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+.. _exception_handling:
+
+==========================
+Exception Handling in LLVM
+==========================
+
+.. contents::
+   :local:
+
+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 in
+C and 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
+<http://www.codesourcery.com/cxx-abi/abi-eh.html>`_. A description of the
+exception frame format can be found at `Exception Frames
+<http://refspecs.freestandards.org/LSB_3.0.0/LSB-Core-generic/LSB-Core-generic/ehframechpt.html>`_,
+with details of the DWARF 4 specification at `DWARF 4 Standard
+<http://dwarfstd.org/Dwarf4Std.php>`_.  A description for the C++ exception
+table formats can be found at `Exception Handling Tables
+<http://www.codesourcery.com/cxx-abi/exceptions.pdf>`_.
+
+Setjmp/Longjmp Exception Handling
+---------------------------------
+
+Setjmp/Longjmp (SJLJ) based exception handling uses LLVM intrinsics
+`llvm.eh.sjlj.setjmp`_ and `llvm.eh.sjlj.longjmp`_ to handle control flow for
+exception handling.
+
+For each function which does exception processing --- be it ``try``/``catch``
+blocks or cleanups --- that function registers itself on a global frame
+list. When exceptions are unwinding, the runtime uses this list to identify
+which functions need processing.
+
+Landing pad selection is encoded in the call site entry of the function
+context. The runtime returns to the function via `llvm.eh.sjlj.longjmp`_, where
+a switch table transfers control to the appropriate landing pad based on the
+index stored in the function context.
+
+In contrast to DWARF exception handling, which encodes exception regions and
+frame information in out-of-line tables, SJLJ exception handling builds and
+removes the unwind frame context at runtime. This results in faster exception
+handling at the expense of slower execution when no exceptions are thrown. As
+exceptions are, by their nature, intended for uncommon code paths, DWARF
+exception handling is generally preferred to SJLJ.
+
+Overview
+--------
+
+When an exception is thrown in LLVM code, the runtime does its best to find a
+handler suited to processing the circumstance.
+
+The runtime first attempts to find an *exception frame* corresponding to the
+function where the exception was thrown.  If the programming language supports
+exception handling (e.g. C++), the exception frame contains a reference to an
+exception table describing how to process the exception.  If the language does
+not support exception handling (e.g. C), 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.
+
+Because 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* (e.g. ``__gxx_personality_v0`` in C++),
+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 roughly to the code found in the ``catch`` portion of
+a ``try``/``catch`` sequence. When execution resumes at a landing pad, it
+receives an *exception structure* and a *selector value* corresponding to the
+*type* of exception thrown. The selector is then used to determine which *catch*
+should actually process the exception.
+
+LLVM Code Generation
+====================
+
+From a C++ developer's 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.
+
+#. 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.
+
+#. 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
+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 an 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.
+
+The LLVM `landingpad instruction <LangRef.html#i_landingpad>`_ is used to convey
+information about the landing pad to the back end. For C++, the ``landingpad``
+instruction returns a pointer and integer pair corresponding to the pointer to
+the *exception structure* and the *selector value* respectively.
+
+The ``landingpad`` instruction takes a reference to the personality function to
+be used for this ``try``/``catch`` sequence. The remainder of the instruction is
+a list of *cleanup*, *catch*, and *filter* clauses. The exception is tested
+against the clauses sequentially from first to last. The selector value is a
+positive number if the exception matched a type info, a negative number if it
+matched a filter, and zero if it matched a cleanup. If nothing is matched, the
+behavior of the program is `undefined`_. If a type info matched, then the
+selector value is the index of the type info in the exception table, which can
+be obtained using the `llvm.eh.typeid.for`_ intrinsic.
+
+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 infos have been gathered in the backend, the catch code
+must 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.
+
+Finally, the entry and exit of catch code is bracketed with calls to
+``__cxa_begin_catch`` and ``__cxa_end_catch``.
+
+* ``__cxa_begin_catch`` takes an exception structure reference as an argument
+  and returns the value of the exception object.
+
+* ``__cxa_end_catch`` takes no arguments. This function:
+
+  #. Locates the most recently caught exception and decrements its handler
+     count,
+
+  #. Removes the exception from the *caught* stack if the handler count goes to
+     zero, and
+
+  #. Destroys the exception if the handler count goes to zero and the exception
+     was not re-thrown by throw.
+
+  .. note::
+
+    a rethrow from within the catch may replace this call with a
+    ``__cxa_rethrow``.
+
+Cleanups
+--------
+
+A cleanup is extra code which needs to be run as part of unwinding a scope.  C++
+destructors are a typical example, but other languages and language extensions
+provide a variety of different kinds of cleanups. In general, a landing pad may
+need to run arbitrary amounts of cleanup code before actually entering a catch
+block. To indicate the presence of cleanups, a `landingpad
+instruction <LangRef.html#i_landingpad>`_ should have a *cleanup*
+clause. Otherwise, the unwinder will not stop at the landing pad if there are no
+catches or filters that require it to.
+
+.. note::
+
+  Do not allow a new exception to propagate out of the execution of a
+  cleanup. This can corrupt the internal state of the unwinder.  Different
+  languages describe different high-level semantics for these situations: for
+  example, C++ requires that the process be terminated, whereas Ada cancels both
+  exceptions and throws a third.
