AOT compile mono libraries at install time
Mono has the ability to generate code ahead of time and store this alongside the CIL image. This can significantly reduce startup time, allow sharing the in-memory code, and allow for more extensive optimisations to be performed.
Blueprint information
- Status:
- Not started
- Approver:
- Sebastien Bacher
- Priority:
- Low
- Drafter:
- Chris Halse Rogers
- Direction:
- Needs approval
- Assignee:
- Chris Halse Rogers
- Definition:
- Approved
- Series goal:
- Accepted for raring
- Implementation:
-
Unknown
- Milestone target:
- None
- Started by
- Completed by
Whiteboard
== Rationale ==
Desktop applications using the mono runtime suffer from poor startup times, particularly on slow CPUs. Running the JIT at install time rather than startup time can significantly improve this.
== Goal ==
Improve startup time of mono applications
== Test Plan ==
The mono runtime changes can be unittested, the packaging components will be tested with a rebuild/piuparts run.
== Release notes ==
The core mono libraries are now precompiled at install time, providing faster startup times and better memory sharing for mono applications.
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Obvious place to put this is in dh_cliinstallgac - AOT compile needs to be run on the CPU that will be used
Possible blockers: OEM installs, with preinstalled packages
A possibility is to ship an AOT cache in the packages for a minimal CPU - this requires an unknown, but probably significant, patch to the JIT engine, which I don't want to do.
Invalidating the cached AOT code would require looking at the CPU capabilities & comparing that with what would be in the binary.
Approx 50 seconds to AOT everything on core i5, using 285MB disk space (230MB excluding IL code)
RAOF, 2012-07-06: Mono runtime patch to refuse to load AOT images with unsupported optimisations is upstream; we can't reasonably cherry pick, though. Moving the rest to R, where we should have the new mono.
Work Items
Work items:
[raof] Benchmark AOT on ARM: BLOCKED
[raof] Implement in the mono runtime a way to detect when the CPU capabilities change (record at AOT time, check at load): DONE
[raof] Implement method of regenererating the AOT cache when the CPU changes: POSTPONED
[raof] Add dh_cliaot call to appropriate library packages: POSTPONED
