1. Ruby Performance Secrets and
How to Uncover Them
http://www.slideshare.net/adymo/adymo-rubyconf-performance

2. Who am I?
Alexander Dymo
C/C++ since 2000
Ruby/Rails since 2006
Started to optimize back in 2007
Never stopped since then

3. Rails Performance: What You Need to Know
https://www.airpair.com/ruby-on-rails/performance
Make Your Ruby/Rails App Fast: Performance And Memory
Profiling Using ruby-prof and Kcachegrind
http://www.acunote.com/blog/2008/02/make-your-ruby-rails-applications-fast-performance-and-memory-profiling.html
Ruby Performance Tuning
http://theprosegarden.com/contents-of-recent-issues/#10-14

4. Ruby
Performance
The first comprehensive book
on Ruby Performance
I'm 50% done. Beta soon.
ruby-performance-book.com

5. Big thanks to:

6. What do we talk about today?
Performance tips
Performance best practices

7. What do we talk about today?
Performance tips
Performance best practices
How to understand what's wrong
How to find your own performance tips/best practices

8. In examples

9. Example 1

10. What can go wrong with this code?

11. What can go wrong with this code?

12. This was faster

14. 100-200ms faster
Sometimes
…

15. Smells like...

16. https:// www.flickr.com/photos/timquijano/5720765523/

17. Let's check what happens:

18. Let's profile memory allocations
Need patched ruby
rvm reinstall 1.9.3 --patch railsexpress
rvm reinstall 2.0.0 --patch railsexpress
rvm reinstall 2.1.4 --patch railsexpress

19. Let's profile memory allocations
Need profiler
gem install ruby-prof

20. Let's profile memory allocations
Need visualization tool
Mac:
brew install qcachegrind
Linux:
<your package manager> install kcachegrind
Windows:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/qcachegrindwin/

21. Let's profile memory allocations
ruby-prof -p call_tree –mode=allocations before.rb >
callgrind.out.before
ruby-prof -p call_tree –mode=allocations after.rb >
callgrind.out.after
kcachegrind callgrind.out.before
kcachegrind callgrind.out.after

25. static VALUE enum_inject(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE obj)
{
NODE *memo;
VALUE init, op;
rb_block_call_func *iter = inject_i;
…
memo = NEW_MEMO(init, argc, op);
rb_block_call(obj, id_each, 0, 0, iter, (VALUE)memo);
return memo->u1.value;
}

26. > gdb `rbenv which ruby`
GNU gdb (GDB) SUSE (7.5.1-2.5.1)
Reading symbols from
/home/gremlin/.rbenv/versions/2.1.4/bin/ruby...done.
(gdb)

27. (gdb) l enum_inject
632 * longest
#=> "sheep"
633 *
634 */
635 static VALUE
636 enum_inject(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE obj)
637 {
638 NODE *memo;
639 VALUE init, op;
640 rb_block_call_func *iter = inject_i;
641 ID id;
(gdb)

28. 636 enum_inject(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE obj)
637 {
638 NODE *memo;
639 VALUE init, op;
640 rb_block_call_func *iter = inject_i;
641 ID id;
(gdb) b 638
Breakpoint 1 at 0x1cbc0a: file enum.c, line 638.
(gdb)

29. (gdb) r -e '[1,2,3].inject {}'
Starting program:
/home/gremlin/.rbenv/versions/2.1.4/bin/ruby -e
'[1,2,3].inject {}'
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
Using host libthread_db library "/lib64/libthread_db.so.1".
[New Thread 0x7ffff7ff2700 (LWP 3893)]
Breakpoint 1, enum_inject (argc=0, argv=<optimized out>,
obj=93825001586240) at enum.c:640
640 rb_block_call_func *iter = inject_i;
(gdb)

30. 640 rb_block_call_func *iter = inject_i;
(gdb) n
665 memo = NEW_MEMO(init, argc, op);
(gdb)

31. 640 rb_block_call_func *iter = inject_i;
(gdb) n
665 memo = NEW_MEMO(init, argc, op);
(gdb) n
666 rb_block_call(obj, id_each, 0, 0, iter,
(VALUE)memo);
(gdb)

32. 640 rb_block_call_func *iter = inject_i;
(gdb) n
665 memo = NEW_MEMO(init, argc, op);
(gdb) n
666 rb_block_call(obj, id_each, 0, 0, iter,
(VALUE)memo);
(gdb) s
rb_block_call (obj=93825001586240, mid=1456, argc=0,
argv=0x0, bl_proc=0x555555722460 <inject_i>,
data2=93825001586200) at vm_eval.c:1142
1142 {
(gdb)

33. 640 rb_block_call_func *iter = inject_i;
(gdb) n
665 memo = NEW_MEMO(init, argc, op);
(gdb) n
666 rb_block_call(obj, id_each, 0, 0, iter,
(VALUE)memo);
(gdb) s
rb_block_call (obj=93825001586240, mid=1456, argc=0,
argv=0x0, bl_proc=0x555555722460 <inject_i>,
data2=93825001586200) at vm_eval.c:1142
1142 {
(gdb) s
1145 arg.obj = obj;
(gdb)

