How to use Go profiling tools

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Exploring Profiling Tools for Go: Enhancing Performance Like a Pro

Profiling is the process of analyzing an application's runtime behavior to pinpoint performance issues. It helps developers identify where their code spends most of its time and how memory is allocated and released. Profiling tools for Go offer invaluable information for making informed optimizations and delivering a smooth and efficient user experience.


Key Types of Profiling in Go

CPU Profiling: CPU profiling identifies areas of your code that consume the most CPU time. It helps you understand which functions or methods are taking up the majority of the processing power, allowing you to focus on optimizing those areas.

Memory Profiling: Memory profiling reveals memory allocation patterns and potential memory leaks within your application. It provides insights into how your application uses memory and assists in preventing excessive memory consumption.

Goroutine Profiling: Goroutines are a hallmark of Go's concurrency model. Goroutine profiling aids in understanding how goroutines are being created, executed, and blocked, helping you optimize concurrent execution and resource utilization.


Popular Profiling Tools

pprof: The built-in pprof package is a cornerstone of Go's profiling capabilities. It offers both CPU and memory profiling, along with a web-based visualization tool. By simply importing the net/http/pprof package and exposing endpoints, you can access valuable insights about your application's performance.

go-torch: This tool creates flame graphs from pprof profiles, providing a visual representation of the CPU consumption hierarchy. Flame graphs make it easier to identify hotspots and optimize critical sections of your code.

pprof-utils: This collection of utilities extends the pprof toolset by offering additional functionalities, such as memory profiling for long-running applications and custom visualizations.

Heapster: Heapster is designed specifically for memory profiling in Go. It offers memory allocation stack traces, allowing you to identify memory-hungry sections of your code and optimize memory usage effectively.

trace: The trace package in the Go standard library facilitates tracing the execution of programs. It helps you understand the timing and interactions between goroutines, system calls, and application logic, aiding in fine-tuning concurrency.


Using Profiling Tools in Practice

We are going to use a simple example to exercise the basic profiling tools that are part of the Go standard utilities. This sample will have two variants, one of them will allocate an array of bytes in a loop to send them to a receiving goroutine. Meanwhile the other variant will take advantage of a BytePool to reuse the required array of bytes, instead of allocating new ones in each iteration of the loop. 


package main

import (
        "os"
)

const REP int = 10000000

type BytePool struct {
	pool  chan []byte
	width int
}

func New(poolSize int, bufferWidth int) *BytePool {
	return &BytePool{
		pool:  make(chan []byte, poolSize),
		width: bufferWidth,
	}
}

func (bp *BytePool) Get() (b []byte) {
	select {
	case b = <-bp.pool:
	default:
		b = make([]byte, bp.width)
	}
	return
}

func (bp *BytePool) Put(b []byte) {
	select {
	case bp.pool <- b:
	default:
	}
}

func ProcessPool() {
	channel := make(chan []byte)
	go func() {
		pool := New(REP, 5)
		for i := 0; i < REP; i++ {
			data := pool.Get()
			channel <- data
			pool.Put(data)
		}
	}()

	for i := 0; i < REP; i++ {
		_ = <-channel
	}
}

func Process() {
	channel := make(chan []byte)
	go func() {
		for i := 0; i < REP; i++ {
			data := []byte("hello")
			channel <- data
		}
	}()

	for i := 0; i < REP; i++ {
		_ = <-channel
	}
}

func main() {
        arguments := os.Args

        if (arguments[1] == "process") {
                Process()
        } else if (arguments[1] == "processPool") {
                ProcessPool()
        }
}


Garbage Collection

In Go, the GODEBUG environment variable allows you to enable various debugging options and runtime parameters. One of the features you can enable using GODEBUG is the Garbage Collection (GC) tracing, which is referred to as gctrace. Garbage collection is an essential process in Go that manages memory by identifying and reclaiming unused memory occupied by objects that are no longer reachable.

The gctrace option provides insight into the behavior of the Go garbage collector. It outputs information about garbage collection events, pause durations, and memory usage during the garbage collection process. This information can be incredibly useful for understanding how the garbage collector operates, diagnosing potential performance issues, and optimizing your Go programs.

To enable the gctrace option, set the GODEBUG environment variable to include gctrace=1. You can do this before running your Go program from the command line.

Let's run the sample variant without the BytePool to check how many garbage collection cyles it goes through. 

