# ARC Optimization for Swift

*TODO*: This is an evolving document on ARC optimization in the Swift compiler.
Please extend it.

## Contents

* [Terms](#terms)
* [Reference Counting Instructions](#reference-counting-instructions)
* [Memory Behavior of ARC Operations](#memory-behavior-of-arc-operations)
* [ARC and Copying](#arc-and-copying)
* [RC Identity](#rc-identity)
  * [Definitions](#definitions)
  * [Contrasts with Alias Analysis](#contrasts-with-alias-analysis)
  * [What is `retain_value` and why is it important?](#what-is-retain_value-and-why-is-it-important)
  * [Conversions](#conversions)
  * [ARC and Enums](#arc-and-enums)
* [Copy-On-Write Considerations](#copy-on-write-considerations)
  * [`is_unique` instruction](#is_unique-instruction)
  * [`Builtin.isUnique`](#builtinisunique)
* [Semantic Tags](#semantic-tags)
  * [`programtermination_point`](#programtermination_point)
* [Unreachable Code and Lifetimes](#unreachable-code-and-lifetimes)
* [ARC Sequence Optimization](#arc-sequence-optimization)
* [ARC Loop Hoisting](#arc-loop-hoisting)
  * [Abstract](#abstract)
  * [Loop Canonicalization](#loop-canonicalization)
  * [Motivation](#motivation)
  * [Correctness](#correctness)
  * [Compensating Early Exits for Lost Dynamic Reference Counts](#compensating-early-exits-for-lost-dynamic-reference-counts)
  * [Uniqueness Check Complications](#uniqueness-check-complications)
* [Deinit Model](#deinit-model)

## Terms

Some terms that are used often times in this document that must be
defined. These may have more general definitions else where, but we
define them with enough information for our purposes here:

1. Reference type: This is referring to a retainable pointer, not an
aggregate that can contain a reference counted value.
2. A trivial type: A type for which a `retain_value` on a value of this
type is a no-op.

## Reference Counting Instructions

- `strong_retain`
- `strong_release`
- `strong_retain_unowned`
- `unowned_retain`
- `unowned_release`
- `load_weak`
- `store_weak`
- `fix_lifetime`
- `mark_dependence`
- `is_unique`
- `copy_block`

## Memory Behavior of ARC Operations

At SIL level, reference counting and reference checking instructions are
attributed with MayHaveSideEffects to prevent arbitrary passes from
reordering them.

At IR level, retains are marked NoModRef with respect to load and store
instructions so they don't pessimize memory dependence. (Note the
Retains are still considered to write to memory with respect to other
calls because getModRefBehavior is not overridden.) Releases cannot be
marked NoModRef because they can have arbitrary side effects. `is_unique`
calls cannot be marked `NoModRef` because they cannot be reordered with
other operations that may modify the reference count.

*TODO*: Marking runtime calls with `NoModRef` in LLVM is misleading (they write
memory), inconsistent (`getModRefBehavior` returns `Unknown`), and fragile
(e.g. if we inline ARC operations at IR level). To be robust and allow
stronger optimization, TBAA tags should be used to indicate functions
that only access object metadata. This would also enable more LLVM level
optimization in the presence of `is_unique` checks which currently appear
to arbitrarily write memory.

## ARC and Copying

TODO: Talk about how \"ARC\" and copying fit together. This means going
into how retaining/releasing is really \"copying\"/\"destroying\" a
pointer reference where the value that is pointed to does not change
means you don\'t have to change the bits.

Talk about how this fits into `@owned` and `@guaranteed` parameters.

## RC Identity

A core ARC concept in Swift optimization is the concept of
`Reference Count Identity` (RC Identity) and RC Identity preserving
instructions. In this section, we:

1. Define concepts related to RC identity.
2. Contrast RC identity analysis with alias analysis.
3. Discuss instructions/properties that cause certain instructions
which \"seem\" to be RC identical to not be so.

