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(g77-295.info)Optimize Options
Options That Control Optimization
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Most Fortran users will want to use no optimization when developing
and testing programs, and use `-O' or `-O2' when compiling programs for
late-cycle testing and for production use. However, note that certain
diagnostics--such as for uninitialized variables--depend on the flow
analysis done by `-O', i.e. you must use `-O' or `-O2' to get such
diagnostics.
The following flags have particular applicability when compiling
Fortran programs:
`-malign-double'
(Intel x86 architecture only.)
Noticeably improves performance of `g77' programs making heavy use
of `REAL(KIND=2)' (`DOUBLE PRECISION') data on some systems. In
particular, systems using Pentium, Pentium Pro, 586, and 686
implementations of the i386 architecture execute programs faster
when `REAL(KIND=2)' (`DOUBLE PRECISION') data are aligned on
64-bit boundaries in memory.
This option can, at least, make benchmark results more consistent
across various system configurations, versions of the program, and
data sets.
*Note:* The warning in the `gcc' documentation about this option
does not apply, generally speaking, to Fortran code compiled by
`g77'.
Note: Aligned Data, for more information on alignment issues.
*Also also note:* The negative form of `-malign-double' is
`-mno-align-double', not `-benign-double'.
`-ffloat-store'
Might help a Fortran program that depends on exact IEEE
conformance on some machines, but might slow down a program that
doesn't.
This option is effective when the floating-point unit is set to
work in IEEE 854 `extended precision'--as it typically is on x86
and m68k GNU systems--rather than IEEE 754 double precision.
`-ffloat-store' tries to remove the extra precision by spilling
data from floating-point registers into memory and this typically
involves a big performance hit. However, it doesn't affect
intermediate results, so that it is only partially effective.
`Excess precision' is avoided in code like:
a = b + c
d = a * e
but not in code like:
d = (b + c) * e
For another, potentially better, way of controlling the precision,
see Note: Floating-point precision.
`-fforce-mem'
`-fforce-addr'
Might improve optimization of loops.
`-fno-inline'
Don't compile statement functions inline. Might reduce the size
of a program unit--which might be at expense of some speed (though
it should compile faster). Note that if you are not optimizing,
no functions can be expanded inline.
`-ffast-math'
Might allow some programs designed to not be too dependent on IEEE
behavior for floating-point to run faster, or die trying.
`-fstrength-reduce'
Might make some loops run faster.
`-frerun-cse-after-loop'
`-fexpensive-optimizations'
`-fdelayed-branch'
`-fschedule-insns'
`-fschedule-insns2'
`-fcaller-saves'
Might improve performance on some code.
`-funroll-loops'
Typically improves performance on code using iterative `DO' loops
by unrolling them and is probably generally appropriate for
Fortran, though it is not turned on at any optimization level.
Note that outer loop unrolling isn't done specifically; decisions
about whether to unroll a loop are made on the basis of its
instruction count.
Also, no `loop discovery'(1) is done, so only loops written with
`DO' benefit from loop optimizations, including--but not limited
to--unrolling. Loops written with `IF' and `GOTO' are not
currently recognized as such. This option unrolls only iterative
`DO' loops, not `DO WHILE' loops.
`-funroll-all-loops'
Probably improves performance on code using `DO WHILE' loops by
unrolling them in addition to iterative `DO' loops. In the absence
of `DO WHILE', this option is equivalent to `-funroll-loops' but
possibly slower.
`-fno-move-all-movables'
`-fno-reduce-all-givs'
`-fno-rerun-loop-opt'
*Version info:* These options are not supported by versions of
`g77' based on `gcc' version 2.8.
Each of these might improve performance on some code.
Analysis of Fortran code optimization and the resulting
optimizations triggered by the above options were contributed by
Toon Moene (<toon@moene.indiv.nluug.nl>).
These three options are intended to be removed someday, once they
have helped determine the efficacy of various approaches to
improving the performance of Fortran code.
Please let us know how use of these options affects the
performance of your production code. We're particularly
interested in code that runs faster when these options are
*disabled*, and in non-Fortran code that benefits when they are
*enabled* via the above `gcc' command-line options.
Note: Options That Control Optimization, for
more information on options to optimize the generated machine code.
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) "loop discovery" refers to the process by which a compiler, or
indeed any reader of a program, determines which portions of the
program are more likely to be executed repeatedly as it is being run.
Such discovery typically is done early when compiling using
optimization techniques, so the "discovered" loops get more
attention--and more run-time resources, such as registers--from the
compiler. It is easy to "discover" loops that are constructed out of
looping constructs in the language (such as Fortran's `DO'). For some
programs, "discovering" loops constructed out of lower-level constructs
(such as `IF' and `GOTO') can lead to generation of more optimal code
than otherwise.
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