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Update README based on new docs
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topolarity committed Nov 17, 2023
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[![](https://img.shields.io/badge/docs-dev-blue.svg)](https://juliacomputing.github.io/AllocCheck.jl/dev/)

AllocCheck.jl is a Julia package that statically checks if a function call may allocate, analyzing the generated LLVM IR of it and it's callees using LLVM.jl and GPUCompiler.jl
[AllocCheck.jl](https://github.com/JuliaComputing/AllocCheck.jl) is a Julia package that statically checks if a function call may allocate, analyzing the generated LLVM IR of it and it's callees using LLVM.jl and GPUCompiler.jl

#### Examples
AllocCheck operates on _functions_, trying to statically determine wether or not a function _may_ allocate memory, and if so, _where_ that allocation appears. This is different from measuring allocations using, e.g., `@time` or `@allocated`, which measures the allocations that _did_ happen during the execution of a function.

## Getting started

The primary entry point to check allocations is the macro [`@check_allocs`](@ref) which is used to annotate a function definition that you'd like to enforce allocation checks for:
```julia
julia> mymod(x) = mod(x, 2.5)
julia> using AllocCheck

julia> @check_allocs mymod(x) = mod(x, 2.5)
mymod (generic function with 1 method)

julia> mymod(1.5) # call automatically checked for allocations
1.5
```
This call happened without error, indicating that the function was proven to not allocate any memory after it starts 🎉


julia> length(check_allocs(mymod, (Float64,)))
0
When used on a function that may allocate memory
```julia
julia> @check_allocs linsolve(a, b) = a \ b
linsolve (generic function with 1 method)

julia> linsolve(rand(10,10), rand(10))
ERROR: @check_alloc function contains 55 allocations.
```
the function call raises an `AllocCheckFailure`.

The `errors` field allows us to inspect the individual errors to get some useful information. For example:

```julia
julia> try linsolve(rand(10,10), rand(10)) catch err err.allocs[1] end
Allocation of Vector{Float64} in ./boot.jl:475
| Array{T,1}(::UndefInitializer, m::Int) where {T} =

julia> linsolve(a, b) = a \ b
Stacktrace:
[1] Array
@ ./boot.jl:475 [inlined]
[2] Array
@ ./boot.jl:484 [inlined]
[3] similar
@ ./array.jl:418 [inlined]
[4] \
@ ~/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.10.0-rc1+0.x64.linux.gnu/share/julia/stdlib/v1.10/LinearAlgebra/src/triangular.jl:1483 [inlined]
[5] \(A::Matrix{Float64}, B::Vector{Float64})
@ LinearAlgebra ~/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.10.0-rc1+0.x64.linux.gnu/share/julia/stdlib/v1.10/LinearAlgebra/src/generic.jl:1118
[6] var"##linsolve#225"(a::Matrix{Float64}, b::Vector{Float64})
@ Main ./REPL[2]:1
```

we see what type of object was allocated, and where in the code the allocation appeared.


### Functions that throw exceptions

Some functions that we do not expect may allocate memory, like `sin`, actually may:
```julia
julia> @allocated try sin(Inf) catch end
48
```

The reason for this is that `sin` needs to allocate if it **throws an error**.

By default, `@check_allocs` ignores all such allocations and assumes that no exceptions are thrown. If you care about detecting these allocations anyway, you can use `ignore_throw=false`:
```julia
julia> @check_allocs mysin1(x) = sin(x)

julia> length(check_allocs(linsolve, (Matrix{Float64}, Vector{Float64})))
175
julia> @check_allocs ignore_throw=false mysin2(x) = sin(x)

julia> length(check_allocs(sin, (Float64,)))
2
julia> mysin1(1.5)
0.9974949866040544

julia> length(check_allocs(sin, (Float64,); ignore_throw=true)) # ignore allocations that only happen when throwing errors
0
julia> mysin2(1.5)
ERROR: @check_alloc function contains 2 allocations.
```

#### Limitations
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