MSR: Generate additional constructors to reduce usage of reflection

src/Foundation/NSObject2.cs

@@ -231,16 +231,14 @@ public void Dispose ()
 			GC.SuppressFinalize (this);
 		}
 
-		static T AllocateNSObject<T> (IntPtr handle) where T : NSObject
-		{
-			var obj = (T) RuntimeHelpers.GetUninitializedObject (typeof (T));
-			obj.handle = handle;
-			obj.flags = Flags.NativeRef;
-			return obj;
-		}
-
 		internal static IntPtr CreateNSObject (IntPtr type_gchandle, IntPtr handle, Flags flags)
 		{
+#if NET
+			if (Runtime.IsManagedStaticRegistrar) {
+				throw new System.Diagnostics.UnreachableException ();
+			}
+#endif
+
 			// This function is called from native code before any constructors have executed.
 			var type = (Type) Runtime.GetGCHandleTarget (type_gchandle);
 			try {

tools/dotnet-linker/AppBundleRewriter.cs

@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ public AssemblyDefinition PlatformAssembly {
 
 		Dictionary<AssemblyDefinition, Dictionary<string, (TypeDefinition, TypeReference)>> type_map = new ();
 		Dictionary<string, (MethodDefinition, MethodReference)> method_map = new ();
+		Dictionary<string, (FieldDefinition, FieldReference)> field_map = new ();
 
 		public AppBundleRewriter (LinkerConfiguration configuration)
 		{
@@ -176,6 +177,23 @@ static string GetMethodSignature (MethodDefinition method)
 			return $"{method?.ReturnType?.FullName ?? "(null)"} {method?.DeclaringType?.FullName ?? "(null)"}::{method?.Name ?? "(null)"} ({string.Join (", ", method?.Parameters?.Select (v => v?.ParameterType?.FullName + " " + v?.Name) ?? Array.Empty<string> ())})";
 		}
 
+		public FieldReference GetFieldReference (AssemblyDefinition assembly, TypeReference tr, string name, string key, out FieldDefinition field)
+		{
+			if (!field_map.TryGetValue (key, out var tuple)) {
+				var td = tr.Resolve ();
+				var fd = td.Fields.SingleOrDefault (v => v.Name == name);
+				if (fd is null)
+					throw new InvalidOperationException ($"Unable to find the field '{tr.FullName}::{name}' (for key '{key}') in {assembly.Name.Name}. Fields in type:\n\t{string.Join ("\n\t", td.Fields.Select (f => f.Name).OrderBy (v => v))}");
+
+				tuple.Item1 = fd;
+				tuple.Item2 = CurrentAssembly.MainModule.ImportReference (fd);
+				field_map.Add (key, tuple);
+			}
+
+			field = tuple.Item1;
+			return tuple.Item2;
+		}
+
 		/* Types */
 
 		public TypeReference System_Boolean {
@@ -267,6 +285,12 @@ public TypeReference System_Void {
 			}
 		}
 
+		public TypeReference System_ValueType {
+			get {
+				return GetTypeReference (CorlibAssembly, "System.ValueType", out var _);
+			}
+		}
+
 		public TypeReference System_Collections_Generic_Dictionary2 {
 			get {
 				return GetTypeReference (CorlibAssembly, "System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2", out var _);
@@ -321,6 +345,26 @@ public TypeReference Foundation_NSObject {
 			}
 		}
 
+		public FieldReference Foundation_NSObject_HandleField {
+			get {
+				return GetFieldReference (PlatformAssembly, Foundation_NSObject, "handle", "Foundation.NSObject::handle", out var _);
+			}
+		}
+
+#if NET
+		public MethodReference Foundation_NSObject_FlagsSetterMethod {
+			get {
+				return GetMethodReference (PlatformAssembly, Foundation_NSObject, "set_flags", "Foundation.NSObject::set_flags", predicate: null, out var _);
+			}
+		}
+#else
+		public FieldReference Foundation_NSObject_FlagsField {
+			get {
+				return GetFieldReference (PlatformAssembly, Foundation_NSObject, "flags", "Foundation.NSObject::flags", out var _);
+			}
+		}
+#endif
+
 		public TypeReference ObjCRuntime_BindAs {
 			get {
 				return GetTypeReference (PlatformAssembly, "ObjCRuntime.BindAs", out var _);
@@ -449,17 +493,6 @@ public MethodReference MethodBase_GetMethodFromHandle__RuntimeMethodHandle {
 			}
 		}
 
