# Re: \[PATCH 2/2\] for-each-ref: add --count-matches option

- From: Phillip Wood \<hidden\>
- Date: 2023-06-27 10:08:24 
- List: git
- Page: https://ratatoskr.run/git/2023/06/7971906
- Thread: https://ratatoskr.run/git/2023/06/7971821/t.md

```text
On 27/06/2023 08:30, Jeff King wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 26, 2023 at 03:09:57PM +0000, Derrick Stolee via GitGitGadget wrote:
>
>> +for pattern in "refs/heads/" "refs/tags/" "refs/remotes"
>> +do
>> +	test_perf "count $pattern: git for-each-ref | wc -l" "
>> +		git for-each-ref $pattern | wc -l
>> +	"
>> +
>> +	test_perf "count $pattern: git for-each-ref --count-match" "
>> +		git for-each-ref --count-matches $pattern
>> +	"
>> +done
>
> I don't think this is a very realistic perf test, because for-each-ref
> is doing a bunch of work to generate its default format, only to have
> "wc" throw most of it away. Doing:
>
>    git for-each-ref --format='%(refname)' | wc -l

That's a good point. I wondered if using a short fixed format string was even better so I tried

git init test
cd test
git commit --allow-empty -m initial
seq 0 100000 | sed "s:\(.*\):create refs/heads/some-prefix/\1 $(git rev-parse HEAD):" | git update-ref --stdin
git pack-refs --all
hyperfine -L fmt "","--format=%\(refname\)","--format=x" 'git for-each-ref {fmt} refs/heads/ | wc -l'

Which gives

Benchmark 1: git for-each-ref  refs/heads/ | wc -l
  Time (mean ± σ):      1.150 s ±  0.010 s    [User: 0.494 s, System: 0.637 s]
  Range (min … max):    1.140 s …  1.170 s    10 runs

Benchmark 2: git for-each-ref --format=%\(refname\) refs/heads/ | wc -l
  Time (mean ± σ):      66.0 ms ±   0.3 ms    [User: 58.9 ms, System: 9.5 ms]
  Range (min … max):    65.2 ms …  67.1 ms    43 runs

Benchmark 3: git for-each-ref --format=x refs/heads/ | wc -l
  Time (mean ± σ):      63.0 ms ±   0.5 ms    [User: 54.3 ms, System: 9.6 ms]
  Range (min … max):    62.3 ms …  65.4 ms    44 runs

Summary
  git for-each-ref --format=x refs/heads/ | wc -l ran
    1.05 ± 0.01 times faster than git for-each-ref --format=%\(refname\) refs/heads/ | wc -l
   18.25 ± 0.20 times faster than git for-each-ref  refs/heads/ | wc -l

So on my somewhat slower machine the default format is over an order of magnitude slower than using either --format=%(refname) or --format=x and the short fixed format is marginally faster. I haven't applied stolee's patch but the 3 or 4 times improvement mentioned in the commit message seems likely to be from not processing the default format. One thing to note is that we're not comparing like-with-like when more than one pattern is given as --count-matches gives a separate count for each pattern.

I'm a bit suspicious of the massive speed up I'm seeing by avoiding the default format but it appears to be repeatable.

Best Wishes

Phillip

> is much better (obviously you have to remember to do that if you care
> about optimizing your command, but that's true of --count-matches, too).
>
> Running hyperfine with three variants shows that the command above is
> competitive with --count-matches, though slightly slower (hyperfine
> complains about short commands and outliers because these runtimes are
> so tiny in the first place; I omitted those warnings from the output
> below for readability):
>
>    Benchmark 1: ./git-for-each-ref refs/remotes/ | wc -l
>      Time (mean ± σ):       6.1 ms ±   0.2 ms    [User: 3.0 ms, System: 3.6 ms]
>      Range (min … max):     5.6 ms …   7.1 ms    397 runs
>    
>    Benchmark 2: ./git-for-each-ref --format="%(refname)" refs/remotes/ | wc -l
>      Time (mean ± σ):       3.3 ms ±   0.2 ms    [User: 2.2 ms, System: 1.5 ms]
>      Range (min … max):     3.0 ms …   4.0 ms    774 runs
>    
>    Benchmark 3: ./git-for-each-ref --count-matches refs/remotes/
>      Time (mean ± σ):       2.4 ms ±   0.1 ms    [User: 1.5 ms, System: 0.9 ms]
>      Range (min … max):     2.2 ms …   3.4 ms    1018 runs
>    
>    Summary
>      './git-for-each-ref --count-matches refs/remotes/' ran
>        1.33 ± 0.10 times faster than './git-for-each-ref --format="%(refname)" refs/remotes/ | wc -l'
>        2.48 ± 0.17 times faster than './git-for-each-ref refs/remotes/ | wc -l'
>
> I will note this is an unloaded multi-core system, which gives the piped
> version a slight edge. Total CPU is probably more interesting than
> wall-clock time, but all of these are so short that I think the results
> should be taken with a pretty big grain of salt (I had to switch from
> the "powersave" to "performance" CPU governor just to get more
> consistent results).
>
> -Peff
```