Creating custom gcc attribute to instrument specific functions: whitelisting, not blacklisting - gcc

Question

I'm using gcc's -finstrument-functions option. To minimize the overhead, I want to instrument only a few functions. However, gcc only lets you blacklist functions (with the no_instrument_function attribute, or by providing a list of paths). It doesn't let you whitelist functions.
So I wrote a small gcc plugin adding an instrument_function attribute. This lets me set the instrumentation "flag" for a specific function (or, rather, clear the no instrumentation flag):
tree handle_instrument_function_attribute(
tree * node,
tree name,
tree args,
int flags,
bool * no_add_attrs)
{
tree decl = *node;
DECL_NO_INSTRUMENT_FUNCTION_ENTRY_EXIT(decl) = 0;
return NULL_TREE;
}
However, from my understanding, this does not work. Looking at the gcc source, for this flag to actually do anything, you need to also use -finstrument-functions. See gcc/gimplify.c:14436:
...
/* If we're instrumenting function entry/exit, then prepend the call to
the entry hook and wrap the whole function in a TRY_FINALLY_EXPR to
catch the exit hook. */
/* ??? Add some way to ignore exceptions for this TFE. */
if (flag_instrument_function_entry_exit
&& !DECL_NO_INSTRUMENT_FUNCTION_ENTRY_EXIT (fndecl)
/* Do not instrument extern inline functions. */
&& !(DECL_DECLARED_INLINE_P (fndecl)
&& DECL_EXTERNAL (fndecl)
&& DECL_DISREGARD_INLINE_LIMITS (fndecl))
&& !flag_instrument_functions_exclude_p (fndecl))
...
It first checks that the global -finstrument-functions flag is enabled. Then it checks a specific function's flag, which, from what I understand, is enabled by default. So all other functions that don't have my instrument_function attribute would still be instrumented.
Is there a way to clear this flag for all functions first, then handle my instrument_function attribute to set the flag for those functions only?

Answer 1

The trick was only defining the attribute, but not actually using any handling function, and do the processing elsewhere.
We still use -finstrument-functions to enable instrumentation for all functions at first. We can register a callback for PLUGIN_FINISH_PARSE_FUNCTION, which checks everything. For every function declaration, it checks its attributes. If it has the instrument_function attribute, it sets the flag for the instrumentation to be added later as usual. If the function doesn't have the attribute, it clears the flag.
#include <stdio.h>
#include "gcc-plugin.h"
#include "plugin-version.h"
#include "tree.h"
int plugin_is_GPL_compatible;
static struct plugin_info info = {
"0.0.1",
"This plugin provides the instrument_function attribute.",
};
static struct attribute_spec instrument_function_attr =
{
"instrument_function",
0,
-1,
false,
false,
false,
NULL, // No need for a handling function
};
static void register_attributes(void * event_data, void * data)
{
register_attribute(&instrument_function_attr);
}
void handle(void * event_data, void * data)
{
tree fndecl = (tree) event_data;
// Make sure it's a function
if (TREE_CODE(fndecl) == FUNCTION_DECL)
{
// If the function has our attribute, enable instrumentation,
// otherwise explicitly disable it
if (lookup_attribute("instrument_function", DECL_ATTRIBUTES(fndecl)) != NULL_TREE)
{
printf("instrument_function: (%s:%d) %s\n",
DECL_SOURCE_FILE(fndecl),
DECL_SOURCE_LINE(fndecl),
get_name(fndecl));
DECL_NO_INSTRUMENT_FUNCTION_ENTRY_EXIT(fndecl) = 0;
}
else
{
DECL_NO_INSTRUMENT_FUNCTION_ENTRY_EXIT(fndecl) = 1;
}
}
}
int plugin_init(
struct plugin_name_args * plugin_info,
struct plugin_gcc_version * version)
{
register_callback(
plugin_info->base_name,
PLUGIN_INFO,
NULL,
&info);
register_callback(
plugin_info->base_name,
PLUGIN_FINISH_PARSE_FUNCTION,
handle,
NULL);
register_callback(
plugin_info->base_name,
PLUGIN_ATTRIBUTES,
register_attributes,
NULL);
return 0;
}