-		public MethodReference NSObject_AllocateNSObject {
-			get {
-				return GetMethodReference (PlatformAssembly,
-						Foundation_NSObject, "AllocateNSObject",
-						nameof (NSObject_AllocateNSObject),
-						isStatic: true,
-						genericParameterCount: 1,
-						System_IntPtr);
-			}
-		}
-
 		public MethodReference BindAs_ConvertNSArrayToManagedArray {
 			get {
 				return GetMethodReference (PlatformAssembly, ObjCRuntime_BindAs, "ConvertNSArrayToManagedArray", (v) =>

tools/dotnet-linker/CecilExtensions.cs

@@ -30,6 +30,14 @@ public static MethodDefinition AddMethod (this TypeDefinition self, string name,
 			return rv;
 		}
 
+		public static FieldDefinition AddField (this TypeDefinition self, string name, FieldAttributes attributes, TypeReference type)
+		{
+			var rv = new FieldDefinition (name, attributes, type);
+			rv.DeclaringType = self;
+			self.Fields.Add (rv);
+			return rv;
+		}
+
 		public static MethodBody CreateBody (this MethodDefinition self, out ILProcessor il)
 		{
 			var body = new MethodBody (self);

tools/dotnet-linker/Steps/ManagedRegistrarStep.cs

@@ -401,6 +401,7 @@ public void EmitCallToExportedMethod (MethodDefinition method, MethodDefinition
 			var placeholderType = abr.System_IntPtr;
 			ParameterDefinition? callSuperParameter = null;
 			VariableDefinition? returnVariable = null;
+			MethodReference? ctor = null;
 			var leaveTryInstructions = new List<Instruction> ();
 			var isVoid = method.ReturnType.Is ("System", "Void");
 
@@ -425,6 +426,7 @@ public void EmitCallToExportedMethod (MethodDefinition method, MethodDefinition
 			// and later on remove everything after this instruction. Maybe at a later point I'll figure out a way to make the code emission conditional without
 			// littering the logic with conditional statements.
 			Instruction? skipEverythingAfter = null;
+
 			if (isInstanceCategory) {
 				il.Emit (OpCodes.Ldarg_0);
 				EmitConversion (method, il, method.Parameters [0].ParameterType, true, 0, out var nativeType, postProcessing);
@@ -459,12 +461,32 @@ public void EmitCallToExportedMethod (MethodDefinition method, MethodDefinition
 					// We're throwing an exception, so there's no need for any more code.
 					skipEverythingAfter = il.Body.Instructions.Last ();
 				} else {
-					il.Emit (OpCodes.Ldarg_0);
+					// Whenever there's an NSObject constructor that we call from a registrar callback, we need to create
+					// a separate constructor that will first set the `handle` and `flags` values of the NSObject before
+					// calling the original constructor. Here's an example of the code we generate:
+					//
+					// // The original constructor:
+					// public .ctor (T0 p0, T1 p1, ...) { /* ... */ }
+					//
+					// // The generated constructor with pre-initialization: 
+					// public .ctor (T0 p0, T1 p1, ..., IntPtr nativeHandle, IManagedRegistrar dummy) {
+					//     this.handle = (NativeHandle)nativeHandle;
+					//     this.flags = 2; // Flags.NativeRef == 2
+					//     this..ctor (p0, p1, ...);
+					// }
+					//
+					// - This code can't be expressed in C# and it can only be expressed directly in IL.
+					// - The reason we need to do this is because the base NSObject parameterless constructor 
+					//   would allocate a new Objective-C object if `handle` is a zero pointer.
+					// - The `IManagedRegistrar` dummy parameter is used only to make sure that the signature
+					//   is unique and there aren't any conflicts. The IManagedRegistrar type is internal and
+					//   we only make it public through a custom linker step.
+
+					ctor = CloneConstructorWithNativeHandle (method);
+					method.DeclaringType.Methods.Add (ctor.Resolve ());
+
+					il.Emit (OpCodes.Nop);
 					postLeaveBranch.Operand = il.Body.Instructions.Last ();
-					var git = new GenericInstanceMethod (abr.NSObject_AllocateNSObject);
-					git.GenericArguments.Add (method.DeclaringType);
-					il.Emit (OpCodes.Call, git);
-					il.Emit (OpCodes.Dup); // this is for the call to ObjCRuntime.NativeObjectExtensions::GetHandle after the call to the constructor
 				}
 			} else if (isGeneric) {
 				// this is a proxy method and we can simply use `this` without any conversion
@@ -509,7 +531,13 @@ public void EmitCallToExportedMethod (MethodDefinition method, MethodDefinition
 
