clang/docs/ScalableStaticAnalysisFramework/developer-docs/HowToExtend.rst

===========================
How to Extend the Framework
===========================

.. WARNING:: The framework is rapidly evolving.
  The documentation might be out-of-sync with the implementation.
  The purpose of this documentation is to give context for upcoming reviews.

SSAF is designed to be extensible with new **summary extractors** and **serialization formats**.
Extensions can be added in three ways:

#. **Statically, in-tree** — built as part of the upstream LLVM/Clang tree.
#. **Statically, out-of-tree (downstream)** — built in a downstream fork or project that links ``clangScalableStaticAnalysisFrameworkCore`` as a static library.
#. **Dynamically, via plugins** — loaded at runtime as shared objects.

All three approaches use the same ``llvm::Registry``-based registration mechanism.
The key difference is how the linker sees the registration:
static libraries need :doc:`force-linker anchors <ForceLinkerHeaders>` to prevent dead-stripping, while shared libraries do not.

Adding a summary extractor
**************************

A summary extractor is an ``ASTConsumer`` that inspects the AST and populates a ``TUSummary`` via the ``TUSummaryBuilder`` interface.

Step 1: Implement the extractor
===============================

.. code-block:: c++

  //--- MyExtractor.h
  #include "clang/ScalableStaticAnalysisFramework/Core/TUSummary/TUSummaryExtractor.h"

  namespace clang::ssaf {

  class MyExtractor : public TUSummaryExtractor {
  public:
    using TUSummaryExtractor::TUSummaryExtractor;

    // Override HandleTranslationUnit or any other virtual functions of an ASTConsumer...
    // Use the SummaryBuilder to populate the summary while walking the AST.
  };

  } // namespace clang::ssaf

Step 2: Register the extractor
==============================

.. code-block:: c++

  //--- MyExtractor.cpp
  #include "MyExtractor.h"
  #include "clang/ScalableStaticAnalysisFramework/Core/TUSummary/ExtractorRegistry.h"

  using namespace clang::ssaf;

  // NOLINTNEXTLINE(misc-use-internal-linkage)
  volatile int SSAFMyExtractorAnchorSource = 0;

  static TUSummaryExtractorRegistry::Add<MyExtractor>
      RegisterExtractor("MyExtractor", "My awesome summary extractor");

The ``"MyExtractor"`` string is the name users pass to ``--ssaf-extract-summaries=MyExtractor``.

Step 3: Add the force-linker anchor
===================================

See :doc:`ForceLinkerHeaders` for a full explanation of why this is needed.
Add the following to the appropriate force-linker header:

.. code-block:: c++

  extern volatile int SSAFMyExtractorAnchorSource;
  [[maybe_unused]] static int SSAFMyExtractorAnchorDestination =
      SSAFMyExtractorAnchorSource;

For **in-tree** additions, add this to
``clang/include/clang/ScalableStaticAnalysisFramework/SSAFBuiltinForceLinker.h``.

For **downstream** additions, see `Out-of-tree (downstream) extensions`_ below.


Adding a serialization format
*****************************

A serialization format controls how the ``TUSummary`` is written to (and read from) disk.
This involves more boilerplate than an extractor because each format has a per-analysis ``FormatInfo`` sub-registry.

Step 1: Define the format class
===============================

Your format class must inherit from ``SerializationFormat`` and define a ``FormatInfo`` type alias:

.. code-block:: c++

  //--- MyFormat.h
  #include "clang/ScalableStaticAnalysisFramework/Core/Serialization/SerializationFormat.h"
  #include "clang/Support/Compiler.h"
  #include "llvm/Support/Registry.h"

  namespace clang::ssaf {

  class MyFormat : public SerializationFormat {
  public:
    // Define the type aliases: SerializerFn, DeserializerFn
    using FormatInfo = FormatInfoEntry<SerializerFn, DeserializerFn>;

    // Override readTUSummaryEncoding, writeTUSummary, etc.
  };