### Definitions

Let `I` be a SIL instruction with n operands and m results. We say that
`I` is a (i, j) RC Identity preserving instruction if performing a
`retain_value` on the ith SSA argument immediately before `I` is
executed is equivalent to performing a `retain_value` on the jth SSA
result of `I` immediately following the execution of `I`. For example in
the following, if:

```sil
retain_value %x
%y = unary_instruction %x
```

is equivalent to:

```sil
%y = unary_instruction %x
retain_value %y
```

then we say that unary_instruction is a (0,0) RC Identity preserving
instruction. In a case of a unary instruction, we omit (0,0) and just
say that the instruction is RC Identity preserving.

*TODO*: This section defines RC identity only for loadable types. We also
need to define it for instructions on addresses and instructions that
mix addresses and values. It should be pretty straight forward to do
this.

Given two SSA values `%a`, `%b`, we define `%a` as immediately RC
identical to `%b` (or `%a ~rci %b`) if there exists an instruction `I`
such that:

- `%a` is the jth result of `I`.
- `%b` is the ith argument of `I`.
- `I` is (i, j) RC identity preserving.

Due to the nature of SSA form, we can not even speak of symmetry or
reflexivity. But we do get transitivity! Easily if `%b ~rci %a` and
`%c ~rci %b`, we must by these two assumptions be able to do the
following:

```sil
retain_value %a
%b = unary_instruction %a
%c = unary_instruction %b
```

which by our assumption means that we can perform the following code
motion:

```sil
%b = unary_instruction %a
%c = unary_instruction %b
retain_value %c
```

our desired result. But we would really like for this operation to be
reflexive and symmetric. To get around this issue, we define the
equivalent relation RC identity as follows: We say that `%a ~rc %b` if:

1. `%a == %b`
2. `%a ~rci %b` or `%b ~rci %a`.
3. There exists a finite sequence of `n` SSA values `{%a[i]}` such
  that:
    * `%a ~rci %a[0]`
    * `%a[i] ~rci %a[i+1]` for all `i < n`.
    * `%a[n] ~rci %b`.

These equivalence classes consisting of chains of RC identical values
are computed via the SILAnalysis called `RC Identity Analysis`. By
performing ARC optimization on RC Identical operations, our
optimizations are able to operate on the level of granularity that we
actually care about, ignoring superficial changes in SSA form that still
yield manipulations of the same reference count.

*NOTE*: `RCIdentityAnalysis` is a flow insensitive analysis. Dataflow that needs
to be flow sensitive must handle phi nodes in the dataflow itself.

### Contrasts with Alias Analysis

A common question is what is the difference in between RC Identity
analysis and alias analysis. While alias analysis is attempting to
determine if two memory locations are the same, RC identity analysis is
attempting to determine if reference counting operations on different
values would result in the same reference count being read or written
to.

Some interesting examples of where RC identity differs from alias
analysis are:

- `struct` is an RC identity preserving operation if the `struct`
literal only has one non-trivial operand. This means for instance
that any struct with one reference counted field used as an owning
pointer is RC Identical with its owning pointer (a useful property
for `Array`s).
- An `enum` instruction is always RC Identical with the given tuple
payload.
- A `tuple` instruction is an RC identity preserving operation if
the `tuple` literal has one non-trivial operand.
- `init_class_existential` is an RC identity preserving operation
since performing a retain_value on a class existential is
equivalent to performing a retain_value on the class itself.

The corresponding value projection operations have analogous properties.

*NOTE*: An important consequence of RC Identity is that value types with only
one RCIdentity are a simple case for ARC optimization to handle. The ARC
optimizer relies on other optimizations like SROA, Function Signature
Opts, and SimplifyCFG (for block arguments) to try and eliminate cases
where value types have multiple reference counted subtypes. If one has a
struct type with multiple reference counted sub fields, wrapping the
struct in a COW data structure (for instance storing the struct in an
array of one element) will reduce the reference count overhead.

