In some cases we've been replacing heap-allocated gdb_byte buffers
managed with xmalloc/make_cleanup(xfree) with gdb::vector<gdb_byte>.
That usually pessimizes the code a little bit because std::vector
value-initializes elements (which for gdb_byte means
zero-initialization), while if you're creating a temporary buffer,
you're most certaintly going to fill it in with some data. An
alternative is to use
unique_ptr<gdb_byte[]> buf (new gdb_byte[size]);
but it looks like that's not very popular.
Recently, a use of obstacks in dwarf2read.c was replaced with
std::vector<gdb_byte> and that as well introduced a pessimization for
always memsetting the buffer when it's garanteed that the zeros will
be overwritten immediately. (see dwarf2read.c change in this patch to
find it.)
So here's a different take at addressing this issue "by design":
#1 - Introduce default_init_allocator<T>
I.e., a custom allocator that does default construction using default
initialization, meaning, no more zero initialization. That's the
default_init_allocation<T> class added in this patch.
See "Notes" at
<http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/container/vector/resize>.
#2 - Introduce def_vector<T>
I.e., a convenience typedef, because typing the allocator is annoying:
using def_vector<T> = std::vector<T, gdb::default_init_allocator<T>>;
#3 - Introduce byte_vector
Because gdb_byte vectors will be the common thing, add a convenience
"byte_vector" typedef:
using byte_vector = def_vector<gdb_byte>;
which is really the same as:
std::vector<gdb_byte, gdb::default_init_allocator<gdb_byte>>;
The intent then is to make "gdb::byte_vector" be the go-to for dynamic
byte buffers. So the less friction, the better.
#4 - Adjust current code to use it.
To set the example going forward. Replace std::vector uses and also
unique_ptr<byte[]> uses.
One nice thing is that with this allocator, for changes like these:
-std::unique_ptr<byte[]> buf (new gdb_byte[some_size]);
+gdb::byte_vector buf (some_size);
fill_with_data (buf.data (), buf.size ());
the generated code is the exact same as before. I.e., the compiler
de-structures the vector and gets rid of the unused "reserved vs size"
related fields.
The other nice thing is that it's easier to write
gdb::byte_vector buf (size);
than
std::unique_ptr<gdb_byte[]> buf (new gdb_byte[size]);
or even (C++14):
auto buf = std::make_unique<gdb_byte[]> (size); //
zero-initializes...
#5 - Suggest s/std::vector<gdb_byte>/gdb::byte_vector/ going forward.
Note that this patch actually fixes a couple of bugs where the current
code is incorrectly using "std::vector::reserve(new_size)" and then
accessing the vector's internal buffer beyond that vector's size: see
dwarf2loc.c and charset.c. That's undefined behavior and may trigger
debug mode assertion failures. With default_init_allocator,
"resize()" behaves like "reserve()" performance wise, in that it
leaves new elements with unspecified values, but, it does that safely
without triggering undefined behavior.