ReflectionData space optimization in java.lang.Class (JEP-149)

[David Holmes]

Hi Peter,

I dropped Joel from the direct cc as this isn't annotation related.

On 13/12/2012 8:13 PM, Peter Levart wrote:
> Hi Mandy, David and others,
>
> Here's the updated version of the patch for ReflectionData:
>
> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/101777488/jdk8-tl/JEP-149.c/webrev.02/index.html
>
> I split long lines as proposed by Mandy. I also split reflectionData()
> method in two methods, so the fast-path method is smaller and might get
> better chances of being in-lined.

Okay - though I just submitted the previous version to get some 
performance data :(

> I also found code-paths that evaluated reflectionData() method more than
> once for each external call. It's the methods:
>
> private Field[] privateGetDeclaredFields(boolean publicOnly)
>
> and
>
> private Method[] privateGetDeclaredMethods(boolean publicOnly)
>
> which are called from:
>
> private Field[] privateGetPublicFields(Set<Class<?>> traversedInterfaces)
>
> and
>
> private Method[] privateGetPublicMethods()
>
> respectively. I therefore introduced overloaded variants of the former
> methods taking a ReflectionData parameter like the following:
>
> private Field[] privateGetDeclaredFields(boolean publicOnly) {
> return privateGetDeclaredFields(publicOnly, reflectionData());
> }
> // A variant called from methods that already obtained ReflectionData
> instance
> private Field[] privateGetDeclaredFields(boolean publicOnly,
> ReflectionData<T> rd) {
> ...
>
> the same for privateGetDeclaredMethods. This is not for performance
> reasons (though it might help) but for correctness. Each external call
> should be a separate "transaction" and should work on the same
> ReflectionData instance. The "transaction" is only guaranteed on the
> level of a particular java.lang.Class instance though. Some methods also
> invoke other Class instances (to gather inherited public methods /
> fields) and those invocations might be separate transactions in the face
> of concurrent class re-definitions. But we are not going to implement a
> database here, are we?

Sorry I don't understand the problem you are seeing here. If we find a 
cached public fields, for example, we will return it. Else we start the 
process of calculating anew. If someone else manages to fill in the 
cache then we will get it when we call privateGetDeclaredFields. The 
results are expected to be idempotent so I don't see what the problem is.

