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First Attempt on Writing a Clang Plugin

#LLVM#Clang#PostgreSQL162
AI-generated summary
The author wants to write a Clang plugin to catch bugs in PostgreSQL error handling codes. They explain the code pattern of error handling in PostgreSQL and the macros involved. They also discuss the problem of using jump statements inside the PG_TRY() block and the unsafe code patterns they want to detect.

Why do I want to write a Clang plugin?#

My daily job is developing extensions for a database called Greenplum. It's a distributed database derived from PostgreSQL. Each time I play with it, I feel vigilant when encountering PostgreSQL error handling codes using PG_TRY()/PG_CATCH() blocks since we've seen many bugs caused by the misuse of it. I decide to write some automative tools to catch these bugs.

What do PostgreSQL error handling codes look like?#

Besides PG_TRY() and PG_CATCH(), there're 2 additional macros involved in the PostgreSQL error handling process: ereport() and PG_END_TRY().

  • PG_TRY(), PG_CATCH() and PG_END_TRY() is to construct the error handling control flow.
  • ereport() is to report errors.

The code pattern of error handling process in PostgreSQL looks like,

PG_TRY();
{
  // FallibleMethod() contains potential error reporting calls, e.g.,
  // ereport();
  FallibleMethod();
}
PG_CATCH();
{
  // Do error handling.
}
PG_END_TRY();

The code pattern of these macros looks very similar to try-catch expression in other languages, but their usage is more complicated. The definitions after being simplified for these macros are as follows,

// I commented out the macro definition keyword, so that we can benefit
//   from the syntax highlighting :-)
// If you want to find the full definitions for these macros, you can find them
//   in the link below
//   https://github.com/postgres/postgres/blob/f7431bca8b0138bdbce7025871560d39119565a0/src/include/utils/elog.h#L384

// #define PG_TRY()
  do {
    sigjmp_buf *save_exception_stack = PG_exception_stack;
    sigjmp_buf local_sigjmp_buf;
    if (sigsetjmp(local_sigjmp_buf, 0) == 0)
    {
      PG_exception_stack = &local_sigjmp_buf

// #define PG_CATCH()
    }
    else
    {
      PG_exception_stack = save_exception_stack;

// #define PG_END_TRY()
    }
    PG_exception_stack = save_exception_stack;
  } while (0)
  
// #define ereport()
  if (PG_exception_stack != NULL)
    siglongjmp(*PG_exception_stack, 1);
  else
  {
    // In real world, we don't want this branch being taken.
    ...
  }

How do PG_TRY() and PG_CATCH() work?#

The global variable sigjmp_buf *PG_exception_stack saves the environment (stack context) of the previous sigsetjmp() call. Before entering the fallible code section (wrapped by PG_TRY() and PG_CATCH()), we use sigjmp_buf *save_exception_stack to save the previous environment and assign the current environment to PG_exception_stack, so that if any error occurs (call to ereport()), we can use siglongjmp(*PG_exception_stack) to jump to the correct location (catched by the correct PG_CATCH() block).

In the PG_CATCH() block, we restore the previous environment for PG_exception_stack before taking any error handling action, so that if we want to populate the error to the upper caller (call to PG_RE_THROW() which is another kind of wrapper for siglongjmp()), siglongjmp(*PG_exception_stack) can jump to the correct location again.

The problem#

One of the common mistakes being made is using jump statements (e.g., return, break, continue and goto) inside the PG_TRY() block, even for experienced PostgreSQL contributors1. For example, if we use return statement inside the PG_TRY() block, the PG_exception_stack won't be restored to the correct stack context before we leaving the PG_TRY() block, this can lead severe issues to the PostgreSQL/Greenplum server, e.g., server crash2.

The code pattern we try to detect is the use of unsafe return, break, continue and goto statements inside the PG_TRY() block. The unsafe code pattern can be summarized to the following rules,

  • return statements used in anywhere of the PG_TRY() block.

    PG_TRY();
{
  ...
  // Unsafe, since PG_exception_stack still stores the
  // current environment after leaving the PG_TRY-PG_CATCH
  // blocks.
  return;
}
PG_CATCH();
{
  ...
}
PG_END_TRY();

  • break statements used in anywhere of the PG_TRY() block except ones used inside the switch, do-while, while and for statements.

