shoney.arickathil
a873cf7331
- `randread N R` in the sample: fill N rows, read R across the WHOLE range - Weyl order `i*2654435761 mod n` — no RNG in the language, none needed; both legs read the SAME key order so residency is the only variable - `randread` driver leg: control (256 MiB, does not bind) vs over-cap (6 MiB + swap), sizes kept modest — quick resolves it in ~5s - gates the RATIO, not the absolutes: over-cap reads/sec belongs to the box's swap device, the factor between two runs belongs to the engine - reads must all resolve (hits == R) or the leg fails; a collapse measured over unresolved reads is noise - 133 checks, 0 failures; gate bites on a doctored collapse_x Measured — this closes the gap the swap leg left: - resident 1 851 166 reads/sec, p50 0us p99 1us - over-cap 6 771 reads/sec, p50 128us p99 487us - 273x throughput, ~480x p99, all 20 000 reads resolving in both - so the two access patterns sit ~270x apart under identical pressure: append-mostly insert ~1%, random read 273x - departure is a STEP not a curve (1us -> 487us, nothing between), which is why p99_departure_decile finds no knee — there is none - caveat recorded, NOT inherited: this is demand-paged anonymous memory through swap (4 KiB/fault, no readahead). `resident: keys` preads via the page cache — should be better, but databasev2 2 task 7 must measure its own read path. New criterion added there Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
191 lines
9.5 KiB
Markdown
191 lines
9.5 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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## 5. The RAM ceiling: footprint, and how the engine actually dies
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**Measured 2026-08-27** (databasev2 1), rootless cgroup v2 via
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`systemd-run --user --scope -p MemoryMax=N -p MemorySwapMax=M`, dev box.
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### Per-row resident footprint, by shape
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| Shape | Columns | Steady-state | Doubling steps |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- |
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| Int-only (`Item`) | 2× Int + 1 ref | **96.5 B/row** | at ~24k and ~48k rows |
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| Text-heavy (`Wide`) | 1× Int + 3× Text | **320.6 B/row** | at ~24k and ~48k rows |
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**3.3×**, not the "order of magnitude" an earlier doc asserted. Two shapes are
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published, never one number: a `Text` column is a separate `db_text` allocation
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per row on top of the slab slot, so a row count cannot bound RAM.
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**Read the steady-state figure as the median of per-interval marginals, not a
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two-point slope.** The id hash and index buckets are open-addressing pow2 and
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double periodically; a two-point slope lands arbitrarily on or off a doubling
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and swings 2× (96 vs 205 B/row measured for the same shape). The doublings are
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reported separately because a **transient RSS step is exactly what a
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resident-footprint budget must leave headroom for** — a budget without it fires
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during a rehash rather than at a steady-state threshold. Direct input to
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databasev2 2's budget design.
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### How it dies — and it is not the way the docs claimed
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| Allocator | Ceiling | Failure mode |
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| --- | --- | --- |
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| VM object arena | `WO_HEAP_MB`, checked | `trap 4 … out of memory`, rc=1, reportable. Verified at 4 and 16 MiB |
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| table storage (slabs + heap values) | **none** | **SIGKILL, signal 9** (shell rc 137). Verified at 360 000 rows / 57 188 KiB under a 64 MiB cap |
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Three docs asserted that an allocation failure surfaces as a catchable
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`WO_T_OOM`. For table storage it does not: `vm.overcommit_memory = 0` means
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`malloc` succeeds and the kernel kills the process when it *touches* the pages,
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so the checked-`malloc` code never runs. The trap path is real, but it is the
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arena's.
