What is the purpose of the _HACK methods in System.Internal (.net 4.0 on x64)

Question

In the mscorlib of .net 4.0 on x64 there is a class System.Internal that contains three static methods with the suffix _HACK. Does anybody have an idea what the purpose of these methods is?

Here is the .NET Reflector output:

internal static class Internal
{
    // Methods
    private static void CommonlyUsedGenericInstantiations_HACK()
    {
        Array.Sort<double>(null);
        Array.Sort<int>(null);
        Array.Sort<IntPtr>(null);
        new ArraySegment<byte>(new byte[1], 0, 0);
        new Dictionary<char, object>();
        new Dictionary<Guid, byte>();
        new Dictionary<Guid, object>();
        new Dictionary<Guid, Guid>();
        new Dictionary<short, IntPtr>();
        new Dictionary<int, byte>();
        new Dictionary<int, int>();
        new Dictionary<int, object>();
        new Dictionary<IntPtr, bool>();
        new Dictionary<IntPtr, short>();
        new Dictionary<object, bool>();
        new Dictionary<object, char>();
        new Dictionary<object, Guid>();
        new Dictionary<object, int>();
        new Dictionary<object, long>();
        new Dictionary<uint, WeakReference>();
        new Dictionary<object, uint>();
        new Dictionary<uint, object>();
        new Dictionary<long, object>();
        new Dictionary<MemberTypes, object>();
        new EnumEqualityComparer<MemberTypes>();
        new Dictionary<object, KeyValuePair<object, object>>();
        new Dictionary<KeyValuePair<object, object>, object>();
        NullableHelper_HACK<bool>();
        NullableHelper_HACK<byte>();
        NullableHelper_HACK<char>();
        NullableHelper_HACK<DateTime>();
        NullableHelper_HACK<decimal>();
        NullableHelper_HACK<double>();
        NullableHelper_HACK<Guid>();
        NullableHelper_HACK<short>();
        NullableHelper_HACK<int>();
        NullableHelper_HACK<long>();
        NullableHelper_HACK<float>();
        NullableHelper_HACK<TimeSpan>();
        NullableHelper_HACK<DateTimeOffset>();
        new List<bool>();
        new List<byte>();
        new List<char>();
        new List<DateTime>();
        new List<decimal>();
        new List<double>();
        new List<Guid>();
        new List<short>();
        new List<int>();
        new List<long>();
        new List<TimeSpan>();
        new List<sbyte>();
        new List<float>();
        new List<ushort>();
        new List<uint>();
        new List<ulong>();
        new List<IntPtr>();
        new List<KeyValuePair<object, object>>();
        new List<GCHandle>();
        new List<DateTimeOffset>();
        RuntimeType.RuntimeTypeCache.Prejitinit_HACK();
        new CerArrayList<RuntimeMethodInfo>(0);
        new CerArrayList<RuntimeConstructorInfo>(0);
        new CerArrayList<RuntimePropertyInfo>(0);
        new CerArrayList<RuntimeEventInfo>(0);
        new CerArrayList<RuntimeFieldInfo>(0);
        new CerArrayList<RuntimeType>(0);
        new KeyValuePair<char, ushort>('\0', 0);
        new KeyValuePair<ushort, double>(0, double.MinValue);
        new KeyValuePair<object, int>(string.Empty, -2147483648);
        new KeyValuePair<int, int>(-2147483648, -2147483648);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<bool>(null);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<byte>(null);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<DateTime>(null);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<decimal>(null);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<double>(null);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<Guid>(null);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<short>(null);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<int>(null);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<long>(null);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<TimeSpan>(null);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<sbyte>(null);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<float>(null);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<ushort>(null);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<uint>(null);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<ulong>(null);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<DateTimeOffset>(null);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<CustomAttributeTypedArgument>(null);
        SZArrayHelper_HACK<CustomAttributeNamedArgument>(null);
    }

    private static T NullableHelper_HACK<T>() where T: struct
    {
        Nullable.Compare<T>(null, null);
        Nullable.Equals<T>(null, null);
        T? nullable = null;
        return nullable.GetValueOrDefault();
    }

    private static void SZArrayHelper_HACK<T>(SZArrayHelper oSZArrayHelper)
    {
        oSZArrayHelper.get_Count<T>();
        oSZArrayHelper.get_Item<T>(0);
        oSZArrayHelper.GetEnumerator<T>();
    }
}

Answer 1

I think it's covered but add my own interpretation. It is a code generation optimization. When the jitter generates code for a generic class, it only needs to generate a few versions of it. There's one that covers any reference type, that's why you see object being used in the code. And there's one each for each distinct value type. That's why you see byte, bool, short, int, uint being popular.

This code lives in mscorlib.dll and is therefore available precompiled in the ngen-ed image. Which the jitter can then directly use without a need to generate the machine code on-the-fly. In effect, it is a workaround for ngen being incapable of guessing up front which generic instantiations will be required. Clearly it isn't practical to exhaustively pregen every possible combination, especially for a class like Dictionary<>. They no doubt analyzed a bunch of code to see what generic type arguments were most popular, probably starting with the framework itself.