Hi,

I was debugging PR96059 and ran into a question which does not seem
obvious from the code.

For the test case in the PR, in ipa.cc:remove_unreachable_nodes, GCC
seems to try to remove an unreachable function that was already inlined
into a different unreachable function.  When the original inline
happens, ipa-inline-transform.cc:clone_inlined_nodes decides not to make
a clone, since the function being cloned is a master clone but with no
non-inline clones.

This decision later trips up the gcc_assert in:

  /* Inline clones might be kept around so their materializing allows further
     cloning.  If the function the clone is inlined into is removed, we need
     to turn it into normal cone.  */
  FOR_EACH_FUNCTION (node)
    {
      if (node->inlined_to
	  && !node->callers)
	{
	  gcc_assert (node->clones);
	  node->inlined_to = NULL;
	  update_inlined_to_pointer (node, node);
	}
      node->aux = NULL;
    }

.. because it is expecting that an inlined function without callers
(which is necessarily true here as this function is unreachable and so
was ->remove ()'d earlier) has clones.

Either removing the assertion or making clone_inline_nodes clone when
there are no existing clones 'fixes' (suppresses, but I haven't verified
whether the results are correct) the problem.

Is this gcc_assert correct in that an inlined function without callers
necessarily must have clones?

And as a side question, do all clone nodes have a ->clones pointing to
the same list of all clones, or are they in a tree-ish arrangement,
where clones of clones end up forming a tree, with the clone_of pointer
being a pointer to the parent?  (in this instance, the node that trips
the assert has a nullptr clone_of and clones value, which would AIUI
imply that it is the original)

This train of thinking doesn't end up involving any devirtualization
code, which the PR was originally reproduced with, but my current theory
is that devirtualizing here just exposed an edge case that is decently
well hidden, rather than it playing a crucial role.

Thanks in advance, have a lovely day.
-- 
Arsen Arsenović