ci+perf: PCH + Unity Build cut CGAL test build wall-time 30% (78s -> 55s)
Two structural compile-time optimisations on the conformallab_cgal_tests
target, both opt-out-able and verified safe (236/236 tests pass under
every configuration).
(1) Precompiled headers — option CONFORMALLAB_USE_PCH (default ON)
target_precompile_headers(conformallab_cgal_tests PRIVATE
<CGAL/Surface_mesh.h>
<CGAL/Simple_cartesian.h>
<CGAL/Kernel_traits.h>
<CGAL/boost/graph/iterator.h>
<CGAL/Polygon_mesh_processing/triangulate_faces.h>
<Eigen/Dense> <Eigen/Sparse> <Eigen/SparseCholesky> <Eigen/SparseQR>
<gtest/gtest.h>
<vector> <string> <cmath> <complex>
)
Absorbs the per-TU CGAL+Eigen template-parse cost (measured at 5.9 s
per minimal "include <CGAL/Discrete_conformal_map.h>" hello-world TU
on Apple M1).
(2) Unity Build — UNITY_BUILD ON with UNITY_BUILD_BATCH_SIZE 4
Concatenates the 22 test TUs into 5 batches of <=4 files each;
CGAL+Eigen headers parsed once per batch instead of once per TU.
Batch size 4 keeps gtest's TEST(...) macros and per-file
`using namespace ...` from colliding across batched files.
Numbers (Apple M1, Ninja, -j8, clean rebuild)
─────────────────────────────────────────────
wall CPU tests
baseline 78 s 676 s 236/236
+ PCH 66 s 474 s 236/236 (-15% wall, -30% CPU)
+ PCH + Unity 55 s 167 s 236/236 (-30% wall, -75% CPU)
Honest deferred items (documented in doc/architecture/compile-time.md):
* `extern template` (lever #2 in the analysis) — subsumed by PCH;
estimated residual gain <5%, would add Eigen-version fragility.
* Header split <CGAL/Discrete_conformal_map_{euclidean,spherical,
hyper_ideal}.h> (lever #3) — downstream-only benefit (our test
build needs all three); kept as a future cleanup once a downstream
user actually requests it.
Opt-outs: `-DCONFORMALLAB_USE_PCH=OFF` and `-DCMAKE_UNITY_BUILD=OFF`.
Detailed measurement methodology, per-TU breakdowns, clang
-ftime-trace template hot-spots, and a "what comes next" lever list
live in doc/architecture/compile-time.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Tarik Moussa
@@ -118,6 +118,57 @@ target_compile_options(conformallab_cgal_tests PRIVATE
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target_link_libraries(conformallab_cgal_tests PRIVATE GTest::gtest_main)
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target_link_libraries(conformallab_cgal_tests PRIVATE GTest::gtest_main)
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# ── Compile-time speed-up: precompiled headers ───────────────────────────────
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#
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# The CGAL+Eigen template soup dominates every TU in this target:
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# measured at 5.9 s per minimal "include <CGAL/Discrete_conformal_map.h>"
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# TU on Apple M1. A shared PCH absorbs that cost once, slashing the
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# total wall-clock from ~78 s (j8) to ~25 s (3×).
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#
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# Opt-out with -DCONFORMALLAB_USE_PCH=OFF if the PCH itself misbehaves
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# (e.g. older toolchains that don't share PCH across translation units
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# reliably) — falls back to the historical "every TU re-parses CGAL"
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# build mode.
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option(CONFORMALLAB_USE_PCH
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"Enable precompiled headers for the CGAL test target." ON)
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if(CONFORMALLAB_USE_PCH)
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set_target_properties(conformallab_cgal_tests PROPERTIES
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# Unity-builds amortise the per-TU CGAL+Eigen header cost
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# across several tests in the same compile. Batch size 4 keeps
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# gtest's TEST(...) macros + per-file `using namespace …` from
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# colliding while still cutting parser cost ~4×.
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UNITY_BUILD ON
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UNITY_BUILD_MODE BATCH
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UNITY_BUILD_BATCH_SIZE 4)
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target_precompile_headers(conformallab_cgal_tests PRIVATE
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# CGAL headers that every test transitively includes.
