shoney.arickathil
0b618ace19
databasev2 4 part A, task 6. Mostly documentation, plus one real fix the
full battery caught.
THE FIX. The drain held EVERY DB reply until the barrier — including
reads, which stage nothing and have no stake in durability. That parked
readers behind an fsync for no reason: durable.sN.mixread.p99 rose from
~1043us to 4057us. Only a statement that actually staged a record now has
its reply held. Caught by the gate, not by review.
THE TRADE, recorded rather than smoothed over. What remains is inherent: a
barrier blocks the owner shard LONGER (more records per fsync) though LESS
OFTEN, so anything queued behind one waits. Three full runs of the same
build gave durable.sN.mixread.p99 of 1043 / 2318 / 4147us and wmix.p99 of
8758 / 20000us — a 2-4x spread with the box near idle. So part A buys ~3x
write throughput at the cost of a longer, noisier tail on the owner shard,
and that is the strongest argument for part B (submit and keep serving).
- durable.sN.*.p99us tolerance widened to 100% WITH the reason in the
code: a 2-4x-variable tail gated at 50% gates the disk, not the engine.
The floor is the real guard and is not slack — mixread's (4172us) came
within 25us of tripping on the worst run. Baseline refreshed; a fresh
full run then passed 106 checks 0 failures
EXIT STATUS MOVED 3 -> 74 (sysexits EX_IOERR). 3 and 4 are already used by
SAMPLES for their own meanings — db-bench's own `verify` exits 3 on a
checksum mismatch, and it is the gate that exercises durability, so a
durability abort exiting 3 would have been indistinguishable from the
mismatch it should help diagnose. The low range belongs to programs.
Docs:
- story: progress, the payoff measured two ways, the cost side, criteria
split met/outstanding, and a "part B — its premise changed" section:
it was justified by "close the 66x gap", but that gap is two problems
and only the concurrent one was a batching problem
- board: standup entry in the six-question shape; both databasev2 4 rows
rewritten. They had said "close the 66x gap" — recorded as MIS-STATED
rather than quietly renumbered
- 00-wob-format.md and 04-db-binding.md: the normative failure contract
("a failed WAL commit traps WO_T_IO after un-applying the row") was
false; corrected, along with the tick-scoped group commit that never
happened
- database/src/CODE-LOGIC.md: where the barrier runs and why there, why
replies are held, why the inline path is asymmetric, the one failure
rule, and how to measure it
- db-bench README: the wmix mode, the env knobs, and the tmpfs warning
Battery: wovm-test 36 suites 0 fail, woc-test, oop-e2e 119/0,
db-bench 106/0, linkcheck clean.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
168 lines
8.6 KiB
Markdown
168 lines
8.6 KiB
Markdown
# Performance targets — measured, named, waiting
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A register like [`discarded.md`](discarded.md)/[`learnings.md`](learnings.md):
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optimization candidates that exist because a NUMBER says so, not a
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hunch. Every row cites its measurement (the db-bench campaign,
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`bench/baseline.json`, or the [go-sqlite comparison](../../bench/compare/go-sqlite/README.md))
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and names an owner iteration when one exists. A target leaves this file
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by landing (delta recorded in the baseline) or by being rejected into
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`discarded.md` with its reason.
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## 1. The write path — update-through-query re-probes, insert re-encodes
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**Measured 2026-08-22** (go-sqlite comparison, N=20k, same machine,
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ext4): ram mixed writes 195,465 ops/s vs SQLite's 380,069 (×1.9
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behind); durable mixed writes 2,324 vs 3,257 (×1.4 behind) — while
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writeonce WINS durable seed ×1.4 and reads ×2.6–6.4. The write gap is
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specifically the UPDATE half of the mix.
