RFR(s): 8231630: Optimize boot loader with no bootclasspath append entry

[Lois Foltan]

On 10/7/2019 12:31 PM, Jiangli Zhou wrote:
> Thanks, Lois! Please see comments below.
>
> On Mon, Oct 7, 2019 at 9:07 AM Lois Foltan <lois.foltan at oracle.com> wrote:
>> On 10/5/2019 4:28 PM, Jiangli Zhou wrote:
>>> Please review the following small optimization for boot loader.
>>>
>>> webrev: http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~jiangli/8231630/webrev.00/
>>> RFE: https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8231630
>>>
>>> During classloading, the boot loader in the delegation path calls
>>> SystemDictionary::load_instance_class to load a requested class. After
>>> the module system is initialized, the VM checks if the requested
>>> class' package is in a module defined to the boot loader. If the class
>>> is either in the unnamed package or unnamed module, or in a module not
>>> defined to the boot loader, the VM only searches the bootloader's
>>> append entry (or entries). As a simple optimization, if there is no
>>> boot append entry, we can immediately return NULL in that case without
>>> any additional work. This particular call path is heavily exercised in
>>> some microbenchmarks, such as Dacapo 'pmd'. The improvement is mostly
>>> within noise level and may be un-noticeable for real world
>>> applications, but does show a ~3% difference with 'pmd' in
>>> Before/After comparison. As 'pmd' results can be noisy, the comparison
>>> is done with a large number of benchmark runs.
>>>
>>> Testing with submit-repo tests.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>> Jiangli
>> Looks good Jiangli.
>>
>> One clarification question, I assume then the class could never be in
>> the CDS archive?  By returning, line #1453-1456 will be skipped.
> Yes, it is guaranteed by the archive and shared class path validation.
> Since the contents within the modules image are the same for both dump
> time and runtime, if the VM determines that a class is not in the
> modules (only searches the bootclasspath append if exists), it must
> not in the CDS archive either.

Thanks for the reply.  I'm good with your change.
Lois

>
> Best regards,
>
> Jiangli
>
>> Thanks,
>> Lois