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Package rangefunc

import "cmd/compile/internal/rangefunc"
Overview
Index

Overview ▾

Package rangefunc rewrites range-over-func to code that doesn't use range-over-funcs. Rewriting the construct in the front end, before noder, means the functions generated during the rewrite are available in a noder-generated representation for inlining by the back end.

Theory of Operation

The basic idea is to rewrite

for x := range f {
	...
}

into

f(func(x T) bool {
	...
})

But it's not usually that easy.

Range variables

For a range not using :=, the assigned variables cannot be function parameters in the generated body function. Instead, we allocate fake parameters and start the body with an assignment. For example:

for expr1, expr2 = range f {
	...
}

becomes

f(func(#p1 T1, #p2 T2) bool {
	expr1, expr2 = #p1, #p2
	...
})

(All the generated variables have a # at the start to signal that they are internal variables when looking at the generated code in a debugger. Because variables have all been resolved to the specific objects they represent, there is no danger of using plain "p1" and colliding with a Go variable named "p1"; the # is just nice to have, not for correctness.)

It can also happen that there are fewer range variables than function arguments, in which case we end up with something like

f(func(x T1, _ T2) bool {
	...
})

or

f(func(#p1 T1, #p2 T2, _ T3) bool {
	expr1, expr2 = #p1, #p2
	...
})

Return

If the body contains a "break", that break turns into "return false", to tell f to stop. And if the body contains a "continue", that turns into "return true", to tell f to proceed with the next value. Those are the easy cases.

If the body contains a return or a break/continue/goto L, then we need to rewrite that into code that breaks out of the loop and then triggers that control flow. In general we rewrite

for x := range f {
	...
}

into

{
	var #next int
	f(func(x T1) bool {
		...
		return true
	})
	... check #next ...
}

The variable #next is an integer code that says what to do when f returns. Each difficult statement sets #next and then returns false to stop f.

A plain "return" rewrites to {#next = -1; return false}. The return false breaks the loop. Then when f returns, the "check #next" section includes

if #next == -1 { return }

which causes the return we want.

Return with arguments is more involved, and has to deal with corner cases involving panic, defer, and recover. The results of the enclosing function or closure are rewritten to give them names if they don't have them already, and the names are assigned at the return site.

  func foo() (#rv1 A, #rv2 B) {

	{
		var (
			#next int
		)
		f(func(x T1) bool {
			...
			{
				// return a, b
				#rv1, #rv2 = a, b
				#next = -1
				return false
			}
			...
			return true
		})
		if #next == -1 { return }
	}

Checking

To permit checking that an iterator is well-behaved -- that is, that it does not call the loop body again after it has returned false or after the entire loop has exited (it might retain a copy of the body function, or pass it to another goroutine) -- each generated loop has its own #stateK variable that is used to check for permitted call patterns to the yield function for a loop body.

The state values are:

abi.RF_DONE = 0 // body of loop has exited in a non-panic way abi.RF_READY = 1 // body of loop has not exited yet, is not running abi.RF_PANIC = 2 // body of loop is either currently running, or has panicked abi.RF_EXHAUSTED = 3 // iterator function call, e.g. f(func(x t){...}), returned so the sequence is "exhausted".

abi.RF_MISSING_PANIC = 4 // used to report errors.

The value of #stateK transitions (1) before calling the iterator function,

var #stateN = abi.RF_READY

(2) after the iterator function call returns,

if #stateN == abi.RF_PANIC {
	panic(runtime.panicrangestate(abi.RF_MISSING_PANIC))
}
#stateN = abi.RF_EXHAUSTED

(3) at the beginning of the iteration of the loop body,

if #stateN != abi.RF_READY { runtime.panicrangestate(#stateN) }
#stateN = abi.RF_PANIC

(4) when loop iteration continues,

#stateN = abi.RF_READY
[return true]

(5) when control flow exits the loop body.

#stateN = abi.RF_DONE
[return false]

For example:

for x := range f {
	...
	if ... { break }
	...
}

becomes

	{
		var #state1 = abi.RF_READY
		f(func(x T1) bool {
			if #state1 != abi.RF_READY { runtime.panicrangestate(#state1) }
			#state1 = abi.RF_PANIC
			...
			if ... { #state1 = abi.RF_DONE ; return false }
			...
			#state1 = abi.RF_READY
			return true
		})
        if #state1 == abi.RF_PANIC {
        	// the code for the loop body did not return normally
        	panic(runtime.panicrangestate(abi.RF_MISSING_PANIC))
        }
		#state1 = abi.RF_EXHAUSTED
	}

Nested Loops

So far we've only considered a single loop. If a function contains a sequence of loops, each can be translated individually. But loops can be nested. It would work to translate the innermost loop and then translate the loop around it, and so on, except that there'd be a lot of rewriting of rewritten code and the overall traversals could end up taking time quadratic in the depth of the nesting. To avoid all that, we use a single rewriting pass that handles a top-most range-over-func loop and all the range-over-func loops it contains at the same time.

