qemu/docs/devel
Markus Armbruster 44ea9d9be3 qapi: Start to elide redundant has_FOO in generated C
In QAPI, absent optional members are distinct from any present value.
We thus represent an optional schema member FOO as two C members: a
FOO with the member's type, and a bool has_FOO.  Likewise for function
arguments.

However, has_FOO is actually redundant for a pointer-valued FOO, which
can be null only when has_FOO is false, i.e. has_FOO == !!FOO.  Except
for arrays, where we a null FOO can also be a present empty array.

The redundant has_FOO are a nuisance to work with.  Improve the
generator to elide them.  Uses of has_FOO need to be replaced as
follows.

Tests of has_FOO become the equivalent comparison of FOO with null.
For brevity, this is commonly done by implicit conversion to bool.

Assignments to has_FOO get dropped.

Likewise for arguments to has_FOO parameters.

Beware: code may violate the invariant has_FOO == !!FOO before the
transformation, and get away with it.  The above transformation can
then break things.  Two cases:

* Absent: if code ignores FOO entirely when !has_FOO (except for
  freeing it if necessary), even non-null / uninitialized FOO works.
  Such code is known to exist.

* Present: if code ignores FOO entirely when has_FOO, even null FOO
  works.  Such code should not exist.

In both cases, replacing tests of has_FOO by FOO reverts their sense.
We have to fix the value of FOO then.

To facilitate review of the necessary updates to handwritten code, add
means to opt out of this change, and opt out for all QAPI schema
modules where the change requires updates to handwritten code.  The
next few commits will remove these opt-outs in reviewable chunks, then
drop the means to opt out.

Signed-off-by: Markus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com>
Reviewed-by: Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange@redhat.com>
Message-Id: <20221104160712.3005652-5-armbru@redhat.com>
2022-12-13 18:31:37 +01:00
..
acpi-bits.rst acpi/tests/avocado/bits: some misc fixes 2022-11-17 09:58:22 +01:00
atomics.rst
bitops.rst
blkdebug.txt
blkverify.txt
block-coroutine-wrapper.rst
build-system.rst
ci-definitions.rst.inc
ci-jobs.rst.inc
ci-runners.rst.inc
ci.rst
clocks.rst
code-of-conduct.rst docs/devel: add a maintainers section to development process 2022-11-22 09:49:07 +00:00
conflict-resolution.rst
control-flow-integrity.rst
decodetree.rst
ebpf_rss.rst
fuzzing.rst
index-api.rst
index-build.rst
index-internals.rst
index-process.rst docs/devel: add a maintainers section to development process 2022-11-22 09:49:07 +00:00
index-tcg.rst
index.rst
kconfig.rst
loads-stores.rst
lockcnt.txt
maintainers.rst docs/devel: add a maintainers section to development process 2022-11-22 09:49:07 +00:00
memory.rst
migration.rst
modules.rst
multi-process.rst
multi-thread-tcg.rst
multiple-iothreads.txt
qapi-code-gen.rst qapi: Start to elide redundant has_FOO in generated C 2022-12-13 18:31:37 +01:00
qgraph.rst
qom.rst
qtest.rst
rcu.txt
replay.rst
reset.rst
s390-dasd-ipl.rst
secure-coding-practices.rst
stable-process.rst
style.rst
submitting-a-patch.rst docs/devel: try and improve the language around patch review 2022-11-22 09:52:23 +00:00
submitting-a-pull-request.rst docs/devel: add a maintainers section to development process 2022-11-22 09:49:07 +00:00
tcg-icount.rst
tcg-plugins.rst
tcg.rst
testing.rst Fix some typos in documentation and comments 2022-11-05 20:35:45 +01:00
tracing.rst
trivial-patches.rst
ui.rst
vfio-migration.rst
virtio-backends.rst
virtio-migration.txt
writing-monitor-commands.rst qapi: Start to elide redundant has_FOO in generated C 2022-12-13 18:31:37 +01:00