+
+When all cleanups are finished, if the exception is not handled by the current
+function, resume unwinding by calling the `resume
+instruction <LangRef.html#i_resume>`_, passing in the result of the
+``landingpad`` instruction for the original landing pad.
+
+Throw Filters
+-------------
+
+C++ allows the specification of which exception types may 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 `landingpad
+instruction <LangRef.html#i_landingpad>`_ will have a filter clause. The clause
+consists of an array of type infos.  ``landingpad`` will return a negative value
+if the exception does not match any of the type infos. If no match is found then
+a call to ``__cxa_call_unexpected`` should be made, otherwise
+``_Unwind_Resume``.  Each of these functions requires a reference to the
+exception structure.  Note that the most general form of a ``landingpad``
+instruction can have any number of catch, cleanup, and filter clauses (though
+having more than one cleanup is pointless). The LLVM C++ front-end can generate
+such ``landingpad`` instructions due to inlining creating nested exception
+handling scopes.
+
+.. _undefined:
+
+Restrictions
+------------
+
+The unwinder delegates the decision of whether to stop in a call frame to that
+call frame's language-specific personality function. Not all unwinders guarantee
+that they will stop to perform cleanups. For example, the GNU C++ unwinder
+doesn't do so unless the exception is actually caught somewhere further up the
+stack.
+
+In order for inlining to behave correctly, landing pads must be prepared to
+handle selector results that they did not originally advertise. Suppose that a
+function catches exceptions of type ``A``, and it's inlined into a function that
+catches exceptions of type ``B``. The inliner will update the ``landingpad``
+instruction for the inlined landing pad to include the fact that ``B`` is also
+caught. If that landing pad assumes that it will only be entered to catch an
+``A``, it's in for a rude awakening.  Consequently, landing pads must test for
+the selector results they understand and then resume exception propagation with
+the `resume instruction <LangRef.html#i_resume>`_ if none of the conditions
+match.
+
+Exception Handling Intrinsics
+=============================
+
+In addition to the ``landingpad`` and ``resume`` instructions, LLVM uses several
+intrinsic functions (name prefixed with ``llvm.eh``) to provide exception
+handling information at various points in generated code.
+
+.. _llvm.eh.typeid.for:
+
+llvm.eh.typeid.for
+------------------
+
+.. code-block:: llvm
+
+  i32 @llvm.eh.typeid.for(i8* %type_info)
+
+
+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
+``landingpad`` instruction.  The single argument is a reference to a type info.
+
+.. _llvm.eh.sjlj.setjmp:
+
+llvm.eh.sjlj.setjmp
+-------------------
+
+.. code-block:: llvm
+
+  i32 @llvm.eh.sjlj.setjmp(i8* %setjmp_buf)
+
+For SJLJ based exception handling, this intrinsic forces register saving for the
+current function and stores the address of the following instruction for use as
+a destination address by `llvm.eh.sjlj.longjmp`_. The buffer format and the
+overall functioning of this intrinsic is compatible with the GCC
+``__builtin_setjmp`` implementation allowing code built with the clang and GCC
+to interoperate.
+
+The single parameter is a pointer to a five word buffer in which the calling
+context is saved. The front end places the frame pointer in the first word, and
+the target implementation of this intrinsic should place the destination address
+for a `llvm.eh.sjlj.longjmp`_ in the second word. The following three words are
+available for use in a target-specific manner.
+
+.. _llvm.eh.sjlj.longjmp:
+
+llvm.eh.sjlj.longjmp
+--------------------
+
+.. code-block:: llvm
+
+  void @llvm.eh.sjlj.longjmp(i8* %setjmp_buf)
+
+For SJLJ based exception handling, the ``llvm.eh.sjlj.longjmp`` intrinsic is
+used to implement ``__builtin_longjmp()``. The single parameter is a pointer to
+a buffer populated by `llvm.eh.sjlj.setjmp`_. The frame pointer and stack
+pointer are restored from the buffer, then control is transferred to the
+destination address.
+
+llvm.eh.sjlj.lsda
+-----------------
+
+.. code-block:: llvm
+
+  i8* @llvm.eh.sjlj.lsda()
+
+For SJLJ based exception handling, the ``llvm.eh.sjlj.lsda`` intrinsic returns
+the address of the Language Specific Data Area (LSDA) for the current
+function. The SJLJ front-end code stores this address in the exception handling
+function context for use by the runtime.
+
+llvm.eh.sjlj.callsite
+---------------------
+
+.. code-block:: llvm
+
+  void @llvm.eh.sjlj.callsite(i32 %call_site_num)
+
+For SJLJ based exception handling, the ``llvm.eh.sjlj.callsite`` intrinsic
+identifies the callsite value associated with the following ``invoke``
+instruction. This is used to ensure that landing pad entries in the LSDA are
+generated in matching order.
+
+Asm Table Formats
+=================
+
+There are two tables that are used by the exception handling runtime to
+determine which actions should be taken 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.
+
+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 functions and functions that have
+calls only to non-throwing functions. They do not need an exception table.