 			callback.AddParameter ("exception_gchandle", new PointerType (abr.System_IntPtr));
 
-			if (isGeneric && !method.IsConstructor) {
+			if (ctor is not null) {
+				// in addition to the params of the original ctor we pass also the native handle and a null
+				// value for the dummy (de-duplication) parameter
+				il.Emit (OpCodes.Ldarg_0);
+				il.Emit (OpCodes.Ldnull);
+				il.Emit (OpCodes.Newobj, ctor);
+			} else if (isGeneric && !method.IsConstructor) {
 				var targetMethod = method.DeclaringType.CreateMethodReferenceOnGenericType (method, method.DeclaringType.GenericParameters.ToArray ());
 				il.Emit (OpCodes.Call, targetMethod);
 			} else if (method.IsStatic) {
@@ -1270,5 +1298,58 @@ void GenerateConversionToNative (MethodDefinition method, ILProcessor il, TypeRe
 					il.Append (endTarget);
 			}
 		}
+
+		MethodDefinition CloneConstructorWithNativeHandle (MethodDefinition ctor)
+		{
+			var clonedCtor = new MethodDefinition (ctor.Name, ctor.Attributes, ctor.ReturnType);
+			clonedCtor.IsPublic = false;
+
+			// clone the original parameters firsts
+			foreach (var parameter in ctor.Parameters) {
+				clonedCtor.AddParameter (parameter.Name, parameter.ParameterType);
+			}
+
+			// add a native handle param + a dummy parameter that we know for a fact won't be used anywhere
+			// to make the signature of the new constructor unique
+			var handleParameter = clonedCtor.AddParameter ("nativeHandle", abr.System_IntPtr);
+			var dummyParameter = clonedCtor.AddParameter ("dummy", abr.ObjCRuntime_IManagedRegistrar);
+
+			var body = clonedCtor.CreateBody (out var il);
+
+			// ensure visible
+			abr.Foundation_NSObject_HandleField.Resolve ().IsFamily = true;
+#if NET
+			abr.Foundation_NSObject_FlagsSetterMethod.Resolve ().IsFamily = true;
+#else
+			abr.Foundation_NSObject_FlagsField.Resolve ().IsFamily = true;
+#endif
+
+			// store the handle and flags first
+			il.Emit (OpCodes.Ldarg_0);
+			il.Emit (OpCodes.Ldarg, handleParameter);
+#if NET
+			il.Emit (OpCodes.Call, abr.NativeObject_op_Implicit_NativeHandle);
+#endif
+			il.Emit (OpCodes.Stfld, abr.CurrentAssembly.MainModule.ImportReference (abr.Foundation_NSObject_HandleField));
+
+			il.Emit (OpCodes.Ldarg_0);
+			il.Emit (OpCodes.Ldc_I4_2); // Flags.NativeRef == 2
+#if NET
+			il.Emit (OpCodes.Call, abr.Foundation_NSObject_FlagsSetterMethod);
+#else
+			il.Emit (OpCodes.Stfld, abr.Foundation_NSObject_FlagsField);
+#endif
+
+			// call the original constructor with all of the original parameters
+			il.Emit (OpCodes.Ldarg_0);
+			foreach (var parameter in clonedCtor.Parameters.SkipLast (2)) {
+				il.Emit (OpCodes.Ldarg, parameter);
+			}
+
+			il.Emit (OpCodes.Call, ctor);
+			il.Emit (OpCodes.Ret);
+
+			return clonedCtor;
+		}
 	}
 }