[GNU ObjC] Clang 14 regression: class methods always return nil object with ARC and optimization

[triplef]

Using using Automatic Reference Counting and -O1 or better optimization using Clang 14.0.5 or 15.0 rc1 causes class methods returning an ObjC object type to always return a null pointer.

This works correctly with Clang 13, or when not using ARC, or when using -O0 optimization. Methods returning C primitive types are not affected.

The following code reproduces the issue:

#include <stdio.h>
#import "objc/runtime.h"

__attribute__((objc_root_class))
@interface TestObj { id isa; }
+ (Class)class;
+ (id)testObj;
+ (const char *)testStr;
+ (int)testNum;
@end

@implementation TestObj
+ (Class)class {
	return self;
}
+ (id)testObj {
	id testObj = @"Test";
	printf("returning testObj: 0x%p\n", testObj);
	return testObj;
}
+ (const char *)testStr {
	return "forty two";
}
+ (int)testNum {
	return 42;
}
@end

int main() {
	id testClass = [TestObj class];
	printf("testClass: %s (%p)\n", class_getName(testClass), testClass);
	TestObj *testObj = [TestObj testObj];
	printf("testObj: 0x%p\n", testObj);
	const char *testStr = [TestObj testStr];
	printf("testStr: %s\n", testStr);
	int testNum = [TestObj testNum];
	printf("testNum: %d\n", testNum);

	return 0;
}

Build command:

"C:\Program Files\LLVM-14\bin\clang" -IC:\libobjc2\include -LC:\libobjc2\lib -fobjc-runtime=gnustep-2.0 -fobjc-arc -fuse-ld=lld -lobjc -O2 -o test.exe test.m

Output:

testClass: TestObj (00007FF7CD7F1158)
returning testObj: 0xA9979F4000000024
testObj: 0x0000000000000000   // <<<< should be 0xA9979F4000000024
testStr: forty two
testNum: 42

[triplef]

Additionally I’m seeing some very strange behavior calling class methods in GNUstep Base with Clang 14 and 15rc1 using ARC and -O1 or -O2, which might be related to the above:

@try {
	id processInfoClass = [NSProcessInfo class];
	NSLog(@"processInfoClass: %@ (%p)", processInfoClass, processInfoClass);
	id processInfo = [NSProcessInfo processInfo];
	NSLog(@"processInfo: %@ (%p)", processInfo, processInfo);
	id arguments = [processInfo arguments];
	NSLog(@"arguments: %@", arguments);
} @catch (id exc) {
	NSLog(@"Exception: %@", exc);
}

This will result in the following exception when calling [NSProcessInfo processInfo], which seems to indicate that the processInfo method is called on NSObject and not NSProcessInfo:

<NSException: 0x8d20a068> NAME:NSInvalidArgumentException REASON:NSObject(class) does not recognize processInfo INFO:(null)

I can work around that by replacing [NSProcessInfo processInfo] with [processInfoClass processInfo], but then I’m getting the following exception when calling [processInfo arguments] in the next line, where the arguments method seems to be called on the NSProcessInfo class instead of an object of that class:

<NSException: 0xebb88048> NAME:NSInvalidArgumentException REASON:NSProcessInfo(class) does not recognize arguments INFO:(null)

In summary it seems like there’s some mixup with what kind of class objects the compiler returns, but it depends on the exact code, e.g. when calling just one of these methods above individually it works fine.

[llvmbot]

@llvm/issue-subscribers-clang-codegen

[davidchisnall]

Is this Windows-only? Can you run clang with -mllvm -print-after-all and see where the message send is either being elided or where the receiver becomes 0?

My guess is that LLVM is seeing that the class global variable is initialized to a null pointer and somehow missing the fact that the function that sets it is called from the runtime.

[triplef]

Looks like this is a Windows-only issue, at least we were unable to reproduce it on Debian 11 aarch64 using Clang 15.0.0-rc2.

This is the LLVM IR dump of a further reduced test case printed below, though unfortunately I’m not fully sure how to read it:
llvm-output.txt

#import "objc/runtime.h"

__attribute__((objc_root_class))
@interface TestObj { id isa; }
+ (Class)class;
+ (id)testObj;
@end

@implementation TestObj
+ (Class)class {
	return self;
}
+ (id)testObj {
	id testObj = @"Test";
	return testObj;
}
@end

int main() {
	TestObj *testObj = [TestObj testObj];
	return testObj ? 0 : 1;
}

[weliveindetail]

One quick find in the assembly of the libobjc2 test above: There are return values that clang-14 copies from %rax to %rdi register while clang-13 used to copy to %rcx -- so it becomes first parameter for the subsequent call.

