diff mbox

[libfortran] RFC: Shared vtables, constification

Message ID CAO9iq9G+fu-ZaCSb-JGLOdxmrXbqSGAqQEcqD6cKx6s4m4o_2Q@mail.gmail.com
State New
Headers show

Commit Message

Janne Blomqvist Feb. 13, 2012, 6:20 p.m. UTC
Hi,

the attached patch changes the low-level libgfortran IO dispatching
mechanism to use shared vtables for each stream type, instead of all
the function pointers being replicated for each unit. This is similar
to e.g. how the C++ frontend implements vtables. The benefits are:

- Slightly smaller heap memory overhead for each unit as only the
vtable pointer needs to be stored, and slightly faster unit
initialization as only the vtable pointer needs to be setup instead of
all the function pointers in the stream struct.

- Looking at unix.o with readelf, one sees

Relocation section '.rela.data.rel.ro.local.mem_vtable' at offset
0x15550 contains 8 entries:

and similarly for the other vtables; according to
http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/189 this means that after relocation
the page where this data resides may be marked read-only.

The downside is that the sizes of the .text and .data sections are
increased. Before:

   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
1116991    6664     592 1124247  112797
./x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/libgfortran/.libs/libgfortran.so

After:

   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
1117487    6936     592 1125015  112a97
./x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/libgfortran/.libs/libgfortran.so


The data section increase is due to the vtables, the text increase is,
I guess, due to the extra pointer dereference when calling the IO
functions.

Regtested on x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, Ok for trunk, or 4.8?

2012-02-13  Janne Blomqvist  <jb@gcc.gnu.org>

	* io/unix.h (struct stream): Rename to stream_vtable.
	(struct stream): New struct definition.
	(sread): Dereference vtable pointer.
	(swrite): Likewise.
	(sseek): Likewise.
	(struncate): Likewise.
	(sflush): Likewise.
	(sclose): Likewise.
	* io/unix.c (raw_vtable): New variable.
	(buf_vtable): Likewise.
	(mem_vtable): Likewise.
	(mem4_vtable): Likewise.
	(raw_init): Assign vtable pointer.
	(buf_init): Likewise.
	(open_internal): Likewise.
	(open_internal4): Likewise.

Comments

Steven Bosscher Feb. 13, 2012, 9:04 p.m. UTC | #1
On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 7:20 PM, Janne Blomqvist
<blomqvist.janne@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> the attached patch changes the low-level libgfortran IO dispatching
> mechanism to use shared vtables for each stream type, instead of all
> the function pointers being replicated for each unit. This is similar
> to e.g. how the C++ frontend implements vtables. The benefits are:
>
> - Slightly smaller heap memory overhead for each unit as only the
> vtable pointer needs to be stored, and slightly faster unit
> initialization as only the vtable pointer needs to be setup instead of
> all the function pointers in the stream struct.
>
> - Looking at unix.o with readelf, one sees
>
> Relocation section '.rela.data.rel.ro.local.mem_vtable' at offset
> 0x15550 contains 8 entries:
>
> and similarly for the other vtables; according to
> http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/189 this means that after relocation
> the page where this data resides may be marked read-only.
>
> The downside is that the sizes of the .text and .data sections are
> increased. Before:
>
>   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
> 1116991    6664     592 1124247  112797
> ./x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/libgfortran/.libs/libgfortran.so
>
> After:
>
>   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
> 1117487    6936     592 1125015  112a97
> ./x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/libgfortran/.libs/libgfortran.so
>
>
> The data section increase is due to the vtables, the text increase is,
> I guess, due to the extra pointer dereference when calling the IO
> functions.
>
> Regtested on x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, Ok for trunk, or 4.8?

Certainly not for trunk at this stage.

For 4.8: So the trade-off is between faster initialization and smaller
heap vs. fewer pointer dereferences? Does this patch fix an actual
problem? Does it bring a killer feature? Otherwise, I'd say "if it
ain't broke, don't fix it!"

