This CL changes the upb compiler to no longer depend on C++ protobuf libraries. upb now uses its own reflection libraries to implement its code generator.
# Key Benefits
1. upb can now use its own reflection libraries throughout the compiler. This makes upb more consistent and principled, and gives us more chances to dogfood our own C++ reflection API. This highlighted several parts of the C++ reflection API that were incomplete.
2. This CL removes code duplication that previously existed in the compiler. The upb reflection library has code to build MiniDescriptors and MiniTables out of descriptors, but prior to this CL the upb compiler could not use it. The upb compiler had a separate copy of this logic, and the compiler's copy of this logic was especially tricky and hard to maintain. This CL removes the separate copy of that logic.
3. This CL (mostly) removes upb's dependency on the C++ protobuf library. We still depend on `protoc` (the binary), but the runtime and compiler no longer link against C++'s libraries. This opens up the possibility of speeding up some builds significantly if we can use a prebuilt `protoc` binary.
# Bootstrap Stages
To bootstrap, we check in a copy of our generated code for `descriptor.proto` and `plugin.proto`. This allows the compiler to depend on the generated code for these two protos without creating a circular dependency. This code is checked in to the `stage0` directory.
The bootstrapping process is divided into a few stages. All `cc_library()`, `upb_proto_library()`, and `cc_binary()` targets that would otherwise be circular participate in this staging process. That currently includes:
* `//third_party/upb:descriptor_upb_proto`
* `//third_party/upb:plugin_upb_proto`
* `//third_party/upb:reflection`
* `//third_party/upb:reflection_internal`
* `//third_party/upbc:common`
* `//third_party/upbc:file_layout`
* `//third_party/upbc:plugin`
* `//third_party/upbc:protoc-gen-upb`
For each of these targets, we produce a rule for each stage (the logic for this is nicely encapsulated in Blaze/Bazel macros like `bootstrap_cc_library()` and `bootstrap_upb_proto_library()`, so the `BUILD` file remains readable). For example:
* `//third_party/upb:descriptor_upb_proto_stage0`
* `//third_party/upb:descriptor_upb_proto_stage1`
* `//third_party/upb:descriptor_upb_proto`
The stages are:
1. `stage0`: This uses the checked-in version of the generated code. The stage0 compiler is correct and outputs the same code as all other compilers, but it is unnecessarily slow because its protos were compiled in bootstrap mode. The stage0 compiler is used to generate protos for stage1.
2. `stage1`: The stage1 compiler is correct and fast, and therefore we use it in almost all cases (eg. `upb_proto_library()`). However its own protos were not generated using `upb_proto_library()`, so its `cc_library()` targets cannot be safely mixed with `upb_proto_library()`, as this would lead to duplicate symbols.
3. final (no stage): The final compiler is identical to the `stage1` compiler. The only difference is that its protos were built with `upb_proto_library()`. This doesn't matter very much for the compiler binary, but for the `cc_library()` targets like `//third_party/upb:reflection`, only the final targets can be safely linked in by other applications.
# "Bootstrap Mode" Protos
The checked-in generated code is generated in a special "bootstrap" mode that is a bit different than normal generated code. Bootstrap mode avoids depending on the internal representation of MiniTables or the messages, at the cost of slower runtime performance.
Bootstrap mode only interacts with MiniTables and messages using public APIs such as `upb_MiniTable_Build()`, `upb_Message_GetInt32()`, etc. This is very important as it allows us to change the internal representation without needing to regenerate our bootstrap protos. This will make it far easier to write CLs that change the internal representation, because it avoids the awkward dance of trying to regenerate the bootstrap protos when the compiler itself is broken due to bootstrap protos being out of date.
The bootstrap generated code does have two downsides:
1. The accessors are less efficient, because they look up MiniTable fields by number instead of hard-coding the MiniTableField into the generated code.
2. It requires runtime initialization of the MiniTables, which costs CPU cycles at startup, and also allocates memory which is never freed. Per google3 rules this is not really a leak, since this memory is still reachable via static variables, but it is undesirable in many contexts. We could fix this part by introducing the equivalent of `google::protobuf::ShutdownProtobufLibrary()`).
These downsides are fine for the bootstrapping process, but they are reason enough not to enable bootstrap mode in general for all protos.
# Bootstrapping Always Uses OSS Protos
To enable smooth syncing between Google3 and OSS, we always use an OSS version of the checked in generated code for `stage0`, even in google3.
This requires that the google3 code can be switched to reference the OSS proto names using a preprocessor define. We introduce the `UPB_DESC(xyz)` macro for this, which will expand into either `proto2_xyz` or `google_protobuf_xyz`. Any libraries used in `stage0` must use `UPB_DESC(xyz)` rather than refer to the symbol names directly.
PiperOrigin-RevId: 501458451
This simplifies the code generation by making output agnostic to whether fasttables will be used or not.
This grows the generated code in the common case, but when fasttables are not being used the preprocessor will strip away the unused tables.
PiperOrigin-RevId: 499340805
This CL eliminates the last remaining callers of GetFieldOffset(), therefore opening the door to a more principled bootstrapping process.
PiperOrigin-RevId: 497871886
This CL eliminates the last remaining callers of GetFieldOffset(), therefore opening the door to a more principled bootstrapping process.
PiperOrigin-RevId: 497864910
This is part of the ongoing effort to remove any hard-coding of layout offsets into the generated code (except via `upb_MiniTableField` values).