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Suspected costs, in probable order (attribute before optimizing — the
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C-API microbench the 22 spec reserves exists for exactly this):
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1. **Update-through-query runs a whole query statement per update**:
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probe (now O(1)) + materialize an id `multi` (arena alloc) +
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`DB_GET_FIELD`/`DB_UPDATE_FIELD` builtin round-trips per touched
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field. SQLite's equivalent is one page write inside one statement.
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2. **`wo_row_update_field` walks every index three times** (shadow
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unique check, old-entry removal, new-entry add — three
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`touches`-loops over `t->indexes` per update; see
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`database/src/table.c`).
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3. **Insert encodes per field with a malloc per text/owned value**
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(`db_val_encode`) — visible as ram seed ×1.2 behind SQLite (245k vs
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297k) even though the durable flavor wins.
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4. **A WAL update record re-encodes the whole row**
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(`wo_wal_append_update` writes the row image, not a delta).
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**Owner:** none yet. Sequence note: iteration 23 (io_uring
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group-commit) rewrites the durable write path's syscall story anyway —
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re-measure after 23 lands, then decide whether the RAM-side costs
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(1–3) earn their own slice. Acceptance shape: ram write ops/s closes
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on SQLite's number with reads unharmed; baseline refreshed with the
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delta recorded.
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## 2. Cross-shard DB RPC halves concurrent read throughput
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**Measured 2026-08-22** (db-bench campaign): ram mixread 89,538 ops/s
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single-shard vs 44,918 at default cores; durable 9,211 vs 4,324. The
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DB actor serializes every statement on shard 0 and each op pays an
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envelope + park/unpark round-trip.
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**Owner: by design, priced deliberately** (story 8's settled decision
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1 — rejected alternatives: engine lock, partitioned tables "wait for a
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measured need"). THIS is the measured need's first data point; the
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recorded escalation path is partitioned/replicated read state, only if
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a real workload (iteration 24's chat) hurts. Not actionable before 24.
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## 3. The mutex inbox costs ~6× on cross-shard message rate
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**Measured 2026-08-22**: 16.7M msgs/s same-heap vs 2.85M cross-shard
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(`msgrate`). **Owner: iteration 31** (mailbox/backpressure decisions
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consume this number) and stage-2 deviation 4 (lock-free rings arrive
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only if the mutex is the measured bottleneck — at 2.85M msgs/s it is
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not the limiting factor for any current workload).
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## 4. Durable write throughput is fsync-bound at ~4.5k/s
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**Measured 2026-08-21**: durable seed 4,460 inserts/s vs ram 245k —
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the ~55× gap is one fdatasync per statement (~220µs each).
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**Owner: iteration 23** (io_uring group-commit) — its acceptance is
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literally this number moving while the crash battery stays green.
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## 6. WAL group commit: one barrier per drain (databasev2 4 part A)
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**Measured 2026-08-28.** Before this, the engine committed per *statement*:
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`db.c` called `wo_wal_commit` immediately after every append, so each row
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change bought its own `pwrite` + `fdatasync`. Now shard 0 stages every queued
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write request, issues one barrier, and only then releases the held replies.
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### The controlled before/after
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Same machine, same workload (`wmix 4000 32` — every op a durable update, 32
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concurrent), same build except `db.c` and `vm.c`, two runs each, interleaved:
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| | ops/sec | p50 | p99 |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- |
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| per-statement barrier | 2213 · 2177 | 7183 · 7251 µs | **20000 · 20000 µs** |
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| group commit | **6216 · 6525** | **3458 · 3444 µs** | 11139 · 5971 µs |
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**≈2.9× throughput, ≈2.1× lower p50.**
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**The p99 "before" figure is at the histogram ceiling, not a measurement.**
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`hist_add` clamps at 20000 µs, and both before-runs pinned there — so the true
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before p99 is ≥20 ms and unknown. The improvement is *at least* 2.3×; the
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honest statement is that the old p99 was off the end of the instrument.
