Exception Handling in LLVM

- Introduction
  1. Itanium ABI Zero-cost Exception Handling
  2. Overview
- LLVM Code Generation
  1. Throw
  2. Try/Catch
  3. Finallys
  4. Throw Filters
- Exception Handling Intrinsics
  1. `llvm.eh.exception`
  2. `llvm.eh.selector`
  3. `llvm.eh.filter`
  4. `llvm.eh.typeid.for`
- Asm Table Formats
  1. Exception Handling Frame
  2. Exception Tables
- ToDo

Written by Jim Laskey

Introduction

This document is the central repository for all information pertaining to exception handling in LLVM. It describes the format that LLVM exception handling information takes, which is useful for those interested in creating front-ends or dealing directly with the information. Further, this document provides specific examples of what exception handling information is used for C/C++.

Itanium ABI Zero-cost Exception Handling

Exception handling for most programming languages is designed to recover from conditions that rarely occur during general use of an application. To that end, exception handling should not interfere with the main flow of an application's algorithm by performing checkpointing tasks such as saving the current pc or register state.

The Itanium ABI Exception Handling Specification defines a methodology for providing outlying data in the form of exception tables without inlining speculative exception handling code in the flow of an application's main algorithm. Thus, the specification is said to add "zero-cost" to the normal execution of an application.

A more complete description of the Itanium ABI exception handling runtime support of can be found at Itanium C++ ABI: Exception Handling. A description of the exception frame format can be found at Exception Frames, with details of the Dwarf specification at Dwarf 3 Standard. A description for the C++ exception table formats can be found at Exception Handling Tables.

Overview

When an exception is thrown in llvm code, the runtime does a best effort to find a handler suited to process the circumstance.

The runtime first attempts to find an exception frame corresponding to the function where the exception was thrown. If the programming language (ex. C++) supports exception handling, the exception frame contains a reference to an exception table describing how to process the exception. If the language (ex. C) does not support exception handling or if the exception needs to be forwarded to a prior activation, the exception frame contains information about how to unwind the current activation and restore the state of the prior activation. This process is repeated until the exception is handled. If the exception is not handled and no activations remain, then the application is terminated with an appropriate error message.

Since different programming languages have different behaviors when handling exceptions, the exception handling ABI provides a mechanism for supplying personalities. An exception handling personality is defined by way of a personality function (ex. for C++ `__gxx_personality_v0`) which receives the context of the exception, an exception structure containing the exception object type and value, and a reference to the exception table for the current function. The personality function for the current compile unit is specified in a common exception frame.

The organization of an exception table is language dependent. For C++, an exception table is organized as a series of code ranges defining what to do if an exception occurs in that range. Typically, the information associated with a range defines which types of exception objects (using C++ type info) that are handled in that range, and an associated action that should take place. Actions typically pass control to a landing pad.

A landing pad corresponds to the code found in the catch portion of a try/catch sequence. When execution resumes at a landing pad, it receives the exception structure and a selector corresponding to the type of exception thrown. The selector is then used to determine which catch should actually process the exception.

LLVM Code Generation

At the time of this writing, only C++ exception handling support is available in LLVM. So the remainder of this document will be somewhat C++-centric.

From the C++ developers perspective, exceptions are defined in terms of the `throw` and `try/catch` statements. In this section we will describe the implementation of llvm exception handling in terms of C++ examples.

Throw

Languages that support exception handling typically provide a `throw` operation to initiate the exception process. Internally, a throw operation breaks down into two steps. First, a request is made to allocate exception space for an exception structure. This structure needs to survive beyond the current activation. This structure will contain the type and value of the object being thrown. Second, a call is made to the runtime to raise the exception, passing the exception structure as an argument.

In C++, the allocation of the exception structure is done by the `__cxa_allocate_exception` runtime function. The exception raising is handled by `__cxa_throw`. The type of the exception is represented using a C++ RTTI type info structure.

Try/Catch

A call within the scope of a try statement can potentially raise an exception. In those circumstances, the LLVM C++ front-end replaces the call with an `invoke` instruction. Unlike a call, the invoke has two potential continuation points; where to continue when the call succeeds as per normal, and where to continue if the call raises an exception, either by a throw or the unwinding of a throw.

The term used to define a the place where an invoke continues after an exception is called a landing pad. LLVM landing pads are conceptually alternative function entry points where a exception structure reference and a type info index are passed in as arguments. The landing pad saves the exception structure reference and then proceeds to select the catch block that corresponds to the type info of the exception object.

Two llvm intrinsic functions are used convey information about the landing pad to the back end.

`llvm.eh.exception` takes no arguments and returns the exception structure reference. The backend replaces this intrinsic with the code that accesses the first argument of a call. The LLVM C++ front end generates code to save this value in an alloca location for further use in the landing pad and catch code.

