Primes

Benchmarks

This document describes how to build and run all benchmarks (solutions) for different operating systems that can be automatically executed.

Some solutions are not included in the automated benchmark runs, either because no Dockerfile is included in the solution, or due to legal reasons. We do strive to include all solutions in the automated benchmark runs, if it is technically and legally possible to do so.

Table of contents

What operating system to use?

A Unix-like operating system is the preferred operating system to run this benchmark. Linux and macOS are Unix-like operating systems. This will result in the best performance because the benchmark is based on Unix technologies. Running with Windows or other operating systems is possible but will always require some extra layer of virtualization that impact the performance. Running the benchmark with Windows can have a significant impact on the performance, up to 50%.

General working mechanism

The main directory contains a file named “Makefile”. This Makefile implements the following basic flow:

Linux

Linux run instructions

Take the following steps to run all benchmarks:

  1. Make sure you have installed the required software
  2. Open a terminal.
  3. Make sure Node.js is added to the path. export PATH=/path/to/node/bin:$PATH. For example: export PATH=~/node-v14.17.0-linux-x64/bin:$PATH
  4. git clone https://github.com/PlummersSoftwareLLC/Primes.git
  5. cd Primes
  6. make
  7. All benchmarks will now be build and run one by one. Note that this will take a while, so please wait until this task is complete. The build will only happen the first time. On subsequent runs, only solutions that have changed since the last benchmark run will be rebuilt, which makes those runs a lot faster.
  8. Once complete a report is written to the terminal, see example output.

Linux installation and prerequisites

The following software must be installed:

The details for each required software are described below.

Note: although optional, it’s generally a good idea to update the package database and installed packages before installing new ones. The instructions for doing this vary across distributions. For Debian based distributions, use:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

On a Fedora based distribution:

sudo dnf upgrade --refresh

/bin/bash

Most Linux distributions include /bin/bash by default. If this is not the case for your distribution then please check your distribution specific documentation on how to install.

cc and make

Many Linux distributions will have cc (the C compiler) and make installed by default. If this is not the case for your distribution then please check your distribution specific documentation on how to install them. Below are some examples:

Debian based distributions:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Fedora based distributions:

sudo dnf install make automake gcc gcc-c++ kernel-devel

Git for Linux

Most Linux distributions include git by default. If this is not the case for your distribution then please check your distribution specific documentation. Below are some examples:

Debian based distributions:

sudo apt-get install git

Fedora based distributions:

sudo dnf git

Node.js for Linux

The benchmarks makes use of Node.js to create a report. This requires Node.js version 14.17.0 or higher. The Node.js/npm versions that are included in many OS-provided package managers are too old. This means that it will generally be required to download and install an appropriate version of Node.js from https://nodejs.org/en/download/.

Take the following steps to install Node.js on Linux:

  1. Navigate to https://nodejs.org/en/download/
  2. Download the Linux Binaries, depending on your CPU architecture
  3. Unzip the downloaded file: tar -xf /path/to/downloaded/file.xz> For example: tar -xf ~/Downloads/node-v14.17.0-linux-x64.tar.xz
  4. The Node.js binaries are now extracted to a directory. This directory is referred to as /path/to/node in the run instructions.

Docker for Linux

For the installation of Docker first follow the instructions as described in https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/.

After the installation you need to enable docker as non-root user. Take the following steps:

  1. sudo groupadd docker
  2. sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
  3. Log out and log back in so that your group membership is re-evaluated.

  4. Verify that you can run docker:

    docker run hello-world

The docker website describes more post-installation steps for linux. These additional steps are optional for running the benchmarks.

Windows

The preferred method to run the benchmark is with native Linux. Running the benchmark with Windows can have a significant impact on the performance, up to 50%.

Windows run instructions

Take the following steps to run all benchmarks:

  1. Make sure you have installed the required software
  2. Make sure Node.js is added to the path. export PATH=/path/to/node/bin:$PATH. For example: export PATH=~/node-v14.17.0-linux-x64/bin:$PATH
  3. Open an Ubuntu terminal ( Start –> Ubuntu 20.04 LTS)
  4. git clone https://github.com/PlummersSoftwareLLC/Primes.git
  5. cd Primes
  6. make
  7. All benchmarks will now be build and run one by one. Note that this will take a while, so please wait until this task is complete. The build will only happen the first time. On subsequent runs, only solutions that have changed since the last benchmark run will be rebuilt, which makes those runs a lot faster.
  8. Once complete a report is written to the terminal, see example output.

Windows installation and prerequisites

The following software must be installed:

WSL2 has special hardware requirements.

Install WSL2

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is a compatibility layer for running Linux binary executables natively on Windows. For the installation of WSL2 follow the instructions as described in https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10. Make sure to enable WSL2. Use Ubuntu 20.04 LTS as the default distribution to use. Start the Ubuntu app once to create a user, as described in the above instructions.

