Byte Code Compiler

Description

These functions provide an interface to a byte code compiler for R.

Usage

cmpfun(f, options = NULL)
compile(e, env = .GlobalEnv, options = NULL, srcref = NULL)
cmpfile(infile, outfile, ascii = FALSE, env = .GlobalEnv,
        verbose = FALSE, options = NULL, version = NULL)
loadcmp(file, envir = .GlobalEnv, chdir = FALSE)
disassemble(code)
enableJIT(level)
compilePKGS(enable)
getCompilerOption(name, options)
setCompilerOptions(...)

Arguments

Details

The function cmpfun compiles the body of a closure and returns a new closure with the same formals and the body replaced by the compiled body expression.

compile compiles an expression into a byte code object; the object can then be evaluated with eval.

cmpfile parses the expressions in infile, compiles them, and writes the compiled expressions to outfile. If outfile is not provided, it is formed from infile by replacing or appending a .Rc suffix.

loadcmp is used to load compiled files. It is similar to sys.source, except that its default loading environment is the global environment rather than the base environment.

disassemble produces a printed representation of the code that may be useful to give a hint of what is going on.

enableJIT enables or disables just-in-time (JIT) compilation. JIT is disabled if the argument is 0. If level is 1 then larger closures are compiled before their first use. If level is 2, then some small closures are also compiled before their second use. If level is 3 then in addition all top level loops are compiled before they are executed. JIT level 3 requires the compiler option optimize to be 2 or 3. The JIT level can also be selected by starting R with the environment variable R_ENABLE_JIT set to one of these values. Calling enableJIT with a negative argument returns the current JIT level. The default JIT level is 3.

compilePKGS enables or disables compiling packages when they are installed. This requires that the package uses lazy loading as compilation occurs as functions are written to the lazy loading data base. This can also be enabled by starting R with the environment variable _R_COMPILE_PKGS_ set to a positive integer value. This should not be enabled outside package installation, because it causes any serialized function to be compiled, which comes with time and space overhead. R_COMPILE_PKGS can be used, instead, to instruct INSTALL to enable/disable compilation of packages during installation.

Currently the compiler warns about a variety of things. It does this by using cat to print messages. Eventually this should use the condition handling mechanism.

The options argument can be used to control compiler operation. There are currently four options: optimize, suppressAll, suppressUndefined, and suppressNoSuperAssignVar. optimize specifies the optimization level, an integer from 0 to 3 (the current out-of-the-box default is 2). suppressAll should be a scalar logical; if TRUE no messages will be shown (this is the default). suppressUndefined can be TRUE to suppress all messages about undefined variables, or it can be a character vector of the names of variables for which messages should not be shown. suppressNoSuperAssignVar can be TRUE to suppress messages about super assignments to a variable for which no binding is visible at compile time. During compilation of packages, suppressAll is currently FALSE, suppressUndefined is TRUE and suppressNoSuperAssignVar is TRUE.

getCompilerOption returns the value of the specified option. The default value is returned unless a value is supplied in the options argument; the options argument is primarily for internal use. setCompilerOption sets the default option values. Options to set are identified by argument names, e.g. setCompilerOptions(suppressAll = TRUE, optimize = 3). It returns a named list of the previous values.

Calling the compiler a byte code compiler is actually a bit of a misnomer: the external representation of code objects currently uses int operands, and when compiled with gcc the internal representation is actually threaded code rather than byte code.

Author(s)

Luke Tierney

Examples

oldJIT <- enableJIT(0)
# a simple example
f <- function(x) x+1
fc <- cmpfun(f)
fc(2)
disassemble(fc)

# old R version of lapply
la1 <- function(X, FUN, ...) {
    FUN <- match.fun(FUN)
    if (!is.list(X))
	X <- as.list(X)
    rval <- vector("list", length(X))
    for(i in seq_along(X))
	rval[i] <- list(FUN(X[[i]], ...))
    names(rval) <- names(X)		  # keep `names' !
    return(rval)
}
# a small variation
la2 <- function(X, FUN, ...) {
    FUN <- match.fun(FUN)
    if (!is.list(X))
	X <- as.list(X)
    rval <- vector("list", length(X))
    for(i in seq_along(X)) {
        v <- FUN(X[[i]], ...)
        if (is.null(v)) rval[i] <- list(v)
        else rval[[i]] <- v
    }
    names(rval) <- names(X)		  # keep `names' !
    return(rval)
}
# Compiled versions
la1c <- cmpfun(la1)
la2c <- cmpfun(la2)
# some timings
x <- 1:10
y <- 1:100

system.time(for (i in 1:10000) lapply(x, is.null))
system.time(for (i in 1:10000) la1(x, is.null))
system.time(for (i in 1:10000) la1c(x, is.null))
system.time(for (i in 1:10000) la2(x, is.null))
system.time(for (i in 1:10000) la2c(x, is.null))
system.time(for (i in 1:1000) lapply(y, is.null))
system.time(for (i in 1:1000) la1(y, is.null))
system.time(for (i in 1:1000) la1c(y, is.null))
system.time(for (i in 1:1000) la2(y, is.null))
system.time(for (i in 1:1000) la2c(y, is.null))


enableJIT(oldJIT)