TimerOutputs

TimerOutputs is a small Julia package that is used to generate formatted output from timings made in different sections of a program. It's main functionality is the @timeit macro, similar to the @time macro in Base except one also assigns a label to the code section being timed. Multiple calls to code sections with the same label (and in the same "scope") will accumulate the data for that label. After the program has executed, it is possible to print a nicely formatted table presenting how much time, allocations and number of calls were made in each section. The output can be customized as to only show the things you are interested in.

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Example output

An example of the output (used in a finite element simulation) is shown below

 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
                                        Time                   Allocations
                                ──────────────────────   ───────────────────────
        Tot / % measured:            6.89s / 97.8%           5.20GiB / 85.0%

 Section                ncalls     time   %tot     avg     alloc   %tot      avg
 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 assemble                    6    3.27s  48.6%   545ms   3.65GiB  82.7%   624MiB
   inner assemble         240k    1.92s  28.4%  7.98μs   3.14GiB  71.1%  13.7KiB
 linear solve                5    2.73s  40.5%   546ms    108MiB  2.39%  21.6MiB
 create sparse matrix        6    658ms  9.77%   110ms    662MiB  14.6%   110MiB
 export                      1   78.4ms  1.16%  78.4ms   13.1MiB  0.29%  13.1MiB
 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

The first line shows the total (wall) time passed and allocations made since the start of the timer as well as the percentage of those totals spent inside timed sections. The following lines shows data for all the timed sections. The section label is shown first followed by the number of calls made to that section. Finally, the total time elapsed or allocations made in that section are shown together with the percentage of the total in that section and the average (time / allocations per call).

Usage

The easiest way to show how the package work is with a few examples of timing sections.

using TimerOutputs

# Create a TimerOutput, this is the main type that keeps track of everything.
const to = TimerOutput()

# Time a section code with the label "sleep" to the `TimerOutput` named "to"
@timeit to "sleep" sleep(0.02)

# Create a function to later time
rands() = rand(10^7)

# Time the function, @timeit returns the value being evaluated, just like Base @time
rand_vals = @timeit to "randoms" rands();

# Nested sections (sections with same name are not accumulated
# if they have different parents)
function time_test()
    @timeit to "nest 1" begin
        sleep(0.1)
        # 3 calls to the same label
        @timeit to "level 2.1" sleep(0.03)
        @timeit to "level 2.1" sleep(0.03)
        @timeit to "level 2.1" sleep(0.03)
        @timeit to "level 2.2" sleep(0.2)
    end
    @timeit to "nest 2" begin
        @timeit to "level 2.1" sleep(0.3)
        @timeit to "level 2.2" sleep(0.4)
    end
end

time_test()

# exception safe
function i_will_throw()
    @timeit to "throwing" begin
        sleep(0.5)
        throw(error("this is fine..."))
        print("nope")
    end
end

i_will_throw()

# Use disable_timer! to selectively turn off a timer, enable_timer! turns it on again
disable_timer!(to)
@timeit to "not recorded" sleep(0.1)
enable_timer!(to)

# Use @notimeit to disable timer and re-enable it afterwards (if it was enabled
# before)
@notimeit to time_test()

# Call to a previously used label accumulates data
for i in 1:100
    @timeit to "sleep" sleep(0.01)
end

# Can also annotate function definitions
@timeit to funcdef(x) = x

funcdef(2)

# Or to instrument an existing function:
foo(x) = x + 1
timed_foo = to(foo)
timed_foo(5)

# Print the timings in the default way
show(to)

Printing to shows a formatted table showing the number of calls, the total time spent in each section, and the percentage of the time spent in each section since to was created as well as averages (per call). Similar information is available for allocations:

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
                                Time                    Allocations      
                       ───────────────────────   ────────────────────────
   Tot / % measured:        7.99s /  39.1%            207MiB /  46.7%    

 Section       ncalls     time    %tot     avg     alloc    %tot      avg
 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 sleep            101    1.36s   43.4%  13.4ms   23.3KiB    0.0%     236B
 nest 2             1    711ms   22.8%   711ms   2.05KiB    0.0%  2.05KiB
   level 2.2        1    405ms   13.0%   405ms      144B    0.0%     144B
   level 2.1        1    306ms    9.8%   306ms      448B    0.0%     448B
 throwing           1    517ms   16.6%   517ms      912B    0.0%     912B
 nest 1             1    417ms   13.4%   417ms   2.17KiB    0.0%  2.17KiB
   level 2.2        1    202ms    6.5%   202ms      144B    0.0%     144B
   level 2.1        3    108ms    3.5%  36.0ms      432B    0.0%     144B
 randoms            1    120ms    3.8%   120ms   96.5MiB  100.0%  96.5MiB
 funcdef            1   94.4μs    0.0%  94.4μs     0.00B    0.0%    0.00B
 foo                1   1.50μs    0.0%  1.50μs     0.00B    0.0%    0.00B
 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Settings for printing:

The print_timer([io::IO = stdout], to::TimerOutput, kwargs), (or show) takes a number of keyword arguments to change the output. They are listed here:

• title::String ─ title for the timer
• allocations::Bool ─ show the allocation columns (default true)
• sortby::Symbol ─ sort the sections according to :time (default), :ncalls, :allocations, :name or :firstexec
• linechars::Symbol ─ use either :unicode (default) or :ascii to draw the horizontal lines in the table
• compact::Bool ─ hide the avg column (default false)

Flattening

If sections are nested like in the example below:

to = TimerOutput()

@timeit to "nest 1" begin
    sleep(0.1)
    @timeit to "level 2.1" sleep(0.1)
    for i in 1:20; @timeit to "level 2.2" sleep(0.02); end
end
@timeit to "nest 2" begin
    for i in 1:30; @timeit to "level 2.1" sleep(0.01); end
    @timeit to "level 2.2" sleep(0.1)
end

the table is displayed as:

julia> show(to, allocations = false, compact = true)
 ────────────────────────────────────
 Section       ncalls     time   %tot
 ────────────────────────────────────
 nest 1             1    669ms  60.5%
   level 2.2       20    423ms  38.3%
   level 2.1        1    101ms  9.15%
 nest 2             1    437ms  39.5%
   level 2.1       30    335ms  30.3%
   level 2.2        1    101ms  9.16%
 ────────────────────────────────────

It is possible to flatten this timer using the TimerOutputs.flatten function that accumulates the data for all sections with identical labels:

julia> to_flatten = TimerOutputs.flatten(to);

julia> show(to_flatten; compact = true, allocations = false)
 ──────────────────────────────────
 Section     ncalls     time   %tot
 ──────────────────────────────────
 nest 1           1    669ms  60.5%
 level 2.2       21    525ms  47.5%
 nest 2           1    437ms  39.5%
 level 2.1       31    436ms  39.5%
 ──────────────────────────────────

Merging

Two or more timers can be merged using merge or merge!:

julia> to1 = TimerOutput(); to2 = TimerOutput();

julia> @timeit to1 "outer" begin
           @timeit to1 "inner" begin
                sleep(1)
           end
       end

julia> @timeit to2 "outer" begin
           sleep(1)
       end

julia> show(to1; compact=true, allocations=false)
 ────────────────────────────────
 Section   ncalls     time   %tot
 ────────────────────────────────
 outer          1    1.00s   100%
   inner        1    1.00s   100%
 ────────────────────────────────

julia> show(to2; compact=true, allocations=false)
 ────────────────────────────────
 Section   ncalls     time   %tot
 ────────────────────────────────
 outer          1    1.00s   100%
 ────────────────────────────────

julia> show(merge(to1, to2); compact=true, allocations=false)
 ────────────────────────────────
 Section   ncalls     time   %tot
 ────────────────────────────────
 outer          2    2.00s   100%
   inner        1    1.00s  50.0%
 ────────────────────────────────

Merging can be used to facilitate timing coverage throughout simple multi-threaded setups. For instance, use thread-local TimerOutput objects that are merged at custom merge points via the tree_point keyword arg, which is a vector of label strings used to navigate to the merge point in the timing tree. merge! is thread-safe via a lock.

julia> using TimerOutputs

julia> to = TimerOutput()

julia> @timeit to "1" begin
    @timeit to "1.1" sleep(0.1)
    @timeit to "1.2" sleep(0.1)
    @timeit to "1.3" sleep(0.1)
end

julia> @timeit to "2" Threads.@spawn begin
    to2 = TimerOutput()
    @timeit to2 "2.1" sleep(0.1)
    @timeit to2 "2.2" sleep(0.1)
    @timeit to2 "2.3" sleep(0.1)
    merge!(to, to2, tree_point = ["2"])
end

julia> to
 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
                           Time                   Allocations
                   ──────────────────────   ───────────────────────
 Tot / % measured:      3.23s / 9.79%           13.5MiB / 36.9%
 Section   ncalls     time   %tot     avg     alloc   %tot      avg
 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 1              1    309ms  98.0%   309ms   4.55MiB  91.5%  4.55MiB
   1.3          1    106ms  33.6%   106ms      320B  0.01%     320B
   1.2          1    102ms  32.3%   102ms      320B  0.01%     320B
   1.1          1    101ms  32.0%   101ms   4.54MiB  91.4%  4.54MiB
 2              1   6.47ms  2.05%  6.47ms    435KiB  8.54%   435KiB
   2.2          1    106ms  33.6%   106ms      480B  0.01%     480B
   2.3          1    105ms  33.4%   105ms      144B  0.00%     144B
   2.1          1    103ms  32.5%   103ms   5.03MiB  101%   5.03MiB
 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Resetting

A timer is reset by calling reset_timer!(to::TimerOutput). This will remove all sections and reset the start of the timer to the current time / allocation values.