Ciao!
Steven
Janne Blomqvist Feb. 17, 2012, 11:44 a.m. UTC | #2
On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 23:04, Steven Bosscher <stevenb.gcc@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 7:20 PM, Janne Blomqvist
> <blomqvist.janne@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> the attached patch changes the low-level libgfortran IO dispatching
>> mechanism to use shared vtables for each stream type, instead of all
>> the function pointers being replicated for each unit. This is similar
>> to e.g. how the C++ frontend implements vtables. The benefits are:
>>
>> - Slightly smaller heap memory overhead for each unit as only the
>> vtable pointer needs to be stored, and slightly faster unit
>> initialization as only the vtable pointer needs to be setup instead of
>> all the function pointers in the stream struct.
>>
>> - Looking at unix.o with readelf, one sees
>>
>> Relocation section '.rela.data.rel.ro.local.mem_vtable' at offset
>> 0x15550 contains 8 entries:
>>
>> and similarly for the other vtables; according to
>> http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/189 this means that after relocation
>> the page where this data resides may be marked read-only.
>>
>> The downside is that the sizes of the .text and .data sections are
>> increased. Before:
>>
>>   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
>> 1116991    6664     592 1124247  112797
>> ./x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/libgfortran/.libs/libgfortran.so
>>
>> After:
>>
>>   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
>> 1117487    6936     592 1125015  112a97
>> ./x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/libgfortran/.libs/libgfortran.so
>>
>>
>> The data section increase is due to the vtables, the text increase is,
>> I guess, due to the extra pointer dereference when calling the IO
>> functions.
>>
>> Regtested on x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, Ok for trunk, or 4.8?
>
> Certainly not for trunk at this stage.

Fair enough.

> For 4.8: So the trade-off is between faster initialization and smaller
> heap vs. fewer pointer dereferences?

From a performance perspective, yes. Also, a multi-threaded program
may benefit slightly from fewer cacheline ping-pongs due to the
read-only vtables being separated from the RW data in the stream
struct. That being said, while there are a few performance issues
lurking here and there in libgfortran, virtual function dispatch isn't
one of them. I think you'd be hard pressed to come up with a benchmark
where you could see a difference.

The other advantage is that by putting the vtables in read-only pages,
the chance of a buggy program getting a SIGSEGV instead of corrupting
the library state is slightly increased.

> Does this patch fix an actual
> problem? Does it bring a killer feature?

No, it's certainly not a "killer feature". In general, considering the
maturity of gfortran, I think it's unreasonable to expect that a
bordering-on-trivial patch would bring a killer feature.

The patch came about as a small experiment I did, and as I considered
the result an overall improvement (even if admittedly quite a minor
one), I added a ChangeLog and submitted it.
Steven Bosscher Feb. 17, 2012, 11:26 p.m. UTC | #3
On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 12:44 PM, Janne Blomqvist
<blomqvist.janne@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 23:04, Steven Bosscher <stevenb.gcc@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 7:20 PM, Janne Blomqvist
>> <blomqvist.janne@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> the attached patch changes the low-level libgfortran IO dispatching
>>> mechanism to use shared vtables for each stream type, instead of all
>>> the function pointers being replicated for each unit. This is similar
>>> to e.g. how the C++ frontend implements vtables. The benefits are:
>>>
>>> - Slightly smaller heap memory overhead for each unit as only the
>>> vtable pointer needs to be stored, and slightly faster unit
>>> initialization as only the vtable pointer needs to be setup instead of
>>> all the function pointers in the stream struct.
>>>
>>> - Looking at unix.o with readelf, one sees
>>>
>>> Relocation section '.rela.data.rel.ro.local.mem_vtable' at offset
>>> 0x15550 contains 8 entries:
>>>
>>> and similarly for the other vtables; according to
>>> http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/189 this means that after relocation
>>> the page where this data resides may be marked read-only.
>>>
>>> The downside is that the sizes of the .text and .data sections are
>>> increased. Before:
>>>
>>>   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
>>> 1116991    6664     592 1124247  112797
>>> ./x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/libgfortran/.libs/libgfortran.so
>>>
>>> After:
>>>
>>>   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
>>> 1117487    6936     592 1125015  112a97
>>> ./x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/libgfortran/.libs/libgfortran.so
>>>
>>>
>>> The data section increase is due to the vtables, the text increase is,
>>> I guess, due to the extra pointer dereference when calling the IO
>>> functions.
>>>
>>> Regtested on x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, Ok for trunk, or 4.8?
>>
>> Certainly not for trunk at this stage.
>
> Fair enough.
>
>> For 4.8: So the trade-off is between faster initialization and smaller
>> heap vs. fewer pointer dereferences?
>
> From a performance perspective, yes. Also, a multi-threaded program
> may benefit slightly from fewer cacheline ping-pongs due to the
> read-only vtables being separated from the RW data in the stream
> struct. That being said, while there are a few performance issues
> lurking here and there in libgfortran, virtual function dispatch isn't
> one of them. I think you'd be hard pressed to come up with a benchmark
> where you could see a difference.

