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OCaml Multicore - January 2022

Welcome to the January 2022 Multicore OCaml monthly update! This update along with the previous updates has been compiled by @avsm, @ctk21, @kayceesrk and @shakthimaan.

@xavierleroy clicked "merge" on the upstream Multicore OCaml PR#10831 to upstream OCaml, which simultaneously made for a great start to the new year and prepared us for the hard work ahead to get to a stable release of OCaml 5.00.0! Since the merge, we have continued to work on the release via bug fixes, code improvements, and tooling support directly in the main ocaml repository. Notably, a new draft PR for ARM64 backend support has already been proposed.

OCaml 5.0 trunk also removes a number of deprecated modules, and renames EffectHandlers to Effect for consistency with the rest of the standard library. In the ecosystem, several of the key support libraries like uring, multicore-opam, and domainslib have had updates to work with 5.0.0+trunk. The Eio effects-based direct-style parallel IO for OCaml has had significant enhancements, and now also builds with OCaml 5.00.0+trunk. The Sandmark benchmarking suite now provides a 5.00.0+stable and 5.00.0+trunk OCaml variants to build the benchmarks for trunk.

OCaml 5.00 Release Planning

The core development team is currently pinning down exactly what will constitute the OCaml 5.00 release in terms of supported features. Anything that will be part of OCaml 5.00 but not currently supported must be in this list so that we can plan for its implementation. If you spot something that isn't below but should be, please get in touch or post a reply. This list is, as always, subject to change as the core development team plans and implements the release.

Runtime

  • Mark stack overflow
    • Currently the mark-stack is allowed to grow to an unbounded size. There is a multicore implementation of mark stack overflow in mc#466 . This design is complex and concurrently touches the major GC logic for determining when marking is complete. There is a feeling that a better design is to handle mark stack overflow with a stop-the-world section, but this has not yet been tried.
  • Statmemprof
  • Make the runtime memory model safe
    • Ensure that the implementation of caml_modify is correct.
    • Fix warnings reported by Thread Sanitizer on the testsuite.
  • Mark pre-fetching optimisation
  • Minor heap design that reduces virtual memory consumption
    • #10955 proposes deciding size of the minor area at program startup rather than fixed 256GB reservation now. Fixes Valgrind and AFL (with default limited virtual memory).
    • Designs exploring alternative organisation of minor heap (DLAB, BiBoP) is
      1. Too risky to undertake now due to code change
      2. Benefits unclear. See experiments in mc#508.
  • Make runtime safe for async callbacks
    • See the meta issue on asynchronous callback handling in #10915
    • Potentially requires changes to both the stop-the-world mechanism and major GC logic
    • Currently no proposed plan or implementation. Implementation will require significant testing and benchmarking
    • May make sense to complete as part of statmemprof work as both will potentially encounter similar implementation issues
  • Eventring runtime tracing eventlog replacement
    • Monitoring and optimising GC in multicore programs is difficult, current multicore eventlog was a temporary fix
    • PR that adds eventring support to trunk in #10964
  • Runtime is capable of running bytecode-only for 32-bit platforms?
    • sequential or multiple domains?
  • Remove the use of mmap for Caml_state (see mc#796)

Stdlib

  • Finish the Stdlib audit (#10960)
  • Domains, Mutex, Semaphore, Condition in 4.14
    • Support systhread based implementation of Domains and related modules. Mutex, Semaphore and Condition work as is.
    • 4.14 is pretty much frozen already; so an emulation of Domains can be provided by a separate compatibility library.
  • API Docs
    • Write API docs for effect handlers and domains
  • Manual chapters
    • New manual chapters for effect handlers, domains and memory model
  • OCamldoc thread-safety annotations
    • Introduce an OCamldoc tag for thread-safety (#10983).
    • Partial order between domain-safe, systhread-safe, fiber-safe. not-concurrency-safe as default placeholder for those API functions, modules not audited for thread-safety.
  • Atomic arrays
  • Atomic mutable record fields
  • Concurrency-safe lazy
    • Lazy that is safe for domains, systhreads and fibers

Backend / middle-end

  • Flambda support
  • Arm64 support
    • Currently being worked on in trunk.
    • Targets are Mac M1 and AWS Graviton
  • 32-bit support (
    • Sequential-only native backend is achievable on x86. 32-bit ARM can probably support multiple domains. Time to drop x86-32 to bytecode only?
    • Wasm is 32-bit only now.
  • RISC-V, Power, ...
  • OpenBSD, FreeBSD merged.
  • MSVC support on Windows.
  • Framepointer support
    • Useful for perf based performance benchmarking.
    • x86 and/or arm64?

