This document describes ....Latest Webrev: http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~iklam/jdk16/8243208-cleanup-jvmflag-impl.v00/

Goals

Reduce the complexity of macros related to command-line flags (JDK-82432098243208)
Avoid including large globals.hpp in every file. Just include the <mod>_globals.hpp file of the module you need (separate RFE: JDK-8243205)
Improvement footprint/performance

Non Goals

The flag declaration is done with large X-macros. Although some people find this objectionably, this proposal does not change that.

Requirements for Command-line Flags

...

New way of declaring flags - with optional argument for attributes:. Also, the flag declaration macros now all take only 7 arguments: (compared to old version in globals.hpp)

Code Block

#define  develop(boolRUNTIME_FLAGS(develop, CleanChunkPoolAsync,\
 true,  /* no attr */                 develop_pd,  \
          "Clean the chunk pool asynchronously")         product, \
                  \
    product_pd, \
                      /* REMOVED diagnostic,   */\
                      /* REMOVED diagnostic_pd, */  \
                 \
  product(uint, HandshakeTimeout, 0, /* attr=REMOVED experimental,  */DIAGNOSTIC,\
                 \
     notproduct, \
     "If nonzero set a timeout in milliseconds for handshakes")        \
 /* REMOVED manageable,   */ \
                      /* REMOVED product_rw,   */\
                      /* REMOVED lp64_product, */\
                  \
  product(bool, AlwaysSafeConstructors, falserange, /*\
 attr= */ EXPERIMENTAL,    \
          "Force safe construction, as if allconstraint) fields\
 are final.").....
  develop(bool, CleanChunkPoolAsync, true,  /* no attr */  \

Flag declaration macros now all take only 7 arguments: (compared to old version in globals.hpp)

Code Block

#define RUNTIME_FLAGS(develop, \
               \
       develop_pd, \
   "Clean the chunk pool asynchronously")                           product, \
                      product_pd, \
                      /* REMOVED diagnostic,   */\
                      /* REMOVED diagnostic_pd, */ \
  product(uint, HandshakeTimeout, 0, /* attr= */DIAGNOSTIC,               /* REMOVED experimental,  */\
          "If nonzero set a timeout in milliseconds for  handshakes")   notproduct, \
    \
                  /* REMOVED manageable,   */ \
                      /* REMOVED product_rw,   */\
                      /* REMOVED lp64_product, */\
  product(bool, AlwaysSafeConstructors, false, /* attr= */ EXPERIMENTAL,    \
          range, \
       "Force safe construction, as if all fields are final.")         ....

The flags metadata is defined using overloaded constructors (around lin 679 of jvmFlag.cpp)

Code Block

constexpr JVMFlag::JVMFlag(int flag_enum, const char*  constraint) \type, const char* name,
                           void* addr, int attrs, const char* doc) :
  _type(type), _name(name), _addr(addr) NOT_PRODUCT(COMMA _doc(doc)) {}

constexpr JVMFlag::JVMFlag(int flag_enum,  const char* type, const char* name,
                           void* addr, const char* doc) :
  JVMFlag(flag_enum, type, name, addr, /*attrs*/0, doc) {}

....
#define DEVELOP_FLAG_INIT(   type, name, value, ...) JVMFlag(FLAG_MEMBER_ENUM(name), ...snip..., __VA_ARGS__),
#define DEVELOP_FLAG_INIT_PD(type, name,        ...) JVMFlag(FLAG_MEMBER_ENUM(name), ...snip..., __VA_ARGS__),
...snip....

static JVMFlag flagTable[NUM_JVMFlagsEnum + 1] = {
  ALL_FLAGS(DEVELOP_FLAG_INIT,
            DEVELOP_FLAG_INIT_PD,
            PRODUCT_FLAG_INIT,
            PRODUCT_FLAG_INIT_PD,
            NOTPROD_FLAG_INIT,
            IGNORE_RANGE,
            IGNORE_CONSTRAINT)
  ....
// NOTE: ALL_FLAGS() calls RUNTIME_FLAGS()

Handling of Groups:

There's a very small number of groups. They don't seem very useful so I don't know if we will add many new groups in the future. So for the time being, I implemented groups by ordering the flags and counting the size of each group:

Code Block

#define ENUM_F(type, name, ...)  enum_##name,
#define IGNORE_F(...)

