[CMake] Add perf profiling for clang-bolt

[Amir]

Summary

perf provides a faster and easier way to collect BOLT profile. Generalize CMake
handling of applying BOLT to Clang to allow using perf with or without branch
stacks (LBR) for profile collection. This also enables Clang-BOLT for AArch64
platforms with perf profiling enabled.

[Amir]

Fix dependence between bolt-profile and clang (either instrumented or not)

[Amir]

Fixed COMPILER_LAUNCHER, perf2bolt invocation

[Amir]

Avoid using perf2bolt, provide perf.data directly

[Amir]

Fix instrumentation and no-LBR modes

[Amir]

Documentation

[phosek]

Could we add the perf related logic to https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/blob/ba3d808feedaa7f31750d8bc02754e15b372c868/clang/utils/perf-training/perf-helper.py? I think that's a better place since we eventually want to replace the use of ExternalProject_Add with https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/tree/main/clang/utils/perf-training so we should try to keep the amount of logic in CMake down to minimum.

[Amir]

In D139496#3986435, @phosek wrote:

Could we add the perf related logic to https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/blob/ba3d808feedaa7f31750d8bc02754e15b372c868/clang/utils/perf-training/perf-helper.py? I think that's a better place since we eventually want to replace the use of ExternalProject_Add with https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/tree/main/clang/utils/perf-training so we should try to keep the amount of logic in CMake down to minimum.

Sure! I didn't realize perf-helper had dtrace functionality in place. Adding Linux perf functions would be logical.

[Amir]

Generalize to -DCLANG_BOLT={Instrument,perf,LBR}, update documentation

[Amir]

@phosek – this diff adds support for AArch64 via Linux perf. I believe it makes sense to add this functionality first in an incremental fashion and refactor it later, moving parts into perf-training script. What do you think? (And thank you for reviewing this stuff!)

[Amir]

Typo

[Amir]

Convert perf profile using perf2bolt (aggregate-only mode)

[Amir]

Abandon in favor of D143553

clang/CMakeLists.txt

foreach(target ${CLANG_BOOTSTRAP_TARGETS})
     if(target MATCHES "^stage[0-9]*")
       add_custom_target(${target} DEPENDS ${NEXT_CLANG_STAGE}-${target})
     endif()
 
     ExternalProject_Add_StepTargets(${NEXT_CLANG_STAGE} ${target})
   endforeach()
 endif()
 
-if (CLANG_BOLT_INSTRUMENT AND NOT LLVM_BUILD_INSTRUMENTED)
+if (CLANG_BOLT AND NOT LLVM_BUILD_INSTRUMENTED)
   set(CLANG_PATH ${LLVM_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_INTDIR}/clang)
   set(CLANGXX_PATH ${CLANG_PATH}++)
-  set(CLANG_INSTRUMENTED ${CLANG_PATH}-bolt.inst)
-  set(CLANGXX_INSTRUMENTED ${CLANGXX_PATH}-bolt.inst)
   set(CLANG_OPTIMIZED ${CLANG_PATH}-bolt)
   set(CLANGXX_OPTIMIZED ${CLANGXX_PATH}-bolt)
 
+  string(TOUPPER "${CLANG_BOLT}" uppercase_CLANG_BOLT)
+  if (uppercase_CLANG_BOLT STREQUAL "INSTRUMENT")
+    set(CLANG_INSTRUMENTED ${CLANG_PATH}-bolt.inst)
+    set(CLANGXX_INSTRUMENTED ${CLANGXX_PATH}-bolt.inst)
+
     # Instrument clang with BOLT
     add_custom_target(clang-instrumented
       DEPENDS ${CLANG_INSTRUMENTED}
     )
     add_custom_command(OUTPUT ${CLANG_INSTRUMENTED}
       DEPENDS clang llvm-bolt
       COMMAND llvm-bolt ${CLANG_PATH} -o ${CLANG_INSTRUMENTED}
         -instrument --instrumentation-file-append-pid
         --instrumentation-file=${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/prof.fdata
+      COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E create_symlink
+        ${CLANG_INSTRUMENTED}
+        ${CLANGXX_INSTRUMENTED}
       COMMENT "Instrumenting clang binary with BOLT"
       VERBATIM
     )
+  endif()
 
