Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors

Dave Mitchell wrote:
>1) Has anyone looked at this recently to know whether gcc does anything
>useful with it?

Yes, it does.  I'm using this facility in a module that I'm currently
writing, and I perused some of the generated assembly code to see
whether it makes a difference.  gcc tends to arrange for the unlikely
case to be taking a branch, while the likely case is to continue inline.
This is the same thing that I do when writing assembly code manually.
(amd64, gcc 4.4.5.)

>2) does anyone know whether other compilers provide similar facilities,
>and so want to contribute suitable macro defs?

It seems quite likely that other compilers implementing it would imitate
gcc's syntax for it.  Configure will pick it up in such cases.

>3) if it is useful, should we be using it in lots of places?

In any hot code, yes.

-zefram

• use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by Dave Mitchell
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by bulk88
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by Dave Mitchell
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by Tim Bunce
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by Dave Mitchell
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by Steffen Mueller
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by bulk88
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by Zefram
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by Steffen Mueller
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by Nicholas Clark
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by Zefram
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by David Cantrell
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by Tim Bunce
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by demerphq
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by Zefram
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by hv
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by Zefram
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by Tim Bunce
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by Dave Mitchell
• Re: use of LIKELY() and UNLIKELY() branch predictors by Nicholas Clark