How to understand the JITed code for "using" with exception handling in C#

Question

I've written a very simple class in C#:

class DisposableClass : IDisposable {
    public void Dispose() { }
}


static void UsingClass() {                    // line 31
    using (var dc = new DisposableClass()) {  // line 32
        DoSomething(dc);                      // line 33
    }                                         // line 34
}                                             // line 35

I've dumped the native code after JIT with WinDBG for it:

0:000> !u 000007fe87d30120 
Normal JIT generated code
SimpleConsole.Program.UsingClass()
Begin 000007fe87d30120, size 80

c:\projects\SimpleConsole\SimpleConsole\Program.cs @ 32:
>>> 000007fe`87d30120 55              push    rbp
000007fe`87d30121 4883ec30        sub     rsp,30h
000007fe`87d30125 488d6c2420      lea     rbp,[rsp+20h]
000007fe`87d3012a 48896500        mov     qword ptr [rbp],rsp
000007fe`87d3012e 48c7450800000000 mov     qword ptr [rbp+8],0
000007fe`87d30136 488d0d6b47eeff  lea     rcx,[000007fe`87c148a8]
000007fe`87d3013d e8fe24665f      call    clr+0x2640 (000007fe`e7392640) (JitHelp: CORINFO_HELP_NEWSFAST) // new DisposableClass()
000007fe`87d30142 48894508        mov     qword ptr [rbp+8],rax

c:\projects\SimpleConsole\SimpleConsole\Program.cs @ 33:
000007fe`87d30146 488b4d08        mov     rcx,qword ptr [rbp+8]
000007fe`87d3014a e8d1beeeff      call    000007fe`87c1c020 (SimpleConsole.Program.DoSomething(System.Object), mdToken: 0000000006000012)
000007fe`87d3014f 90              nop
000007fe`87d30150 90              nop

c:\projects\SimpleConsole\SimpleConsole\Program.cs @ 35:
000007fe`87d30151 488b4d08        mov     rcx,qword ptr [rbp+8]
000007fe`87d30155 4c8d1dc4feeeff  lea     r11,[000007fe`87c20020]
000007fe`87d3015c ff15befeeeff    call    qword ptr [000007fe`87c20020] // Call Dispose()
000007fe`87d30162 90              nop
000007fe`87d30163 488d6510        lea     rsp,[rbp+10h]
000007fe`87d30167 5d              pop     rbp
000007fe`87d30168 c3              ret

// I could understand the code above (without exception thrown).

c:\projects\SimpleConsole\SimpleConsole\Program.cs @ 32:
000007fe`87d30169 55              push    rbp
000007fe`87d3016a 4883ec30        sub     rsp,30h
000007fe`87d3016e 488b6920        mov     rbp,qword ptr [rcx+20h]
000007fe`87d30172 48896c2420      mov     qword ptr [rsp+20h],rbp
000007fe`87d30177 488d6d20        lea     rbp,[rbp+20h]

c:\projects\SimpleConsole\SimpleConsole\Program.cs @ 35:
000007fe`87d3017b 48837d0800      cmp     qword ptr [rbp+8],0
000007fe`87d30180 7417            je      000007fe`87d30199
000007fe`87d30182 488d1597feeeff  lea     rdx,[000007fe`87c20020]
000007fe`87d30189 488b4508        mov     rax,qword ptr [rbp+8]
000007fe`87d3018d 803800          cmp     byte ptr [rax],0
000007fe`87d30190 488b4d08        mov     rcx,qword ptr [rbp+8]
000007fe`87d30194 4c8bda          mov     r11,rdx
000007fe`87d30197 ff12            call    qword ptr [rdx]
000007fe`87d30199 90              nop
000007fe`87d3019a 4883c430        add     rsp,30h
000007fe`87d3019e 5d              pop     rbp
000007fe`87d3019f c3              ret

I could understand the code without exception (commented above), but how the code works when an exception was thrown? How the code goes into the code below the comment?

Update:

Some people think we should start from IL so I pasted the code below:

.method private hidebysig static 
    void UsingClass () cil managed noinlining 
{
    // Method begins at RVA 0x23bc
    // Code size 25 (0x19)
    .maxstack 1
    .locals init (
        [0] class SimpleConsole.DisposableClass dc
    )

    IL_0000: newobj instance void SimpleConsole.DisposableClass::.ctor()
    IL_0005: stloc.0
    .try
    {
        IL_0006: ldloc.0
        IL_0007: call void SimpleConsole.Program::DoSomething(object)
        IL_000c: leave.s IL_0018
    } // end .try
    finally
    {
        IL_000e: ldloc.0
        IL_000f: brfalse.s IL_0017

        IL_0011: ldloc.0
        IL_0012: callvirt instance void [mscorlib]System.IDisposable::Dispose()

        IL_0017: endfinally
    } // end handler

    IL_0018: ret
} // end of method Program::UsingClass

But I don't think it helps since IL almost keeps everything here in C# like the complete try...finally statement. What I want to understand is how the native code handles exception here.

Answer 1

The jitter does a lot more than what's ever visible from the Disassembly window. For one, it generates a table that describes the lifetime and storage of local variables. Very important for the garbage collector, it needs that table to find object references.

And it generates an unwind table for exceptions. Which has a very desirable property, it makes a try statement free. There is zero cost in writing code that has exception handling, no code is required to enter a try block. So you don't see any in the dissassembly. There is no easy way to locate that table from the debugger. A pretty decent description of them is here.