# VM-Specific Pragma Annotations

## Pragmas for general use

These pragmas are part of the VM's API and are safe for use in external code.

| Pragma | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `vm:entry-point` | [Defining entry-points into Dart code for an embedder or native methods](compiler/aot/entry_point_pragma.md) |
| `vm:never-inline` | [Never inline a function or method](compiler/pragmas_recognized_by_compiler.md#requesting-a-function-never-be-inlined) |
| `vm:prefer-inline` | [Inline a function or method when possible](compiler/pragmas_recognized_by_compiler.md#requesting-a-function-be-inlined) |
| `vm:notify-debugger-on-exception` | Marks a function that catches exceptions, making the VM treat any caught exception as if they were uncaught. This can be used to notify an attached debugger during debugging, without pausing the app during regular execution. |
| `vm:keep-name` | Will ensure we keep the name of the class/function - even if e.g. obfuscation mode is enabled. |
| `vm:external-name` | Allows to specify an external (native) name for an `external` function. This name is used to lookup native implementation via native resolver associated with the current library through embedding APIs. This is a replacement for legacy VM specific `native "name"` syntax. |
| `vm:invisible` | Allows to mark a function as invisible so it will not appear on stack traces. |
| `vm:always-consider-inlining` | Marks a function which particularly benefits from inlining and specialization in context of the caller (for example, when concrete types of arguments are known). Inliner will not give up after one failed inlining attempt and will continue trying to inline this function. |
| `vm:platform-const` | Marks a static getter or a static field with an initializer where the getter body or field initializer evaluates to a constant value if the target operating system is known. |
| `vm:platform-const-if` | Like `vm:platform-const`, but takes a boolean argument and constant evaluation of the annotated member is only performed if the argument const evaluates to true. |
| `weak-tearoff-reference` | [Declaring a static weak reference intrinsic method.](compiler/pragmas_recognized_by_compiler.md#declaring-a-static-weak-reference-intrinsic-method) |
| `vm:isolate-unsendable` | Marks a class, instances of which won't be allowed to be passed through ports or sent between isolates. |
| `vm:awaiter-link` | [Specifying variable to follow for awaiter stack unwinding](awaiter_stack_traces.md) |
| `vm:deeply-immutable` | [Specifying a class and all its subtypes are deeply immutable](deeply_immutable.md) |
| `vm:align-loops` | Tells compiler to align all loop headers inside the function to an architecture specific boundary: currently 32 bytes on X64 and ARM64 (except Apple Silicon, which explicitly discourages aligning branch targets) |
| `vm:no-sanitize-thread` | Disable ThreadSanitizer instrumentation |
| `external-effect` | Declares a static method which will be treated as live code when performing any analysis of the program. The call itself (and its arguments) are then dropped from the running program.
| `track-creation-locations` | Marks a class, instances of which should have their creation locations tracked. Tracked creation locations are stored in a private field of the class and can be accessed through the `CreationLocation.of(object)` method in `dart:developer`. |

## Unsafe pragmas for general use

These pragmas are available for use in third-party code but are potentially
unsafe. The use of these pragmas is discouraged unless the developer fully
understands potential repercussions.

| Pragma | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `vm:unsafe:no-interrupts` | Removes all `CheckStackOverflow` instructions from the optimized version of the marked function, which disables stack overflow checking and interruption within that function. This pragma exists mainly for performance evaluation and should not be used in a general-purpose code, because VM relies on these checks for OOB message delivery and GC scheduling. |
| `vm:unsafe:no-bounds-checks` | Removes all array bounds checks from the optimized version of the marked function in AOT mode. This pragma exists for optimizing throughput of extremely tight loops. |
| `vm:shared` | Makes content of the static field visible to all isolates in one isolate group. Unsafe and experimental at this point as it requires developer to take care of access synchronization to ensure race-free read/write access. |

## Pragmas for internal use

These pragmas can cause unsound behavior if used incorrectly and therefore are only allowed within the core SDK libraries.

| Pragma | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `vm:exact-result-type` | [Declaring an exact result type of a method](compiler/pragmas_recognized_by_compiler.md#providing-an-exact-result-type) |
| `vm:recognized` | [Marking this as a recognized method](compiler/pragmas_recognized_by_compiler.md#marking-recognized-methods) |
| `vm:idempotent` | Method marked with this pragma can be repeated or restarted multiple times without change to its effect. Loading, storing of memory values are examples of this, while reads and writes from file are examples of non-idempotent methods. At present, use of this pragma is limited to driving inlining of force-optimized functions. |
| `vm:cachable-idempotent` | Functions marked with this pragma will have their call site cache the return value. Not supported in ia32. Call site must have the pragma `vm:force-optimze`. |
| `vm:force-optimze` | Functions marked with this pragma will be compiled with the optimized pipeline and may not deoptimize. |

## Pragmas ignored in user code

These pragma's are only used on AST nodes synthesized by us, so users defining these will be ignored.

| Pragma | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `vm:ffi:call-closure`| [Closure performing FFI calls](compiler/ffi_pragmas.md) |
| `vm:ffi:native-assets` | [Passing a native assets mapping to the VM](compiler/ffi_pragmas.md) |
| `vm:ffi:native`| [Passing a native arguments to the VM](compiler/ffi_pragmas.md) |

## Pragmas for internal testing

These pragmas are used for inspecting or modifying internal VM state and should be used exclusively by SDK tests.
They must be enabled with the `--enable-testing-pragmas` flag.
The names of these pragmas are prefixed with "testing".
Additionally, they are categorized into "safe" and "unsafe" forms: "safe" pragmas should not affect the behavior of the program and can be safely added anywhere, whereas "unsafe" pragmas may change the code's behavior or may cause the VM to crash if used improperly.

| Pragma | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `vm:testing.unsafe.trace-entrypoints-fn` | [Observing which flow-graph-level entry-point was used when a function was called](compiler/frontend/testing_trace_entrypoints_pragma.md) |

## Flutter toString transformer pragmas

These pragmas are useful to exclude certain toString methods from toString transformation,
which is enabled with `--delete-tostring-package-uri` option in kernel compilers and
used by Flutter to remove certain toString methods in release mode to reduce size.

| Pragma | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `flutter:keep-to-string` | Avoid transforming the annotated toString method. |
| `flutter:keep-to-string-in-subtypes` | Avoid transforming toString methods in all subtypes of the annotated class. |