dis – Python Bytecode Disassembler¶
| Purpose: | Convert code objects to a human-readable representation of the bytecodes for analysis. |
|---|---|
| Available In: | 1.4 and later |
The dis module includes functions for working with Python bytecode by “disassembling” it into a more human-readable form. Reviewing the bytecodes being executed by the interpreter is a good way to hand-tune tight loops and perform other kinds of optimizations. It is also useful for finding race conditions in multi-threaded applications, since you can estimate the point in your code where thread control may switch.
Basic Disassembly¶
The function dis.dis() prints the disassembled representation of a Python code source (module, class, method, function, or code object). We can disassemble a module such as:
1 2 3 4 | #!/usr/bin/env python
# encoding: utf-8
my_dict = { 'a':1 }
|
by running dis from the command line. The output is organized into columns with the original source line number, the instruction “address” within the code object, the opcode name, and any arguments passed to the opcode.
$ python -m dis dis_simple.py
4 0 BUILD_MAP 1
3 LOAD_CONST 0 (1)
6 LOAD_CONST 1 ('a')
9 STORE_MAP
10 STORE_NAME 0 (my_dict)
13 LOAD_CONST 2 (None)
16 RETURN_VALUE
In this case, the source translates to 5 different operations to create and populate the dictionary, then save the results to a local variable. Since the Python interpreter is stack-based, the first steps are to put the constants onto the stack in the correct order with LOAD_CONST, and then use STORE_MAP to pop off the new key and value to be added to the dictionary. The resulting object is bound to the name “my_dict” with STORE_NAME.
Disassembling Functions¶
Unfortunately, disassembling the entire module does not recurse into functions automatically. For example, if we start with this module:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | #!/usr/bin/env python
# encoding: utf-8
def f(*args):
nargs = len(args)
print nargs, args
if __name__ == '__main__':
import dis
dis.dis(f)
|
the results show loading the code object onto the stack and then turning it into a function (LOAD_CONST, MAKE_FUNCTION), but not the body of the function.
$ python -m dis dis_function.py
4 0 LOAD_CONST 0 (<code object f at 0x10046db30, file "dis_function.py", line 4>)
3 MAKE_FUNCTION 0
6 STORE_NAME 0 (f)
8 9 LOAD_NAME 1 (__name__)
12 LOAD_CONST 1 ('__main__')
15 COMPARE_OP 2 (==)
18 POP_JUMP_IF_FALSE 49
9 21 LOAD_CONST 2 (-1)
24 LOAD_CONST 3 (None)
27 IMPORT_NAME 2 (dis)
30 STORE_NAME 2 (dis)
10 33 LOAD_NAME 2 (dis)
36 LOAD_ATTR 2 (dis)
39 LOAD_NAME 0 (f)
42 CALL_FUNCTION 1
45 POP_TOP
46 JUMP_FORWARD 0 (to 49)
>> 49 LOAD_CONST 3 (None)
52 RETURN_VALUE
To see inside the function, we need to pass it to dis.dis().
$ python dis_function.py
5 0 LOAD_GLOBAL 0 (len)
3 LOAD_FAST 0 (args)
6 CALL_FUNCTION 1
9 STORE_FAST 1 (nargs)
6 12 LOAD_FAST 1 (nargs)
15 PRINT_ITEM
16 LOAD_FAST 0 (args)
19 PRINT_ITEM
20 PRINT_NEWLINE
21 LOAD_CONST 0 (None)
24 RETURN_VALUE
Classes¶
You can also pass classes to dis, in which case all of the methods are disassembled in turn.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 | #!/usr/bin/env python
# encoding: utf-8
import dis
class MyObject(object):
"""Example for dis."""
CLASS_ATTRIBUTE = 'some value'
def __init__(self, name):
self.name = name
def __str__(self):
return 'MyObject(%s)' % self.name
dis.dis(MyObject)
|
$ python dis_class.py
Disassembly of __init__:
12 0 LOAD_FAST 1 (name)
3 LOAD_FAST 0 (self)
6 STORE_ATTR 0 (name)
9 LOAD_CONST 0 (None)
12 RETURN_VALUE
Disassembly of __str__:
15 0 LOAD_CONST 1 ('MyObject(%s)')
3 LOAD_FAST 0 (self)
6 LOAD_ATTR 0 (name)
9 BINARY_MODULO
10 RETURN_VALUE
Using Disassembly to Debug¶
Sometimes when debugging an exception it can be useful to see which bytecode caused a problem. There are a couple of ways to disassemble the code around an error.
The first is by using dis.dis() in the interactive interpreter to report about the last exception. If no argument is passed to dis, then it looks for an exception and shows the disassembly of the top of the stack that caused it.