    PG_TRY();
{
  ...
  // Unsafe, since the break statement is jumping out of the 
  // the PG_TRY() block, which breaks the error handling
  // stack context or environment.
  break;
  do
  {
    // Safe, because we're jumping out of the do-while loop not the
    // PG_TRY() block.
    break;
  } while (0);
  while (1)
  {
    // Safe. Ditto.
    break;
  }
  for (;;)
  {
    // Safe. Ditto.
  }
  switch (c)
  {
  case 1:
    // Safe. Ditto.
    break;
  }
}
PG_CATCH();
{
  ...
}
PG_END_TRY();

  • continue statements used in anywhere of the PG_TRY() block except ones used inside the do-while, while and for loops.

    PG_TRY();
{
  // Unsafe, since the continue statement will terminate the do-while loop
  // expanded from the PG_TRY() macro and jump out of the PG_TRY() block
  // with broken error handing stack context.
  continue;
  do {
    // Safe.
    continue;
  } while (0);
  while (0)
  {
    // Safe.
    continue;
  }
  for (;;)
  {
    // Safe.
    continue;
  }
}
PG_CATCH();
{
  ...
}
PG_END_TRY();

  • goto statements with label out of the PG_TRY() block.

    label1:
  PG_TRY();
  {
  label2:
    // Unsafe. Because we're jumping out of the PG_TRY() block and it
    // will break the stack context.
    goto label1;
    // Safe.
    goto label2;
  }
  PG_CATCH();
  {
    ...
  }
  PG_END_TRY();

AST matcher or static analyzer?#

The PG_TRY() is a macro in C and it's always expanded to the same thing. Besides, the statements we want to detect are very simple ones which don't involve tracking the change of symbols' states. Clang's AST matcher is good enough for our problem.

Firstly, we register a callback function checkEndOfTranslationUnit() to find out PG_TRY() blocks with return/break/continue/goto statements inside. The callback function will be called on each of translation unit during compiling. When a PG_TRY() block gets matched, we will carefully check if it's really unsafe to reduce false positive warnings. The code snippet with comments is listed below.

class ReturnInPgTryBlockChecker : public Checker<check::EndOfTranslationUnit> {
public:
  void checkEndOfTranslationUnit(const TranslationUnitDecl *TU,
                                 AnalysisManager &AM, BugReporter &B) const {
    MatchFinder F;
    PgTryBlockMatcherCallback CB;
    StatementMatcher PgTry =
        // PG_TRY() will be expanded to the following expression.
        // if (__sigsetjmp() == 0) {
        //   PG_exception_stack = &local_sigjmp_buf;
        //   ...
        // }
        ifStmt(
            // The 'if' statement must contain a binary operator and the binary operator
            // must be '=='.
            hasCondition(
                binaryOperator(allOf(hasOperatorName("=="),
                                     // One of the '==' operands must be a function call and the
                                     // function must has name '__sigsetjmp'.
                                     // Another operand must be an integer literal '0'.
                                     hasOperands(callExpr(callee(functionDecl(
                                                     hasName("__sigsetjmp")))),
                                                 integerLiteral(equals(0)))))),
            // The 'if' statement must have a 'then' block and the 'then' block must
            // contain contain one of 'return', 'break', 'continue' and 'goto' statements.
            hasThen(eachOf(
                // For convenience, we bind the PG_TRY() block with return statement with
                // name 'ReturnInPgTryBlock', so that we can emit a warning message immediately
                // later.
                forEachDescendant(returnStmt().bind("ReturnInPgTryBlock")),
                anyOf(hasDescendant(breakStmt()), hasDescendant(continueStmt()),
                      hasDescendant(gotoStmt())))))
            // We bind our interested PG_TRY() block's AST to the name 'PgTryBlock' for careful
            // checking later.
            .bind("PgTryBlock");

    // &CB is the callback that will be invoked later for carefully checking the matched
    // PG_TRY() block's AST.
    F.addMatcher(PgTry, &CB);
    // Match the AST!
    F.matchAST(TU->getASTContext());
  }
};

Then, we check the matched PG_TRY() block's AST carefully. The following callback will be called once the AST bound to the name of "ReturnInPgTryBlock" or "PgTryBlock" gets matched.

