipeline. The SILPassManager supports useful options to dump the SIL also between pass runs.

The option -Xllvm -sil-print-all dumps the whole SIL module after all passes. Although it prints only functions which were changed by a pass, the output can get very large.

It is useful if you identified a problem in the final SIL and you want to check which pass did introduce the wrong SIL.

There are several other options available, e.g. to filter the output by function names (-Xllvm -sil-print-only-function/s) or by pass names (-Xllvm -sil-print-before/after/around). For details see PassManager.cpp.

Dumping the SIL and other Data in LLDB¶

When debugging the swift compiler with LLDB (or Xcode, of course), there is even a more powerful way to examine the data in the compiler, e.g. the SIL. Following LLVM’s dump() convention, many SIL classes (as well as AST classes) provide a dump() function. You can call the dump function with LLDB’s expression -- or print or p command.

For example, to examine a SIL instruction:

(lldb) p Inst->dump()
%12 = struct_extract %10 : $UnsafeMutablePointer<X>, #UnsafeMutablePointer._rawValue // user: %13

To dump a whole function at the beginning of a function pass:

(lldb) p getFunction()->dump()

SIL modules and even functions can get very large. Often it is more convenient to dump their contents into a file and open the file in a separate editor. This can be done with:

(lldb) p getFunction()->dump("myfunction.sil")

You can also dump the CFG (control flow graph) of a function:

(lldb) p Func->viewCFG()

This opens a preview window containing the CFG of the function. To continue debugging press <CTRL>-C on the LLDB prompt. Note that this only works in Xcode if the PATH variable in the scheme’s environment setting contains the path to the dot tool.

Other Utilities¶

To view the CFG of a function (or code region) in a SIL file, you can use the script swift/utils/viewcfg. It also works for LLVM IR files. The script reads the SIL (or LLVM IR) code from stdin and displays the dot graph file. Note: .dot files should be associated with the Graphviz app.

Using Breakpoints¶

LLDB has very powerful breakpoints, which can be utilized in many ways to debug the compiler and swift executables. The examples in this section show the LLDB command lines. In Xcode you can set the breakpoint properties by clicking ‘Edit breakpoint’.

Let’s start with a simple example: sometimes you see a function in the SIL output and you want to know where the function was created in the compiler. In this case you can set a conditional breakpoint in SILFunction constructor and check for the function name in the breakpoint condition:

(lldb) br set -c 'hasName("_TFC3nix1Xd")' -f SILFunction.cpp -l 91

Sometimes you want to know which optimization does insert, remove or move a certain instruction. To find out, set a breakpoint in ilist_traits<SILInstruction>::addNodeToList or ilist_traits<SILInstruction>::removeNodeFromList, which are defined in SILInstruction.cpp. The following command sets a breakpoint which stops if a strong_retain instruction is removed:

(lldb) br set -c 'I->getKind() == ValueKind::StrongRetainInst' -f SILInstruction.cpp -l 63

The condition can be made more precise e.g. by also testing in which function this happens:

(lldb) br set -c 'I->getKind() == ValueKind::StrongRetainInst &&
           I->getFunction()->hasName("_TFC3nix1Xd")'
           -f SILInstruction.cpp -l 63

Let’s assume the breakpoint hits somewhere in the middle of compiling a large file. This is the point where the problem appears. But often you want to break a little bit earlier, e.g. at the entrance of the optimization’s run function.

To achieve this, set another breakpoint and add breakpoint commands:

(lldb) br set -n GlobalARCOpts::run
Breakpoint 2
(lldb) br com add 2
> p int $n = $n + 1
> c
> DONE

Run the program (this can take quite a bit longer than before). When the first breakpoint hits see what value $n has:

(lldb) p $n
(int) $n = 5

Now remove the breakpoint commands from the second breakpoint (or create a new one) and set the ignore count to $n minus one:

(lldb) br delete 2
(lldb) br set -i 4 -n GlobalARCOpts::run

Run your program again and the breakpoint hits just before the first breakpoint.

Another method for accomplishing the same task is to set the ignore count of the breakpoint to a large number, i.e.:

(lldb) br set -i 9999999 -n GlobalARCOpts::run

Then whenever the debugger stops next time (due to hitting another breakpoint/crash/assert) you can list the current breakpoints:

(lldb) br list
1: name = 'GlobalARCOpts::run', locations = 1, resolved = 1, hit count = 85 Options: ignore: 1 enabled

which will then show you the number of times that each breakpoint was hit. In this case, we know that GlobalARCOpts::run was hit 85 times. So, now we know to ignore swift_getGenericMetadata 84 times, i.e.:

(lldb) br set -i 84 -n GlobalARCOpts::run

LLDB Scripts¶

LLDB has powerful capabilities of scripting in python among other languages. An often overlooked, but very useful technique is the -s command to lldb. This essentially acts as a pseudo-stdin of commands that lldb will read commands from. Each time lldb hits a stopping point (i.e. a breakpoint or a crash/assert), it will run the earliest command that has not been run yet. As an example of this consider the following script (which without any loss of generality will be called test.lldb):

env DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES=/usr/lib/libgmalloc.dylib
break set -n swift_getGenericMetadata
break mod 1 -i 83
process launch -- --stdlib-unittest-in-process --stdlib-unittest-filter "DefaultedForwardMutableCollection<OpaqueValue<Int>>.Type.subscript(_: Range)/Set/semantics"
break set -l 224
c
expr pattern->CreateFunction
break set -a $0
c
dis -f

TODO: Change this example to apply to the swift compiler instead of to the stdlib unittests.

Then by running lldb test -s test.lldb, lldb will:

1. Enable guard malloc.
2. Set a break point on swift_getGenericMetadata and set it to be ignored for 83 hits.
3. Launch the application and stop at swift_getGenericMetadata after 83 hits have been ignored.
4. In the same file as swift_getGenericMetadata introduce a new breakpoint at line 224 and continue.
5. When we break at line 224 in that file, evaluate an expression pointer.
6. Set a breakpoint at the address of the expression pointer and continue.
7. When we hit the breakpoint set at the function pointer’s address, disassemble the function that the function pointer was passed to.

Using LLDB scripts can enable one to use complex debugger workflows without needing to retype the various commands perfectly everytime.