microsoft / microsoft/TypeScript
Declaration emit spends significant CPU in getAliasForSymbolInContainer / getAlternativeContainingModules
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Description
### Summary
While running `tsgo -b -f` on a large private project, declaration emit spends a significant amount of CPU time in symbol accessibility logic, especially `getAlternativeContainingModules` and `getAliasForSymbolInContainer`.
The project source cannot be shared, but I can provide sanitized pprof output and/or raw Go pprof profiles after checking that they do not contain private TypeScript source contents.
### Environment
- typescript-go commit: `804eb7a1a1a9b0722af207412921cc025dfbbd5a`
- tsgo version: `7.0.0-dev`
- Go version: `go1.26.0 linux/amd64`
- OS: Linux amd64
- Command shape: `./built/local/tsgo -b -f`
### Observed performance
Using `/usr/bin/time -v`:
```text
Elapsed wall time: 43.40s
User time: 196.33s
System time: 10.24s
CPU: 475%
Maximum resident set size: 4,264,424 KB
```
### CPU profile highlights
Profile command:
```
./built/local/tsgo -b -f --pprofDir
go tool pprof -top ./built/local/tsgo /-cpuprofile.pb.gz
go tool pprof -top -cum ./built/local/tsgo /-cpuprofile.pb.gz
```
Relevant excerpt:
```
Duration: 43.09s
Total samples: 208.55s
flat flat% cum cum%
3.00s 1.44% 42.62s 20.44% github.com/microsoft/typescript-go/internal/checker.(*Checker).getAlternativeContainingModules
1.36s 0.65% 37.27s 17.87% github.com/microsoft/typescript-go/internal/checker.(*Checker).getAliasForSymbolInContainer
0.15s 0.07% 21.60s 10.36% github.com/microsoft/typescript-go/internal/checker.(*Checker).getSymbolIfSameReference
0.26s 0.12% 12.96s 6.21% github.com/microsoft/typescript-go/internal/checker.(*Checker).resolveSymbolEx
7.99s 3.83% 7.99s 3.83% github.com/microsoft/typescript-go/internal/ast.IsNonLocalAlias
```
The cumulative profile suggests declaration emit repeatedly checks whether a symbol is accessible through alternative containing modules, and repeatedly scans exports in getAliasForSymbolInContainer.
### Allocation profile highlights
```
Total allocated: ~19.68GB
Maximum RSS from /usr/bin/time: ~4.26GB
```
### Local experiment
I tested a conservative local prototype that caches, per checker/container, the export candidates grouped by the same resolved/merged target symbol. It does not cache the final selected alias directly; it still sorts only the candidates for the currently queried target, to preserve the old selection behavior as closely as possible.
On the same private project:
```
Before: 43.40s wall, 4,264,424 KB max RSS
After: 37.64s wall, 4,210,296 KB max RSS
```
That is about a 13% wall time improvement on this workload.
Relevant tests passed locally:
```
GOCACHE=/tmp/tsgo-go-cache go test ./internal/checker
```
### Question
Would a per-container cache for alias candidates in getAliasForSymbolInContainer, or another cache around this symbol accessibility path, be acceptable? I am happy to share sanitized pprof text output, and possibly raw .pb.gz pprof files if that is useful.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start in internal/checker with getAliasForSymbolInContainer and getAlternativeContainingModules, then review the supplied pprof commands and candidate-cache experiment. Run GOCACHE=/tmp/tsgo-go-cache go test ./internal/checker; done means preserving alias-selection behavior while reducing the reported CPU and allocation cost.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- go, typescript
- Domain
- compilers, performance
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 48/100