Faster filters: documentation on what is happening there

2 files changed, 72 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/filter/f-inst.c b/filter/f-inst.c
index 8505534a..6f031782 100644
--- a/filter/f-inst.c
+++ b/filter/f-inst.c
@@ -7,6 +7,43 @@
  *
  *	Can be freely distributed and used under the terms of the GNU GPL.
  *
+ *	Filter instructions. You shall define your instruction only here
+ *	and nowhere else.
+ *
+ *	Beware. This file is interpreted by M4 macros. These macros
+ *	may be more stupid than you could imagine. If something strange
+ *	happens after changing this file, compare the results before and
+ *	after your change (see the Makefile to find out where the results are)
+ *	and see what really happened.
+ *
+ *	This file is not directly a C source code -> it is a generator input
+ *	for several C sources; every instruction block gets expanded into many
+ *	different places.
+ *
+ *	What is the syntax here?
+ *	m4_dnl	INST(FI_NOP, in, out) {			enum value, input args, output args
+ *	m4_dnl	  ARG(num, type);			argument, its id (in data fields) and type
+ *	m4_dnl	  ARG_ANY(num);				argument with no type check
+ *	m4_dnl	  LINE(num, unused);			this argument has to be converted to its own f_line
+ *	m4_dnl	  ECS;					extended community subtype
+ *	m4_dnl	  COUNT(unused);			simply a uint
+ *	m4_dnl	  SYMBOL(unused);			symbol handed from config
+ *	m4_dnl	  FRET(unused);				filter return value
+ *	m4_dnl	  STATIC_ATTR;				static attribute definition
+ *	m4_dnl	  DYNAMIC_ATTR;				dynamic attribute definition
+ *	m4_dnl	  RTC;					route table config
+ *	m4_dnl	  TREE;					a tree
+ *	m4_dnl	  ACCESS_RTE;				this instruction needs route
+ *	m4_dnl	  ACCESS_EATTRS;			this instruction needs extended attributes
+ *	m4_dnl	  RESULT(type, union-field, value);	putting this on value stack
+ *	m4_dnl	  RESULT_OK;				legalize what already is on the value stack
+ *	m4_dnl	}
+ *
+ *	Other code is just copied into the interpreter part.
+ *
+ *	If you want to write something really special, see FI_CALL
+ *	or FI_CONSTANT or whatever else to see how to use the FID_*
+ *	macros.
  */
 
 /* Binary operators */
diff --git a/filter/f-inst.h b/filter/f-inst.h
index 4b42c57c..1e2d63a2 100644
--- a/filter/f-inst.h
+++ b/filter/f-inst.h
@@ -5,6 +5,41 @@
  *	(c) 2018--2019 Maria Matejka <mq@jmq.cz>
  *
  *	Can be freely distributed and used under the terms of the GNU GPL.
+ *
+ *	Filter interpreter data structures and internal API.
+ *	The filter code goes through several phases:
+ *
+ *	1  Parsing
+ *	Flex- and Bison-generated parser decodes the human-readable data into
+ *	a struct f_inst tree. This is an infix tree that was interpreted by
+ *	depth-first search execution in previous versions of the interpreter.
+ *	All instructions have their constructor: f_new_inst(FI_code, ...)
+ *	translates into f_new_inst_FI_code(...) and the types are checked in
+ *	compile time.
+ *
+ *	2  Postfixify before interpreting
+ *	The infix tree is always interpreted in the same order. Therefore we
+ *	sort the instructions one after another into struct f_line. Results
+ *	and arguments of these instructions are implicitly put on a value
+ *	stack; e.g. the + operation just takes two arguments from the value
+ *	stack and puts the result on there.
+ *
+ *	3  Interpret
+ *	The given line is put on a custom execution stack. If needed (FI_CALL,
+ *	FI_SWITCH, FI_AND, FI_OR, FI_CONDITION, ...), another line is put on top
+ *	of the stack; when that line finishes, the execution continues on the
+ *	older lines on the stack where it stopped before.
+ *
+ *	4  Same
+ *	On config reload, the filters have to be compared whether channel
+ *	reload is needed or not. The comparison is done by comparing the
+ *	struct f_line's recursively.
+ *
+ *	The main purpose of this rework was to improve filter performance
+ *	by making the interpreter non-recursive.
+ *
+ *	The other outcome is concentration of instruction definitions to
+ *	one place -- filter/f-inst.c
  */
 
 #ifndef _BIRD_F_INST_H_