[llvm-dev] [LLVMdev] Path forward on profile guided inlining?

Thu Dec 10 16:29:55 PST 2015

On Thu, Dec 10, 2015 at 4:00 PM, Philip Reames
<listmail at philipreames.com> wrote:
> Given I didn't get any response to my original query, I chose not to invest
> time in this at the time.  I am unlikely to get time for this in the near
> future.
>
> On 12/07/2015 03:13 PM, Easwaran Raman wrote:
>
> (Resending after  removing llvmdev at cs.uiuc.edu and using
> llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org)
>
> On Mon, Dec 7, 2015 at 3:08 PM, Easwaran Raman <eraman at google.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Philip,
>>
>>  Is there any update on this? I've been sending patches to get rid of the
>> callee hotness based inline hints from the frontend and move the logic to
>> the inliner. The next step is to use the callsite hotness instead. I also
>> want to focus on the infrastructure to enable this and what I've been
>> experimenting with is similar to your two alternative approaches:
>>
>>>
>>> Alternate Approaches:
>>> 1) We could just recompute BFI explicitly in the inliner right before
>>> passing the result to ICA for the purposes of prototyping. If this was off
>>> by default, this might be a reasonable scheme for investigation.  This could
>>> likely never be enabled for real uses.
>>> 2) We could pre-compute BFI once per function within a given SCC and then
>>> try to keep it up to date during inlining.  If we cached the call
>>> frequencies for the initial call sites, we could adjust the visit order to
>>> minimize the number of times we need to recompute a given functions block
>>> frequencies.  (e.g. we can look at all the original call sites within a
>>> function before looking at newly inlined ones)
>>>
>>
>> My proposal is very similar (perhaps identical) to your option 2 above. I
>> don't understand the part where you talk about adjusting the visit order to
>> minimize BFI computation.
>>
>> BFI computation:  BFI for a function is computed on demand and cached.
>
> The problem here is that the old pass manager does not have a place/way to
> cache the function level analysis.  You could do this within the inliner
> itself, but the function passes run by the SCC pass manager will invalidate
> everything.  That's the problem I was trying to solve.
>>

Easwaran's proposal does not rely on the analysis pass framework of
the legacy pass manager -- that is the key idea. BFI info is designed
in a way such that it can be computed on-demand.

BFI for the caller will be incrementally updated during inlining, but
after inlining is done for a node, the BFI info will be explicitly
invalidated for that node due to the function passes run later by SCC
pass manager.  This is expected.

>>
>> Update: When 'bar' gets inlined into 'foo', the BFI for 'foo' is updated.
>> Let OldBB in 'bar' gets cloned as NewBB in 'foo'.  NewBB's block frequency
>> can be incrementally computed from OldBB's block frequency, entry block
>> frequency of 'bar' and the frequency of the block containing the 'foo' ->
>> 'bar' callsite. Even when the new CGSCC level BFI analysis is in place, this
>> incremental update is useful to minimize computation.
>>
>> Invalidation:  Once inlining is completed in an SCC (at the end of
>> runOnSCC), the entries for functions in that SCC are invalidated since other
>> passes run by the CGSCC pass manager (including those run by the function
>> pass manager run under CGSCC pass manager) might affect the computed BFI for
>> the functions in the SCC.
>
> This sounds like you're essentially planning to extend the old pass manager
> with function level analysis support in the SCC pass manager.  I advise
> against this given the fact that Chandler is actively working on the new one
> and getting patches reviewed for the old one is "challenging" at best.  If
> you take this approach, make sure Chandler - who is pretty much the only
> active reviewer in this area - is on-board with your approach before you
> start.
>>

There is no plan to extend old pass manager for this capability.  The
proposed solution is intended to work with the new pass manager too,
so there is no conflict here. The BFI book-keeping by inliner can be
removed with pass manager change is in place.

David

>>
>> When the new PM infrastructure and a CGSCC based BFI analysis is in place,
>> the transition should be easy assuming it will provide getBFI(Function *)
>> and invalidateBFI(Function *) interfaces. BFI for a function is computed at
>> most twice in this approach. Thoughts?
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Easwaran
>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>
>