Indexing into a table

Any TimerOutput can be indexed with the name of a section which returns a new TimerOutput with that section as the "root". For example:

to = TimerOutput()

@timeit to "nest 1" begin
    @timeit to "nest 2" begin
        @timeit to "nest 3.1" sleep(0.1)
        @timeit to "nest 3.2" sleep(0.1)
        @timeit to "nest 3.3" sleep(0.1)
    end
    sleep(0.3)
end

julia> show(to; compact = true, allocations = false, linechars = :ascii)
 -------------------------------------
 Section        ncalls     time   %tot
 -------------------------------------
 nest 1              1    605ms   100%
   nest 2            1    304ms  50.2%
     nest 3.2        1    101ms  16.7%
     nest 3.1        1    101ms  16.7%
     nest 3.3        1    101ms  16.7%
 -------------------------------------

julia> to_2 = to["nest 1"]["nest 2"];

julia> show(to_2; compact = true, allocations = false, linechars = :ascii)
 ---------------------------------
 Section    ncalls     time   %tot
 ---------------------------------
 nest 3.2        1    101ms  33.3%
 nest 3.1        1    101ms  33.3%
 nest 3.3        1    101ms  33.3%
 ---------------------------------

The percentages showed are now relative to that "root".

Querying data

The (unexported) functions ncalls, time, allocated give the accumulated data for a section. The returned time has units in nano seconds and allocations in bytes. For example (using the to object from above):

julia> TimerOutputs.ncalls(to["nest 1"])
1

julia> TimerOutputs.time(to["nest 1"]["nest 2"])
350441733

julia> TimerOutputs.allocated(to["nest 1"]["nest 2"])
5280

Furthermore, you can request the total time spent in the "root" timer:

julia> TimerOutputs.tottime(to)
604937208

julia> TimerOutputs.totallocated(to)
7632

Default Timer

It is often the case that it is enough to only use one timer. For convenience, there is therefore a version of all the functions and macros that do not take a TimerOutput instance and then use a global timer defined in the package. Note that this global timer is shared among all users of the package. For example:

reset_timer!()

@timeit "section" sleep(0.02)
@timeit "section2" sleep(0.1)

print_timer()

which prints:

julia> print_timer()
 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
                            Time                   Allocations
                    ──────────────────────   ───────────────────────
  Tot / % measured:      276ms / 44.3%            422KiB / 0.21%

 Section    ncalls     time   %tot     avg     alloc   %tot      avg
 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 section2        1    101ms  82.7%   101ms      464B  50.0%     464B
 section         1   21.1ms  17.3%  21.1ms      464B  50.0%     464B
 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

The default timer object can be retrieved with TimerOutputs.get_defaulttimer().

Measuring time consumed outside @timeit blocks

Often, operations that we do not consider time consuming turn out to be relevant. However, adding additional timming blocks just to time initializations and other less important calls is annoying.

The TimerOutputs.complement! function can be used to modify a timer and add values for complement of timed sections. For instance:

to = TimerOutput()

@timeit to "section1" sleep(0.02)
@timeit to "section2" begin
    @timeit to "section2.1" sleep(0.1)
    sleep(0.01)
end

TimerOutputs.complement!(to)

We can print the result:

julia> print_timer(to)
 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
                                Time                   Allocations
                        ──────────────────────   ───────────────────────
    Tot / % measured:        144ms / 100%            6.11KiB / 22.0%

 Section        ncalls     time   %tot     avg     alloc   %tot      avg
 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 section2            1    120ms  83.6%   120ms   1.17KiB  87.2%  1.17KiB
   section2.1        1    106ms  73.9%   106ms      176B  12.8%     176B
   ~section2~        1   13.9ms  9.69%  13.9ms   1.00KiB  74.4%  1.00KiB
 section1            1   23.4ms  16.4%  23.4ms      176B  12.8%     176B
 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

In order to complement the default timer simply call TimerOutputs.complement!().

Shared Timers

It is sometimes desirable for a timer to be shared across all users of the package. For this purpose, get_timer maintains a collection of named timers defined in the package.

get_timer(timer_name::String) retrieves the timer timer_name from the collection, creating a new timer if none already exists.

