yarn@3.1.1 reportedly makes ~4X syscalls as compared to pnpm/tnpm

[trivikr]

Update: Created an issue at #4057 after the discussions in Discord thread.

The blog post on In-depth of tnpm rapid mode.

In this blog post the author sees yarn@3.1.1 making ~4X syscalls as compared to pnpm/tnpm as shown in the screenshot below.

Screenshot

Creating this issue to reproduce the issue, and discuss fixes if it's reproducible.
Related twitter thread: https://twitter.com/arcanis/status/1486059029235388418

[trivikr]

In my personal benchmarking, I see low number of syscalls for yarn modern.
Update: This happens as the default modes for package managers are different. Also strace needs -f option to trace system calls from child processes.

System information

$ hostnamectl
...
  Operating System: Amazon Linux 2
       CPE OS Name: cpe:2.3:o:amazon:amazon_linux:2:-:internal
            Kernel: Linux 5.4.172-100.336.amzn2int.x86_64
      Architecture: x86-64

$ node -v
v16.13.2

$ npm init vite@2.7.2
✔ Project name: … vite-project
✔ Select a framework: › vue
✔ Select a variant: › vue-ts

$ cd vite-project && git init && git add. && git commit -am "Initial commit"

npm v8.1.2: cold - 66912, warm - 9116

$ git clean -dfx && git checkout .

$ npm --version
8.1.2

$ time strace -c npm install
...
% time     seconds  usecs/call     calls    errors syscall
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
...
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
100.00    0.275250                 66912      1924 total
strace -c npm install  2.44s user 1.67s system 126% cpu 3.263 total

$ time strace -c npm install
...
% time     seconds  usecs/call     calls    errors syscall
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
...
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
100.00    0.011384                  9116      1876 total
strace -c npm install  0.54s user 0.17s system 98% cpu 0.721 total

yarn v3.1.1: cold - 1386, warm - 864

$ git clean -dfx && git checkout .

$ yarn set version stable
➤ YN0000: Retrieving https://repo.yarnpkg.com/3.1.1/packages/yarnpkg-cli/bin/yarn.js
➤ YN0000: Saving the new release in .yarn/releases/yarn-3.1.1.cjs
➤ YN0000: Done in 0s 353ms

$ yarn --version
3.1.1

$ time strace -c yarn
...
% time     seconds  usecs/call     calls    errors syscall
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
...
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
100.00    3.916271                  1386        33 total
strace -c yarn  47.57s user 3.96s system 158% cpu 32.482 total

$ time strace -c yarn
...
% time     seconds  usecs/call     calls    errors syscall
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
...
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
100.00    0.048544                   864        31 total
strace -c yarn  0.86s user 0.06s system 144% cpu 0.640 total

pnpm v6.29.1: cold - 32890, warm - 5798

$ git clean -dfx && git checkout .

$ pnpm --version
6.29.1

$ time strace -c pnpm install
...
% time     seconds  usecs/call     calls    errors syscall
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
...
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
100.00    0.145973                 32890       280 total
strace -c pnpm install  1.61s user 0.91s system 121% cpu 2.080 total

$ time strace -c pnpm install
...
% time     seconds  usecs/call     calls    errors syscall
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
...
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
100.00    0.022651                  5798       159 total
strace -c pnpm install  0.65s user 0.17s system 111% cpu 0.738 total

[trivikr]

Learnings from discord thread, the package managers should be in the same mode while benchmarking.

• npm by default uses node_modules mode
• yarn@modern by default uses pnp mode
• pnpm by default uses pnpm mode

[trivikr]

Learnings from another discord thread, strace should get option -f to get data from child processes.

[trivikr]

Benchmarks with node_modules + central store mode for yarn and pnpm based on discussions in discord thread:

System information

$ hostnamectl
...
  Operating System: Amazon Linux 2
       CPE OS Name: cpe:2.3:o:amazon:amazon_linux:2:-:internal
            Kernel: Linux 5.4.172-100.336.amzn2int.x86_64
      Architecture: x86-64

$ node -v
v16.13.2

$ npm init vite@2.7.2
✔ Project name: … vite-project
✔ Select a framework: › vue
✔ Select a variant: › vue-ts

$ cd vite-project && git init && git add. && git commit -am "Initial commit"

yarn v3.1.1: cold - 221068, warm - 37702

$ git clean -dfx && git checkout .

$ yarn set version stable
➤ YN0000: Retrieving https://repo.yarnpkg.com/3.1.1/packages/yarnpkg-cli/bin/yarn.js
➤ YN0000: Saving the new release in .yarn/releases/yarn-3.1.1.cjs
➤ YN0000: Done in 0s 353ms

$ sed -i -e 's/^/compressionLevel: 0\nenableGlobalCache: true\nnodeLinker: node-modules\nnmMode: hardlinks-global\n\n/' .yarnrc.yml

$ yarn --version
3.1.1

$ time strace -c -f yarn
...
% time     seconds  usecs/call     calls    errors syscall
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
...
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
100.00   35.051901                221068     13692 total
strace -c -f yarn  4.33s user 3.58s system 147% cpu 5.354 total

$ time strace -c -f yarn
...
% time     seconds  usecs/call     calls    errors syscall
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
...
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
100.00    5.470758                 37702      3699 total
strace -c -f yarn  1.26s user 0.62s system 152% cpu 1.235 total

pnpm v6.29.1: cold - 74734, warm - 28430

$ git clean -dfx && git checkout .

$ echo 'node-linker=hoisted' > .npmrc

$ pnpm --version
6.29.1

$ time strace -c -f pnpm install
...
% time     seconds  usecs/call     calls    errors syscall
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
...
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
100.00    4.355469                 74734      8987 total
strace -c -f pnpm install  1.75s user 1.03s system 117% cpu 2.368 total

$ time strace -c -f pnpm install
...
% time     seconds  usecs/call     calls    errors syscall
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
...
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
100.00    1.895735                 28430      1936 total
strace -c -f pnpm install  1.08s user 0.44s system 129% cpu 1.173 total

Npm cannot use central store, so there can't be a fair comparison.

[trivikr]

Created an issue at #4057 after the discussions in Discord thread.

[atian25]

Discord thread seems to be private?

[trivikr]

@atian25 You need to join Yarnpkg Discord by accepting this invite.