The cache line thing had crossed my mind, too. I'm not sure if that's
a performance blocker for I/O in the end, though.


> The other advantage is that by putting the vtables in read-only pages,
> the chance of a buggy program getting a SIGSEGV instead of corrupting
> the library state is slightly increased.

Fair enough, that's a good reason to make this change.


>> Does this patch fix an actual
>> problem? Does it bring a killer feature?
>
> No, it's certainly not a "killer feature". In general, considering the
> maturity of gfortran, I think it's unreasonable to expect that a
> bordering-on-trivial patch would bring a killer feature.
>
> The patch came about as a small experiment I did, and as I considered
> the result an overall improvement (even if admittedly quite a minor
> one), I added a ChangeLog and submitted it.

Heh, I did not mean to be unreasonable. I really appreciate all the
work you're doing on gfortran! :-)

Ciao!
Steven
Janne Blomqvist March 15, 2012, 3:42 p.m. UTC | #4
PING! (At this point, obviously for trunk only)

On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 20:20, Janne Blomqvist
<blomqvist.janne@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> the attached patch changes the low-level libgfortran IO dispatching
> mechanism to use shared vtables for each stream type, instead of all
> the function pointers being replicated for each unit. This is similar
> to e.g. how the C++ frontend implements vtables. The benefits are:
>
> - Slightly smaller heap memory overhead for each unit as only the
> vtable pointer needs to be stored, and slightly faster unit
> initialization as only the vtable pointer needs to be setup instead of
> all the function pointers in the stream struct.
>
> - Looking at unix.o with readelf, one sees
>
> Relocation section '.rela.data.rel.ro.local.mem_vtable' at offset
> 0x15550 contains 8 entries:
>
> and similarly for the other vtables; according to
> http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/189 this means that after relocation
> the page where this data resides may be marked read-only.
>
> The downside is that the sizes of the .text and .data sections are
> increased. Before:
>
>   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
> 1116991    6664     592 1124247  112797
> ./x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/libgfortran/.libs/libgfortran.so
>
> After:
>
>   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
> 1117487    6936     592 1125015  112a97
> ./x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/libgfortran/.libs/libgfortran.so
>
>
> The data section increase is due to the vtables, the text increase is,
> I guess, due to the extra pointer dereference when calling the IO
> functions.
>
> Regtested on x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, Ok for trunk, or 4.8?
>
> 2012-02-13  Janne Blomqvist  <jb@gcc.gnu.org>
>
>        * io/unix.h (struct stream): Rename to stream_vtable.
>        (struct stream): New struct definition.
>        (sread): Dereference vtable pointer.
>        (swrite): Likewise.
>        (sseek): Likewise.
>        (struncate): Likewise.
>        (sflush): Likewise.
>        (sclose): Likewise.
>        * io/unix.c (raw_vtable): New variable.
>        (buf_vtable): Likewise.
>        (mem_vtable): Likewise.
>        (mem4_vtable): Likewise.
>        (raw_init): Assign vtable pointer.
>        (buf_init): Likewise.
>        (open_internal): Likewise.
>        (open_internal4): Likewise.
>
>
>
> --
> Janne Blomqvist
Jerry DeLisle March 15, 2012, 10:39 p.m. UTC | #5
On 03/15/2012 11:42 AM, Janne Blomqvist wrote:
> PING! (At this point, obviously for trunk only)
>

Yes, OK for trunk.

