On Tue, Jul 7, 2026 at 9:55 AM Michal Jireš <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> On Fri Jul 3, 2026 at 4:47 PM CEST, Lewis Hyatt <[email protected]> wrote:
> > On Thu, Jul 02, 2026 at 08:20:19AM -0400, Lewis Hyatt wrote:
> >> On Wed, Jul 1, 2026 at 2:54 PM Michal Jireš <[email protected]> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > On Wed Jul 1, 2026 at 2:18 PM CEST, Lewis Hyatt <[email protected]> wrote:
> >> > > On Tue, Jun 30, 2026 at 2:38 PM Michal Jireš <[email protected]> wrote:
> >> > >>
> >> > >>
> >> > >> On Tue Jun 30, 2026 at 1:01 PM CEST, Lewis Hyatt <[email protected]> 
> >> > >> wrote:
> >> > >> > On Tue, Jun 30, 2026 at 3:52 AM Richard Biener
> >> > >> > <[email protected]> wrote:
> >> > >> >>
> >> > >> >> On Tue, Jun 30, 2026 at 5:03 AM Lewis Hyatt <[email protected]> 
> >> > >> >> wrote:
> >> > >> >> >
> >> > >> >> > On Wed, Apr 22, 2026 at 04:29:41PM +0200, Richard Biener wrote:
> >> > >> >> > > On Thu, Jan 1, 2026 at 6:03 PM Lewis Hyatt <[email protected]> 
> >> > >> >> > > wrote:
> >> > >> >> > > >
> >> > >> >> > > > After the previous changes in this series, the LTO front end 
> >> > >> >> > > > always has an
> >> > >> >> > > > appropriate linemap structure for interpreting diagnostic 
> >> > >> >> > > > pragmas, so it is
> >> > >> >> > > > straightforward to implement them, as is done here.
> >> > >> >> > > >
> >> > >> >> > > > The pragmas are streamed out in each linemap section; since 
> >> > >> >> > > > all locations
> >> > >> >> > > > from a given linemap section will be contiguous in the 
> >> > >> >> > > > reconstructed
> >> > >> >> > > > linemap, they are automatically ordered properly for the 
> >> > >> >> > > > existing diagnostic
> >> > >> >> > > > pragma infrastructure to work as-is.
> >> > >> >> > > >
> >> > >> >> > > > One wrinkle is that a single function may have been streamed 
> >> > >> >> > > > out in multiple
> >> > >> >> > > > sections. (For example, an inline function will be streamed 
> >> > >> >> > > > out in all
> >> > >> >> > > > partitions that need it.) In this case, when merging them, 
> >> > >> >> > > > LTO keeps only
> >> > >> >> > > > one of the sections, as directed by the linker resolution, 
> >> > >> >> > > > so the diagnostic
> >> > >> >> > > > pragmas that will be in force (in case they were not the 
> >> > >> >> > > > same for the
> >> > >> >> > > > different translation units) will be whichever were 
> >> > >> >> > > > applicable to the
> >> > >> >> > > > section LTO decided to keep.
> >> > >> >> > >
> >> > >> >> > > LGTM if the rest of the series is approved.
> >> > >> >> > >
> >> > >> >> > > Thanks,
> >> > >> >> > > Richard.
> >> > >> >> > >
> >> > >> >> >
> >> > >> >> > Hi Richard-
> >> > >> >> >
> >> > >> >> > Firstly, thank you again for your time in reviewing these 
> >> > >> >> > patches. I thought
> >> > >> >> > everything was finally across the finish line, but as I was 
> >> > >> >> > reviewing the
> >> > >> >> > patches one more time before pushing them, I realized there is 
> >> > >> >> > one small
> >> > >> >> > problem with the new approach. Could I please ask you to look at 
> >> > >> >> > one more
> >> > >> >> > patch which addresses that? I attached it here as an incremental 
> >> > >> >> > change to
> >> > >> >> > the rest of the series, but I would propose to squash it into 
> >> > >> >> > the other
> >> > >> >> > patches before pushing.
> >> > >> >> >
> >> > >> >> > What I missed was that the LTO front end has a mode of operation 
> >> > >> >> > for
> >> > >> >> > incremental linking. I had tested that my new approach works 
> >> > >> >> > fine with
> >> > >> >> > "ld -r" (provided that -frandom-seed is not used to remove 
> >> > >> >> > uniqueness from
> >> > >> >> > the section names), but the LTO front end version of that (which 
> >> > >> >> > you get
> >> > >> >> > when using, say, "gcc -r -flto") does more than just copy the 
> >> > >> >> > sections; it
> >> > >> >> > actually reads all the decls and then re-outputs a new object 
> >> > >> >> > file with a
> >> > >> >> > new identifier, which contains a new decls section plus copies 
> >> > >> >> > of the
> >> > >> >> > function and constructor sections. This means the linemap 
> >> > >> >> > sections also need
> >> > >> >> > to get copied into the output file, and also, it means that an 
> >> > >> >> > input file to
> >> > >> >> > the LTO front end could possibly contain more than one linemap, 
> >> > >> >> > which was
> >> > >> >> > not something I had considered. (I had anticipated that inputs 
> >> > >> >> > contained
> >> > >> >> > just one linemap, except that in LTRANS mode, there would also 
> >> > >> >> > be one file
> >> > >> >> > containing all necessary linemaps copied during WPA).
> >> > >> >>
> >> > >> >> So I think there's two things now, the older 
> >> > >> >> -flto-linker-output=rel and
> >> > >> >> the newer -flto-incremental.
> >> > >> >>
> >> > >> >> That said, I'm not sure about the default behavior of -flto -r and 
> >> > >> >> would
> >> > >> >> suggest to add an explicit -flto-linker-output=rel here to be 
> >> > >> >> unambiguous.
> >> > >> >> Did you try that with -ffat-lto-objects as well?
> >> > >> >>
> >> > >> >