### What is `retain_value` and why is it important?

Notice in the section above how we defined RC identity using the SIL
`retain_value` instruction. `retain_value` and `release_value` are the
catch-all please retain or please release this value at the SIL level.
The following table is a quick summary of what `retain_value`
(`release_value`) does when applied to various types of objects:

|Ownership  |Type          |Effect|
|-----------|--------------|------------------------------------------------------|
|Strong     | Class        | Increment strong ref count of class|
|Any        | Struct/Tuple | retain_value each field|
|Any        | Enum         | switch on the enum and apply `retain_value` to the enum case's payload (if it exists)|
|Unowned    | Class        | Increment the unowned ref count of class |


**Notice**: Aggregate value types like struct/tuple/enums's definitions are defined
recursively via retain_value on payloads/fields. This is why operations
like `struct_extract` do not always propagate RC identity.

### Conversions

Conversions are a common operation that propagate RC identity. But not
all conversions have these properties. In this section, we attempt to
explain why this is true. The rule for conversions is that a conversion
that preserves RC identity must have the following properties:

1.  Both of its arguments must be non-trivial values with the same
    ownership semantics (i.e. unowned, strong, weak). This means that
    the following conversions do not propagate RC identity:

    - `address_to_pointer`
    - `pointer_to_address`
    - `unchecked_trivial_bitcast`
    - `ref_to_raw_pointer`
    - `raw_pointer_to_ref`
    - `ref_to_unowned`
    - `unowned_to_ref`
    - `ref_to_unmanaged`
    - `unmanaged_to_ref`

    The reason why we want the ownership semantics to be the same is
    that whenever there is a change in ownership semantics, we want the
    programmer to explicitly reason about the change in ownership
    semantics.

2.  The instruction must not introduce type aliasing. This disqualifies
    such casts as:

    - `unchecked_addr_cast`
    - `unchecked_bitwise_cast`

This means in sum that conversions that preserve types and preserve
non-trivialness are the interesting instructions.

### ARC and Enums

Enum types provide interesting challenges for ARC optimization. This is
because if there exists one case where an enum is non-trivial, the
aggregate type in all situations must be treated as if it is
non-trivial. An important consideration here is that when performing ARC
optimization on cases, one has to be very careful about ensuring that
one only ignores reference count operations on values that are able to
be proved to be that specific case.

*TODO*: This section needs to be filled out more.

## Copy-On-Write Considerations

The copy-on-write capabilities of some data structures, such as Array
and Set, are efficiently implemented via Builtin.isUnique calls which
lower directly to is_unique instructions in SIL.

The is_unique instruction takes the address of a reference, and although
it does not actually change the reference, the reference must appear
mutable to the optimizer. This forces the optimizer to preserve a retain
distinct from what's required to maintain lifetime for any of the
reference's source-level copies, because the called function is allowed
to replace the reference, thereby releasing the referent. Consider the
following sequence of rules:

1. An operation taking the address of a variable is allowed to replace
the reference held by that variable. The fact that is_unique will
not actually replace it is opaque to the optimizer.
2. If the refcount is 1 when the reference is replaced, the referent is
deallocated.
3. A different source-level variable pointing at the same referent must
not be changed/invalidated by such a call.
4. If such a variable exists, the compiler must guarantee the refcount
is \> 1 going into the call.

With the is_unique instruction, the variable whose reference is being
checked for uniqueness appears mutable at the level of an individual SIL
instruction. After IRGen, is_unique instructions are expanded into
runtime calls that no longer take the address of the variable.
Consequently, LLVM-level ARC optimization must be more conservative. It
must not remove retain/release pairs of this form:

```sil
retain X
retain X
_swift_isUniquelyReferenced(X)
release X
release X
```

To prevent removal of the apparently redundant inner retain/release
pair, the LLVM ARC optimizer should model `_swift_isUniquelyReferenced`
as a function that may release X, use X, and exit the program (the
subsequent release instruction does not prove safety).

