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diff --git a/third_party/rust/regex/PERFORMANCE.md b/third_party/rust/regex/PERFORMANCE.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..8cd0d9c719 --- /dev/null +++ b/third_party/rust/regex/PERFORMANCE.md @@ -0,0 +1,277 @@ +Your friendly guide to understanding the performance characteristics of this +crate. + +This guide assumes some familiarity with the public API of this crate, which +can be found here: https://docs.rs/regex + +## Theory vs. Practice + +One of the design goals of this crate is to provide worst case linear time +behavior with respect to the text searched using finite state automata. This +means that, *in theory*, the performance of this crate is much better than most +regex implementations, which typically use backtracking which has worst case +exponential time. + +For example, try opening a Python interpreter and typing this: + + >>> import re + >>> re.search('(a*)*c', 'a' * 30).span() + +I'll wait. + +At some point, you'll figure out that it won't terminate any time soon. ^C it. + +The promise of this crate is that *this pathological behavior can't happen*. + +With that said, just because we have protected ourselves against worst case +exponential behavior doesn't mean we are immune from large constant factors +or places where the current regex engine isn't quite optimal. This guide will +detail those cases and provide guidance on how to avoid them, among other +bits of general advice. + +## Thou Shalt Not Compile Regular Expressions In A Loop + +**Advice**: Use `lazy_static` to amortize the cost of `Regex` compilation. + +Don't do it unless you really don't mind paying for it. Compiling a regular +expression in this crate is quite expensive. It is conceivable that it may get +faster some day, but I wouldn't hold out hope for, say, an order of magnitude +improvement. In particular, compilation can take any where from a few dozen +microseconds to a few dozen milliseconds. Yes, milliseconds. Unicode character +classes, in particular, have the largest impact on compilation performance. At +the time of writing, for example, `\pL{100}` takes around 44ms to compile. This +is because `\pL` corresponds to every letter in Unicode and compilation must +turn it into a proper automaton that decodes a subset of UTF-8 which +corresponds to those letters. Compilation also spends some cycles shrinking the +size of the automaton. + +This means that in order to realize efficient regex matching, one must +*amortize the cost of compilation*. Trivially, if a call to `is_match` is +inside a loop, then make sure your call to `Regex::new` is *outside* that loop. + +In many programming languages, regular expressions can be conveniently defined +and compiled in a global scope, and code can reach out and use them as if +they were global static variables. In Rust, there is really no concept of +life-before-main, and therefore, one cannot utter this: + + static MY_REGEX: Regex = Regex::new("...").unwrap(); + +Unfortunately, this would seem to imply that one must pass `Regex` objects +around to everywhere they are used, which can be especially painful depending +on how your program is structured. Thankfully, the +[`lazy_static`](https://crates.io/crates/lazy_static) +crate provides an answer that works well: + + use lazy_static::lazy_static; + use regex::Regex; + + fn some_helper_function(text: &str) -> bool { + lazy_static! { + static ref MY_REGEX: Regex = Regex::new("...").unwrap(); + } + MY_REGEX.is_match(text) + } + +In other words, the `lazy_static!` macro enables us to define a `Regex` *as if* +it were a global static value. What is actually happening under the covers is +that the code inside the macro (i.e., `Regex::new(...)`) is run on *first use* +of `MY_REGEX` via a `Deref` impl. The implementation is admittedly magical, but +it's self contained and everything works exactly as you expect. In particular, +`MY_REGEX` can be used from multiple threads without wrapping it in an `Arc` or +a `Mutex`. On that note... + +## Using a regex from multiple threads + +**Advice**: The performance impact from using a `Regex` from multiple threads +is likely negligible. If necessary, clone the `Regex` so that each thread gets +its own copy. Cloning a regex does not incur any additional memory overhead +than what would be used by using a `Regex` from multiple threads +simultaneously. *Its only cost is ergonomics.* + +It is supported and encouraged to define your regexes using `lazy_static!