Tooling

  • Revive ocamldebug

January 2021 updates

As always, the Multicore OCaml updates are listed first, which are then followed by the ecosystem tooling updates. Finally, the Sandmark benchmarking tasks are listed for your reference.

Multicore OCaml

Ongoing

Discussion

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#750 Discussing the design of Lazy under Multicore

    A design discussion of Lazy under Multicore OCaml that involves sequential Lazy, concurrency problems, duplicated computations, and memory safety.

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#795 Make Minor_heap_max and Max_domains as OCAMLRUNPARAM options

    The Minor_heap_max is defined as 2GB and Max_domains as 128 in runtime/caml/config.h, and there is an OOM issue on Multicore OCaml when running tools like AFL and Valgrind. The OCAMLRUNPARAM option can be used to pass these parameters as arguments. An upstream discussion has been initiated for the same at ocaml/ocaml#10971.

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#806 Unify GC interrupt and signal triggering mechanisms

    The interaction between signal and GC interrupts need to be reworked, as they exist as two independent mechanisms. There has been progress on asynchronous actions in trunk in parallel with the Multicore implementation.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10861 Outstanding comments in the OCaml Multicore PR

    A tracker issue to record and document outstanding comments in the Multicore PR for the 5.00 milestone.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10915 Meta-issue on asynchronous action handling in Multicore

    A discussion on unifying GC interrupt and signal triggering mechanisms and review comments from Multicore OCaml PR#10831.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10930 Downstream patch changes for removed Stream and Pervasives library PR#10896

    A review of the recommended patch changes for Sandmark dependencies used to run parallel benchmarks for 5.00.0+trunk.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10960 Audit stdlib for mutable state

    The OCaml 5.00 stdlib implementation should be both memory and thread-safe, and this issue tracker has been created to audit stdlib for mutable state.

Upstream

  • ocaml/ocaml#10876 Make Format buffer more efficient to Multicore

    The Format buffer implementation needs to be made more efficient. In particular, when a second domain is spawned, Format switches to a buffered implementation for stdout/stderr where the writes only happen on flushes.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10953 ocamltest/summarize.awk not properly reporting abort failures on testsuite runs

    The summarize.awk and ocamltest can skip reporting failures if the log is improperly formatted, and this needs to be addressed.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10971 Means of limiting how much memory is being reserved by the runtime, so that Valgrind and AFL can be used

    The amount of virtual memory to be reserved in the OCaml runtime can be limited and this needs to be made a runtime parameter.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10974 domain.c: Use an atomic counter for domain unique IDs

    The dependency on a fixed Max_domains setting needs to be removed to dynamically configure the same during program execution.

Improvements

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#796 Caml_state for domains should not use mmap

    The Caml_state is no longer located adjacent to the minor heap area whose allocation is done using mmap. A PR for the same is actively being worked upon.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10908 Fix possible race in caml_mem_map on Windows

    The runtime/platform.c has been updated to fix a possible race condition in caml_mem_map, and debugging printf statements have been removed.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10925 Rename symbol for Caml_state to caml_state

    Caml_state is a macro in Mac OS, and hence the same has been renamed to caml_state to avoid a name collision.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10950 Allocate domain state using malloc instead of mmap

    The PR replaces the unnecessary use of mmap with malloc to simplify Caml_state management.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10965 Thread safety for all runtime hooks

    The PR implements the thread-safety of hooks and restores the GC timing hooks in Multicore.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10966 Simplifications/cleanups/clarifications for Multicore review

    The APIs for signals/actions have been simplified, caml_modify has been documented, and dead code has been removed.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10969 Switch to strerror_t for reentrant error string conversion

    The PR uses strerror_t for string conversion as strerror in the runtime is not reentrant in the presence of multiple threads.

ARM64

  • ocaml/ocaml#10943 Introduce atomic loads in Cmm and Mach IRs

    The Patomic_load primitive needs to be enhanced to ease support for other architectures. This is required for the ARM64 support.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10972 ARM64 Multicore Support

    A draft PR that implements the assembler, proc and emit changes needed to get ARM64 working has been proposed. The changes have been tested on MacOS/M1 and a Linux/Graviton2.

