t / perf / READMEon commit Merge branch 'jk/war-on-sprintf' into maint-2.7 (50b4a78)
   1Git performance tests
   2=====================
   3
   4This directory holds performance testing scripts for git tools.  The
   5first part of this document describes the various ways in which you
   6can run them.
   7
   8When fixing the tools or adding enhancements, you are strongly
   9encouraged to add tests in this directory to cover what you are
  10trying to fix or enhance.  The later part of this short document
  11describes how your test scripts should be organized.
  12
  13
  14Running Tests
  15-------------
  16
  17The easiest way to run tests is to say "make".  This runs all
  18the tests on the current git repository.
  19
  20    === Running 2 tests in this tree ===
  21    [...]
  22    Test                                     this tree
  23    ---------------------------------------------------------
  24    0001.1: rev-list --all                   0.54(0.51+0.02)
  25    0001.2: rev-list --all --objects         6.14(5.99+0.11)
  26    7810.1: grep worktree, cheap regex       0.16(0.16+0.35)
  27    7810.2: grep worktree, expensive regex   7.90(29.75+0.37)
  28    7810.3: grep --cached, cheap regex       3.07(3.02+0.25)
  29    7810.4: grep --cached, expensive regex   9.39(30.57+0.24)
  30
  31You can compare multiple repositories and even git revisions with the
  32'run' script:
  33
  34    $ ./run . origin/next /path/to/git-tree p0001-rev-list.sh
  35
  36where . stands for the current git tree.  The full invocation is
  37
  38    ./run [<revision|directory>...] [--] [<test-script>...]
  39
  40A '.' argument is implied if you do not pass any other
  41revisions/directories.
  42
  43You can also manually test this or another git build tree, and then
  44call the aggregation script to summarize the results:
  45
  46    $ ./p0001-rev-list.sh
  47    [...]
  48    $ GIT_BUILD_DIR=/path/to/other/git ./p0001-rev-list.sh
  49    [...]
  50    $ ./aggregate.perl . /path/to/other/git ./p0001-rev-list.sh
  51
  52aggregate.perl has the same invocation as 'run', it just does not run
  53anything beforehand.
  54
  55You can set the following variables (also in your config.mak):
  56
  57    GIT_PERF_REPEAT_COUNT
  58        Number of times a test should be repeated for best-of-N
  59        measurements.  Defaults to 3.
  60
  61    GIT_PERF_MAKE_OPTS
  62        Options to use when automatically building a git tree for
  63        performance testing.  E.g., -j6 would be useful.
  64
  65    GIT_PERF_REPO
  66    GIT_PERF_LARGE_REPO
  67        Repositories to copy for the performance tests.  The normal
  68        repo should be at least git.git size.  The large repo should
  69        probably be about linux.git size for optimal results.
  70        Both default to the git.git you are running from.
  71
  72You can also pass the options taken by ordinary git tests; the most
  73useful one is:
  74
  75--root=<directory>::
  76        Create "trash" directories used to store all temporary data during
  77        testing under <directory>, instead of the t/ directory.
  78        Using this option with a RAM-based filesystem (such as tmpfs)
  79        can massively speed up the test suite.
  80
  81
  82Naming Tests
  83------------
  84
  85The performance test files are named as:
  86
  87        pNNNN-commandname-details.sh
  88
  89where N is a decimal digit.  The same conventions for choosing NNNN as
  90for normal tests apply.
  91
  92
  93Writing Tests
  94-------------
  95
  96The perf script starts much like a normal test script, except it
  97sources perf-lib.sh:
  98
  99        #!/bin/sh
 100        #
 101        # Copyright (c) 2005 Junio C Hamano
 102        #
 103
 104        test_description='xxx performance test'
 105        . ./perf-lib.sh
 106
 107After that you will want to use some of the following:
 108
 109        test_perf_default_repo  # sets up a "normal" repository
 110        test_perf_large_repo    # sets up a "large" repository
 111
 112        test_perf_default_repo sub  # ditto, in a subdir "sub"
 113
 114        test_checkout_worktree  # if you need the worktree too
 115
 116At least one of the first two is required!
 117
 118You can use test_expect_success as usual.  For actual performance
 119tests, use
 120
 121        test_perf 'descriptive string' '
 122                command1 &&
 123                command2
 124        '
 125
 126test_perf spawns a subshell, for lack of better options.  This means
 127that
 128
 129* you _must_ export all variables that you need in the subshell
 130
 131* you _must_ flag all variables that you want to persist from the
 132  subshell with 'test_export':
 133
 134        test_perf 'descriptive string' '
 135                foo=$(git rev-parse HEAD) &&
 136                test_export foo
 137        '
 138
 139  The so-exported variables are automatically marked for export in the
 140  shell executing the perf test.  For your convenience, test_export is
 141  the same as export in the main shell.
 142
 143  This feature relies on a bit of magic using 'set' and 'source'.
 144  While we have tried to make sure that it can cope with embedded
 145  whitespace and other special characters, it will not work with
 146  multi-line data.