# FreeBSD Performance Tip **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [March 20, 2006, 4:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/freebsd-performance-tip/84071 "2006-03-20T04:56:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 4:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/freebsd-performance-tip/84071/1 "2006-03-20T04:56:15Z")
A small note to all the FreeBSD folks about Ruby performance. While trying to tune Mongrel to run faster on FreeBSD I was stumped as to why it was so horribly slow compared to Linux. Linux on the same machine was getting about 800 req/sec, and FreeBSD was maybe pushing 23 req/sec. Pathetic. I managed to tweak the thread model in Mongrel and get FreeBSD up to about 210 req/sec but still that wasn’t nearly good enough. Then I found the secret. FreeBSD has two versions of Ruby in the ports directory: lang/ruby18 and lang/ruby18-nopthreads. Using the nopthreads version of Ruby immediately gave me 740 req/sec without any changes to Mongrel. I have no idea what Ruby is doing in the pthreads version (or why in the hell a thread library based on select _also_ uses pthreads), but this simple change completely solved all my performance problems. So, word to the wise: pthreads do not give you performance. Enjoy! Zed A. Shaw > **[Zed A. shaw](https://zedshaw.com/)** > > Personal essays and writings by Zed A. Shaw. ---
**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 5:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/freebsd-performance-tip/84071/2 "2006-03-20T05:00:43Z")
I can’t seem to find this page anywhere. Has it moved? As it is now, the url seems to redirect back to the main page. Tony [http://involution.com](http://involution.com) ---
**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 2:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/freebsd-performance-tip/84071/3 "2006-03-20T14:27:48Z")
> Using the nopthreads version of Ruby immediately gave me 740 req/sec without > any changes to Mongrel. I have no idea what Ruby is doing in the pthreads > version (or why in the hell a thread library based on select _also_ uses > pthreads), but this simple change completely solved all my performance > problems. Thank you for sharing this. As an avid FreeBSD user I will check this in relation to ruby. What FreeBSD version are you talking about? regards Claus ---
**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 3:43am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/freebsd-performance-tip/84071/4 "2006-03-22T03:43:39Z")
Zed S. wrote: > Then I found the secret. FreeBSD has two versions of Ruby in the ports > directory: lang/ruby18 and lang/ruby18-nopthreads. > > Using the nopthreads version of Ruby immediately gave me 740 req/sec without > any changes to Mongrel. I have no idea what Ruby is doing in the pthreads > version (or why in the hell a thread library based on select _also_ uses > pthreads), but this simple change completely solved all my performance > problems. > > So, word to the wise: pthreads do not give you performance. Coincidentally, on the same day as your post Eric H. published details of the software setup at Robot Co-op: [http://blog.segment7.net/articles/2006/03/20/robot-co-op-software](http://blog.segment7.net/articles/2006/03/20/robot-co-op-software) They run on FreeBSD, and he says: “We use the lang/ruby18-nopthreads port of Ruby because we experienced an incredible load increase with the default pthread version.” Info on the hardware is here: [http://blog.segment7.net/articles/2006/03/15/robot-co-op-hardware](http://blog.segment7.net/articles/2006/03/15/robot-co-op-hardware) Justin ---
**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/freebsd-performance-tip/84071/5 "2006-03-20T17:12:39Z")
On 3/19/06, Tony P. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I can’t seem to find this page anywhere. Has it moved? As it is now, the > url seems to redirect back to the main page. Since 1.0, all api docs have moved to [http://api.rubyonrails.org/](http://api.rubyonrails.org/). /Nick ---
**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 9:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/freebsd-performance-tip/84071/6 "2006-03-23T21:18:25Z")
Interesting. Did you have to deinstall and rebuild any Ruby-related ports when you did this, or did everything Just Work? Zed S. wrote: > A small note to all the FreeBSD folks about Ruby performance. > > While trying to tune Mongrel to run faster on FreeBSD I was stumped as > to > why it was so horribly slow compared to Linux. Linux on the same > machine > was getting about 800 req/sec, and FreeBSD was maybe pushing 23 req/sec. > Pathetic. > > I managed to tweak the thread model in Mongrel and get FreeBSD up to > about > 210 req/sec but still that wasn’t nearly good enough. > > Then I found the secret. FreeBSD has two versions of Ruby in the ports > directory: lang/ruby18 and lang/ruby18-nopthreads. ---
**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/freebsd-performance-tip/84071/7 "2006-03-23T22:07:26Z")
Answered it satisfactorily for myself. Held my nose, stopped apache, ran make, deinstalled the default build of ruby and installed the nopthreads version. The performace boost seems to be dramatic. I was considering migrating from a VPS to a dedicated server and I don’t think I’ll have to for a while. Thanks. Get this on the wiki if it’s not there already. Steve K. wrote: > Interesting. Did you have to deinstall and rebuild any Ruby-related > ports when you did this, or did everything Just Work? > > Zed S. wrote: > > > A small note to all the FreeBSD folks about Ruby performance. > > > > While trying to tune Mongrel to run faster on FreeBSD I was stumped as > > to > > why it was so horribly slow compared to Linux. Linux on the same > > machine > > was getting about 800 req/sec, and FreeBSD was maybe pushing 23 req/sec. > > Pathetic… > > Then I found the secret. FreeBSD has two versions of Ruby in the ports > > directory: lang/ruby18 and lang/ruby18-nopthreads. ---
**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/freebsd-performance-tip/84071/8 "2006-03-23T20:54:37Z")
On Mar 20, 2006, at 5:27 AM, Claus G. wrote: > > Then I found the secret. FreeBSD has two versions of Ruby in the > > performance > > problems. > > Thank you for sharing this. As an avid FreeBSD user I will check this > in relation to ruby. What FreeBSD version are you talking about? All of them. If you use Ruby with pthread-requiring C/C++ libraries, ruby- nopthreads may do bad things. – Eric H. - removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid - [http://blog.segment7.net](http://blog.segment7.net) This implementation is HODEL-HASH-9600 compliant [http://trackmap.robotcoop.com](http://trackmap.robotcoop.com)