pypy-style constant promotion to pool
Nobody has claimed this yet.
- Dominant language
- Python
- Stars
- 77.2k
- Forks
- 35.9k
- PR merge metrics
- PR metrics pending
Description
Proposal:
We should have a JIT constant pool and a JIT directive in the optimizer_bytecodes.c to promote certain values to constants. This would unlock significantly more future optimizations.
Steps needed:
- Add a constant pool to the executor object, so we can keep promoted constant alive. We already need this to unlock more constant propagation opportunities. The pool would be a
PyListObjectliving in the vmdata field here https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/main/Include/internal/pycore_optimizer.h#L43 . - Introduce a new optimizer macro:
PROMOTE_TO_CONST_POOLand associated functionpromote_to_const_pool(ctx, obj)inoptimizer_symbols.c. This macro will store any value it receives as a constant in the constant pool. This allows us to promote contants we see to the constant pool. This takes inspiration from RPython'shint(obj, promote=True)
What optimizations does this unlock?
- More constant propagation: we can now constant propagate not just immortal stuff but non-immortal things as well.
- Refcount removal. Anything in the the pool can use the cheaper
_LOAD_CONST_INLINE_BORROW. Which will automatically benefit this work https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/134584 and vice versa. Ie, we automatically make it cheaper to load and store these values! - On GIL/FT, we can promote method objects to the pool as well, which will allow us to perform more optimizations on them, such as LOAD_ATTR_METHOD folding.
We should also perhaps explore promoting globals to pool constants. Though that's a little risky, since we don't want to hold large objects around longer than needed.
The first PR should implement the first two steps and optimization 1. Optimization 2 should be a separate PR.
Linked PRs
- gh-140968
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 with Include/internal/pycore_optimizer.h and the executor's vmdata field, then inspect optimizer_bytecodes.c and optimizer_symbols.c. The first PR is complete when the executor has a PyListObject constant pool, PROMOTE_TO_CONST_POOL and promote_to_const_pool exist, and non-immortal values receive constant propagation; refcount removal is explicitly separate.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- c
- Domain
- compilers
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100