If we need to return from inside a doubly-nested loop, the rewrites above stay the same, but the check after the inner loop only says

if #next < 0 { return false }

to stop the outer loop so it can do the actual return. That is,

for range f {
	for range g {
		...
		return a, b
		...
	}
}

becomes

{
	var (
		#next int
	)
	var #state1 = abi.RF_READY
	f(func() bool {
		if #state1 != abi.RF_READY { runtime.panicrangestate(#state1) }
		#state1 = abi.RF_PANIC
		var #state2 = abi.RF_READY
		g(func() bool {
			if #state2 != abi.RF_READY { runtime.panicrangestate(#state2) }
			...
			{
				// return a, b
				#rv1, #rv2 = a, b
				#next = -1
				#state2 = abi.RF_DONE
				return false
			}
			...
			#state2 = abi.RF_READY
			return true
		})
        if #state2 == abi.RF_PANIC {
        	panic(runtime.panicrangestate(abi.RF_MISSING_PANIC))
        }
		#state2 = abi.RF_EXHAUSTED
		if #next < 0 {
			#state1 = abi.RF_DONE
			return false
		}
		#state1 = abi.RF_READY
		return true
	})
    if #state1 == abi.RF_PANIC {
       	panic(runtime.panicrangestate(abi.RF_MISSING_PANIC))
    }
	#state1 = abi.RF_EXHAUSTED
	if #next == -1 {
		return
	}
}

Labeled break/continue of range-over-func loops

For a labeled break or continue of an outer range-over-func, we use positive #next values.

Any such labeled break or continue really means "do N breaks" or "do N breaks and 1 continue".

The positive #next value tells which level of loop N to target with a break or continue, where perLoopStep*N means break out of level N and perLoopStep*N-1 means continue into level N. The outermost loop has level 1, therefore #next == perLoopStep means to break from the outermost loop, and #next == perLoopStep-1 means to continue the outermost loop.

Loops that might need to propagate a labeled break or continue add one or both of these to the #next checks:

    // N == depth of this loop, one less than the one just exited.
	if #next != 0 {
	  if #next >= perLoopStep*N-1 { // break or continue this loop
	  	if #next >= perLoopStep*N+1 { // error checking
	  	   // TODO reason about what exactly can appear
	  	   // here given full  or partial checking.
           runtime.panicrangestate(abi.RF_DONE)
	  	}
	  	rv := #next & 1 == 1 // code generates into #next&1
		#next = 0
		return rv
	  }
	  return false // or handle returns and gotos
	}

For example (with perLoopStep == 2)

F: for range f { // 1, 2
	for range g { // 3, 4
		for range h {
			...
			break F
			...
			...
			continue F
			...
		}
	}
	...
}

becomes

{
	var #next int
	var #state1 = abi.RF_READY
	f(func() { // 1,2
		if #state1 != abi.RF_READY { runtime.panicrangestate(#state1) }
		#state1 = abi.RF_PANIC
		var #state2 = abi.RF_READY
		g(func() { // 3,4
			if #state2 != abi.RF_READY { runtime.panicrangestate(#state2) }
			#state2 = abi.RF_PANIC
			var #state3 = abi.RF_READY
			h(func() { // 5,6
				if #state3 != abi.RF_READY { runtime.panicrangestate(#state3) }
				#state3 = abi.RF_PANIC
				...
				{
					// break F
					#next = 2
					#state3 = abi.RF_DONE
					return false
				}
				...
				{
					// continue F
					#next = 1
					#state3 = abi.RF_DONE
					return false
				}
				...
				#state3 = abi.RF_READY
				return true
			})
			if #state3 == abi.RF_PANIC {
				panic(runtime.panicrangestate(abi.RF_MISSING_PANIC))
			}
			#state3 = abi.RF_EXHAUSTED
			if #next != 0 {
				// no breaks or continues targeting this loop
				#state2 = abi.RF_DONE
				return false
			}
			return true
		})
    	if #state2 == abi.RF_PANIC {
       		panic(runtime.panicrangestate(abi.RF_MISSING_PANIC))
   		}
		#state2 = abi.RF_EXHAUSTED
		if #next != 0 { // just exited g, test for break/continue applied to f/F
			if #next >= 1 {
				if #next >= 3 { runtime.panicrangestate(abi.RF_DONE) } // error
				rv := #next&1 == 1
				#next = 0
				return rv
			}
			#state1 = abi.RF_DONE
			return false
		}
		...
		return true
	})
    if #state1 == abi.RF_PANIC {
       	panic(runtime.panicrangestate(abi.RF_MISSING_PANIC))
    }
	#state1 = abi.RF_EXHAUSTED
}

