Re: [BENCHMARK] nproc: netlink access to /proc information

Roger Luethi
2004-08-29T17:06:30Z

On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 09:05:42 -0700, William Lee Irwin III wrote:
> Okay, these explain some of the difference. I usually see issues with
> around 10000 processes with fully populated virtual address spaces and
> several hundred vmas each, varying between 200 to 1000, mostly
> concentrated at somewhere just above 300.

I agree, that should make quite a difference. As you said, we are
working on orthogonal areas: My current focus is on data delivery (sane
semantics and minimal overhead), while you seem to be more interested
in better data gathering.

I profiled "top -d 0 -b > /dev/null" for about 100 and 10^5 processes.

When monitoring 100 (real-world) processes, /proc specific overhead
(_IO_vfscanf_internal, number, __d_lookup, vsnprintf, etc.) amounts to
about one third of total resource usage.

==> 100 processes: top -d 0 -b > /dev/null <==
CPU: CPU with timer interrupt, speed 0 MHz (estimated)
Profiling through timer interrupt
samples % image name symbol name
20439 12.2035 libc-2.3.3.so _IO_vfscanf_internal
15852 9.4647 vmlinux number
11635 6.9469 vmlinux task_statm
9286 5.5444 libc-2.3.3.so _IO_vfprintf_internal
9128 5.4500 vmlinux proc_pid_stat
5395 3.2212 vmlinux __d_lookup
4738 2.8289 vmlinux vsnprintf
4123 2.4617 libc-2.3.3.so _IO_default_xsputn_internal
4110 2.4540 libc-2.3.3.so __i686.get_pc_thunk.bx
3712 2.2163 libc-2.3.3.so _IO_putc_internal
3504 2.0921 vmlinux link_path_walk
3417 2.0402 libc-2.3.3.so ____strtoul_l_internal
3363 2.0079 libc-2.3.3.so ____strtol_l_internal
2250 1.3434 libncurses.so.5.4 _nc_outch
2116 1.2634 libc-2.3.3.so _IO_sputbackc_internal
2006 1.1977 top task_show
1851 1.1052 vmlinux pid_revalidate

With 10^5 additional dummy processes, resource usage is dominated by
attempts to get a current list of pids. My own benchmark walked a list
of known pids, so that was not an issue. I bet though that nproc can
provide more efficient means to get such a list than getdents (we could
even allow a user to ask for a message on process creation/kill).

So basically that's just another place where nproc-based tools would
trounce /proc-based ones (that piece is vaporware today, though).

==> 10000 processes: top -d 0 -b > /dev/null <==
CPU: CPU with timer interrupt, speed 0 MHz (estimated)
Profiling through timer interrupt
samples % image name symbol name
35855 36.0707 vmlinux get_tgid_list
9366 9.4223 vmlinux pid_alive
7077 7.1196 libc-2.3.3.so _IO_vfscanf_internal
5386 5.4184 vmlinux number
3664 3.6860 vmlinux proc_pid_stat
3077 3.0955 libc-2.3.3.so _IO_vfprintf_internal
2136 2.1489 vmlinux __d_lookup
1720 1.7303 vmlinux vsnprintf
1451 1.4597 libc-2.3.3.so __i686.get_pc_thunk.bx
1409 1.4175 libc-2.3.3.so _IO_default_xsputn_internal
1258 1.2656 libc-2.3.3.so _IO_putc_internal
1225 1.2324 vmlinux link_path_walk
1210 1.2173 libc-2.3.3.so ____strtoul_l_internal
1199 1.2062 vmlinux task_statm
1157 1.1640 libc-2.3.3.so ____strtol_l_internal
794 0.7988 libc-2.3.3.so _IO_sputbackc_internal
776 0.7807 libncurses.so.5.4 _nc_outch

The remaining profiles are for two benchmarks from my previous message.

Field computation is more prominent than with top because the benchmark
uses a known list of pids and parsing is kept at a trivial level.

==> /prod/pid/statm (2x) for 10000 processes <==
CPU: CPU with timer interrupt, speed 0 MHz (estimated)
Profiling through timer interrupt
samples % image name symbol name
7430 9.9485 libc-2.3.3.so _IO_vfscanf_internal
6195 8.2948 vmlinux __d_lookup
5477 7.3335 vmlinux task_statm
5082 6.8046 vmlinux number
3227 4.3208 vmlinux link_path_walk
3050 4.0838 libc-2.3.3.so ____strtol_l_internal
2116 2.8332 libc-2.3.3.so _IO_vfprintf_internal
2064 2.7636 vmlinux vsnprintf
1664 2.2280 vmlinux atomic_dec_and_lock
1551 2.0767 vmlinux task_dumpable
1497 2.0044 vmlinux pid_revalidate
1419 1.9000 vmlinux system_call
1401 1.8759 vmlinux pid_alive
1244 1.6657 libc-2.3.3.so _IO_sputbackc_internal
1175 1.5733 vmlinux dnotify_parent
1060 1.4193 libc-2.3.3.so _IO_default_xsputn_internal
922 1.2345 vmlinux file_move

nproc removes most of the delivery overhead so field computation is
now dominant. Strictly speaking, it should be even higher because the
benchmarks requests the same fields three times, but they only get
computed once in such a case.

==> 27 nproc fields for 10000 processes, one process per request <==
CPU: CPU with timer interrupt, speed 0 MHz (estimated)
Profiling through timer interrupt
samples % image name symbol name
7647 25.0894 vmlinux __task_mem
2125 6.9720 vmlinux find_pid
1884 6.1813 vmlinux nproc_pid_fields
1488 4.8820 vmlinux __task_mem_cheap
1161 3.8092 vmlinux mmgrab
978 3.2088 vmlinux netlink_recvmsg
944 3.0972 vmlinux alloc_skb
935 3.0677 vmlinux __might_sleep
751 2.4640 vmlinux nproc_select_pid
738 2.4213 vmlinux system_call
691 2.2671 vmlinux skb_dequeue
636 2.0867 vmlinux netlink_sendmsg
630 2.0670 vmlinux __copy_from_user_ll
624 2.0473 vmlinux sockfd_lookup
621 2.0375 vmlinux kfree
602 1.9751 vmlinux __reply_size
523 1.7159 vmlinux fget

Roger