llvm dev - Mar 2016 - How to insert a function call after certain instructions for x86 backend

Hi all,
      I am trying to instrument a program to insert a function call
after SP-Update
instructions. SP-Update instructions are those modify the esp register such
as mov esp, eax ; xchg eax, esp ; add esp, [eax+0x20] and so on. It seems
that I should dig into the back end. But which representation of
instructions should I focus on? MachineInstr or MCInst or other class? Where
is the definitions of all opcodes and registers? In which part of the back
end should I inspect the instructions?  And How to insert a function call?
May I use MachineInstrBuilder::BuildMI ? I am so sorry to ask so many
questions because I am a newbie to LLVM. I would appreciate it if any one
coulld help me.
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On 3/18/16 6:42 AM, Zhiyu Xie via llvm-dev wrote:
> Hi all,
>       I am trying to instrument a program to insert a function 
> call after SP-Update instructions. SP-Update instructions are those 
> modify the esp register such as mov esp, eax ; xchg eax, esp ; add 
> esp, [eax+0x20] and so on. It seems that I should dig into the back 
> end. But which representation of instructions should I focus on? 
> MachineInstr or MCInst or other class?
You should write a MachineFunctionPass and operate and the MachineInstr 
level.  Your pass will need to be integrated into the LLVM code 
generator for your target.

> Where is the definitions of all opcodes and registers?
For MachineInstr's, registers are just numbers, and there are constants 
(e.g., Reg::RAX, IIRC) that represent the various registers.

You can look at the control-flow integrity pass for a dated (but I think 
still useful) example of how to write a MachineFunctionPass. It is at 
https://github.com/jtcriswell/SVA/blob/master/llvm/lib/Target/X86/X86CFIOptPass.cpp.
> In which part of the back end should I inspect the instructions?  And 
> How to insert a function call? May I use MachineInstrBuilder::BuildMI ?
BuildMI is what you want.
> I am so sorry to ask so many questions because I am a newbie to LLVM. 
> I would appreciate it if any one coulld help me.
If you have not done so already, you should read the document on "How to 
Write an LLVM Pass" and the document on the code generator (the one that 
briefly explains MachineInstr's).  You should also make use of the 
doxygen documentation.

Regards,

John Criswell
>
>
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-- 
John Criswell
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science, University of Rochester
http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/criswell

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