1# Table-driven Declarative Rewrite Rule (DRR)
2
3In addition to subclassing the `mlir::RewritePattern` C++ class, MLIR also
4supports defining rewrite rules in a declarative manner. Similar to
5[Op Definition Specification](OpDefinitions.md) (ODS), this is achieved via
6[TableGen][TableGen], which is a language to maintain records of domain-specific
7information. The rewrite rules are specified concisely in a TableGen record,
8which will be expanded into an equivalent `mlir::RewritePattern` subclass at
9compiler build time.
10
11This manual explains in detail all of the available mechanisms for defining
12rewrite rules in such a declarative manner. It aims to be a specification
13instead of a tutorial. Please refer to
14[Quickstart tutorial to adding MLIR graph rewrite](Tutorials/QuickstartRewrites.md)
15for the latter.
16
17Given that declarative rewrite rules depend on op definition specification, this
18manual assumes knowledge of the [ODS](OpDefinitions.md) doc.
19
20## Benefits
21
22Compared to the hand-written C++ classes, this declarative approach has several
23benefits, including but not limited to:
24
25*   **Being declarative**: The pattern creator just needs to state the rewrite
26    pattern declaratively, without worrying about the concrete C++ methods to
27    call.
28*   **Removing boilerplate and showing the very essence of the rewrite**:
29    `mlir::RewritePattern` is already good at hiding boilerplate for defining a
30    rewrite rule. But we still need to write the class and function structures
31    required by the C++ programming language, inspect ops for matching, and call
32    op `build()` methods for constructing. These statements are typically quite
33    simple and similar, so they can be further condensed with auto-generation.
34    Because we reduce the boilerplate to the bare minimum, the declarative
35    rewrite rule will just contain the very essence of the rewrite. This makes
36    it very easy to understand the pattern.
37
38## Strengths and Limitations
39
40The declarative rewrite rule is **operation-based**: it describes a rule to
41match against a directed acyclic graph (DAG) of operations and generate DAGs of
42operations. This gives DRR both its strengths and limitations: it is good at
43expressing op to op conversions, but not that well suited for, say, converting
44an op into a loop nest.
45
46Per the current implementation, DRR does not have good support for the following
47features:
48
49*   Matching and generating ops with regions.
50*   Matching and generating ops with block arguments.
51*   Matching multi-result ops in nested patterns.
52*   Matching and generating variadic operand/result ops in nested patterns.
53*   Packing and unpacking variadic operands/results during generation.
54*   [`NativeCodeCall`](#nativecodecall-transforming-the-generated-op) returning
55    more than one results.
56
57## Rule Definition
58
59The core construct for defining a rewrite rule is defined in
60[`OpBase.td`][OpBase] as
61
62```tablegen
63class Pattern<
64    dag sourcePattern, list<dag> resultPatterns,
65    list<dag> additionalConstraints = [],
66    dag benefitsAdded = (addBenefit 0)>;
67```
68
69A declarative rewrite rule contains two main components:
70
71*   A _source pattern_, which is used for matching a DAG of operations.
72*   One or more _result patterns_, which are used for generating DAGs of
73    operations to replace the matched DAG of operations.
74
75We allow multiple result patterns to support
76[multi-result ops](#supporting-multi-result-ops) and
77[auxiliary ops](#supporting-auxiliary-ops), but frequently we just want to
78convert one DAG of operations to another DAG of operations. There is a handy
79wrapper of `Pattern`, `Pat`, which takes a single result pattern:
80
81```tablegen
82class Pat<
83    dag sourcePattern, dag resultPattern,
84    list<dag> additionalConstraints = [],
85    dag benefitsAdded = (addBenefit 0)> :
86  Pattern<sourcePattern, [resultPattern], additionalConstraints, benefitAdded>;
87```
88
89Each pattern is specified as a TableGen `dag` object with the syntax of
90`(operator arg0, arg1, ...)`.
91
92`operator` is typically an MLIR op, but it can also be other
93[directives](#rewrite-directives). `argN` is for matching (if used in source
94pattern) or generating (if used in result pattern) the `N`-th argument for
95`operator`. If the `operator` is some MLIR operation, it means the `N`-th
96argument as specified in the `arguments` list of the op's definition. Therefore,
97we say op argument specification in pattern is **position-based**: the position
98where they appear matters.