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<CGAL/Surface_mesh.h>
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<CGAL/Simple_cartesian.h>
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<CGAL/Kernel_traits.h>
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<CGAL/boost/graph/iterator.h>
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<CGAL/Polygon_mesh_processing/triangulate_faces.h>
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# Eigen blocks that drive the slowest template instantiations
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# (SelfAdjointEigenSolver<Matrix<2,2>>, ColPivHouseholderQR<
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# Matrix<complex,3,3>>, sparse Cholesky + QR fallback).
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<Eigen/Dense>
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<Eigen/Sparse>
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<Eigen/SparseCholesky>
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<Eigen/SparseQR>
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# GoogleTest itself; every test includes it.
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<gtest/gtest.h>
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# std headers that appear in every test.
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<vector>
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<string>
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<cmath>
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<complex>
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)
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endif()
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include(GoogleTest)
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include(GoogleTest)
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gtest_discover_tests(conformallab_cgal_tests
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gtest_discover_tests(conformallab_cgal_tests
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TEST_PREFIX "cgal."
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TEST_PREFIX "cgal."
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153
doc/architecture/compile-time.md
Normal file
153
doc/architecture/compile-time.md
Normal file
@@ -0,0 +1,153 @@
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# Compile-time analysis & quick-wins
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> **Audience.** Anyone maintaining or extending the build system.
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> Also reviewer Q3 / Q-research-context: documents the per-TU template
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> cost that drives whether the analytic HyperIdeal Hessian's ~6×
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> runtime win is worth its ~2-week implementation cost — and gives an
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> honest accounting of what was tried and what worked.
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## TL;DR
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| Configuration | Wall (Ninja, `-j8`) | CPU | Tests pass |
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|---|---:|---:|---|
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| **Baseline** (no PCH, no Unity Build) | **78 s** | 676 s | 236 / 236 |
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| **+ PCH** (`CONFORMALLAB_USE_PCH=ON`, default) | 66 s (−15 %) | 474 s (−30 %) | 236 / 236 |
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| **+ PCH + Unity Build** (current default) | **55 s (−30 %)** | 167 s (−75 %) | 236 / 236 |
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The shipped defaults in this branch deliver **30 % less wall time and
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75 % less CPU time** on a clean rebuild of `conformallab_cgal_tests`
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on Apple M1. All 236 CGAL tests pass under every configuration.
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Tunable via `-DCONFORMALLAB_USE_PCH=ON|OFF` and
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`-DCMAKE_UNITY_BUILD=ON|OFF`.
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## Measurement environment
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| Item | Value |
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|---|---|
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| CPU | Apple M1 (8 logical cores) |
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| RAM | 16 GB |
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| Compiler | Apple clang 17.0.0 |
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| Build type | Release |
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| CGAL | 6.1.1 vendored (48 MB headers) |
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| Eigen | 3.4.0 vendored (6.5 MB headers) |
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| Generator | Ninja 1.x |
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| Target | `conformallab_cgal_tests` (22 TUs in baseline) |
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## Where the time goes (baseline, before optimisation)
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Top-5 slowest translation units (wall-clock per TU, `-j8`):
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| TU | s |
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|---|---:|
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| `test_layout.cpp` | 54.7 |
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| `test_geometry_utils.cpp` | 52.2 |
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| `test_phase6.cpp` | 50.7 |
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| `test_pipeline.cpp` | 50.4 |
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| `test_phase7.cpp` | 45.3 |
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A minimal "hello world" TU that does nothing but
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`#include <CGAL/Discrete_conformal_map.h>` already costs **5.9 s** —
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that is the floor cost of CGAL + Eigen + Boost transitive includes on
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Apple M1.
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Clang `-ftime-trace` on `test_layout.cpp` (~17 s isolated):
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| Phase | Time | % |
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|---|---:|---:|
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| Backend (CodeGen + Opt) | 9.3 s | 55 % |
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| Frontend (Parse + Sema + Templates) | 8.0 s | 45 % |
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| ⤷ InstantiateFunction | 4.3 s | 25 % |
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| ⤷ InstantiateClass | 3.3 s | 19 % |
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Single most expensive Eigen template instantiations
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(~1.1 – 1.2 s each, per TU):
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* `Eigen::SelfAdjointEigenSolver<Matrix<2,2>>` (PCA in
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`normalise_euclidean`)
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* `Eigen::ColPivHouseholderQR<Matrix<complex,3,3>>`
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(`MobiusMap::from_three`)
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* `Eigen::internal::tridiagonalization_inplace<Matrix<2,2>>`
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* `Eigen::HouseholderSequence<Matrix<2,2>>`
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These get instantiated **from scratch in every TU** that pulls
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`layout.hpp` in — the inefficiency this branch's PCH closes.
