Add -Z hint-mostly-unused to tell rustc that most of a crate will go unused

This hint allows the compiler to optimize its operation based on this
assumption, in order to compile faster. This is a hint, and does not
guarantee any particular behavior.

This option can substantially speed up compilation if applied to a large
dependency where the majority of the dependency does not get used. This flag
may slow down compilation in other cases.

Currently, this option makes the compiler defer as much code generation as
possible from functions in the crate, until later crates invoke those
functions. Functions that never get invoked will never have code generated for
them. For instance, if a crate provides thousands of functions, but only a few
of them will get called, this flag will result in the compiler only doing code
generation for the called functions. (This uses the same mechanisms as
cross-crate inlining of functions.) This does not affect `extern` functions, or
functions marked as `#[inline(never)]`.

Some performance numbers, based on a crate with many dependencies having
just *one* large dependency set to `-Z hint-mostly-unused` (using
Cargo's `profile-rustflags` option):

A release build went from 4m07s to 2m04s.

A non-release build went from 2m26s to 1m28s.

Author: joshtriplett

compiler/rustc_interface/src/tests.rs

@@ -801,6 +801,7 @@ fn test_unstable_options_tracking_hash() {
     tracked!(force_unstable_if_unmarked, true);
     tracked!(function_return, FunctionReturn::ThunkExtern);
     tracked!(function_sections, Some(false));
+    tracked!(hint_mostly_unused, true);
     tracked!(human_readable_cgu_names, true);
     tracked!(incremental_ignore_spans, true);
     tracked!(inline_mir, Some(true));

compiler/rustc_mir_transform/src/cross_crate_inline.rs

@@ -50,6 +50,13 @@ fn cross_crate_inlinable(tcx: TyCtxt<'_>, def_id: LocalDefId) -> bool {
         _ => {}
     }
 
+    // If the crate is likely to be mostly unused, use cross-crate inlining to defer codegen until
+    // the function is referenced, in order to skip codegen for unused functions. This is
+    // intentionally after the check for `inline(never)`, so that `inline(never)` wins.
+    if tcx.sess.opts.unstable_opts.hint_mostly_unused {
+        return true;
+    }
+
     let sig = tcx.fn_sig(def_id).instantiate_identity();
     for ty in sig.inputs().skip_binder().iter().chain(std::iter::once(&sig.output().skip_binder()))
     {

compiler/rustc_session/src/options.rs

@@ -2233,6 +2233,8 @@ options! {
         environment variable `RUSTC_GRAPHVIZ_FONT` (default: `Courier, monospace`)"),
     has_thread_local: Option<bool> = (None, parse_opt_bool, [TRACKED],
         "explicitly enable the `cfg(target_thread_local)` directive"),
+    hint_mostly_unused: bool = (false, parse_bool, [TRACKED],
+        "hint that most of this crate will go unused, to minimize work for uncalled functions"),
     human_readable_cgu_names: bool = (false, parse_bool, [TRACKED],
         "generate human-readable, predictable names for codegen units (default: no)"),
     identify_regions: bool = (false, parse_bool, [UNTRACKED],

src/doc/unstable-book/src/compiler-flags/hint-mostly-unused.md

@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+# `hint-mostly-unused`
+
+This flag hints to the compiler that most of the crate will probably go unused.
+The compiler can optimize its operation based on this assumption, in order to
+compile faster. This is a hint, and does not guarantee any particular behavior.
+
+This option can substantially speed up compilation if applied to a large
+dependency where the majority of the dependency does not get used. This flag
+may slow down compilation in other cases.
+
+Currently, this option makes the compiler defer as much code generation as
+possible from functions in the crate, until later crates invoke those
+functions. Functions that never get invoked will never have code generated for
+them. For instance, if a crate provides thousands of functions, but only a few
+of them will get called, this flag will result in the compiler only doing code
+generation for the called functions. (This uses the same mechanisms as
+cross-crate inlining of functions.) This does not affect `extern` functions, or
+functions marked as `#[inline(never)]`.
+
+To try applying this flag to one dependency out of a dependency tree, use the
+[`profile-rustflags`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/unstable.html#profile-rustflags-option)
+feature of nightly cargo:
+
+```toml
+cargo-features = ["profile-rustflags"]
+
+# ...
+[dependencies]
+mostly-unused-dependency = "1.2.3"
+
+[profile.release.package.mostly-unused-dependency]
+rustflags = ["-Zhint-mostly-unused"]
+```