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-Performance Testing Rails Applications
-======================================
-
-This guide covers the various ways of performance testing a Ruby on Rails
-application.
-
-After reading this guide, you will know:
-
-* The various types of benchmarking and profiling metrics.
-* How to generate performance and benchmarking tests.
-* How to install and use a GC-patched Ruby binary to measure memory usage and object
- allocation.
-* The benchmarking information provided by Rails inside the log files.
-* Various tools facilitating benchmarking and profiling.
-
-Performance testing is an integral part of the development cycle. It is very
-important that you don't make your end users wait for too long before the page
-is completely loaded. Ensuring a pleasant browsing experience for end users and
-cutting the cost of unnecessary hardware is important for any non-trivial web
-application.
-
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Performance Test Cases
-----------------------
-
-Rails performance tests are a special type of integration tests, designed for
-benchmarking and profiling the test code. With performance tests, you can
-determine where your application's memory or speed problems are coming from,
-and get a more in-depth picture of those problems.
-
-In a freshly generated Rails application, `test/performance/browsing_test.rb`
-contains an example of a performance test:
-
-```ruby
-require 'test_helper'
-require 'rails/performance_test_help'
-
-class BrowsingTest < ActionDispatch::PerformanceTest
- # Refer to the documentation for all available options
- # self.profile_options = { runs: 5, metrics: [:wall_time, :memory],
- # output: 'tmp/performance', formats: [:flat] }
-
- test "homepage" do
- get '/'
- end
-end
-```
-
-This example is a simple performance test case for profiling a GET request to
-the application's homepage.
-
-### Generating Performance Tests
-
-Rails provides a generator called `performance_test` for creating new
-performance tests:
-
-```bash
-$ rails generate performance_test homepage
-```
-
-This generates `homepage_test.rb` in the `test/performance` directory:
-
-```ruby
-require 'test_helper'
-require 'rails/performance_test_help'
-
-class HomepageTest < ActionDispatch::PerformanceTest
- # Refer to the documentation for all available options
- # self.profile_options = { runs: 5, metrics: [:wall_time, :memory],
- # output: 'tmp/performance', formats: [:flat] }
-
- test "homepage" do
- get '/'
- end
-end
-```
-
-### Examples
-
-Let's assume your application has the following controller and model:
-
-```ruby
-# routes.rb
-root to: 'home#dashboard'
-resources :posts
-
-# home_controller.rb
-class HomeController < ApplicationController
- def dashboard
- @users = User.last_ten.includes(:avatars)
- @posts = Post.all_today
- end
-end
-
-# posts_controller.rb
-class PostsController < ApplicationController
- def create
- @post = Post.create(params[:post])
- redirect_to(@post)
- end
-end
-
-# post.rb
-class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
- before_save :recalculate_costly_stats
-
- def slow_method
- # I fire gallzilion queries sleeping all around
- end
-
- private
-
- def recalculate_costly_stats
- # CPU heavy calculations
- end
-end
-```
-
-#### Controller Example
-
-Because performance tests are a special kind of integration test, you can use
-the `get` and `post` methods in them.
-
-Here's the performance test for `HomeController#dashboard` and
-`PostsController#create`:
-
-```ruby
-require 'test_helper'
-require 'rails/performance_test_help'
-
-class PostPerformanceTest < ActionDispatch::PerformanceTest
- def setup
- # Application requires logged-in user
- login_as(:lifo)
- end
-
- test "homepage" do
- get '/dashboard'
- end
-
- test "creating new post" do
- post '/posts', post: { body: 'lifo is fooling you' }
- end
-end
-```
-
-You can find more details about the `get` and `post` methods in the
-[Testing Rails Applications](testing.html) guide.
-
-#### Model Example
-
-Even though the performance tests are integration tests and hence closer to
-the request/response cycle by nature, you can still performance test pure model
-code.
-
-Performance test for `Post` model:
-
-```ruby
-require 'test_helper'
-require 'rails/performance_test_help'
-
-class PostModelTest < ActionDispatch::PerformanceTest
- test "creation" do
- Post.create body: 'still fooling you', cost: '100'
- end
-
- test "slow method" do
- # Using posts(:awesome) fixture
- posts(:awesome).slow_method
- end
-end
-```
-
-### Modes
-
-Performance tests can be run in two modes: Benchmarking and Profiling.
