The simplest kind of constraint is a string full of letters, each of which describes one kind of operand that is permitted. Here are the letters that are allowed:
`m
'
`o
'
For example, an address which is constant is offsettable; so is an address that is the sum of a register and a constant (as long as a slightly larger constant is also within the range of address-offsets supported by the machine); but an autoincrement or autodecrement address is not offsettable. More complicated indirect/indexed addresses may or may not be offsettable depending on the other addressing modes that the machine supports.
Note that in an output operand which can be matched by another
operand, the constraint letter `o
' is valid only when accompanied
by both `<
' (if the target machine has predecrement addressing)
and `>
' (if the target machine has preincrement addressing).
`V
'
m
' constraint but not the `o
' constraint.
`<
'
`>
'
`r
'
`d
', `a
', `f
', ...
d
', `a
' and `f
' are
defined on the 68000/68020 to stand for data, address and floating
point registers.
`i
'
`n
'
n
'
rather than `i
'.
`I
', `J
', `K
', ... `P
'
I
' through `P
' may be defined in
a machine-dependent fashion to permit immediate integer operands with
explicit integer values in specified ranges. For example, on the
68000, `I
' is defined to stand for the range of values 1 to 8.
This is the range permitted as a shift count in the shift
instructions.
`E
'
const_double
) is
allowed, but only if the target floating point format is the same as
that of the host machine (on which the compiler is running).
`F
'
const_double
) is
allowed.
`G
', `H
'
G
' and `H
' may be defined in a machine-dependent fashion to
permit immediate floating operands in particular ranges of values.
`s
'
This might appear strange; if an insn allows a constant operand with a
value not known at compile time, it certainly must allow any known
value. So why use `s
' instead of `i
'? Sometimes it allows
better code to be generated.
For example, on the 68000 in a fullword instruction it is possible to
use an immediate operand; but if the immediate value is between -128
and 127, better code results from loading the value into a register and
using the register. This is because the load into the register can be
done with a `moveq
' instruction. We arrange for this to happen
by defining the letter `K
' to mean ``any integer outside the
range -128 to 127'', and then specifying `Ks
' in the operand
constraints.
`g
'
`X
'
general_operand
. This is normally used in the constraint of
a match_scratch
when certain alternatives will not actually
require a scratch register.
`0
', `1
', `2
', ... `9
'
This is called a matching constraint and what it really means is that the assembler has only a single operand that fills two roles considered separate in the RTL insn. For example, an add insn has two input operands and one output operand in the RTL, but on most CISC machines an add instruction really has only two operands, one of them an input-output operand:
addl #35,r12
Matching constraints are used in these circumstances. More precisely, the two operands that match must include one input-only operand and one output-only operand. Moreover, the digit must be a smaller number than the number of the operand that uses it in the constraint.
For operands to match in a particular case usually means that they
are identical-looking RTL expressions. But in a few special cases
specific kinds of dissimilarity are allowed. For example, *x
as an input operand will match *x++
as an output operand.
For proper results in such cases, the output template should always
use the output-operand's number when printing the operand.
`p
'
`p
' in the constraint must be accompanied by address_operand
as the predicate in the match_operand
. This predicate interprets
the mode specified in the match_operand
as the mode of the memory
reference for which the address would be valid.
`Q
', `R
', `S
', ... `U
'
Q
' through `U
' may be defined in a
machine-dependent fashion to stand for arbitrary operand types.
The machine description macro EXTRA_CONSTRAINT
is passed the
operand as its first argument and the constraint letter as its
second operand.
A typical use for this would be to distinguish certain types of memory references that affect other insn operands.
Do not define these constraint letters to accept register references
(reg
); the reload pass does not expect this and would not handle
it properly.
In order to have valid assembler code, each operand must satisfy its constraint. But a failure to do so does not prevent the pattern from applying to an insn. Instead, it directs the compiler to modify the code so that the constraint will be satisfied. Usually this is done by copying an operand into a register.
Contrast, therefore, the two instruction patterns that follow:
(define_insn "" [(set (match_operand:SI 0 "general_operand" "=r") (plus:SI (match_dup 0) (match_operand:SI 1 "general_operand" "r")))] "" "...")
which has two operands, one of which must appear in two places, and
(define_insn "" [(set (match_operand:SI 0 "general_operand" "=r") (plus:SI (match_operand:SI 1 "general_operand" "0") (match_operand:SI 2 "general_operand" "r")))] "" "...")
which has three operands, two of which are required by a constraint to be identical. If we are considering an insn of the form
(insn n prev next (set (reg:SI 3) (plus:SI (reg:SI 6) (reg:SI 109))) ...)
the first pattern would not apply at all, because this insn does not contain two identical subexpressions in the right place. The pattern would say, ``That does not look like an add instruction; try other patterns.'' The second pattern would say, ``Yes, that's an add instruction, but there is something wrong with it.'' It would direct the reload pass of the compiler to generate additional insns to make the constraint true. The results might look like this:
(insn n2 prev n (set (reg:SI 3) (reg:SI 6)) ...) (insn n n2 next (set (reg:SI 3) (plus:SI (reg:SI 3) (reg:SI 109))) ...)
It is up to you to make sure that each operand, in each pattern, has constraints that can handle any RTL expression that could be present for that operand. (When multiple alternatives are in use, each pattern must, for each possible combination of operand expressions, have at least one alternative which can handle that combination of operands.) The constraints don't need to allow any possible operand---when this is the case, they do not constrain---but they must at least point the way to reloading any possible operand so that it will fit.
For example, an operand whose constraints permit everything except registers is safe provided its predicate rejects registers.
An operand whose predicate accepts only constant values is safe
provided its constraints include the letter `i
'. If any possible
constant value is accepted, then nothing less than `i
' will do;
if the predicate is more selective, then the constraints may also be
more selective.
o
', all memory references are taken care of.
o
' or `m
', constant operands are not a problem.
If the operand's predicate can recognize registers, but the constraint does not permit them, it can make the compiler crash. When this operand happens to be a register, the reload pass will be stymied, because it does not know how to copy a register temporarily into memory.