> >> > >> > Thanks, what I have understood is:
> >> > >> >
> >> > >> >     -flto-incremental is unrelated to incremental linking per se,
> >> > >> > that's about using a cache directory to store inputs + outputs of
> >> > >> > WPA+LTRANS, to avoid rerunning the LTRANS step if the partition did
> >> > >> > not change. I made sure that this still works the same as before my
> >> > >> > patches, that was one motivation for putting all the linemaps into
> >> > >> > their own file after WPA, to make sure a change in one partition
> >> > >> > doesn't needlessly invalidate the cache for a different one.
> >> > >>
> >> > >> Do I understand correctly, that LTRANS cache won't notice when 
> >> > >> location
> >> > >> changes while its ID remains the same?
> >> > >>
> >> > >> In LTRANS, do we use locations purely for diagnostics? = locations
> >> > >> cannot influnce the binary output?
> >> > >> And if yes, do we have it documented somewhere that locations cannot 
> >> > >> be
> >> > >> used in LTRANS for anything other that diagnostics?
> >> > >>
> >> > >
> >> > > A location can't really change without affecting the streamed object
> >> > > file and invalidating the cache. What ends up streamed out (and
> >> > > affecting the SHA1) is the map ID and the location_t offset within the
> >> > > map, plus any attached tree and discriminator. Any change to the line
> >> > > number or column number will either change the location_t or add a new
> >> > > map and change all map IDs.
> >> > >
> >> >
> >> > Physical line and column cannot change, because they are directly
> >> > represented by the location offset.
> >> >
> >> > But what happens with filename, to_line..?
> >> > Can't I change #include to different file with identical contents?
> >>
> >> Yes. In that specific case it's hard to see how recompilation would be
> >> necessary, but the point stands.
> >>
> >> > Or change #line?
> >>
> >> The addition of the #line directive would alter the linemap structure
> >> and affect the subsequent map IDs most likely, but not always.
> >> Thinking about it some more, if for instance you added a blank line
> >> with enough columns of spaces at the start of the file, it would go
> >> into its own map, which would not be streamed out since nothing refers
> >> to it, and that would change line numbering without changing the
> >> streamed out location IDs.
> >>
> >> > Or if I am missing something, more generally: If the relevant contents
> >> > of the linemap-file cannot change without affecting the cached file,
> >> > isn't it redundant and we do not need it? If it is needed, it must be
> >> > able to contain something that is not fully captured by the cached file,
> >> > and must not be used for the binary output.
> >>
> >> As you alluded to originally, it's really there for generating
> >> diagnostics, and for implementing #pragma GCC diagnostic. I understand
> >> you're asking if there can be certainty that it's impossible to make a
> >> change which does affect code generation, but which does not
> >> invalidate the cache because it changes the linemap sections only. If
> >> that could happen, then it would be a problem for -flto-incremental.
> >> It's a good point, and I agree with you that I have implicitly assumed
> >> this can't happen.
> >> I feel like it really shouldn't be an issue in practice, but I don't
> >> have a more convincing answer than that. I'm going to take a look and
> >> see if I can either demonstrate that it's fine, or else, adjust the
> >> location streaming so that something in the cached file will reflect
> >> it if the linemap changes in this way. Thanks!
> >>
> >
> > The below patch (incremental to the others) resolves this issue by
> > outputting a hash code identifying each line map along with the location ID
> > when streaming out the location. I used a 32-bit hash (as provided by
> > inchash::hash) to minimize the space overhead; it seems like this should be
> > sufficient but it could be swapped for something with more bits as
> > well. This increases the size of the streamed LTO by approximately 1.5%,
> > here for instance is the size of the LTRANS inputs when compiling cc1plus:
> >
> > master:                     723 MB
> > patch v1 (sent previously): 705 MB
> > patch v2 (this one):        716 MB
> >
> > It's still smaller than the current location streaming approach, seems
> > worth it to me... What do you think? Thanks...
> >
> > -Lewis
>
> Ok, this is looks reasonable.
>
> As possible (future) improvement, would it not be better to output one hash
> per symtab_node?
> Not sure whether locations can appear somewhere without being an
> undividable part of symtab_node/toplevel_node.
>

During WPA, function sections get copied from the input to the output
files without being read, so I thought it might be safer to guarantee
each section is individually OK on its own as well. But I'm happy to
look into this further sometime. Perhaps also a single SHA1 hash of
all relevant maps for each of the sections containing locations would
be more efficient too.

Thank you both for reviewing these. I am planning to commit the
patches this weekend absent any other comments.

-Lewis

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