` as +if they were global static values, and then use them to search text from +multiple threads simultaneously. + +One might imagine that this is possible because a `Regex` represents a +*compiled* program, so that any allocation or mutation is already done, and is +therefore read-only. Unfortunately, this is not true. Each type of search +strategy in this crate requires some kind of mutable scratch space to use +*during search*. For example, when executing a DFA, its states are computed +lazily and reused on subsequent searches. Those states go into that mutable +scratch space. + +The mutable scratch space is an implementation detail, and in general, its +mutation should not be observable from users of this crate. Therefore, it uses +interior mutability. This implies that `Regex` can either only be used from one +thread, or it must do some sort of synchronization. Either choice is +reasonable, but this crate chooses the latter, in particular because it is +ergonomic and makes use with `lazy_static!` straight forward. + +Synchronization implies *some* amount of overhead. When a `Regex` is used from +a single thread, this overhead is negligible. When a `Regex` is used from +multiple threads simultaneously, it is possible for the overhead of +synchronization from contention to impact performance. The specific cases where +contention may happen is if you are calling any of these methods repeatedly +from multiple threads simultaneously: + +* shortest_match +* is_match +* find +* captures + +In particular, every invocation of one of these methods must synchronize with +other threads to retrieve its mutable scratch space before searching can start. +If, however, you are using one of these methods: + +* find_iter +* captures_iter + +Then you may not suffer from contention since the cost of synchronization is +amortized on *construction of the iterator*. That is, the mutable scratch space +is obtained when the iterator is created and retained throughout its lifetime. + +## Only ask for what you need + +**Advice**: Prefer in this order: `is_match`, `find`, `captures`. + +There are three primary search methods on a `Regex`: + +* is_match +* find +* captures + +In general, these are ordered from fastest to slowest. + +`is_match` is fastest because it doesn't actually need to find the start or the +end of the leftmost-first match. It can quit immediately after it knows there +is a match. For example, given the regex `a+` and the haystack, `aaaaa`, the +search will quit after examining the first byte. + +In contrast, `find` must return both the start and end location of the +leftmost-first match. It can use the DFA matcher for this, but must run it +forwards once to find the end of the match *and then run it backwards* to find +the start of the match. The two scans and the cost of finding the real end of +the leftmost-first match make this more expensive than `is_match`. + +`captures` is the most expensive of them all because it must do what `find` +does, and then run either the bounded backtracker or the Pike VM to fill in the +capture group locations. Both of these are simulations of an NFA, which must +spend a lot of time shuffling states around. The DFA limits the performance hit +somewhat by restricting the amount of text that must be searched via an NFA +simulation. + +One other method not mentioned is `shortest_match`. This method has precisely +the same performance characteristics as `is_match`, except it will return the +end location of when it discovered a match. For example, given the regex `a+` +and the haystack `aaaaa`, `shortest_match` may return `1` as opposed to `5`, +the latter of which being the correct end location of the leftmost-first match. + +## Literals in your regex may make it faster + +**Advice**: Literals can reduce the work that the regex engine needs to do. Use +them if you can, especially as prefixes. + +In particular, if your regex starts with a prefix literal, the prefix is +quickly searched before entering the (much slower) regex engine. For example, +given the regex `foo\w+`, the literal `foo` will be searched for using +Boyer-Moore. If there's no match, then no regex engine is ever used. Only when +there's a match is the regex engine invoked at the location of the match, which +effectively permits the regex engine to skip large portions of a haystack. +If a regex is comprised entirely of literals (possibly more than one), then +it's possible that the regex engine can be avoided entirely even when there's a +match. + +When one literal is found, Boyer-Moore is used. When multiple literals are +found, then an optimized version of Aho-Corasick is used. + +This optimization is in particular extended quite a bit in this crate. Here are +a few examples of regexes that get literal prefixes detected: + +* `(foo|bar)` detects `foo` and `bar` +* `(a|b)c` detects `ac` and `bc` +* `[ab]foo[yz]` detects `afooy`, `afooz`, `bfooy` and `bfooz` +* `a?b` detects `a` and `b` +* `a*b` detects `a` and `b` +* `(ab){3,6}` detects `ababab` + +Literals in anchored regexes can also be used for detecting non-matches very +quickly. For example, `^foo\w+` and `\w+foo$` may be able to detect a non-match +just by examining the first (or last) three bytes of the haystack. + +## Unicode word boundaries may prevent the DFA from being used + +**Advice**: In most cases, `\b` should work well. If not, use `(?