DWARF Debugging Standard Wiki

For detail description of the feature, please refer to:

http://www.research.att.com/~bs/C++0xFAQ.html#template-alias

http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2007/n2258.pdf

Overview

The motivation behind this feature is to allow a shorthand notation to create a template base on another template, and optionally have zero or more template arguments specified. The keyword using is introduced to allow this behavior.

template<class T>
using Vec = std::vector<T,My_alloc<T>>;    // alias declaration:
                                           // standard vector using my allocator

Vec<int> fib = { 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 };      // allocates elements using My_alloc
vector<int,My_alloc<int>> verbose = fib;   // verbose and fib are of the same type

In the above example, fib is a template alias of vector<int,My_alloc``<int>``>, therefore both fib and verbose have identical types.

The using keywords acts like similar to typedef, in that both keywords introduces a typedef-name.

Proposed change to DWARF

New DWARF tag:

DW_TAG_template_alias 0x42 template alias

Allowable attributes: (modeled after DW_TAG_typedef)

• DECL
• DW_AT_abstract_origin
• DW_AT_accessibility
• DW_AT_allocated
• DW_AT_assocated
• DW_AT_data_location
• DW_AT_declaration
• DW_AT_description
• DW_AT_name
• DW_AT_sibling
• DW_AT_start_scope
• DW_AT_type
• DW_AT_visibility

5.17: Template Alias Entries

Any arbitrary type named via template alias is represented by a debugging information entry with the tag DW_TAG_template_alias. The template alias entry has a DW_AT_name attribute whose value is a null-terminated string containing the name of the template alias as it appears in the source program. The template alias entry also contains a DW_AT_type attribute. The template alias entry will have the following child entries:

1. Each formal parameterized type declaration appearing in the template alias declaration is represented by a debugging information entry with the tag DW_TAG_template_type_parameter. Each such entry may have a DW_AT_name attribute, whose value is a null-terminated string containing the name of the formal type parameter as it appears in the source program. The template type parameter entry also has a DW_AT_type attribute describing the actual type by which the formal is replaced for this instantiation.
2. Each formal parameterized value declaration appearing in the template alias declaration is represented by a debugging information entry with the tag DW_TAG_template_value_parameter. Each such entry may have a DW_AT_name attribute, whose value is a null-terminated string containing the name of the formal value parameter as it appears in the source program. The template value parameter entry also has a DW_AT_type attribute describing the type of the parameterized value. Finally, the template value parameter entry has a DW_AT_const_value attribute, whose value is the actual constant value of the value parameter for this instantiation as represented on the target architecture.

Appendix

D.10.1 Template Aliases example

First, no aliases at all. This is just plain old ordinary template instance DWARF:

template<typename T, typename U>
struct Alpha {
   T tango;
   U uniform;
};

There’s no DWARF for just that. But now we have an instance like this:

Alpha<int,short>  a;

DWARF for variable ‘a’:

10$:  DW_TAG_structure_type
          DW_AT_name "Alpha"
11$:      DW_TAG_template_type_parameter
              DW_AT_name("T")
              DW_AT_type(reference to type "int")
12$:      DW_TAG_template_type_parameter
              DW_AT_name("U")
              DW_AT_type(reference to type "short")
13$:      DW_TAG_member
              DW_AT_name("tango")
              DW_AT_type(reference to 11$)
14$:      DW_TAG_member
              DW_AT_name("uniform")
              DW_AT_type(reference to 12$)
15$:  DW_TAG_variable
          DW_AT_name("a")
          DW_AT_type(reference to $10)

Now to introduce the first template alias:

template<typename V> using Beta = Alpha<V,V>;

Again, no DWARF for just that. But now there’s an instance like this:

Beta<long> b;

DWARF for variable ‘b’:

20$:  DW_TAG_structure_type
          DW_AT_name "Alpha"
21$:      DW_TAG_template_type_parameter
              DW_AT_name("T")
              DW_AT_type(reference to type "long")
22$:      DW_TAG_template_type_parameter
              DW_AT_name("U")
              DW_AT_type(reference to type "long")
23$:      DW_TAG_member
              DW_AT_name("tango")
              DW_AT_type(reference to 21$)
24$:      DW_TAG_member
              DW_AT_name("uniform")
              DW_AT_type(reference to 22$)
25$:  DW_TAG_template_alias
          DW_AT_name("Beta")
          DW_AT_type(reference to 20$)
26$:      DW_TAG_template_type_parameter
              DW_AT_name("V")
              DW_AT_type(reference to "long")
27$:  DW_TAG_variable
          DW_AT_name("b")
          DW_AT_type(reference to 25$)

D.10.2 Template Aliases example

template<class TX> struct X { };
template<class TY> struct Y { };
template<class T> using Z = Y<T>;
X<Y<int>> y;
X<Z<int>> z;

X<Y<int>> instantiates the following structures:

30$:  DW_TAG_structure_type                         // struct Y<int>
          DW_AT_name("Y")
31$:      DW_TAG_template_type_parameter
              DW_AT_name("TY")
              DW_AT_type(reference to base type "int")
32$:  DW_TAG_structure_type                         // struct X<Y<int>>
          DW_AT_name("X")
33$:      DW_TAG_template_type_parameter
              DW_AT_name("TX")
              DW_AT_type(reference to 30$)

X<Z<int>> instantiates the following structures:

40$:  DW_TAG_template_alias                         // template<class T> using Z = Y<int>;
          DW_AT_name("Z")
          DW_AT_type(reference to 30$)
41$:      DW_TAG_template_type_parameter
              DW_AT_name("T")
              DW_AT_type(reference to base type "int")
42$:  DW_TAG_structure_type                         // struct X<Z<int>>
          DW_AT_name("X")
43$:      DW_TAG_template_type_parameter
              DW_AT_name("TX")
              DW_AT_type(reference to 40$)

Note that \$32 and \$42 are actually the same type:

50$:  DW_TAG_variable
          DW_AT_name("y")
          DW_AT_type(reference to $32)
51$:  DW_TAG_variable
          DW_AT_name("z")
          DW_AT_type(reference to $42)

Change History

April 20, 2009.

• Re-format DWARF description in Example section to match current documentation.

May 5, 2009.

• Todd Allen suggests a simpler example to illustrate template alias.
• Todd Allen made a suggestion that the template type parameter within the structure/class can point directly to the template type parameter within the template alias declaration.
• Todd Allen suggests using a different TAG for describing template alias.

June 2, 2009.

• Remove mentioning of template parameter pack
• Remove mentioning of C++0x within normative text

dwarfstd.org is supported by Sourceware. Contributions are welcome. All logos and trademarks in this site are property of their respective owner. The comments are property of their posters, all the rest © 2007-2022 by DWARF Standards Committee.