[LLVMdev] [RFC] [X86] Mov to push transformation in x86-32 call sequences

[Kuperstein, Michael M]

Hello all,



In r223757 I've committed a patch that performs, for the 32-bit x86 calling convention, the transformation of MOV instructions that push function arguments onto the stack into actual PUSH instructions.



For example, it will transform this:

subl    $16, %esp

movl    $4, 12(%esp)

movl    $3, 8(%esp)

movl    $2, 4(%esp)

movl    $1, (%esp)

calll   _func

addl    $16, %esp



Into this:



pushl   $4

pushl   $3

pushl   $2

pushl   $1

calll   _func

addl    $16, %esp



The main motivation for this is code size (a "pushl $4" is 2 bytes, a "movl $4, 12(%esp)" is 7 bytes), but there are some other advantages, as shown below.

The way this works in r223757 is by intercepting call frame simplification in the Prolog/Epilog Inserter, and replacing the mov sequence with pushes. Right now it only handles functions which do not have a reserved call frame (a small minority of cases), and I'd like to extend it to cover other cases where it is profitable.



The currently implemented approach has a couple of drawbacks:



1) Push vs. having a reserved call frame:
This transformation is always profitable when we do not have a reserved call frame. When a reserved frame can be used, however, there is a trade-off. For example, in a function that contains only one call site, and no other stack allocations, pushes are a clear win, since having a reserved call frame wouldn't save any instructions. On the other hand, if a function contains 10 call sites, and only one of them can use pushes, then it is most probably a loss - not reserving a call frame will  cost us 10 add instructions, and the pushes gain very little. I'd like to be able to make the decision on whether we want to have a reserved frame or pushes by considering the entire function. I don't think this can be done in the context of PEI.

Note that in theory we could have both a reserved call frame and have some specific call sites in the function use pushes, but this is fairly tricky because it requires much more precise tracking of the stack pointer state. That is something I'm not planning to implement at this point.



2) Register allocation inefficiency:
Ideally, pushes can be used to make direct memory-to-memory movs, freeing up registers, and saving quite a lot of code.

For example, for this (this is obviously a constructed example, but code of this kind does exist in the wild):



void foo(int a, int b, int c, int d, int e, int f, int g, int h);



struct st { int arr[8]; };



void bar(struct st* p)

{

  foo(p->arr[0], p->arr[1], p->arr[2], p->arr[3], p->arr[4], p->arr[5], p->arr[6], p->arr[7]); }



We currently generate (with -m32 -O2) this:



        pushl   %ebp

        movl    %esp, %ebp

        pushl   %ebx

        pushl   %edi

        pushl   %esi

        subl    $44, %esp

        movl    8(%ebp), %eax

        movl    28(%eax), %ecx

        movl    %ecx, -20(%ebp)         # 4-byte Spill

        movl    24(%eax), %edx

        movl    20(%eax), %esi

        movl    16(%eax), %edi

        movl    12(%eax), %ebx

        movl    8(%eax), %ecx

        movl    %ecx, -24(%ebp)         # 4-byte Spill

        movl    (%eax), %ecx

        movl    %ecx, -16(%ebp)         # 4-byte Spill

        movl    4(%eax), %eax

        movl    -20(%ebp), %ecx         # 4-byte Reload

        movl    %ecx, 28(%esp)

        movl    %edx, 24(%esp)

        movl    %esi, 20(%esp)

        movl    %edi, 16(%esp)

        movl    %ebx, 12(%esp)

        movl    -24(%ebp), %ecx         # 4-byte Reload

        movl    %ecx, 8(%esp)

        movl    %eax, 4(%esp)

        movl    -16(%ebp), %eax         # 4-byte Reload

        movl    %eax, (%esp)

        calll   _foo

        addl    $44, %esp

        popl    %esi

        popl    %edi

        popl    %ebx

        popl    %ebp

        retl



Which is fairly horrible.

Some parameters get mov-ed up to four times - a mov from the struct into a register, a register spill,  a reload, and finally a mov onto the stack.



