nullability/inference/inference.proto

// Part of the Crubit project, under the Apache License v2.0 with LLVM
// Exceptions. See /LICENSE for license information.
// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception

// Data structures for whole-codebase nullability inference.
//
// To accurately determine nullability of public APIs, we join information from
// many translation units (e.g. a function's implementation, and all callsites).
//
// In large codebases, we may distribute this process as a mapreduce:
// - process the many translation units in parallel, obtaining evidence
//   about all functions defined/called
// - group the evidence by the function it describes, and combine it to form
//   conclusions for each one
//
// Key data structures are the evidence from one TU (map output/reduce input),
// and the conclusions (reduce output).
syntax = "proto2";

package clang.tidy.nullability;

// A symbol whose nullability should potentially be inferred.
message Symbol {
  // Clang "Unified Symbol Resolution" identifier for the symbol.
  optional string usr = 1;
}

// A "slot" identifies a position in a symbol's type that may have nullability.
//
// We use uint32 rather than the Slot type to represent slot numbers in protos.
// (A symbol may have any number of slots, and proto2 enums are closed).
// The Slot enum only defines well-known slot values for functions. Fields and
// global variables use Slot numbers aligned with the indices of their
// nullability vectors.
enum Slot {
  // The slot number for a function's return type.
  SLOT_RETURN_TYPE = 0;
  // The slot number for a function's first parameter.
  // The second param is SLOT_PARAM + 1, etc.
  SLOT_PARAM = 1;
}

// An observation of nullability based on local analysis (e.g. a function body).
// Evidence from across different functions/TUs is combined to form conclusions.
message Evidence {
  optional Symbol symbol = 1;
  optional uint32 slot = 2;
  optional Kind kind = 3;
  // Source location: file:line:col. Optional, for debugging only.
  optional string location = 4;

  // A pattern in the code that might help us determine nullability.
  enum Kind {
    // The declaration was annotated with _Null_unspecified or similar.
    ANNOTATED_UNKNOWN = 0;
    // The declaration was annotated with _Nullable or similar.
    ANNOTATED_NULLABLE = 1;
    // The declaration was annotated with _Nonnull or similar.
    ANNOTATED_NONNULL = 2;

    // A pointer was dereferenced without being checked for null first.
    UNCHECKED_DEREFERENCE = 3;
    // A Nullable value was passed as an argument.
    NULLABLE_ARGUMENT = 4;
    // A Nonnull value was passed as an argument.
    NONNULL_ARGUMENT = 5;
    // A value with Unknown nullability was passed as an argument.
    UNKNOWN_ARGUMENT = 6;
    // A Nullable value was returned.
    NULLABLE_RETURN = 7;
    // A Nonnull value was returned.
    NONNULL_RETURN = 8;
    // A value with Unknown nullability was returned.
    UNKNOWN_RETURN = 9;
    // A value was assigned to a Nonnull declaration.
    ASSIGNED_TO_NONNULL = 10;
    // A value was assigned to a mutable Nullable declaration.
    ASSIGNED_TO_MUTABLE_NULLABLE = 11;
    // The program aborts if a value is null.
    ABORT_IF_NULL = 12;
    // A nullable value was assigned.
    ASSIGNED_FROM_NULLABLE = 13;
    // A pointer was used with an arithmetic operator without being checked for
    // null first.
    ARITHMETIC = 14;
    // A non-static member variable has a default initializer that is a literal
    // nullptr or is simply constructed from a literal nullptr. This is
    // considered to be a weaker signal than other assignments to nullable, due
    // to the common use of nullptr as a default value to avoid quieter
    // uninitialized memory errors in favor of loud segfaults, so we
    // differentiate the evidence. Default initializers that are nullable but
    // not using literal nullptrs use the stronger evidence
    // ASSIGNED_TO_NULLABLE, as they likely indicate more explicit Nullable
    // intent.
    NULLPTR_DEFAULT_MEMBER_INITIALIZER = 15;
    // __attribute((nonnull[(optional_param_indices)])) was applied to a
    // function or parameter declaration or __attribute((returns_nonnull)) was
    // applied to a function declaration.
    GCC_NONNULL_ATTRIBUTE = 16;
  }
}

enum Nullability {
  UNKNOWN = 0;
  NONNULL = 1;
  NULLABLE = 2;
}

// A conclusion about nullability based on global analysis (e.g. all TUs).
message Inference {
  optional Symbol symbol = 1;

  repeated SlotInference slot_inference = 2;
  message SlotInference {
    optional uint32 slot = 1;
    optional Nullability nullability = 2;
    // Indicates that not we could not reconcile all evidence into a conclusion.
    // e.g. a Nullable<int*> parameter that was unconditionally dereferenced.
    optional bool conflict = 3;
    // Examples of evidence that contributed. Optional, for debugging only.
    repeated Evidence sample_evidence = 4;
    // Indicates that this inference does not represent new information beyond
    // what is explicitly written in the source code, and so does not need to be
    // separately propagated from one round of inference into the next.
    // e.g. an inference gathered from ANNOTATED_NONNULL Evidence.
    optional bool trivial = 5;
  }
}

// Summary of an incomplete set of Evidence for a symbol.
// Once all evidence has been incorporated, can be finalized into Inference.
// This type should be treated as opaque, and its serialization is not stable.
message Partial {
  optional Symbol symbol = 1;

  // Return type is slot[0], first param is slot[1]...
  repeated SlotPartial slot = 2;
  message SlotPartial {
    map</*Kind*/ uint32, uint32> kind_count = 1;
    map</*Kind*/ uint32, SampleLocations> kind_samples = 2;
  }
  message SampleLocations {
    // A bounded number of locations are stored.
    repeated string location = 1;
  }
}

// The half-open source range of a slot: [begin, end).
message SlotRange {
  optional uint32 slot = 1;
  optional uint64 begin = 2;
  optional uint64 end = 3;
  optional Nullability existing_annotation = 4;
}

// A set of slot ranges and their associated file.
message TypeLocRanges {
  // Path of the file to which the ranges refer.
  optional string path = 2;
  // Source ranges of type locations (written types) in `path`.
  repeated SlotRange range = 3;
}