ASSERT and __builtin_unreachable

[Marco Bodrato]

Ciao,

Il Mar, 3 Settembre 2019 8:06 am, Niels Möller ha scritto:
> I think we discussed this earlier, but I don't recall the conclusion, if

I do not remember if we actually discussed, but surely we talked about...

> any. Would it make sense to use ASSERT to guide the compiler, and define
> it like
>
> #define ASSERT(expr) do { if (!(expr)) __builtin_unreachable(); } while
> (0)

I'd not agree. I mean: I like the idea of hinting to the compiler, but I'd
use a different macro. Something like ASSERT_OR_HINT, or simply HINT.

You are right, there are places like the following.

>    ASSERT_CODE (char *bp_orig = bp - bytes);
>    ...
>    ASSERT (bp > bp_orig);

They will be easily detected while compiling, the symbol is undefined...

But we also have ASSERTs that calls functions!
e.g. in mpn/generic/hgcd_reduce.c we have, twice, the line:
      ASSERT (mpn_zero_p (tp + nn, modn - nn));
that hardly translate into a good hint for the compiler...

And we should re-define ASSERT in tests/refmpn.c ...

If we use a new macro and manually convert some ASSERTs to HINTs, the
transition will be slower, but safer.

Ĝis,
m

-- 
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