### `is_unique` instruction

As explained above, the SIL-level is_unique instruction enforces the
semantics of uniqueness checks in the presence of ARC optimization. The
kind of reference count checking that is_unique performs depends on the
argument type:

- Native object types are directly checked by reading the strong
reference count: (Builtin.NativeObject, known native class
reference)
- Objective-C object types require an additional check that the
dynamic object type uses native Swift reference counting: (unknown
class reference, class existential)
- Bridged object types allow the dynamic object type check to be
bypassed based on the pointer encoding: (Builtin.BridgeObject)

Any of the above types may also be wrapped in an optional. If the static
argument type is optional, then a null check is also performed.

Thus, is_unique only returns true for non-null, native Swift object
references with a strong reference count of one.

### `Builtin.isUnique`

`Builtin.isUnique` gives the standard library access to optimization safe
uniqueness checking. Because the type of reference check is derived from
the builtin argument\'s static type, the most efficient check is
automatically generated. However, in some cases, the standard library
can dynamically determine that it has a native reference even though the
static type is a bridge or unknown object. Unsafe variants of the
builtin are available to allow the additional pointer bit mask and
dynamic class lookup to be bypassed in these cases:

- `isUnique_native: <T> (inout T[?]) -> Int1`

These builtins perform an implicit cast to NativeObject before checking
uniqueness. There\'s no way at SIL level to cast the address of a
reference, so we need to encapsulate this operation as part of the
builtin.

## Semantic Tags

ARC takes advantage of certain semantic tags. This section documents
these semantics and their meanings.

### `programtermination_point`

If this semantic tag is applied to a function, then we know that:

- The function does not touch any reference counted objects.
- After the function is executed, all reference counted objects are
leaked (most likely in preparation for program termination).

This allows one, when performing ARC code motion, to ignore blocks that
contain an apply to this function as long as the block does not have any
other side effect having instructions.

## Unreachable Code and Lifetimes

The general case of unreachable code in terms of lifetime balancing has
further interesting properties. Namely, an unreachable and `noreturn`
functions signify a scope that has been split. This means that objects
that are alive in that scope\'s lifetime may never end. This means that:

1. While we can not ignore all such unreachable terminated blocks for
ARC purposes for instance, if we sink a retain past a br into a non
`programtermination_point` block, we must sink the retain into the block.

2. If we are able to infer that an object\'s lifetime scope would never
end due to the unreachable/no-return function, then we do not need to
end the lifetime of the object early. An example of a situation where
this can happen is with closure specialization. In closure
specialization, we clone a caller that takes in a closure and create a
copy of the closure in the caller with the specific closure. This allows
for the closure to be eliminated in the specialized function and other
optimizations to come into play. Since the lifetime of the original
closure extended past any assertions in the original function, we do not
need to insert releases in such locations to maintain program behavior.

## ARC Sequence Optimization

*TODO*: Fill this in.

## ARC Loop Hoisting

### Abstract

This section describes the ARCLoopHoisting algorithm that hoists retains
and releases out of loops. This is a high level description that
justifies the correction of the algorithm and describes its design. In
the following discussion we talk about the algorithm conceptually and
show its safety and considerations necessary for good performance.

*NOTE*: In the following when we refer to \"hoisting\", we are not just talking
about upward code motion of retains, but also downward code motion of
releases.

### Loop Canonicalization

In the following we assume that all loops are canonicalized such that:

1.  The loop has a pre-header.
2.  The loop has one backedge.
3.  All exiting edges have a unique exit block.

### Motivation

Consider the following simple loop:

```sil
bb0:
  br bb1

bb1:
  retain %x                    (1)
  apply %f(%x)
  apply %f(%x)
  release %x                   (2)
  cond_br ..., bb1, bb2

bb2:
  return ...
```

When it is safe to hoist (1),(2) out of the loop? Imagine if we know the
trip count of the loop is 3 and completely unroll the loop so the whole
function is one basic block. In such a case, we know the function looks
as follows:

```sil
bb0:
  # Loop Iteration 0
  retain %x
  apply %f(%x)
  apply %f(%x)
  release %x                   (4)

  # Loop Iteration 1
  retain %x                    (5)
  apply %f(%x)
  apply %f(%x)
  release %x                   (6)

  # Loop Iteration 2
  retain %x                    (7)
  apply %f(%x)
  apply %f(%x)
  release %x

  return ...
```