-
-#### Benchmarking
-
-Benchmarking makes it easy to quickly gather a few metrics about each test run.
-By default, each test case is run **4 times** in benchmarking mode.
-
-To run performance tests in benchmarking mode:
-
-```bash
-$ rake test:benchmark
-```
-
-#### Profiling
-
-Profiling allows you to make an in-depth analysis of each of your tests by using
-an external profiler. Depending on your Ruby interpreter, this profiler can be
-native (Rubinius, JRuby) or not (MRI, which uses RubyProf). By default, each
-test case is run **once** in profiling mode.
-
-To run performance tests in profiling mode:
-
-```bash
-$ rake test:profile
-```
-
-### Metrics
-
-Benchmarking and profiling run performance tests and give you multiple metrics.
-The availability of each metric is determined by the interpreter being used—none
-of them support all metrics—and by the mode in use. A brief description of each
-metric and their availability across interpreters/modes is given below.
-
-#### Wall Time
-
-Wall time measures the real world time elapsed during the test run. It is
-affected by any other processes concurrently running on the system.
-
-#### Process Time
-
-Process time measures the time taken by the process. It is unaffected by any
-other processes running concurrently on the same system. Hence, process time
-is likely to be constant for any given performance test, irrespective of the
-machine load.
-
-#### CPU Time
-
-Similar to process time, but leverages the more accurate CPU clock counter
-available on the Pentium and PowerPC platforms.
-
-#### User Time
-
-User time measures the amount of time the CPU spent in user-mode, i.e. within
-the process. This is not affected by other processes and by the time it possibly
-spends blocked.
-
-#### Memory
-
-Memory measures the amount of memory used for the performance test case.
-
-#### Objects
-
-Objects measures the number of objects allocated for the performance test case.
-
-#### GC Runs
-
-GC Runs measures the number of times GC was invoked for the performance test case.
-
-#### GC Time
-
-GC Time measures the amount of time spent in GC for the performance test case.
-
-#### Metric Availability
-
-##### Benchmarking
-
-| Interpreter | Wall Time | Process Time | CPU Time | User Time | Memory | Objects | GC Runs | GC Time |
-| ------------ | --------- | ------------ | -------- | --------- | ------ | ------- | ------- | ------- |
-| **MRI** | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | yes | yes | yes |
-| **REE** | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | yes | yes | yes |
-| **Rubinius** | yes | no | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes |
-| **JRuby** | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
-
-##### Profiling
-
-| Interpreter | Wall Time | Process Time | CPU Time | User Time | Memory | Objects | GC Runs | GC Time |
-| ------------ | --------- | ------------ | -------- | --------- | ------ | ------- | ------- | ------- |
-| **MRI** | yes | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes |
-| **REE** | yes | yes | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes |
-| **Rubinius** | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no |
-| **JRuby** | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | no |
-
-NOTE: To profile under JRuby you'll need to run `export JRUBY_OPTS="-Xlaunch.inproc=false --profile.api"`
-**before** the performance tests.
-
-### Understanding the Output
-
-Performance tests generate different outputs inside `tmp/performance` directory
-depending on their mode and metric.
-
-#### Benchmarking
-
-In benchmarking mode, performance tests generate two types of outputs.
-
-##### Command Line
-
-This is the primary form of output in benchmarking mode. Example:
-
-```bash
-BrowsingTest#test_homepage (31 ms warmup)
- wall_time: 6 ms
- memory: 437.27 KB
- objects: 5,514
- gc_runs: 0
- gc_time: 19 ms
-```
-
-##### CSV Files
-
-Performance test results are also appended to `.csv` files inside `tmp/performance`.
-For example, running the default `BrowsingTest#test_homepage` will generate
-following five files:
-
-* BrowsingTest#test_homepage_gc_runs.csv
-* BrowsingTest#test_homepage_gc_time.csv
-* BrowsingTest#test_homepage_memory.csv
-* BrowsingTest#test_homepage_objects.csv
-* BrowsingTest#test_homepage_wall_time.csv
-
-As the results are appended to these files each time the performance tests are
-run in benchmarking mode, you can collect data over a period of time. This can
-be very helpful in analyzing the effects of code changes.
