protocolbuffers/protobuf

Evaluate Profile-Guided Optimization (PGO)

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#13,248 opened on Jul 8, 2023

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 (1 comment) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)C++ (16,128 forks)batch import
enhancementhelp wanted

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Description

Hi!

Recently I checked Profile-Guided Optimization (PGO) improvements on multiple projects. The results are here.

Since PGO showed measurable improvements in compiler-like loads (Clang, Clangd, clang-format, GCC, Rustc, etc.) I think it could be useful to check PGO on Protobuf compiler (protoc) as well.

We need to perform PGO benchmarks on protoc. And if it shows improvements - add a note about possible improvements protoc performance with PGO. Providing an easier way (e.g. a build option) to build scripts with PGO can be useful for the end-users too. Improving protoc performance can help with faster Protobuf compilation time (and that's nice to have e.g. on CI).

Contributor guide

Research direction
Benchmark protoc with and without PGO using a representative workload. Compare build time and runtime performance. If improvement is observed, document the findings and create a build option to enable PGO.
Tech stack
cpp
Domain
backend
Issue type
Performance
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
Half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Mostly clear
Prerequisites
Git
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
40