99
100`argN` can be a `dag` object itself, thus we can have nested `dag` tree to model
101the def-use relationship between ops.
102
103### Source pattern
104
105The source pattern is for matching a DAG of operations. Arguments in the `dag`
106object are intended to **capture** the op arguments. They can also be used to
107**further limit** the match criteria. The capturing is done by specifying a
108symbol starting with the `$` sign, while further constraints are introduced by
109specifying a `TypeConstraint` (for an operand) or a `AttrConstraint` (for an
110attribute).
111
112#### Binding op arguments and limiting the match
113
114For example,
115
116```tablegen
117def AOp : Op<"a_op"> {
118    let arguments = (ins
119      AnyType:$a_input,
120      AnyAttr:$a_attr
121    );
122
123    let results = (outs
124      AnyType:$a_output
125    );
126}
127
128def : Pat<(AOp $input, F32Attr:$attr), ...>;
129```
130
131In the above, we are matching an `AOp` whose `$input` can be anything valid as
132defined by the op and whose `$attr` must be a float attribute. If the match
133succeeds, we bind the `$input` symbol to the op's only input (`$a_input`) and
134`$attr` to the only attribute (`$a_attr`); we can reference them using `$input`
135and `$attr` in result patterns and additional constraints.
136
137The pattern is position-based: the symbol names used for capturing here do not
138need to match with the op definition as shown in the above example. As another
139example, the pattern can be written as `def : Pat<(AOp $a, F32Attr:$b), ...>;`
140and use `$a` and `$b` to refer to the captured input and attribute. But using
141the ODS name directly in the pattern is also allowed. Operands in the source
142pattern can have the same name. This bounds one operand to the name while
143verifying the rest are all equal.
144
145Also note that we only need to add `TypeConstraint` or `AttributeConstraint`
146when we need to further limit the match criteria. If all valid cases to the op
147are acceptable, then we can leave the constraint unspecified.
148
149`$_` is a special symbol to mean ignore capturing an argument. For example,
150`def : Pat<(AOp $_, $b), ...>` means only `$b` is interesting to capture and
151will be referenced later in result patterns. It's still possible to place
152additional constraints even if the symbol is not to be captured; for such case,
153you can simply use just the `TypeConstraint` or `AttributeConstraint` without a
154bound symbol, for example, `def : Pat<(AOp $a, F32Attr), ...>`.
155
156#### Matching DAG of operations
157
158To match a DAG of ops, use nested `dag` objects:
159
160```tablegen
161
162def BOp : Op<"b_op"> {
163    let arguments = (ins);
164
165    let results = (outs
166      AnyType:$b_output
167    );
168}
169
170
171def : Pat<(AOp (BOp), $attr), ...>;
172```
173
174The above pattern matches an `AOp` whose only operand is generated by a `BOp`,
175that is, the following MLIR code:
176
177```mlir
178%0 = "b_op"() : () -> (...)
179%1 = "a_op"(%0) {attr: ...} : () -> (...)
180```
181
182#### Binding op results
183
184To bind a symbol to the results of a matched op for later reference, attach the
185symbol to the op itself:
186
187```tablegen
188def : Pat<(AOp (BOp:$b_result), $attr), ...>;
189```
190
191The above will bind `$b_result` to the matched `BOp`'s result. (There are more
192details regarding multi-result ops, which is covered
193[later](#supporting-multi-result-ops).)
194
195### Result pattern
196
197The result pattern is for generating a DAG of operations. Arguments in the `dag`
198object are intended to **reference** values captured in the source pattern and
199potentially **apply transformations**.
200
201#### Referencing bound symbols
202
203For example,
204
205```tablegen
206def COp : Op<"c_op"> {
207    let arguments = (ins
208      AnyType:$c_input,
209      AnyAttr:$c_attr
210    );
211
212    let results = (outs
213      AnyType:$c_output
214    );
215}
216
217def : Pat<(AOp $input, $attr), (COp $input, $attr)>;
218```
219
220In the above, `AOp`'s only operand and attribute are bound to `$input` and
221`$attr`, respectively. We then reference them in the result pattern for
222generating the `COp` by passing them in as arguments to `COp`'s `build()`
223method.