-
-Sample output of `BrowsingTest#test_homepage_wall_time.csv`:
-
-```bash
-measurement,created_at,app,rails,ruby,platform
-0.00738224999999992,2009-01-08T03:40:29Z,,3.0.0,ruby-1.8.7.249,x86_64-linux
-0.00755874999999984,2009-01-08T03:46:18Z,,3.0.0,ruby-1.8.7.249,x86_64-linux
-0.00762099999999993,2009-01-08T03:49:25Z,,3.0.0,ruby-1.8.7.249,x86_64-linux
-0.00603075000000008,2009-01-08T04:03:29Z,,3.0.0,ruby-1.8.7.249,x86_64-linux
-0.00619899999999995,2009-01-08T04:03:53Z,,3.0.0,ruby-1.8.7.249,x86_64-linux
-0.00755449999999991,2009-01-08T04:04:55Z,,3.0.0,ruby-1.8.7.249,x86_64-linux
-0.00595999999999997,2009-01-08T04:05:06Z,,3.0.0,ruby-1.8.7.249,x86_64-linux
-0.00740450000000004,2009-01-09T03:54:47Z,,3.0.0,ruby-1.8.7.249,x86_64-linux
-0.00603150000000008,2009-01-09T03:54:57Z,,3.0.0,ruby-1.8.7.249,x86_64-linux
-0.00771250000000012,2009-01-09T15:46:03Z,,3.0.0,ruby-1.8.7.249,x86_64-linux
-```
-
-#### Profiling
-
-In profiling mode, performance tests can generate multiple types of outputs.
-The command line output is always presented but support for the others is
-dependent on the interpreter in use. A brief description of each type and
-their availability across interpreters is given below.
-
-##### Command Line
-
-This is a very basic form of output in profiling mode:
-
-```bash
-BrowsingTest#test_homepage (58 ms warmup)
- process_time: 63 ms
- memory: 832.13 KB
- objects: 7,882
-```
-
-##### Flat
-
-Flat output shows the metric—time, memory, etc—measure in each method.
-[Check Ruby-Prof documentation for a better explanation](http://ruby-prof.rubyforge.org/files/examples/flat_txt.html).
-
-##### Graph
-
-Graph output shows the metric measure in each method, which methods call it and
-which methods it calls. [Check Ruby-Prof documentation for a better explanation](http://ruby-prof.rubyforge.org/files/examples/graph_txt.html).
-
-##### Tree
-
-Tree output is profiling information in calltree format for use by [kcachegrind](http://kcachegrind.sourceforge.net/html/Home.html)
-and similar tools.
-
-##### Output Availability
-
-| | Flat | Graph | Tree |
-| ------------ | ---- | ----- | ---- |
-| **MRI** | yes | yes | yes |
-| **REE** | yes | yes | yes |
-| **Rubinius** | yes | yes | no |
-| **JRuby** | yes | yes | no |
-
-### Tuning Test Runs
-
-Test runs can be tuned by setting the `profile_options` class variable on your
-test class.
-
-```ruby
-require 'test_helper'
-require 'rails/performance_test_help'
-
-class BrowsingTest < ActionDispatch::PerformanceTest
- self.profile_options = { runs: 5, metrics: [:wall_time, :memory] }
-
- test "homepage"
- get '/'
- end
-end
-```
-
-In this example, the test would run 5 times and measure wall time and memory.
-There are a few configurable options:
-
-| Option | Description | Default | Mode |
-| ---------- | ------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------- | --------- |
-| `:runs` | Number of runs. | Benchmarking: 4, Profiling: 1 | Both |
-| `:output` | Directory to use when writing the results. | `tmp/performance` | Both |
-| `:metrics` | Metrics to use. | See below. | Both |
-| `:formats` | Formats to output to. | See below. | Profiling |
-
-Metrics and formats have different defaults depending on the interpreter in use.
