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| <h1 id="the-thir"><a class="header" href="#the-thir">The THIR</a></h1> |
| <p>The THIR ("Typed High-Level Intermediate Representation"), previously called HAIR for |
| "High-Level Abstract IR", is another IR used by rustc that is generated after |
| <a href="./type-checking.html">type checking</a>. It is (as of <!-- date-check --> January 2024) used for |
| <a href="./mir/construction.html">MIR construction</a>, <a href="./pat-exhaustive-checking.html">exhaustiveness checking</a>, and <a href="./unsafety-checking.html">unsafety checking</a>.</p> |
| <p>As the name might suggest, the THIR is a lowered version of the <a href="./hir.html">HIR</a> where all |
| the types have been filled in, which is possible after type checking has completed. |
| But it has some other interesting features that distinguish it from the HIR:</p> |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <p>Like the MIR, the THIR only represents bodies, i.e. "executable code"; this includes |
| function bodies, but also <code>const</code> initializers, for example. Specifically, all <a href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_hir/hir/enum.BodyOwnerKind.html">body owners</a> have |
| THIR created. Consequently, the THIR has no representation for items like <code>struct</code>s or <code>trait</code>s.</p> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <p>Each body of THIR is only stored temporarily and is dropped as soon as it's no longer |
| needed, as opposed to being stored until the end of the compilation process (which |
| is what is done with the HIR).</p> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <p>Besides making the types of all nodes available, the THIR also has additional |
| desugaring compared to the HIR. For example, automatic references and dereferences |
| are made explicit, and method calls and overloaded operators are converted into |
| plain function calls. Destruction scopes are also made explicit.</p> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <p>Statements, expressions, and match arms are stored separately. For example, statements in the |
| <code>stmts</code> array reference expressions by their index (represented as a <a href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_middle/thir/struct.ExprId.html"><code>ExprId</code></a>) in the <code>exprs</code> |
| array.</p> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| <p>The THIR lives in <a href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_mir_build/thir/index.html"><code>rustc_mir_build::thir</code></a>. To construct a <a href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_middle/thir/struct.Expr.html"><code>thir::Expr</code></a>, |
| you can use the <a href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_middle/ty/context/struct.TyCtxt.html#method.thir_body"><code>thir_body</code></a> function, passing in the memory arena where the THIR |
| will be allocated. Dropping this arena will result in the THIR being destroyed, |
| which is useful to keep peak memory in check. Having a THIR representation of |
| all bodies of a crate in memory at the same time would be very heavy.</p> |
| <p>You can get a debug representation of the THIR by passing the <code>-Zunpretty=thir-tree</code> flag |
| to <code>rustc</code>.</p> |
| <p>To demonstrate, let's use the following example:</p> |
| <pre><pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust">fn main() { |
| let x = 1 + 2; |
| }</code></pre></pre> |
| <p>Here is how that gets represented in THIR (as of <!-- date-check --> Aug 2022):</p> |
| <pre><pre class="playground"><code class="language-rust no_run"><span class="boring">#![allow(unused)] |
| </span><span class="boring">fn main() { |
| </span>Thir { |
| // no match arms |
| arms: [], |
| exprs: [ |
| // expression 0, a literal with a value of 1 |
| Expr { |
