rust-lang / rust-lang/rust

Adressing compile time regression from loop hint attributes

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A-attributes F-loop-hints I-compiletime needs-triage
Dominant language
Rust
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PR merge metrics
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Description

https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/156816 added new loop hint attributes (unroll and various friends). This caused a small compile time regression. At the time of merge, the regression was believed to be caused by adding attributes field to Terminator, which increased Terminator (and BasicBlockData ) size by 8 bytes.

However, this doesn't seem to be the case (at least anymore). I tried to mess around with the Terminator in various ways to decrese its size, but I wasn't able to get any significant changes. Here's a few pieces of evidence:

It's possible that the original analysis was correct, but something changed since then:

  • The bottleneck shifted somewhere else in the meantime. For example, BasicBlockData size was 160 bytes at the time of writing, but it was reduced to 144 bytes since.

  • The regression was fixed by something else (e.g. LLVM PR which optimized the releated rustc code better).

Either way, the original justification for accepting the regression doesn't seem to apply anymore, which means it might be worth addressing.


Some TODO items to try to narrow it down:

  • try to run perf on revert of the original PR to test whether the regression still exists (and where it is at the moment). This is a bit annoying because the PR doesn't revert cleanly anymore, but it's doable.
  • check br_with_attrs cost, maybe outline the cold attribute list processing (there might be some overhead in processing the empty list that LLVM is not able to optimize). Doesn't seem to be likely to me.

That said, based on eyeballing the detailed results in the original PR, I think the cost is somewhere before MIR, so that's probably the place to investigate.

The regression is small, so it might not be worth the opportunity cost, but I already sank some time into it so I figured I might as well just write this down so it's not forgotten.

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 comparing compiler performance with a revert of PR 156816, using perf to determine whether the regression remains and where it occurs. Investigate the cost of br_with_attrs and the work before MIR; done means identifying a current cause and either reducing the regression or documenting why it is no longer actionable.

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
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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