-u:\b)` +instead of `\b` if you care about consistent performance more than correctness. + +It's a sad state of the current implementation. At the moment, the DFA will try +to interpret Unicode word boundaries as if they were ASCII word boundaries. +If the DFA comes across any non-ASCII byte, it will quit and fall back to an +alternative matching engine that can handle Unicode word boundaries correctly. +The alternate matching engine is generally quite a bit slower (perhaps by an +order of magnitude). If necessary, this can be ameliorated in two ways. + +The first way is to add some number of literal prefixes to your regular +expression. Even though the DFA may not be used, specialized routines will +still kick in to find prefix literals quickly, which limits how much work the +NFA simulation will need to do. + +The second way is to give up on Unicode and use an ASCII word boundary instead. +One can use an ASCII word boundary by disabling Unicode support. That is, +instead of using `\b`, use `(?-u:\b)`. Namely, given the regex `\b.+\b`, it +can be transformed into a regex that uses the DFA with `(?-u:\b).+(?-u:\b)`. It +is important to limit the scope of disabling the `u` flag, since it might lead +to a syntax error if the regex could match arbitrary bytes. For example, if one +wrote `(?-u)\b.+\b`, then a syntax error would be returned because `.` matches +any *byte* when the Unicode flag is disabled. + +The second way isn't appreciably different than just using a Unicode word +boundary in the first place, since the DFA will speculatively interpret it as +an ASCII word boundary anyway. The key difference is that if an ASCII word +boundary is used explicitly, then the DFA won't quit in the presence of +non-ASCII UTF-8 bytes. This results in giving up correctness in exchange for +more consistent performance. + +N.B. When using `bytes::Regex`, Unicode support is disabled by default, so one +can simply write `\b` to get an ASCII word boundary. + +## Excessive counting can lead to exponential state blow up in the DFA + +**Advice**: Don't write regexes that cause DFA state blow up if you care about +match performance. + +Wait, didn't I say that this crate guards against exponential worst cases? +Well, it turns out that the process of converting an NFA to a DFA can lead to +an exponential blow up in the number of states. This crate specifically guards +against exponential blow up by doing two things: + +1. The DFA is computed lazily. That is, a state in the DFA only exists in + memory if it is visited. In particular, the lazy DFA guarantees that *at + most* one state is created for every byte of input. This, on its own, + guarantees linear time complexity. +2. Of course, creating a new state for *every* byte of input means that search + will go incredibly slow because of very large constant factors. On top of + that, creating a state for every byte in a large haystack could result in + exorbitant memory usage. To ameliorate this, the DFA bounds the number of + states it can store. Once it reaches its limit, it flushes its cache. This + prevents reuse of states that it already computed. If the cache is flushed + too frequently, then the DFA will give up and execution will fall back to + one of the NFA simulations. + +In effect, this crate will detect exponential state blow up and fall back to +a search routine with fixed memory requirements. This does, however, mean that +searching will be much slower than one might expect. Regexes that rely on +counting in particular are strong aggravators of this behavior. For example, +matching `[01]*1[01]{20}$` against a random sequence of `0`s and `1`s. + +In the future, it may be possible to increase the bound that the DFA uses, +which would allow the caller to choose how much memory they're willing to +spend. + +## Resist the temptation to "optimize" regexes + +**Advice**: This ain't a backtracking engine. + +An entire book was written on how to optimize Perl-style regular expressions. +Most of those techniques are not applicable for this library. For example, +there is no problem with using non-greedy matching or having lots of +alternations in your regex. |