Hey everyone,
I just stumbled upon an interesting tidbit about Clang’s memory usage. Apparently, each class template instantiation eats up around 1 KiB of memory in the Clang frontend. This got me thinking about the potential impact on large projects with lots of templates.
Has anyone here run into memory issues because of this? I’m curious about real-world experiences. Also, does anyone know if this is specific to Clang or if other compilers have similar memory costs for template instantiations?
It’d be great to hear your thoughts on this. Maybe some of you have tips for managing template usage in big codebases to keep memory consumption in check? Thanks in advance for any insights!
I’ve encountered this issue in large-scale C++ projects, particularly those heavily utilizing the Standard Template Library. One effective strategy we implemented was template instantiation optimization. By carefully analyzing our codebase and reducing unnecessary template instantiations, we significantly decreased Clang’s memory footprint during compilation.
Another approach that yielded positive results was utilizing explicit template instantiation in header files for frequently used template classes. This technique helped reduce redundant instantiations across multiple translation units.
It’s worth noting that while this memory usage is more noticeable in Clang, other compilers like GCC also have similar overheads. The key is finding a balance between template usage for code reusability and managing compilation resources effectively.
yo, i’ve dealt with this in some big projects. it can be a pain, especially with heavy template use. one trick is to use extern templates for commonly used instantiations. helps cut down on duplicates. also, precompiled headers can make a difference. have u tried those?
hey, interesting point about template memory. in my projects i haven’t seen much slowdown but i try to profile things for better insight. have you experimented with any real-time measurement tools? curious about how this plays out in larger projects. thoughts?