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### Confirmation from the committed baseline
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The full campaign gives the same answer a second way. `s1` takes the inline
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path, which commits per statement **by design**, so within one build the two
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shard configurations are batching-off against batching-on:
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| Leg | ops/sec | p50 | p99 | mean batch | peak batch |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
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| `durable.s1.wmix` (inline, unbatched) | 1467 | 455 µs | 721 µs | **1.0** | 1 |
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| `durable.sN.wmix` (batched) | **5117** | 8208 µs | 12169 µs | **5.43** | 57 |
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3.5× throughput, agreeing with the 2.9× above. Note `sN` latency is *higher*
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while throughput is 3.5× better: 64 writers queueing behind one owner shard
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trade per-op latency for barrier amortisation, which is what group commit is.
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Batching scales with write concurrency exactly as designed — mean batch at
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C = 4 / 16 / 64 was **1.13 / 1.76 / 5.35**, peak **3 / 10 / 39**.
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### What did NOT improve, and why that was predicted
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`durable.sN.mixwrite` went **480 → 492 ops/s** — unchanged. That is the metric
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the spec *originally* named as the payoff, and correcting it was part of the
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brainstorm: `mix` writes on one op in ten with C=4, so a quick run performs
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**20 writes** and mean batch measured **1.01** over 3112 barriers. A workload
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that never has two writes in flight cannot be helped by batching them.
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`durable.*.seed` is likewise unchanged: a serial single writer has nothing to
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batch with under any scheme.
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**So the payoff is real but conditional: it appears exactly where concurrent
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durable writes fan into the owner shard, and nowhere else.**
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### Two traps worth recording
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**Do not benchmark durability on `/tmp`.** It is `tmpfs` here, where
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`fdatasync` is free — the same `wmix` run reported **195 000 ops/s at p50 1 µs**
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there against **2200 ops/s at p50 7200 µs** on ext4. There is no barrier to
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amortise on a memory filesystem, so a group-commit measurement taken there
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measures nothing. `db-bench` gets this right by keeping its stores under
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`bench/`.
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**The record count is not the update count.** `wmix` staged 7755 records for
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4000 updates because the histogram dump and the done-marker are themselves
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durable inserts. They arrive as an end-of-run burst, which is batch-friendly,
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so `mean_batch` is not purely update-driven. Peak staged bytes stayed small
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(2793 B at C=64), which is what settled the decision to ship **no batch cap**:
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the request queue's existing upstream bound is sufficient.
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### The cost side: tail latency on the owner shard
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Group commit is a trade, and the full battery made the other side of it visible.
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**A bug first, caught by `durable.sN.mixread.p99`.** The drain initially held
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*every* DB reply until the barrier — including **reads**, which stage nothing and
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have no stake in durability. That parked readers behind an fsync for no reason
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and pushed read p99 from ~1043 µs to **4057 µs**. Reads are now released
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immediately; only a statement that actually staged a record has its reply held.
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**What remains is inherent, not a bug.** A barrier now blocks the owner shard
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**longer** (more records per fsync) even though it blocks **less often**, so
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anything arriving during a barrier — reads included — waits behind it. Measured
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across three full runs of the same build, `durable.sN.mixread.p99` came in at
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**1043 / 2318 / 4147 µs** and `wmix.p99` at **8758 / 20000 µs**, a 2–4× spread
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with the box near idle.
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So the honest summary of part A on a single-threaded owner shard: **~3× write
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throughput, at the price of a longer and noisier tail for everything queued
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behind a barrier.** That is precisely what part B (async submission — submit the
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barrier and keep serving) would undo, and it is a better argument for part B than
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the "close the 66× gap" framing part B was originally given.
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**Gating consequence.** `durable.sN.*.p99us` now carries a 100% tolerance,
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because a 2–4×-variable tail gated at 50% gates the disk rather than the engine.
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The **floor** is the real guard there, and it is not slack: `mixread`'s floor
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(4172 µs) came within 25 µs of tripping on the worst observed run.
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