-  # Make a symlink from clang-bolt.inst to clang++-bolt.inst
-  add_custom_target(clang++-instrumented
-    DEPENDS ${CLANGXX_INSTRUMENTED}
+  # Set variables for profile collection step
+  if (uppercase_CLANG_BOLT STREQUAL "INSTRUMENT")
+    set(CLANG_BOLT_CC ${CLANG_INSTRUMENTED})
+    set(CLANG_BOLT_CXX ${CLANGXX_INSTRUMENTED})
+  else()
+    set(CLANG_BOLT_CC ${CLANG_PATH})
+    set(CLANG_BOLT_CXX ${CLANGXX_PATH})
+
+    # Perf sampling:
+    # - use maximum frequency to reduce training time
+    # - use cycle events instead of branches - empirically found to produce
+    #   better results
+    # - if available, enable taken branch stack/LBR sampling
+    #   (-j/--branch-filter)
+    set(PERF_CMDLINE
+      perf record --event=cycles:u
+      --output=${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/prof.data
+      --freq=max
     )
-  add_custom_command(OUTPUT ${CLANGXX_INSTRUMENTED}
-    DEPENDS clang-instrumented
-    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E create_symlink
-      ${CLANG_INSTRUMENTED}
-      ${CLANGXX_INSTRUMENTED}
-    COMMENT "Creating symlink from BOLT instrumented clang to clang++"
-    VERBATIM
+    if (uppercase_CLANG_BOLT STREQUAL "LBR")
+      list(APPEND PERF_CMDLINE --branch-filter=any,u)
+    endif()
+    list(APPEND PERF_CMDLINE --)
+  endif()
+
+  # Build specified targets to collect the profile
+  add_custom_target(bolt-profile-deps)
+  set(CLANG_BOLT_PROFILE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/prof.fdata)
+  if (uppercase_CLANG_BOLT STREQUAL "INSTRUMENT")
+    add_dependencies(bolt-profile-deps clang-instrumented)
+  else()
+    add_dependencies(bolt-profile-deps clang)
+  endif()
+  set(STAMP_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/bolt-clang-stamps/)
+  set(BINARY_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/bolt-clang-bins/)
+  add_custom_target(bolt-clang-clear
+    DEPENDS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/bolt-clang-cleared
+    )
+  add_custom_command(
+    OUTPUT ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/bolt-clang-cleared
+    DEPENDS bolt-profile-deps
+    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E remove_directory ${BINARY_DIR}
+    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E make_directory ${BINARY_DIR}
+    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E remove_directory ${STAMP_DIR}
+    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E make_directory ${STAMP_DIR}
+    COMMENT "Clobberring bolt-clang build and stamp directories"
     )
 
-  # Build specified targets with instrumented Clang to collect the profile
-  set(STAMP_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/bolt-instrumented-clang-stamps/)
-  set(BINARY_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/bolt-instrumented-clang-bins/)
   set(build_configuration "$<CONFIG>")
   include(ExternalProject)
-  ExternalProject_Add(bolt-instrumentation-profile
-    DEPENDS clang++-instrumented
-    PREFIX bolt-instrumentation-profile
+  ExternalProject_Add(bolt-profile
+    DEPENDS bolt-profile-deps
+    PREFIX bolt-profile
     SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}
     STAMP_DIR ${STAMP_DIR}
     BINARY_DIR ${BINARY_DIR}
     EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL 1
     CMAKE_ARGS
-                ${CLANG_BOLT_INSTRUMENT_EXTRA_CMAKE_FLAGS}
+                ${CLANG_BOLT_EXTRA_CMAKE_FLAGS}
                 # We shouldn't need to set this here, but INSTALL_DIR doesn't
                 # seem to work, so instead I'm passing this through
                 -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}
-                -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=${CLANG_INSTRUMENTED}
-                -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=${CLANGXX_INSTRUMENTED}
-                -DCMAKE_ASM_COMPILER=${CLANG_INSTRUMENTED}
+                -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=${CLANG_BOLT_CC}
+                -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=${CLANG_BOLT_CXX}
+                -DCMAKE_ASM_COMPILER=${CLANG_BOLT_CC}
                 -DCMAKE_ASM_COMPILER_ID=Clang
-                -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
-                -DLLVM_ENABLE_PROJECTS=${CLANG_BOLT_INSTRUMENT_PROJECTS}
+                -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}
+                -DLLVM_ENABLE_PROJECTS=${CLANG_BOLT_PROJECTS}
                 -DLLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD=${LLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD}
-    BUILD_COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} --build ${BINARY_DIR}
+    BUILD_COMMAND ${PERF_CMDLINE} ${CMAKE_COMMAND} --build ${BINARY_DIR}
                                    --config ${build_configuration}
-                                   --target ${CLANG_BOLT_INSTRUMENT_TARGETS}
+                                   --target ${CLANG_BOLT_TARGETS}
     INSTALL_COMMAND ""
     STEP_TARGETS configure build
     USES_TERMINAL_CONFIGURE 1
     USES_TERMINAL_BUILD 1
     USES_TERMINAL_INSTALL 1
   )
 