224
225We can also reference symbols bound to matched op's results:
226
227```tablegen
228def : Pat<(AOp (BOp:$b_result) $attr), (COp $b_result $attr)>;
229```
230
231In the above, we are using `BOp`'s result for building `COp`.
232
233#### Building operations
234
235Given that `COp` was specified with table-driven op definition, there will be
236several `build()` methods generated for it. One of them has aggregated
237parameters for result types, operands, and attributes in the signature: `void
238COp::build(..., ArrayRef<Type> resultTypes, Array<Value> operands,
239ArrayRef<NamedAttribute> attr)`. The pattern in the above calls this `build()`
240method for constructing the `COp`.
241
242In general, arguments in the result pattern will be passed directly to the
243`build()` method to leverage the auto-generated `build()` method, list them in
244the pattern by following the exact same order as the ODS `arguments` definition.
245Otherwise, a custom `build()` method that matches the argument list is required.
246
247Right now all ODS-generated `build()` methods require specifying the result
248type(s), unless the op has known traits like `SameOperandsAndResultType` that we
249can use to auto-generate a `build()` method with result type deduction. When
250generating an op to replace the result of the matched root op, we can use the
251matched root op's result type when calling the ODS-generated builder. Otherwise
252(e.g., generating an [auxiliary op](#supporting-auxiliary-ops) or generating an
253op with a nested result pattern), DRR will not be able to deduce the result
254type(s). The pattern author will need to define a custom builder that has result
255type deduction ability via `OpBuilder` in ODS. For example, in the following
256pattern
257
258```tablegen
259def : Pat<(AOp $input, $attr), (COp (AOp $input, $attr) $attr)>;
260```
261
262`AOp` is generated via a nested result pattern; DRR won't be able to deduce the
263result type for it. A custom builder for `AOp` should be defined and it should
264deduce the result type by itself. The builder should have the separate parameter
265for each operand and attribute and deduce the result type internally by itself.
266For example, for the above `AOp`, a possible builder is:
267
268```c++
269
270void AOp::build(OpBuilder &builder, OperationState &state,
271                Value input, Attribute attr) {
272  state.addOperands({input});
273  state.addAttribute("a_attr", attr);
274  Type type = ...; // Deduce result type here
275  state.addTypes({type});
276}
277```
278
279Failing to define such a builder will result in an error at C++ compilation time
280saying the call to `AOp::build()` cannot be resolved because of the number of
281parameters mismatch.
282
283#### Generating DAG of operations
284
285`dag` objects can be nested to generate a DAG of operations:
286
287```tablegen
288def : Pat<(AOp $input, $attr), (COp (BOp), $attr)>;
289```
290
291In the above, we generate a `BOp`, and then use its result to generate the `COp`
292to replace the matched `AOp`.
293
294#### Binding op results
295
296In the result pattern, we can bind to the result(s) of a newly built op by
297attaching symbols to the op. (But we **cannot** bind to op arguments given that
298they are referencing previously bound symbols.) This is useful for reusing newly
299created results where suitable. For example,
300
301```tablegen
302def DOp : Op<"d_op"> {
303    let arguments = (ins
304      AnyType:$d_input1,
305      AnyType:$d_input2,
306    );
307
308    let results = (outs
309      AnyType:$d_output
310    );
311}
312
313def : Pat<(AOp $input, $ignored_attr), (DOp (BOp:$b_result) $b_result)>;
314```
315
316In this pattern, an `AOp` is matched and replaced with a `DOp` whose two
317operands are from the result of a single `BOp`. This is only possible by binding
318the result of the `BOp` to a name and reuse it for the second operand of the
319`DOp`
320
321#### `NativeCodeCall`: transforming the generated op
322
323Sometimes the captured arguments are not exactly what we want so they cannot be
324directly fed in as arguments to build the new op. For such cases, we can apply
325transformations on the arguments by calling into C++ helper functions. This is
326achieved by `NativeCodeCall`.
