Thomas Graf a écrit :

* Eric Dumazet [ref] 2005-07-05 09:38

quoted

[NET] : unroll a small loop in pfifo_fast_dequeue(). Compiler generates 
better code.
(Using skb_queue_empty() to test the queue is faster than trying to 
__skb_dequeue())
oprofile says this function uses now 0.29% instead of 1.22 %, on a 
x86_64 target.

I think this patch is pretty much pointless. __skb_dequeue() and
!skb_queue_empty() should produce almost the same code and as soon
as you disable profiling and debugging you'll see that the compiler
unrolls the loop itself if possible.

OK. At least my compiler (gcc-3.3.1) does NOT unroll the loop :

Original 2.6.12 gives :

ffffffff802a9790 <pfifo_fast_dequeue>: /* pfifo_fast_dequeue total: 2904054  1.9531 */
258371  0.1738 :ffffffff802a9790:       lea    0xc0(%rdi),%rcx
273669  0.1841 :ffffffff802a9797:       xor    %esi,%esi
  12533  0.0084 :ffffffff802a9799:       mov    (%rcx),%rdx
292315  0.1966 :ffffffff802a979c:       cmp    %rcx,%rdx
  11717  0.0079 :ffffffff802a979f:       je     ffffffff802a97d1 <pfifo_fast_dequeue+0x41>
   4474  0.0030 :ffffffff802a97a1:       mov    %rdx,%rax
   6238  0.0042 :ffffffff802a97a4:       mov    (%rdx),%rdx
     41 2.8e-05 :ffffffff802a97a7:       decl   0x10(%rcx)
   6089  0.0041 :ffffffff802a97aa:       test   %rax,%rax
    126 8.5e-05 :ffffffff802a97ad:       movq   $0x0,0x10(%rax)
     39 2.6e-05 :ffffffff802a97b5:       mov    %rcx,0x8(%rdx)
   6974  0.0047 :ffffffff802a97b9:       mov    %rdx,(%rcx)
   2841  0.0019 :ffffffff802a97bc:       movq   $0x0,0x8(%rax)
    366 2.5e-04 :ffffffff802a97c4:       movq   $0x0,(%rax)
  14757  0.0099 :ffffffff802a97cb:       je     ffffffff802a97d1 <pfifo_fast_dequeue+0x41>
    288 1.9e-04 :ffffffff802a97cd:       decl   0x40(%rdi)
     94 6.3e-05 :ffffffff802a97d0:       retq
970400  0.6526 :ffffffff802a97d1:       inc    %esi
982402  0.6607 :ffffffff802a97d3:       add    $0x18,%rcx
      4 2.7e-06 :ffffffff802a97d7:       cmp    $0x2,%esi
      1 6.7e-07 :ffffffff802a97da:       jle    ffffffff802a9799 <pfifo_fast_dequeue+0x9>
  59754  0.0402 :ffffffff802a97dc:       xor    %eax,%eax
    561 3.8e-04 :ffffffff802a97de:       data16
                :ffffffff802a97df:       nop
                :ffffffff802a97e0:       retq


And new code (2.6.12-ed):

ffffffff802b1020 <pfifo_fast_dequeue>: /* pfifo_fast_dequeue total: 153139  0.2934 */
  27388  0.0525 :ffffffff802b1020:       lea    0xc0(%rdi),%rdx
  42091  0.0806 :ffffffff802b1027:       cmp    %rdx,0xc0(%rdi)
                :ffffffff802b102e:       jne    ffffffff802b1052 <pfifo_fast_dequeue+0x32>
    474 9.1e-04 :ffffffff802b1030:       lea    0xd8(%rdi),%rdx
   5571  0.0107 :ffffffff802b1037:       cmp    %rdx,0xd8(%rdi)
      2 3.8e-06 :ffffffff802b103e:       jne    ffffffff802b1052 <pfifo_fast_dequeue+0x32>
      1 1.9e-06 :ffffffff802b1040:       lea    0xf0(%rdi),%rdx
  20030  0.0384 :ffffffff802b1047:       xor    %eax,%eax
      6 1.1e-05 :ffffffff802b1049:       cmp    %rdx,0xf0(%rdi)
      6 1.1e-05 :ffffffff802b1050:       je     ffffffff802b1086 <pfifo_fast_dequeue+0x66>
                :ffffffff802b1052:       mov    (%rdx),%rcx
  11796  0.0226 :ffffffff802b1055:       xor    %eax,%eax
                :ffffffff802b1057:       cmp    %rdx,%rcx
      8 1.5e-05 :ffffffff802b105a:       je     ffffffff802b1083 <pfifo_fast_dequeue+0x63>
   3146  0.0060 :ffffffff802b105c:       mov    %rcx,%rax
     12 2.3e-05 :ffffffff802b105f:       mov    (%rcx),%rcx
    118 2.3e-04 :ffffffff802b1062:       decl   0x10(%rdx)
   4924  0.0094 :ffffffff802b1065:       movq   $0x0,0x10(%rax)
     65 1.2e-04 :ffffffff802b106d:       mov    %rdx,0x8(%rcx)
    725  0.0014 :ffffffff802b1071:       mov    %rcx,(%rdx)
  11493  0.0220 :ffffffff802b1074:       movq   $0x0,0x8(%rax)
    194 3.7e-04 :ffffffff802b107c:       movq   $0x0,(%rax)
   2995  0.0057 :ffffffff802b1083:       decl   0x40(%rdi)
  19607  0.0376 :ffffffff802b1086:       nop
   2487  0.0048 :ffffffff802b1087:       retq


Please give us the code your compiler produces, and explain me how disabling oprofile can change the generated assembly. :)
Debugging has no impact on this code either.

Thank you

Eric