Ruby Protocol Benchmarks

This directory holds a small harness for quick Ruby protocol benchmarks. Use it to spot read and write regressions in tree.

Quick Start

Run the script with plain ruby from the repo root.

ruby test/rb/benchmarks/protocol_benchmark.rb

This runs the full benchmark set:

• Ruby binary
• Ruby compact
• Ruby JSON
• Header binary
• Header compact
• Header zlib
• C binary, if thrift_native.so loads

Options

Use flags or env vars to tune a run.

ruby test/rb/benchmarks/protocol_benchmark.rb --large-runs 1 --small-runs 10000

• --json
• THRIFT_BENCHMARK_LARGE_RUNS
• THRIFT_BENCHMARK_SMALL_RUNS
• THRIFT_BENCHMARK_SKIP_NATIVE=1
• THRIFT_BENCHMARK_SCENARIOS

ruby test/rb/benchmarks/protocol_benchmark.rb --json > benchmark.json

[!NOTE] --json keeps the warm-up pass, but only prints measured results.

[!TIP] Set THRIFT_BENCHMARK_SKIP_NATIVE=1 to force a pure-Ruby run.

Scenario IDs

Use --scenarios or THRIFT_BENCHMARK_SCENARIOS to run only part of the matrix.

ruby test/rb/benchmarks/protocol_benchmark.rb --scenarios rb-bin-write-large,rb-json-read-large,hdr-zlib-read-small

Each ID has four parts:

• family: rb, c, or hdr
• protocol: bin, cmp, json, or zlib
• operation: write or read
• size: large or small

Full Table

ID	Family	Protocol	Operation	Size
rb-bin-write-large	Ruby	binary	write	large
rb-bin-read-large	Ruby	binary	read	large
c-bin-write-large	C native	binary	write	large
c-bin-read-large	C native	binary	read	large
rb-cmp-write-large	Ruby	compact	write	large
rb-cmp-read-large	Ruby	compact	read	large
rb-json-write-large	Ruby	JSON	write	large
rb-json-read-large	Ruby	JSON	read	large
rb-bin-write-small	Ruby	binary	write	small
rb-bin-read-small	Ruby	binary	read	small
c-bin-write-small	C native	binary	write	small
c-bin-read-small	C native	binary	read	small
rb-cmp-write-small	Ruby	compact	write	small
rb-cmp-read-small	Ruby	compact	read	small
rb-json-write-small	Ruby	JSON	write	small
rb-json-read-small	Ruby	JSON	read	small
hdr-bin-write-small	Header	binary	write	small
hdr-bin-read-small	Header	binary	read	small
hdr-cmp-write-small	Header	compact	write	small
hdr-cmp-read-small	Header	compact	read	small
hdr-zlib-write-small	Header	zlib	write	small
hdr-zlib-read-small	Header	zlib	read	small

[!NOTE] Native-only IDs fail if thrift_native.so is not available.

Reference

What It Measures

• Large jobs serialize and deserialize one nested Nested4 payload by default.
• Small jobs serialize and deserialize many OneOfEach payloads.
• Read jobs use payloads built before timing so they measure read cost, not payload construction.
• Header jobs flush after each struct so reads benchmark framed messages, not a buffered write that was never emitted.

Files

• protocol_benchmark.rb: benchmark harness and scenario definitions
• ../fixtures/structs.rb: sample structs used by the benchmark

Notes

This harness is for quick in-tree checks. Use --json if you want structured output for scripts, result diffs, or branch comparisons. Run it more than once if you want a wider sample.