docs/clang_tool_refactoring.md

# Clang Tool Refactoring

[TOC]

## Introduction

Clang tools can help with global refactorings of Chromium code. Clang tools can
take advantage of clang's AST to perform refactorings that would be impossible
with a traditional find-and-replace regexp:

*   Constructing `scoped_ptr<T>` from `NULL`: <https://crbug.com/173286>
*   Implicit conversions of `scoped_refptr<T>` to `T*`: <https://crbug.com/110610>
*   Rename everything in Blink to follow Chromium style: <https://crbug.com/563793>

## Caveats

An invocation of the clang tool runs on one build config. Code that only
compiles on one platform or code that is guarded by a set of compile-time flags
can be problematic. Performing a global refactoring typically requires running
the tool once in each build config with code that needs to be updated.

Other minor issues:

*   Requires a git checkout.
*   Requires [some hacks to run on Windows](https://codereview.chromium.org/718873004).

## Prerequisites

A Chromium checkout created with `fetch` should have everything needed.

For convenience, add `third_party/llvm-build/Release+Asserts/bin` to `$PATH`.

## Writing the tool

LLVM uses C++11 and CMake. Source code for Chromium clang tools lives in
[//tools/clang](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/tools/clang/+/master).
It is generally easiest to use one of the already-written tools as the base for
writing a new tool.

Chromium clang tools generally follow this pattern:

1.  Instantiate a [`clang::ast_matchers::MatchFinder`](http://clang.llvm.org/doxygen/classclang_1_1ast__matchers_1_1MatchFinder.html).
2.  Call `addMatcher()` to register [`clang::ast_matchers::MatchFinder::MatchCallback`](http://clang.llvm.org/doxygen/classclang_1_1ast__matchers_1_1MatchFinder_1_1MatchCallback.html)
    actions to execute when [matching](http://clang.llvm.org/docs/LibASTMatchersReference.html)
    the AST.
3.  Create a new `clang::tooling::FrontendActionFactory` from the `MatchFinder`.
4.  Run the action across the specified files with
    [`clang::tooling::ClangTool::run`](http://clang.llvm.org/doxygen/classclang_1_1tooling_1_1ClangTool.html#acec91f63b45ac7ee2d6c94cb9c10dab3).
5.  Serialize generated [`clang::tooling::Replacement`](http://clang.llvm.org/doxygen/classclang_1_1tooling_1_1Replacement.html)s
    to `stdout`.

Other useful references when writing the tool:

*   [Clang doxygen reference](http://clang.llvm.org/doxygen/index.html)
*   [Tutorial for building tools using LibTooling and LibASTMatchers](http://clang.llvm.org/docs/LibASTMatchersTutorial.html)

### Edit serialization format
```
==== BEGIN EDITS ====
r:::path/to/file1:::offset1:::length1:::replacement text
r:::path/to/file2:::offset2:::length2:::replacement text

       ...

==== END EDITS ====
```

The header and footer are required. Each line between the header and footer
represents one edit. Fields are separated by `:::`, and the first field must
be `r` (for replacement). In the future, this may be extended to handle header
insertion/removal. A deletion is an edit with no replacement text.

The edits are applied by [`run_tool.py`](#Running), which understands certain
conventions:

*   The tool should munge newlines in replacement text to `\0`. The script
    knows to translate `\0` back to newlines when applying edits.
*   When removing an element from a 'list' (e.g. function parameters,
    initializers), the tool should emit a deletion for just the element. The
    script understands how to extend the deletion to remove commas, etc. as
    needed.

TODO: Document more about `SourceLocation` and how spelling loc differs from
expansion loc, etc.

### Why not RefactoringTool?
While clang has a [`clang::tooling::RefactoringTool`](http://clang.llvm.org/doxygen/classclang_1_1tooling_1_1RefactoringTool.html)
to automatically apply the generated replacements and save the results, it
doesn't work well for Chromium:

*   Clang tools run actions serially, so runtime scales poorly to tens of
    thousands of files.
*   A parsing error in any file (quite common in NaCl source) prevents any of
    the generated replacements from being applied.

## Building
Synopsis:

```shell
tools/clang/scripts/update.py --bootstrap --force-local-build --without-android \
  --tools blink_gc_plugin plugins rewrite_to_chrome_style
```

Running this command builds the [Oilpan plugin](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/tools/clang/blink_gc_plugin/),
the [Chrome style
plugin](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/tools/clang/plugins/),
and the [Blink to Chrome style rewriter](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/tools/clang/rewrite_to_chrome_style/). Additional arguments to `--tools` should be the name of
subdirectories in
[//tools/clang](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/tools/clang).
Generally, `--tools` should always include `blink_gc_plugin` and `plugins`: otherwise, Chromium won't build.

It is important to use --bootstrap as there appear to be [bugs](https://crbug.com/580745)
in the clang library this script produces if you build it with gcc, which is the default.

## Running
First, build all Chromium targets to avoid failures due to missing dependencies
that are generated as part of the build:

```shell
ninja -C out/Debug
```

Then run the actual tool:

```shell
tools/clang/scripts/run_tool.py <toolname> \
  --generate-compdb
  out/Debug <path 1> <path 2> ...
```

`--generate-compdb` can be omitted if the compile DB was already generated and
the list of build flags and source files has not changed since generation.

`<path 1>`, `<path 2>`, etc are optional arguments to filter the files to run
the tool across. This is helpful when sharding global refactorings into smaller
chunks. For example, the following command will run the `empty_string` tool
across just the files in `//base`:

```shell
tools/clang/scripts/run_tool.py empty_string  \
  --generated-compdb \
  out/Debug base
```

## Debugging
Dumping the AST for a file:

```shell
clang++ -cc1 -ast-dump foo.cc
```

Using `clang-query` to dynamically test matchers (requires checking out
and building [clang-tools-extras](https://github.com/llvm-mirror/clang-tools-extra)):

```shell
clang-query -p path/to/compdb base/memory/ref_counted.cc
```

`printf` debugging:

```c++
  clang::Decl* decl = result.Nodes.getNodeAs<clang::Decl>("decl");
  decl->dumpColor();
  clang::Stmt* stmt = result.Nodes.getNodeAs<clang::Stmt>("stmt");
  stmt->dumpColor();
```

By default, the script hides the output of the tool. The easiest way to change
that is to `return 1` from the `main()` function of the clang tool.

## Testing
Synposis:

```shell
tools/clang/scripts/test_tool.py <tool name>
```

The name of the tool binary and the subdirectory for the tool in
`//tools/clang` must match. The test runner finds all files that match the
pattern `//tools/clang/<tool name>/tests/*-original.cc`, runs the tool across
those files, and compared it to the `*-expected.cc` version. If there is a
mismatch, the result is saved in `*-actual.cc`.