GODEBUG=gctrace=1 go run main.go process
gc 1 @0.071s 0%: 0.043+0.31+0.022 ms clock, 0.34+0.073/0.27/0.31+0.18 ms cpu, 3->3->0 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 2 @0.080s 0%: 0.022+0.68+0.002 ms clock, 0.17+0.38/0.62/0.008+0.022 ms cpu, 3->4->1 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 3 @0.083s 0%: 0.034+0.66+0.028 ms clock, 0.27+0/0.70/0.37+0.22 ms cpu, 3->3->1 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 4 @0.089s 0%: 0.010+0.37+0.002 ms clock, 0.081+0.19/0.43/0.22+0.018 ms cpu, 3->4->1 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 5 @0.091s 0%: 0.11+0.59+0.11 ms clock, 0.88+0.10/0.51/0.14+0.92 ms cpu, 3->4->1 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 6 @0.093s 0%: 0.008+0.33+0.002 ms clock, 0.070+0.089/0.32/0.34+0.020 ms cpu, 3->3->1 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P# command-line-arguments
gc 1 @0.002s 5%: 0.050+0.63+0.024 ms clock, 0.40+0.16/0.96/0.42+0.19 ms cpu, 3->4->2 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 2 @0.006s 6%: 0.044+1.2+0.036 ms clock, 0.35+0.49/1.4/0.53+0.29 ms cpu, 6->6->4 MB, 6 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P

# command-line-arguments
gc 1 @0.001s 6%: 0.018+0.54+0.022 ms clock, 0.14+0.27/0.34/0.56+0.17 ms cpu, 4->6->5 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 2 @0.003s 5%: 0.008+0.97+0.037 ms clock, 0.070+0.051/0.40/0.72+0.29 ms cpu, 9->9->9 MB, 11 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 1 @0.111s 0%: 0.019+0.23+0.079 ms clock, 0.15+0.052/0.041/0+0.63 ms cpu, 3->3->0 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 2 @0.227s 0%: 0.14+0.20+0.064 ms clock, 1.1+0.031/0.10/0+0.51 ms cpu, 3->3->0 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 3 @0.348s 0%: 0.091+0.23+0.022 ms clock, 0.72+0.032/0.085/0.030+0.17 ms cpu, 3->3->0 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 4 @0.466s 0%: 0.048+0.29+0.040 ms clock, 0.38+0.030/0.044/0.024+0.32 ms cpu, 3->3->0 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 5 @0.551s 0%: 0.078+0.20+0.032 ms clock, 0.62+0.027/0.074/0.016+0.25 ms cpu, 2->2->0 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 6 @0.665s 0%: 0.074+0.36+0.082 ms clock, 0.59+0.032/0.10/0+0.66 ms cpu, 3->3->0 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 7 @0.752s 0%: 0.041+0.36+0.079 ms clock, 0.33+0.028/0.063/0.016+0.63 ms cpu, 2->2->0 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 8 @0.866s 0%: 0.14+0.50+0.072 ms clock, 1.1+0.062/0.060/0+0.57 ms cpu, 3->3->0 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 9 @0.953s 0%: 0.066+0.27+0.089 ms clock, 0.52+0.028/0.055/0+0.71 ms cpu, 2->2->0 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 10 @1.069s 0%: 0.076+0.36+0.023 ms clock, 0.61+0.041/0.049/0+0.18 ms cpu, 3->3->0 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 11 @1.185s 0%: 0.074+0.30+0.083 ms clock, 0.59+0.036/0.050/0+0.66 ms cpu, 3->3->0 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 12 @1.301s 0%: 0.077+0.26+0.035 ms clock, 0.61+0.028/0.075/0.040+0.28 ms cpu, 3->3->0 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 13 @1.386s 0%: 0.087+0.38+0.075 ms clock, 0.69+0.030/0.049/0+0.60 ms cpu, 2->2->0 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 14 @1.503s 0%: 0.081+0.20+0.002 ms clock, 0.65+0.068/0.045/0+0.016 ms cpu, 3->3->0 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P

Now, we can compare those results with the BytePool variant.