Thanks,
David
------

> I prepared some micro benchmarks for individual public methods. Here're
> the results:
>
> https://raw.github.com/plevart/jdk8-tl/JEP-149.c/test/reflection_data_benchmark_results_i7-2600K.txt
>
> they indicate no noticeable performance decreases. Some methods are in
> fact faster (more in-linable?):
>
> - getFields - 4x
> - getDeclaredConstructor - 4x ... 10x
> - getDeclaredMethod - 3x
>
> Here's the code for micro-benchmarks:
>
> https://raw.github.com/plevart/jdk8-tl/JEP-149.c/test/src/test/ReflectionDataTest.java
>
>
> Regards, Peter
>
>
> On 12/12/2012 11:59 PM, Mandy Chung wrote:
>> Hi Peter,
>>
>> On 12/12/12 4:31 AM, Peter Levart wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Ok, no problem. So here's a patch that summarizes what I did in the
>>> previous patch, but only for reflective fields (Field[], Method[],
>>> Constructor[]) not including annotations:
>>>
>>> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/101777488/jdk8-tl/JEP-149.c/webrev/index.html
>>>
>>
>> Finally able to make time to review this patch. It's good work. While
>> it's good to see the synchronization issue with annotations be fixed,
>> separating the cache for reflection and annotation helps. As David
>> replied, he will take your patch and run with it for JEP-149.
>>
>> The change looks good. Nit: there are several long lines
>> L2235,2244,2245,2249,2269 etc that should be broken into separate
>> lines. The remaining open question is the performance difference in
>> the reflectionData() method and how well it will be jit'ed. In the
>> common case, there is no class redefinition where
>> classCachesOnClassRedefinition() is essentially like an nop. I believe
>> David will look at the footprint and performance numbers as he has
>> initiated the performance testing (need to do it with this new patch).
>>
>> Thanks
>> Mandy
>>
>>> The annotations part is unchanged semantically, but I had to:
>>>
>>> - modify private method clearCachesOnClassRedefinition to only
>>> include invalidation of annotations and declaredAnnotations fields. I
>>> also renamed it to clearAnnotationCachesOnClassRedefinition
>>> - renamed lastRedefinedCount to lastAnnotationsRedefinedCount and,
>>> since this field is now only accessed while holding a lock (from
>>> synchronized initAnnotationsIfNecessary), I removed the volatile
>>> keyword.
>>>
>>> That's it.
>>>
>>> While looking at this unchanged part of code some more, I see other
>>> races as well. For example: two concurrent accesses to annotations
>>> combined with redefinition of a class can result in NPE. Here's a
>>> serial execution:
>>>
>>> Thread 1:
>>> getAnnotation(annotationType);
>>> initAnnotationsIfNecessary();
>>>
>>> VM:
>>> classRedefinedCount++;
>>>
>>> Thread 2:
>>> getAnnotation(annotationType);
>>> initAnnotationsIfNecessary();
>>> clearAnnotationCachesOnClassRedefinition();
>>> annotations = null;
>>>
>>> Thread 1:
>>> return AnnotationSupport.getOneAnnotation(annotations, annotationClass);
>>> // 'annotations' field can be null
>>>
>>>
>>> So this needs to be fixed sooner or later.
>>>
>>> Joel!
>>>
>>> Are your JSR 308 canges involving java.lang.Class too?
>>>
>>> Regards, Peter
>>>
>>>
>>> On 12/12/2012 11:59 AM, Joel Borggrén-Franck wrote:
>>>> Hi all,
>>>>
>>>> First, thanks all of you that are involved in this!
>>>>
>>>> I agree with David here, lets split this up (for now) and do
>>>> reflective objects in the context of jep-149 and annotations
>>>> separately.
>>>>
>>>> As you may know there are even more annotation coming in with JSR
>>>> 308 annotations on type (use), so I want to complete that work first
>>>> and then do the effort of reducing contention and overhead for both
>>>> type and regular annotations and also fixing up the behaviour for
>>>> redefine/retransform class.
>>>>
>>>> One other point to consider is that some of the fields in
>>>> java/lang/reflect/ classes are known by the VM so not all changes in
>>>> Java-land are actually doable. Glancing over your patches very
>>>> quickly I don't think you have done anything to upset the VM, but
>>>> then I am not an expert in this area.
>>>>
>>>> Also, with the VM permgen changes we might have to rethink our
>>>> assumptions in order to reduce total overhead. For example as I
>>>> understand it previously we could just ship the same pointer into
>>>> permgen for the annotations arrays, now that isn't possible so we
>>>> create a new copy of the array for every Field/Method/Constructor
>>>> instance. Perhaps there is some clever way of eliminating those copies.
>>>>
>>>> So while I think your patches generally makes sense, I think it is
>>>> prudent to delay this for annotations until all our new annotation
>>>> features are in.
>>>>
>>>> cheers
>>>> /Joel
>>>>
>>>> On Dec 10, 2012, at 7:18 AM, David Holmes <david.holmes at oracle.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi Peter,
>>>>>
>>>>> Sorry for the delay on this.
>>>>>
>>>>> Generally your VolatileData and my ReflectionHelper are doing a
>>>>> similar job. But I agree with your reasoning that all of the cached
>>>>> SoftReferences are likely to be cleared at once, and so a
>>>>> SoftReference to a helper object with direct references, is more
>>>>> effective than a direct reference to a helper object with
>>>>> SoftReferences. My initial stance with this was very conservative
>>>>> as the more change that is introduced the more uncertainty there is
>>>>> about the impact.
>>>>>
>>>>> I say the above primarily because I think, if I am to proceed with
>>>>> this, I will need to separate out the general reflection caching
>>>>> changes from the annotation changes. There are a number of reasons
>>>>> for this:
>>>>>
>>>>> First, I'm not at all familiar with the implementation of
>>>>> annotations at the VM or Java level, and the recent changes in this
>>>>> area just exacerbate my ignorance of the mechanics. So I don't feel
>>>>> qualified to evaluate that aspect.
>>>>>
>>>>> Second, the bulk of the reflection caching code is simplified by
>>>>> the fact that due to current constraints on class redefinition the
>>>>> caching is effectively idempotent for fields/methods/constructors.
>>>>> But that is not the case for annotations.
>>>>>
>>>>> Finally, the use of synchronization with the annotations method is
>>>>> perplexing me. I sent Joe a private email on this but I may as well
>>>>> raise it here - and I think you have alluded to this in your
>>>>> earlier emails as well: initAnnotationsIfNecessary() is a
>>>>> synchronized instance method but I can not find any other code in
>>>>> the VM that synchronizes on the Class object's monitor. So if this
>>>>> synchronization is trying to establish consistency in the face of
>>>>> class redefinition, I do not see where class redefinition is
>>>>> participating in the synchronization!
>>>>>
>>>>> So what I would like to do is take your basic VolatileData part of
>>>>> the patch and run with it for JEP-149 purposes, while separating
>>>>> the annotations issue so they can be dealt with by the experts in
>>>>> that particular area.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm sorry it has taken so long to arrive at a fairly negative
>>>>> position, but I need someone else to take up the annotations
>>>>> gauntlet and run with it.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> David
>>>>>
>