RFR: 8371716: C2: Phi node fails Value()'s verification when speculative types clash [v3]

[Quan Anh Mai]

On Wed, 19 Nov 2025 13:16:05 GMT, Marc Chevalier <mchevalier at openjdk.org> wrote:

>> This bug was originally found and reported as a Valhalla problem. It quickly became apparent it has no reason to be Valhalla-specific, while I couldn't prove so. Roland managed to make a mainline reproducer. The explanation details my Valhalla investigation, but it has nothing to do with value classes anyway.
>> 
>> The proposed solution seems somewhat controversial. See https://github.com/openjdk/valhalla/pull/1717 for some previous discussion. Before polishing the PR, I'd like to reach an agreement on the way to go.
>> 
>> # Analysis
>> ## Obervationally
>> ### IGVN
>> During IGVN, in `PhiNode::Value`, a `PhiNode` has 2 inputs. Their types are:
>> 
>> in(1): java/lang/Object * (speculative=TestSpeculativeTypes$C2:NotNull:exact * (inline_depth=3))
>> in(2): null
>> 
>> We compute the join (HS' meet):
>> https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/blob/09b25cd0a24a4eaddce49917d958adc667ab5465/src/hotspot/share/opto/cfgnode.cpp#L1299-L1306
>> 
>> t=java/lang/Object * (speculative=compiler/igvn/ClashingSpeculativeTypePhiNode$C2:exact *)
>> 
>> But the current `_type` (of the `PhiNode` as a `TypeNode`) is
>> 
>> _type=java/lang/Object * (speculative=compiler/igvn/ClashingSpeculativeTypePhiNode$C1:exact *)
>> 
>> We filter `t` by `_type`
>> https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/blob/09b25cd0a24a4eaddce49917d958adc667ab5465/src/hotspot/share/opto/cfgnode.cpp#L1321
>> and we get
>> 
>> ft=java/lang/Object *
>> 
>> which is what we return. After the end of `Value`, the returned becomes the new `PhiNode`'s `_type`.
>> https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/blob/09b25cd0a24a4eaddce49917d958adc667ab5465/src/hotspot/share/opto/phaseX.cpp#L2150-L2164
>> and
>> https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/blob/09b25cd0a24a4eaddce49917d958adc667ab5465/src/hotspot/share/opto/node.cpp#L1117-L1123
>> 
>> 
>> ### Verification
>> On verification, `in(1)`, `in(2)` have the same value, so does `t`. But this time
>> 
>> _type=java/lang/Object *
>> 
>> and so after filtering `t` by (new) `_type` and we get
>> 
>> ft=java/lang/Object * (speculative=compiler/igvn/ClashingSpeculativeTypePhiNode$C2:exact *)
>> 
>> which is retuned. Verification gets angry because the new `ft` is not the same as the previous one.
>> 
>> ## But why?!
>> ### Details on type computation
>> In short, we are doing
>> 
>> t = typeof(in(1)) / typeof(in(2))
>> ft  = t /\ _type (* IGVN *)
>> ft' = t /\ ft    (* Verification *)
>> 
>> and observing that `ft != ft'`. It seems our lattice doesn't ensure `(a /\ b) /\ b = a /\ b` which is problematic for this kind of verfication that will just "try again...
>
> Marc Chevalier has updated the pull request incrementally with one additional commit since the last revision:
> 
>   IgnoreUnrecognizedVMOptions

I'm not sure if I'm correct, but I think speculative types themselves may not be consistent. For example, if they are consistent, then you will expect that the profiled types of the return values of a method `a` when calling from method `b` would be a subset of the profiled types of the returned values of `a` in general. However, this may not be the case, as we can ask for the second information first, then another type is introduced, then suddenly a method seems not to return a type `C`, but it does seem to return `C` if calling from `b`. As a result, maybe we can abandon trying to verify the correctness of speculative type computations.

Additionally, in the test case, the speculative type being empty is correct, the path is speculatively unreachable, maybe we can use that information to cut off the branches, simplify the CFG for better compilation?

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PR Comment: https://git.openjdk.org/jdk/pull/28331#issuecomment-3557287250