327
328For example, if we want to capture some op's attributes and group them as an
329array attribute to construct a new op:
330
331```tablegen
332
333def TwoAttrOp : Op<"two_attr_op"> {
334    let arguments = (ins
335      AnyAttr:$op_attr1,
336      AnyAttr:$op_attr2
337    );
338
339    let results = (outs
340      AnyType:$op_output
341    );
342}
343
344def OneAttrOp : Op<"one_attr_op"> {
345    let arguments = (ins
346      ArrayAttr:$op_attr
347    );
348
349    let results = (outs
350      AnyType:$op_output
351    );
352}
353```
354
355We can write a C++ helper function:
356
357```c++
358Attribute createArrayAttr(Builder &builder, Attribute a, Attribute b) {
359  return builder.getArrayAttr({a, b});
360}
361```
362
363And then write the pattern as:
364
365```tablegen
366def createArrayAttr : NativeCodeCall<"createArrayAttr($_builder, $0, $1)">;
367
368def : Pat<(TwoAttrOp $attr1, $attr2),
369          (OneAttrOp (createArrayAttr $attr1, $attr2))>;
370```
371
372And make sure the generated C++ code from the above pattern has access to the
373definition of the C++ helper function.
374
375In the above example, we are using a string to specialize the `NativeCodeCall`
376template. The string can be an arbitrary C++ expression that evaluates into some
377C++ object expected at the `NativeCodeCall` site (here it would be expecting an
378array attribute). Typically the string should be a function call.
379
380##### `NativeCodeCall` placeholders
381
382In `NativeCodeCall`, we can use placeholders like `$_builder`, `$N` and `$N...`.
383The former is called _special placeholder_, while the latter is called
384_positional placeholder_ and _positional range placeholder_.
385
386`NativeCodeCall` right now only supports three special placeholders:
387`$_builder`, `$_loc`, and `$_self`:
388
389*   `$_builder` will be replaced by the current `mlir::PatternRewriter`.
390*   `$_loc` will be replaced by the fused location or custom location (as
391    determined by location directive).
392*   `$_self` will be replaced by the defining operation in a source pattern.
393
394We have seen how `$_builder` can be used in the above; it allows us to pass a
395`mlir::Builder` (`mlir::PatternRewriter` is a subclass of `mlir::OpBuilder`,
396which is a subclass of `mlir::Builder`) to the C++ helper function to use the
397handy methods on `mlir::Builder`.
398
399Here's an example how we should use `$_self` in source pattern,
400
401```tablegen
402
403def : Pat<(OneAttrOp (NativeCodeCall<"Foo($_self, &$0)"> I32Attr:$val)),
404          (TwoAttrOp $val, $val)>;
405```
406
407In the above, `$_self` is substituted by the defining operation of the first
408operand of OneAttrOp. Note that we don't support binding name to NativeCodeCall
409in the source pattern. To carry some return values from helper function, put the
410names (constraint is optional) in the parameter list and they will be bound to
411the variables with correspoding type. Then these named must be either passed by
412reference or a pointer to variable used as argument so that the matched value
413can be returned. In the same example, `$val` will be bound to a variable with
414`Attribute` type(as `I32Attr`) and the type of the second argument in Foo()
415could be `Attribute&` or `Attribute*`. Names with attribute constraints will be
416captured as Attributes while everything else will be treated as Value.
417
418Positional placeholders will be substituted by the `dag` object parameters at
419the `NativeCodeCall` use site. For example, if we define `SomeCall :
420NativeCodeCall<"someFn($1, $2, $0)">` and use it like `(SomeCall $in0, $in1,
421$in2)`, then this will be translated into C++ call `someFn($in1, $in2, $in0)`.
422
423Positional range placeholders will be substituted by multiple `dag` object
424parameters at the `NativeCodeCall` use site. For example, if we define
425`SomeCall : NativeCodeCall<"someFn($1...)">` and use it like `(SomeCall $in0,
426$in1, $in2)`, then this will be translated into C++ call `someFn($in1, $in2)`.