//                                                  dev     dev-pd  pro     pro-pd  notpro  range     constraint
enum FlagCounter_LP64  { LP64_RUNTIME_FLAGS(        ENUM_F, ENUM_F, ENUM_F, ENUM_F, ENUM_F, IGNORE_F, IGNORE_F)  num_flags_LP64   };
enum FlagCounter_JVMCI { JVMCI_ONLY(JVMCI_FLAGS(    ENUM_F, ENUM_F, ENUM_F, ENUM_F, ENUM_F, IGNORE_F, IGNORE_F)) num_flags_JVMCI  };
enum FlagCounter_C1    { COMPILER1_PRESENT(C1_FLAGS(ENUM_F, ENUM_F, ENUM_F, ENUM_F, ENUM_F, IGNORE_F, IGNORE_F)) num_flags_C1     };
enum FlagCounter_C2    { COMPILER2_PRESENT(C2_FLAGS(ENUM_F, ENUM_F, ENUM_F, ENUM_F, ENUM_F, IGNORE_F, IGNORE_F)) num_flags_C2     };
enum FlagCounter_ARCH  { ARCH_FLAGS(                ENUM_F,         ENUM_F,         ENUM_F, IGNORE_F, IGNORE_F)  num_flags_ARCH   };

const int first_flag_enum_LP64   = 0;
const int first_flag_enum_JVMCI  = first_flag_enum_LP64  + num_flags_LP64;
const int first_flag_enum_C1     = first_flag_enum_JVMCI + num_flags_JVMCI;
const int first_flag_enum_C2     = first_flag_enum_C1    + num_flags_C1;
const int first_flag_enum_ARCH   = first_flag_enum_C2    + num_flags_C2;
const int first_flag_enum_other  = first_flag_enum_ARCH  + num_flags_ARCH;

static constexpr inline int flag_group(int flag_enum) {
  if (flag_enum < first_flag_enum_JVMCI) return JVMFlag::KIND_LP64_PRODUCT;
  if (flag_enum < first_flag_enum_C1)    return JVMFlag::KIND_JVMCI;
  if (flag_enum < first_flag_enum_C2)    return JVMFlag::KIND_C1;
  if (flag_enum < first_flag_enum_ARCH)  return JVMFlag::KIND_C2;
  if (flag_enum < first_flag_enum_other) return JVMFlag::KIND_ARCH;

  return 0;
}

Handling of types

Same as before, just fewer cases (old version here)

Code Block

// Interface macros
#define DECLARE_PRODUCT_FLAG(type, name, value, ...)      extern "C" type name;
#define DECLARE_PD_PRODUCT_FLAG(type, name, ...)          extern "C" type name;
#ifdef PRODUCT
#define DECLARE_DEVELOPER_FLAG(type, name, value, ...)    const type name = value;
#define DECLARE_PD_DEVELOPER_FLAG(type, name, ...)        const type name = pd_##name;
#define DECLARE_NOTPRODUCT_FLAG(type, name, value, ...)   const type name = value;
#else
#define DECLARE_DEVELOPER_FLAG(type, name, value, ...)    extern "C" type name;
#define DECLARE_PD_DEVELOPER_FLAG(type, name, ...)        extern "C" type name;
#define DECLARE_NOTPRODUCT_FLAG(type, name, value, ...)   extern "C" type name;
#endif // PRODUCT

ALL_FLAGS(DECLARE_DEVELOPER_FLAG,
          DECLARE_PD_DEVELOPER_FLAG,
          DECLARE_PRODUCT_FLAG,
          DECLARE_PD_PRODUCT_FLAG,
          DECLARE_NOTPRODUCT_FLAG,
          IGNORE_RANGE,
          IGNORE_CONSTRAINT)

Range and Constraint Checking

The old code has 2 problems

Builds list of range/constraint checking objects at VM start-up (lots of code and slow start)
Range/constraint checking needs linear search (further slows down start-up)

The new design (see here for webrev):

Builds the checker objects (JVMFlagLimit) at build-time using constexpr.
JVMFlagLimit objects are indexed by each flag's enum (or NULL if no limit exists), so it's O(1) time.

