Feature #20684
Updated by etienne (Étienne Barrié) 3 months ago
# Context
Methods that take empty arrays or empty hashes as default values allocate a new object each time the method is called without the argument. Often they don't mutate the parameter. To prevent an allocation, in performance critical sections, a constant is defined that holds a frozen hash or array, and the constant is defined as the default value for the parameter.
Here are some examples:
Rails: https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/607d61e884237c223c24c6f47efa0b561dd8b637/activerecord/lib/active_record/relation/query_methods.rb#L159-L160
Roda: https://github.com/jeremyevans/roda/blob/102926a02dcabc9a31674e3cf98f049139c31492/lib/roda/plugins.rb#L9-L10
dry-rb: https://github.com/dry-rb/dry-container/blob/1ee41bb109455d06bf22ebcbd94b050cc4773733/lib/dry/container/mixin.rb#L68C5-L68C15
and many other gems: https://gist.github.com/casperisfine/47f22243d4ad203855256ef5bfae7979
Additionally when defining a frozen literal constant, we're currently inefficient because we store the literal in the bytecode, we dup it just to freeze it again. It doesn't amount to much but would be nice to avoid.
# Proposal
Introduce 2 new optimized instructions `opt_ary_freeze` and `opt_hash_freeze` that behave like `opt_str_freeze` for their respective types. If the freeze method hasn't been redefined, they simply push the frozen literal value on the stack. Like for `opt_str_freeze`, these instructions are added by the peephole optimizer when applicable.
In the specific case of empty array and empty hash, we use a pre-allocated global empty frozen object to avoid retaining a distinct empty object each time.
This will allow code like this: https://github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/566f2eb501d94d4047a9aad4af0d74c6a96f34a9/lib/rubygems/resolver/api_set/gem_parser.rb to be shortened and simplified like this:
```diff
diff --git i/lib/rubygems/resolver/api_set/gem_parser.rb w/lib/rubygems/resolver/api_set/gem_parser.rb
index 643b857107..34146fd426 100644
--- i/lib/rubygems/resolver/api_set/gem_parser.rb
+++ w/lib/rubygems/resolver/api_set/gem_parser.rb
@@ -1,15 +1,12 @@
# frozen_string_literal: true
class Gem::Resolver::APISet::GemParser
- EMPTY_ARRAY = [].freeze
- private_constant :EMPTY_ARRAY
-
def parse(line)
version_and_platform, rest = line.split(" ", 2)
version, platform = version_and_platform.split("-", 2)
dependencies, requirements = rest.split("|", 2).map! {|s| s.split(",") } if rest
- dependencies = dependencies ? dependencies.map! {|d| parse_dependency(d) } : EMPTY_ARRAY
- requirements = requirements ? requirements.map! {|d| parse_dependency(d) } : EMPTY_ARRAY
+ dependencies = dependencies ? dependencies.map! {|d| parse_dependency(d) } : [].freeze
+ requirements = requirements ? requirements.map! {|d| parse_dependency(d) } : [].freeze
[version, platform, dependencies, requirements]
end
```
Overall it's a minor optimization but also a very simple patch and makes code nicer.
PR: https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/11406 PR pending.