427
428##### `NativeCodeCall` binding multi-results
429
430To bind multi-results and access the N-th result with `$<name>__N`, specify the
431number of return values in the template. Note that only `Value` type is
432supported for multiple results binding. For example,
433
434```tablegen
435
436def PackAttrs : NativeCodeCall<"packAttrs($0, $1)", 2>;
437def : Pattern<(TwoResultOp $attr1, $attr2),
438              [(OneResultOp (PackAttr:$res__0, $attr1, $attr2)),
439               (OneResultOp $res__1)]>;
440
441```
442
443Use `NativeCodeCallVoid` for case has no return value.
444
445The correct number of returned value specified in NativeCodeCall is important.
446It will be used to verify the consistency of the number of result values.
447Additionally, `mlir-tblgen` will try to capture the return value of
448NativeCodeCall in the generated code so that it will trigger a later compilation
449error if a NativeCodeCall that doesn't return a result isn't labeled with 0
450returns.
451
452##### Customizing entire op building
453
454`NativeCodeCall` is not only limited to transforming arguments for building an
455op; it can be also used to specify how to build an op entirely. An example:
456
457If we have a C++ function for building an op:
458
459```c++
460Operation *createMyOp(OpBuilder builder, Value input, Attribute attr);
461```
462
463We can wrap it up and invoke it like:
464
465```tablegen
466def createMyOp : NativeCodeCall<"createMyOp($_builder, $0, $1)">;
467
468def : Pat<(... $input, $attr), (createMyOp $input, $attr)>;
469```
470
471### Supporting auxiliary ops
472
473A declarative rewrite rule supports multiple result patterns. One of the
474purposes is to allow generating _auxiliary ops_. Auxiliary ops are operations
475used for building the replacement ops; but they are not directly used for
476replacement themselves.
477
478For the case of uni-result ops, if there are multiple result patterns, only the
479value generated from the last result pattern will be used to replace the matched
480root op's result; all other result patterns will be considered as generating
481auxiliary ops.
482
483Normally we want to specify ops as nested `dag` objects if their def-use
484relationship can be expressed in the way that an op's result can feed as the
485argument to consuming op. But that is not always possible. For example, if we
486want to allocate memory and store some computation (in pseudocode):
487
488```mlir
489%dst = addi %lhs, %rhs
490```
491
492into
493
494```mlir
495%shape = shape %lhs
496%mem = alloc %shape
497%sum = addi %lhs, %rhs
498store %mem, %sum
499%dst = load %mem
500```
501
502We cannot fit in with just one result pattern given `store` does not return a
503value. Instead we can use multiple result patterns:
504
505```tablegen
506def : Pattern<(AddIOp $lhs, $rhs),
507              [(StoreOp (AllocOp:$mem (ShapeOp $lhs)), (AddIOp $lhs, $rhs)),
508               (LoadOp $mem)];
509```
510
511In the above we use the first result pattern to generate the first four ops, and
512use the last pattern to generate the last op, which is used to replace the
513matched op.
514
515### Supporting multi-result ops
516
517Multi-result ops bring extra complexity to declarative rewrite rules. We use
518TableGen `dag` objects to represent ops in patterns; there is no native way to
519indicate that an op generates multiple results. The approach adopted is based on
520**naming convention**: a `__N` suffix is added to a symbol to indicate the
521`N`-th result.
522
523#### `__N` suffix
524
525The `__N` suffix is specifying the `N`-th result as a whole (which can be
526[variadic](#supporting-variadic-ops)). For example, we can bind a symbol to some
527multi-result op and reference a specific result later:
528
529```tablegen
530def ThreeResultOp : Op<"three_result_op"> {
531    let arguments = (ins ...);
532
533    let results = (outs
534      AnyTensor:$op_output1,
535      AnyTensor:$op_output2,
536      AnyTensor:$op_output3
537    );
538}
539
540def : Pattern<(ThreeResultOp:$results ...),
541              [(... $results__0), ..., (... $results__2), ...]>;
542```
543
544In the above pattern we bind `$results` to all the results generated by
545`ThreeResultOp` and references its `$input1` and `$input3` later in the result
546patterns.