`llvm.eh.selector` takes a minimum of three arguments. The first argument is the reference to the exception structure. The second argument is a reference to the personality function to be used for this try catch sequence. The remaining arguments are references to the type infos for each of the catch statements in the order they should be tested. The catch all (...) is represented with a `null i8*`. The result of the `llvm.eh.selector` is the index of the type info in the corresponding exception table. The LLVM C++ front end generates code to save this value in an alloca location for further use in the landing pad and catch code.

Once the landing pad has the type info selector, the code branches to the code for the first catch. The catch then checks the value of the type info selector against the index of type info for that catch. Since the type info index is not known until all the type info have been gathered in the backend, the catch code will call the `llvm.eh.typeid.for` intrinsic to determine the index for a given type info. If the catch fails to match the selector then control is passed on to the next catch. Note: Since the landing pad will not be used if there is no match in the list of type info on the call to `llvm.eh.selector`, then neither the last catch nor catch all need to perform the the check against the selector.

Finally, the entry and exit of catch code is bracketed with calls to `__cxa_begin_catch` and `__cxa_end_catch`. `__cxa_begin_catch` takes a exception structure reference as an argument and returns the value of the exception object. `__cxa_end_catch` takes a exception structure reference as an argument. This function clears the exception from the exception space. Note: a rethrow from within the catch may replace this call with a `__cxa_rethrow`.

Finallys

To handle destructors and cleanups in try code, control may not run directly from a landing pad to the first catch. Control may actually flow from the landing pad to clean up code and then to the first catch. Since the required clean up for each invoke in a try may be different (ex., intervening constructor), there may be several landing pads for a given try.

Throw Filters

C++ allows the specification of which exception types that can be thrown from a function. To represent this a top level landing pad may exist to filter out invalid types. To express this in LLVM code the landing pad will call `llvm.eh.filter` instead of `llvm.eh.selector`. The arguments are the same, but what gets created in the exception table is different. `llvm.eh.filter` will return a negative value if it doesn't find a match. If no match is found then a call to `__cxa_call_unexpected` should be made, otherwise `_Unwind_Resume`. Each of these functions require a reference to the exception structure.

Exception Handling Intrinsics

LLVM uses several intrinsic functions (name prefixed with "llvm.eh") to provide exception handling information at various points in generated code.

llvm.eh.exception

      i8* %llvm.eh.exception( )

This intrinsic indicates that the exception structure is available at this point in the code. The backend will replace this intrinsic with code to fetch the first argument of a call. The effect is that the intrinsic result is the exception structure reference.

llvm.eh.selector

      i32 %llvm.eh.selector(i8*, i8*, i8*, ...)

This intrinsic indicates that the exception selector is available at this point in the code. The backend will replace this intrinsic with code to fetch the second argument of a call. The effect is that the intrinsic result is the exception selector.

`llvm.eh.selector` takes a minimum of three arguments. The first argument is the reference to the exception structure. The second argument is a reference to the personality function to be used for this try catch sequence. The remaining arguments are references to the type infos for each of the catch statements in the order they should be tested. The catch all (...) is represented with a `null i8*`.

llvm.eh.filter

      i32 %llvm.eh.filter(i8*, i8*, i8*, ...)

This intrinsic indicates that the exception selector is available at this point in the code. The backend will replace this intrinsic with code to fetch the second argument of a call. The effect is that the intrinsic result is the exception selector.

`llvm.eh.filter` takes a minimum of three arguments. The first argument is the reference to the exception structure. The second argument is a reference to the personality function to be used for this function. The remaining arguments are references to the type infos for each type that can be thrown by the current function.

llvm.eh.typeid.for

      i32 %llvm.eh.typeid.for(i8*)

This intrinsic returns the type info index in the exception table of the current function. This value can be used to compare against the result of `llvm.eh.selector`. The single argument is a reference to a type info.

Asm Table Formats

There are two tables that are used by the exception handling runtime to determine which actions should take place when an exception is thrown.

Exception Handling Frame

An exception handling frame `eh_frame` is very similar to the unwind frame used by dwarf debug info. The frame contains all the information necessary to tear down the current frame and restore the state of the prior frame. There is an exception handling frame for each function in a compile unit, plus a common exception handling frame that defines information common to all functions in the unit.

Todo - Table details here.

Exception Tables

An exception table contains information about what actions to take when an exception is thrown in a particular part of a function's code. There is one exception table per function except leaf routines and functions that have only calls to non-throwing functions will not need an exception table.

Todo - Table details here.

ToDo

1. Need to create landing pads for code in between explicit landing pads. The landing pads will have a zero action and a NULL landing pad address and are used to inform the runtime that the exception should be rethrown.

2. Actions for a given function should be folded to save space.

3. Filters for inlined functions need to be handled more extensively. Currently it's hardwired for one filter per function.

4. Testing/Testing/Testing.