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| -rw-r--r-- | perf/README | 89 |
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diff --git a/perf/README b/perf/README index beca927e1..9e402098a 100644 --- a/perf/README +++ b/perf/README @@ -1,26 +1,28 @@ -This is cairo's performance test suite. +This is cairo's micro-benchmark performance test suite. -One of the simplest ways to run the performance suite is: +One of the simplest ways to run this performance suite is: make perf which will give a report of the speed of each individual test. See more details on other options for running the suite below. -Running the cairo performance suite ------------------------------------ -The performance suite is composed of two types of tests, micro- and -macro-benchmarks. The micro-benchmarks are a series of hand-written, -short, synthetic tests that measure the speed of doing a simple -operation such as painting a surface or showing glyphs. These aim to -give very good feedback on whether a performance related patch is -successful without causing any performance degradations elsewhere. The -second type of benchmark consists of replaying a cairo-trace from a -large application during typical usage. These aim to give an overall -feel as to whether cairo is faster for everyday use. +A macro test suite (with full traces and more intensive benchmarks) is +also available; for this, see http://cgit.freedesktop.org/cairo-traces. +The macro-benchmarks are better measures of actual real-world +performance, and should be preferred over the micro-benchmarks (and over +make perf) for identifying performance regressions or improvements. If +you copy or symlink this repository at cairo/perf/cairo-traces, then +make perf will run those tests as well. Running the micro-benchmarks ---------------------------- +The micro-benchmark performance suite is composed of a series of +hand-written, short, synthetic tests that measure the speed of doing a +simple operation such as painting a surface or showing glyphs. These aim +to give very good feedback on whether a performance related patch is +successful without causing any performance degradations elsewhere. + The micro-benchmarks are compiled into a single executable called cairo-perf-micro, which is what "make perf" executes. Some examples of running it: @@ -41,25 +43,6 @@ when using cairo-perf-diff to compare separate runs (see more below). The advantage of using the raw mode is that test runs can be generated incrementally and appended to existing reports. -Running the macro-benchmarks ----------------------------- -The macro-benchmarks are run by a single program called -cairo-perf-trace, which is also executed by "make perf". -cairo-perf-trace loops over the series of traces stored beneath -cairo-traces/. cairo-perf-trace produces the same output and takes the -same arguments as cairo-perf-micro. Some examples of running it: - - # Report on all tests with default number of iterations: - ./cairo-perf-trace - - # Report on 100 iterations of all firefox tests: - ./cairo-perf-trace -i 100 firefox - - # Generate raw results for 10 iterations into cairo.perf - ./cairo-perf-trace -r -i 10 > cairo.perf - # Append 10 more iterations of the poppler tests - ./cairo-perf-trace -r -i 10 poppler >> cairo.perf - Generating comparisons of separate runs --------------------------------------- It's often useful to generate a chart showing the comparison of two @@ -227,43 +210,6 @@ added: 64x64. -How to record new traces ------------------------ -Using cairo-trace you can record the exact sequence of graphic operations -made by an application and replay them later. These traces can then be -used by cairo-perf-trace to benchmark the various backends and patches. - -To record a trace: -$ cairo-trace --no-mark-dirty --no-callers $APPLICATION [$ARGV] - ---no-mark-dirty is useful for applications that are paranoid about -surfaces being modified by external plugins outside of their control, the -prime example here is firefox. ---no-callers disables the symbolic caller lookup and so speeds tracing -(dramatically for large c++ programs) and similarly speeds up the replay -as the files are much smaller. - -The output file will be called $APPLICATION.$PID.trace, the actual path -written to will be displayed on the terminal. - -Alternatively you can use: -$ cairo-trace --profile $APPLICATION [$ARGV] -which automatically passes --no-mark-dirty and --no-callers and compresses -the resultant trace using LZMA. To use the trace with cairo-perf-trace you -will first need to decompress it. - -Then to use cairo-perf-trace: -$ ./cairo-perf-trace $APPLICATION.$PID.trace - -Alternatively you can put the trace into perf/cairo-traces, or set -CAIRO_TRACE_DIR to point to your trace directory, and the trace will be -included in the performance tests. - -If you record an interesting trace, please consider sharing it by compressing -it, LZMA preferred, and posting a link to cairo@cairographics.org, or by -uploading it to git.cairographics.org/cairo-traces. - - How to run cairo-perf-diff on WINDOWS ------------------------------------- This section explains the specifics of running cairo-perf-diff under @@ -286,3 +232,8 @@ From your mingw32 window, go to your cairo/perf directory and run the cairo-perf-diff script with the right arguments. Thanks for your contributions and have fun with cairo! + +TODO +---- +Add a control language for crafting and running small sets of micro +benchmarks. |