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Re: [DEMO][PATCH v2 6/5] compat: add a qsort_s() implementation based on GNU's qsort_r(1)

From
René Scharfe <l.s.r@web.de>
Date
Jan 24, 2017, 18:00 UTC
Message-ID
<4e416167-2a33-0943-5738-79b4da5f2c11@web.de>
In-Reply-To
<xmqq60l5sihz.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
Am 23.01.2017 um 20:07 schrieb Junio C Hamano:
Show 20 quoted lines
> René Scharfe <l.s.r@web.de> writes:
> 
>> Implement qsort_s() as a wrapper to the GNU version of qsort_r(1) and
>> use it on Linux.  Performance increases slightly:
>>
>> Test                         HEAD^             HEAD
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 0071.2: sort(1)              0.10(0.20+0.02)   0.10(0.21+0.01) +0.0%
>> 0071.3: string_list_sort()   0.17(0.15+0.01)   0.16(0.15+0.01) -5.9%
>>
>> Additionally the unstripped size of compat/qsort_s.o falls from 24576
>> to 16544 bytes in my build.
>>
>> IMHO these savings aren't worth the increased complexity of having to
>> support two implementations.
> 
> I do worry about having to support more implementations in the
> future that have different function signature for the comparison
> callbacks, which will make things ugly, but this addition alone
> doesn't look too bad to me.

It is unfair of me to show a 5% speedup and then recommend to not include it. ;-) That difference won't be measurable in real use cases and the patch is not necessary. This patch is simple, but the overall complexity (incl. #ifdefs etc.) will be lower without it.

But here's another one, with even higher performance and with an even bigger recommendation to not include it! :) It veers off into another direction: Parallel execution. It requires thread-safe comparison functions, which might surprise callers. The value 1000 for the minimum number of items before threading kicks in is just a guess, not based on measurements. So it's quite raw -- and I'm not sure why it's still a bit slower than sort(1).

Test HEAD^ HEAD --------------------------------------------------------------------- 0071.2: sort(1) 0.10(0.18+0.03) 0.10(0.20+0.02) +0.0% 0071.3: string_list_sort() 0.17(0.14+0.02) 0.11(0.18+0.02) -35.3%

---
 compat/qsort_s.c | 76 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------
 1 file changed, 58 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-)
diff --git a/compat/qsort_s.c b/compat/qsort_s.c
index 52d1f0a73d..1304a089af 100644
--- a/compat/qsort_s.c
+++ b/compat/qsort_s.c
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 #include "../git-compat-util.h"
+#include "../thread-utils.h"
 
 /*
  * A merge sort implementation, simplified from the qsort implementation
@@ -6,29 +7,58 @@
  * Added context pointer, safety checks and return value.
  */
 
-static void msort_with_tmp(void *b, size_t n, size_t s,
-			   int (*cmp)(const void *, const void *, void *),
-			   char *t, void *ctx)
+#define MIN_ITEMS_FOR_THREAD 1000
+
+struct work {
+	int nr_threads;
+	void *base;
+	size_t nmemb;
+	size_t size;
+	char *tmp;
+	int (*cmp)(const void *, const void *, void *);
+	void *ctx;
+};
+
+static void *msort_with_tmp(void *work)
 {
+	struct work one, two, *w = work;
 	char *tmp;
 	char *b1, *b2;
 	size_t n1, n2;
+	size_t s, n;
 
-	if (n <= 1)
-		return;
+	if (w->nmemb <= 1)
+		return NULL;
 
-	n1 = n / 2;
-	n2 = n - n1;
-	b1 = b;
-	b2 = (char *)b + (n1 * s);
+	one = two = *w;
+	one.nr_threads /= 2;
+	two.nr_threads -= one.nr_threads;
+	n = one.nmemb;
+	s = one.size;
+	n1 = one.nmemb = n / 2;
+	n2 = two.nmemb = n - n1;
+	b1 = one.base;
+	b2 = two.base = b1 + n1 * s;
+	two.tmp += n1 * s;
 
