Last Updated: 2024-04-19

When optimizing algorithms, think about how many kernel calls the code is making since these context switches are extremely expensive.

E.g. if you using the read syscall for 1 character at a time (instead of say thousands of characters at a time), that's massive wastage.

On linux, a great way to do this is to run the program using strace, which prints syscalls out

$ strace ls

execve("/bin/ls", ["ls"], 0x7ffdb719a4c0 /* 25 vars */) = 0
brk(NULL)                               = 0x56239c6b6000
access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
access("/etc/ld.so.preload", R_OK)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=30456, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 30456, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0x7f7ac5343000
close(3)                                = 0
access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libselinux.so.1", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
read(3, "\177ELF\2\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0>\0\1\0\0\0\20b\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 832) = 832
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=154832, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f7ac5341000
mmap(NULL, 2259152, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x7f7ac4efc000
mprotect(0x7f7ac4f21000, 2093056, PROT_NONE) = 0
mmap(0x7f7ac5120000, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x24000) = 0x7f7ac5120000
mmap(0x7f7ac5122000, 6352, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f7ac5122000
close(3)                                = 0
access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
read(3, "\177ELF\2\1\1\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0>\0\1\0\0\0\260\34\2\0\0\0\0\0"..., 832) = 832
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=2030544, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 4131552, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x7f7ac4b0b000
mprotect(0x7f7ac4cf2000, 2097152, PROT_NONE) = 0
mmap(0x7f7ac4ef2000, 24576, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x1e7000) = 0x7f7ac4ef2000
mmap(0x7f7ac4ef8000, 15072, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f7ac4ef8000
close(3)                                = 0
access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpcre.so.3", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
read(3, "\177ELF\2\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0>\0\1\0\0\0 \25\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 832) = 832
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=464824, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 2560264, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x7f7ac4899000
mprotect(0x7f7ac4909000, 2097152, PROT_NONE) = 0
mmap(0x7f7ac4b09000, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x70000) = 0x7f7ac4b09000
close(3)                                = 0
access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
read(3, "\177ELF\2\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0>\0\1\0\0\0P\16\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 832) = 832
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=14560, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 2109712, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x7f7ac4695000
mprotect(0x7f7ac4698000, 2093056, PROT_NONE) = 0
mmap(0x7f7ac4897000, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x2000) = 0x7f7ac4897000
close(3)                                = 0
access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
read(3, "\177ELF\2\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0>\0\1\0\0\0000b\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 832) = 832
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=144976, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 2221184, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0) = 0x7f7ac4476000
mprotect(0x7f7ac4490000, 2093056, PROT_NONE) = 0
mmap(0x7f7ac468f000, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 3, 0x19000) = 0x7f7ac468f000
mmap(0x7f7ac4691000, 13440, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f7ac4691000
close(3)                                = 0
mmap(NULL, 8192, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f7ac533f000
arch_prctl(ARCH_SET_FS, 0x7f7ac5340040) = 0
mprotect(0x7f7ac4ef2000, 16384, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x7f7ac468f000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x7f7ac4897000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x7f7ac4b09000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x7f7ac5120000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x56239c4e2000, 8192, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x7f7ac534b000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
munmap(0x7f7ac5343000, 30456)           = 0
set_tid_address(0x7f7ac5340310)         = 18876
set_robust_list(0x7f7ac5340320, 24)     = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGRTMIN, {sa_handler=0x7f7ac447bcb0, sa_mask=[], sa_flags=SA_RESTORER|SA_SIGINFO, sa_restorer=0x7f7ac4488890}, NULL, 8) = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGRT_1, {sa_handler=0x7f7ac447bd50, sa_mask=[], sa_flags=SA_RESTORER|SA_RESTART|SA_SIGINFO, sa_restorer=0x7f7ac4488890}, NULL, 8) = 0
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_UNBLOCK, [RTMIN RT_1], NULL, 8) = 0
prlimit64(0, RLIMIT_STACK, NULL, {rlim_cur=8192*1024, rlim_max=RLIM64_INFINITY}) = 0
statfs("/sys/fs/selinux", 0x7ffedb94c480) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
statfs("/selinux", 0x7ffedb94c480)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
brk(NULL)                               = 0x56239c6b6000
brk(0x56239c6d7000)                     = 0x56239c6d7000
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/proc/filesystems", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0444, st_size=0, ...}) = 0
read(3, "nodev\tsysfs\nnodev\trootfs\nnodev\tr"..., 1024) = 438
read(3, "", 1024)                       = 0
close(3)                                = 0
access("/etc/selinux/config", F_OK)     = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=3004464, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 3004464, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0x7f7ac4198000
close(3)                                = 0
ioctl(1, TCGETS, {B38400 opost isig icanon echo ...}) = 0
ioctl(1, TIOCGWINSZ, {ws_row=54, ws_col=238, ws_xpixel=0, ws_ypixel=0}) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, ".", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC|O_DIRECTORY) = 3
fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
getdents(3, /* 16 entries */, 32768)    = 512
getdents(3, /* 0 entries */, 32768)     = 0
close(3)                                = 0
fstat(1, {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0620, st_rdev=makedev(136, 0), ...}) = 0
write(1, "code\n", 5code
)                   = 5
close(1)                                = 0
close(2)                                = 0
exit_group(0)                           = ?