$ python
Python 2.6.2 (r262:71600, Apr 16 2009, 09:17:39)
[GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5250)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import dis
>>> j = 4
>>> i = i + 4
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
NameError: name 'i' is not defined
>>> dis.distb()
1 --> 0 LOAD_NAME 0 (i)
3 LOAD_CONST 0 (4)
6 BINARY_ADD
7 STORE_NAME 0 (i)
10 LOAD_CONST 1 (None)
13 RETURN_VALUE
>>>
Notice the --> indicating the opcode that caused the error. There is no i variable defined, so the value associated with the name can’t be loaded onto the stack.
Within your code you can also print the information about an active traceback by passing it to dis.distb() directly. In this example, there is a DivideByZero exception, but since the formula has two divisions it isn’t clear which part is zero.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 | #!/usr/bin/env python
# encoding: utf-8
i = 1
j = 0
k = 3
# ... many lines removed ...
try:
result = k * (i / j) + (i / k)
except:
import dis
import sys
exc_type, exc_value, exc_tb = sys.exc_info()
dis.distb(exc_tb)
|
The bad value is easy to spot when it is loaded onto the stack in the disassembled version. The bad operation is highlighted with the -->, and we just need to look up a few lines higher to find where i‘s 0 value was pushed onto the stack.
$ python dis_traceback.py
4 0 LOAD_CONST 0 (1)
3 STORE_NAME 0 (i)
5 6 LOAD_CONST 1 (0)
9 STORE_NAME 1 (j)
6 12 LOAD_CONST 2 (3)
15 STORE_NAME 2 (k)
10 18 SETUP_EXCEPT 26 (to 47)
11 21 LOAD_NAME 2 (k)
24 LOAD_NAME 0 (i)
27 LOAD_NAME 1 (j)
--> 30 BINARY_DIVIDE
31 BINARY_MULTIPLY
32 LOAD_NAME 0 (i)
35 LOAD_NAME 2 (k)
38 BINARY_DIVIDE
39 BINARY_ADD
40 STORE_NAME 3 (result)
43 POP_BLOCK
44 JUMP_FORWARD 65 (to 112)
12 >> 47 POP_TOP
48 POP_TOP
49 POP_TOP
13 50 LOAD_CONST 3 (-1)
53 LOAD_CONST 4 (None)
56 IMPORT_NAME 4 (dis)
59 STORE_NAME 4 (dis)
14 62 LOAD_CONST 3 (-1)
65 LOAD_CONST 4 (None)
68 IMPORT_NAME 5 (sys)
71 STORE_NAME 5 (sys)
15 74 LOAD_NAME 5 (sys)
77 LOAD_ATTR 6 (exc_info)
80 CALL_FUNCTION 0
83 UNPACK_SEQUENCE 3
86 STORE_NAME 7 (exc_type)
89 STORE_NAME 8 (exc_value)
92 STORE_NAME 9 (exc_tb)
16 95 LOAD_NAME 4 (dis)
98 LOAD_ATTR 10 (distb)
101 LOAD_NAME 9 (exc_tb)
104 CALL_FUNCTION 1
107 POP_TOP
108 JUMP_FORWARD 1 (to 112)
111 END_FINALLY
>> 112 LOAD_CONST 4 (None)
115 RETURN_VALUE
Performance Analysis of Loops¶
Aside from debugging errors, dis can also help you identify performance issues in your code. Examining the disassembled code is especially useful with tight loops where the number of exposed Python instructions is low but they translate to an inefficient set of bytecodes. We can see how the disassembly is helpful by examining a few different implementations of a class, Dictionary, that reads a list of words and groups them by their first letter.
First, the test driver application:
import dis
import sys
import timeit
module_name = sys.argv[1]
module = __import__(module_name)
Dictionary = module.Dictionary
dis.dis(Dictionary.load_data)
print
t = timeit.Timer(
'd = Dictionary(words)',
"""from %(module_name)s import Dictionary
words = [l.strip() for l in open('/usr/share/dict/words', 'rt')]
""" % locals()
)
iterations = 10
print 'TIME: %0.4f' % (t.timeit(iterations)/iterations)
We can use dis_test_loop.py to run each incarnation of the Dictionary class.
A straightforward implementation of Dictionary might look something like:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 | #!/usr/bin/env python
# encoding: utf-8
class Dictionary(object):
def __init__(self, words):
self.by_letter = {}
self.load_data(words)
def load_data(self, words):
for word in words:
try:
self.by_letter[word[0]].append(word)
except KeyError:
self.by_letter[word[0]] = [word]
|
The output shows this version taking 0.1074 seconds to load the 234936 words in my copy of /usr/share/dict/words on OS X. That’s not too bad, but as you can see from the disassembly below, the loop is doing more work than it needs to. As it enters the loop in opcode 13, it sets up an exception context (SETUP_EXCEPT). Then it takes 6 opcodes to find self.by_letter[word[0]] before appending word to the list. If there is an exception because word[0] isn’t in the dictionary yet, the exception handler does all of the same work to determine word[0] (3 opcodes) and sets self.by_letter[word[0]] to a new list containing the word.