34. 640 rb_block_call_func *iter = inject_i;
(gdb) n
665 memo = NEW_MEMO(init, argc, op);
(gdb) n
666 rb_block_call(obj, id_each, 0, 0, iter,
(VALUE)memo);
(gdb) s
rb_block_call (obj=93825001586240, mid=1456, argc=0,
argv=0x0, bl_proc=0x555555722460 <inject_i>,
data2=93825001586200) at vm_eval.c:1142
1142 {
(gdb) s
1145 arg.obj = obj;
(gdb) s
1146 arg.mid = mid;
(gdb)

35. 640 rb_block_call_func *iter = inject_i;
(gdb) n
665 memo = NEW_MEMO(init, argc, op);
(gdb) n
666 rb_block_call(obj, id_each, 0, 0, iter,
(VALUE)memo);
(gdb) s
rb_block_call (obj=93825001586240, mid=1456, argc=0,
argv=0x0, bl_proc=0x555555722460 <inject_i>,
data2=93825001586200) at vm_eval.c:1142
1142 {
(gdb) s
1145 arg.obj = obj;
(gdb) s
1146 arg.mid = mid;
(gdb) s
1147 arg.argc = argc;
(gdb)

36. (gdb) s
1147 arg.argc = argc;
(gdb) s
1148 arg.argv = argv;
(gdb)

37. (gdb) s
1147 arg.argc = argc;
(gdb) s
1148 arg.argv = argv;
(gdb) s
1149 return rb_iterate(iterate_method, (VALUE)&arg,
bl_proc, data2);
(gdb)

38. (gdb) s
1147 arg.argc = argc;
(gdb) s
1148 arg.argv = argv;
(gdb) s
1149 return rb_iterate(iterate_method, (VALUE)&arg,
bl_proc, data2);
(gdb) s
rb_iterate (it_proc=it_proc@entry=0x5555556c0790
<iterate_method>, data1=data1@entry=140737488340304,
bl_proc=0x555555722460 <inject_i>, data2=93825001586200)
at vm_eval.c:1054
1054 {
(gdb)

39. (gdb) s
1147 arg.argc = argc;
(gdb) s
1148 arg.argv = argv;
(gdb) s
1149 return rb_iterate(iterate_method, (VALUE)&arg,
bl_proc, data2);
(gdb) s
rb_iterate (it_proc=it_proc@entry=0x5555556c0790
<iterate_method>, data1=data1@entry=140737488340304,
bl_proc=0x555555722460 <inject_i>, data2=93825001586200)
at vm_eval.c:1054
1054 {
(gdb) s
1057 NODE *node = NEW_IFUNC(bl_proc, data2);
(gdb)

40. (gdb) s
1147 arg.argc = argc;
(gdb) s
1148 arg.argv = argv;
(gdb) s
1149 return rb_iterate(iterate_method, (VALUE)&arg,
bl_proc, data2);
(gdb) s
rb_iterate (it_proc=it_proc@entry=0x5555556c0790
<iterate_method>, data1=data1@entry=140737488340304,
bl_proc=0x555555722460 <inject_i>, data2=93825001586200)
at vm_eval.c:1054
1054 {
(gdb) s
1057 NODE *node = NEW_IFUNC(bl_proc, data2);
(gdb)

41. static VALUE enum_inject(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE obj)
{
NODE *memo;
VALUE init, op;
rb_block_call_func *iter = inject_i;
…
memo = NEW_MEMO(init, argc, op);
rb_block_call(obj, id_each, 0, 0, iter, (VALUE)memo);
return memo->u1.value;
}

42. VALUE rb_block_call(…)
{
…
return rb_iterate(iterate_method,
(VALUE)&arg, bl_proc, data2);
}
VALUE rb_iterate(…)
{
int state;
volatile VALUE retval = Qnil;
NODE *node = NEW_IFUNC(bl_proc, data2);
…
}

43. 2 T_NODE's per inject() call

44. 10000.times { [].inject }
20000 extra T_NODE objects
some work for GC

46. Ruby
Performance
More in my book
ruby-performance-book.com

47. Lessons learned:
1. use profiler to understand why your code is slow
2. use C debugger to understand Ruby behavior

48. Example 2

49. What's the difference?
str = 'a'*1024*1024*10
str = str.gsub('a', 'b')
str = 'a'*1024*1024*10
str.gsub!('a', 'b')

50. str = 'a'*1024*1024*10
str = str.gsub('a', 'b')
str = 'a'*1024*1024*10
str.gsub!('a', 'b')
replaces 'a' with 'b'
creates a new object
reuses "str" name
replaces 'a' with 'b'
changes the original

51. Supposedly

52. Let's profile memory usage
ruby-prof -p call_tree –mode=memory after.rb >
callgrind.out.after
kcachegrind callgrind.out.after

54. So, gsub! doesn't save any memory

55. So, gsub! doesn't save any memory
… except one slot on Ruby heap

56. So, gsub! doesn't save any memory
except one slot on Ruby heap
… which is 40 bytes

57. Not all bang! functions are the same
str = 'a'*1024*1024*10
str.downcase!
ruby-prof -p call_tree –mode=memory downcase.rb >
callgrind.out.downcase
kcachegrind callgrind.out.downcase

59. Lessons learned:
1. profile memory
2. challenge all tips/tricks/best practices

60. Conclusions
1. Don't guess. Profile.
2. Guess. Profile.
3. Profile not only CPU, but Memory.
4. Look at the source, use GDB if not enlightened.
5. Challenge all tips/tricks. Understand instead.

61. Big thanks to:

62. Ruby
Performance
ruby-performance-book.com
airpair.me/adymo
@alexander_dymo