Here is an annotated assembly diff that omits some non-printable characters from the objc_selectors:

-ClassMethods_arc_clang13_release.m.obj:	file format coff-x86-64
+ClassMethods_arc_clang14_release.m.obj:	file format coff-x86-64
 
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@
        7: 48 8b 0d 00 00 00 00  movq	(%rip), %rcx      # $_OBJC_REF_CLASS_TestObj
        e: 48 8d 15 00 00 00 00  leaq	(%rip), %rdx      # .objc_selector_class___ (1)
       15: e8 00 00 00 00        callq	0x1a <main+0x1a>  # objc_msgSend
-      1a: 48 89 c1              movq	%rax, %rcx
+      1a: 48 89 c7              movq	%rax, %rdi
       1d: e8 00 00 00 00        callq	0x22 <main+0x22>  # objc_retainAutoreleasedReturnValue
       22: 48 89 c6              movq	%rax, %rsi
       25: 48 89 c1              movq	%rax, %rcx
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@
       40: 48 8b 0d 00 00 00 00  movq	(%rip), %rcx      # $_OBJC_REF_CLASS_TestObj
       47: 48 8d 15 00 00 00 00  leaq	(%rip), %rdx      # .objc_selector_testObj___ (2)
       4e: e8 00 00 00 00        callq	0x53 <main+0x53>  # objc_msgSend
-      53: 48 89 c1              movq	%rax, %rcx
+      53: 48 89 c7              movq	%rax, %rdi
       56: e8 00 00 00 00        callq	0x5b <main+0x5b>  # objc_retainAutoreleasedReturnValue
       5b: 48 89 c7              movq	%rax, %rdi
       5e: 48 8d 0d 00 00 00 00  leaq	(%rip), %rcx

The difference is in two places between the calls to objc_msgSend and objc_retainAutoreleasedReturnValue:

1. After objc_selector_class___ it looks like it "silently works" because objc_msgSend stored its return value 0x00007ff6979b58e0 in %rcx as well (or just doesn't clear the register before returning). Then objc_retainAutoreleasedReturnValue returns it again and we correctly print the line: testClass: TestObj (00007FF6979B58E0)

2. After objc_selector_testObj___ the objc_msgSend call behaves differently and %rcx is null. Then objc_retainAutoreleasedReturnValue returns null as well and we incorrectly print the line: testObj: 0x0000000000000000

[weliveindetail]

I used the above assembly difference for bisectioning the clang history and arrived at this commit: d61eb6c

On the current release/15.x version, I tested a change that lets Windows targets opt-out from using clang.arc.attachedcall operand bundles and it does successfully prevent this issue: weliveindetail@d2c3ec2

My guess is that this can only be a temporary fix as it likely has an impact on performance of compiled output. A proper solution would teach the x86_64 backend for Windows how to handle the operand bundle correctly.

[rnk]

This usage of RDI seems like the bug:
https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/blob/main/llvm/lib/Target/X86/X86ExpandPseudo.cpp#L229

That was added in c2d44bd by @fhahn . The first parameter register on Windows is RCX, not RDI.

[fhahn]

As discussed in https://reviews.llvm.org/D134441, if the runtime on windows excepts a different marker instruction, we should update x86ExpandPseudo.cpp. If no marker is needed on Windows, we shouldn't generatedclang.arc.attachedcall in Windows

[weliveindetail]

Thanks for your feedback everyone!

This usage of RDI seems like the bug: https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/blob/main/llvm/lib/Target/X86/X86ExpandPseudo.cpp#L229

That was added in c2d44bd by @fhahn . The first parameter register on Windows is RCX, not RDI.

Yes, I tested this and it gives the correct output as well!

As discussed in https://reviews.llvm.org/D134441, if the runtime on windows excepts a different marker instruction, we should update x86ExpandPseudo.cpp.

On Windows it just looks like a regular call following the x64 calling convention and I didn't see anything in the implementation that inspects instruction opcodes on the caller side (so far).

@davidchisnall Is GNUstep checking for optimized callers like the callerAcceptsOptimizedReturn() in Apple's ObjC runtime here? https://opensource.apple.com/source/objc4/objc4-818.2/runtime/objc-object.h.auto.html