class PgTryBlockMatcherCallback : public MatchFinder::MatchCallback {
public:
  PgTryBlockMatcherCallback() = default;

  void run(const MatchFinder::MatchResult &Result) override {
    ASTContext *Ctx = Result.Context;

    if (const ReturnStmt *Return =
            Result.Nodes.getNodeAs<ReturnStmt>("ReturnInPgTryBlock")) {
      // We've found a return statement inside PG_TRY block. Let's warn about
      // it.
      DiagnosticsEngine &DE = Ctx->getDiagnostics();
      unsigned DiagID = DE.getCustomDiagID(
          DiagnosticsEngine::Error,
          "unsafe return statement is used inside PG_TRY block");
      auto DB = DE.Report(Return->getReturnLoc(), DiagID);
      DB.AddSourceRange(
          CharSourceRange::getCharRange(Return->getSourceRange()));
    } else if (const IfStmt *If =
                   Result.Nodes.getNodeAs<IfStmt>("PgTryBlock")) {
      // Check if the 'break'/'continue'/'goto' statements inside the
      // PG_TRY() black are unsafe.
      const Stmt *Then = If->getThen();
      CheckUnsafeBreakStmt(Then, Ctx);
      CheckUnsafeContinueStmt(Then, Ctx);
      CheckUnsafeGotoStmt(Then, Ctx);
    }
  }
};

The code for checking the safety of using break/continue/goto statements inside the PG_TRY() block are very similar. Here, we take CheckUnsafeBreakStmt() as an example. The basic idea behind it is performing BFS on the matched AST.

static void CheckUnsafeBreakStmt(const Stmt *Then, ASTContext *Ctx) {
  std::queue<const Stmt *> StmtQueue;
  StmtQueue.push(Then);
  while (!StmtQueue.empty()) {
    const Stmt *CurrStmt = StmtQueue.front();
    StmtQueue.pop();

    if (!CurrStmt)
      continue;

    if (const BreakStmt *Break =
            llvm::dyn_cast_if_present<BreakStmt>(CurrStmt)) {
      // We've found a break statement inside PG_TRY block. Let's warn
      // about it.
      DiagnosticsEngine &DE = Ctx->getDiagnostics();
      unsigned DiagID = DE.getCustomDiagID(
          DiagnosticsEngine::Error,
          "break statement is used inside PG_TRY block which is unsafe");
      auto DB = DE.Report(Break->getBreakLoc(), DiagID);
      DB.AddSourceRange(CharSourceRange::getCharRange(Break->getSourceRange()));
    }

    // break stataments in while/do-while/for/switch statements are safe. We don't
    // need to perform BFS on the child nodes.
    if (llvm::isa<WhileStmt>(CurrStmt) || llvm::isa<DoStmt>(CurrStmt) ||
        llvm::isa<ForStmt>(CurrStmt) || llvm::isa<SwitchStmt>(CurrStmt)) {
      continue;
    }

    for (const Stmt *C : CurrStmt->children()) {
      StmtQueue.push(C);
    }
  }
}

Now, our checker can report unsafe code patterns in PostgreSQL based projects. The source code for the checker can be found in my GitHub repo3.

Does it find any potential bugs in the real world?#

Yes, it found! I found some unsafe codes with it in PostgreSQL1 and of course in Greenplum (I didn't file the issue to Greenplum since I would like to fix that in PostgreSQL first and cherry-pick the patch back to Greenplum). Some of interesting replies I get from the pgsql-hackers mailing list are as follows,

  • Tom Lane mentions that using break/continue/goto inside the PG_TRY() block can also mess things up.
  • Andres Freund gives a very cool compiler hacking with clang thread-safety-analysis. The patch seems better than my AST matcher idea. If his patch gets committed, we can reject such unsafe code patterns during compiling PostgreSQL.
From d1c99e9d12ba01adb21c5f17c792be44cfeef20f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Andres Freund <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2023 21:18:55 -0800
Subject: [PATCH v1] wip: use clang anotations to warn if code in
 PG_TRY/CATCH/FINALLY returns

