xref: /xnu-8792.81.2/tools/tests/perf_index/README (revision 19c3b8c28c31cb8130e034cfb5df6bf9ba342d90)

perf_index - This is a tool for gather performance data. perf_index can run in
two modes. In regulular (offline mode) the usage is:
pref_index type threads size [args]
where type is one of the test types explained below, threads is the number of
userland threads that should preform the task, size is the size of the task and
args are arguments to pass to the test. Currently only the iperf test requires
these arguments. For example if run with the following arguments:
./perf_index cpu 2 100000000

iperf will run the cpu workload on two threads with a total work load size of
100000000. Since the workload is distributed over 2 threads, on a perfectly
parallel system, this would take half the time relative to if 1 was specified
for the threads parameter. When finished running perf_index will write the
number of seconds it took to standard out as a decimal number. Some of the test
types have initialization and teardown steps, and these steps are not counted
towards the time.  The workload and the time it takes to be performed differs
quite drastically between test type, so you may need to play around with the
size argument to find a value that will complete in a reasonable amount of time.

In online mode, perf_index is invoked like so:
perf_index remote server
where remote is exactly the string "remote" and server is the control host to
connect to.  This tells the program to connect to the specified server and wait
for instructions. The server is run by running the test_controller.py python
script with the following arguments:
test_controller.py num_clients type threads size
The server will wait for num_client to connect. It will then pass type, threads,
and size to each of those clients, who will run the initialization code and
report back to the server. Once the initialization is run by every client, the
server will give the OK to every client to run the workload and begin timing.
When done, each client reports back to the server. Once the server hears back
from every client, it will stop timing and output the elapsed time.


Test Types:
Note this implementations are subject to change, for an authoritative source,
see the source code
cpu - calculates n md5 sums
memory - initializes by allocating memory equal to half the RAM on the machine,
then writes a byte to every page to ensure it is paged in. Then copies n bytes
from the first half of memory to the second. If the allocated space is less than
n/2, it keeps repeating the copies until n bytes are copied.
syscall - calls the getppid(2) system call n times
fault - performs n page faults by mmaping a large chunk of memory, toggling the
write protection bit, and writing to each page
zfod - performs n zero fill on demands, by mmaping a large chunk of memory and
writing to each page
file_create - creates n files (in the same directory) with the open(2) system
call
file_write - writes n bytes to files on disk. There is one file per each thread.
file_read - initializes by creating one large file on disk per each thread.
Then reads n bytes total from all the files. If there are less than n bytes in
the files, repeats reading from the beginning.
ram_file_create - same as file_create but on a ram disk
ram_file_read - same as file_read but on a ram disk
ram_file_write - same as file_write but on a ram disk
iperf - uses iperf to send n bytes over the network to the designated host
specified as args
compile - compiles xnu using make. This currently does a single compile and
ignores the size argument

Building:
perf_index is built automatically by BNI for both Mac (10.9 and later), and iOS
(7 and later) trains, and is delivered on AppleInternal builds in
/AppleInternal/CoreOS/perf_index. It is built as part of the xnu_quick_test
build alias, so you can also find a copy on ~rc at:
~rc/Software/$RELEASE/Updates/$RELEASEVERSION/Roots/xnu_quick_test/AppleInternal/CoreOS/perf_index.

Alternatively you can build it yourself using make like so:
SDKROOT=/path/to/sdk make

For example:
# build for Mac, current OS
SDKROOT=/ make
# build for iOS
SDKROOT=`xcodebuild -sdk iphoneos.internal -version Path` make

By default xnu builds all-way fat, but you can restrict this by explicitly
specifying architectures like so:
# build for only armv7 and armv7s
SDKROOT=`xcodebuild -sdk iphoneos.internal -version Path` make ARCH="armv7 armv7s"