Address Clauses

The reference manual allows a general restriction on representation clauses, as found in RM 13.1(22):

        An implementation need not support representation
        items containing nonstatic expressions, except that
        an implementation should support a representation item
        for a given entity if each nonstatic expression in the
        representation item is a name that statically denotes
        a constant declared before the entity.
     

In practice this is applicable only to address clauses, since this is the only case in which a non-static expression is permitted by the syntax. As the AARM notes in sections 13.1 (22.a-22.h):

       22.a   Reason: This is to avoid the following sort
              of thing:
     
       22.b        X : Integer := F(...);
                   Y : Address := G(...);
                   for X'Address use Y;
     
       22.c   In the above, we have to evaluate the
              initialization expression for X before we
              know where to put the result. This seems
              like an unreasonable implementation burden.
     
       22.d   The above code should instead be written
              like this:
     
       22.e        Y : constant Address := G(...);
                   X : Integer := F(...);
                   for X'Address use Y;
     
       22.f   This allows the expression ``Y'' to be safely
              evaluated before X is created.
     
       22.g   The constant could be a formal parameter of mode in.
     
       22.h   An implementation can support other nonstatic
              expressions if it wants to. Expressions of type
              Address are hardly ever static, but their value
              might be known at compile time anyway in many
              cases.
     

GNAT does indeed permit many additional cases of non-static expressions. In particular, if the type involved is elementary there are no restrictions (since in this case, holding a temporary copy of the initialization value, if one is present, is inexpensive). In addition, if there is no implicit or explicit initialization, then there are no restrictions. GNAT will reject only the case where all three of these conditions hold:

• The type of the item is non-elementary (e.g. a record or array).
• There is explicit or implicit initialization required for the object.
• The address value is non-static. Here GNAT is more permissive than the RM, and allows the address value to be the address of a previously declared stand-alone variable, as long as it does not itself have an address clause.

                       Anchor : Some_Initialized_Type;
                       Overlay : Some_Initialized_Type;
                       for Overlay'Address use Anchor'Address;
            

  However, the prefix of the address clause cannot be an array component, or a component of a discriminated record.

As noted above in section 22.h, address values are typically non-static. In particular the To_Address function, even if applied to a literal value, is a non-static function call. To avoid this minor annoyance, GNAT provides the implementation defined attribute 'To_Address. The following two expressions have identical values:

        To_Address (16#1234_0000#)
        System'To_Address (16#1234_0000#);
     

except that the second form is considered to be a static expression, and thus when used as an address clause value is always permitted.

Additionally, GNAT treats as static an address clause that is an unchecked_conversion of a static integer value. This simplifies the porting of legacy code, and provides a portable equivalent to the GNAT attribute To_Address.

An address clause cannot be given for an exported object. More understandably the real restriction is that objects with an address clause cannot be exported. This is because such variables are not defined by the Ada program, so there is no external object so export.

It is permissible to give an address clause and a pragma Import for the same object. In this case, the variable is not really defined by the Ada program, so there is no external symbol to be linked. The link name and the external name are ignored in this case. The reason that we allow this combination is that it provides a useful idiom to avoid unwanted initializations on objects with address clauses.

When an address clause is given for an object that has implicit or explicit initialization, then by default initialization takes place. This means that the effect of the object declaration is to overwrite the memory at the specified address. This is almost always not what the programmer wants, so GNAT will output a warning:

       with System;
       package G is
          type R is record
             M : Integer := 0;
          end record;
     
          Ext : R;
          for Ext'Address use System'To_Address (16#1234_1234#);
              |
       >>> warning: implicit initialization of "Ext" may
           modify overlaid storage
       >>> warning: use pragma Import for "Ext" to suppress
           initialization (RM B(24))
     
       end G;
     

As indicated by the warning message, the solution is to use a (dummy) pragma Import to suppress this initialization. The pragma tell the compiler that the object is declared and initialized elsewhere. The following package compiles without warnings (and the initialization is suppressed):

        with System;
        package G is
           type R is record
              M : Integer := 0;
           end record;
     
           Ext : R;
           for Ext'Address use System'To_Address (16#1234_1234#);
           pragma Import (Ada, Ext);
        end G;