Metrics

  • ocaml/ocaml#10961 Handle orphaning of GC statistics

    The allocation of domain_state to use malloc in Multicore implementation prevents freeing Caml_state at domain termination, and this issue needs to be addressed.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10964 Ring-buffer based runtime tracing (eventring)

    Eventring is a runtime tracing system designed for continuous monitoring of OCaml applications. The following illustration shows how eventring can be used to log the runtime data using Chrome's trace viewer.

OCaml-PR-10964-graph |690x149

Completed

Upstream

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#822 Revert array.c to trunk. Introduce word-size memmove.

    The word sized memmove is used only when there is more than one domain running, and array.c has been updated to be closer to the trunk implementation.

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore/826 Address ocaml/ocaml#10831 unnecessary diff review comments

    The PR updates the differences between Multicore OCaml and trunk based on the review of ocaml/ocaml#10831.

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#827 Re-introduce sigpending change from trunk

    The otherlibs/unix/signals.c file has been updated to introduce the sigpending code from trunk.

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#833 Address ocaml/ocaml#10831 review comments

    The runtime/ code has been to updated to address the code review comments and suggestions from ocaml/ocaml#10831.

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#834 More changes addressing review comments on ocaml-10831

    The additionoal feedback from ocaml/ocaml#10831 have been incorporated in this PR.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10831 Multicore OCaml

    The PR to merge Multicore OCaml to ocaml/ocaml with support for shared-memory parallelism through domains, and concurrency through effect handlers has been merged!

  • ocaml/ocaml#10872 Change domain thread name setting to be more portable and best-effort_all

    The caml_thread_setname has been changed to best-effort, and cases to handle BSD permutations of functions have been added.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10879 Rename EffectHandlers module to Effect

    The EffectHandlers module has been renamed to Effect to be consistent with the rest of stdlib.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10975 Add missing changes from #10136 that may have been lost during a rebase

    The runtime/io.c code has been updated with changes from the PR#10831 review.

Improvements

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#830 Remove Int/Long/Bool_field macros

    The Long_val(Field()) usage alone is now sufficient as the Int, Long and Bool_field macros are no longer needed.

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#831 Revert changes to ocaml_floatarray_blit

    The ocaml_floatarray_blit changes in runtime/array.c are retained to not break 32-bit compilation.

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#836 Move bytecode only startup code into startup_byt.c

    The startup_byt.c file has been updated to contain the bytecode only startup code from startup_aux.c.

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#837 mingw-w64 backport to 4.12

    A mingw-w64 backport of ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#351 with changes rebased to 4.12+domains+effects.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10742 Reimplementation of Random using an LXM pseudo-random number generator

    The new PRNG implementation using the L64X128 variant of the LXM family has been implemented to test the merged Multicore OCaml PR. The performance improvements on 64-bit, and not so nice degradation on 32-bit platform is shown below (time in seconds):

     x86 64 bits

 4.13  LXM

 0.30  0.21  bit
 0.28  0.20  bits
 0.42  0.31  int 0xFFEE
 0.71  0.40  int32 0xFFEEDD
 0.97  0.32  int64 0xFFEEDDCCAA
 0.72  0.31  float 1.0
11.35  0.02  full_init 3 (/100)

 ARMv7 32 bits

 4.13  LXM

 1.75  4.84  bit
 1.53  2.78  bits
 4.63  6.16  int 0xFFEE
 5.12  6.89  int32 0xFFEEDD
30.92 20.51  int64 0xFFEEDDCCAA
 3.36  8.30  float 1.0
47.40  0.13  full_init 3 (/100)

  • ocaml/ocaml#10880 Use a bit-vector to record pending signals

    The PR uses an array of bits instead of an array of NSIG atomic 0-or-1 integers to store the presence of pending signals. The testsuite performance with current trunk is as follows:

  real	14m8.349s
  user	20m52.485s
  sys	0m46.666s

  Event count (approx.): 5024892760014
  Overhead  Command          Shared Object                       Symbol
    16.43%  Domain0          ocamlrun                            [.] caml_check_for_pending_signals
    14.16%  Domain0          ocamlrun                            [.] caml_interprete
     6.67%  Domain1          ocamlrun                            [.] caml_check_for_pending_signals
...