| ty: i32, |
| temp_lifetime: Some( |
| Node(1), |
| ), |
| span: oneplustwo.rs:2:13: 2:14 (#0), |
| kind: Literal { |
| lit: Spanned { |
| node: Int( |
| 1, |
| Unsuffixed, |
| ), |
| span: oneplustwo.rs:2:13: 2:14 (#0), |
| }, |
| neg: false, |
| }, |
| }, |
| // expression 1, scope surrounding literal 1 |
| Expr { |
| ty: i32, |
| temp_lifetime: Some( |
| Node(1), |
| ), |
| span: oneplustwo.rs:2:13: 2:14 (#0), |
| kind: Scope { |
| // reference to expression 0 above |
| region_scope: Node(3), |
| lint_level: Explicit( |
| HirId { |
| owner: DefId(0:3 ~ oneplustwo[6932]::main), |
| local_id: 3, |
| }, |
| ), |
| value: e0, |
| }, |
| }, |
| // expression 2, literal 2 |
| Expr { |
| ty: i32, |
| temp_lifetime: Some( |
| Node(1), |
| ), |
| span: oneplustwo.rs:2:17: 2:18 (#0), |
| kind: Literal { |
| lit: Spanned { |
| node: Int( |
| 2, |
| Unsuffixed, |
| ), |
| span: oneplustwo.rs:2:17: 2:18 (#0), |
| }, |
| neg: false, |
| }, |
| }, |
| // expression 3, scope surrounding literal 2 |
| Expr { |
| ty: i32, |
| temp_lifetime: Some( |
| Node(1), |
| ), |
| span: oneplustwo.rs:2:17: 2:18 (#0), |
| kind: Scope { |
| region_scope: Node(4), |
| lint_level: Explicit( |
| HirId { |
| owner: DefId(0:3 ~ oneplustwo[6932]::main), |
| local_id: 4, |
| }, |
| ), |
| // reference to expression 2 above |
| value: e2, |
| }, |
| }, |
| // expression 4, represents 1 + 2 |
| Expr { |
| ty: i32, |
| temp_lifetime: Some( |
| Node(1), |
| ), |
| span: oneplustwo.rs:2:13: 2:18 (#0), |
| kind: Binary { |
| op: Add, |
| // references to scopes surrounding literals above |
| lhs: e1, |
| rhs: e3, |
| }, |
| }, |
| // expression 5, scope surrounding expression 4 |
| Expr { |
| ty: i32, |
| temp_lifetime: Some( |
| Node(1), |
| ), |
| span: oneplustwo.rs:2:13: 2:18 (#0), |
| kind: Scope { |
| region_scope: Node(5), |
| lint_level: Explicit( |
| HirId { |
| owner: DefId(0:3 ~ oneplustwo[6932]::main), |
| local_id: 5, |
| }, |
| ), |
| value: e4, |
| }, |
| }, |
| // expression 6, block around statement |
| Expr { |
| ty: (), |
| temp_lifetime: Some( |
| Node(9), |
| ), |
| span: oneplustwo.rs:1:11: 3:2 (#0), |
| kind: Block { |
| body: Block { |
| targeted_by_break: false, |
| region_scope: Node(8), |
| opt_destruction_scope: None, |
| span: oneplustwo.rs:1:11: 3:2 (#0), |
| // reference to statement 0 below |
| stmts: [ |
| s0, |
| ], |
| expr: None, |
| safety_mode: Safe, |
| }, |
| }, |
| }, |
| // expression 7, scope around block in expression 6 |
| Expr { |
| ty: (), |
| temp_lifetime: Some( |
| Node(9), |
| ), |
| span: oneplustwo.rs:1:11: 3:2 (#0), |
| kind: Scope { |
| region_scope: Node(9), |
| lint_level: Explicit( |
| HirId { |
| owner: DefId(0:3 ~ oneplustwo[6932]::main), |
| local_id: 9, |
| }, |
| ), |
| value: e6, |
| }, |
| }, |
| // destruction scope around expression 7 |
| Expr { |
| ty: (), |
| temp_lifetime: Some( |
| Node(9), |
| ), |
| span: oneplustwo.rs:1:11: 3:2 (#0), |
| kind: Scope { |
| region_scope: Destruction(9), |
| lint_level: Inherited, |
| value: e7, |
| }, |
| }, |
| ], |
| stmts: [ |
| // let statement |
| Stmt { |
| kind: Let { |
| remainder_scope: Remainder { block: 8, first_statement_index: 0}, |
| init_scope: Node(1), |
| pattern: Pat { |
| ty: i32, |
| span: oneplustwo.rs:2:9: 2:10 (#0), |
| kind: Binding { |
| mutability: Not, |
| name: "x", |
| mode: ByValue, |
| var: LocalVarId( |
| HirId { |
| owner: DefId(0:3 ~ oneplustwo[6932]::main), |
| local_id: 7, |
| }, |
| ), |
| ty: i32, |
| subpattern: None, |
| is_primary: true, |
| }, |
| }, |
| initializer: Some( |
| e5, |
| ), |
| else_block: None, |
| lint_level: Explicit( |
| HirId { |
| owner: DefId(0:3 ~ oneplustwo[6932]::main), |
| local_id: 6, |
| }, |
| ), |
| }, |
| opt_destruction_scope: Some( |
| Destruction(1), |
| ), |
| }, |
| ], |
| } |
| <span class="boring">}</span></code></pre></pre> |
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