[llvm-dev] Aggressive optimization opportunity

Tue Jan 15 18:56:45 PST 2019

Hi,

Very appreciate for all your input.

it is indeed a very aggressive optimization and it is not safe in many
cases. But it should be helpful to tune application's performance if it is
safe.

I think if we want to support it, we must:
1: only let compiler user turn it on by explicitly specifying
-fforce-restrict-ptr-args, otherwise it is always off.
2: emit a warning message to remind this opt will change program semantics
if users turn it on.
3: restrict its application to C/C++.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

BRS//
Chen Zheng
Power Compiler Backend Developer

From:	Troy Johnson <troyj at cray.com>
To:	"Finkel, Hal J." <hfinkel at anl.gov>, Zheng CZ Chen
            <czhengsz at cn.ibm.com>
Cc:	"llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org" <llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org>
Date:	2019/01/16 02:32 AM
Subject:	RE: [llvm-dev] Aggressive optimization opportunity

Restrict is supported by Clang for C++ via __restrict__, so it seems
strange to block using this proposed option for C++.

That said, this kind of option can be dangerous and should come with a
suitable warning.  We’ve had a similar option and in practice it’s been
used to hunt for performance gains (i.e., turn it on and see what happens),
but just because the code runs faster and produces the correct result with
the option enabled doesn’t mean it is safe in all cases.  And if it crashes
or gives you wrong answers, you still don’t know which pointer had the
alias that caused that problem.  Either way, you still need to inspect all
of the pointers and prove to yourself it is safe and at that point you
might as well add restrict manually.

-Troy

From: llvm-dev <llvm-dev-bounces at lists.llvm.org> On Behalf Of Finkel, Hal
J. via llvm-dev
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2019 9:57 AM
To: Zheng CZ Chen <czhengsz at cn.ibm.com>; llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org
Subject: Re: [llvm-dev] Aggressive optimization opportunity

On 1/15/19 6:07 AM, Zheng CZ Chen via llvm-dev wrote:
      Hi,

      There are some compilers with a aggressive optimization which
      restricts function pointer parameters. Let's say opt restrict_args.
      When restrict_args is turned on, compiler will treat all function
      pointer parameters as restrict one.

I certainly understand the use case, in a general sense. In my experience,
these options are used with (fairly old) pre-C99 code bases (and
specifically C, not C++), which follow something akin to a
one-function-per-source-file model and which can't be modified (e.g., for
licensing reasons). Using these options are certainly considered bad
practice, and they only apply to certain legacy code bases. Does this match
your experience and expected usage?

In an engineering sense, this seems like a trivial feature to support. I
don't object to supporting it, but if we do, we probably want to:

 1. Restrict it's application to C (e.g., it should be an error to use with
C++, OpenCL, CUDA, and any other languages that Clang supports).

 2. When used with C99 or later language standards, the use of this flag
generates a warning on each function definition with a fixit hint showing
where the restrict keyword should be placed (we can then, optionally of
course, use these fixits to automatically upgrade code where possible using
our corresponding infrastructure). This warning should have a separate
flag, and is disabled by default for pre-C99 standard modes, and enabled by
default otherwise, but can be toggled independently.

 -Hal

      int foo(int * a) + restrict_args opt

      equals to:

      int foo(int * restrict a)

      Here is a complete example:
      source code:
      extern int num;
      int foo(int * a)
      {
      (*a) = 10;
      num++;
      (*a)++;

      return *a;
      }

      Using IBM xlc compiler with option -qrestrict at -O2, we get result:

      0000000000000000 <foo>:
      0: 00 00 4c 3c addis r2,r12,0
      4: 00 00 42 38 addi r2,r2,0
      8: 00 00 a2 3c addis r5,r2,0
      c: 00 00 a5 e8 ld r5,0(r5)
      10: 0b 00 00 38 li r0,11
      14: 00 00 03 90 stw r0,0(r3)
      18: 00 00 85 80 lwz r4,0(r5)
      1c: 0b 00 60 38 li r3,11 ------>since we confirm num will not change
      the content where pointer to, compiler can directly return 11.
      20: 01 00 04 38 addi r0,r4,1
      24: 00 00 05 90 stw r0,0(r5)
      28: 20 00 80 4e blr

      Seems clang does not have such optimization. And I don't find similar
      option in gcc either.

      Is it possible to add this optimization into clang?

      Thanks.

      BRS//
      Chen Zheng
      Power Compiler Backend Developer

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--
Hal Finkel
Lead, Compiler Technology and Programming Languages
Leadership Computing Facility
Argonne National Laboratory

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