The testsuite output with this PR is given below:

  real	8m32.072s
  user	10m16.386s
  sys	0m45.736s

  Event count (approx.): 2483613262503
  Overhead  Command          Shared Object                       Symbol
    22.67%  Domain0          ocamlrun                            [.] caml_interprete
     4.21%  Domain1          ocamlrun                            [.] caml_interprete
     3.20%  Domain3          ocamlrun                            [.] caml_interprete

  • ocaml/ocaml#10887 Generalize the Domain.DLS interface to split PRNG state for child domains

    The PR implements a "proper" PRNG+Domains semantics for the case when spawning a domain splits the PRNG state.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10890 Removing unused OCAMLRUNPARAM parameters from the code and manual

    After the audit of OCAMLRUNPARAM options, the unused parameters have now been removed from the code and the manual.

    backtrace_enabled: in use
cleanup_on_exit: in use
eventlog_enabled: in use
init_fiber_wsz: in use
init_heap_wsz: UNUSED
init_heap_chunk_sz: UNUSED
init_max_stack_wsz: in use
init_custom_major_ratio: in use
init_custom_minor_ratio: in use
init_custom_minor_max_bsz: in use
init_percent_free: in use
init_max_percent_free: UNUSED
parser_trace: in use
init_minor_heap_wsz: in use
trace_level: in use
verb_gc: in use
verify_heap: in use
caml_runtime_warnings: in use

  • ocaml/ocaml#10935 Reimplement Thread.exit using an exception

    The PR reimplements Thread.exit by simply raising a dedicated Thread.Exit exception for better resource management, instead of stopping the current thread.

Fixes

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#823 Minor fixes

    Additional fixes in runtime/, middle_end and otherlibs code to be more aligned with trunk.

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#828 Initialise extern_flags to 0 on extern stat init

    The extern_flags need to be initialised to zero. Otherwise, its subsequent use in reachable_words returns junk values resulting in memory corruption.

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#829 Fix pthread name setting on FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD

    The portability changes for pthread naming in order to build for FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10853 Fix a crash in Obj.reachable_words

    A segmentation fault in Obj.reachable_words has been fixed in this PR. A marshaling operation can leave the extern_flags with the NO_SHARING bit set, and hence the same is now initialized before calling extern_init_position_table.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10873 Fixup Filename.check_suffix; remove duplicate , fix for OCAMLRUNPARAM

    The PR includes the caml_parse_ocamlrunparam duplicate fix for empty , in OCAMLRUNPARAM, and an update to Filename.check_suffix from the review of Multicore OCaml PR#10831.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10881 Fix build for mingw-w64 on Jenkins

    The winpthread-1.dll file is required as it sets the desired PATH for the builds.

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#832 Fix reachable words, part deux

    The Obj.reachable_words has been updated to not cause a segmentation fault. Also, the changes have been synchronised with the 4.14 branch.

Testing

  • ocaml/ocaml#10888 Re-enable afl-instrumentation test, run without a virtual memory limit

    The afl-fuzz test program, run as a child process, requires more than 50MB of virtual memory for multicore. Hence, a fix is provided to remove the memory limit, and the afl-instrumentation tests for OCaml 5.00.0+trunk have been enabled.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10918 Add an explicit afl-fuzz test

    An afl-fuzz test without an timeout, and based on the readline-example in the manual has been added.

Cleanup

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#835 Remove get_bucket, get_credit and huge_fallback_count

    The get_bucket, get_credit and huge_fallback_count functions have been removed from stdlib.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10863 Get rid of <caml/compatibility.h>

    As a follow-up to the merged Multicore OCaml PR#10831, the caml/compatibility.h header file has been removed.

  • ocaml/ocaml#10973 Remove unused gc_regs_slot in domain_state

    The gc_regs_slot is unused and is not required in the domain state structure. The same has been removed from the otherlibs/systhreads/st_stubs.c file.

Sundries

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#793 Ring buffer-based runtime tracing (eventring)

    Eventring is a low-overhead runtime tracing system for continuous monitoring of OCaml applications. The issue has been closed to create a PR on ocaml/ocaml.

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#810 Getting segfault/undefined behavior using Multicore with custom blocks

    The segmentation fault was being caused in C code and not OCaml, and hence the issue has been closed.

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore#816 Filter-tree to normalise email address from commiters

    The inconsistent names and email addresses among committers in Multicore OCaml has been fixed and merged using filter-tree.