Notice how (3) can be paired with (4) and (5) can be paired with (6).
Assume that we eliminate those. Then the function looks as follows:

```sil
bb0:
  # Loop Iteration 0
  retain %x
  apply %f(%x)
  apply %f(%x)

  # Loop Iteration 1
  apply %f(%x)
  apply %f(%x)

  # Loop Iteration 2
  apply %f(%x)
  apply %f(%x)
  release %x

  return ...
```

We can then re-roll the loop, yielding the following loop:

```sil
bb0:
  retain %x                    (8)
  br bb1

bb1:
  apply %f(%x)
  apply %f(%x)
  cond_br ..., bb1, bb2

bb2:
  release %x                   (9)
  return ...
```

Notice that this transformation is equivalent to just hoisting (1) and
(2) out of the loop in the original example. This form of hoisting is
what is termed \"ARCLoopHoisting\". What is key to notice is that even
though we are performing \"hoisting\" we are actually pairing releases
from one iteration with retains in the next iteration and then
eliminating the pairs. This realization will guide our further analysis.

### Correctness

In this simple loop case, the proof of correctness is very simple to see
conceptually. But in a more general case, when is safe to perform this
optimization? We must consider three areas of concern:

1. Are the retains/releases upon the same reference count? This can be
found conservatively by using `RCIdentityAnalysis`.
2. Can we move retains, releases in the unrolled case as we have
specified? This is simple since it is always safe to move a retain
earlier and a release later in the dynamic execution of a program.
This can only extend the life of a variable which is a legal and
generally profitable in terms of allowing for this optimization.
3. How do we pair all necessary retains/releases to ensure we do not
unbalance retain/release counts in the loop? Consider a set of
retains and a set of releases that we wish to hoist out of a loop.
We can only hoist the retain, release sets out of the loop if all
paths in the given loop region from the entrance to the backedge
have exactly one retain or release from this set.
4. Any early exits that we must move a retain past or a release by must
be compensated appropriately. This will be discussed in the next
section.

Assuming that our optimization does all of these things, we should be
able to hoist with safety.

### Compensating Early Exits for Lost Dynamic Reference Counts

Let\'s say that we have the following loop canonicalized SIL:

```sil
bb0(%0 : $Builtin.NativeObject):
  br bb1

bb1:
  strong_retain %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject
  apply %f(%0)
  apply %f(%0)
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject
  cond_br ..., bb2, bb3

bb2:
  cond_br ..., bb1, bb4

bb3:
  br bb5

bb4:
  br bb5

bb6:
  return ...
```

Can we hoist the retain/release pair here? Let\'s assume the loop is 3
iterations and we completely unroll it. Then we have:

```sil
bb0:
  strong_retain %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject               (1)
  apply %f(%0)
  apply %f(%0)
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject              (2)
  cond_br ..., bb1, bb4

bb1: // preds: bb0
  strong_retain %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject               (3)
  apply %f(%0)
  apply %f(%0)
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject              (4)
  cond_br ..., bb2, bb4

bb2: // preds: bb1
  strong_retain %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject               (5)
  apply %f(%0)
  apply %f(%0)
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject              (6)
  cond_br ..., bb3, bb4

bb3: // preds: bb2
  br bb5

bb4: // preds: bb0, bb1, bb2
  br bb5

bb5: // preds: bb3, bb4
  return ...
```

We want to be able to pair and eliminate (2)/(3) and (4)/(5). In order
to do that, we need to move (2) from `bb0` into `bb1` and (4) from `bb1` into
`bb2`. In order to do this, we need to move a release along all paths into
`bb4` lest we lose dynamic releases along that path. We also sink (6) in
order to not have an extra release along that path. This then give us:

```sil
bb0:
  strong_retain %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject               (1)

bb1:
  apply %f(%0)
  apply %f(%0)
  cond_br ..., bb2, bb3

bb2:
  cond_br ..., bb1, bb4

bb3:
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject              (6*)
  br bb5

bb4:
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject              (7*)
  br bb5

bb5: // preds: bb3, bb4
  return ...
```

An easy inductive proof follows.