PiperOrigin-RevId: 497281306
This is part of the ongoing effort to remove any hard-coding of layout offsets into the generated code (except via `upb_MiniTableField` values).
PiperOrigin-RevId: 497266785
This is part of the ongoing effort to remove any hard-coding of layout offsets into the generated code (except via `upb_MiniTableField` values).
PiperOrigin-RevId: 497238313
- Rename the accessors from upb_MiniTable_Foo() to upb_Message_Foo()
- delete _upb_Message_Clearext() which is now redundant
- Allow the getters and setters to accept both extension and non-extension fields
- Add a (upb_Arena*) param to setters (only needed for extensions)
- Change setters from void to bool (since extensions may require allocations)
PiperOrigin-RevId: 493760399
upbdev_ProcessStdout() does the same thing as upbdev_ProcessOutput() except
instead of returning the serialized buffer it just sends it directly to stdout.
PiperOrigin-RevId: 492511049
_upb_MiniTable_Build() is now the general version of the function;
upb_MiniTable_Build() calls it and sets the platform to default/native.
PiperOrigin-RevId: 491091021
upb_MiniTable_BuildEnum() -> upb_MiniTableEnum_Build()
upb_MiniTable_BuildExtension() -> upb_MiniTableExtension_Build()
also make the status pointer argument optional for the mini table builders
PiperOrigin-RevId: 490992866
This required some work to unify map entry messages with regular messages, with respect to presence. Before map entry fields could never have presence. Now they can have presence according to normal rules. Note that this only applies to times that the user constructs a map entry directly.
PiperOrigin-RevId: 490611656
Prior to this CL, there were several different code paths for reading/writing message data. Generated code, MiniTable accessors, and reflection all performed direct manipulation of the bits and bytes in a message, but they all had distinct implementations that did not share much of any code. This divergence meant that they could easily have different behavior, bugs could creep into one but not another, and we would need three different sets of tests to get full test coverage. This also made it very difficult to change the internal representation in any way, since it would require updating many places in the code.
With this CL, the three different APIs for accessing message data now all share a common set of functions. The common functions all take a `upb_MiniTableField` as the canonical description of a field's type and layout. The lowest-level functions are very branchy, as they must test for every possible variation in the field type (field vs oneof, hasbit vs no-hasbit, different field sizes, whether a nonzero default value exists, extension vs. regular field), however these functions are declared inline and designed to be very optimizable when values are known at compile time.
In generated accessors, for example, we can declare constant `upb_MiniTableField` instances so that all values can constant-propagate, and we can get fully specialized code even though we are calling a generic function. On the other hand, when we use the generic functions from reflection, we get runtime branches since values are not known at compile time. But even the function is written to still be as efficient as possible even when used from reflection. For example, we use memcpy() calls with constant length so that the compiler can optimize these into inline loads/stores without having to make an out-of-line call to memcpy().
In this way, this CL should be a benefit to both correctness and performance. It will also make it easier to change the message representation, for example to optimize the encoder by giving hasbits to all fields.
Note that we have not completely consolidated all access in this CL:
1. Some functions outside of get/set such as clear and hazzers are not yet unified.
2. The encoder and decoder still touch the message without going through the common functions. The encoder and decoder require a bit more specialized code to get good performance when reading/writing fields en masse.
PiperOrigin-RevId: 490016095
Remove circular dependencies that were bouncing back and forth between
msg_internal.h and mini_table/, including:
- splitting out each mini table subtype into its own header
- moving the non-reflection message code into message/
- moving the accessors from mini_table/ to message/
PiperOrigin-RevId: 489121042
Move the map-related functions from msg_internal.h that are only used in generated code into map_gencode_util.h. Then move the rest of the map-related functions from msg_internal.h into map_internal.h.
PiperOrigin-RevId: 486299140
We need to sharpen the distinction between messages and extensions in the mini
descriptor encoder, so split the code paths for each.
PiperOrigin-RevId: 480675339
Prior to this CL, users were relying on `field->descriptortype` to get the field type. This almost works, as `field->descriptortype` is almost, but not quite, the field type of the field. In two special cases we deviate from the true field type, for ease of parsing and serialization:
- For open enums, we use `kUpb_FieldType_Int32` instead of `kUpb_FieldType_Enum`, because from the perspective of the wire format, an open enum field is equivalent to int32.
- For proto2 strings, we use `kUpb_FieldType_Bytes` instead of `kUpb_FieldType_String`, because proto2 strings do not perform UTF-8 validation, which makes them equivalent to bytes.
In this CL we add a public API function:
```
// Returns the true field type for this field.
upb_FieldType upb_MiniTableField_Type(const upb_MiniTable_Field* f);
```
This will provide the actual field type for this field.
Note that this CL changes the MiniDescriptor format. Previously MiniDescriptors did not contain enough information to distinguish between Enum/Int32. To remedy this we added a new encoded field type, `kUpb_EncodedType_ClosedEnum`.
PiperOrigin-RevId: 479387672
Continuing the trend of giving individual build targets their own subdirs
where appropriate, and leaving behind temporary stub headers for compatibility.
JSON is a particularly good choice for this because of how little interaction
it has with the rest of upb.
PiperOrigin-RevId: 476792865
Joshua Haberman
Eric Salo
Protobuf Team Bot
Mike Kruskal