Ecosystem

Ongoing

Eio

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#124 Decide how to represent pathnames

    The paths in Eio are strings, but, we need to think on how to provide support for Windows paths.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#125 Test on Windows

    Eio needs to be supported on Windows, and a CI must be setup for this environment.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#126 API for spawning sub-processes

    A mechanism to create and manage sub-processes, similar to Lwt_process is required in Eio. This must work using multiple domains, allow passing pipes, check or report the process's exit status etc.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#138 Integrate Eio's CTF tracing with OCaml's tracing

    The proposed eventring to replace the OCaml CTF-based eventlog system can allow users to add custom events that need to be stored.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#140 Decide on cstruct vs bytes

    The IO operations with the kernel require that the GC does not move the address of a buffer, which can be implemented using Cstruct.t. If OCaml 5.00 guarantees that regular strings are not moved, then using bytes can be an option. Performance measurements to compare cstruct and bytes need to be performed.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#146 lib_eio: Add take_all function

    The take_all function has been added to lib_eio/stream.ml.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#155 Add Eio_unix.FD

    An FD module has been added to lib_eio/unix/eio_unix.ml to be used with the Luv.0.5.11 asynchronous I/O library.

Sundries

Completed

Eio

Added

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#120 Add Fibre.fork_on_accept and Net.accept

    This PR that updates fork_on_accept to use an accept function in a new switch, and passes the successful result to a handler function in a new fibre has been merged.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#130 Add Luv polling functions

    The Luv polling functions wrapped in Eio have been added to lib_eio_luv/eio_luv.ml for Lwt integration.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#133 Add Switch.dump and Cancel.dump for debugging

    The Switch.dump and Cancel.dump functions have been added for debugging purpose. A sample output is shown below:

    Switch 6 (1 extra fibres):
  on [4]
    cancelling(Failure("Background switch turned off")) []
      cancelling(Failure("Background switch turned off")) []
      on (protected) [7]

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#135 Add ~close_unix flag to FD.of_unix

    The user can now handle closing of the FD using the close_unix flag for better integration with APIs.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#139 Add eio.unix module for Unix integration

    A new eio.unix module provides both await_readable and await_writable functions, and allows Lwt_eio to work with either backends. Eio needs to work on browsers and unikernels, and hence it must not depend directly on Unix.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#141 lib_eio: implement Stream.is_empty

    A length and is_empty function have been implemented in lib_eio/stream.ml sources.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#159 Add Eio.Buf_read

    The addition of Buf_read in Eio provides a low-level API to view the internal buffer and to mark bytes as consumed. Also, it now has a high-level API to read characters, strings, and multi-line text.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#161 Add more functions to Buf_read

    The functions peek_char, skip, pair, map, bind, *> and <* have been added to lib_eio/buf_read.ml to match the Angstrom API. Additional fuzz testing with crowbar have also been included.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#163 Add Buf_read.{seq,lines} and Dir.{load,save} convenience functions

    A at_end_of_input function has been added, and eof has been renamed to end_of_input to match Angstrom API. The Buf.read.{seq,lines} and Dir.{load.save} convenience functions have been added to make it easy to load and save files, and to read a file line by line.

Build

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#128 Depend on base-domains

    The opam repository now provides a base-domains package, which will be used instead of hard-coding an explicit dependency on ocaml.4.12.0+domains.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#137 Rename eunix to eio.utils

    The collection of utility modules for building Eio backends have been renamed from enix to eio.utils, as a separate OPAM package is not required.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#147 Remove unused bigstringaf dependency

    The bigstringaf dependency is no longer required and the same has been removed.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#149 Remove dependency on ppxlib

    The lib_ctf/ctf.ml file was using ppxlib, and the relevant code has been inlined. Hence, the dependency on ppxlib has been removed to build for 5.00.0.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#151 Add support for OCaml 5.00+trunk

    The PR updates eio to build for OCaml 5.00.0+trunk and keeps compatibility with 4.12+domains.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#157 Remove Unix dependency from Eio

    The dependency on Unix is removed from Eio in order to use it in a unikernel or a browser. The Eio.Unix_perm.t replaces Unix.file_perm, and Eio.Net.Ipaddr.t replaces Unix.inet_addr.

Improvements

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#156 [eio_linux] Allow running uring in polling mode

    A polling_timeout option has been added to run uring in polling mode. This is faster because Linux can start handling requests without waiting for us to submit them.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#158 Split eio.ml out into separate modules

    A code refactor to split the lib_eio/eio.ml into separate modules.

