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classification
Title: Seeking to EOF is too inefficient!
Type: performance Stage:
Components: IO Versions: Python 2.7
process
Status: closed Resolution: third party
Dependencies: Superseder:
Assigned To: Nosy List: neologix, pitrou, vstinner, yanlinlin82
Priority: normal Keywords:

Created on 2014-06-02 13:39 by yanlinlin82, last changed 2022-04-11 14:58 by admin. This issue is now closed.

Messages (6)
msg219586 - (view) Author: Linlin Yan (yanlinlin82) Date: 2014-06-02 13:39
I noticed this problem when I run a Python2 program (MACS: http://liulab.dfci.harvard.edu/MACS/) very inefficiently on a large storage on a high performace server (64-bit Linux). It was much slower (more than two days) than running it on a normal PC (less than two hours).

After ruling out many optimizing conditions, I finally located the problem on the seek() function of Python2. Now I can reproduce the problem in a very simple example:

#!/usr/bin/python2
f = open("Input.sort.bam", "rb")
f.seek(0, 2)
f.close()

Here, the size of file 'Input.sort.bam' is 4,110,535,920 bytes. When I run the program with 'strace' to see the system calls on Linux:

$ strace python2 foo.py
...
open("Input.sort.bam", O_RDONLY)        = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=4110535920, ...}) = 0
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=4110535920, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f23d4492000
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=4110535920, ...}) = 0
lseek(3, 4110532608, SEEK_SET)          = 4110532608
read(3, "f\203\337<\334\350\313\315\345&T\227\211\fC\212a\260\204P\235\366\326\353\230\327>\373\361\221\357\373"..., 3312) = 3312
close(3)                                = 0
...

It seems that python2 just move file cursor to a specific position (4110532608 in this case) and read ahead the rest bytes, rather than seek to the file end directly. I tried to run the exact the same program on the large storage, the position changed to 1073741824, left 889310448 bytes to read to reach the file end, which reduced the performance a lot!
msg219637 - (view) Author: STINNER Victor (vstinner) * (Python committer) Date: 2014-06-02 20:35
I don't think that Python calls directly read(). Python 2 uses fopen / fread.

Python 3 doesn't use buffered files, but call open / read directly.
msg219654 - (view) Author: Linlin Yan (yanlinlin82) Date: 2014-06-03 01:35
I agree that Python 2 should use fopen / fread rather than directly read().
But you may misunderstand this. The 'strace' tool reports Linux system
calls, including read() rather than fread(), and I guess that read() should
be finally called in fread() implementation.

What I mean is that Python 2's seek(0, 2) does not use fseek(0, SEEK_END),
but fseek(somewhere, SEEK_SET) and fread(rest-bytes) instead, which is too
inefficient in some kind of storage.

By the way, Python 3 does not behavior like this.

On Tue, Jun 3, 2014 at 4:35 AM, STINNER Victor <report@bugs.python.org>
wrote:

>
> STINNER Victor added the comment:
>
> I don't think that Python calls directly read(). Python 2 uses fopen /
> fread.
>
> Python 3 doesn't use buffered files, but call open / read directly.
>
> ----------
> nosy: +haypo, neologix
>
> _______________________________________
> Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org>
> <http://bugs.python.org/issue21638>
> _______________________________________
>
msg219709 - (view) Author: Charles-François Natali (neologix) * (Python committer) Date: 2014-06-03 18:35
> I agree that Python 2 should use fopen / fread rather than directly read().
> But you may misunderstand this. The 'strace' tool reports Linux system
> calls, including read() rather than fread(), and I guess that read() should
> be finally called in fread() implementation.
>
> What I mean is that Python 2's seek(0, 2) does not use fseek(0, SEEK_END),
> but fseek(somewhere, SEEK_SET) and fread(rest-bytes) instead, which is too
> inefficient in some kind of storage.

Actually, Python does use fopen(), and fseek(): the culprit is the libc:
$ cat /tmp/test.c; gcc -o /tmp/test /tmp/test.c -Wall; strace /tmp/test
open("/etc/fstab", O_RDONLY)            = 3
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=809, ...}) = 0
mmap2(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb77ae000
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=809, ...}) = 0
_llseek(3, 0, [0], SEEK_SET)            = 0
read(3, "# /etc/fstab: static file system"..., 809) = 809
close(3)                                = 0

> By the way, Python 3 does not behavior like this.

That's because in Python 3, the IO stack is implemented directly on top of open()/read()/lseek().

It's not the first time we stumble upon glibc stdio bugs.

I'd suggest closing this.
msg219715 - (view) Author: Linlin Yan (yanlinlin82) Date: 2014-06-03 18:54
Thanks! I agree with that.
msg219716 - (view) Author: Linlin Yan (yanlinlin82) Date: 2014-06-03 18:59
I ensured that the problem is in libc. I will try to figure out it by updating libc or optimizing some related parameters.
History
Date User Action Args
2022-04-11 14:58:04adminsetgithub: 65837
2014-06-03 18:59:26yanlinlin82setstatus: open -> closed
resolution: third party
messages: + msg219716
2014-06-03 18:54:34yanlinlin82setmessages: + msg219715
2014-06-03 18:35:01neologixsetnosy: + pitrou
messages: + msg219709
2014-06-03 01:35:27yanlinlin82setmessages: + msg219654
2014-06-02 20:35:17vstinnersetnosy: + vstinner, neologix
messages: + msg219637
2014-06-02 13:39:16yanlinlin82create