[protobuf] internal/descfmt: replace uses of MethodByName with direct calls when possible

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Michael Stapelberg (Gerrit)

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Jan 16, 2026, 6:42:00 AM (2 days ago) Jan 16

to Pierre Gimalac, goph...@pubsubhelper.golang.org, golang-...@googlegroups.com, Lasse Folger, Go LUCI, Nicolas Hillegeer, golang-co...@googlegroups.com

Michael Stapelberg submitted the change

Change information

Commit message:

internal/descfmt: replace uses of MethodByName with direct calls when possible

Update internal/descfmt/stringer.go to avoid calling MethodByName when possible.
MethodByName allows calling a method even when the signature is unknown, but it forces the linker to keep all methods with a matching name, increasing binary size with dead code. On the other hand casting to an interface only keeps methods with a matching signature.
Using MethodByName also bypasses compiler typing, so making a direct call is safer.

In this specific case, the code checks whether a type implements an interface or is a specific type before using MethodByName and FieldByName to access its methods and fields, so we can just access them directly.

I checked the size difference for the datadog-agent and kubernetes binaries (ranging from 20 to 100MiB), and the resulting gains were between 100 and 300kiB, which is small but not negligible.

This is a follow-up of https://go.dev/cl/734280.

Fixes golang/protobuf#1708
Change-Id: Ib6ca16f7f7a871c8625d934c6115b47e525a42e9
Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/protobuf/+/735401
Reviewed-by: Lasse Folger <lasse...@google.com>
LUCI-TryBot-Result: Go LUCI <golang...@luci-project-accounts.iam.gserviceaccount.com>
Reviewed-by: Michael Stapelberg <stape...@google.com>

Files:

M internal/descfmt/stringer.go

Change size: M

Delta: 1 file changed, 83 insertions(+), 96 deletions(-)

Branch: refs/heads/master

Submit Requirements:

Code-Review: +2 by Michael Stapelberg, +1 by Lasse Folger
TryBots-Pass: LUCI-TryBot-Result+1 by Go LUCI

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