linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] pgo: add clang's Profile Guided Optimization infrastructure

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Date:   Mon, 11 Jan 2021 16:44:34 -0800
From:   Fāng-ruì Sòng <maskray@...gle.com>
To:     Bill Wendling <morbo@...gle.com>
Cc:     Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>,
        Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@...nel.org>,
        Linux Doc Mailing List <linux-doc@...r.kernel.org>,
        LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Linux Kbuild mailing list <linux-kbuild@...r.kernel.org>,
        clang-built-linux <clang-built-linux@...glegroups.com>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Nathan Chancellor <natechancellor@...il.com>,
        Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@...gle.com>,
        Sami Tolvanen <samitolvanen@...gle.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] pgo: add clang's Profile Guided Optimization infrastructure

On Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 4:38 PM Bill Wendling <morbo@...gle.com> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 12:31 PM Fangrui Song <maskray@...gle.com> wrote:
> > On 2021-01-11, Bill Wendling wrote:
> > >On Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 12:12 PM Fangrui Song <maskray@...gle.com> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> On 2021-01-11, 'Bill Wendling' via Clang Built Linux wrote:
> > >> >From: Sami Tolvanen <samitolvanen@...gle.com>
> > >> >
> > >> >Enable the use of clang's Profile-Guided Optimization[1]. To generate a
> > >> >profile, the kernel is instrumented with PGO counters, a representative
> > >> >workload is run, and the raw profile data is collected from
> > >> >/sys/kernel/debug/pgo/profraw.
> > >> >
> > >> >The raw profile data must be processed by clang's "llvm-profdata" tool before
> > >> >it can be used during recompilation:
> > >> >
> > >> >  $ cp /sys/kernel/debug/pgo/profraw vmlinux.profraw
> > >> >  $ llvm-profdata merge --output=vmlinux.profdata vmlinux.profraw
> > >> >
> > >> >Multiple raw profiles may be merged during this step.
> > >> >
> > >> >The data can be used either by the compiler if LTO isn't enabled:
> > >> >
> > >> >    ... -fprofile-use=vmlinux.profdata ...
> > >> >
> > >> >or by LLD if LTO is enabled:
> > >> >
> > >> >    ... -lto-cs-profile-file=vmlinux.profdata ...
> > >>
> > >> This LLD option does not exist.
> > >> LLD does have some `--lto-*` options but the `-lto-*` form is not supported
> > >> (it clashes with -l) https://reviews.llvm.org/D79371
> > >>
> > >That's strange. I've been using that option for years now. :-) Is this
> > >a recent change?
> >
> > The more frequently used options (specifyed by the clang driver) are
> > -plugin-opt=... (options implemented by LLVMgold.so).
> > `-lto-*` is rare.
> >
> > >> (There is an earlier -fprofile-instr-generate which does
> > >> instrumentation in Clang, but the option does not have broad usage.
> > >> It is used more for code coverage, not for optimization.
> > >> Noticeably, it does not even implement the Kirchhoff's current law
> > >> optimization)
> > >>
> > >Right. I've been told outside of this email that -fprofile-generate is
> > >the prefered flag to use.
> > >
> > >> -fprofile-use= is used by both regular PGO and context-sensitive PGO (CSPGO).
> > >>
> > >> clang -flto=thin -fprofile-use= passes -plugin-opt=cs-profile-path= to the linker.
> > >> For regular PGO, this option is effectively a no-op (confirmed with CSPGO main developer).
> > >>
> > >> So I think the "or by LLD if LTO is enabled:" part should be removed.
> > >
> > >But what if you specify the linking step explicitly? Linux doesn't
> > >call "clang" when linking, but "ld.lld".
> >
> > Regular PGO+LTO does not need -plugin-opt=cs-profile-path=
> > CSPGO+LTO needs it.
> > Because -fprofile-use= may be used by both, Clang driver adds it.
> > CSPGO is relevant in this this patch, so the linker option does not need to be mentioned.
>
> I'm still a bit confused. Are you saying that when clang uses
> `-flto=thin -fprofile-use=foo` that the profile file "foo" is embedded
> into the bitcode file so that when the linker's run it'll be used?
>
> This is the workflow:
>
> clang ... -fprofile-use=vmlinux.profdata ... -c -o foo.o foo.c
> clang ... -fprofile-use=vmlinux.profdata ... -c -o bar.o bar.c
> ld.lld ... <output file> foo.o bar.o
>
> Are you saying that we don't need to have
> "-plugin-opt=cs-profile-path=vmlinux.profdata" on the "ld.lld ..."
> line?
>
> -bw

The backend compile step -flto=thin -fprofile-use=foo has all the information.

-plugin-opt=cs-profile-path=vmlinux.profdata is not needed for regular PGO.