Nodewrap

  • About nodewrap
  • Sample code
  • Installation
  • Nodewrap and irb
  • YARV support
  • Other tools
  • Documentation
  • Download
  • Nightly build scoreboard
  • Future directions
  • Links

    About

    Nodewrap is Ruby module that provides direct access to Ruby's internal node structure. Originally this started as a proof-of-concept to allow Node objects to be dumped and loaded using Ruby's builtin marshalling mechanism. Methods to dump and load classes and modules are were also added, and with a little work, nodewrap can be used to dump entire class hierarchies from one Ruby process and load them into another.

    Of course, this isn't particularly useful, since with Ruby you can just marshal your source code across the wire and eval it on the other side.

    So how is nodewrap useful? With nodewrap, you can:

    Installing Nodewrap

    As of version 0.5, nodewrap is now available as a gem. If you are using a released stable version of ruby (1.6.x or 1.8.x), you can install nodewrap as a gem:

      $ gem install nodewrap
    

    However, because nodewrap is dependant on the ruby source to do some of its magic, if you are using a development version of ruby or a locally modified version of ruby, or if you want to tinker with the nodewrap source code, you will need to install the source. First download the source, then install it using install.rb:

      $ tar xvfz nodewrap-0.5.tar.gz
      $ cd nodewrap-0.5
      $ ruby install.rb config --ruby-source-path=<path to ruby source>
      $ ruby install.rb setup
      $ sudo ruby install.rb install
    
    Otherwise, if you are using the latest 1.9 series, a locally modified version of ruby, or a version of ruby not supported by the

    Sample code

    This will dump the class Foo (including its instance methods, class variables, etc.) and re-load it:

      class Foo
        def foo; puts "this is a test..."; end
      end
    
      s = Marshal.dump(Foo)
      p Marshal.load(s) #=> Foo
    
    (it used to be that nodewrap would reload the class as an anonymous class, but this was changed recently, as it turns out some methods might refer back to the class by name, and it's not feasible to change all the methods).

    Nodewrap and irb

    Nodewrap is very useful as a tool for digging into the internals of Ruby and figuring out what the interpreter is doing with your code. To use nodewrap with irb, put the following in your .irbrc:
      require 'pp'
      require 'nodepp'
      require 'classtree'
      require 'methodsig'
    
    Now you can print node trees:
      irb(main):001:0> pp (proc { 1 + 1 }.body)
      NODE_NEWLINE at (irb):1
      |-nth = 1
      +-next = NODE_CALL at (irb):1
        |-recv = NODE_LIT at (irb):1
        | +-lit = 1
        |-args = NODE_ARRAY at (irb):1
        | |-alen = 1
        | |-head = NODE_LIT at (irb):1
        | | +-lit = 1
        | +-next = false
        +-mid = :+
      => nil
    
    And view class hierarchies:
      irb(main):004:0> puts Object.new.classtree
      #<Object:0x40330ce8>
      +-class = Object
        |-class = #<Class:Object>
        | |-class = Class
        | | |-class = #<Class:Class>
        | | | |-class = #<Class:Class> (*)
        | | | +-super = #<Class:Module>
        | | |   |-class = Class (*)
        | | |   +-super = #<Class:Object> (*)
        | | +-super = Module
        | |   |-class = #<Class:Module> (*)
        | |   +-super = Object (*)
        | +-super = Class (*)
        +-super = #<PP::ObjectMixin?:0x40349568>
          +-class = PP::ObjectMixin?
            |-class = Module (*)
            +-super = #<Kernel:0x4033507c>
              +-class = Kernel
      => nil
    
    View method signatures:
      irb(main):015:0> def foo(a, b, *rest, &block); end; method(:foo).signature
      => #<MethodSig::Signature:0x4037093c @origin_class=Object, @arg_info={:b=>"b",
      :block=>"&block", :a=>"a", :rest=>"*rest"}, @name="foo", @arg_names=[:a,
      :b, :rest, :block]>
      irb(main):016:0> proc { |x, y, *rest| }.signature
      => #<Proc::Signature:0x4036cf30 @args=#<Proc::Arguments:0x4036d020 @rest_arg=2,
      @multiple_assignment=true, @names=[:x, :y, :rest]>, @arg_info={:x=>"x", :y=>"y",
      :rest=>"*rest"}>
    