GODEBUG=gctrace=1 go run main.go processPool
gc 1 @0.053s 0%: 0.080+0.24+0.023 ms clock, 0.64+0.039/0.28/0.36+0.19 ms cpu, 3->3->0 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 2 @0.060s 0%: 0.038+0.74+0.002 ms clock, 0.31+0.38/0.79/0.37+0.022 ms cpu, 3->4->1 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 3 @0.062s 0%: 0.031+0.49+0.027 ms clock, 0.25+0.15/0.46/0.48+0.21 ms cpu, 3->3->0 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 4 @0.066s 0%: 0.010+0.35+0.002 ms clock, 0.084+0.040/0.39/0.33+0.023 ms cpu, 3->3->1 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 5 @0.068s 0%: 0.008+0.35+0.026 ms clock, 0.065+0.052/0.47/0.37+0.21 ms cpu, 3->3->1 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 6 @0.070s 1%: 0.010+0.46+0.022 ms clock, 0.083+0.040/0.35/0.45+0.18 ms cpu, 3->4->1 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
# command-line-arguments
gc 1 @0.002s 5%: 0.050+0.63+0.024 ms clock, 0.40+0.16/0.96/0.42+0.19 ms cpu, 3->4->2 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 2 @0.006s 6%: 0.044+1.2+0.036 ms clock, 0.35+0.49/1.4/0.53+0.29 ms cpu, 6->6->4 MB, 6 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
# command-line-arguments
gc 1 @0.001s 5%: 0.006+0.45+0.003 ms clock, 0.054+0.25/0.43/0.21+0.024 ms cpu, 4->5->5 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 2 @0.002s 7%: 0.007+0.76+0.025 ms clock, 0.063+0.048/0.99/0.35+0.20 ms cpu, 9->9->9 MB, 11 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P
gc 1 @0.018s 13%: 0.009+11+0.003 ms clock, 0.075+9.3/21/45+0.030 ms cpu, 229->229->228 MB, 4 MB goal, 0 MB stacks, 0 MB globals, 8 P

Here we can see how the number of garbage collection cycles in the BytePool variant is far lower than in the regular version of the program.


Heap escape analysis

Escape analysis is a critical optimization technique used by the Go compiler to determine the lifetime of variables and whether they should be allocated on the stack or the heap. The main goal of escape analysis is to minimize the allocation and deallocation of memory, resulting in more efficient memory usage and improved performance in Go programs.

In Go, memory allocation on the heap involves more overhead compared to stack allocation. Variables allocated on the stack have faster access times and are automatically deallocated when they go out of scope, whereas heap-allocated variables require the Garbage Collector to manage their lifecycle, which can introduce potential performance overhead.

Escape analysis helps the compiler make informed decisions about whether a variable's reference escapes its immediate scope, thus necessitating heap allocation. The analysis identifies scenarios where a variable's reference is stored outside the current function's scope, such as:

Returning Pointers: If a function returns a pointer to a local variable, the variable must be allocated on the heap to ensure its data remains valid even after the function exits.

Storing Pointers: If a pointer to a local variable is stored in a data structure or globally accessible variable, the variable's data must be kept on the heap.

Goroutine Communication: If a variable's reference is passed to a goroutine (concurrent function), it must be accessible from the heap since the goroutine's lifetime extends beyond the current function.

Function Parameters: If a variable's reference is passed as a parameter to another function and that function retains the reference, the variable's data must reside on the heap.

We can perform a heap escape analysis of a program by using the -gcflags argument with the option '-m'. Let's run the sample version using these options to generate the heap escape analysis of the program. 


go run -gcflags '-m' main.go process
# command-line-arguments
./main.go:14:6: can inline New
./main.go:21:6: can inline (*BytePool).Get
./main.go:30:6: can inline (*BytePool).Put
./main.go:39:5: can inline ProcessPool.func1
./main.go:40:14: inlining call to New
./main.go:42:20: inlining call to (*BytePool).Get
./main.go:44:12: inlining call to (*BytePool).Put
./main.go:55:5: can inline Process.func1
./main.go:15:9: &BytePool{...} escapes to heap
./main.go:21:7: bp does not escape
./main.go:25:11: make([]byte, bp.width) escapes to heap
./main.go:30:7: bp does not escape
./main.go:30:25: leaking param: b
./main.go:39:5: func literal escapes to heap
./main.go:40:14: &BytePool{...} does not escape
./main.go:42:20: make([]byte, bp.width) escapes to heap
./main.go:55:5: func literal escapes to heap
./main.go:57:18: ([]byte)("hello") escapes to heap


Memory benchmark

The benchmem option is a feature provided by the built-in testing package (testing) that allows you to measure memory allocation and deallocation behavior during benchmark tests. Benchmark tests in Go are used to evaluate the performance of code snippets, functions, or packages by running them repeatedly and measuring execution time. The benchmem option extends this capability to include memory-related metrics, providing insights into memory usage patterns.

When you run benchmark tests with the benchmem option enabled, the Go testing framework not only measures execution time but also collects information about memory allocations, memory deallocations, and memory allocations per operation.

