python / python/cpython

Eliminate overhead of fetching and testing `NULL` attributes in `STORE_ATTR` specializations for new objects

Open
#144,141 3 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

interpreter-core performance
Dominant language
Python
Stars
77.2k
Forks
35.9k
PR merge metrics
PR metrics pending

Description

Consider

class C:
    def __init__(self, a, b, c):
        self.a = a
        self.b = b
        self.c = c
C(1,2,3)

This produces a trace looking something like this:

...
_CHECK_AND_ALLOCATE_OBJECT
_CREATE_INIT_FRAME
_PUSH_FRAME
# Some guards
_LOAD_FAST_BORROW_1
_LOAD_FAST_BORROW_0
# Some more guards
_STORE_ATTR_INSTANCE_VALUE
# Some more guards
_LOAD_FAST_BORROW_2
_LOAD_FAST_BORROW_0
# Some more guards
_STORE_ATTR_INSTANCE_VALUE
# Some more guards
_LOAD_FAST_BORROW_3
_LOAD_FAST_BORROW_0
# Some more guards
_STORE_ATTR_INSTANCE_VALUE
...

Each of those _STORE_ATTR_INSTANCE_VALUE reads the old value out of memory and then conditionally decrefs it.
But in this case we know that the old value was NULL so we can just overwrite it.
So we can replace this:

        PyObject **value_ptr = (PyObject**)(((char *)owner_o) + offset);
        PyObject *old_value = *value_ptr;
        FT_ATOMIC_STORE_PTR_RELEASE(*value_ptr, PyStackRef_AsPyObjectSteal(value));
        if (old_value == NULL) {
            PyDictValues *values = _PyObject_InlineValues(owner_o);
            Py_ssize_t index = value_ptr - values->values;
            _PyDictValues_AddToInsertionOrder(values, index);
        }
        Py_XDECREF(old_value);

with this:

        PyObject **value_ptr = (PyObject**)(((char *)owner_o) + offset);
        FT_ATOMIC_STORE_PTR_RELEASE(*value_ptr, PyStackRef_AsPyObjectSteal(value));
        PyDictValues *values = _PyObject_InlineValues(owner_o);
        Py_ssize_t index = value_ptr - values->values;
       _PyDictValues_AddToInsertionOrder(values, index);

On Aarch64, this reduces the number of machine instructions from 48 to 26.

The same reasoning also applies to _STORE_ATTR_SLOT where it reduces the number of machine instructions from 32 to 14.

See also https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/134584

We can probably remove some of those guards as well, but that's a separate issue.

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 the CPython interpreter specializations named STORE_ATTR_INSTANCE_VALUE and STORE_ATTR_SLOT, then read the related issue 134584 for context. Compare their handling of newly allocated objects with the proposed paths, and verify that the change preserves insertion-order handling while eliminating NULL reads, decrefs, and the reported instruction overhead.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c, python
Domain
backend, performance
Issue type
Refactor
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.