    And reconstruct compiled methods:
      irb(main):001:0> def foo(a, b, *rest, &block)
      irb(main):002:1>   begin
      irb(main):003:2*     if not a and not b then
      irb(main):004:3*       raise "Need more input!"
      irb(main):005:3>     end
      irb(main):006:2>     return a + b
      irb(main):007:2>   ensure
      irb(main):008:2*     puts "In ensure block"
      irb(main):009:2>   end
      irb(main):010:1> end
      => nil
      irb(main):011:0> m = method(:foo)
      => #<Method: Object#foo>
      irb(main):012:0> puts m.as_code
      def foo(a, b, *rest, &block)
        begin
          (raise("Need more input!")) if (not a and not b)
          return a + b
        ensure
          puts("In ensure block")
        end
      end
    => nil
    

    YARV support

    Yes, nodewrap works with YARV, too. The difference when using YARV is that sometimes you have nodes, and sometimes you have instruction sequences. So whereas pre-YARV you would have a pure AST, with YARV you get structures that look like this:

      irb(main):001:0> def foo; 1 + 1; end
      => nil
      irb(main):002:0> pp method(:foo).body  
      NODE_METHOD at (irb):1
      |-noex = PUBLIC
      |-body = <ISeq:foo@(irb)>
      | |-0000 trace            8
      | |-0002 trace            1
      | |-0004 putobject        1
      | |-0006 putobject        1
      | |-0008 opt_plus         
      | |-0009 trace            16
      | +-0011 leave            
      +-cnt = 0
    

    You can also access the original AST with Node.compile:

      irb(main):001:0> n = Node.compile_string('1+1')
      => #>Node::SCOPE:0x40420af0>
      irb(main):002:0> pp n
      NODE_SCOPE at (compiled):1
      |-rval = NODE_CALL at (compiled):1
      | |-recv = NODE_LIT at (compiled):1
      | | +-lit = 1
      | |-args = NODE_ARRAY at (compiled):1
      | | |-alen = 1
      | | |-head = NODE_LIT at (compiled):1
      | | | +-lit = 1
      | | +-next = false
      | +-mid = :+
      |-tbl = nil
      +-next = false
    

    compile it to a bytecode sequence:

      irb(main):003:0> is = n.bytecode_compile()
      => <ISeq:<main>@(compiled)>
      irb(main):004:0> puts is.disasm
      == disasm: >ISeq:>main>@(compiled)>=====================================
      0000 trace            1                                               (   1)
      0002 putobject        1
      0004 putobject        1
      0006 opt_plus         
      0007 leave            
      => nil
    

    iterate over the bytecode sequence:

      irb(main):004:0> is.each { |i| puts "#{i.inspect} #{i.length} #{i.operand_types.inspect}" }
      #<VM::Instruction::TRACE:0x40412324 @operands=[1]> 2 [:num]
      #<VM::Instruction::PUTOBJECT:0x404121d0 @operands=[1]> 2 [:value]
      #<VM::Instruction::PUTOBJECT:0x4041207c @operands=[1]> 2 [:value]
      #<VM::Instruction::OPT_PLUS:0x40411f28 @operands=[]> 1 []
      #<VM::Instruction::LEAVE:0x40411e24 @operands=[]> 1 []
      => nil
    

    then decompile it:

      irb(main):005:0> require 'as_expression'
      => true
      irb(main):006:0> is.as_expression
      => "1 + 1"
    

    There are still a few missing features (particularly in the decompiler), but expect to see more exciting tools for working with bytecode in the future!

    Other tools

    Nodewrap comes with two useful tools, nwdump and nwobfusc. The nwdump tool works in much the same way as the Pragmatic nodedump tool. If you require it from the command line:
      $ ruby -rnwdump test.rb
    
    it will dump your program's syntax tree. The nwobfusc tool is similar:
      $ ruby -rnwobfusc test.rb > test2.rb
    
    but its output is an obfuscated version of your program. The program must be run on the same version of both nodewrap and the interpreter.

    Documentation

    The documentation for nodewrap is dependent on the version of Ruby for which it was built. If you have rdoc installed, documentation will be generated when you build nodewrap. Otherwise, you may view the documentation online here:

    Download

    The latest release of nodewrap is available at the Rubyforge download page.

    Installation

    For installation instructions, please see the file README that came with nodewrap.

    Nightly build scoreboard

    To ensure that nodewrap works on the widest possible variety of ruby versions, a nightly build has been set up to build it and run the tests on every stable release of ruby since 1.6.8:

    Future directions

    Links to related projects

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