Add musl release builds and basic load testing scripts (#940)

Closes #116 
Closes #548 (this PR just adds basics, but there is always more to do,
so no point in keeping the issue open)
CC #934 
CC #59 

This PR adds some basic load testing scripts and also adds `-musl`
builds as officially supported release binary. To do the latter, scripts
are adjusted and test deployments on Tue, Thurs and Saturday use musl.
This might seem very weird (and it kind of is), but this means that we
will constantly testing both builds to avoid some hard to spot bugs
sneaking in. Additionally, Tobira now uses jemalloc as allocator due to
musl performance reasons, see below.

See commit messages for more information.

---

### Musl performance considerations

Our main blocker for just offering musl builds were performance
considerations. One often reads on the interwebz that musl is slow. This
is only partially true and many comments are outdated (see
#116 (comment)).
However, we wanted to test for ourselves. That's why this PR adds basic
load tests. They are not amazing, but they helped already.

Results of running locally (the ms are average response times):


| | `GET index.html` | Homepage GraphQL query | Video page GraphQL query
|
| ------------------ | ---------------- | ---------------------- |
------------------------ |
| musl | 110k req/s | 430 req/s (35ms) | 1250 req/s (11.6ms)
| gnu | 276k req/s | 2760 req/s (5.0ms) | 4120 req/s (3.1ms)
| musl with jemalloc | 272k req/s | 2830 req/s (4.8ms) | 4100 req/s
(3.1ms)
| gnu with jemalloc | 271k req/s | 2860 req/s (4.8ms) | 4090 req/s
(3.2ms)

The gist: musl with built-in allocator is still significantly slower
than all other options. And all other options don't differ significantly
(the differences are most certainly below noise threshold).

So yeah, that lead to the decision to use jemalloc for both kinds of
builds.

CC @mtneug

.github/workflows/build-release.yml

@@ -45,3 +45,31 @@ jobs:
           draft: true
           fail_on_unmatched_files: true
           generate_release_notes: true
+
+  build-musl:
+    name: Build musl release
+    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout code
+        uses: actions/checkout@v3
+
+      - name: Install musl requisites
+        run: sudo apt install -y musl-dev musl-tools
+
+      - name: Install musl target
+        run: rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
+
+      - name: Create release build
+        run: ./x.sh build-release --musl
+
+      - name: Rename binary to include target information
+        run: mv deploy/tobira deploy/tobira-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
+
+      - name: create new release
+        uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v1
+        with:
+          files: |
+            deploy/tobira-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
+          draft: true
+          fail_on_unmatched_files: true
+          generate_release_notes: true

.github/workflows/ci.yml

@@ -39,9 +39,35 @@ jobs:
     steps:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v3
 
+    # Figure out build mode
+    - name: Determine build mode
+      run: |
+        target_dir="target"
+        if (( "$(date +%w)" % 2 == 0 )); then
+          sudo apt install -y musl-dev musl-tools
+          rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
+          echo "ci_cargo_target=--target=x86_64-unknown-linux-musl" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+          echo "rust_cache_key=musl" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+          target_dir="${target_dir}/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl"
+        else
+          echo "ci_cargo_target=" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+          echo "rust_cache_key=gnu" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+        fi
+
+        if [[ "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" == "elan-ev/tobira" ]] && [ "$GITHUB_REF" == "refs/heads/master" ]; then
+          echo "ci_cargo_flags=--release" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+          echo "ci_targetdir=${target_dir}/release" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+          echo "ci_webpack_flags=production" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+        else
+          echo "ci_cargo_flags=--features=embed-in-debug" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+          echo "ci_targetdir=${target_dir}/debug" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+          echo "ci_webpack_flags=development" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+        fi
+
     - name: Restore backend cache
       uses: Swatinem/rust-cache@v2
       with:
+        key: ${{ env.rust_cache_key }}
         workspaces: backend
 
     # Frontend cache: only the NPM folder is cached, not the node_modules, as
@@ -52,18 +78,6 @@ jobs:
         path: ~/.npm
         key: ${{ runner.os }}-node-${{ hashFiles('frontend/package-lock.json') }}
 
-    # Figure out build mode
-    - name: Determine build mode
-      run: |
-        if [[ "$GITHUB_REPOSITORY" == "elan-ev/tobira" ]] && [ "$GITHUB_REF" == "refs/heads/master" ]; then
-          echo "ci_cargo_flags=--release" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-          echo "ci_targetdir=target/release" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-          echo "ci_webpack_flags=production" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-        else
-          echo "ci_cargo_flags=--features=embed-in-debug" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-          echo "ci_targetdir=target/debug" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-          echo "ci_webpack_flags=development" >> $GITHUB_ENV
-        fi
 