$ python dis_test_loop.py dis_slow_loop
11 0 SETUP_LOOP 84 (to 87)
3 LOAD_FAST 1 (words)
6 GET_ITER
>> 7 FOR_ITER 76 (to 86)
10 STORE_FAST 2 (word)
12 13 SETUP_EXCEPT 28 (to 44)
13 16 LOAD_FAST 0 (self)
19 LOAD_ATTR 0 (by_letter)
22 LOAD_FAST 2 (word)
25 LOAD_CONST 1 (0)
28 BINARY_SUBSCR
29 BINARY_SUBSCR
30 LOAD_ATTR 1 (append)
33 LOAD_FAST 2 (word)
36 CALL_FUNCTION 1
39 POP_TOP
40 POP_BLOCK
41 JUMP_ABSOLUTE 7
14 >> 44 DUP_TOP
45 LOAD_GLOBAL 2 (KeyError)
48 COMPARE_OP 10 (exception match)
51 JUMP_IF_FALSE 27 (to 81)
54 POP_TOP
55 POP_TOP
56 POP_TOP
57 POP_TOP
15 58 LOAD_FAST 2 (word)
61 BUILD_LIST 1
64 LOAD_FAST 0 (self)
67 LOAD_ATTR 0 (by_letter)
70 LOAD_FAST 2 (word)
73 LOAD_CONST 1 (0)
76 BINARY_SUBSCR
77 STORE_SUBSCR
78 JUMP_ABSOLUTE 7
>> 81 POP_TOP
82 END_FINALLY
83 JUMP_ABSOLUTE 7
>> 86 POP_BLOCK
>> 87 LOAD_CONST 0 (None)
90 RETURN_VALUE
TIME: 0.1074
One technique to eliminate the exception setup is to pre-populate self.by_letter with one list for each letter of the alphabet. That means we should always find the list we want for the new word, and can just do the lookup and save the value.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 | #!/usr/bin/env python
# encoding: utf-8
import string
class Dictionary(object):
def __init__(self, words):
self.by_letter = dict( (letter, [])
for letter in string.letters)
self.load_data(words)
def load_data(self, words):
for word in words:
self.by_letter[word[0]].append(word)
|
The change cuts the number of opcodes in half, but only shaves the time down to 0.0984 seconds. Obviously the exception handling had some overhead, but not a huge amount.
$ python dis_test_loop.py dis_faster_loop
14 0 SETUP_LOOP 38 (to 41)
3 LOAD_FAST 1 (words)
6 GET_ITER
>> 7 FOR_ITER 30 (to 40)
10 STORE_FAST 2 (word)
15 13 LOAD_FAST 0 (self)
16 LOAD_ATTR 0 (by_letter)
19 LOAD_FAST 2 (word)
22 LOAD_CONST 1 (0)
25 BINARY_SUBSCR
26 BINARY_SUBSCR
27 LOAD_ATTR 1 (append)
30 LOAD_FAST 2 (word)
33 CALL_FUNCTION 1
36 POP_TOP
37 JUMP_ABSOLUTE 7
>> 40 POP_BLOCK
>> 41 LOAD_CONST 0 (None)
44 RETURN_VALUE
TIME: 0.0984
We can further improve the performance by moving the lookup for self.by_letter outside of the loop (the value doesn’t change, after all).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 | #!/usr/bin/env python
# encoding: utf-8
import collections
class Dictionary(object):
def __init__(self, words):
self.by_letter = collections.defaultdict(list)
self.load_data(words)
def load_data(self, words):
by_letter = self.by_letter
for word in words:
by_letter[word[0]].append(word)
|
Opcodes 0-6 now find the value of self.by_letter and save it as a local variable by_letter. Using a local variable only takes a single opcode, instead of 2 (statement 22 uses LOAD_FAST to place the dictionary onto the stack). After this change, the run time is down to 0.0842 seconds.
