benchmark: add child_process async path baselines

anonrig · web-flow · commit 3fd0e1187def · 2026-06-17T16:08:56.000Z
Add micro-benchmarks that isolate the hot paths targeted by the JavaScript-to-C++ migration of child_process: - child-process-spawn-options.js scales the env vars and args that ProcessWrap::Spawn must marshal across the JS/C++ boundary. - child-process-ipc-roundtrip.js measures IPC throughput for both the json and advanced serializers across a range of payload sizes. - child-process-exec-maxbuffer.js measures stdout accumulation and maxBuffer handling in execFile(). These establish the baseline that later migration PRs are compared against. There is no runtime behavior change. Signed-off-by: Yagiz Nizipli <yagiz@nizipli.com> PR-URL: #63929 Reviewed-By: Filip Skokan <panva.ip@gmail.com> Reviewed-By: Matteo Collina <matteo.collina@gmail.com>
diff --git a/benchmark/child_process/child-process-exec-maxbuffer.js b/benchmark/child_process/child-process-exec-maxbuffer.js
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+'use strict';
+const common = require('../common.js');
+const { execFile } = require('child_process');
+
+// Isolates stdout accumulation + maxBuffer handling in execFile(). The child
+// writes `chunks` blocks of 64 KiB; the parent accumulates them through the
+// native pipe read path and the JS buffering in lib/child_process.js until the
+// process exits and the result buffer is handed to the callback.
+
+const bench = common.createBenchmark(main, {
+  // Number of 64 KiB blocks written by the child: 1 MiB, 16 MiB, 64 MiB.
+  chunks: [16, 256, 1024],
+  n: [10],
+});
+
+function main({ n, chunks }) {
+  const script =
+    'const b = Buffer.alloc(65536, 0x61);' +
+    `for (let i = 0; i < ${chunks}; i++) process.stdout.write(b);`;
+  const args = ['-e', script];
+  const options = {
+    maxBuffer: chunks * 65536 + 65536,
+    encoding: 'buffer',
+  };
+
+  let left = n;
+  const run = () => {
+    execFile(process.execPath, args, options, (err) => {
+      if (err)
+        throw err;
+      if (--left === 0)
+        return bench.end(n);
+      run();
+    });
+  };
+
+  bench.start();
+  run();
+}
diff --git a/benchmark/child_process/child-process-ipc-roundtrip.js b/benchmark/child_process/child-process-ipc-roundtrip.js
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+'use strict';
+if (process.argv[2] === 'child') {
+  // Echo every message straight back to the parent.
+  process.on('message', (msg) => {
+    process.send(msg);
+  });
+} else {
+  const common = require('../common.js');
+  const bench = common.createBenchmark(main, {
+    len: [64, 256, 1024, 4096, 16384, 65536],
+    serialization: ['json', 'advanced'],
+    dur: [5],
+  });
+  const { spawn } = require('child_process');
+
+  function main({ dur, len, serialization }) {
+    const msg = { payload: '.'.repeat(len) };
+    const options = {
+      stdio: ['ignore', 'ignore', 'ignore', 'ipc'],
+      serialization,
+    };
+    const child = spawn(process.argv[0],
+                        [process.argv[1], 'child'], options);
+
+    let messages = 0;
+    let finished = false;
+
+    child.on('message', () => {
+      messages++;
+      // Keep one round-trip in flight per completed one so both the serialize
+      // (write) and deserialize (read) paths stay saturated on both ends.
+      if (!finished)
+        child.send(msg);
+    });
+
+    bench.start();
+    // Prime a window of in-flight messages so the IPC channel never drains.
+    for (let i = 0; i < 256; i++)
+      child.send(msg);
+
+    setTimeout(() => {
+      finished = true;
+      bench.end(messages);
+      child.kill();
+    }, dur * 1000);
+  }
+}
diff --git a/benchmark/child_process/child-process-spawn-options.js b/benchmark/child_process/child-process-spawn-options.js
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+'use strict';
+const common = require('../common.js');
+const { spawn } = require('child_process');
+
+// Isolates the cost of marshaling spawn() options across the JS -> C++ boundary
+// (ProcessWrap::Spawn). A trivial, fast-exiting child is spawned repeatedly
+// while scaling the number of environment pairs and arguments that have to be
+// converted, so the per-spawn option-handling overhead is the dominant cost.
+
+const isWindows = process.platform === 'win32';
+const command = isWindows ? 'cmd' : 'true';
+const baseArgs = isWindows ? ['/d', '/s', '/c', 'exit'] : [];
+
+const bench = common.createBenchmark(main, {
+  n: [1000],
+  envc: [0, 64, 256, 1024],
+  argc: [0, 8, 64],
+});
+
+function main({ n, envc, argc }) {
+  const env = { ...process.env };
+  for (let i = 0; i < envc; i++)
+    env[`NODE_BENCH_VAR_${i}`] = `value_${i}`;
+
+  const args = baseArgs.slice();
+  for (let i = 0; i < argc; i++)
+    args.push(`arg_${i}`);
+
+  const options = { env, stdio: ['ignore', 'ignore', 'ignore'] };
+
+  let left = n;
+  const go = () => {
+    if (--left < 0)
+      return bench.end(n);
+    const child = spawn(command, args, options);
+    // The exit code is intentionally ignored: the child only exercises the
+    // option-marshaling path, it is not expected to do any useful work.
+    child.on('exit', go);
+  };
+
+  bench.start();
+  go();
+}