Note that the post-h checks only consider a break, since no generated code tries to continue g.

Gotos and other labeled break/continue

The final control flow translations are goto and break/continue of a non-range-over-func statement. In both cases, we may need to break out of one or more range-over-func loops before we can do the actual control flow statement. Each such break/continue/goto L statement is assigned a unique negative #next value (since -1 is return). Then the post-checks for a given loop test for the specific codes that refer to labels directly targetable from that block. Otherwise, the generic

if #next < 0 { return false }

check handles stopping the next loop to get one step closer to the label.

For example

Top: print("start\n")
for range f {
	for range g {
		...
		for range h {
			...
			goto Top
			...
		}
	}
}

becomes

Top: print("start\n")
{
	var #next int
	var #state1 = abi.RF_READY
	f(func() {
		if #state1 != abi.RF_READY{ runtime.panicrangestate(#state1) }
		#state1 = abi.RF_PANIC
		var #state2 = abi.RF_READY
		g(func() {
			if #state2 != abi.RF_READY { runtime.panicrangestate(#state2) }
			#state2 = abi.RF_PANIC
			...
			var #state3 bool = abi.RF_READY
			h(func() {
				if #state3 != abi.RF_READY { runtime.panicrangestate(#state3) }
				#state3 = abi.RF_PANIC
				...
				{
					// goto Top
					#next = -3
					#state3 = abi.RF_DONE
					return false
				}
				...
				#state3 = abi.RF_READY
				return true
			})
			if #state3 == abi.RF_PANIC {runtime.panicrangestate(abi.RF_MISSING_PANIC)}
			#state3 = abi.RF_EXHAUSTED
			if #next < 0 {
				#state2 = abi.RF_DONE
				return false
			}
			#state2 = abi.RF_READY
			return true
		})
		if #state2 == abi.RF_PANIC {runtime.panicrangestate(abi.RF_MISSING_PANIC)}
		#state2 = abi.RF_EXHAUSTED
		if #next < 0 {
			#state1 = abi.RF_DONE
			return false
		}
		#state1 = abi.RF_READY
		return true
	})
	if #state1 == abi.RF_PANIC {runtime.panicrangestate(abi.RF_MISSING_PANIC)}
	#state1 = abi.RF_EXHAUSTED
	if #next == -3 {
		#next = 0
		goto Top
	}
}

Labeled break/continue to non-range-over-funcs are handled the same way as goto.

Defers

The last wrinkle is handling defer statements. If we have

for range f {
	defer print("A")
}

we cannot rewrite that into

f(func() {
	defer print("A")
})

because the deferred code will run at the end of the iteration, not the end of the containing function. To fix that, the runtime provides a special hook that lets us obtain a defer "token" representing the outer function and then use it in a later defer to attach the deferred code to that outer function.

Normally,

defer print("A")

compiles to

runtime.deferproc(func() { print("A") })

This changes in a range-over-func. For example:

for range f {
	defer print("A")
}

compiles to

var #defers = runtime.deferrangefunc()
f(func() {
	runtime.deferprocat(func() { print("A") }, #defers)
})

For this rewriting phase, we insert the explicit initialization of #defers and then attach the #defers variable to the CallStmt representing the defer. That variable will be propagated to the backend and will cause the backend to compile the defer using deferprocat instead of an ordinary deferproc.

TODO: Could call runtime.deferrangefuncend after f.

func Rewrite

func Rewrite(pkg *types2.Package, info *types2.Info, files []*syntax.File) map[*syntax.FuncLit]bool

Rewrite rewrites all the range-over-funcs in the files. It returns the set of function literals generated from rangefunc loop bodies. This allows for rangefunc loop bodies to be distingushed by debuggers.

type State

type State int