microbench

A node.js module for microbenchmarking which includes:

• A basic set of JS language construct microbenchmarks.
• An ad hoc microbenchmark framework for synchronous based testing.

Motovation

This module is primarily intended for my personal consumption and grew out of the need to easily create, execute and archive microbenchmarks which help guide implementation decisions when performance is a priority. It's creation was also a partial learning experience in further understanding the optimizations that V8 makes on your JS code.

That said, the code found here was thrown together very quickly (a few hrs) and is not documented nor the prettiest src in the world.

Finally, we all know microbenchmarks should be taken with a grain of salt and used in accordance with project goals... This is standard stuff, so no further divulgence.

Results

A sample of microbenchmark results can be found under the results directory.

Installation via git repo

The easiest way to run the microbenchmarks is to just clone the repo:

git clone https://github.com/bodenr/microbench.git

Then install the dependencies:

npm install

And finally run the test suite:

./bin/microbench

Installation via npm

The module is also package via npm and can be installed with:

npm install microbench

To run the benchmarks:

cd node_modules/microbench
./bin/microbench

The microbench command

The module contains a simple microbench binary to run benchmarks which can be found under the /bin directory of the module.

It supports the following options:

  Usage: microbench [options]

  Options:

    -h, --help               output usage information
    -V, --version            output the version number
    -b, --benchmarks <path>  directory containing benchmark js files [./benchmarks]
    -a, --archive [path]     archive results in markdown format [./results]
    -g, --grep <pattern>     select benchmarks by name or pattern
    -u, --ungrep <pattern>   unselect benchmarks by name or pattern
    -o, --only <pattern>     only run categories who's name includes the pattern
    -s, --skip <pattern>     skip categories who's name includes the pattern

Some examples...

Run all benchmark js files under /home/boden/projects/js/benchmarks:

microbench -b /home/boden/projects/js/benchmarks

Run only benchmark js files which contain simple in the name found under /home/boden/projects/js/benchmarks:

microbench -b /home/boden/projects/js/benchmarks -g simple

Run all benchmark js files which don't contain long in the name found under /home/boden/projects/js/benchmarks:

microbench -b /home/boden/projects/js/benchmarks -u long

Run all benchmark js file which contain type in the filename and who's category contains the string prototype:

microbench -g type -o prototype

By default microbench uses a cli-table to display output:

You can ask it to archive your bench results in markdown format using the -a option. For example to run all benchmark js files under ./benchmarks and archive them under /tmp/benchmark/results use:

microbench -a /tmp/benchmark/results

License

(The MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2012 Boden Russell <bodensemail@gmail.com>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.