  } // namespace clang::ssaf

  namespace llvm {
  extern template class CLANG_TEMPLATE_ABI
      Registry<clang::ssaf::MyFormat::FormatInfo>;
  } // namespace llvm

Step 2: Register the format
===========================

.. code-block:: c++

  //--- MyFormat.cpp
  #include "MyFormat.h"
  #include "clang/ScalableStaticAnalysisFramework/Core/Serialization/SerializationFormatRegistry.h"

  using namespace clang::ssaf;

  // NOLINTNEXTLINE(misc-use-internal-linkage)
  volatile int SSAFMyFormatAnchorSource = 0;

  static SerializationFormatRegistry::Add<MyFormat>
      RegisterFormat("myformat", "My awesome serialization format");

  LLVM_INSTANTIATE_REGISTRY(llvm::Registry<MyFormat::FormatInfo>)

The format name (``"myformat"``) is matched against the file extension in ``--ssaf-tu-summary-file=output.myformat``.

Step 3: Register per-analysis FormatInfo entries
================================================

For each analysis that should be serializable in your format, register a ``FormatInfo`` entry.
``FormatInfo`` must be implemented for any of the summaries that wants to support ``myformat``:

.. code-block:: c++

  namespace {
  using FormatInfo = MyFormat::FormatInfo;
  struct MyAnalysisFormatInfo final : FormatInfo {
    MyAnalysisFormatInfo() : FormatInfo{
                SummaryName("MyAnalysis"),
                serializeMyAnalysis,
                deserializeMyAnalysis,
            } {}
  };
  } // namespace

  static llvm::Registry<FormatInfo>::Add<MyAnalysisFormatInfo>
      RegisterFormatInfo("MyAnalysisFormatInfo",
                         "MyFormat format info for MyAnalysis");

Step 4: Add the force-linker anchor
===================================

Same pattern as for extractors — see `Adding a summary extractor`_ Step 3, and :doc:`ForceLinkerHeaders`.


Static extensibility
********************

In-tree extensions
==================

For extensions that are part of the upstream LLVM/Clang tree:

#. Add the anchor to ``clang/include/clang/ScalableStaticAnalysisFramework/SSAFBuiltinForceLinker.h``.
#. Add the source files to the ``clangScalableStaticAnalysisFrameworkCore`` CMake library target.
#. That's it — the ``SSAFForceLinker.h`` umbrella includes ``SSAFBuiltinForceLinker.h``
   transitively, so any binary that includes the umbrella will pull in the registration.

Out-of-tree (downstream) extensions
===================================

Downstream projects that maintain a fork can add their own extensions without
modifying upstream files — reducing the risk of merge-conflicts:

#. Create a downstream force-linker header, e.g. ``SSAFDownstreamForceLinker.h``,
   containing the anchor references for downstream-only extractors and formats.
#. Include it from ``SSAFForceLinker.h`` (the umbrella):

   .. code-block:: c++

     // In SSAFForceLinker.h
     #include "SSAFBuiltinForceLinker.h"        // IWYU pragma: keep
     #include "SSAFDownstreamForceLinker.h"     // IWYU pragma: keep

   This is a single-line addition per downstream project, minimizing conflicts with upstream changes.
   Upstream will try to avoid modifying this umbrella header, making it a stable static extension point.

#. Add the downstream source files to the build system as usual.


Dynamic extensibility (plugins)
*******************************

Shared libraries loaded at runtime — via ``dlopen`` / ``LoadLibrary`` or the
Clang plugin mechanism — do **not** need force-linker anchors, but having them also does not hurt.

When a shared object (``.so`` / ``.dylib``) is loaded, the dynamic linker runs all global constructors in that library unconditionally.
This means the ``llvm::Registry::Add<>`` objects execute their constructors and register themselves automatically.

To use a plugin:

#. Build your extractor or format as a shared library.
#. Load it with the Clang plugin mechanism (``-fplugin=`` or ``-load``).
#. Pass the extractor name to ``--ssaf-extract-summaries=`` as usual.

No changes to any force-linker header are required.
The ``llvm::Registry`` infrastructure handles everything once the shared object is loaded.