On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 12:30 PM, Tobias Burnus <bur...@net-b.de> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I seek a tree attribute which tells that a "pointer" (in the C/middle-end
> sense) does not alias with any other variable in the translation unit (i.e.
> like "restrict"), but on the other hand, it should prevent code movements
> and value assumptions across (impure) function calls - as it is done for
> non-restrict pointers.
>
> The primary usage are Fortran's coarrays. Those variables exists on all
> processes ("images") and can be accessed remotely using one-side
> communication semantics. As coarrays are also used in hot loops, I would
> like avoid using a non-restricted pointer. A similar issue exists for
> variables with the ASYNCHRONOUS attribute.
>
>
> Middle-end question: How to handle this best with regards to the middle end?
>
> C/C++ question: As one can also with C/C++ use asynchronous I/O,
> asynchronous communication via libraries as MPI, or single-sided
> communication via POSIX threads - or with C++0x's std:thread: How do you
> handle it? Just by avoiding "restrict"? Or do you have a solution, which can
> also be applied for Fortran? I'm sure that a "restrict + hope & pray"
> solution won't work reliably and thus is not used ;-)
>
> Fortran question: Do my requirements make sense? That is: No code movements
> for any variable which is a coarray or has the asynchronous attribute in the
> scoping unit. Plus, no assumption of the value after any call to any impure
> function? Can something be relaxed or has anything to be tightened?
>
>
> ASYNCHRONOUS is defined in the Fortran standard (e.g 2008, Section 5.3.4)
> and extended to explicitly allow for asynchronous user functions in
> Technical Report 29113. The latter functionality will be used in the Message
> Passing Interface (MPI) specification 3.0. Like VOLATILE, the asynchronous
> attribute might be restricted to a block (in C: { ... }). Coarrays are
> defined in the Fortran 2008 standard. (For semantics of interest, see
> especially Section 8.5 and, in particular, Subsection 8.5.2.)
>
> The Fortran 2008 standard is available at
> ftp://ftp.nag.co.uk/sc22wg5/N1801-N1850/N1830.pdf and the PDTR 29113 at
> ftp://ftp.nag.co.uk/sc22wg5/N1851-N1900/N1866.pdf
>
>
> Example 1: Asynchronous I/O; in this example using build-in functions, but
> asynchronous MPI communication would be another example
> integer, ASYNCHRONOUS :: a
> ...
> READ(unit_number,ID=idvar, asynchronous='yes') a
> ...
> WAIT(ID=idvar)
> ... = a
>
> Here, "= a" may not be moved before WAIT.
>
> Example 2: Coarray with sync. The SYNC is not directly called, but via a
> wrapper function to increase the fun factor.
> subroutine sub(coarray)
> integer :: coarray[*]
> coarray = 5
> call SYNC_calling_proc()
> ! coarray is modified remotely
> call SYNC_calling_proc()
> if (coarray /= 5) ...
> end subroutine sub
> Here, the "if" may not be removed as the image could have been changed
> remotely.
>
> Example 3: Allow other optimizations
> subroutine sub(coarray1, coarray2)
> integer :: coarray1[*], coarray2[*]
> coarray1 = 5
> coarray2 = 7
> if (coarray1 /= 5)
> Here, the "if" can be removed as "coarray1" cannot alias with any other
> variable in "sub" as it is not TARGET - and, in particular, it cannot alias
> with "coarray2" as neither of them is a pointer.
>From the last two examples it looks like a regular restrict qualified pointer
would work. At least I don't see how it would not.
Richard.
> Tobias
>
