bytes: remove bootstrap array from Buffer

Rationale: small buffer optimization does not work and it has
made things slower since 2014. Until we can make it work,
we should prefer simpler code that also turns out to be more
efficient.

With this change, it's possible to use
NewBuffer(make([]byte, 0, bootstrapSize)) to get the desired
stack-allocated initial buffer since escape analysis can
prove the created slice to be non-escaping.

New implementation key points:

    - Zero value bytes.Buffer performs better than before
    - You can have a truly stack-allocated buffer, and it's not even limited to 64 bytes
    - The unsafe.Sizeof(bytes.Buffer{}) is reduced significantly
    - Empty writes don't cause allocations

Buffer benchmarks from bytes package:

    name                       old time/op    new time/op    delta
    ReadString-8                 9.20µs ± 1%    9.22µs ± 1%     ~     (p=0.148 n=10+10)
    WriteByte-8                  28.1µs ± 0%    26.2µs ± 0%   -6.78%  (p=0.000 n=10+10)
    WriteRune-8                  64.9µs ± 0%    65.0µs ± 0%   +0.16%  (p=0.000 n=10+10)
    BufferNotEmptyWriteRead-8     469µs ± 0%     461µs ± 0%   -1.76%  (p=0.000 n=9+10)
    BufferFullSmallReads-8        108µs ± 0%     108µs ± 0%   -0.21%  (p=0.000 n=10+10)

    name                       old speed      new speed      delta
    ReadString-8               3.56GB/s ± 1%  3.55GB/s ± 1%     ~     (p=0.165 n=10+10)
    WriteByte-8                 146MB/s ± 0%   156MB/s ± 0%   +7.26%  (p=0.000 n=9+10)
    WriteRune-8                 189MB/s ± 0%   189MB/s ± 0%   -0.16%  (p=0.000 n=10+10)

    name                       old alloc/op   new alloc/op   delta
    ReadString-8                 32.8kB ± 0%    32.8kB ± 0%     ~     (all equal)
    WriteByte-8                   0.00B          0.00B          ~     (all equal)
    WriteRune-8                   0.00B          0.00B          ~     (all equal)
    BufferNotEmptyWriteRead-8    4.72kB ± 0%    4.67kB ± 0%   -1.02%  (p=0.000 n=10+10)
    BufferFullSmallReads-8       3.44kB ± 0%    3.33kB ± 0%   -3.26%  (p=0.000 n=10+10)

    name                       old allocs/op  new allocs/op  delta
    ReadString-8                   1.00 ± 0%      1.00 ± 0%     ~     (all equal)
    WriteByte-8                    0.00           0.00          ~     (all equal)
    WriteRune-8                    0.00           0.00          ~     (all equal)
    BufferNotEmptyWriteRead-8      3.00 ± 0%      3.00 ± 0%     ~     (all equal)
    BufferFullSmallReads-8         3.00 ± 0%      2.00 ± 0%  -33.33%  (p=0.000 n=10+10)

The most notable thing in go1 benchmarks is reduced allocs in HTTPClientServer (-1 alloc):

    HTTPClientServer-8           64.0 ± 0%      63.0 ± 0%  -1.56%  (p=0.000 n=10+10)

For more explanations and benchmarks see the referenced issue.

Updates #7921

Change-Id: Ica0bf85e1b70fb4f5dc4f6a61045e2cf4ef72aa3
Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/133715
Reviewed-by: Martin Möhrmann <moehrmann@google.com>
Reviewed-by: Robert Griesemer <gri@golang.org>
Reviewed-by: Brad Fitzpatrick <bradfitz@golang.org>

src/bytes/buffer.go

@@ -12,13 +12,15 @@ import (
 	"unicode/utf8"
 )
 
+// smallBufferSize is an initial allocation minimal capacity.
+const smallBufferSize = 64
+
 // A Buffer is a variable-sized buffer of bytes with Read and Write methods.
 // The zero value for Buffer is an empty buffer ready to use.
 type Buffer struct {
-	buf       []byte   // contents are the bytes buf[off : len(buf)]
-	off       int      // read at &buf[off], write at &buf[len(buf)]
-	bootstrap [64]byte // memory to hold first slice; helps small buffers avoid allocation.
-	lastRead  readOp   // last read operation, so that Unread* can work correctly.
+	buf      []byte // contents are the bytes buf[off : len(buf)]
+	off      int    // read at &buf[off], write at &buf[len(buf)]
+	lastRead readOp // last read operation, so that Unread* can work correctly.
 
 	// FIXME: it would be advisable to align Buffer to cachelines to avoid false
 	// sharing.
@@ -125,9 +127,8 @@ func (b *Buffer) grow(n int) int {
 	if i, ok := b.tryGrowByReslice(n); ok {
 		return i
 	}
-	// Check if we can make use of bootstrap array.
-	if b.buf == nil && n <= len(b.bootstrap) {
-		b.buf = b.bootstrap[:n]
+	if b.buf == nil && n <= smallBufferSize {
+		b.buf = make([]byte, n, smallBufferSize)
 		return 0
 	}
 	c := cap(b.buf)

test/fixedbugs/issue7921.go

@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+// errorcheck -0 -m
+
+// Copyright 2018 The Go Authors. All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+package foo
+
+import "bytes"
+
+// In order to get desired results, we need a combination of
+// both escape analysis and inlining.
+
+func bufferNotEscape() string {
+	// b itself does not escape, only its buf field will be
+	// copied during String() call, but object "handle" itself
+	// can be stack-allocated.
+	var b bytes.Buffer
+	b.WriteString("123") // ERROR "b does not escape"
+	b.Write([]byte{'4'}) // ERROR "b does not escape" "\[\]byte literal does not escape"
+	return b.String()    // ERROR "b does not escape" "inlining call" "string\(bytes\.b\.buf\[bytes.b.off:\]\) escapes to heap"
+}
+
+func bufferNoEscape2(xs []string) int { // ERROR "xs does not escape"
+	b := bytes.NewBuffer(make([]byte, 0, 64)) // ERROR "inlining call" "make\(\[\]byte, 0, 64\) does not escape" "&bytes.Buffer literal does not escape"
+	for _, x := range xs {
+		b.WriteString(x)
+	}
+	return b.Len() // ERROR "inlining call"
+}
+
+func bufferNoEscape3(xs []string) string { // ERROR "xs does not escape"
+	b := bytes.NewBuffer(make([]byte, 0, 64)) // ERROR "inlining call" "make\(\[\]byte, 0, 64\) does not escape" "&bytes.Buffer literal does not escape"
+	for _, x := range xs {
+		b.WriteString(x)
+		b.WriteByte(',')
+	}
+	return b.String() // ERROR "inlining call" "string\(bytes.b.buf\[bytes\.b\.off:\]\) escapes to heap"
+}