serviceability agent : problems when using gcc LTO (link time optimization)

Baesken, Matthias matthias.baesken at sap.com
Wed Jan 15 16:11:03 UTC 2020


Hello,    here is another  comparison for the larger  JDK  shared libs,  this time  with the sizes  of   build with linktime-gc (--gc-sections)   added .
( just for the larger libs )
(  I had not  enabled  linktime-gc  for libjvm   in our  test build , just for the JDK libs . )

Linuxx86_64 / gcc7

normal / with -flto / with linktime-gc (--gc-sections)
-----------------------------------------------------------
752K / 760K / 752K   ./lib/libawt.so            <------------------ this one gets a bit larger but only with flto
472K / 456K / 468K   ./lib/libawt_xawt.so       <------------------ small gain
1.5M / 824K / 900K   ./lib/libfontmanager.so     <------------------ HUGE gain , not as good with ltgc but still good
784K / 792K / 784K  ./lib/libfreetype.so        <------------------ this one gets a bit larger  (but not with ltgc)
260K / 244K / 252K   ./lib/libjavajpeg.so         <----------------- small gain
196K / 188K / 196K   ./lib/libjava.so
280K / 256K / 276K   ./lib/libjdwp.so             <----------------- small gain
144K / 140K / 136K   ./lib/libjimage.so
564K / 420K / 404K   ./lib/liblcms.so             <----------------- large gain ,  even better with  ltgc
576K / 496K / 556K   ./lib/libmlib_image.so       <----------------- large gain with flto , small one with ltgc
368K / 212K / 236K   ./lib/libsplashscreen.so     <----------------- large gain
320K / 296K / 300K   ./lib/libsunec.so            <----------------- medium gain
23M / 17M   /  --not enabled---    ./lib/server/libjvm.so        <----------------- big gain maybe because it is C++ ?


So   one can see,  that   flto   is usually  a bit better  than link-time-gc  when it comes to  improving lib sizes, but not always .
However  linktime-gc   seems to be faster when comparing build times   , I did not really notice much  build  time slowdown because of it .
( we have it enabled  for linux  s390x  for some time in OpenJDK ).
The  linktime-gc   also offers a nice feature  to print out the eliminated stuff ,   that can be used  to remove  unused code cross-platform .
e.g.  the removed symbols  from   https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8234629    has been found this way .


Best regards, Matthias



Aleksei, Matthias,

thanks for the numbers. The size reduction on libjvm.so looks not bad, indeed.

Do you know if newer versions of GCC use the gold linker by default? I remember from some experiments which I did many years ago that gold was considerably faster compared to the default ld linker.

Unfortunately, the documentation I found about LTO/ld/gold [1,2] seems to be quite old and not very precise. Do you have gained any experience with LTO/gold and know if gold could maybe improve linking times with LTO?

[1] https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/LinkTimeOptimization
[2] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31688069/requirements-to-use-flto


Baesken, Matthias <matthias.baesken at sap.com<mailto:matthias.baesken at sap.com>> schrieb am Mi., 15. Jan. 2020, 07:02:
Hello , I can comment on   the  code size .  This is what I get when comparing  a build  without  and  with  -flto .

gcc7 linux x86_64  product build, normal / with -flto
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

du -sh on the *.so files gives :

16K / 16K      ./lib/libattach.so
48K / 44K      ./lib/libawt_headless.so
752K / 760K    ./lib/libawt.so            <------------------ this one gets a bit larger with flto
472K / 456K    ./lib/libawt_xawt.so       <------------------ small gain
36K / 32K      ./lib/libdt_socket.so
16K /16K       ./lib/libextnet.so
1.5M / 824K    ./lib/libfontmanager.so     <------------------ HUGE gain
784K / 792K    ./lib/libfreetype.so        <------------------ this one gets a bit larger with flto
56K / 56K      ./lib/libinstrument.so
52K / 52K      ./lib/libj2gss.so
20K / 20K      ./lib/libj2pcsc.so
92K / 84K      ./lib/libj2pkcs11.so
12K / 12k      ./lib/libjaas.so
260K / 244K    ./lib/libjavajpeg.so         <----------------- small gain
196K / 188K    ./lib/libjava.so
12K / 12K      ./lib/libjawt.so
280K / 256K    ./lib/libjdwp.so             <----------------- small gain
144K / 140K    ./lib/libjimage.so
84K / 76K      ./lib/libjli.so
16K / 16K      ./lib/libjsig.so
88K / 80K      ./lib/libjsound.so
564K / 420K    ./lib/liblcms.so             <----------------- large gain
12K / 12K      ./lib/libmanagement_agent.so
40K / 36K      ./lib/libmanagement_ext.so
36K / 32K      ./lib/libmanagement.so
576K / 496K    ./lib/libmlib_image.so       <----------------- large gain
112K / 108K    ./lib/libnet.so
100K / 100K    ./lib/libnio.so
16K  / 16K     ./lib/libprefs.so
8.0K / 8.0K    ./lib/librmi.so
60K / 60K      ./lib/libsaproc.so
36K / 32K      ./lib/libsctp.so
368K / 212K    ./lib/libsplashscreen.so     <----------------- large gain
320K / 296K    ./lib/libsunec.so            <----------------- medium gain
72K / 72K      ./lib/libverify.so
44K / 44K      ./lib/libzip.so
16K / 16K      ./lib/server/libjsig.so
23M / 17M      ./lib/server/libjvm.so        <----------------- big gain maybe because it is C++ ?


