x/tools/cmd/guru: could pointsto analysis for unassigned interfaces be improved?

[siadat]

What version of Go are you using?

$ go version
go version go1.15 darwin/amd64

Does this issue reproduce with the latest release?

Yes

What operating system and processor architecture are you using?

go env Output

$ go env
GO111MODULE=""
GOARCH="amd64"
GOBIN=""
GOCACHE="/Users/sina/Library/Caches/go-build"
GOENV="/Users/sina/Library/Application Support/go/env"
GOEXE=""
GOFLAGS=""
GOHOSTARCH="amd64"
GOHOSTOS="darwin"
GOINSECURE=""
GOMODCACHE="/Users/sina/go/pkg/mod"
GONOPROXY=""
GONOSUMDB=""
GOOS="darwin"
GOPATH="/Users/sina/go"
GOPRIVATE=""
GOPROXY="https://proxy.golang.org,direct"
GOROOT="/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.15/libexec"
GOSUMDB="sum.golang.org"
GOTMPDIR=""
GOTOOLDIR="/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.15/libexec/pkg/tool/darwin_amd64"
GCCGO="gccgo"
AR="ar"
CC="clang"
CXX="clang++"
CGO_ENABLED="1"
GOMOD="/Users/sina/clones/tools/go.mod"
CGO_CFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_CPPFLAGS=""
CGO_CXXFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_FFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_LDFLAGS="-g -O2"
PKG_CONFIG="pkg-config"
GOGCCFLAGS="-fPIC -m64 -pthread -fno-caret-diagnostics -Qunused-arguments -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=/var/folders/l1/gr_t1lss4837728b1sqz919m0000gn/T/go-build472257919=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches -fno-common"

What did you do?

cat issue41370/issue.go

package main

func main() {
	var i interface{} = nil
	_ = i
}

#	_ = i
#	    ^
#	    58
$ guru -scope ./issue41370/ pointsto ./issue41370/issue.go:#58

What did you expect to see?

guru: this interface{} cannot contain any dynamic types

What did you see instead?

guru: pointer analysis did not find expression (dead code?)

[siadat]

Is this an ssa optimization to use a global untyped nil interface and avoid constructing it? If so, how do I go about finding out the rule for it?

When var i interface{} = nil:

func main():
0:                                                                entry P:0 S:0
        return

When var i interface{} = 555:

func main():
0:                                                                entry P:0 S:0
        t0 = make interface{} <- int (555:int)                      interface{}
        return

[siadat]

I realized I could build the naive SSA form using -N

func main():
0:                                                                entry P:0 S:0
        t0 = local interface{} (i)                                 *interface{}
        *t0 = nil:interface{}
        t1 = *t0                                                    interface{}
        rundefers
        return

I'm exploring the code and slowing getting there lol

[siadat]

Okay, got it. All I had to do was add ssa.NaiveForm

prog := ssautil.CreateProgram(lprog, ssa.GlobalDebug|ssa.NaiveForm)

Now guru pointsto's message is a lot better (for my use):

this interface{} cannot contain any dynamic types.

I am still interested in being able to only partially enable ssa.NaiveForm, so that I don't miss other useful features of the non-naive form.

[toothrot]

/cc @golang/tools-team

[stamblerre]

@siadat: We welcome any patches if you're interested in contributing, but guru is largely unmaintained so we won't work on making any changes ourselves.

[siadat]

Thank you for the replies! :) Is guru being replaced by something else? gopls comes to mind which (if I'm not mistaken) uses analyzers from github.com/dominikh/go-tools. So, would it be correct to say the focus from guru is shifted to gopls plus github.com/dominikh/go-tools?

EDIT: okay, I found the implementation doc :)

[siadat]

Regarding this issue: I'd love to help! :) Enabling ssa.NaiveForm in guru will change the output of the pointsto subcommand for inputs other than the one reported in this issue. (I can write an example if needed.) So, I think a good fix would follow one of these two approaches:

• patch the ssa.lift func so that the nil empty interface is not lifted but other things are, or;
• add a -N flag to guru to enable ssa.NaiveForm. It is analogous to ssadump's -N. In the error message we could replace the error message (dead code?) with a suggestion to use -N: (dead code? try running guru with -N)

Let me know what you think :)

[adonovan]

guru was deleted in #65880 and the pointer analysis was deleted long before; closing as obsolete.