Implementation of JVMFlagLimit

The range/constraint information for a flag of type T is described by a JVMTypedFlagLimit<T>:

Code Block

class JVMFlagLimit {
  enum {
    HAS_RANGE = 1,
    HAS_CONSTRAINT = 2
  };

  short _constraint_func;   
  char  _phase;
  char  _kind; ...};

template <typename T>
class JVMTypedFlagLimit : public JVMFlagLimit {
  const T _min;        
  const T _max; ...};

Each flag is given a unique enum that starts from 0 to NUM_JVMFlagsEnum-1. We use this enum to find the JVMTypedFlagLimit<T> of this flag from an array:

Code Block

static constexpr const JVMFlagLimit* const flagLimitTable[1 + NUM_JVMFlagsEnum] = { .... }
const JVMFlagLimit* const* JVMFlagLimit::flagLimits = &flagLimitTable[1]; // excludes dummy

/* E.g., to get the limit of this flag:
  product(intx, ContendedPaddingWidth, 128,                                 \
          "How many bytes to pad the fields/classes marked @Contended with")\
          range(0, 8192)                                                    \
          constraint(ContendedPaddingWidthConstraintFunc,AfterErgo)         \
*/
const JVMTypedFlagLimit<intx>* limit = JVMFlagLimit::flagLimits[Flag_ContendedPaddingWidth_Enum];

// We will see these fields:
// limit->_constraint_func   ==> constraint_enum_ContendedPaddingWidthConstraintFunc  (more on this below)
// limit->_phase             ==> AfterErgo
// limit->_kind              ==> HAS_RANGE | HAS_CONSTRAINT
// limit->_min               ==> 0
// limit->_max               ==> 8192

Most flags have neither range nor constraint. For those flags, we want its flagLimits[Flag_flagname_Enum] to be NULL.

To do this, we first define a JVMTypedFlagLimit<T> variable for each flag (including the ones that don't have range/constraint). It's done by this macro:

Code Block

//           macro body starts here -------------------+
//                                                     |
//                                                     v
#define FLAG_LIMIT_DEFINE(      type, name, ...)       ); constexpr JVMTypedFlagLimit<type> limit_##name(0
#define FLAG_LIMIT_DEFINE_DUMMY(type, name, ...)       ); constexpr DummyLimit nolimit_##name(0
#define FLAG_LIMIT_PTR(         type, name, ...)       ), LimitGetter<type>::get_limit(&limit_##name, 0
#define FLAG_LIMIT_PTR_NONE(    type, name, ...)       ), LimitGetter<type>::no_limit(0
#define APPLY_FLAG_RANGE(...)                          , __VA_ARGS__
#define APPLY_FLAG_CONSTRAINT(func, phase)             , next_two_args_are_constraint, (short)CONSTRAINT_ENUM(func), int(JVMFlagConstraint::phase)

constexpr JVMTypedFlagLimit<int> limit_dummy
(
#ifdef PRODUCT
 ALL_FLAGS(FLAG_LIMIT_DEFINE_DUMMY,
           FLAG_LIMIT_DEFINE_DUMMY,
           FLAG_LIMIT_DEFINE,
           FLAG_LIMIT_DEFINE,
           FLAG_LIMIT_DEFINE_DUMMY,
           APPLY_FLAG_RANGE,
           APPLY_FLAG_CONSTRAINT)
#else
 ALL_FLAGS(FLAG_LIMIT_DEFINE,
           FLAG_LIMIT_DEFINE,
           FLAG_LIMIT_DEFINE,
           FLAG_LIMIT_DEFINE,
           FLAG_LIMIT_DEFINE,
           APPLY_FLAG_RANGE,
           APPLY_FLAG_CONSTRAINT)
#endif
);

To understand how the macros work, it's best to compile jvmFlagLimit.c with gcc -save-temps. and look at the generated jvmFlagLimit.ii with the macros expanded. Here's an example:

Code Block

// code excerpt prettified manually
constexpr JVMTypedFlagLimit<int>  limit_dummy();
constexpr JVMTypedFlagLimit<bool> limit_UseCompressedOops(0);
....
constexpr JVMTypedFlagLimit<intx> limit_ObjectAlignmentInBytes(0, 8, 256,
             next_two_args_are_constraint,
            (short)constraint_enum_ObjectAlignmentInBytesConstraintFunc, int(JVMFlagConstraint::AtParse));
....
constexpr JVMTypedFlagLimit<intx> limit_JVMCIThreads(0, 1, max_jint);

We use overloaded constructors to fill out the necessarily fields of the JVMTypedFlagLimit<T> variables. Note that the min/max parameters, as well as the constraint_func/phase parameters, can both be integer values. For disambiguation, we pass in a dummy next_two_args_are_constraint for the constraint_func/phase.

We also need to always pass in an initial dummy 0 parameter so that the macros can safely add a comma before passing the min/max or constraint_func/phase.

These dummy parameters are evaluated at compile time so they can be safely optimized away.

