suboptimal codegen when initializing an array of padded structs
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Description
in the following code, reset_implicit_padding generates somewhat worse assembly under -C opt-level=3 than reset_explicit_padding. with explicit padding generates to a memset - i'd hoped both would memset:
#[repr(Rust, align(2))]
#[derive(Default, Copy, Clone)]
pub struct ImplicitPadding {
v: u8,
}
#[repr(Rust, align(2))]
#[derive(Default, Copy, Clone)]
pub struct ExplicitPadding {
v: u8,
_pad: [u8; 1],
}
#[no_mangle]
pub fn reset_implicit_padding(array: &mut [ImplicitPadding; 160]) {
*array = [ImplicitPadding::default(); 160];
}
#[no_mangle]
pub fn reset_explicit_padding(array: &mut [ExplicitPadding; 160]) {
*array = [ExplicitPadding::default(); 160];
}
which compiles to these two implementations:
reset_implicit_padding:
mov eax, 7
.LBB0_1:
mov byte ptr [rdi + 2*rax - 14], 0
mov byte ptr [rdi + 2*rax - 12], 0
mov byte ptr [rdi + 2*rax - 10], 0
mov byte ptr [rdi + 2*rax - 8], 0
mov byte ptr [rdi + 2*rax - 6], 0
mov byte ptr [rdi + 2*rax - 4], 0
mov byte ptr [rdi + 2*rax - 2], 0
mov byte ptr [rdi + 2*rax], 0
add rax, 8
cmp rax, 167
jne .LBB0_1
ret
reset_explicit_padding:
mov edx, 320
xor esi, esi
jmp qword ptr [rip + memset@GOTPCREL]
godbolt for reference.
it turns out that when an array like this does become a memset it's seemingly often because llvm realized in loop-idiom that the stores can be turned into a memset, rather than ever being emitted as a memset from rustc?
i don't know enough to know if this would need rustc to initialize padding bytes as undef (?), or if they're already undef and there's some other reason llvm doesn't figure out this could be a memset. i also can't tell if this would be in conflict with this issue about padding copies or the regression test for it. there are certainly cases where copying large amounts of padding would be counterproductive, though if writing a padding byte could turn 4+2+1 bytes of stores into one 8-byte store, that's probably always a net win.
(the original code i've minimized had 6-byte or 14-byte structs aligned to 8 and 16 respectively, and for entirely indecipherable reasons also got the assignment fully unrolled, yielding ~600 mov rather than a memset. i would much rather that be a call to memset, and have added a _pad field for the time being.)
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 by compiling the minimized reset_implicit_padding and reset_explicit_padding functions at -C opt-level=3 and comparing their assembly with the linked Godbolt example. Investigate how rustc and LLVM represent implicit padding and whether loop-idiom recognizes the repeated stores. Done means either producing memset-like code for the implicit-padding case or documenting why that transformation conflicts with padding-copy behavior.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- rust
- Domain
- compilers, performance
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 38/100