Replacing memory pointers with implicit pointers to be used in compiler-generated debug output

A system comprising:

• a memory;
• a processing device communicably coupled to the memory;
• and
• a compiler communicably coupled to the processing device, the compiler comprising a pointer replacement component to:
• compile source code into optimized code;
• identify, during the compiling, a memory pointer in the source code, wherein the memory pointer corresponds to a first value in the source code and serves as a referencing link to a second value in memory;
• when the memory pointer is optimized away during the compiling of the source code, replace the memory pointer with an implicit pointer that comprises an implicit reference link between the first value and second value, wherein the implicit reference link previously provided as an explicit reference link by the memory pointer in the source code before the compiling and comprising an annotation link that is maintained between a first annotation associated with the first value and a second annotation providing information leading to a location storing the second value;
• and
• generate the compiled code and a compiler-generated debug output associated with the compiled code, the compiler-generated debug output comprising annotations in a debug format, the annotations comprising at least the implicit reference link.

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium including instructions that, when accessed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

• compiling, by the processing device, source code into optimized code;
• identifying, by the processing device during the compiling, a memory pointer in the source code, wherein the memory pointer corresponds to a first value in the source code and serves as a referencing link to a second value in memory;
• when the memory pointer is optimized away during the compiling of the source code, replacing the memory pointer with an implicit pointer that comprises an implicit reference link between the first value and second value, wherein the implicit reference link previously provided as an explicit reference link by the memory pointer in the source code before the compiling and comprising an annotation link that is maintained between a first annotation associated with the first value and a second annotation providing information leading to a location storing the second value;
• and
• generating, by the processing device, the compiled code and a compiler-generated debug output associated with the compiled code, the compiler-generated debug output comprising annotations in a debug format, the annotations comprising at least the implicit reference link.