Fixes

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#134 Simplify and improve error reporting

    An error raised and lost when cancelling an operation is now fixed. The cancellation contexts are now handled by the switches.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#160 Fix Buf_read.take_all

    A fix in lib_eio/buf_read.ml to read everything in the stream and not just what is present in the buffer.

Testing

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#153 Allow reading absolute paths with Stdenv.fs

    Stdenv.fs can be used to access absolute paths. A test case has also been added to the PR.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#154 [eio_linux] Avoid copy in read_into

    The readv implementation can now be used to read directly into the user's buffer to avoid the copy with read_into.

Documentation

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#123 Add missing word in README.md

    The README.md documentation has been updated to provide the context of a Switch.run.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#136 Add README example of a cache using promises

    A concurrent cache example has been included in the README that demonstrates the use of Promise.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#144 Minor updates to README

    The README has been updated with information on Lwt_eio with minor changes to clarify the Switch behaviour.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#145 Add Multicore Guide explaining the new memory model

    A new doc/multicore.md file has been added that explains the memory model with the following topics:

    1. Introduction
2. Problems with Multicore Programming
   a. Optimisation 1: Caching
   b. Optimisation 2: Out-of-Order Execution
   c. Optimisation 3: Compiler Optimisations
   d. Optimisation 4: Multiple COres
3. The OCaml Memory Model.
4. Guidelines
5. Further reading

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#152 Fix minor documentation errors

    The dune build @doc warnings have been fixed for doc/rationale.md, lib_ctf/unix/ctf_unix.mli, lib_eio_linux/eio_linux.mli and lib_eio_luv/eio_luv.mli files.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#162 Use MDX to test Multicore guide

    The dune file has been updated to test the multicore.md documentation using MDX.

  • ocaml-multicore/eio#164 Document the new load and save functions

    The README.md file has been updated with documentation on Dir.save, Dir.open_out, Dir.open_in, and Dir.with_lines.

Parallel Programming in Multicore

OCaml Uring

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-uring#43 Remove bigstringaf dependency

    The bigstringaf dependency has been removed, and we now use the same functions provided by cstruct.

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-uring#44 Allow running in polling mode

    The lib/uring/uring.ml has been updated to now run in polling mode with a polling_timeout argument.

  • ocaml-multicore/ocaml-uring#45 Cmdliner is only needed for tests

    The cmdliner dependency is only required for testing, and the same has been updated in both dune-project and uring.opam files.

Domainslib

Multicore OPAM

  • ocaml-multicore/retro-httpaf-bench#18 Switch Eio benchmark to use faster polling mode

    The retro-httpaf benchmark now uses the latest Eio that adds support for polling mode, and makes it the fastest performing benchmark.

Retro-httpaf-bench-PR-18-graph|411x264

  • ocaml-multicore/multicore-opam#61 Remove omake

    The PR removes omake, which is required only for +effects, and also removes caml_modify_field which does not exist in trunk.

  • ocaml-multicore/multicore-opam#62 Remove domainslib

    Domainslib.0.3.0 has been removed from this repository as it has been upstream to opam-repository.

  • ocaml-multicore/multicore-opam#63 base-domains has been upstreamed in opam-repository long ago

    The base-domains dependency has been removed from multicore-opam as it has been upstreamed to the opam repository.

Benchmarking

Sandmark

Ongoing

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark#272 Delay benchmark runs if the machine is active

    A load average check needs to done to ensure that no active benchmarking jobs are being executed on a machine, before triggering a new set of benchmark runs.

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark#273 Use just 5.00+trunk for OCaml variant builds

    The OCaml variants in Sandmark need to be updated to have only the 5.00.0+trunk builds.

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark#274 Custom Variant Support

    A requirement to allow Sandmark benchmark runs for compiler developer branches. The configuration should allow a URL to a specific branch, with configure options, runtime parameters, name of the variant, and an expiry date until which the Sandmark nightly runs should occur. For example:

     [ { "url" : "https://github.com/ocaml-multicore/ocaml-multicore/archive/parallel_minor_gc.tar.gz",
  "configure" : "-q",
  "runparams" : "v=0x400",
  "name": "5.00+trunk+kc+pr23423",
  "expiry": "YYYY-MM-DD"},
...]

