Writing benchmarks for Go apps

Posted on 13 Jan, 2024

Pre-requisites

Install the perf utility tools that help in analyzing the benchmarks.

go install golang.org/x/perf/cmd/...@latest

Run benchmarks

Close all other applications including browsers & background apps like docker to get accurate results.

Run benchmarks

go test -bench=BenchmarkMyFunction -benchmem -count=10 | tee old_benchmark.txt

Change the implementation and run the benchmarks again

go test -bench=BenchmarkMyFunction -benchmem -count=10 | tee new_benchmark.txt

Compare the benchmarks

benchstat old_benchmark.txt new_benchmark.txt

Writing benchmarks

Resources

• https://dave.cheney.net/high-performance-go-workshop/sydney-2019.html#comparing_benchmarks_with_benchstat