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<h1 class="menu-title">Notes</h1>
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<h1 id="profile-guided-optimization-pgo"><a class="header" href="#profile-guided-optimization-pgo">Profile guided optimization (pgo)</a></h1>
<p><code>pgo</code> is an optimization technique to optimize a program for its usual
workload.</p>
<p>It is applied in two phases:</p>
<ol>
<li>Collect profiling data (best with representative benchmarks).</li>
<li>Optimize program based on collected profiling data.</li>
</ol>
<p>The following simple program is used as demonstrator.</p>
<pre><code class="language-c">#include <stdio.h>
#define NOINLINE __attribute__((noinline))
NOINLINE void foo() { puts("foo()"); }
NOINLINE void bar() { puts("bar()"); }
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
if (argc == 2) {
foo();
} else {
bar();
}
}
</code></pre>
<h2 id="clang"><a class="header" href="#clang">clang</a></h2>
<p>On the actual machine with <code>clang 15.0.7</code>, the following code is generated for
the <code>main()</code> function.</p>
<pre><code class="language-x86asm"># clang -o test test.c -O3
0000000000001160 <main>:
1160: 50 push rax
; Jump if argc != 2.
1161: 83 ff 02 cmp edi,0x2
1164: 75 09 jne 116f <main+0xf>
; foor() is on the hot path (fall-through).
1166: e8 d5 ff ff ff call 1140 <_Z3foov>
116b: 31 c0 xor eax,eax
116d: 59 pop rcx
116e: c3 ret
; bar() is on the cold path (branch).
116f: e8 dc ff ff ff call 1150 <_Z3barv>
1174: 31 c0 xor eax,eax
1176: 59 pop rcx
1177: c3 ret
</code></pre>
<p>The following shows how to compile with profiling instrumentation and how to
optimize the final program with the collected profiling data (<a href="https://clang.llvm.org/docs/UsersManual.html#profile-guided-optimization">llvm
pgo</a>).</p>
<p>The arguments to <code>./test</code> are chosen such that <code>9/10</code> runs call <code>bar()</code>, which
is currently on the <code>cold path</code>.</p>
<pre><code class="language-bash"># Compile test program with profiling instrumentation.
clang -o test test.cc -O3 -fprofile-instr-generate
# Collect profiling data from multiple runs.
for i in {0..10}; do
LLVM_PROFILE_FILE="prof.clang/%p.profraw" ./test $(seq 0 $i)
done
# Merge raw profiling data into single profile data.
llvm-profdata merge -o pgo.profdata prof.clang/*.profraw
# Optimize test program with profiling data.
clang -o test test.cc -O3 -fprofile-use=pgo.profdata
</code></pre>
<blockquote>
<p>NOTE: If <code>LLVM_PROFILE_FILE</code> is not given the profile data is written to
<code>default.profraw</code> which is re-written on each run. If the <code>LLVM_PROFILE_FILE</code>
contains a <code>%m</code> in the filename, a unique integer will be generated and
consecutive runs will update the same generated profraw file,
<code>LLVM_PROFILE_FILE</code> can specify a new file every time, however that requires
more storage in general.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>After optimizing the program with the profiling data, the <code>main()</code> function
looks as follows.</p>
<pre><code class="language-x86asm">0000000000001060 <main>:
1060: 50 push rax
; Jump if argc == 2.
1061: 83 ff 02 cmp edi,0x2
1064: 74 09 je 106f <main+0xf>
; bar() is on the hot path (fall-through).
1066: e8 e5 ff ff ff call 1050 <_Z3barv>
106b: 31 c0 xor eax,eax
106d: 59 pop rcx
106e: c3 ret
; foo() is on the cold path (branch).
106f: e8 cc ff ff ff call 1040 <_Z3foov>
1074: 31 c0 xor eax,eax
1076: 59 pop rcx
1077: c3 ret
</code></pre>
<h2 id="gcc"><a class="header" href="#gcc">gcc</a></h2>
<p>With <code>gcc 13.2.1</code> on the current machine, the optimizer puts <code>bar()</code> on the
<code>hot path</code> by default.</p>
<pre><code class="language-x86asm">0000000000001040 <main>:
1040: 48 83 ec 08 sub rsp,0x8
; Jump if argc == 2.
1044: 83 ff 02 cmp edi,0x2
1047: 74 0c je 1055 <main+0x15>
; bar () is on the hot path (fall-through).
1049: e8 22 01 00 00 call 1170 <_Z3barv>
104e: 31 c0 xor eax,eax
1050: 48 83 c4 08 add rsp,0x8
1054: c3 ret
; foo() is on the cold path (branch).
1055: e8 06 01 00 00 call 1160 <_Z3foov>
105a: eb f2 jmp 104e <main+0xe>
105c: 0f 1f 40 00 nop DWORD PTR [rax+0x0]
</code></pre>
<p>The following shows how to compile with profiling instrumentation and how to
optimize the final program with the collected profiling data.</p>
<p>The arguments to <code>./test</code> are chosen such that <code>2/3</code> runs call <code>foo()</code>, which
is currently on the <code>cold path</code>.</p>
<pre><code class="language-bash">gcc -o test test.cc -O3 -fprofile-generate
./test 1
./test 1
./test 2 2
gcc -o test test.cc -O3 -fprofile-use
</code></pre>
<blockquote>
<p>NOTE: Consecutive runs update the generated <code>test.gcda</code> profile data file
rather than re-write it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>After optimizing the program with the profiling data, the <code>main()</code> function</p>
<pre><code class="language-x86asm">0000000000001040 <main.cold>:
; bar() is on the cold path (branch).
1040: e8 05 00 00 00 call 104a <_Z3barv>
1045: e9 25 00 00 00 jmp 106f <main+0xf>
0000000000001060 <main>:
1060: 51 push rcx
; Jump if argc != 2.
1061: 83 ff 02 cmp edi,0x2
1064: 0f 85 d6 ff ff ff jne 1040 <main.cold>
; for() is on the hot path (fall-through).
106a: e8 11 01 00 00 call 1180 <_Z3foov>
106f: 31 c0 xor eax,eax
1071: 5a pop rdx
1072: c3 ret
</code></pre>
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