> On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 20:20, Janne Blomqvist
> <blomqvist.janne@gmail.com>  wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> the attached patch changes the low-level libgfortran IO dispatching
>> mechanism to use shared vtables for each stream type, instead of all
>> the function pointers being replicated for each unit. This is similar
>> to e.g. how the C++ frontend implements vtables. The benefits are:
>>
>> - Slightly smaller heap memory overhead for each unit as only the
>> vtable pointer needs to be stored, and slightly faster unit
>> initialization as only the vtable pointer needs to be setup instead of
>> all the function pointers in the stream struct.
>>
>> - Looking at unix.o with readelf, one sees
>>
>> Relocation section '.rela.data.rel.ro.local.mem_vtable' at offset
>> 0x15550 contains 8 entries:
>>
>> and similarly for the other vtables; according to
>> http://www.airs.com/blog/archives/189 this means that after relocation
>> the page where this data resides may be marked read-only.
>>
>> The downside is that the sizes of the .text and .data sections are
>> increased. Before:
>>
>>    text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
>> 1116991    6664     592 1124247  112797
>> ./x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/libgfortran/.libs/libgfortran.so
>>
>> After:
>>
>>    text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
>> 1117487    6936     592 1125015  112a97
>> ./x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/libgfortran/.libs/libgfortran.so
>>
>>
>> The data section increase is due to the vtables, the text increase is,
>> I guess, due to the extra pointer dereference when calling the IO
>> functions.
>>
>> Regtested on x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, Ok for trunk, or 4.8?
>>
>> 2012-02-13  Janne Blomqvist<jb@gcc.gnu.org>
>>
>>         * io/unix.h (struct stream): Rename to stream_vtable.
>>         (struct stream): New struct definition.
>>         (sread): Dereference vtable pointer.
>>         (swrite): Likewise.
>>         (sseek): Likewise.
>>         (struncate): Likewise.
>>         (sflush): Likewise.
>>         (sclose): Likewise.
>>         * io/unix.c (raw_vtable): New variable.
>>         (buf_vtable): Likewise.
>>         (mem_vtable): Likewise.
>>         (mem4_vtable): Likewise.
>>         (raw_init): Assign vtable pointer.
>>         (buf_init): Likewise.
>>         (open_internal): Likewise.
>>         (open_internal4): Likewise.
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Janne Blomqvist
>
>
>
diff mbox

Patch

diff --git a/libgfortran/io/unix.c b/libgfortran/io/unix.c
index 6eef3f9..978c3ff 100644
--- a/libgfortran/io/unix.c
+++ b/libgfortran/io/unix.c
@@ -401,17 +401,21 @@  raw_close (unix_stream * s)
   return retval;
 }
 
+static const struct stream_vtable raw_vtable = {
+  .read = (void *) raw_read,
+  .write = (void *) raw_write,
+  .seek = (void *) raw_seek,
+  .tell = (void *) raw_tell,
+  .size = (void *) raw_size,
+  .trunc = (void *) raw_truncate,
+  .close = (void *) raw_close,
+  .flush = (void *) raw_flush 
+};
+
 static int
 raw_init (unix_stream * s)
 {
-  s->st.read = (void *) raw_read;
-  s->st.write = (void *) raw_write;
-  s->st.seek = (void *) raw_seek;
-  s->st.tell = (void *) raw_tell;
-  s->st.size = (void *) raw_size;
-  s->st.trunc = (void *) raw_truncate;
-  s->st.close = (void *) raw_close;
-  s->st.flush = (void *) raw_flush;
+  s->st.vptr = &raw_vtable;
 
   s->buffer = NULL;
   return 0;
@@ -619,17 +623,21 @@  buf_close (unix_stream * s)
   return raw_close (s);
 }
 
+static const struct stream_vtable buf_vtable = {
+  .read = (void *) buf_read,
+  .write = (void *) buf_write,
+  .seek = (void *) buf_seek,
+  .tell = (void *) buf_tell,
+  .size = (void *) buf_size,
+  .trunc = (void *) buf_truncate,
+  .close = (void *) buf_close,
+  .flush = (void *) buf_flush 
+};
+
 static int
 buf_init (unix_stream * s)
 {
-  s->st.read = (void *) buf_read;
-  s->st.write = (void *) buf_write;
-  s->st.seek = (void *) buf_seek;
-  s->st.tell = (void *) buf_tell;
-  s->st.size = (void *) buf_size;
-  s->st.trunc = (void *) buf_truncate;
-  s->st.close = (void *) buf_close;
-  s->st.flush = (void *) buf_flush;
+  s->st.vptr = &buf_vtable;
 
   s->buffer = get_mem (BUFFER_SIZE);
   return 0;
@@ -872,6 +880,31 @@  mem_close (unix_stream * s)
   return 0;
 }
 
+static const struct stream_vtable mem_vtable = {
+  .read = (void *) mem_read,
+  .write = (void *) mem_write,
+  .seek = (void *) mem_seek,
+  .tell = (void *) mem_tell,
+  /* buf_size is not a typo, we just reuse an identical
+     implementation.  */
+  .size = (void *) buf_size,
+  .trunc = (void *) mem_truncate,
+  .close = (void *) mem_close,
+  .flush = (void *) mem_flush 
+};
+
+static const struct stream_vtable mem4_vtable = {
+  .read = (void *) mem_read4,
+  .write = (void *) mem_write4,
+  .seek = (void *) mem_seek,
+  .tell = (void *) mem_tell,
+  /* buf_size is not a typo, we just reuse an identical
+     implementation.  */
+  .size = (void *) buf_size,
+  .trunc = (void *) mem_truncate,
+  .close = (void *) mem_close,
+  .flush = (void *) mem_flush 
+};
 
