I believe they insert the corresponding Meta node into the AST before the actual macros (like @inline) have been defined.
- [julia-users] What do @_inline_meta and @_propagate_in... Davide Lasagna
- [julia-users] What do @_inline_meta and @_propaga... Kristoffer Carlsson
- [julia-users] Re: What do @_inline_meta and @... Davide Lasagna
- [julia-users] Re: What do @_inline_meta a... Blake Johnson