Document more use cases of dataflow

diff --git a/src/librustc_mir/dataflow/mod.rs b/src/librustc_mir/dataflow/mod.rs
index ad0f75d772548b7208bf942b21d03e1280e9461b..af16adf9eb32fc13cdbd184562b169f82d321213 100644 (file)
--- a/src/librustc_mir/dataflow/mod.rs
+++ b/src/librustc_mir/dataflow/mod.rs
@@ -650,6 +650,20 @@ pub trait BottomValue {
     const BOTTOM_VALUE: bool;
 
     /// Merges `in_set` into `inout_set`, returning `true` if `inout_set` changed.
+    ///
+    /// You usually don't need to override this, since it automatically applies
+    /// * `inout_set & in_set` if `BOTTOM_VALUE == true`
+    /// * `inout_set | in_set` if `BOTTOM_VALUE == false`
+    ///
+    /// This means that if a bit is not `BOTTOM_VALUE`, it is propagated into all target blocks.
+    /// For clarity, the above statement again from a different perspective:
+    /// A block's initial bit value is `!BOTTOM_VALUE` if *any* predecessor block's bit value is
+    /// `!BOTTOM_VALUE`.
+    /// There are situations where you want the opposite behaviour: propagate only if *all*
+    /// predecessor blocks's value is `!BOTTOM_VALUE`. In that case you need to
+    /// 1. Invert `BOTTOM_VALUE`
+    /// 2. Reset the `entry_set` in `start_block_effect` to `!BOTTOM_VALUE`
+    /// 3. Override `join` to do the opposite from what it's doing now.
     #[inline]
     fn join<T: Idx>(&self, inout_set: &mut BitSet<T>, in_set: &BitSet<T>) -> bool {
         if Self::BOTTOM_VALUE == false {
@@ -667,7 +681,9 @@ fn join<T: Idx>(&self, inout_set: &mut BitSet<T>, in_set: &BitSet<T>) -> bool {
 /// for each block individually. The entry set for all other basic blocks is
 /// initialized to `Self::BOTTOM_VALUE`. The dataflow analysis then
 /// iteratively modifies the various entry sets (but leaves the the transfer
-/// function unchanged).
+/// function unchanged). `BottomValue::join` is used to merge the bitsets from
+/// two blocks (e.g. when two blocks' terminator jumps to a single block, that
+/// target block's state is the merged state of both incoming blocks).
 pub trait BitDenotation<'tcx>: BottomValue {
     /// Specifies what index type is used to access the bitvector.
     type Idx: Idx;