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark#275 Move from drone CI to GitHub actions

    The present .drone.yml CI needs to be replaced with builds using GitHub Actions.

Completed

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark#268 Update README CI Build status to main branch

    The CI Build Status for the main branch in Sandmark has been updated to point to the main branch.

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark#270 Update to 5.00.0+domains

    The dependencies and benchmarks to run 5.00.0+domains variant have been updated to build in the Sandmark master branch.

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark#271 Parameterize ocaml-variants information as Docker environment variables

    The following variables have been parameterized in the Sandmark Makefile to be used as environment variables to support the Custom Variant Support feature request:

    SANDMARK_DUNE_VERSION
SANDMARK_URL
SANDMARK_REMOVE_PACKAGES
SANDMARK_OVERRIDE_PACKAGES

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark#276 Re-add 5.00.0+trunk with CI failure:ignore option

    The .drone.yml CI is updated to ignore a failed build for 5.00.0+trunk, so that we can continue to merge changes as long as 5.00.0+stable Sandmark builds fine.

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark#277 Sync and update README from master branch

    The README changes from the Sandmark master branch have been synced up with the main branch, as we will soon switch to using the main branch as the default branch in Sandmark.

Sandmark-nightly

Ongoing

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark-nightly#26 Update the nightly scripts

    The PR updates the scripts in the nightly/ folder to run the 5.00.0 variants on both the Turing and Navajo servers.

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark-nightly#27 Include the baseline variant information in the normalised graphs

    The normalised graph must include the information of the baseline variant used for comparison.

Sandmark-nightly-issue-27-graph|690x278

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark-nightly#32 Support custom variants from private GitHub repo

    The Sandmark nightly runs should allow building custom developer branch variants from a GitHub repository.

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark-nightly#33 Permalink to graphs

    A permalink in the dashboard UI on selected options and graphs will be useful to share among users.

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark-nightly#34 Parallel benchmarks should be run on ocaml/ocaml#trunk

    The parallel benchmark runs should also be run on ocaml/ocaml#trunk, now that Multicore OCaml PR has been merged.

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark-nightly#36 Add a custom run to Sandmark nightly

    A custom variant run with configure options --enable-mmap-stack and --disable-mmap-stack needs to be added to Sandmark nightly.

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark-nightly#37 Sequential results comparison is broken

    A TypeError is shown when selecting sequential results comparison in the UI, and this needs to be fixed.

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark-nightly#38 Baseline for normalised graphs are missing entries

    All the variants with their commits need to be shown in the drop down menu for the normalized graphs.

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark-nightly#40 The information in the landing page is out of date

    The information on the list of variants in the Sandmark nightly landing page needs to be synced with the latest results.

Completed

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark-nightly#24 Use git clone from ocurrent-deployer

    The Dockerfile has been updated to use git clone from ocurrent-deployer, instead of ocaml-bench/sandmark-nightly.

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark-nightly#28 Make number of default variants to be 1 in parallel benchmarks

    The number of default variants for the parallel benchmarks has been switched from two to one.

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark-nightly#30 Add a landing page to Sandmark Nightly

    An index.py landing page has been created for Sandmark Nightly with information on how the benchmarks are executed along with machine details.

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark-nightly#31 Add archive message for instrumented benchmarks

    A message to inform the end user that the instrumented pausetimes benchmarks are not updated for the latest 5.00.0 OCaml variants.

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark-nightly#35 Update icon and title

    The title and favicon defaults to the Streamlit logo, and the same have now been updated to Sandmark Nightly.

  • ocaml-bench/sandmark-nightly#39 Parallel results can't be seen on sandmark.ocamllabs.io

    The hotfix in the UI to show multiple variants mapped to a single commit correctly displays the parallel benchmarks in the UI.

current-bench

Ongoing

  • ocurrent/current-bench#282 Docker compose for stack deploy

    A docker-compose.yaml file has been added to deploy the backend pipeline and frontend stack.

  • ocurrent/current-bench#292 Return better HTTP error codes for API requests

    The PR adds exceptions to return correct HTTP error codes for client API requests.

  • ocurrent/current-bench#293 Make log links noticeable by removing log ID from link text

    The log UUIDs from the execution logs are now replaced with a link for better clarity.

