Context:
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There are places in LLVM where we need to pack typed fields into opaque values.
For instance, the `XXXInst` classes in `llvm/include/llvm/IR/Instructions.h` that extract informations from `Value::SubclassData` via `getSubclassDataFromInstruction()`.
The bit twiddling is done manually: this impairs readability and prevent consistent handling of out of range values (e.g. 435b458ad0/llvm/include/llvm/IR/Instructions.h (L564))
More importantly, the bit pattern is scattered throughout the implementation making it hard to pack additionnal fields or check for overlapping bits.
Design decisions:
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The Bitfield structs are to be declared together so it is clear which bits are used or not.
The code is designed with simplicity in mind, hence a few limitations:
- Storage is limited to a single integer,
- Enum values have to be `unsigned`,
- Storage type has to be `unsigned`,
- There are no automatic detection of overlapping fields (packed bitfield declaration should help though),
- The interface is C like so `storage` needs to be passed in everytime (code is simpler and lifetime considerations more obvious)
RFC: http://lists.llvm.org/pipermail/llvm-dev/2020-June/142196.html
Differential Revision: https://reviews.llvm.org/D81580
Guillaume Chatelet