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Re: [PATCH] git gc: Speed it up by 18% via faster hash comparisons

From
IMIngo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Date
Apr 28, 2011, 06:27 UTC
Message-ID
<20110428062717.GA952@elte.hu>
In-Reply-To
<7voc3r5kzn.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
* Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
Show 20 quoted lines
> Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> writes:
> 
> > +static inline int hashcmp(const unsigned char *sha1, const unsigned char *sha2)
> >  {
> > -	return !memcmp(sha1, null_sha1, 20);
> > +	int i;
> > +
> > +	for (i = 0; i < 20; i++, sha1++, sha2++) {
> > +		if (*sha1 != *sha2) {
> > +			if (*sha1 < *sha2)
> > +				return -1;
> > +			return +1;
> > +		}
> > +	}
> > +
> > +	return 0;
> 
> This is very unfortunate, as it is so trivially correct and we shouldn't
> have to do it.  If the compiler does not use a good inlined memcmp(), this
> patch may fly, but I fear it may hurt other compilers, no?
Well, i used a very fresh GCC version:
  gcc version 4.6.0 20110419 (Red Hat 4.6.0-5) (GCC)

And used a relatively fresh CPU as well. So given how compiler and CPU versions trickle down to users and how long they live there Git will live with this combination for years to come.

Secondly, the combined speedup of the cached case with my two patches appears to be more than 30% on my testbox so it's a very nifty win from two relatively simple changes.

Should a compiler ever turn this into suboptimal code again we can revisit the issue once more - it's not like we *can* keep the compiler from messing up the assembly output! :-) ...

Show 7 quoted lines
> > +static inline int is_null_sha1(const unsigned char *sha1)
> >  {
> > -	return memcmp(sha1, sha2, 20);
> > +	const unsigned long long *sha1_64 = (void *)sha1;
> > +	const unsigned int *sha1_32 = (void *)sha1;
> 
> Can everybody do unaligned accesses just fine?

I have added some quick debug code and none of the sha1 pointers (in my admittedly very limited) testing showed misaligned pointers on 64-bit systems.

On 32-bit systems the pointer might be 32-bit aligned only - the patch below implements the function 32-bit comparisons.

But is_null_sha1() is not called that often in the tests i've done so we could keep it untouched as well.

Thanks,
	Ingo
diff --git a/cache.h b/cache.h
index 2674f4c..427ad5a 100644
--- a/cache.h
+++ b/cache.h
@@ -675,14 +675,32 @@ extern char *sha1_pack_name(const unsigned char *sha1);
 extern char *sha1_pack_index_name(const unsigned char *sha1);
 extern const char *find_unique_abbrev(const unsigned char *sha1, int);
 extern const unsigned char null_sha1[20];
-static inline int is_null_sha1(const unsigned char *sha1)
+
+static inline int hashcmp(const unsigned char *sha1, const unsigned char *sha2)
 {
-	return !memcmp(sha1, null_sha1, 20);
+	int i;
+
+	for (i = 0; i < 20; i++, sha1++, sha2++) {
+		if (*sha1 != *sha2) {
+			if (*sha1 < *sha2)
+				return -1;
+			return +1;
+		}
+	}
+
+	return 0;
 }
-static inline int hashcmp(const unsigned char *sha1, const unsigned char *sha2)
+
+static inline int is_null_sha1(const unsigned char *sha1)
 {
-	return memcmp(sha1, sha2, 20);
+	const unsigned int *sha1_32 = (void *)sha1;
+
+	if (sha1_32[0] || sha1_32[1] || sha1_32[2] || sha1_32[3] || sha1_32[4])
+		return 0;
+
+	return 1;
 }
+
 static inline void hashcpy(unsigned char *sha_dst, const unsigned char *sha_src)
 {
 	memcpy(sha_dst, sha_src, 20);
Previous: H. Peter AnvinNext: Erik Faye-Lund
Message 14 of 45 in “git gc: Speed it up by 18% via faster hash comparisons”
  1. git gc: Speed it up by 18% via faster hash comparisonsIngo Molnar, Apr 27, 2011
  2. Ingo MolnarApr 27, 2011
  3. Jonathan NiederApr 27, 2011
  4. Ingo MolnarApr 28, 2011
  5. Jonathan NiederApr 28, 2011
  6. Ingo MolnarApr 28, 2011
  7. Dmitry PotapovApr 28, 2011
  8. Junio C HamanoApr 27, 2011
  9. Ralf BaechleApr 28, 2011
  10. Bernhard R. LinkApr 28, 2011
  11. Andreas EricssonApr 28, 2011
  12. Erik Faye-LundApr 28, 2011
  13. H. Peter AnvinApr 28, 2011
  14. Ingo MolnarApr 28, 2011
  15. Erik Faye-LundApr 28, 2011
  16. Ingo MolnarApr 28, 2011
  17. Ingo MolnarApr 28, 2011
  18. Erik Faye-LundApr 28, 2011
  19. Pekka EnbergApr 28, 2011
  20. Erik Faye-LundApr 28, 2011
  21. Pekka EnbergApr 28, 2011
  22. Erik Faye-LundApr 28, 2011
  23. Pekka EnbergApr 28, 2011
  24. Jonathan NiederApr 28, 2011
  25. Erik Faye-LundApr 28, 2011
  26. Ingo MolnarApr 28, 2011
  27. Ingo MolnarApr 28, 2011
  28. Erik Faye-LundApr 28, 2011
  29. Ingo MolnarApr 28, 2011
  30. Alex RiesenApr 29, 2011
  31. H. Peter AnvinApr 29, 2011
  32. Tor ArntsenApr 28, 2011
  33. H. Peter AnvinApr 28, 2011
  34. Andreas EricssonApr 28, 2011
  35. Erik Faye-LundApr 28, 2011
  36. Ingo MolnarApr 28, 2011
  37. Nguyen Thai Ngoc DuyApr 28, 2011
  38. Erik Faye-LundApr 28, 2011
  39. Junio C HamanoApr 28, 2011
  40. Dmitry PotapovApr 28, 2011
  41. Dmitry PotapovApr 28, 2011
  42. Ingo MolnarApr 28, 2011
  43. Dmitry PotapovApr 28, 2011
  44. Ingo MolnarApr 28, 2011
  45. Ingo MolnarApr 28, 2011

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