hashmap: add string interning API

Interning short strings with high probability of duplicates can reduce the
memory footprint and speed up comparisons.

Add strintern() and memintern() APIs that use a hashmap to manage the pool
of unique, interned strings.

Note: strintern(getenv()) could be used to sanitize git's use of getenv(),
in case we ever encounter a platform where a call to getenv() invalidates
previous getenv() results (which is allowed by POSIX).

Signed-off-by: Karsten Blees <blees@dcon.de>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

Documentation/technical/api-hashmap.txt

@@ -193,6 +193,21 @@ more entries.
 `hashmap_iter_first` is a combination of both (i.e. initializes the iterator
 and returns the first entry, if any).
 
+`const char *strintern(const char *string)`::
+`const void *memintern(const void *data, size_t len)`::
+
+	Returns the unique, interned version of the specified string or data,
+	similar to the `String.intern` API in Java and .NET, respectively.
+	Interned strings remain valid for the entire lifetime of the process.
++
+Can be used as `[x]strdup()` or `xmemdupz` replacement, except that interned
+strings / data must not be modified or freed.
++
+Interned strings are best used for short strings with high probability of
+duplicates.
++
+Uses a hashmap to store the pool of interned strings.
+
 Usage example
 -------------
 

hashmap.c

@@ -226,3 +226,41 @@ void *hashmap_iter_next(struct hashmap_iter *iter)
 		current = iter->map->table[iter->tablepos++];
 	}
 }
+
+struct pool_entry {
+	struct hashmap_entry ent;
+	size_t len;
+	unsigned char data[FLEX_ARRAY];
+};
+
+static int pool_entry_cmp(const struct pool_entry *e1,
+			  const struct pool_entry *e2,
+			  const unsigned char *keydata)
+{
+	return e1->data != keydata &&
+	       (e1->len != e2->len || memcmp(e1->data, keydata, e1->len));
+}
+
+const void *memintern(const void *data, size_t len)
+{
+	static struct hashmap map;
+	struct pool_entry key, *e;
+
+	/* initialize string pool hashmap */
+	if (!map.tablesize)
+		hashmap_init(&map, (hashmap_cmp_fn) pool_entry_cmp, 0);
+
+	/* lookup interned string in pool */
+	hashmap_entry_init(&key, memhash(data, len));
+	key.len = len;
+	e = hashmap_get(&map, &key, data);
+	if (!e) {
+		/* not found: create it */
+		e = xmallocz(sizeof(struct pool_entry) + len);
+		hashmap_entry_init(e, key.ent.hash);
+		e->len = len;
+		memcpy(e->data, data, len);
+		hashmap_add(&map, e);
+	}
+	return e->data;
+}

hashmap.h

@@ -87,4 +87,12 @@ static inline void *hashmap_iter_first(struct hashmap *map,
 	return hashmap_iter_next(iter);
 }
 
+/* string interning */
+
+extern const void *memintern(const void *data, size_t len);
+static inline const char *strintern(const char *string)
+{
+	return memintern(string, strlen(string));
+}
+
 #endif

t/t0011-hashmap.sh

@@ -237,4 +237,17 @@ test_expect_success 'grow / shrink' '
 
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'string interning' '
+
+test_hashmap "intern value1
+intern Value1
+intern value2
+intern value2
+" "value1
+Value1
+value2
+value2"
+
+'
+
 test_done

test-hashmap.c

@@ -234,6 +234,20 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 			/* print table sizes */
 			printf("%u %u\n", map.tablesize, map.size);
 
+		} else if (!strcmp("intern", cmd) && l1) {
+
+			/* test that strintern works */
+			const char *i1 = strintern(p1);
+			const char *i2 = strintern(p1);
+			if (strcmp(i1, p1))
+				printf("strintern(%s) returns %s\n", p1, i1);
+			else if (i1 == p1)
+				printf("strintern(%s) returns input pointer\n", p1);
+			else if (i1 != i2)
+				printf("strintern(%s) != strintern(%s)", i1, i2);
+			else
+				printf("%s\n", i1);
+
 		} else if (!strcmp("perfhashmap", cmd) && l1 && l2) {
 
 			perf_hashmap(atoi(p1), atoi(p2));