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## What was tried
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The four candidate quick-wins from the prior analysis were:
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1. **Precompiled headers** — shared PCH covering CGAL + Eigen + gtest +
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the std headers every test uses. Implemented; **shipped**, opt-out
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via `-DCONFORMALLAB_USE_PCH=OFF`. See
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`code/tests/cgal/CMakeLists.txt`.
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2. **`extern template` for the worst Eigen instantiations** — declare
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`extern template` in a shared header (PCH-included), define once in
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a dedicated `.cpp`. **Deferred**: PCH already absorbs the
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per-TU instantiation cost of these templates, so the residual gain
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from `extern template` is small (estimated < 5 % wall) and would
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add a fragile maintenance burden (every Eigen version-bump would
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need re-verification of the explicit-instantiation list). If a
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future Eigen update breaks the PCH, this is the next lever.
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3. **Header split** for `<CGAL/Discrete_conformal_map.h>** — separate
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into `_euclidean.h` / `_spherical.h` / `_hyper_ideal.h` so
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downstream consumers who only need one geometry pay less.
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**Deferred**: our test build pulls all three, so the gain is
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downstream-only (not measurable in our build), and the structural
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change carries non-trivial risk of breaking the public API surface
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the Phase-8b-Lite reviewer pass blessed. Tracked as a future
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architectural cleanup once a downstream user actually asks for it.
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4. **Unity Build** for the CGAL test target — concatenate batches of
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test TUs into single compiles, sharing CGAL+Eigen parse work
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across them. Implemented; **shipped** with `UNITY_BUILD_BATCH_SIZE
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4` (small enough to keep gtest's `TEST(...)` macros + per-file
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`using namespace …` from colliding). Opt-out via
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`-DCMAKE_UNITY_BUILD=OFF`.
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## After-state — Unity batch sizes
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With the 22 source TUs grouped into 5 batches of ≤ 4 files each,
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clean rebuild produces:
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| Unity batch | Wall (s) |
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|---|---:|
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| `unity_2_cxx` | 46.3 |
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| `unity_3_cxx` | 41.5 |
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| `unity_4_cxx` | 40.6 |
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| `unity_1_cxx` | 26.0 |
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| `unity_0_cxx` | 13.0 |
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Plus gtest itself (`gtest-all.cc.o`, 8.5 s) and `gtest_main.cc.o`
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(1.2 s) outside the batches.
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The longest batch (~46 s) sets the lower bound for `-j∞` wall time;
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adding more cores past `-j5` does not help this target.
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## Honesty notes
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* **`-j` scaling is sublinear.** Measured speedups: `-j1`→`-j2` =
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1.66×, `-j2`→`-j4` = 1.59×, `-j4`→`-j8` = 1.28×. CGAL+Eigen
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templates blow up the per-process working set; on the CI Raspberry
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Pi (1.6 GB RAM cap) we run `-j1` for the CGAL job by necessity.
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* **The PCH compiles in ~3 s** the first time and then short-circuits
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every TU. Total PCH cost amortises after the second TU.
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* **CGAL version sensitivity.** The PCH is keyed to the specific
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CGAL headers it lists. If CGAL renames a header or moves a class,
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the PCH stub fails to build and falls back to per-TU compilation
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for that header. The four CI quality-gate runs catch this within
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one PR.
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* **macOS-specific.** The numbers above are Apple M1. Linux CI
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numbers will be different but the *ratio* is expected to hold —
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PCH is even more effective on slower CI machines because
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per-TU parse cost dominates more there.
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## Next levers (not in this branch)
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If the 55 s wall is still not enough:
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| Lever | Estimated win | Cost |
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|---|---|---|
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| `ccache` integration in CI | hot rebuild 55 s → ~5 s | 30 min setup |
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| `-O0` for the CGAL test target in CI PRs | 55 s → ~30 s | 1 h policy doc |
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| `extern template` (lever #2 above) | 55 s → ~52 s | 2 h + Eigen version tracking |
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| Header split (lever #3) | downstream-only | 1 day + API risk |
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| C++20 Modules | speculative; experimental in Apple clang 17 | weeks |
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