     # The actual building and testing!
     - name: Installing frontend dependencies (npm ci)
@@ -84,10 +98,10 @@ jobs:
 
     - name: Build backend
       working-directory: backend
-      run: cargo build ${{ env.ci_cargo_flags }}
+      run: cargo build ${{ env.ci_cargo_flags }} ${{ env.ci_cargo_target }}
     - name: Test backend
       working-directory: backend
-      run: cargo test
+      run: cargo test ${{ env.ci_cargo_target }}
 
     - name: Move Tobira binary
       run: mv backend/${{ env.ci_targetdir }}/tobira tobira

backend/Cargo.toml

@@ -74,6 +74,9 @@ tokio-postgres-rustls = "0.10.0"
 [target.'cfg(target_os = "linux")'.dependencies]
 procfs = "0.15.1"
 
+[target.'cfg(not(target_env = "msvc"))'.dependencies]
+tikv-jemallocator = "0.5"
+
 [build-dependencies]
 built = { version = "0.7", features = ["chrono", "git2"] }
 

backend/src/http/assets.rs

@@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ impl Assets {
             "buildDateUtc": crate::version::build_time_utc(),
             "gitCommitHash": crate::version::git_commit_hash(),
             "gitWasDirty": crate::version::git_was_dirty(),
+            "target": crate::version::target(),
         }).to_string());
         variables.insert("global-style".into(), config.theme.to_css());
         variables.insert("auth".into(), json!({

backend/src/main.rs

@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 //! The Tobira backend server.
 
+#[cfg(not(target_env = "msvc"))]
+#[global_allocator]
+static GLOBAL: tikv_jemallocator::Jemalloc = tikv_jemallocator::Jemalloc;
+
 use clap::{FromArgMatches, CommandFactory};
 use deadpool_postgres::Pool;
 use util::Never;

backend/src/version.rs

@@ -28,13 +28,18 @@ pub(crate) fn git_was_dirty() -> bool {
     build_info::GIT_DIRTY == Some(true)
 }
 
+pub(crate) fn target() -> &'static str {
+    build_info::TARGET
+}
+
 /// Returns a string containing all version-related information.
 pub(crate) fn full() -> String {
     format!(
-        "{} ({}{}), built {}",
+        "{} ({}{}), built {} ({})",
         identifier(),
         git_commit_hash(),
         if git_was_dirty() { ", dirty" } else { "" },
         build_time_utc(),
+        target(),
     )
 }

docs/docs/versioning-policy.md

@@ -28,6 +28,17 @@ Every release mentions all potentially breaking changes in its release notes.
 
 ---
 
+## Provided release binaries
+
+We currently provide pre-built binaries for `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu` and `x86_64-unknown-linux-musl`.
+Both are supported and should work fine.
+
+The `-gnu` build relies on dynamically linked libraries on your system.
+We create that build on the oldest supported Ubuntu runner of GitHub actions, which is currently `20.04`.
+Our release binary could require a glibc version up to the one on that runner, which is currently `2.31`.
+In general, the dynamic library version requirements could change with any release.
+If your server doesn't have those libraries, consider using the `-musl` build or [compiling Tobira yourself](./dev/build/release).
+
 ## Breaking and non-breaking changes
 
 Our definition of these terms for Tobira. Defines what we guarantee and what we don't.

frontend/src/config.ts

@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@ type VersionInfo = {
     buildDateUtc: string;
     gitCommitHash: string;
     gitWasDirty: boolean;
+    target: string;
 };
 
 type UploadConfig = {

frontend/src/routes/About.tsx

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import { ABOUT_PATH } from "./paths";
 import { makeRoute } from "../rauta";
 import { PageTitle } from "../layout/header/ui";
 import { Breadcrumbs } from "../ui/Breadcrumbs";
+import { COLORS } from "../color";
 
 
 export const AboutRoute = makeRoute(url => {
@@ -56,6 +57,10 @@ const About: React.FC = () => {
             <a href={`https://github.com/elan-ev/tobira/releases/tag/${version.identifier}`}>
                 Tobira <strong>{version.identifier}</strong>
             </a>
+            {" "}
+            <span css={{ color: COLORS.neutral80, paddingLeft: 8 }}>
+                (<code css={{ fontSize: 13 }}>{version.target}</code>)
+            </span>
             <br />
             {"Git info: "}
             <a href={`https://github.com/elan-ev/tobira/commit/${version.gitCommitHash}`}>

util/loadtest/.gitignore

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+/target
+/*.html