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**Consequence, and the strongest available argument for databasev2 2's byte
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budget:** a declared budget is the *only* way table storage can acquire a
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checked ceiling, because `malloc` under default overcommit will never report a
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problem. **Owner: databasev2 2.**
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### Swap: the ceiling that does not announce itself
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| Leg | 900 000 Int rows, 64 MiB cap | Wall | Final RSS |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- |
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| swap OFF (`MemorySwapMax=0`) | **SIGKILL at 360 000 rows** | — | 57 188 KiB |
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| swap ON (256 MiB) | **completed, exit 0** | **148 s** | 62 264 KiB (rest paged out) |
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| uncapped | completed, exit 0 | **150 s** | 169 416 KiB |
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**Swap cost ~1%.** A prior draft predicted "latency collapse"; the prediction had
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the wrong sign. Inserting is append-mostly, so cold pages are written once and
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never re-read — paging is sequential and off the critical path. The swap device
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is a real disk file (`/swap.img`; no zram, zswap disabled), so this is genuine
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disk paging.
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**Do not generalise this to "swap is fine".** It measures an append-mostly
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workload — and the opposite pattern was then measured too, below.
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The operational consequence is that the RAM ceiling has two shapes and neither
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reports itself: without swap the process vanishes on signal 9, with swap it
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keeps returning 0 while serving from disk. A budget that fires at a *declared
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threshold* is the only one that can speak before either happens.
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### Durability across the ceiling
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60 000 Int rows, 8 MiB cap, swap off, `WO_DATA` set — the process is OOM-killed
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mid-insert, then replayed:
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| Claim | Result |
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| --- | --- |
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| the survivor is a contiguous prefix | ✅ ~40 000 rows, rows 1..M all present |
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| every surviving row's payload is correct | ✅ every `v` matches `item_v(i)` |
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| the truncated tail is not read as corruption | ✅ replay exits 0 |
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**Ack-after-fsync holds through an OOM kill** — the one shutdown path that skips
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every cleanup handler. Gated as `db-bench`'s `ceiling` leg, which asserts the
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*shape* of the survivor rather than its size: where the SIGKILL lands is the
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scheduler's business, so `rows_recovered` carries ±100% tolerance. The leg
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asserts the exit but never records it as a metric, so that when databasev2 2's
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byte budget turns the kill into a checked refusal, the gate does not fail on the
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improvement.
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### Random reads over an oversized table: 273×
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60 000 Int rows, both legs reading the **same** Weyl key order
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(`i*2654435761 mod n`), differing only in the cap:
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| Leg | Cap | Throughput | p50 | p99 |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
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| all resident | 256 MiB | **1 851 166 reads/s** | 0 µs | **1 µs** |
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| over-cap, swap on | 6 MiB | **6 771 reads/s** | 128 µs | **487 µs** |
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All 20 000 reads resolved in both legs, so this is the cost of faulting pages
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back, not of failed lookups. Swap-off is not an option in this configuration —
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it is SIGKILLed.
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**The two access patterns are ~270× apart under identical memory pressure:**
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| Pattern | Cost of exceeding RAM |
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| --- | --- |
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| append-mostly insert | **~1%** (cold pages written once, never re-read) |
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| random read across the table | **273×** |
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**Departure is a step, not a curve.** 1 µs to 487 µs with nothing in between —
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`p99_departure_decile` looks for a gentle knee that does not exist. Residency is
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close to binary, which is why a budget must fire at a *declared* threshold: there
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is no early warning in the latency signal to react to.
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**Mechanism caveat, and it is a design input for databasev2 2.** This is
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demand-paging of *anonymous slab memory* through swap — 4 KiB per fault, no
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readahead. `resident: keys` instead `pread`s rows from the WAL, through the
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**page cache**: same physical constraint, different mechanism, plausibly a better
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constant because file reads get readahead and a shared cache. **That is a
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hypothesis.** 273× bounds what *swapping* costs; iteration 2 must measure its own
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read path rather than inherit this figure.
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Gated as `db-bench`'s `randread` leg, which gates the **ratio** — the absolute
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reads/sec of the over-cap half is the box's swap device, while the factor between
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two runs differing only in their cap is the engine's.
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