High-level Pcode (PcodeAST) output in Ghidra

Ghidra uses a processor independent representation called Pcode. It is easy to grab and work with in scripts (Instruction.getPcode()). Lesser known is that the decompiler exposes a higher-level Pcode representation.

The problem with using Pcode for processor-independent algorithms or AI model training is that low-level Pcode looks a lot like the assembly language that it came from. The low-level Pcode is just an implementation of each assembly instruction in the Pcode language.

The Ghidra decompiler is essentially a Pcode simplifier and Pcode-to-C translation engine. It simplifies the more verbose low-level Pcode, and converts it to a single-static-assignment (SSA) form (PcodeAST). It then outputs this Pcode AST as C code. The decompiler has an API to output the PCodeAST. Ghidra has a couple of built-in scripts that use the API but they are written to generate graphs (GraphAST.java, GraphASTandFlow.java). This script instead just prints the PCode AST in text form.