-  # Merge profiles into one using merge-fdata
+  # Pass extra flag in no-LBR mode
+  if (uppercase_CLANG_BOLT STREQUAL "PERF")
+    set(BOLT_NO_LBR "-nl")
+  endif()
   add_custom_target(clang-bolt-profile
-    DEPENDS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/prof.fdata
+    DEPENDS ${CLANG_BOLT_PROFILE}
   )
-  add_custom_command(OUTPUT ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/prof.fdata
-    DEPENDS merge-fdata bolt-instrumentation-profile-build
+  if (uppercase_CLANG_BOLT STREQUAL "INSTRUMENT")
+    # Merge profiles into one using merge-fdata
+    add_custom_command(OUTPUT ${CLANG_BOLT_PROFILE}
+      DEPENDS bolt-profile-build merge-fdata
       WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
       COMMAND ${Python3_EXECUTABLE}
         ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/utils/perf-training/perf-helper.py merge-fdata
-      $<TARGET_FILE:merge-fdata> ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/prof.fdata
-      ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
+        $<TARGET_FILE:merge-fdata> prof.fdata .
       COMMENT "Preparing BOLT profile"
       VERBATIM
     )
+  else() # perf with or without LBR
+    # perf profile is produced by running the build, use perf2bolt to convert it to fdata
+    add_custom_command(OUTPUT ${CLANG_BOLT_PROFILE}
+      DEPENDS bolt-profile-build
+      WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
+      COMMAND llvm-bolt --aggregate-only ${CLANG_PATH}
+        -o ${CLANG_BOLT_PROFILE}
+        -p ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/prof.data
+  ${BOLT_NO_LBR}
+      COMMENT "Converting perf profile to fdata"
+      VERBATIM
+    )
+  endif()
 
   # Optimize original (pre-bolt) Clang using the collected profile
   add_custom_target(clang-bolt
     DEPENDS ${CLANG_OPTIMIZED}
   )
   add_custom_command(OUTPUT ${CLANG_OPTIMIZED}
     DEPENDS clang-bolt-profile
     COMMAND llvm-bolt ${CLANG_PATH}
       -o ${CLANG_OPTIMIZED}
-      -data ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/prof.fdata
+      -data ${CLANG_BOLT_PROFILE}
       -reorder-blocks=ext-tsp -reorder-functions=hfsort+ -split-functions
-      -split-all-cold -split-eh -dyno-stats -icf=1 -use-gnu-stack
+      -split-all-cold -split-eh -dyno-stats -icf=1 -use-gnu-stack -plt=hot
+      ${BOLT_NO_LBR}
     COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E rename ${CLANG_OPTIMIZED} ${CLANG_PATH}-${CLANG_VERSION_MAJOR}
     COMMENT "Optimizing Clang with BOLT"
     VERBATIM
   )
 endif()
 
 if (LLVM_ADD_NATIVE_VISUALIZERS_TO_SOLUTION)
   add_subdirectory(utils/ClangVisualizers)

