Undocumented "Interface flag" for IInvokable?

[Der schöne Günther 316]

You can use the RTTI to evaluate certain properties of interace types. Please see the following snippet:

 

program Project1;
uses System.Rtti;

var
	context: TRttiContext;
	rttiInterface: TRttiInterfaceType;
begin
	context := TRttiContext.Create();
	rttiInterface := context.GetType( TypeInfo(IInterface) ) as TRttiInterfaceType;
	rttiInterface.IntfFlags; // is [ifHasGuid]

	rttiInterface := context.GetType( TypeInfo(IInvokable) ) as TRttiInterfaceType;
	rttiInterface.IntfFlags; // is [3]. 3 is not a valid enum value
end.

You can put a breakpoint on both lines with a comment for evaluating the value of IntfFlags yourself. IInvokable (and every interface that derives from it) has an undocumented value of "3". What does it mean? I have not been able to find anything in the source code. Clearly, System.TypInfo.TIntfFlag is declared as

TIntfFlag = (ifHasGuid, ifDispInterface, ifDispatch);

 

Edited June 5, 2019 by Der schöne Günther

[Remy Lebeau 1396]

Are you saying the returned IntfFlags *contains* a bit that *represents* an enum value of 3?  Or that the IntfFlags *itself* is a numeric value of 3?

 

In the former case, I have seen something similar before:

 

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49950534/strange-behaviour-of-typeinfo-by-anonymous-methods

 

In the latter case, the TRttiInterfaceType.IntfFlags property returns a TIntfFlags Set, and a Set is implemented as a bitmask, where each bit represents a specific enum value.  A bitmask value of 3 means the 1st 2 bits in the bitmask are set.  And since TIntfFlags contains all of the TIntfFlag values, that would mean a bitmask value of 3 has the ifHasGuid and ifDispInterface flags enabled.

 

Which, I guess the latter does not make sense in this situation, because IInvokable is not a dispinterface.  So, it must be the former.

Edited June 5, 2019 by Remy Lebeau

[Stefan Glienke 2002]

It seems indeed as if the TIntfFlag enum was never extended since Delphi6 (I think that was when interface RTTI was introduced) - I can confirm that at least since XE an interface type with $M+ gets a fourth flag (lets call it ifHasMethodInfo) set.

If the type is an anonymous method type (see https://stackoverflow.com/q/49950534/587106) then there is a 7th enum value in the set. The situations where bit 5 and 6 are set are unknown to me.

 

You might want to file an issue in QP about this.

 

@Remy Lebeau Your diagnosis is still wrong - if the debugger shows

Quote

[(out of bound) 3]

then that means it has the 4th bit set.

 

I can confirm my findings with this code:

 

uses
  SysUtils,
  Rtti;

type
  TIntfFlagEx = (ifHasGuid, ifDispInterface, ifDispatch, ifMethodInfo, ifUnknown, ifUnknown2, ifAnonymousMethod);
  TIntfFlagsEx = set of TIntfFlagEx;

  {$M+}
  IFoo = interface
    ['{35CFB4E2-4A13-48E9-8026-C1558001F4B7}']
    procedure Main;
  end;
  {$M-}

  {$M+}
  IBar = interface(TProc)
    ['{AB2FEC1A-339F-4E58-B3DB-EC7B734F461B}']
  end;
  {$M-}

  {$M+}
  TMyProc = reference to procedure;
  {$M-}

procedure PrintIntf(typeInfo: Pointer);
var
  context: TRttiContext;
  rttiInterface: TRttiInterfaceType;
  flags: TIntfFlagsEx;
begin
  rttiInterface := context.GetType(typeInfo) as TRttiInterfaceType;
  flags := TIntfFlagsEx(rttiInterface.IntfFlags);
  Writeln(rttiInterface.Name, ' ', TValue.From(flags).ToString);
end;

begin
  PrintIntf(TypeInfo(IInterface));
  PrintIntf(TypeInfo(IInvokable));
  PrintIntf(TypeInfo(IFoo));
  PrintIntf(TypeInfo(TProc));
  PrintIntf(TypeInfo(TFunc<Integer>));
  PrintIntf(TypeInfo(TMyProc));
  PrintIntf(TypeInfo(IBar));
  Readln;
end.

prints this:

 

IInterface [ifHasGuid]
IInvokable [ifMethodInfo]
IFoo [ifHasGuid,ifMethodInfo]
TProc [ifAnonymousMethod]
TFunc<System.Integer> [ifAnonymousMethod]
TMyProc [ifMethodInfo,ifAnonymousMethod]
IBar [ifHasGuid,ifMethodInfo,ifAnonymousMethod]

 

Edited June 5, 2019 by Stefan Glienke

[Der schöne Günther 316]

I wonder where this value actually comes from. I guess not from RTL code that exists as a .pas file?

[Stefan Glienke 2002]

3 minutes ago, Der schöne Günther said:

I wonder where this value actually comes from. I guess not from RTL code that exists as a .pas file?

The compiler is responsible for writing typeInfo into the binary.

[Remy Lebeau 1396]

49 minutes ago, Stefan Glienke said:

It seems indeed as if the TIntfFlag enum was never extended since Delphi6 (I think that was when interface RTTI was introduced) - I can confirm that at least since XE an interface type with $M+ gets a fourth flag (lets call it ifHasMethodInfo) set.

If the type is an anonymous method type (see https://stackoverflow.com/q/49950534/587106) then there is a 7th enum value in the set. The situations where bit 5 and 6 are set are unknown to me.

OK.

Quote

You might want to file an issue in QP about this.

https://quality.embarcadero.com/browse/RSP-24631

Quote

 

@Remy Lebeau Your diagnosis is still wrong - if the debugger shows [(out of bound) 3] then that means it has the 4th bit set.

I'm aware of that.  But that is not the exact text you originally showed, which is why I questioned it.

 

Edited June 5, 2019 by Remy Lebeau

[Stefan Glienke 2002]

22 minutes ago, Remy Lebeau said:

But that is not the exact text you originally showed.

If with "you" you mean @Der schöne Günther then yes.

[Remy Lebeau 1396]

12 minutes ago, Stefan Glienke said:

If with "you" you mean @Der schöne Günther then yes.

Yes, sorry, that is what I meant.

Edited June 5, 2019 by Remy Lebeau