Merge pull request #2465 from xizheyin/rustc-query

Adjust some doc for Query System

src/query.md

@@ -67,9 +67,15 @@ are cheaply cloneable; insert an `Rc` if necessary).
 ### Providers
 
 If, however, the query is *not* in the cache, then the compiler will
-try to find a suitable **provider**. A provider is a function that has
-been defined and linked into the compiler somewhere that contains the
-code to compute the result of the query.
+call the corresponding **provider** function. A provider is a function
+implemented in a specific module and **manually registered** into the
+[`Providers`][providers_struct] struct during compiler initialization.
+The macro system generates the [`Providers`][providers_struct] struct,
+which acts as a function table for all query implementations, where each
+field is a function pointer to the actual provider.
+
+**Note:** The `Providers` struct is generated by macros and acts as a function table for all query implementations.
+It is **not** a Rust trait, but a plain struct with function pointer fields.
 
 **Providers are defined per-crate.** The compiler maintains,
 internally, a table of providers for every crate, at least
@@ -97,62 +103,6 @@ fn provider<'tcx>(
 Providers take two arguments: the `tcx` and the query key.
 They return the result of the query.
 
-###  How providers are setup
-
-When the tcx is created, it is given the providers by its creator using
-the [`Providers`][providers_struct] struct. This struct is generated by
-the macros here, but it is basically a big list of function pointers:
-
-[providers_struct]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_middle/query/struct.Providers.html
-
-```rust,ignore
-struct Providers {
-    type_of: for<'tcx> fn(TyCtxt<'tcx>, DefId) -> Ty<'tcx>,
-    ...
-}
-```
-
-At present, we have one copy of the struct for local crates, and one
-for external crates, though the plan is that we may eventually have
-one per crate.
-
-These `Providers` structs are ultimately created and populated by
-`rustc_driver`, but it does this by distributing the work
-throughout the other `rustc_*` crates. This is done by invoking
-various [`provide`][provide_fn] functions. These functions tend to look
-something like this:
-
-[provide_fn]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_middle/hir/fn.provide.html
-
-```rust,ignore
-pub fn provide(providers: &mut Providers) {
-    *providers = Providers {
-        type_of,
-        ..*providers
-    };
-}
-```
-
-That is, they take an `&mut Providers` and mutate it in place. Usually
-we use the formulation above just because it looks nice, but you could
-as well do `providers.type_of = type_of`, which would be equivalent.
-(Here, `type_of` would be a top-level function, defined as we saw
-before.) So, if we want to add a provider for some other query,
-let's call it `fubar`, into the crate above, we might modify the `provide()`
-function like so:
-
-```rust,ignore
-pub fn provide(providers: &mut Providers) {
-    *providers = Providers {
-        type_of,
-        fubar,
-        ..*providers
-    };
-}
-
-fn fubar<'tcx>(tcx: TyCtxt<'tcx>, key: DefId) -> Fubar<'tcx> { ... }
-```
-
 N.B. Most of the `rustc_*` crates only provide **local
 providers**. Almost all **extern providers** wind up going through the
 [`rustc_metadata` crate][rustc_metadata], which loads the information
@@ -164,6 +114,63 @@ they define both a `provide` and a `provide_extern` function, through
 [rustc_metadata]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_metadata/index.html
 [wasm_import_module_map]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_codegen_ssa/back/symbol_export/fn.wasm_import_module_map.html
 
+### How providers are set up
+
+When the tcx is created, it is given the providers by its creator using
+the [`Providers`][providers_struct] struct. This struct is generated by
+the macros here, but it is basically a big list of function pointers:
+
+[providers_struct]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_middle/query/struct.Providers.html
+
+```rust,ignore
+struct Providers {
+    type_of: for<'tcx> fn(TyCtxt<'tcx>, DefId) -> Ty<'tcx>,
+    // ... one field for each query
+}
+```
+
+#### How are providers registered?
+
+The `Providers` struct is filled in during compiler initialization, mainly by the `rustc_driver` crate.  
+But the actual provider functions are implemented in various `rustc_*` crates (like `rustc_middle`, `rustc_hir_analysis`, etc).
+
+To register providers, each crate exposes a [`provide`][provide_fn] function that looks like this:
+
+[provide_fn]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_middle/hir/fn.provide.html
+
+```rust,ignore
+pub fn provide(providers: &mut Providers) {
+    *providers = Providers {
+        type_of,
+        // ... add more providers here
+        ..*providers
+    };
+}
+```
+
+- This function takes a mutable reference to the `Providers` struct and sets the fields to point to the correct provider functions.
+- You can also assign fields individually, e.g. `providers.type_of = type_of;`.
+
+#### Adding a new provider
+
+Suppose you want to add a new query called `fubar`. You would:
+
+1. Implement the provider function:
+    ```rust,ignore
+    fn fubar<'tcx>(tcx: TyCtxt<'tcx>, key: DefId) -> Fubar<'tcx> { ... }
+    ```
+2. Register it in the `provide` function:
+    ```rust,ignore
+    pub fn provide(providers: &mut Providers) {
+        *providers = Providers {
+            fubar,
+            ..*providers
+        };
+    }
+    ```
+
+---
+
 ## Adding a new query
 
 How do you add a new query?