GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) Internals: RTL Classes

---

13.2 RTL Classes and Formats

The various expression codes are divided into several classes, which are represented by single characters. You can determine the class of an RTX code with the macro GET_RTX_CLASS (code). Currently, rtl.def defines these classes:

RTX_OBJ

An RTX code that represents an actual object, such as a register (REG) or a memory location (MEM, SYMBOL_REF). LO_SUM) is also included; instead, SUBREG and STRICT_LOW_PART are not in this class, but in class x.

RTX_CONST_OBJ

An RTX code that represents a constant object. HIGH is also included in this class.

RTX_COMPARE

An RTX code for a non-symmetric comparison, such as GEU or LT.

RTX_COMM_COMPARE

An RTX code for a symmetric (commutative) comparison, such as EQ or ORDERED.

RTX_UNARY

An RTX code for a unary arithmetic operation, such as NEG, NOT, or ABS. This category also includes value extension (sign or zero) and conversions between integer and floating point.

RTX_COMM_ARITH

An RTX code for a commutative binary operation, such as PLUS or AND. NE and EQ are comparisons, so they have class <.

RTX_BIN_ARITH

An RTX code for a non-commutative binary operation, such as MINUS, DIV, or ASHIFTRT.

RTX_BITFIELD_OPS

An RTX code for a bit-field operation. Currently only ZERO_EXTRACT and SIGN_EXTRACT. These have three inputs and are lvalues (so they can be used for insertion as well). See Bit-Fields.

RTX_TERNARY

An RTX code for other three input operations. Currently only IF_THEN_ELSE, VEC_MERGE, SIGN_EXTRACT, ZERO_EXTRACT, and FMA.

RTX_INSN

An RTX code for an entire instruction: INSN, JUMP_INSN, and CALL_INSN. See Insns.

RTX_MATCH

An RTX code for something that matches in insns, such as MATCH_DUP. These only occur in machine descriptions.

RTX_AUTOINC

An RTX code for an auto-increment addressing mode, such as POST_INC. ‘XEXP (x, 0)’ gives the auto-modified register.

RTX_EXTRA

All other RTX codes. This category includes the remaining codes used only in machine descriptions (DEFINE_*, etc.). It also includes all the codes describing side effects (SET, USE, CLOBBER, etc.) and the non-insns that may appear on an insn chain, such as NOTE, BARRIER, and CODE_LABEL. SUBREG is also part of this class.

For each expression code, rtl.def specifies the number of contained objects and their kinds using a sequence of characters called the format of the expression code. For example, the format of subreg is ‘ei’.

These are the most commonly used format characters:

e

An expression (actually a pointer to an expression).

i

An integer.

w

A wide integer.

s

A string.

E

A vector of expressions.

A few other format characters are used occasionally:

u

‘u’ is equivalent to ‘e’ except that it is printed differently in debugging dumps. It is used for pointers to insns.

n

‘n’ is equivalent to ‘i’ except that it is printed differently in debugging dumps. It is used for the line number or code number of a note insn.

S

‘S’ indicates a string which is optional. In the RTL objects in core, ‘S’ is equivalent to ‘s’, but when the object is read, from an ‘md’ file, the string value of this operand may be omitted. An omitted string is taken to be the null string.

V

‘V’ indicates a vector which is optional. In the RTL objects in core, ‘V’ is equivalent to ‘E’, but when the object is read from an ‘md’ file, the vector value of this operand may be omitted. An omitted vector is effectively the same as a vector of no elements.

B

‘B’ indicates a pointer to basic block structure.

0

‘0’ means a slot whose contents do not fit any normal category. ‘0’ slots are not printed at all in dumps, and are often used in special ways by small parts of the compiler.

There are macros to get the number of operands and the format of an expression code:

GET_RTX_LENGTH (code)

Number of operands of an RTX of code code.

GET_RTX_FORMAT (code)

The format of an RTX of code code, as a C string.

Some classes of RTX codes always have the same format. For example, it is safe to assume that all comparison operations have format ee.

1

All codes of this class have format e.

<

c

2

All codes of these classes have format ee.

b

3

All codes of these classes have format eee.

i

All codes of this class have formats that begin with iuueiee. See Insns. Note that not all RTL objects linked onto an insn chain are of class i.

o

m

x

You can make no assumptions about the format of these codes.

---