Inlining functions
suggest changeFunction inlining is a common compiler optimization for improving performance of the code.
Small, frequently called functions can be directly included (inlined) in the body of the calling function. This eliminate function calling overhead.
Go compiler doesn't provide a way to force inlining of functions.
Go compiler makes inlining decisions based on a number of heuristics.
Here's an incomplete list of attributes that disable inlining:
- functions are variadic (eg. they have
...args) - functions are too big
- functions contain
panic,recover, ordefer
Checking if a function was inlined
We can find out which functions were inlined with -gcflags -m compiler flags. For example:
$ go build -gcflags -m .
# github.com/kjk/notionapi
./dbg.go:15:6: can inline log
./dbg.go:38:5: inlining call to log
./client.go:61:25: inlining call to bytes.NewBuffer
./client.go:62:5: inlining call to lo
...Rewriting functions to improve inlining
Go only inlines very small functions. Some functions that are too big to be inlined can be split into 2 functions:
- a small, fast path that can be inlined
- a big, non-inlineable function
Here's an example from Go standard library. A function sync.Do():
func (o *Once) Do(f func()) {
if atomic.LoadUint32(&o.done) == 1 {
return
}
// Slow-path.
o.m.Lock()
defer o.m.Unlock()
if o.done == 0 {
defer atomic.StoreUint32(&o.done, 1)
f()
}
}was rewritten as:
func (o *Once) Do(f func()) {
if atomic.LoadUint32(&o.done) == 0 {
// Outlined slow-path to allow inlining of the fast-path.
o.doSlow(f)
}
}
func (o *Once) doSlow(f func()) {
o.m.Lock()
defer o.m.Unlock()
if o.done == 0 {
defer atomic.StoreUint32(&o.done, 1)
f()
}
}This optimization only makes a difference if a function is called a lot and most of the time the slow path is not called.
Disabling inline expansion
Inline expansion can be disabled with the go:noinline pragma. For example, if we build the following simple program:
package main
func printhello() {
println("Hello")
}
func main() {
printhello()
}we get output that looks like this (trimmed for readability):
$ go version
go version go1.6.2 linux/amd64
$ go build main.go
$ ./main
Hello
$ go tool objdump main
TEXT main.main(SB) /home/sam/main.go
main.go:7 0x401000 64488b0c25f8ffffff FS MOVQ FS:0xfffffff8, CX
main.go:7 0x401009 483b6110 CMPQ 0x10(CX), SP
main.go:7 0x40100d 7631 JBE 0x401040
main.go:7 0x40100f 4883ec10 SUBQ $0x10, SP
main.go:8 0x401013 e8281f0200 CALL runtime.printlock(SB)
main.go:8 0x401018 488d1d01130700 LEAQ 0x71301(IP), BX
main.go:8 0x40101f 48891c24 MOVQ BX, 0(SP)
main.go:8 0x401023 48c744240805000000 MOVQ $0x5, 0x8(SP)
main.go:8 0x40102c e81f290200 CALL runtime.printstring(SB)
main.go:8 0x401031 e89a210200 CALL runtime.printnl(SB)
main.go:8 0x401036 e8851f0200 CALL runtime.printunlock(SB)
main.go:9 0x40103b 4883c410 ADDQ $0x10, SP
main.go:9 0x40103f c3 RET
main.go:7 0x401040 e87b9f0400 CALL runtime.morestack_noctxt(SB)
main.go:7 0x401045 ebb9 JMP main.main(SB)
main.go:7 0x401047 cc INT $0x3Note that there is no CALL to printhello. However, if we then build the program with the pragma in place:
package main
//go:noinline
func printhello() {
println("Hello")
}
func main() {
printhello()
}The output contains the printhello function and a CALL main.printhello:
$ go version
go version go1.6.2 linux/amd64
$ go build main.go
$ ./main
Hello
$ go tool objdump main
TEXT main.printhello(SB) /home/sam/main.go
main.go:4 0x401000 64488b0c25f8ffffff FS MOVQ FS:0xfffffff8, CX
main.go:4 0x401009 483b6110 CMPQ 0x10(CX), SP
main.go:4 0x40100d 7631 JBE 0x401040
main.go:4 0x40100f 4883ec10 SUBQ $0x10, SP
main.go:5 0x401013 e8481f0200 CALL runtime.printlock(SB)
main.go:5 0x401018 488d1d01130700 LEAQ 0x71301(IP), BX
main.go:5 0x40101f 48891c24 MOVQ BX, 0(SP)
main.go:5 0x401023 48c744240805000000 MOVQ $0x5, 0x8(SP)
main.go:5 0x40102c e83f290200 CALL runtime.printstring(SB)
main.go:5 0x401031 e8ba210200 CALL runtime.printnl(SB)
main.go:5 0x401036 e8a51f0200 CALL runtime.printunlock(SB)
main.go:6 0x40103b 4883c410 ADDQ $0x10, SP
main.go:6 0x40103f c3 RET
main.go:4 0x401040 e89b9f0400 CALL runtime.morestack_noctxt(SB)
main.go:4 0x401045 ebb9 JMP main.printhello(SB)
main.go:4 0x401047 cc INT $0x3
main.go:4 0x401048 cc INT $0x3
main.go:4 0x401049 cc INT $0x3
main.go:4 0x40104a cc INT $0x3
main.go:4 0x40104b cc INT $0x3
main.go:4 0x40104c cc INT $0x3
main.go:4 0x40104d cc INT $0x3
main.go:4 0x40104e cc INT $0x3
main.go:4 0x40104f cc INT $0x3
TEXT main.main(SB) /home/sam/main.go
main.go:8 0x401050 64488b0c25f8ffffff FS MOVQ FS:0xfffffff8, CX
main.go:8 0x401059 483b6110 CMPQ 0x10(CX), SP
main.go:8 0x40105d 7606 JBE 0x401065
main.go:9 0x40105f e89cffffff CALL main.printhello(SB)
main.go:10 0x401064 c3 RET
main.go:8 0x401065 e8769f0400 CALL runtime.morestack_noctxt(SB)
main.go:8 0x40106a ebe4 JMP main.main(SB)
main.go:8 0x40106c cc INT $0x3
main.go:8 0x40106d cc INT $0x3
main.go:8 0x40106e cc INT $0x3
main.go:8 0x40106f cc INT $0x3