 /*********************************************************************
   Public functions -- A reimplementation of this module needs to
@@ -895,16 +928,7 @@  open_internal (char *base, int length, gfc_offset offset)
   s->logical_offset = 0;
   s->active = s->file_length = length;
 
-  s->st.close = (void *) mem_close;
-  s->st.seek = (void *) mem_seek;
-  s->st.tell = (void *) mem_tell;
-  /* buf_size is not a typo, we just reuse an identical
-     implementation.  */
-  s->st.size = (void *) buf_size;
-  s->st.trunc = (void *) mem_truncate;
-  s->st.read = (void *) mem_read;
-  s->st.write = (void *) mem_write;
-  s->st.flush = (void *) mem_flush;
+  s->st.vptr = &mem_vtable;
 
   return (stream *) s;
 }
@@ -926,16 +950,7 @@  open_internal4 (char *base, int length, gfc_offset offset)
   s->logical_offset = 0;
   s->active = s->file_length = length;
 
-  s->st.close = (void *) mem_close;
-  s->st.seek = (void *) mem_seek;
-  s->st.tell = (void *) mem_tell;
-  /* buf_size is not a typo, we just reuse an identical
-     implementation.  */
-  s->st.size = (void *) buf_size;
-  s->st.trunc = (void *) mem_truncate;
-  s->st.read = (void *) mem_read4;
-  s->st.write = (void *) mem_write4;
-  s->st.flush = (void *) mem_flush;
+  s->st.vptr = &mem4_vtable;
 
   return (stream *) s;
 }
diff --git a/libgfortran/io/unix.h b/libgfortran/io/unix.h
index 52f3e0c..f4f3ab6 100644
--- a/libgfortran/io/unix.h
+++ b/libgfortran/io/unix.h
@@ -28,68 +28,71 @@  see the files COPYING3 and COPYING.RUNTIME respectively.  If not, see
 
 #include "io.h"
 
-
-struct stream
+struct stream_vtable
 {
-  ssize_t (*read) (struct stream *, void *, ssize_t);
-  ssize_t (*write) (struct stream *, const void *, ssize_t);
-  gfc_offset (*seek) (struct stream *, gfc_offset, int);
-  gfc_offset (*tell) (struct stream *);
-  gfc_offset (*size) (struct stream *);
+  ssize_t (* const read) (struct stream *, void *, ssize_t);
+  ssize_t (* const write) (struct stream *, const void *, ssize_t);
+  gfc_offset (* const seek) (struct stream *, gfc_offset, int);
+  gfc_offset (* const tell) (struct stream *);
+  gfc_offset (* const size) (struct stream *);
   /* Avoid keyword truncate due to AIX namespace collision.  */
-  int (*trunc) (struct stream *, gfc_offset);
-  int (*flush) (struct stream *);
-  int (*close) (struct stream *);
+  int (* const trunc) (struct stream *, gfc_offset);
+  int (* const flush) (struct stream *);
+  int (* const close) (struct stream *);
 };
 
+struct stream
+{
+  const struct stream_vtable *vptr;
+};
 
 /* Inline functions for doing file I/O given a stream.  */
 static inline ssize_t
 sread (stream * s, void * buf, ssize_t nbyte)
 {
-  return s->read (s, buf, nbyte);
+  return s->vptr->read (s, buf, nbyte);
 }
 
 static inline ssize_t
 swrite (stream * s, const void * buf, ssize_t nbyte)
 {
-  return s->write (s, buf, nbyte);
+  return s->vptr->write (s, buf, nbyte);
 }
 
 static inline gfc_offset
 sseek (stream * s, gfc_offset offset, int whence)
 {
-  return s->seek (s, offset, whence);
+  return s->vptr->seek (s, offset, whence);
 }
 
 static inline gfc_offset
 stell (stream * s)
 {
-  return s->tell (s);
+  return s->vptr->tell (s);
 }
 
 static inline gfc_offset
 ssize (stream * s)
 {
-  return s->size (s);
+  return s->vptr->size (s);
 }
 
 static inline int
 struncate (stream * s, gfc_offset length)
 {
-  return s->trunc (s, length);
+  return s->vptr->trunc (s, length);
 }
 
 static inline int
 sflush (stream * s)
 {
-  return s->flush (s);
+  return s->vptr->flush (s);
 }
 
 static inline int
 sclose (stream * s)
 {
-  return s->close (s);
+  return s->vptr->close (s);
 }