[GR-62070] Increased debug info size in comparison to GraalVM for JDK 23

[zakkak]

Describe the issue
The debug info generated with the latest graal master is larger than that generated with GraalVM for JDK 23, resulting in GDB taking more time to load symbols.

Steps to reproduce the issue

git clone https://github.com/Karm/mandrel-integration-tests/
cd mandrel-integration-tests/apps/debug-symbols-smoke
mvn package
native-image -g -jar target/debug-symbols-smoke.jar target/debug-symbols-smoke
cat > gdb.cmd <<EOF
run < test_data_small.txt
info functions .*smoke.*
exit
EOF
time (for i in {1..10}; do echo $i; gdb ./target/debug-symbols-smoke < gdb.cmd done)

Describe GraalVM and your environment:

• GraalVM version (latest snapshot builds can be found here), or commit id if built from source: CE 23.0.1 and bbdf41b
• JDK major version: 23 and 25
• OS: Fedora 41
• Architecture: AMD64

More details

Locally it takes 27.798 seconds for the 10 iterations when using GraalVM for JDK 23 and 37.218 seconds when using GraalVM for JDK 25.

[zakkak]

FYI @olpaw

[fniephaus]

Could be related to #9802

[selhagani]

Hi @zakkak,

Thank you for reaching out to us about this.
I ran the tests on my aarch64 linux machine and I got the following results:

It seems like running things on GraalVM for JDK 25 is a few seconds faster than on GraalVM for JDK 23.
Perhaps this is limited to AMD64?

[zakkak]

It seems like running things on GraalVM for JDK 25 is a few seconds faster than on GraalVM for JDK 23.
Perhaps this is limited to AMD64?

That's interesting.

cc @Karm

[selhagani]

After reviewing it seems like the results on Linux for amd64 also showed that GraalVM for JDK 25 is faster than on GraalVM for JDK 23.

[zakkak]

@selhagani I tried reproducing the issue once more and it seems to persist, except for the debug info size which now (that I tested with a newer build) seems to be larger in GraalVM for JDK 23 than in GraalVM for JDK 25. Can you please also check the debug info size of the generated binaries in your case?

Apples to Oranges, or GraalVM CE to Oracle GraalVM, comparison.

I am getting

Java version: 23.0.2+7, vendor version: GraalVM CE 23.0.2+7.1 (sdk install java 23.0.2-graalce)

   6.57MB (22.13%) for code area:    10,568 compilation units
   9.06MB (30.52%) for image heap:  116,495 objects and 80 resources
  12.37MB (41.65%) for debug info generated in 0.5s
   1.69MB ( 5.69%) for other data
  29.69MB in total

❯ hyperfine "gdb ./target/debug-symbols-smoke < gdb.cmd"
Benchmark 1: gdb ./target/debug-symbols-smoke < gdb.cmd
  Time (mean ± σ):      2.855 s ±  0.028 s    [User: 2.827 s, System: 0.080 s]
  Range (min … max):    2.822 s …  2.903 s    10 runs

Java version: 25+5-LTS, vendor version: Oracle GraalVM 25-dev+5.1 (sdk install java 25.ea.6-graal)

   6.79MB (24.51%) for code area:     8,539 compilation units
   7.27MB (26.27%) for image heap:  107,743 objects and 55 resources
  11.93MB (43.07%) for debug info generated in 0.6s
   1.70MB ( 6.15%) for other data
  27.69MB in total

❯ hyperfine "gdb ./target/debug-symbols-smoke < gdb.cmd"
Benchmark 1: gdb ./target/debug-symbols-smoke < gdb.cmd
  Time (mean ± σ):      3.274 s ±  0.089 s    [User: 3.235 s, System: 0.102 s]
  Range (min … max):    3.130 s …  3.391 s    10 runs

Please see #10512 (comment) instead.

[selhagani]

I just retested using the latest version of GraalVM for JDK 23 (23.0.2) and the latest available Dev build for JDK 25 and I got the following results:

with GraalVM for JDK 23 Community 23.0.2 I get:

   6.25MB (20.91%) for code area:    10,557 compilation units
   9.00MB (30.10%) for image heap:  115,429 objects and 55 resources
  12.47MB (41.71%) for debug info generated in 1.9s
   2.18MB ( 7.28%) for other data
  29.90MB in total

debug_symbols_smoke.Main$$Lambda/0x2672b2fcc272dcf55fe47efd0ea63ad20::accept(java.lang.Object*);
50:	void debug_symbols_smoke.Main::lambda$thisIsTheEnd$0(java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream*, debug_symbols_smoke.ClassA*);
64:	void debug_symbols_smoke.Main::main(java.lang.String[]*);
49:	void debug_symbols_smoke.Main::thisIsTheEnd(java.util.List*);
(gdb) 
real	0m33.343s
user	0m32.915s
sys	0m0.694s

hyperfine "gdb ./target/debug-symbols-smoke < gdb.cmd"
Benchmark 1: gdb ./target/debug-symbols-smoke < gdb.cmd
  Time (mean \u00b1 \u03c3):      3.254 s \u00b1  0.159 s    [User: 3.232 s, System: 0.048 s]
  Range (min \u2026 max):    3.011 s \u2026  3.449 s    10 runs

with GraalVM CE 25.0.0-dev-20250208_1102 I get:

   5.38MB (20.88%) for code area:     8,915 compilation units
   8.13MB (31.55%) for image heap:  100,532 objects and 55 resources
  10.13MB (39.33%) for debug info generated in 1.5s
   2.12MB ( 8.24%) for other data
  25.76MB in total

File debug_symbols_smoke/Main.java:
	void debug_symbols_smoke.Main$$Lambda/0x2672b2fcc272dcf55fe47efd0ea63ad20::accept(java.lang.Object*);
50:	void debug_symbols_smoke.Main::lambda$thisIsTheEnd$0(java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream*, debug_symbols_smoke.ClassA*);
64:	void debug_symbols_smoke.Main::main(java.lang.String[]*);
49:	void debug_symbols_smoke.Main::thisIsTheEnd(java.util.List*);
(gdb) 
real	0m28.133s
user	0m27.448s
sys	0m0.830s

hyperfine "gdb ./target/debug-symbols-smoke < gdb.cmd"
Benchmark 1: gdb ./target/debug-symbols-smoke < gdb.cmd
  Time (mean \u00b1 \u03c3):      2.619 s \u00b1  0.154 s    [User: 2.570 s, System: 0.075 s]
  Range (min \u2026 max):    2.411 s \u2026  2.800 s    10 runs

I will be sharing these results with our team and I'll keep you updated with any news.