What we'd like to generate is something like:

        pushl   %ebp

        movl    %esp, %ebp

        movl    8(%ebp), %eax

        pushl   28(%eax)

        pushl   24(%eax)

        pushl   20(%eax)

        pushl   16(%eax)

        pushl   12(%eax)

        pushl   8(%eax)

        pushl   4(%eax)

        pushl   (%eax)

        calll   _foo

        addl    $32, %esp

        popl    %ebp

        retl



To produce the code above, the transformation has to run pre-reg-alloc. Otherwise, even if we fold loads into the push, it's too late to recover from spills.



The direction I'd like to take with this is:



1) Add an X86-specific MachineFunctionPass that does the mov -> push transformation and runs pre-reg-alloc.

It will:

* Make a decision on whether promoting some (or all) of the call sites to use pushes is worth giving up on the reserved call frame.

* If it is, perform the mov ->push transformation for the selected call sites.

* Fold loads into the pushes while doing the transformation.

As an alternative, I could try to teach the peephole optimizer to do it (right now it won't even try to do this folding because PUSHes store to memory), but getting it right in the general case seems complex.

I think I'd rather do folding of the simple (but common) cases on the fly.



2) Alter the semantics of ADJCALLSTACKDOWN/ADJCALLSTACKUP slightly.

Doing the mov->push transformation before PEI means I'd have to leave the ADJCALLSTACKDOWN/UP pair unbalanced.



E.g. something like:

ADJCALLSTACKDOWN32 0, %ESP<imp-def>, %EFLAGS<imp-def,dead>, %ESP<imp-use>

%vreg9<def,dead> = COPY %ESP; GR32:%vreg9

PUSH32rmm %vreg0, 1, %noreg, 28, %noreg, %ESP<imp-def>, %ESP<imp-use>; GR32:%vreg0

PUSH32rmm %vreg0, 1, %noreg, 24, %noreg, %ESP<imp-def>, %ESP<imp-use>; GR32:%vreg0

PUSH32rmm %vreg0, 1, %noreg, 20, %noreg, %ESP<imp-def>, %ESP<imp-use>; GR32:%vreg0

PUSH32rmm %vreg0, 1, %noreg, 16, %noreg, %ESP<imp-def>, %ESP<imp-use>; GR32:%vreg0

PUSH32rmm %vreg0, 1, %noreg, 12, %noreg, %ESP<imp-def>, %ESP<imp-use>; GR32:%vreg0

PUSH32rmm %vreg0, 1, %noreg, 8, %noreg, %ESP<imp-def>, %ESP<imp-use>; GR32:%vreg0

PUSH32rmm %vreg0, 1, %noreg, 4, %noreg, %ESP<imp-def>, %ESP<imp-use>; GR32:%vreg0

PUSH32rmm %vreg0<kill>, 1, %noreg, 0, %noreg, %ESP<imp-def>, %ESP<imp-use>; GR32:%vreg0

CALLpcrel32 <ga:@foo>, <regmask>, %ESP<imp-use>, %ESP<imp-def>

ADJCALLSTACKUP32 32, 0, %ESP<imp-def>, %EFLAGS<imp-def,dead>, %ESP<imp-use>



This, rightly, gets flagged by the verifier.

My proposal is to add an additional parameter to ADJCALLSTACKDOWN to express the amount of adjustment the call sequence itself does. This is somewhat similar to the second parameter of ADKCALLSTACKUP which allows adjustment for callee stack-clean-up.

So, in this case, we will get a "ADJCALLSTACKDOWN32 32, 32" instead of the "ADJCALLSTACKDOWN32 0". The verifier will be happy, and PEI will know it doesn't need to do any stack pointer adjustment.



Does this sound like the right approach?



Any suggestions, as well as warnings of potential pitfalls, are welcome. :-)



Thanks,

   Michael

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Intel Israel (74) Limited

This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential material for
the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Any review or distribution
by others is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended
recipient, please contact the sender and delete all copies.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.llvm.org/pipermail/llvm-dev/attachments/20141221/bab25868/attachment.html>