We need first to code a test for the sample program. It will contain methods for testing and benchmarking both versions of the program. 

package main

import "testing"

func TestProcess(t *testing.T){
	Process()
}

func BenchmarkProcess(b *testing.B){
        for n := 0; n < b.N; n++ {
		Process()
        }
}

func TestProcessPool(t *testing.T){
	ProcessPool()
}

func BenchmarkProcessPool(b *testing.B){
        for n := 0; n < b.N; n++ {
		ProcessPool()
        }
}

Now we can exercise the sample program with the benchmem option to compare the performance of both versions of the program. 

go test -bench . -benchmem
goos: linux
goarch: amd64
pkg: go-profiling-tools
cpu: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1185G7 @ 3.00GHz
BenchmarkProcess-8                     1        1585461568 ns/op        53334224 B/op   10000006 allocs/op
BenchmarkProcessPool-8                 1        2078355011 ns/op        240001664 B/op         6 allocs/op
PASS
ok      go-profiling-tools      7.252s

The output includes memory-related information for each benchmark iteration.
  • allocs/op: The average number of memory allocations per benchmark iteration.
  • alloced/op: The average amount of memory allocated per benchmark iteration.
  • bytes/op: The average amount of memory allocated per operation (operation in the benchmark code).
  • mallocs/op: The number of heap allocations (mallocs) per benchmark iteration.
  • frees/op: The number of heap deallocations (frees) per benchmark iteration.


CPU profiling

The cpuprofile is a feature provided by the built-in pprof package that allows you to profile the CPU usage of your program. Profiling is the process of analyzing a program's runtime behavior to identify performance bottlenecks and areas for optimization. The cpuprofile feature is particularly useful for understanding how much time your program spends in different functions and methods, helping you pinpoint areas that might benefit from optimization.

The pprof package provides HTTP endpoints that allows you to navigate through the resulting html files using a web browser. However, we are going to use the options required for generating static reports, so that we could integrate the CPU profiling as a step of a CI/CD pipeline. In order to do so, we need to install the graphviz package to be able to generate the resulting SVG graphics. 

sudo apt install graphviz

The CPU profile generated using the cpuprofile feature provides insights into the call stack and the amount of time spent in each function or method. This information can help you identify performance hotspots and optimize critical sections of your code. 

go test -cpuprofile cpu.out && go tool pprof -svg -output=cpu.out.svg cpu.out
PASS
ok      go-profiling-tools      3.917s
Generating report in cpu.out.svg
CPU profiling
cpu.out.svg


It's worth noting that profiling does introduce some overhead, so it's recommended to use it selectively in performance-critical scenarios. Additionally, the profiling endpoints should not be exposed in production environments due to potential security risks.


RAM profiling

The memory profiling feature allows you to monitor and analyze the memory usage and allocation patterns of your program over time. This is accomplished through the generation of memory profiles, which provide insights into how memory is being allocated and deallocated by your Go application. Memory profiling can help you identify memory leaks, inefficient memory usage, and opportunities for optimization.

The Go runtime includes a built-in memory profiler that can be triggered during the execution of your program. This profiler generates memory profiles that you can later analyze using various tools to gain a better understanding of your program's memory behavior.

Similarly to the CPU profiling, we are going to generate a static report that could be integrated in a CI/CD pipeline. 

go test -test.memprofilerate=1 -memprofile mem.out && go tool pprof -svg -output=mem.out.svg mem.out
PASS
ok      go-profiling-tools      8.389s
Generating report in mem.out.svg

RAM profiling
mem.out.svg

Coverage profiling

Coverage profiling is not related to performance. However, it is a really useful feature of the Go toolset. The coverprofile feature is used to generate code coverage reports during the execution of your tests. Code coverage measures the extent to which your tests exercise the different parts of your codebase. It helps you understand which portions of your code are being tested and which areas might need additional test coverage.

By using the coverprofile flag during the go test command, you can generate a coverage profile that shows which lines of code were executed by your tests. This profile can then be used to generate detailed coverage reports that indicate which parts of your code were covered and which were not. 


go test -coverprofile=coverage.out && go tool cover -html=coverage.out -o coverage.out.html
PASS
coverage: 80.8% of statements
ok      go-profiling-tools      3.948s

Coverage
coverage.out.html


Conclusion

Profiling tools are indispensable assets for any Go developer aiming to create performant applications. By harnessing the capabilities of CPU, memory, and goroutine profiling, you can unlock the full potential of Go's efficiency and concurrency model. Whether you're building microservices, web applications, or system-level software, profiling tools provide the roadmap to optimizing performance, minimizing resource consumption, and delivering exceptional user experiences. So, embrace the power of profiling tools and embark on a journey toward crafting high-performance Go applications that stand out in today's competitive software landscape.

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