The next step is to fill out the flagLimitTable[] array:

Code Block

static constexpr const JVMFlagLimit* const flagLimitTable[1 + NUM_JVMFlagsEnum] = {
  // Because FLAG_LIMIT_PTR must start with an "),", we have to place a dummy element here.
  LimitGetter<int>::get_limit(NULL, 0

#ifdef PRODUCT
  ALL_FLAGS(FLAG_LIMIT_PTR_NONE,
            FLAG_LIMIT_PTR_NONE,
            FLAG_LIMIT_PTR,
            FLAG_LIMIT_PTR,
            FLAG_LIMIT_PTR_NONE,
            APPLY_FLAG_RANGE,
            APPLY_FLAG_CONSTRAINT)
#else
  ALL_FLAGS(FLAG_LIMIT_PTR,
            FLAG_LIMIT_PTR,
            FLAG_LIMIT_PTR,
            FLAG_LIMIT_PTR,
            FLAG_LIMIT_PTR,
            APPLY_FLAG_RANGE,
            APPLY_FLAG_CONSTRAINT)
#endif
  )
};

For the flags shown in the example above, the following code is generated by the macros:

Code Block

static constexpr const JVMFlagLimit* const flagLimitTable[1 + NUM_JVMFlagsEnum] = {
  LimitGetter<int>::get_limit(NULL, 0),
  LimitGetter<bool>::get_limit(&limit_UseCompressedOops, 0),
  ....
  LimitGetter<intx>::get_limit(&limit_ObjectAlignmentInBytes, 0,
             8, 256,
             next_two_args_are_constraint,
            (short)constraint_enum_ObjectAlignmentInBytesConstraintFunc, int(JVMFlagConstraint::AtParse)),
  ....
  LimitGetter<intx>::get_limit(&limit_JVMCIThreads, 0, 1, max_jint),

If a flag has neither range nor constraint, we will call the LimitGetter<T>::get_limit() function with two parameters, which returns NULL.
If a flag has range and/or constraint, we will call a LimitGetter<T>::get_limit() function with more than two parameters. These functions would return the same JVMTypedFlagLimit<T> as passed in.

As a result, we will end up with this in the final output of the C++ compiler:

Code Block

static constexpr const JVMFlagLimit* const flagLimitTable[1 + NUM_JVMFlagsEnum] = {
  NULL, // dummy
  NULL, // UseCompressedOops has no range/constraint
  ....
  &limit_ObjectAlignmentInBytes
  ....
  &limit_JVMCIThreads

What happens to unreferenced flag limits

All the flag limits are defined with the constexpr keyword, which has internal linkage by default. If a flag has no range/constraint, its flag limit (e.g., limit_UseCompressedOops in the example above) will be unused, and will be eliminated by the C++ compiler from the object file. So we don't waste any space.

Why use enums for constraint_func

This is a small optimization: There are 120 flags that use a constraint function, but there are only 65 total constraint functions. By using a short index, we can:

Reduce the size of the JVMFlagLimit object (the 2 bytes fits in unused space)
Reduce the number of pointers relocated when libjvm.so is dynamically loaded (from 120 to 65).

The savings are not a big deal, but since we can do it, why not?

Is constexpr really working?

A good way to check is to build the .o with something like "gcc -save-temps" and look at the .s file. Here's an example of jvmFlagLimit.s. You can see that the content of the flagLimitTable is also completely determined at build time (it's in the "ro" section):

Code Block

	.section	.data.rel.ro.local,"aw"
	.align 32
	.type	_ZL14flagLimitTable, @object
	.size	_ZL14flagLimitTable, 9728
_ZL14flagLimitTable:
	.quad	0
	.quad	0
	.quad	0
	.quad	_ZL28limit_ObjectAlignmentInBytes
	.quad	0
	.quad	0
	.quad	0
	.quad	0
	.quad	0
	.quad	0
	.quad	0
	.quad	_ZL18limit_JVMCIThreads
	.quad	_ZL22limit_JVMCIHostThreads
    ....

Child pages

Versions Compared

Old Version 1

New Version Current

Key

Goals

Non Goals

Requirements for Command-line Flags

Handling of Groups:

Handling of types

Range and Constraint Checking

Implementation of JVMFlagLimit

What happens to unreferenced flag limits

Why use enums for constraint_func

Is constexpr really working?

Child pages

Page History

Versions Compared

Old Version 1

New Version Current

Key

Goals

Non Goals

Requirements for Command-line Flags

Handling of Groups:

Handling of types

Range and Constraint Checking

Implementation of JVMFlagLimit

What happens to unreferenced flag limits

Why use enums for constraint_func

Is constexpr really working?