bench: latency harness + paired latency fixtures

The latency_harness.py harness spawns the bench binary on a PTY,
records monotonic_ns() per stdout line, and reports inter-arrival
gap distribution (median / p99 / p99.9 / max). Tail latency is
Decision 10's central real-time claim; total wall-time and RSS are
the wrong metrics for that question.

Paired fixtures: bench_latency_implicit (Boehm-fair, no mode
annotations, leaks under --alloc=rc) and bench_latency_explicit
(mode-annotated hot path, what RC was built for). Both use a
depth-19 balanced tree (~16 MB) as the persistent live working
set, plus per-op IntList build+sum churn forcing GC pressure
under Boehm.

Authored by ailang-bencher; ships evidence, not features.
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#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""
Per-operation latency harness for the bench_latency_{implicit,explicit}
fixtures.
The fixtures emit a stdout marker line every PRINT_K bench operations.
We spawn the binary with its stdout connected to a PTY so libc's
printf path is line-buffered (rather than block-buffered as it would
be on a pipe), record `time.monotonic_ns()` at every line read, and
report the inter-arrival distribution.
The headline numbers are median, p99, p99.9, max of the inter-arrival
gaps (in microseconds). Tail latency is the question; total wall time
is not.
We do NOT count the gap between READY (8888) and the first sample —
that gap includes the build_tree(19) cost and is not a steady-state
operation. We also drop the very last gap (DONE 9999) because the
program exit path can include final teardown that is not part of the
loop budget.
Usage:
python3 bench/latency_harness.py <binary> [--label LABEL]
"""
from __future__ import annotations
import argparse
import os
import pty
import resource
import select
import sys
import time
def run_pty(binary: str, timeout_s: float = 600.0) -> tuple[list[int], int, int, int, float]:
"""Run `binary` with stdout on a PTY, return (timestamps_ns, lines, exit_status, max_rss_kb, wall_s)."""
pid, fd = pty.fork()
if pid == 0:
# Child: replace argv[0] with the binary and exec.
try:
os.execvp(binary, [binary])
except FileNotFoundError as e:
sys.stderr.write(f"exec failed: {e}\n")
os._exit(127)
# Parent: read from the PTY master, timestamp every newline.
timestamps: list[int] = []
line_count = 0
buf = bytearray()
deadline = time.monotonic() + timeout_s
t_start = time.monotonic()
try:
while True:
remaining = deadline - time.monotonic()
if remaining <= 0:
os.kill(pid, 9)
raise TimeoutError(f"binary exceeded {timeout_s:.0f}s")
r, _, _ = select.select([fd], [], [], min(remaining, 1.0))
if not r:
continue
try:
chunk = os.read(fd, 4096)
except OSError:
# PTY master read after child exit -> EIO on Linux.
break
if not chunk:
break
now = time.monotonic_ns()
buf.extend(chunk)
# Walk the buffer; record `now` for each newline encountered.
# Multiple newlines in one read share the same monotonic_ns
# — that's a known quantization artefact of bursty stdio
# delivery, NOT a per-op timing artefact. We surface it in
# the report.
nl = buf.find(b"\n")
while nl != -1:
timestamps.append(now)
line_count += 1
del buf[: nl + 1]
nl = buf.find(b"\n")
finally:
try:
os.close(fd)
except OSError:
pass
# Wait for child and capture rusage.
_, status = os.waitpid(pid, 0)
ru = resource.getrusage(resource.RUSAGE_CHILDREN)
t_end = time.monotonic()
return timestamps, line_count, status, ru.ru_maxrss, t_end - t_start
def percentile(xs: list[float], p: float) -> float:
"""Nearest-rank percentile (xs assumed sorted)."""
if not xs:
return float("nan")
k = max(0, min(len(xs) - 1, int(round((p / 100.0) * (len(xs) - 1)))))
return xs[k]
def report(label: str, timestamps_ns: list[int], lines: int, status: int, rss_kb: int, wall_s: float) -> None:
# The fixtures emit:
# line 1 : 8888 (READY, after build_tree)
# line 2..1001 : per-chunk markers (1000 timing samples)
# line 1002 : 9999 (DONE)
# Inter-arrival gaps: between consecutive timestamps.
# We drop the first gap (READY -> first chunk includes a partial
# chunk's setup but is dominated by chunk work; still informative)
# and the last gap (last chunk -> DONE includes program exit).
# Per the orchestrator's brief we want the steady-state distribution,
# so we trim both ends.
if lines < 5:
print(f"[{label}] FAIL: only {lines} lines, status={status}")
return
gaps_ns: list[int] = []
for i in range(1, len(timestamps_ns)):
gaps_ns.append(timestamps_ns[i] - timestamps_ns[i - 1])
# Trim the first gap (READY -> first chunk; includes the loop's
# first chunk's full work) and the last gap (last chunk -> DONE;
# includes program teardown). Everything between is steady-state.
trimmed = gaps_ns[1:-1] if len(gaps_ns) >= 3 else gaps_ns
gaps_us = sorted(g / 1000.0 for g in trimmed)
# Quantization detection: how many gaps are exactly 0 ns? That
# means two newlines arrived in the same os.read.
zero_gaps = sum(1 for g in trimmed if g == 0)
median = percentile(gaps_us, 50)
p90 = percentile(gaps_us, 90)
p99 = percentile(gaps_us, 99)
p999 = percentile(gaps_us, 99.9)
p_max = max(gaps_us) if gaps_us else float("nan")
p_min = min(gaps_us) if gaps_us else float("nan")
mean = sum(gaps_us) / len(gaps_us) if gaps_us else float("nan")
print(f"=== {label} ===")
print(f" lines: {lines} exit_status: {status} wall: {wall_s:.3f}s max_rss: {rss_kb} KB")
print(f" inter-arrival gaps (steady-state, n={len(trimmed)}, trimmed first+last):")
print(f" min: {p_min:10.1f} us")
print(f" median: {median:10.1f} us")
print(f" mean: {mean:10.1f} us")
print(f" p90: {p90:10.1f} us")
print(f" p99: {p99:10.1f} us")
print(f" p99.9: {p999:10.1f} us")
print(f" max: {p_max:10.1f} us")
print(f" p99/median: {p99 / median if median else float('nan'):.2f}x")
print(f" max/median: {p_max / median if median else float('nan'):.2f}x")
print(f" zero-ns gaps (read coalescing): {zero_gaps} / {len(trimmed)}")
def main() -> int:
ap = argparse.ArgumentParser()
ap.add_argument("binary", help="path to the bench binary")
ap.add_argument("--label", default=None, help="label for the report")
ap.add_argument("--timeout", type=float, default=600.0)
args = ap.parse_args()
label = args.label or os.path.basename(args.binary)
timestamps, lines, status, rss_kb, wall_s = run_pty(args.binary, args.timeout)
report(label, timestamps, lines, status, rss_kb, wall_s)
return 0
if __name__ == "__main__":
sys.exit(main())