循环展开 - G ++与Clang ++

Question

I was wondering whether it is worth to aid the compiler with templates to unroll a simple loop. I prepared the following test:

#include <cstdlib>
#include <utility>
#include <array>

class TNode
{
public:
  void Assemble();
  void Assemble(TNode const *);
};

class T
{
private:
  std::array<TNode *,3u> NodePtr;

private:
  template <std::size_t,std::size_t>
  void foo() const;

  template <std::size_t... ij>
  void foo(std::index_sequence<ij...>) const
    { (foo<ij%3u,ij/3u>(),...); }

public:
  void foo() const
    { return foo(std::make_index_sequence<3u*3u>{}); }

  void bar() const;
};

template <std::size_t i,std::size_t j>
inline void T::foo() const
{
if constexpr (i==j)
  NodePtr[i]->Assemble();
else
  NodePtr[i]->Assemble(NodePtr[j]);
}

inline void T::bar() const
{
for (std::size_t i= 0u; i<3u; ++i)
  for (std::size_t j= 0u; j<3u; ++j)
    if (i==j)
      NodePtr[i]->Assemble();
    else
      NodePtr[i]->Assemble(NodePtr[j]);
}

void foo()
{
T x;
x.foo();
}

void bar()
{
T x;
x.bar();
}

I first tried with G++ with -O3 -funroll-loops enabled and I got ( https://godbolt.org/z/_Wyvl8 ):

foo():
        push    r12
        push    rbp
        push    rbx
        sub     rsp, 32
        mov     r12, QWORD PTR [rsp]
        mov     rdi, r12
        call    TNode::Assemble()
        mov     rbp, QWORD PTR [rsp+8]
        mov     rsi, r12
        mov     rdi, rbp
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        mov     rbx, QWORD PTR [rsp+16]
        mov     rsi, r12
        mov     rdi, rbx
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        mov     rsi, rbp
        mov     rdi, r12
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        mov     rdi, rbp
        call    TNode::Assemble()
        mov     rsi, rbp
        mov     rdi, rbx
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        mov     rsi, rbx
        mov     rdi, r12
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        mov     rdi, rbp
        mov     rsi, rbx
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        add     rsp, 32
        mov     rdi, rbx
        pop     rbx
        pop     rbp
        pop     r12
        jmp     TNode::Assemble()
bar():
        push    r13
        push    r12
        push    rbp
        xor     ebp, ebp
        push    rbx
        sub     rsp, 40
.L9:
        mov     r13, QWORD PTR [rsp+rbp*8]
        xor     ebx, ebx
        lea     r12, [rbp+1]
.L5:
        cmp     rbp, rbx
        je      .L15
        mov     rsi, QWORD PTR [rsp+rbx*8]
        mov     rdi, r13
        add     rbx, 1
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        cmp     rbx, 3
        jne     .L5
        mov     rbp, r12
        cmp     r12, 3
        jne     .L9
.L16:
        add     rsp, 40
        pop     rbx
        pop     rbp
        pop     r12
        pop     r13
        ret
.L15:
        mov     rdi, r13
        mov     rbx, r12
        call    TNode::Assemble()
        cmp     r12, 3
        jne     .L5
        mov     rbp, r12
        cmp     r12, 3
        jne     .L9
        jmp     .L16

I can't read assembly, but I seem to understand that the templated version does unroll the loop, while bar has loops and branches.

Then I tried with Clang++ ( https://godbolt.org/z/VCNb65 ) and I got a very different picture:

foo():                                # @foo()
        push    rax
        call    TNode::Assemble()
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        call    TNode::Assemble()
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        pop     rax
        jmp     TNode::Assemble()    # TAILCALL
bar():                                # @bar()
        push    rax
        call    TNode::Assemble()
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        call    TNode::Assemble()
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        call    TNode::Assemble(TNode const*)
        pop     rax
        jmp     TNode::Assemble()    # TAILCALL

What happened here? How can the resulting assembly be so terse?

Answer 1

1. NodePtr is not initialized, and when you use it, it is UB. So the optimizer can do whatever it wants: here it decides to omit assignments to the register esi/rsi , which is used to pass an argument to TNode::Assemble(TNode const*) , and to edi/rdi , which holds an object pointer ( this ). As a result, you see only a bunch of call instructions. Try to value-initialize x (this will zero-initialize NodePtr ),

    T x{}; 

   and you'll get much more meaningful assembly.

2. Clang seems to be better at loop unrolling. See, eg, this answer . It is up to you to decide whether loops are worth unrolling. For small loops, probably, they are. But you should measure.