WebAssembly / WebAssembly/binaryen

Redundant global read

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#4,274 5 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Dominant language
WebAssembly
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

In situations when global reads immediately after write we could avoid this read and use argument of global.set. For example this:

(module
  (global $g (mut i32) (i32.const 0))
  (func $test (param $0 i32) (result i32)
    (global.set $g (local.get $0))
    (global.get $g)
  )
)

can be optimized as:

(module
  (global $g (mut i32) (i32.const 0))
  (func $test (param $0 i32) (result i32)
    (global.set $g (local.get $0))
    (local.get $0)
  )
)

if arg is simple like local.get or i32.const
and something like this if arg more complex:

(module
  (global $g (mut i32) (i32.const 0))
  (func $test (param $0 i32) (result i32)
    (global.set $g (local.tee $tmp (...complex expr...)))
    (local.get $tmp)
  )
)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by locating Binaryen's optimization pass that handles global.set and global.get, then inspect existing tests for global transformations. Add coverage for simple and complex values as shown in the issue, and consider the work done when the redundant read is removed while the examples retain their behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
wasm
Domain
compilers, performance
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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