What if we have the opposite problem, that of moving a retain past an
early exit. Consider the following:

```sil
bb0(%0 : $Builtin.NativeObject):
  br bb1

bb1:
  cond_br ..., bb2, bb3

bb2:
  strong_retain %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject
  apply %f(%0)
  apply %f(%0)
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject
  cond_br ..., bb1, bb4

bb3:
  br bb5

bb4:
  br bb5

bb6:
  return ...
```

Let\'s unroll this loop:

```sil
bb0(%0 : $Builtin.NativeObject):
  br bb1

# Iteration 1
bb1: // preds: bb0
  cond_br ..., bb2, bb8

bb2: // preds: bb1
  strong_retain %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject               (1)
  apply %f(%0)
  apply %f(%0)
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject              (2)
  br bb3

# Iteration 2
bb3: // preds: bb2
  cond_br ..., bb4, bb8

bb4: // preds: bb3
  strong_retain %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject               (3)
  apply %f(%0)
  apply %f(%0)
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject              (4)
  br bb5

# Iteration 3
bb5: // preds: bb4
  cond_br ..., bb6, bb8

bb6: // preds: bb5
  strong_retain %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject               (5)
  apply %f(%0)
  apply %f(%0)
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject              (6)
  cond_br ..., bb7, bb8

bb7: // preds: bb6
  br bb9

bb8: // Preds: bb1, bb3, bb5, bb6
  br bb9

bb9:
  return ...
```

First we want to move the retain into the previous iteration. This means
that we have to move a retain over the `cond_br` in `bb1`, `bb3`, `bb5`. If we
were to do that then `bb8` would have an extra dynamic retain along that
path. In order to fix that issue, we need to balance that release by
putting a release in `bb8`. But we cannot move a release into `bb8` without
considering the terminator of `bb6` since `bb6` is also a predecessor of
`bb8`. Luckily, we have (6). Notice that `bb7` has one predecessor to `bb6` so
we can safely move 1 release along that path as well. Thus we perform
that code motion, yielding the following:

```sil
bb0(%0 : $Builtin.NativeObject):
  br bb1

# Iteration 1
bb1: // preds: bb0
  strong_retain %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject               (1)
  cond_br ..., bb2, bb8

bb2: // preds: bb1
  apply %f(%0)
  apply %f(%0)
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject              (2)
  br bb3

# Iteration 2
bb3: // preds: bb2
  strong_retain %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject               (3)
  cond_br ..., bb4, bb8

bb4: // preds: bb3
  apply %f(%0)
  apply %f(%0)
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject              (4)
  br bb5

# Iteration 3
bb5: // preds: bb4
  strong_retain %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject               (5)
  cond_br ..., bb6, bb8

bb6: // preds: bb5
  apply %f(%0)
  apply %f(%0)
  cond_br ..., bb7, bb8

bb7: // preds: bb6
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject              (7*)
  br bb9

bb8: // Preds: bb1, bb3, bb5, bb6
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject              (8*)
  br bb9

bb9:
  return ...
```