-
-| Interpreter | Mode | Default metrics | Default formats |
-| -------------- | ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
-| **MRI/REE** | Benchmarking | `[:wall_time, :memory, :objects, :gc_runs, :gc_time]` | N/A |
-| | Profiling | `[:process_time, :memory, :objects]` | `[:flat, :graph_html, :call_tree, :call_stack]` |
-| **Rubinius** | Benchmarking | `[:wall_time, :memory, :objects, :gc_runs, :gc_time]` | N/A |
-| | Profiling | `[:wall_time]` | `[:flat, :graph]` |
-| **JRuby** | Benchmarking | `[:wall_time, :user_time, :memory, :gc_runs, :gc_time]` | N/A |
-| | Profiling | `[:wall_time]` | `[:flat, :graph]` |
-
-As you've probably noticed by now, metrics and formats are specified using a
-symbol array with each name [underscored.](http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/String.html#method-i-underscore)
-
-### Performance Test Environment
-
-Performance tests are run in the `test` environment. But running performance
-tests will set the following configuration parameters:
-
-```bash
-ActionController::Base.perform_caching = true
-ActiveSupport::Dependencies.mechanism = :require
-Rails.logger.level = ActiveSupport::Logger::INFO
-```
-
-As `ActionController::Base.perform_caching` is set to `true`, performance tests
-will behave much as they do in the `production` environment.
-
-### Installing GC-Patched MRI
-
-To get the best from Rails' performance tests under MRI, you'll need to build
-a special Ruby binary with some super powers.
-
-The recommended patches for MRI can be found on [RVM's _patches_ directory](https://github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm/tree/master/patches/ruby)
-under each specific interpreter version.
-
-Concerning the installation itself, you can either do this easily by using
-[RVM](https://rvm.io/) or you can build everything from source,
-which is a little bit harder.
-
-#### Install Using RVM
-
-The process of installing a patched Ruby interpreter is very easy if you let RVM
-do the hard work. All of the following RVM commands will provide you with a
-patched Ruby interpreter:
-
-```bash
-$ rvm install 1.9.2-p180 --patch gcdata
-$ rvm install 1.9.2-p180 --patch ~/Downloads/downloaded_gcdata_patch.patch
-```
-
-You can even keep your regular interpreter by assigning a name to the patched
-one:
-
-```bash
-$ rvm install 1.9.2-p180 --patch gcdata --name gcdata
-$ rvm use 1.9.2-p180 # your regular ruby
-$ rvm use 1.9.2-p180-gcdata # your patched ruby
-```
-
-And it's done! You have installed a patched Ruby interpreter.
-
-#### Install From Source
-
-This process is a bit more complicated, but straightforward nonetheless. If
-you've never compiled a Ruby binary before, follow these steps to build a
-Ruby binary inside your home directory.
-
-##### Download and Extract
-
-```bash
-$ mkdir rubygc
-$ wget <the version you want from ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby>
-$ tar -xzvf <ruby-version.tar.gz>
-$ cd <ruby-version>
-```
-
-##### Apply the Patch
-
-```bash
-$ curl https://raw.github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm/master/patches/ruby/1.9.2/p180/gcdata.patch | patch -p0 # if you're on 1.9.2!
-```
-
-##### Configure and Install
-
-The following will install Ruby in your home directory's `/rubygc` directory.
-Make sure to replace `<homedir>` with a full patch to your actual home
-directory.
-
-```bash
-$ ./configure --prefix=/<homedir>/rubygc
-$ make && make install
-```
-
-##### Prepare Aliases
-
-For convenience, add the following lines in your `~/.profile`:
-
-```bash
-alias gcruby='~/rubygc/bin/ruby'
-alias gcrake='~/rubygc/bin/rake'
-alias gcgem='~/rubygc/bin/gem'
-alias gcirb='~/rubygc/bin/irb'
-alias gcrails='~/rubygc/bin/rails'
-```
-
-Don't forget to use your aliases from now on.
-
-### Using Ruby-Prof on MRI and REE
-
-Add Ruby-Prof to your applications' Gemfile if you want to benchmark/profile
-under MRI or REE:
-
-```ruby
-gem 'ruby-prof'
-```
-
-Now run `bundle install` and you're ready to go.
-
-Command Line Tools
-------------------
-
-Writing performance test cases could be an overkill when you are looking for one
-time tests. Rails ships with two command line tools that enable quick and dirty
-performance testing:
-
-### `benchmarker`
-
-Usage:
-
-```bash
-Usage: rails benchmarker 'Ruby.code' 'Ruby.more_code' ... [OPTS]
- -r, --runs N Number of runs.
- Default: 4
- -o, --output PATH Directory to use when writing the results.
- Default: tmp/performance
- -m, --metrics a,b,c Metrics to use.