$ python dis_test_loop.py dis_fastest_loop
13 0 LOAD_FAST 0 (self)
3 LOAD_ATTR 0 (by_letter)
6 STORE_FAST 2 (by_letter)
14 9 SETUP_LOOP 35 (to 47)
12 LOAD_FAST 1 (words)
15 GET_ITER
>> 16 FOR_ITER 27 (to 46)
19 STORE_FAST 3 (word)
15 22 LOAD_FAST 2 (by_letter)
25 LOAD_FAST 3 (word)
28 LOAD_CONST 1 (0)
31 BINARY_SUBSCR
32 BINARY_SUBSCR
33 LOAD_ATTR 1 (append)
36 LOAD_FAST 3 (word)
39 CALL_FUNCTION 1
42 POP_TOP
43 JUMP_ABSOLUTE 16
>> 46 POP_BLOCK
>> 47 LOAD_CONST 0 (None)
50 RETURN_VALUE
TIME: 0.0842
A further optimization, suggested by Brandon Rhodes, is to eliminate the Python version of the for loop entirely. If we use itertools.groupby() to arrange the input, the iteration is moved to C. We can do this safely because we know the inputs are already sorted. If you didn’t know they were sorted you would need to sort them first.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 | #!/usr/bin/env python
# encoding: utf-8
import operator
import itertools
class Dictionary(object):
def __init__(self, words):
self.by_letter = {}
self.load_data(words)
def load_data(self, words):
# Arrange by letter
grouped = itertools.groupby(words, key=operator.itemgetter(0))
# Save arranged sets of words
self.by_letter = dict((group[0][0], group) for group in grouped)
|
The itertools version takes only 0.0543 seconds to run, just over half of the original time.
$ python dis_test_loop.py dis_eliminate_loop
15 0 LOAD_GLOBAL 0 (itertools)
3 LOAD_ATTR 1 (groupby)
6 LOAD_FAST 1 (words)
9 LOAD_CONST 1 ('key')
12 LOAD_GLOBAL 2 (operator)
15 LOAD_ATTR 3 (itemgetter)
18 LOAD_CONST 2 (0)
21 CALL_FUNCTION 1
24 CALL_FUNCTION 257
27 STORE_FAST 2 (grouped)
17 30 LOAD_GLOBAL 4 (dict)
33 LOAD_CONST 3 (<code object <genexpr> at 0x7e7b8, file "/Users/dhellmann/Documents/PyMOTW/dis/PyMOTW/dis/dis_eliminate_loop.py", line 17>)
36 MAKE_FUNCTION 0
39 LOAD_FAST 2 (grouped)
42 GET_ITER
43 CALL_FUNCTION 1
46 CALL_FUNCTION 1
49 LOAD_FAST 0 (self)
52 STORE_ATTR 5 (by_letter)
55 LOAD_CONST 0 (None)
58 RETURN_VALUE
TIME: 0.0543
Compiler Optimizations¶
Disassembling compiled source also exposes some of the optimizations made by the compiler. For example, literal expressions are folded during compilation, when possible.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 | #!/usr/bin/env python
# encoding: utf-8
# Folded
i = 1 + 2
f = 3.4 * 5.6
s = 'Hello,' + ' World!'
# Not folded
I = i * 3 * 4
F = f / 2 / 3
S = s + '\n' + 'Fantastic!'
|
The expressions on lines 5-7 can be computed at compilation time and collapsed into single LOAD_CONST instructions because nothing in the expression can change the way the operation is performed. That isn’t true about lines 10-12. Because a variable is involved in those expressions, and the variable might refer to an object that overloads the operator involved, the evaluation has to be delayed to runtime.
$ python -m dis dis_constant_folding.py
5 0 LOAD_CONST 11 (3)
3 STORE_NAME 0 (i)
6 6 LOAD_CONST 12 (19.04)
9 STORE_NAME 1 (f)
7 12 LOAD_CONST 13 ('Hello, World!')
15 STORE_NAME 2 (s)
10 18 LOAD_NAME 0 (i)
21 LOAD_CONST 6 (3)
24 BINARY_MULTIPLY
25 LOAD_CONST 7 (4)
28 BINARY_MULTIPLY
29 STORE_NAME 3 (I)
11 32 LOAD_NAME 1 (f)
35 LOAD_CONST 1 (2)
38 BINARY_DIVIDE
39 LOAD_CONST 6 (3)
42 BINARY_DIVIDE
43 STORE_NAME 4 (F)
12 46 LOAD_NAME 2 (s)
49 LOAD_CONST 8 ('\n')
52 BINARY_ADD
53 LOAD_CONST 9 ('Fantastic!')
56 BINARY_ADD
57 STORE_NAME 5 (S)
60 LOAD_CONST 10 (None)
63 RETURN_VALUE
See also
- dis
- The standard library documentation for this module, including the list of bytecode instructions.
- Python Essential Reference, 4th Edition, David M. Beazley
- http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0672329786
- thomas.apestaart.org “Python Disassembly”
- A short discussion of the difference between storing values in a dictionary between Python 2.5 and 2.6.
- Why is looping over range() in Python faster than using a while loop?
- A discussion on StackOverflow.com comparing 2 looping examples via their disassembled bytecodes.
- Decorator for binding constants at compile time
- Python Cookbook recipe by Raymond Hettinger and Skip Montanaro with a function decorator that re-writes the bytecodes for a function to insert global constants to avoid runtime name lookups.
