The formatting really didn’t copy over well.  Read the actual page here: https://github.com/GalenRhodes/LockSpeedTest/blob/master/README.md

-fobjc-arc-exceptions

My current use of this is to test if there was any overhead involved with using the clang -fobjc-arc-exceptions flag to ensure that memory isn’t leaked when exceptions are thrown in Objective-C.

Basically I compiled this test without -fobjc-arc-exceptions and ran it and then compiled it again WITH -fobjc-arc-exceptions and then ran it again. Each time it runs a simple test where it throws an exception with a variable with locality inside a @try {} block is assigned a newly created object. It does this 2,000,000 times and takes an average of the time to complete each loop (total_time / iterations).

#define _ITERATIONS_ ((uint64_t)(2000000))

-(NSUInteger)testARCExceptions {
    NSString *str = nil;
    NSUInteger iter = _ITERATIONS_;
    NSUInteger throwWhen = (iter - 1);

    for(NSUInteger i = 0; i < iter; ++i) {
        @try {
            TestClass *test = nil;

            test = [[TestClass alloc] init];
            str = [test buildString:i];

            if(i == throwWhen) {
                @throw [NSException exceptionWithName:NSGenericException reason:@"No Reason" userInfo:@{ @"Last String":str }];
            }

            [PGTestMessages addObject:@"--------------------------------------------------------------"];
        }
        @catch(NSException *e) {
            [PGTestMessages addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Exception: %@; Reason: %@; User Info: %@", e.name, e.reason, e.userInfo]];
        }
    }
    return iter;
}

The class TestClass is just a very simple class. The important bit is that it logs a message when it is both created and deallocated.

-(instancetype)init {
	self = [super init];
	
	if(self) {
		_instanceNumber = [[self class] nextInstanceNumber];
		_instanceName   = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@:%@", NSStringFromClass([self class]), [[self class] formattedInstanceNumber:self.instanceNumber]];
		
		[PGTestMessages addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Instance %@ created.", self.instanceName]];
	}
	
	return self;
}

-(void)dealloc {
	[PGTestMessages addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Instance %@ deallocating.", self.instanceName]];
}

Then when the log is printed after the test you can see each instance of the TestClass being created and deallocated. Even better you can see the effect of the -fobjc-arc-exceptions flag at the end of the output.

Without -fobjc-arc-exceptions

"Instance TestClass:1,999,997 created.",
"--------------------------------------------------------------",
"Instance TestClass:1,999,997 deallocating.",
"Instance TestClass:1,999,998 created.",
"--------------------------------------------------------------",
"Instance TestClass:1,999,998 deallocating.",
"Instance TestClass:1,999,999 created.",
"--------------------------------------------------------------",
"Instance TestClass:1,999,999 deallocating.",
"Instance TestClass:2,000,000 created.",
"Exception: NSGenericException; Reason: No Reason; User Info: {\n    \"Last String\" = \"abnegating abnegation abnegations abnegative abnegator abnegators Abner abnerval abnet abneural\";\n}"

With -fobjc-arc-exceptions

"Instance TestClass:1,999,997 created.",
"--------------------------------------------------------------",
"Instance TestClass:1,999,997 deallocating.",
"Instance TestClass:1,999,998 created.",
"--------------------------------------------------------------",
"Instance TestClass:1,999,998 deallocating.",
"Instance TestClass:1,999,999 created.",
"--------------------------------------------------------------",
"Instance TestClass:1,999,999 deallocating.",
"Instance TestClass:2,000,000 created.",
"Instance TestClass:2,000,000 deallocating.",
"Exception: NSGenericException; Reason: No Reason; User Info: {\n    \"Last String\" = \"abnegating abnegation abnegations abnegative abnegator abnegators Abner abnerval abnet abneural\";\n}"

You can see that without the -fobjc-arc-exceptions flag (the first example) the last instance is never deallocated because the exception is thrown. The next example with the -fobjc-arc-exceptions flag clearly shows that code was added to clean up the objects. The line of bars is not printed between the creation and deallocation because the exception was thrown before execution reached that point.

The result? No difference. None. The numbers I’ve generated (running it three times each way and taking the average) show that if there is a difference it’s only by a 140 nanoseconds at best. And, I should point out, that’s a 140 nanosecondsFASTER than without using -fobjc-arc-exceptions!

All of this leads me to wonder why Apple would have chosen to NOT make this the default when building their own Frameworks. Anyone with some deep knowledge care to chime in?