linux-kernel - [RFC] string: Use faster alternatives when constant arguments are used

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Message-Id: <20190324014445.28688-1-sultan@kerneltoast.com>
Date:   Sat, 23 Mar 2019 18:44:45 -0700
From:   Sultan Alsawaf <sultan@...neltoast.com>
To:     unlisted-recipients:; (no To-header on input)
Cc:     akpm@...ux-foundation.org, Sultan Alsawaf <sultan@...neltoast.com>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: [RFC] string: Use faster alternatives when constant arguments are used

From: Sultan Alsawaf <sultan@...neltoast.com>

When strcpy, strcat, and strcmp are used with a literal string, they can
be optimized to memcpy or memcmp calls. These alternatives are faster
since knowing the length of a string argument beforehand allows
traversal through the string word at a time without being concerned
about looking for the terminating zero character. In some cases, the
replaced calls to memcpy or memcmp can even be optimized out completely
for a significant speed up.

Signed-off-by: Sultan Alsawaf <sultan@...neltoast.com>
---
 include/linux/string.h | 27 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 27 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/linux/string.h b/include/linux/string.h
index 7927b875f..65db58342 100644
--- a/include/linux/string.h
+++ b/include/linux/string.h
@@ -476,4 +476,31 @@ static __always_inline size_t str_has_prefix(const char *str, const char *prefix
 	return strncmp(str, prefix, len) == 0 ? len : 0;
 }
 
+/*
+ * Replace some common string helpers with faster alternatives when one of the
+ * arguments is a constant (i.e., literal string). This uses strlen instead of
+ * sizeof for calculating the string length in order to silence compiler
+ * warnings that may arise due to what the compiler thinks is incorrect sizeof
+ * usage. The strlen calls on constants are folded into scalar values at compile
+ * time, so performance is not reduced by using strlen.
+ */
+#define strcpy(dest, src)						\
+	__builtin_choose_expr(__builtin_constant_p(src),		\
+		memcpy((dest), (src), strlen(src) + 1),			\
+		(strcpy)((dest), (src)))
+
+#define strcat(dest, src)						\
+	__builtin_choose_expr(__builtin_constant_p(src),		\
+		memcpy(strchr((dest), '\0'), (src), strlen(src) + 1),	\
+		(strcat)((dest), (src)))
+
+#define strcmp(dest, src)						\
+	__builtin_choose_expr(__builtin_constant_p(dest),		\
+		__builtin_choose_expr(__builtin_constant_p(src),	\
+			(strcmp)((dest), (src)),			\
+			memcmp((dest), (src), strlen(dest) + 1)),	\
+		__builtin_choose_expr(__builtin_constant_p(src),	\
+			memcmp((dest), (src), strlen(src) + 1),		\
+			(strcmp)((dest), (src))))
+
 #endif /* _LINUX_STRING_H_ */
-- 
2.21.0