lighthouse/common/malloc_utils/src/lib.rs
Paul Hauner 456b313665 Tune GNU malloc (#2299)
## Issue Addressed

NA

## Proposed Changes

Modify the configuration of [GNU malloc](https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/The-GNU-Allocator.html) to reduce memory footprint.

- Set `M_ARENA_MAX` to 4.
    - This reduces memory fragmentation at the cost of contention between threads.
- Set `M_MMAP_THRESHOLD` to 2mb
    - This means that any allocation >= 2mb is allocated via an anonymous mmap, instead of on the heap/arena. This reduces memory fragmentation since we don't need to keep growing the heap to find big contiguous slabs of free memory.
- ~~Run `malloc_trim` every 60 seconds.~~
    - ~~This shaves unused memory from the top of the heap, preventing the heap from constantly growing.~~
    - Removed, see: https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse/pull/2299#issuecomment-825322646

*Note: this only provides memory savings on the Linux (glibc) platform.*
    
## Additional Info

I'm going to close #2288 in favor of this for the following reasons:

- I've managed to get the memory footprint *smaller* here than with jemalloc.
- This PR seems to be less of a dramatic change than bringing in the jemalloc dep.
- The changes in this PR are strictly runtime changes, so we can create CLI flags which disable them completely. Since this change is wide-reaching and complex, it's nice to have an easy "escape hatch" if there are undesired consequences.

## TODO

- [x] Allow configuration via CLI flags
- [x] Test on Mac
- [x] Test on RasPi.
- [x] Determine if GNU malloc is present?
    - I'm not quite sure how to detect for glibc.. This issue suggests we can't really: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/33244
- [x] Make a clear argument regarding the affect of this on CPU utilization.
- [x] Test with higher `M_ARENA_MAX` values.
- [x] Test with longer trim intervals
- [x] Add some stats about memory savings
- [x] Remove `malloc_trim` calls & code
2021-05-28 05:59:45 +00:00

48 lines
1.6 KiB
Rust

//! Provides utilities for configuring the system allocator.
//!
//! ## Conditional Compilation
//!
//! Presently, only configuration for "The GNU Allocator" from `glibc` is supported. All other
//! allocators are ignored.
//!
//! It is assumed that if the following two statements are correct then we should expect to
//! configure `glibc`:
//!
//! - `target_os = linux`
//! - `target_env != musl`
//!
//! In all other cases this library will not attempt to do anything (i.e., all functions are
//! no-ops).
//!
//! If the above conditions are fulfilled but `glibc` still isn't present at runtime then a panic
//! may be triggered. It is understood that there's no way to be certain that a compatible `glibc`
//! is present: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/33244.
//!
//! ## Notes
//!
//! It's not clear how to precisely determine what the underlying allocator is. The efforts at
//! detecting `glibc` are best-effort. If this crate throws errors about undefined external
//! functions, then try to compile with the `not_glibc_interface` module.
#[cfg(all(target_os = "linux", not(target_env = "musl")))]
mod glibc;
pub use interface::*;
#[cfg(all(target_os = "linux", not(target_env = "musl")))]
mod interface {
pub use crate::glibc::configure_glibc_malloc as configure_memory_allocator;
pub use crate::glibc::scrape_mallinfo_metrics as scrape_allocator_metrics;
}
#[cfg(any(not(target_os = "linux"), target_env = "musl"))]
mod interface {
#[allow(dead_code, clippy::unnecessary_wraps)]
pub fn configure_memory_allocator() -> Result<(), String> {
Ok(())
}
#[allow(dead_code)]
pub fn scrape_allocator_metrics() {}
}