Install cc and make inside the Ubuntu distribution

Take the following steps to install cc and make inside the Ubuntu distribution:

  1. Open an Ubuntu terminal
  2. sudo apt-get install build-essential

Install Node.js inside the Ubuntu distribution

The benchmarks makes use of Node.js to create a report. This requires Node.js version 14.17.0 or higher. The Node.js/npm versions that is included in Ubuntu 20.04 is too old. This means that it will be required to download and install an appropriate version of Node.js from https://nodejs.org/en/download/.

Take the following steps to install Node.js inside the Ubuntu distribution:

  1. Navigate to https://nodejs.org/en/download/
  2. Download the Linux Binaries, depending on your CPU architecture
  3. Copy the downloaded file inside the Ubuntu distribution home directory. For example: \\wsl$\Ubuntu-20.04\home\user
  4. Open an Ubuntu terminal
  5. Unzip the downloaded file: tar -xf ~/file.xz>. For example: tar -xf ~/node-v14.17.0-linux-x64.tar.xz
  6. The Node.js binaries are now extracted to a directory. This directory is referred to as /path/to/node in the run instructions.

Docker Desktop for Windows

Take the following steps to install Docker Desktop for Windows with the WSL2 backend:

  1. Make sure WSL2 is installed with the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS before you start with the installation of Docker.
  2. For the installation of Docker follow the instructions as described in https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/install/#install-docker-desktop-on-windows. At step 2 select install required Windows components for WSl2.
  3. Once Docker is installed, start Docker Desktop
  4. In Docker Desktop navigate to Settings –> Resources –> WSL Integration
  5. Check Ubuntu 18.04 and click Apply & Restart
  6. Open an Ubuntu terminal ( Start –> Ubuntu 20.04 LTS)
  7. sudo groupadd docker
  8. sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
  9. Close the Ubuntu window
  10. Open an Ubuntu terminal ( Start –> Ubuntu 20.04 LTS)
  11. Verify that you can run docker inside the Ubuntu WSL2 container:
   docker run hello-world

This command downloads a test image and runs it in a container. When the container runs, it prints an informational message and exits.

macOS

macOS run instructions

Take the following steps to run all benchmarks:

  1. Make sure you have installed the required software
  2. Open a terminal.
  3. git clone https://github.com/PlummersSoftwareLLC/Primes.git
  4. cd Primes
  5. make
  6. All benchmarks will now be build and run one by one. Note that this will take a while, so please wait until this task is complete. The build will only happen the first time. On subsequent runs, only solutions that have changed since the last benchmark run will be rebuilt, which makes those runs a lot faster.
  7. Once complete a report is written to the terminal, see example output.

macOS installation and prerequisites

The following software must be installed:

The details for each required software are described below.

xcode-select (make, cc and git) for macOS

Take the following steps to install make, cc and git on macOS:

  1. Open a terminal
  2. xcode-select --install
  3. A popup window appears, select install
  4. In the next window accept the terms
  5. The installation now starts, wait until it completes

Node.js for macOs

The benchmarks makes use of Node.js to create a report. This requires Node.js version 14.17.0 or higher. The Node.js/npm versions that are included in many OS-provided package managers are too old. This means that it will generally be required to download and install an appropriate version of Node.js from https://nodejs.org/en/download/.

Take the following steps to install Node.js on macOS:

  1. Navigate to https://nodejs.org/en/download/
  2. Download the macOS Installer (.pkg)
  3. Start the installer
  4. Click Continue
  5. Click Continue, accept the licence agreement
  6. Click Install
  7. Provide your password to confirm
  8. The installation now starts
  9. Close the installer

Docker Desktop for macOS

For the installation of Docker follow the instructions as described in https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-mac/install/.

Example output

Below is an example of the benchmark output.

                                                                   Single-threaded
┌───────┬────────────────┬──────────┬───────────────────────────────────┬────────┬───────────┬─────────┬───────────┬──────────┬──────┬───────────────┐
│ Index │ Implementation │ Solution │ Label                             │ Passes │ Duration  │ Threads │ Algorithm │ Faithful │ Bits │ Passes/Second │
├───────┼────────────────┼──────────┼───────────────────────────────────┼────────┼───────────┼─────────┼───────────┼──────────┼──────┼───────────────┤
│   1   │ c              │ 2        │ danielspaangberg_5760of30030_owrb │ 12451  │  5.00006  │    1    │   wheel   │   yes    │ 1    │  2490.17012   │
│   2   │ c              │ 1        │ mckoss-c830                       │  9774  │  5.00000  │    1    │   wheel   │   yes    │ 1    │  1954.80000   │
│   3   │ c              │ 2        │ danielspaangberg_480of2310_owrb   │  9458  │  5.00015  │    1    │   wheel   │   yes    │ 1    │  1891.54325   │