clang/cmake/caches/BOLT.cmake

 set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE Release CACHE STRING "")
-set(CLANG_BOLT_INSTRUMENT ON CACHE BOOL "")
-set(CLANG_BOLT_INSTRUMENT_PROJECTS "llvm" CACHE STRING "")
-set(CLANG_BOLT_INSTRUMENT_TARGETS "count" CACHE STRING "")
+set(CLANG_BOLT "INSTRUMENT" CACHE STRING "Apply BOLT optimization to Clang. \
+  May be specified as Instrument or Perf or LBR to use a particular profiling \
+  mechanism.")
+
+set(CLANG_BOLT_PROJECTS "llvm" CACHE STRING "")
+string(TOUPPER "${CLANG_BOLT}" uppercase_CLANG_BOLT)
+if (uppercase_CLANG_BOLT STREQUAL "INSTRUMENT")
+  set(CLANG_BOLT_TARGETS "count" CACHE STRING "")
+else()
+  set(CLANG_BOLT_TARGETS "FileCheck" CACHE STRING "")
+endif()
 set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS "-Wl,--emit-relocs,-znow" CACHE STRING "")
-set(CLANG_BOLT_INSTRUMENT_EXTRA_CMAKE_FLAGS "" CACHE STRING "")
+set(CLANG_BOLT_EXTRA_CMAKE_FLAGS "" CACHE STRING "")
 
 set(LLVM_ENABLE_PROJECTS "bolt;clang" CACHE STRING "")
 set(LLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD Native CACHE STRING "")
-
-# Disable function splitting enabled by default in GCC8+
-if("${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID}" MATCHES "GNU")
-  set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -fno-reorder-blocks-and-partition")
-  set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -fno-reorder-blocks-and-partition")
-endif()

llvm/docs/AdvancedBuilds.rst

$ cmake -G Ninja <path to source>/llvm \
       -DPGO_INSTRUMENT_LTO=Thin
 
 Then, to build the final optimized binary, build the stage2-clang-bolt target:
 
 .. code-block:: console
 
   $ ninja stage2-clang-bolt
 
+BOLT profile
+------------
+BOLT uses the profile collected by either Linux `perf` or via BOLT's own
+instrumentation. Both modes are supported by CMake automation, with
+instrumentation being the default (`-DCLANG_BOLT=INSTRUMENT`).
+
+It's strongly recommended to use `perf` if host system supports it as it
+is a significantly faster and potentially more reliable method:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+  $ cmake <...> -DCLANG_BOLT=perf \
+      -C <path to source>/clang/cmake/caches/BOLT.cmake
+
+If the host system supports profiling branch stacks (e.g. AMD or Intel LBR
+(Last Branch Record), Armv9-A BRBE (Branch Record Buffer Extension)), it can be
+enabled with `-DCLANG_BOLT=LBR` to further improve the profile quality:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+  $ cmake <...> -DCLANG_BOLT=LBR \
+      -C <path to source>/clang/cmake/caches/BOLT.cmake
+
+The following matrix describes supported profiling methods. Note that Linux/ELF
+is the only supported platform.
+
+============ ===============================
+Architecture `-DCLANG_BOLT` value
+------------ ------------ ------ -----------
+             `Instrument` `perf` `LBR`
+============ ============ ====== ===========
+x86_64       Yes          Yes    Yes
+AArch64      No           Yes    No HW exist
+============ ============ ====== ===========
+
+Profiling variables
+-------------------
+BOLT profile is collected from building one of in-tree projects/targets with
+Clang as a workload. The following configuration options can be used to change
+the profiling build and profiling mechanism:
+
+**CLANG_BOLT**
+  Profiling mechanism to be used. Supported values: `Instrument` (default),
+  `perf` (requires OS support), `LBR` (requires hardware support).
+
+**CLANG_BOLT_PROJECTS**
+  Projects to enable in profiling build. Defaults to `llvm`.
+
+**CLANG_BOLT_TARGETS**
+  Targets to build in profiling build. Defaults to `count` in instrumentation
+  build and `FileCheck` in perf-build.
+
+**CLANG_BOLT_EXTRA_CMAKE_FLAGS**
+  Extra CMake flags to pass to profiling build at configuration time.
+
+
 3-Stage Non-Determinism
 =======================
 
 In the ancient lore of compilers non-determinism is like the multi-headed hydra.
 Whenever its head pops up, terror and chaos ensue.
 
 Historically one of the tests to verify that a compiler was deterministic would
 be a three stage build. The idea of a three stage build is you take your sources