547
548We can also bind a symbol and reference one of its specific result at the same
549time, which is typically useful when generating multi-result ops:
550
551```tablegen
552// TwoResultOp has similar definition as ThreeResultOp, but only has two
553// results.
554
555def : Pattern<(TwoResultOp ...),
556              [(ThreeResultOp:$results__2, ...),
557               (replaceWithValue $results__0)]>;
558```
559
560In the above, we created a `ThreeResultOp` and bind `results` to its results,
561and uses its last result (`$output3`) and first result (`$output1`) to replace
562the `TwoResultOp`'s two results, respectively.
563
564#### Replacing multi-result ops
565
566The above example also shows how to replace a matched multi-result op.
567
568To replace an `N`-result op, the result patterns must generate at least `N`
569declared values (see [Declared vs. actual value](#declared-vs-actual-value) for
570definition). If there are more than `N` declared values generated, only the last
571`N` declared values will be used to replace the matched op. Note that because of
572the existence of multi-result op, one result pattern **may** generate multiple
573declared values. So it means we do not necessarily need `N` result patterns to
574replace an `N`-result op. For example, to replace an op with three results, you
575can have
576
577```tablegen
578// ThreeResultOp/TwoResultOp/OneResultOp generates three/two/one result(s),
579// respectively.
580
581// Replace each result with a result generated from an individual op.
582def : Pattern<(ThreeResultOp ...),
583              [(OneResultOp ...), (OneResultOp ...), (OneResultOp ...)]>;
584
585// Replace the first two results with two results generated from the same op.
586def : Pattern<(ThreeResultOp ...),
587              [(TwoResultOp ...), (OneResultOp ...)]>;
588
589// Replace all three results with three results generated from the same op.
590def : Pat<(ThreeResultOp ...), (ThreeResultOp ...)>;
591
592def : Pattern<(ThreeResultOp ...),
593              [(AuxiliaryOp ...), (ThreeResultOp ...)]>;
594```
595
596But using a single op to serve as both auxiliary op and replacement op is
597forbidden, i.e., the following is not allowed because that the first
598`TwoResultOp` generates two results but only the second result is used for
599replacing the matched op's result:
600
601```tablegen
602def : Pattern<(ThreeResultOp ...),
603              [(TwoResultOp ...), (TwoResultOp ...)]>;
604```
605
606### Supporting variadic ops
607
608#### Declared vs. actual value
609
610Before going into details on variadic op support, we need to define a few terms
611regarding an op's values.
612
613*   _Value_: either an operand or a result
614*   _Declared operand/result/value_: an operand/result/value statically declared
615    in ODS of the op
616*   _Actual operand/result/value_: an operand/result/value of an op instance at
617    runtime
618
619The above terms are needed because ops can have multiple results, and some of
620the results can also be variadic. For example,
621
622```tablegen
623def MultiVariadicOp : Op<"multi_variadic_op"> {
624    let arguments = (ins
625      AnyTensor:$input1,
626      Variadic<AnyTensor>:$input2,
627      AnyTensor:$input3
628    );
629
630    let results = (outs
631      AnyTensor:$output1,
632      Variadic<AnyTensor>:$output2,
633      AnyTensor:$output3
634    );
635}
636```
637
638We say the above op has 3 declared operands and 3 declared results. But at
639runtime, an instance can have 3 values corresponding to `$input2` and 2 values
640correspond to `$output2`; we say it has 5 actual operands and 4 actual results.
641A variadic operand/result is a considered as a declared value that can
642correspond to multiple actual values.
643
644[TODO]
645
646### Supplying additional constraints
647
648Constraints can be placed on op arguments when matching. But sometimes we need
649to also place constraints on the matched op's results or sometimes need to limit
650the matching with some constraints that cover both the arguments and the
651results. The third parameter to `Pattern` (and `Pat`) is for this purpose.