Then we move (1), (3), (4) into the single predecessor of their parent
block and eliminate (3), (5) through a pairing with (2), (4)
respectively. This yields then:

```sil
bb0(%0 : $Builtin.NativeObject):
  strong_retain %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject               (1)
  br bb1

# Iteration 1
bb1: // preds: bb0
  cond_br ..., bb2, bb8

bb2: // preds: bb1
  apply %f(%0)
  apply %f(%0)
  br bb3

# Iteration 2
bb3: // preds: bb2
  cond_br ..., bb4, bb8

bb4: // preds: bb3
  apply %f(%0)
  apply %f(%0)
  br bb5

# Iteration 3
bb5: // preds: bb4
  cond_br ..., bb6, bb8

bb6: // preds: bb5
  apply %f(%0)
  apply %f(%0)
  cond_br ..., bb7, bb8

bb7: // preds: bb6
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject              (7*)
  br bb9

bb8: // Preds: bb1, bb3, bb5, bb6
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject              (8*)
  br bb9

bb9:
  return ...
```

Then we finish by rerolling the loop:

```sil
bb0(%0 : $Builtin.NativeObject):
  strong_retain %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject               (1)
  br bb1

# Iteration 1
bb1: // preds: bb0
  cond_br ..., bb2, bb8

bb2:
  apply %f(%0)
  apply %f(%0)
  cond_br bb1, bb7

bb7:
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject              (7*)
  br bb9

bb8: // Preds: bb1, bb3, bb5, bb6
  strong_release %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject              (8*)
  br bb9

bb9:
  return ...
```

### Uniqueness Check Complications

A final concern that we must consider is if we introduce extra copy on
write copies through our optimization. To see this, consider the
following simple IR sequence:

```sil
bb0(%0 : $Builtin.NativeObject):
  // refcount(%0) == n
  is_unique %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject
  // refcount(%0) == n
  strong_retain %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject
  // refcount(%0) == n+1
```

If n is not 1, then trivially `is_unique` will return false. So assume
that n is 1 for our purposes so no copy is occurring here. Thus we have:

```sil
bb0(%0 : $Builtin.NativeObject):
  // refcount(%0) == 1
  is_unique %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject
  // refcount(%0) == 1
  strong_retain %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject
  // refcount(%0) == 2
```

Now imagine that we move the `strong_retain` before the `is_unique`. Then we
have:

```sil
bb0(%0 : $Builtin.NativeObject):
  // refcount(%0) == 1
  strong_retain %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject
  // refcount(%0) == 2
  is_unique %0 : $Builtin.NativeObject
```

Thus `is_unique` is guaranteed to return false introducing a copy that was
not needed. We wish to avoid that if it is at all possible.

## Deinit Model

The semantics around deinits in swift are a common area of confusion.
This section is not attempting to state where the deinit model may be in
the future, but is just documenting where things are today in the hopes
of improving clarity.

The following characteristics of deinits are important to the optimizer:

1. deinits run on the same thread and are not asynchronous like Java
finalizers.
2. deinits are not sequenced with regards to each other or code in
normal control flow.
3. If the optimizer takes advantage of the lack of sequencing it must
do so in a way that preserves memory safety.

Consider the following pseudo-Swift example:

```swift
class D {}
class D1 : D {}
class D2 : D {}

var GLOBAL_D : D = D1()

class C { deinit { GLOBAL_D = D2() } }

func main() {
  let c = C()
  let d = GLOBAL_D
  useC(c)
  useD(d)
}

main()
```

Assume that `useC` does not directly in any way touch an instance of class
`D` except via the destructor.

Since memory operations in normal control flow are not sequenced with
respect to deinits, there are two correct programs here that the
optimizer can produce: the original and the one where `useC(c)` and
`GLOBAL_D` are swapped, i.e.:

```swift
func main() {
  let c = C()
  useC(c)
  let d = GLOBAL_D
  useD(d)
}
```

In the first program, `d` would be an instance of class `D1`. In the second,
it would be an instance of class `D2`. Notice how in both programs though,
no deinitialized object is accessed. On the other hand, imagine if we
had split main like so:

```swift
func main() {
  let c = C()
  let d = unsafe_unowned_load(GLOBAL_D)
  useC(c)
  let owned_d = retain(d)
  useD(owned_d)
}
```

In this case, we would be passing off to `useD` a deallocated instance of
class `D1` which would be undefined behavior. An optimization that
produced such code would be a miscompile.