Clarify the comments explaining the purpose of resolve_maybe_global_alloc.

src/librustc_mir/interpret/machine.rs

@@ -243,8 +243,11 @@ fn before_access_global(
     ///     locals in Miri is that in the internals of the compiler they look as
     ///     normal statics, except that they have the `thread_local` attribute.
     ///     However, in Miri we want to have a property that each allocation has
-    ///     a unique id and, therefore, for these thread locals we generate a
-    ///     fresh allocation id for each thread.
+    ///     a unique id. Therefore, for these thread locals in
+    ///     `canonical_alloc_id` we reserve fresh allocation ids for each
+    ///     thread. Please note that `canonical_alloc_id` only reserves the
+    ///     allocation ids, the actual allocation for the thread local statics
+    ///     is done in the same way as for regular statics.
     ///
     /// This function must be idempotent.
     #[inline]
@@ -255,8 +258,10 @@ fn canonical_alloc_id(_mem: &Memory<'mir, 'tcx, Self>, id: AllocId) -> AllocId {
     /// Called to obtain the `GlobalAlloc` associated with the allocation id.
     ///
     /// Miri uses this callback to resolve the information about the original
-    /// thread local static for which `canonical_alloc_id` generated a fresh
-    /// allocation id.
+    /// thread local static for which `canonical_alloc_id` reserved a fresh
+    /// allocation id. Since `canonical_alloc_id` does not create the actual
+    /// allocation and the reserved allocation id has no reference to its
+    /// parent, we need to ask Miri to retrieve information for us.
     #[inline(always)]
     fn resolve_maybe_global_alloc(
         tcx: TyCtxtAt<'tcx>,

src/librustc_mir/interpret/memory.rs

@@ -429,6 +429,14 @@ fn get_global_alloc(
         id: AllocId,
         is_write: bool,
     ) -> InterpResult<'tcx, Cow<'tcx, Allocation<M::PointerTag, M::AllocExtra>>> {
+        // The call to `resolve_maybe_global_alloc` is needed to enable Miri to
+        // support thread local statics. In `M::canonical_alloc_id`, for a
+        // thread local static, Miri reserves a fresh allocation id, but the
+        // actual allocation is left to the code that handles statics which
+        // calls this function (`get_global_alloc`). Since the allocation id is
+        // fresh, it has no information about the original static. The call to
+        // `resolve_maybe_global_alloc` allows Miri to retrieve this information
+        // for us.
         let (alloc, def_id) = match M::resolve_maybe_global_alloc(tcx, memory_extra, id) {
             Some(GlobalAlloc::Memory(mem)) => {
                 // Memory of a constant or promoted or anonymous memory referenced by a static.
@@ -589,6 +597,12 @@ pub fn get_size_and_align(
         }
 
         // # Statics
+        // The call to `resolve_maybe_global_alloc` is needed here because Miri
+        // via the call to `canonical_alloc_id` above reserves fresh allocation
+        // ids for thread local statics. However, the actual allocation is done
+        // not in `canonical_alloc_id`, but in `get_raw` and `get_raw_mut`.
+        // Since this function may get called before `get_raw`, we need to allow
+        // Miri to retrieve the information about the static for us.
         match M::resolve_maybe_global_alloc(self.tcx, &self.extra, id) {
             Some(GlobalAlloc::Static(did)) => {
                 // Use size and align of the type.