-	msort_with_tmp(b1, n1, s, cmp, t, ctx);
-	msort_with_tmp(b2, n2, s, cmp, t, ctx);
+#ifndef NO_PTHREADS
+	if (one.nr_threads && n > MIN_ITEMS_FOR_THREAD) {
+		pthread_t thread;
+		int err = pthread_create(&thread, NULL, msort_with_tmp, &one);
+		msort_with_tmp(&two);
+		if (err || pthread_join(thread, NULL))
+			msort_with_tmp(&one);
+	} else
+#endif
+	{
+		msort_with_tmp(&one);
+		msort_with_tmp(&two);
+	}
 
-	tmp = t;
+	tmp = one.tmp;
 
 	while (n1 > 0 && n2 > 0) {
-		if (cmp(b1, b2, ctx) <= 0) {
+		if (one.cmp(b1, b2, one.ctx) <= 0) {
 			memcpy(tmp, b1, s);
 			tmp += s;
 			b1 += s;
@@ -42,7 +72,8 @@ static void msort_with_tmp(void *b, size_t n, size_t s,
 	}
 	if (n1 > 0)
 		memcpy(tmp, b1, n1 * s);
-	memcpy(b, t, (n - n2) * s);
+	memcpy(one.base, one.tmp, (n - n2) * s);
+	return NULL;
 }
 
 int git_qsort_s(void *b, size_t n, size_t s,
@@ -50,20 +81,29 @@ int git_qsort_s(void *b, size_t n, size_t s,
 {
 	const size_t size = st_mult(n, s);
 	char buf[1024];
+	struct work w;
 
 	if (!n)
 		return 0;
 	if (!b || !cmp)
 		return -1;
 
+	w.nr_threads = online_cpus();
+	w.base = b;
+	w.nmemb = n;
+	w.size = s;
+	w.cmp = cmp;
+	w.ctx = ctx;
+
 	if (size < sizeof(buf)) {
 		/* The temporary array fits on the small on-stack buffer. */
-		msort_with_tmp(b, n, s, cmp, buf, ctx);
+		w.tmp = buf;
 	} else {
 		/* It's somewhat large, so malloc it.  */
-		char *tmp = xmalloc(size);
-		msort_with_tmp(b, n, s, cmp, tmp, ctx);
-		free(tmp);
+		w.tmp = xmalloc(size);
 	}
+	msort_with_tmp(&w);
+	if (w.tmp != buf)
+		free(w.tmp);
 	return 0;
 }
-- 
2.11.0
Previous: Junio C HamanoNext: Jeff King
Message 9 of 18 in “string-list: make string_list_sort() reentrant”
  1. 0/5 string-list: make string_list_sort() reentrantRené Scharfe, Jan 22, 2017
  2. 1/5 compat: add qsort_s()René Scharfe, Jan 22, 2017
  3. 3/5 perf: add basic sort performance testRené Scharfe, Jan 22, 2017
  4. 4/5 string-list: use QSORT_S in string_list_sort()René Scharfe, Jan 22, 2017
  5. 5/5 ref-filter: use QSORT_S in ref_array_sort()René Scharfe, Jan 22, 2017
  6. 2/5 add QSORT_SRené Scharfe, Jan 22, 2017
  7. [DEMO][PATCH v2 6/5] compat: add a qsort_s() implementation based on GNU's qsort_r(1)René Scharfe, Jan 22, 2017
  8. Junio C HamanoJan 23, 2017
  9. René ScharfeJan 24, 2017
  10. Jeff KingJan 24, 2017
  11. René ScharfeJan 25, 2017
  12. Jeff KingJan 25, 2017
  13. Johannes SchindelinJan 26, 2017
  14. Jeff KingJan 23, 2017
  15. Johannes SchindelinJan 24, 2017
  16. Jeff KingJan 24, 2017
  17. René ScharfeJan 24, 2017
  18. Jeff KingJan 24, 2017

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