etc

│  72   │ powershell     │ 2        │ crowbar27_ps2                     │   3    │  5.78784  │    1    │   base    │   yes    │ 1    │    0.51833    │
│  73   │ haxe           │ 1        │ TayIorRobinson_Haxe_Python        │   4    │ 12.33397  │    1    │   base    │   yes    │      │    0.32431    │
│  74   │ powershell     │ 1        │ crowbar27_ps1                     │   1    │ 150.03900 │    1    │   base    │   yes    │ 1    │    0.00666    │
└───────┴────────────────┴──────────┴───────────────────────────────────┴────────┴───────────┴─────────┴───────────┴──────────┴──────┴───────────────┘

                                                                   Multi-threaded
┌───────┬────────────────┬──────────┬───────────────────────────────────┬────────┬──────────┬─────────┬───────────┬──────────┬──────┬───────────────┐
│ Index │ Implementation │ Solution │ Label                             │ Passes │ Duration │ Threads │ Algorithm │ Faithful │ Bits │ Passes/Second │
├───────┼────────────────┼──────────┼───────────────────────────────────┼────────┼──────────┼─────────┼───────────┼──────────┼──────┼───────────────┤
│   1   │ c              │ 2        │ danielspaangberg_5760of30030_epar │ 24298  │ 5.00118  │    4    │   wheel   │   yes    │ 1    │  1214.61335   │
│   2   │ c              │ 2        │ danielspaangberg_480of2310_epar   │ 21729  │ 5.00549  │    4    │   wheel   │   yes    │ 1    │  1085.25774   │
│   3   │ c              │ 2        │ danielspaangberg_48of210_epar     │ 17161  │ 5.00735  │    4    │   wheel   │   yes    │ 1    │   856.78966   │

etc

│  13   │ c              │ 2        │ danielspaangberg_1of2_par         │  2943  │ 5.00040  │    4    │   base    │   yes    │ 1    │   147.13829   │
│  14   │ csharp         │ 1        │ kinematics_pool6p                 │  2510  │ 5.00935  │    4    │           │          │      │   125.26575   │
│  15   │ csharp         │ 1        │ kinematics_rawp                   │  1840  │ 5.00896  │    4    │           │          │      │   91.83543    │
└───────┴────────────────┴──────────┴───────────────────────────────────┴────────┴──────────┴─────────┴───────────┴──────────┴──────┴───────────────┘

Running a single benchmark

Running the following command:

make DIRECTORY=PrimeCrystal/solution_1

should return something like:

❯ make DIRECTORY=PrimeCrystal/solution_1
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/user/source/Primes/tools/node_modules/node-uname/build'
  CC(target) Release/obj.target/uname/uname.o
  SOLINK_MODULE(target) Release/obj.target/uname.node
  COPY Release/uname.node
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/user/source/Primes/tools/node_modules/node-uname/build'
added 229 packages in 11.074s
info: Detected architecture: amd64
info: [PrimeCrystal][solution_1] Building...
info: [PrimeCrystal][solution_1] Running...
                                                       Single-threaded
┌───────┬────────────────┬──────────┬────────────┬────────┬──────────┬─────────┬───────────┬──────────┬──────┬───────────────┐
│ Index │ Implementation │ Solution │ Label      │ Passes │ Duration │ Threads │ Algorithm │ Faithful │ Bits │ Passes/Second │
├───────┼────────────────┼──────────┼────────────┼────────┼──────────┼─────────┼───────────┼──────────┼──────┼───────────────┤
│   1   │ crystal        │ 1        │ marghidanu │  4232  │ 5.00019  │    1    │   base    │   yes    │ 1    │   846.36716   │
└───────┴────────────────┴──────────┴────────────┴────────┴──────────┴─────────┴───────────┴──────────┴──────┴───────────────┘

Running a benchmark of all solutions for a particular language

Make the DIRECTORY variable point to the directory that contains the solutions you want to run. For instance, to run a benchmark of all C++ solutions, run:

make DIRECTORY=PrimeCPP

Running in unconfined mode

For some interpreted languages (Python, Ruby, NodeJS), docker has a non-zero effect slowing CPU-intensive code. See https://github.com/moby/moby/issues/41389 for the related docker issue. You can disable some of the sandboxing to obtain near-native performance (at least on Linux) with the UNCONFINED=1 option:

make UNCONFINED=1
make DIRECTORY=PrimeMyFavoriteInterpretedLanguage UNCONFINED=1

Output formats

The benchmark suite supports multiple output formats; if no formatter is specified, it will default to the table format. Here are the supported values:

The output format can be controlled via the FORMATTER variable like this:

make FORMATTER=json
make DIRECTORY=PrimeCrystal/solution_1 FORMATTER=csv