git: a74c77cc7bed - main - grep(1): optimize -w/--word-regexp word boundary check
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Date: Sun, 14 Jun 2026 18:14:35 UTC
The branch main has been updated by bapt:
URL: https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/src/commit/?id=a74c77cc7bed8dba50e976a7be2aa0094ee27b61
commit a74c77cc7bed8dba50e976a7be2aa0094ee27b61
Author: Baptiste Daroussin <bapt@FreeBSD.org>
AuthorDate: 2026-06-10 14:41:39 +0000
Commit: Baptiste Daroussin <bapt@FreeBSD.org>
CommitDate: 2026-06-14 18:14:31 +0000
grep(1): optimize -w/--word-regexp word boundary check
The -w option checks word boundaries before and after each potential
match by decoding the adjacent character. This was done via the
heavyweight sscanf(3) with "%lc", which goes through the full scanf
parser and locale-aware mbrtowc(3) machinery even for simple ASCII.
Replace with a three-tier fast path:
1. ASCII bytes (< 0x80): simple isalnum(3) / '_' comparison
2. UTF-8 continuation bytes (0x80-0xBF): interior bytes of a multi-byte
character are always word characters -> no further decoding needed
3. Multi-byte start bytes (>= 0xC0): decode with mbrtowc(3) directly
instead of sscanf(3)/%lc, avoiding scanf parser overhead
Benchmark with ministat(1) (10 runs each):
Worst-case ASCII (100k lines of 100 'a' chars, -w 'a'):
Difference at 95.0% confidence: -15.3% +/- 3.1%
Worst-case Unicode (50k lines of 100 accented 'e', -w 'e'):
Difference at 95.0% confidence: -11.2% +/- 4.7%
Normal -w (500k lines, -w 'the'):
Difference at 95.0% confidence: -18.1% +/- 3.6%
French text (100k lines, -w accented 'ete'):
Difference at 95.0% confidence: -18.0% +/- 4.1%
Non -w case shows no regression.
Reviewed by: kevans
Differential Revision: https://reviews.freebsd.org/D57587
---
usr.bin/grep/util.c | 44 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------
1 file changed, 34 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)
diff --git a/usr.bin/grep/util.c b/usr.bin/grep/util.c
index dbb21dcfd78e..bbb174370bd5 100644
--- a/usr.bin/grep/util.c
+++ b/usr.bin/grep/util.c
@@ -490,6 +490,35 @@ litexec(const struct pat *pat, const char *string, size_t nmatch,
#define iswword(x) (iswalnum((x)) || (x) == L'_')
+/*
+ * Check if the byte at the given offset in the line is a word character
+ * (alphanumeric or _). Handles ASCII fast path, UTF-8 continuation bytes,
+ * and multi-byte decoding via mbrtowc(3).
+ */
+static bool
+iswordchar(const char *dat, size_t len, size_t offset)
+{
+ unsigned char ch;
+ mbstate_t mbstate;
+ wchar_t wc;
+ size_t n;
+
+ if (offset >= len)
+ return (false);
+
+ ch = (unsigned char)dat[offset];
+ if (ch < 0x80)
+ return (isalnum(ch) || ch == '_');
+ if ((ch & 0xC0) == 0x80)
+ /* Continuation byte: part of a word */
+ return (true);
+
+ /* Multi-byte start byte: decode with mbrtowc */
+ memset(&mbstate, 0, sizeof(mbstate));
+ n = mbrtowc(&wc, &dat[offset], MB_CUR_MAX, &mbstate);
+ return (n == (size_t)-1 || n == (size_t)-2 || iswword(wc));
+}
+
/*
* Processes a line comparing it with the specified patterns. Each pattern
* is looped to be compared along with the full string, saving each and every
@@ -501,7 +530,6 @@ static bool
procline(struct parsec *pc)
{
regmatch_t pmatch, lastmatch, chkmatch;
- wchar_t wbegin, wend;
size_t st, nst;
unsigned int i;
int r = 0, leflags = eflags;
@@ -567,18 +595,14 @@ procline(struct parsec *pc)
continue;
/* Check for whole word match */
if (wflag) {
- wbegin = wend = L' ';
if (pmatch.rm_so != 0 &&
- sscanf(&pc->ln.dat[pmatch.rm_so - 1],
- "%lc", &wbegin) != 1)
+ iswordchar(pc->ln.dat, pc->ln.len,
+ pmatch.rm_so - 1))
r = REG_NOMATCH;
- else if ((size_t)pmatch.rm_eo !=
+ if (r == 0 && (size_t)pmatch.rm_eo !=
pc->ln.len &&
- sscanf(&pc->ln.dat[pmatch.rm_eo],
- "%lc", &wend) != 1)
- r = REG_NOMATCH;
- else if (iswword(wbegin) ||
- iswword(wend))
+ iswordchar(pc->ln.dat, pc->ln.len,
+ pmatch.rm_eo))
r = REG_NOMATCH;
/*
* If we're doing whole word matching and we