For example:

module UseTimer
using TimerOutputs: @timeit, get_timer

function foo()
    to = get_timer("Shared")
    @timeit get_timer("Shared") "foo" sleep(0.1)
end
end

@timeit get_timer("Shared") "section1" begin
    UseTimer.foo()
    sleep(0.01)
end

which prints:

julia> print_timer(get_timer("Shared"))
 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
                            Time                   Allocations
                    ──────────────────────   ───────────────────────
  Tot / % measured:      17.1s / 0.82%           44.0MiB / 2.12%

 Section    ncalls     time   %tot     avg     alloc   %tot      avg
 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 section1        1    140ms   100%   140ms    956KiB  100%    956KiB
   foo           1    102ms  72.7%   102ms      144B  0.01%     144B
 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Note that the result of get_timer should not be called from top-level in a package that is getting precompiled since the retrieved timer will no longer be shared with other users getting a timer with the same name. Also, this function is not recommended to be used extensively by libraries as the namespace is shared and collisions are possible if two libraries happen to use the same timer name.

Serialization

Timers may be converted to a nested set of dictionaries with the (unexported) TimerOutputs.todict function. This can be used to serialize a timer as JSON, for example.

julia> to = TimerOutput();

julia> @timeit to "nest 1" begin
           sleep(0.1)
           @timeit to "level 2.1" sleep(0.1)
           for i in 1:20; @timeit to "level 2.2" sleep(0.02); end
       end

julia> TimerOutputs.todict(to)
Dict{String, Any} with 6 entries:
  "total_time_ns" => 726721166
  "total_allocated_bytes" => 474662
  "time_ns" => 0
  "n_calls" => 0
  "allocated_bytes" => 0
  "inner_timers" => Dict{String, Any}("nest 1"=>Dict{String, Any}("total_time_ns"=>611383374, "total_allocated_bytes"=>11888, "time_ns"=>726721166, "n_calls"=>1, "allocated_bytes"=>474662, "inner_timers"=>Dict{String, Any}("level 2.1"=>Dict{String, Any}("total_time_ns"=>0, "total_allocated_bytes"=>0, "time_ns"=>115773750, "n_calls"=>1, "allocated_bytes"=>8064, "inner_timers"=>Dict{String, Any}()), "level 2.2"=>Dict{String, Any}("total_time_ns"=>0, "total_allocated_bytes"=>0, "time_ns"=>495609624, "n_calls"=>20, "allocated_bytes"=>3824, "inner_timers"=>Dict{String, Any}()))))

julia> using JSON3 # or JSON

julia> JSON3.write(TimerOutputs.todict(to))
"{\"total_time_ns\":712143250,\"total_allocated_bytes\":5680,\"time_ns\":0,\"n_calls\":0,\"allocated_bytes\":0,\"inner_timers\":{\"nest 1\":{\"total_time_ns\":605922416,\"total_allocated_bytes\":4000,\"time_ns\":712143250,\"n_calls\":1,\"allocated_bytes\":5680,\"inner_timers\":{\"level 2.1\":{\"total_time_ns\":0,\"total_allocated_bytes\":0,\"time_ns\":106111333,\"n_calls\":1,\"allocated_bytes\":176,\"inner_timers\":{}},\"level 2.2\":{\"total_time_ns\":0,\"total_allocated_bytes\":0,\"time_ns\":499811083,\"n_calls\":20,\"allocated_bytes\":3824,\"inner_timers\":{}}}}}}"

Overhead

There is a small overhead in timing a section (0.25 μs) which means that this package is not suitable for measuring sections that finish very quickly. For proper benchmarking you want to use a more suitable tool like BenchmarkTools.

It is sometimes desireable to be able "turn on and off" the @timeit macro, for instance you may wish to instrument a package with @timeit macros, but then not deal with the overhead of the timings during normal package operation. To enable this, we provide the @timeit_debug macro, which wraps the @timeit macro with a conditional, checking if debug timings have been enabled. Because you may wish to turn on only certain portions of your instrumented code base (or multiple codebases may have instrumented their code), debug timings are enabled on a module-by-module basis. By default, debug timings are disabled, and this conditional should be optimized away, allowing for truly zero-overhead. If a user calls TimerOutputs.enable_debug_timings(<module>), the <module>.timeit_debug_enabled() method will be redefined, causing all dependent methods to be recompiled within that module. This may take a while, and hence is intended only for debugging usage, however all calls to @timeit_debug (within that Module) will thereafter be enabled.

Author

Kristoffer Carlsson - @KristofferC

Acknowledgments

This package is inspired by the TimerOutput class in deal.ii.