- Default: wall_time,memory,objects,gc_runs,gc_time
-```
-
-Example:
-
-```bash
-$ rails benchmarker 'Item.all' 'CouchItem.all' --runs 3 --metrics wall_time,memory
-```
-
-### `profiler`
-
-Usage:
-
-```bash
-Usage: rails profiler 'Ruby.code' 'Ruby.more_code' ... [OPTS]
- -r, --runs N Number of runs.
- Default: 1
- -o, --output PATH Directory to use when writing the results.
- Default: tmp/performance
- -m, --metrics a,b,c Metrics to use.
- Default: process_time,memory,objects
- -f, --formats x,y,z Formats to output to.
- Default: flat,graph_html,call_tree
-```
-
-Example:
-
-```bash
-$ rails profiler 'Item.all' 'CouchItem.all' --runs 2 --metrics process_time --formats flat
-```
-
-NOTE: Metrics and formats vary from interpreter to interpreter. Pass `--help` to
-each tool to see the defaults for your interpreter.
-
-Helper Methods
---------------
-
-Rails provides various helper methods inside Active Record, Action Controller
-and Action View to measure the time taken by a given piece of code. The method
-is called `benchmark()` in all the three components.
-
-### Model
-
-```ruby
-Project.benchmark("Creating project") do
- project = Project.create("name" => "stuff")
- project.create_manager("name" => "David")
- project.milestones << Milestone.all
-end
-```
-
-This benchmarks the code enclosed in the `Project.benchmark("Creating project") do...end`
-block and prints the result to the log file:
-
-```ruby
-Creating project (185.3ms)
-```
-
-Please refer to the [API docs](http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveSupport/Benchmarkable.html#method-i-benchmark)
-for additional options to `benchmark()`.
-
-### Controller
-
-Similarly, you could use this helper method inside [controllers.](http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveSupport/Benchmarkable.html)
-
-```ruby
-def process_projects
- benchmark("Processing projects") do
- Project.process(params[:project_ids])
- Project.update_cached_projects
- end
-end
-```
-
-NOTE: `benchmark` is a class method inside controllers.
-
-### View
-
-And in [views](http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveSupport/Benchmarkable.html:)
-
-```erb
-<% benchmark("Showing projects partial") do %>
- <%= render @projects %>
-<% end %>
-```
-
-Request Logging
----------------
-
-Rails log files contain very useful information about the time taken to serve
-each request. Here's a typical log file entry:
-
-```bash
-Processing ItemsController#index (for 127.0.0.1 at 2009-01-08 03:06:39) [GET]
-Rendering template within layouts/items
-Rendering items/index
-Completed in 5ms (View: 2, DB: 0) | 200 OK [http://0.0.0.0/items]
-```
-
-For this section, we're only interested in the last line:
-
-```bash
-Completed in 5ms (View: 2, DB: 0) | 200 OK [http://0.0.0.0/items]
-```
-
-This data is fairly straightforward to understand. Rails uses millisecond(ms) as
-the metric to measure the time taken. The complete request spent 5 ms inside
-Rails, out of which 2 ms were spent rendering views and none was spent
-communication with the database. It's safe to assume that the remaining 3 ms
-were spent inside the controller.
-
-Michael Koziarski has an [interesting blog post](http://www.therailsway.com/2009/1/6/requests-per-second)
-explaining the importance of using milliseconds as the metric.
-
-Useful Links
-------------
-
-### Rails Plugins and Gems
-
-* [Rails Analyzer](http://rails-analyzer.rubyforge.org)
-* [Rails Footnotes](https://github.com/josevalim/rails-footnotes/tree/master)
-* [Query Reviewer](https://github.com/nesquena/query_reviewer)
-* [MiniProfiler](http://www.miniprofiler.com)
-
-### Generic Tools
-
-* [httperf](http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/linux/httperf/)
-* [ab](http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/programs/ab.html)
-* [JMeter](http://jakarta.apache.org/jmeter/)
-* [kcachegrind](http://kcachegrind.sourceforge.net/html/Home.html)
-
-### Tutorials and Documentation
-
-* [ruby-prof API Documentation](http://ruby-prof.rubyforge.org)
-* [Request Profiling Railscast](http://railscasts.com/episodes/98-request-profiling) - Outdated, but useful for understanding call graphs.
-
-Commercial Products
--------------------
-
-Rails has been lucky to have a few companies dedicated to Rails-specific
-performance tools. A couple of those are:
-
-* [New Relic](http://www.newrelic.com)
-* [Scout](http://scoutapp.com)