So  for  some libs  you see  10% and more , but not for all .   But  most  large  libs  like   libjvm.so,  libfontmanager.so      or   liblcms.so    we see good results regarding reduced code size.

I Cannot say much about performance improvements , probably it would be small .

For SPEC  you find something at

http://hubicka.blogspot.com/2019/05/gcc-9-link-time-and-inter-procedural.html

(not that these results would say too much about  JVM performance ).


Best regards, Matthias

From: Volker Simonis <volker.simonis at gmail.com<mailto:volker.simonis at gmail.com>>
Sent: Mittwoch, 15. Januar 2020 14:40
To: Aleksei Voitylov <aleksei.voitylov at bell-sw.com<mailto:aleksei.voitylov at bell-sw.com>>
Cc: Baesken, Matthias <matthias.baesken at sap.com<mailto:matthias.baesken at sap.com>>; Magnus Ihse Bursie <magnus.ihse.bursie at oracle.com<mailto:magnus.ihse.bursie at oracle.com>>; serviceability-dev at openjdk.java.net<mailto:serviceability-dev at openjdk.java.net>; build-dev <build-dev at openjdk.java.net<mailto:build-dev at openjdk.java.net>>; hotspot-dev at openjdk.java.net<mailto:hotspot-dev at openjdk.java.net>
Subject: Re: serviceability agent : problems when using gcc LTO (link time optimization)

While we are speaking about all the drawbacks of LTO, it's still not clear what the benefits are? In the very first mail Matthias mentioned that there might be performance improvements but that performance is not the main driving factor behind this initiative. So is it the reduced code size (Matthias mentioned something around ~10%)?

It would be nice to see some real numbers on various platform for both, the performance improvements for native parts like JIT/GC as well as for the size reduction.
Aleksei Voitylov <aleksei.voitylov at bell-sw.com<mailto:aleksei.voitylov at bell-sw.com>> schrieb am Di., 14. Jan. 2020, 09:54:

On 14/01/2020 19:57, Baesken, Matthias wrote:
> Hello  Magnus and Aleksei,  thanks for the input .
>
> The times you  provided really look like they make a big difference  at least for people  often  building   minimal-vm  .
> Guess I have to measure myself a bit  (maybe the difference is not that big on our linux s390x / ppc64(le) ) .
>
>> If the change to enable lto by default is proposed, what would be the
>> recommended strategy for development?
>>
> Probably  we should a)   do not enable it by default but just make sure it can be enabled easily and works  for  the minimal-vm
That would be welcome. I have high hopes to LTO the VM some time by
default, and the tendency observed is that the compiler time overhead
for GCC becomes smaller. At the same time there is no reason why vendors
that invested in testing and can absorb the build time hit could provide
binaries with LTO built VMs by passing an additional option flag.
>   or  b)  take it easy to disable it for local development.
>
> Best regards, Matthias
>
>
>
>> Magnus, Matthias,
>>
>> for me, lto is a little heavyweight for development. x86_64 build time
>> with gcc 7:
>>
>> Server 1m32.484s
>> Server+Minimal 1m42.166s
>> Server+Minimal (--with-jvm-features="link-time-opt") 5m29.422s
>>
>> If the change to enable lto by default is proposed, what would be the
>> recommended strategy for development?
>>
>> For ARM32 Minimal, please keep in mind that it's not uncommon to disable
>> LTO plugin in commodity ARM32 gcc compiler distributions, so for some it
>> does not matter what settings we have in OpenJDK. I believe there could
>> be other reasons for that on top of build time (bugs?).
>>


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