652
653For example, we can write
654
655```tablegen
656def HasNoUseOf: Constraint<CPred<"$_self.use_empty()">, "has no use">;
657
658def HasSameElementType : Constraint<
659    CPred<"$0.cast<ShapedType>().getElementType() == "
660          "$1.cast<ShapedType>().getElementType()">,
661    "has same element type">;
662
663def : Pattern<(TwoResultOp:$results $input),
664              [(...), (...)],
665              [(F32Tensor:$results__0), (HasNoUseOf:$results__1),
666               (HasSameElementShape $results__0, $input)]>;
667```
668
669You can
670
671*   Use normal `TypeConstraint`s on previous bound symbols (the first result of
672    `TwoResultOp` must be a float tensor);
673*   Define new `Constraint` for previous bound symbols (the second result of
674    `TwoResultOp` must has no use);
675*   Apply constraints on multiple bound symbols (`$input` and `TwoResultOp`'s
676    first result must have the same element type).
677
678### Adjusting benefits
679
680The benefit of a `Pattern` is an integer value indicating the benefit of
681matching the pattern. It determines the priorities of patterns inside the
682pattern rewrite driver. A pattern with a higher benefit is applied before one
683with a lower benefit.
684
685In DRR, a rule is set to have a benefit of the number of ops in the source
686pattern. This is based on the heuristics and assumptions that:
687
688*   Larger matches are more beneficial than smaller ones.
689*   If a smaller one is applied first the larger one may not apply anymore.
690
691The fourth parameter to `Pattern` (and `Pat`) allows to manually tweak a
692pattern's benefit. Just supply `(addBenefit N)` to add `N` to the benefit value.
693
694## Rewrite directives
695
696### `location`
697
698By default the C++ pattern expanded from a DRR pattern uses the fused location
699of all source ops as the location for all generated ops. This is not always the
700best location mapping relationship. For such cases, DRR provides the `location`
701directive to provide finer control.
702
703`location` is of the following syntax:
704
705```tablegen
706(location $symbol0, $symbol1, ...)
707```
708
709where all `$symbol` should be bound previously in the pattern and one optional
710string may be specified as an attribute. The following locations are created:
711
712*   If only 1 symbol is specified then that symbol's location is used,
713*   If multiple are specified then a fused location is created;
714*   If no symbol is specified then string must be specified and a NamedLoc is
715    created instead;
716
717`location` must be used as the last argument to an op creation. For example,
718
719```tablegen
720def : Pat<(LocSrc1Op:$src1 (LocSrc2Op:$src2 ...),
721          (LocDst1Op (LocDst2Op ..., (location $src2)), (location "outer"))>;
722```
723
724In the above pattern, the generated `LocDst2Op` will use the matched location of
725`LocSrc2Op` while the root `LocDst1Op` node will used the named location
726`outer`.
727
728### `replaceWithValue`
729
730The `replaceWithValue` directive is used to eliminate a matched op by replacing
731all of it uses with a captured value. It is of the following syntax:
732
733```tablegen
734(replaceWithValue $symbol)
735```
736
737where `$symbol` should be a symbol bound previously in the pattern.
738
739For example,
740
741```tablegen
742def : Pat<(Foo $input), (replaceWithValue $input)>;
743```
744
745The above pattern removes the `Foo` and replaces all uses of `Foo` with
746`$input`.
747
748## Debugging Tips
749
750### Run `mlir-tblgen` to see the generated content
751
752TableGen syntax sometimes can be obscure; reading the generated content can be a
753very helpful way to understand and debug issues. To build `mlir-tblgen`, run
754`cmake --build . --target mlir-tblgen` in your build directory and find the
755`mlir-tblgen` binary in the `bin/` subdirectory. All the supported generators
756can be found via `mlir-tblgen --help`.
757
758To see the generated code, invoke `mlir-tblgen` with a specific generator by
759providing include paths via `-I`. For example,
760
761```sh
762# To see all the C++ pattern rewrite classes
763mlir-tblgen --gen-rewriters -I /path/to/mlir/include /path/to/input/td/file
764```
765
766### Compilation error: no matching member function for call to 'build'
767
768This is because DRR is failing to call a `build()` method with result type
769deduction ability. See [building operations](#building-operations) for more
770details.
771
772[TableGen]: https://llvm.org/docs/TableGen/index.html
773[OpBase]: https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/blob/main/mlir/include/mlir/IR/OpBase.td
774