Merge #12692: Add configure options for various -fsanitize flags

6feb46c Add --with-sanitizers option to configure (Evan Klitzke)

Pull request description:

  This adds configure options for `-fsanitize=address`, `-fsanitize=thread`, and `-fsanitize=undefined` which are all disabled by default. These flags are useful for developers who wish to do additional safety checking. Note that some of these are mutually incompatible, and these may have a large performance overhead.

  There's some kind of strange logic required to properly check for the availability of these flags in a way that works on both GCC and Clang, hopefully the comments make it clear what's going on.

Tree-SHA512: 2d6fe402799110e59ee452dddf37f7ca2d26a7fecec50be25c8a134e4a20beb31f1e8f438dffd443641562418075896d1eeb450623425b272d80e05e3027a587

1 files changed, 51 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/doc/developer-notes.md b/doc/developer-notes.md
index 0a4ad32a2b..0de1892200 100644
--- a/doc/developer-notes.md
+++ b/doc/developer-notes.md
@@ -243,6 +243,57 @@ make cov
 # A coverage report will now be accessible at `./test_bitcoin.coverage/index.html`.
 ```
 
+**Sanitizers**
+
+Bitcoin can be compiled with various "sanitizers" enabled, which add
+instrumentation for issues regarding things like memory safety, thread race
+conditions, or undefined behavior. This is controlled with the
+`--with-sanitizers` configure flag, which should be a comma separated list of
+sanitizers to enable. The sanitizer list should correspond to supported
+`-fsanitize=` options in your compiler. These sanitizers have runtime overhead,
+so they are most useful when testing changes or producing debugging builds.
+
+Some examples:
+
+```bash
+# Enable both the address sanitizer and the undefined behavior sanitizer
+./configure --with-sanitizers=address,undefined
+
+# Enable the thread sanitizer
+./configure --with-sanitizers=thread
+```
+
+If you are compiling with GCC you will typically need to install corresponding
+"san" libraries to actually compile with these flags, e.g. libasan for the
+address sanitizer, libtsan for the thread sanitizer, and libubsan for the
+undefined sanitizer. If you are missing required libraries, the configure script
+will fail with a linker error when testing the sanitizer flags.
+
+The test suite should pass cleanly with the `thread` and `undefined` sanitizers,
+but there are a number of known problems when using the `address` sanitizer. The
+address sanitizer is known to fail in
+[sha256_sse4::Transform](/src/crypto/sha256_sse4.cpp) which makes it unusable
+unless you also use `--disable-asm` when running configure. We would like to fix
+sanitizer issues, so please send pull requests if you can fix any errors found
+by the address sanitizer (or any other sanitizer).
+
+Not all sanitizer options can be enabled at the same time, e.g. trying to build
+with `--with-sanitizers=address,thread` will fail in the configure script as
+these sanitizers are mutually incompatible. Refer to your compiler manual to
+learn more about these options and which sanitizers are supported by your
+compiler.
+
+Additional resources:
+
+ * [AddressSanitizer](https://clang.llvm.org/docs/AddressSanitizer.html)
+ * [LeakSanitizer](https://clang.llvm.org/docs/LeakSanitizer.html)
+ * [MemorySanitizer](https://clang.llvm.org/docs/MemorySanitizer.html)
+ * [ThreadSanitizer](https://clang.llvm.org/docs/ThreadSanitizer.html)
+ * [UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer](https://clang.llvm.org/docs/UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer.html)
+ * [GCC Instrumentation Options](https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Instrumentation-Options.html)
+ * [Google Sanitizers Wiki](https://github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki)
+ * [Issue #12691: Enable -fsanitize flags in Travis](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/12691)
+
 Locking/mutex usage notes
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