Completed

Fixes

  • ocurrent/current-bench#272 Ignore NaNs when computing the mean

    The NaN entries should not be included when computing the mean, and the same have been updated in LineGraph.res.

  • ocurrent/current-bench#276 Production fix: validate-env for graphql URLs

    The scripts/validate-env.sh script has been updated to validate the path /_hasura/v1/graphql.

  • ocurrent/current-bench#278 Fix for production

    Use port 8082 instead of port 80 for the frontend Nginx running inside Docker.

  • ocurrent/current-bench#284 Couple of fixes with handling multiple benchmarks data

    A list of named benchmarks are now supported when handling data for multiple benchmarks. The benchmarks menu is now hidden only for unnamed benchmarks.

  • ocurrent/current-bench#289 Fix URL missing pull number

    The PR number is lost when a redirect to add a worker or Docker image is issued, and the same has been fixed.

Frontend

  • ocurrent/current-bench#268 Fix frontend: Add worker and Docker image to URL

    The worker and Docker image were not reflected in the URL, and the same have now been included.

  • ocurrent/current-bench#273 Support overlaying graphs using metric names to specify hierarchy

    The frontend now supports overlay of graphs for better comparisons as illustrated below:

Current-bench-PR-273-graph|690x232

  • ocurrent/current-bench#275 Frontend fix: Display warning and old metrics rather than an empty page

    An orange display and previous benchmark metric results are now shown if the latest execution is still running, or has failed to complete, or got cancelled.

  • ocurrent/current-bench#277 Display last values with a colourful legend for overlay graphs

    The most recent values for the overlay graphs are now displayed with a colourful legend as shown below:

Current-bench-PR-277-graph|690x150

  • ocurrent/current-bench#288 Nginx frontend: Fix for URLs containing slashes

    A fix in the production deployment where the / was causing a 404 not found error.

Monitoring

  • ocurrent/current-bench#270 Basic Prometheus and Alertmanager config

    A Prometheus integration setup and configuration to use with current-bench deployments has been created.

  • ocurrent/current-bench#271 Add Prometheus alert when host is out of disk space

    An alert to be triggered for the current-bench host machine when it reaches 90% disk capacity has been added.

  • ocurrent/current-bench#274 Fix alertmanager alert URLs

    The alertmanager URLs have now been updated to point to autumn.ocamllabs.io.

  • ocurrent/current-bench#283 Scrape metrics from the pipeline server

    The Prometheus configuration is updated to obtain OCaml GC metrics, GitHub webhook and cache statistics.

Sundries

  • ocurrent/current-bench#281 Document how to add new workers

    The HACKING.md has been updated with documentation on adding new workers to the cluster.

  • ocurrent/current-bench#287 HTTP API end-point for capturing benchmark results

    The benchmark results can be added to the database using a new HTTP API end-point, without actually requiring the current-bench frontend. For example:

    curl -X POST -H 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' <scheme>://<host>/benchmarks/metrics --data-raw '
{
  "repo_owner": "ocurrent",
  "repo_name": "current-bench",
  "commit": "c66a02ea54430d99b3fefbeba4941921501796ef",
  "pull_number": 286,
  "run_at": "2022-01-28 12:42:02+05:30",
  "duration": "12.45",
  "benchmarks": [
    {
      "name": "benchmark-1",
      "results": [
        {
          "name": "test-1",
          "metrics": [
            {
              "name": "time", "value": 18, "units": "sec"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "benchmark-2",
      "results": [
        {
          "name": "test-1",
          "metrics": [
            {
              "name": "space", "value": 18, "units": "mb"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}
'

We would like to thank all the OCaml users, developers and contributors in the community for their continued support to the project. Stay safe!

Acronyms

  • AFL: American Fuzzy Lop
  • API: Application Programming Interface
  • ARM: Advanced RISC Machines
  • AWK: Aho Weinberger Kernighan
  • BSD: Berkeley Software Distribution
  • CI: Continuous Integration
  • CTF: Common Trace Format
  • DLS: Domain Local Storage
  • FD: File Descriptor
  • GB: Gigabyte
  • GC: Garbage Collector
  • HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol
  • IO: Input/Output
  • IR: Intermediate Representation
  • MD: Markdown
  • OOM: Out of Memory
  • OPAM: OCaml Package Manager
  • OS: Operating System
  • PR: Pull Request
  • PRNG Pseudo-Random Number Generator
  • UI: User Interface
  • URL: Uniform Resource Locator