Only hooked up to meson right now.
---
 meson.build              |  1 +
 src/include/utils/elog.h | 43 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---
 2 files changed, 41 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 45fb9dd616e..66a40e728f4 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1741,6 +1741,7 @@ common_warning_flags = [
   '-Wimplicit-fallthrough=3',
   '-Wcast-function-type',
   '-Wshadow=compatible-local',
+  '-Wthread-safety',
   # This was included in -Wall/-Wformat in older GCC versions
   '-Wformat-security',
 ]
diff --git a/src/include/utils/elog.h b/src/include/utils/elog.h
index 4a9562fdaae..b211e08322a 100644
--- a/src/include/utils/elog.h
+++ b/src/include/utils/elog.h
@@ -381,32 +381,69 @@ extern PGDLLIMPORT ErrorContextCallback *error_context_stack;
  * same within each component macro of the given PG_TRY() statement.
  *----------
  */
+
+
+/*
+ * Annotations for detecting returns inside a PG_TRY(), using clang's thread
+ * safety annotations.
+ *
+ * The "lock" implementations need no_thread_safety_analysis as clang can't
+ * understand how a lock is implemented. We wouldn't want an implementation
+ * anyway, since there's no real lock here.
+ */
+#ifdef __clang__
+
+typedef int __attribute__((capability("no_returns_in_pg_try"))) no_returns_handle_t;
+
+static inline void no_returns_start(no_returns_handle_t l)
+	__attribute__((acquire_capability(l)))
+	__attribute__((no_thread_safety_analysis))
+{
+}
+
+static inline void no_returns_stop(no_returns_handle_t l)
+	__attribute__((release_capability(l)))
+	__attribute__((no_thread_safety_analysis))
+{}
+#else
+typedef int pg_attribute_unused() no_returns_handle_t;
+#define no_returns_start(t) (void)0
+#define no_returns_stop(t) (void)0
+#endif
+
 #define PG_TRY(...)  \
 	do { \
 		sigjmp_buf *_save_exception_stack##__VA_ARGS__ = PG_exception_stack; \
 		ErrorContextCallback *_save_context_stack##__VA_ARGS__ = error_context_stack; \
 		sigjmp_buf _local_sigjmp_buf##__VA_ARGS__; \
 		bool _do_rethrow##__VA_ARGS__ = false; \
+		no_returns_handle_t no_returns_handle##__VA_ARGS__ = 0; \
 		if (sigsetjmp(_local_sigjmp_buf##__VA_ARGS__, 0) == 0) \
 		{ \
-			PG_exception_stack = &_local_sigjmp_buf##__VA_ARGS__
+			PG_exception_stack = &_local_sigjmp_buf##__VA_ARGS__; \
+		    no_returns_start(no_returns_handle##__VA_ARGS__)
 
 #define PG_CATCH(...)	\
+			no_returns_stop(no_returns_handle##__VA_ARGS__); \
 		} \
 		else \
 		{ \
 			PG_exception_stack = _save_exception_stack##__VA_ARGS__; \
-			error_context_stack = _save_context_stack##__VA_ARGS__
+			error_context_stack = _save_context_stack##__VA_ARGS__; \
+		    no_returns_start(no_returns_handle##__VA_ARGS__)
 
 #define PG_FINALLY(...) \
+			no_returns_stop(no_returns_handle##__VA_ARGS__); \
 		} \
 		else \
 			_do_rethrow##__VA_ARGS__ = true; \
 		{ \
 			PG_exception_stack = _save_exception_stack##__VA_ARGS__; \
-			error_context_stack = _save_context_stack##__VA_ARGS__
+			error_context_stack = _save_context_stack##__VA_ARGS__; \
+		    no_returns_start(no_returns_handle##__VA_ARGS__)
 
 #define PG_END_TRY(...)  \
+			no_returns_stop(no_returns_handle##__VA_ARGS__); \
 		} \
 		if (_do_rethrow##__VA_ARGS__) \
 				PG_RE_THROW(); \
-- 
2.38.0

What's the next step?#

This is my very first attempt to write a Clang based checker. In addition to using unsafe return/break/continue/goto statements inside the PG_TRY() block, there're still some unsafe code patterns, e.g., modifying a local variable of auto storage class in the PG_TRY() block and use it in the PG_CATCH() block. It would be great to have more checkers for these unsafe code patterns in future.

Footnotes#

  1. https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/CACpMh+CMsGMRKFzFMm3bYTzQmMU5nfEEoEDU2apJcc4hid36AQ@mail.gmail.com ↩ ↩2

  2. https://github.com/greenplum-db/gpdb/pull/14205 ↩

  3. https://github.com/higuoxing/clang-plugins/blob/88eeb2bea0ade224807bb3e35f1d048dd4d3697c/lib/ReturnInPgTryBlockChecker.cpp ↩

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