[ruby-core:124711] [Ruby Feature#21869] Add receive_all Method to Ractor API for Message Batching
Issue #21869 has been reported by synacker (Mikhail Milovidov). ---------------------------------------- Feature #21869: Add receive_all Method to Ractor API for Message Batching https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21869 * Author: synacker (Mikhail Milovidov) * Status: Open ---------------------------------------- **Summary** The Ractor API provides an excellent mechanism for inter‑thread communication, but it currently lacks a built‑in message batching technique. I propose adding a receive_all method to enable batch processing of messages, which can significantly improve performance in high‑load scenarios. **Motivation** In distributed queued systems, processing messages one‑by‑one (as with the current receive method) can introduce unnecessary overhead. Batch processing allows: Reduced context‑switching overhead. More efficient I/O operations (e.g., fewer file writes). Better throughput in high‑concurrency environments. **Proposed Solution** Add a receive_all method to the Ractor API that: Returns all available messages in the Ractor’s mailbox at once (as an array). **Demonstration Code** Below is a benchmark comparing individual receive vs. batch receive_all: ``` ruby require 'benchmark' class RactorsTest def initialize(count) @count = count @ractor1 = Ractor.new(count, 'output1.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? message = receive file.write("Ractor 1 received message: #{message}\n") file.flush count -= 1 end end end @ractor2 = Ractor.new(count, 'output2.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? messages = receive_all messages.each do |message| file.write("Ractor 2 received message: #{message}\n") end count -= messages.length file.flush end end end end def run1 @count.times do |i| @ractor1.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor1.join end def run2 @count.times do |i| @ractor2.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor2.join end end records = 1_000_000 test = RactorsTest.new(records) p [:once, Benchmark.realtime { test.run1 }.round(2)] p [:all, Benchmark.realtime { test.run2 }.round(2)] ``` **Benchmark Results** On my system, receive_all shows ~4x improvement over individual receive: **Key Observations:** Ractor1 (using receive): Processes each message individually, resulting in frequent I/O calls. Ractor2 (using receive_all): Processes all queued messages at once, minimizing I/O overhead -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/
Issue #21869 has been updated by synacker (Mikhail Milovidov). PR in github: https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/16105 ---------------------------------------- Feature #21869: Add receive_all Method to Ractor API for Message Batching https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21869#change-116308 * Author: synacker (Mikhail Milovidov) * Status: Open ---------------------------------------- **Summary** The Ractor API provides an excellent mechanism for inter‑thread communication, but it currently lacks a built‑in message batching technique. I propose adding a receive_all method to enable batch processing of messages, which can significantly improve performance in high‑load scenarios. **Motivation** In distributed queued systems, processing messages one‑by‑one (as with the current receive method) can introduce unnecessary overhead. Batch processing allows: Reduced context‑switching overhead. More efficient I/O operations (e.g., fewer file writes). Better throughput in high‑concurrency environments. **Proposed Solution** Add a receive_all method to the Ractor API that: Returns all available messages in the Ractor’s mailbox at once (as an array). **Demonstration Code** Below is a benchmark comparing individual receive vs. batch receive_all: ``` ruby require 'benchmark' class RactorsTest def initialize(count) @count = count @ractor1 = Ractor.new(count, 'output1.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? message = receive file.write("Ractor 1 received message: #{message}\n") file.flush count -= 1 end end end @ractor2 = Ractor.new(count, 'output2.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? messages = receive_all messages.each do |message| file.write("Ractor 2 received message: #{message}\n") end count -= messages.length file.flush end end end end def run1 @count.times do |i| @ractor1.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor1.join end def run2 @count.times do |i| @ractor2.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor2.join end end records = 1_000_000 test = RactorsTest.new(records) p [:once, Benchmark.realtime { test.run1 }.round(2)] p [:all, Benchmark.realtime { test.run2 }.round(2)] ``` **Benchmark Results** On my system, receive_all shows ~4x improvement over individual receive: **Key Observations:** Ractor1 (using receive): Processes each message individually, resulting in frequent I/O calls. Ractor2 (using receive_all): Processes all queued messages at once, minimizing I/O overhead -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/
Issue #21869 has been updated by ko1 (Koichi Sasada). Does it block when the queue is empty or returns nil? (I think the example expects blocking) ---------------------------------------- Feature #21869: Add receive_all Method to Ractor API for Message Batching https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21869#change-116357 * Author: synacker (Mikhail Milovidov) * Status: Open ---------------------------------------- **Summary** The Ractor API provides an excellent mechanism for inter‑thread communication, but it currently lacks a built‑in message batching technique. I propose adding a receive_all method to enable batch processing of messages, which can significantly improve performance in high‑load scenarios. **Motivation** In distributed queued systems, processing messages one‑by‑one (as with the current receive method) can introduce unnecessary overhead. Batch processing allows: Reduced context‑switching overhead. More efficient I/O operations (e.g., fewer file writes). Better throughput in high‑concurrency environments. **Proposed Solution** Add a receive_all method to the Ractor API that: Returns all available messages in the Ractor’s mailbox at once (as an array). **Demonstration Code** Below is a benchmark comparing individual receive vs. batch receive_all: ``` ruby require 'benchmark' class RactorsTest def initialize(count) @count = count @ractor1 = Ractor.new(count, 'output1.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? message = receive file.write("Ractor 1 received message: #{message}\n") file.flush count -= 1 end end end @ractor2 = Ractor.new(count, 'output2.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? messages = receive_all messages.each do |message| file.write("Ractor 2 received message: #{message}\n") end count -= messages.length file.flush end end end end def run1 @count.times do |i| @ractor1.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor1.join end def run2 @count.times do |i| @ractor2.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor2.join end end records = 1_000_000 test = RactorsTest.new(records) p [:once, Benchmark.realtime { test.run1 }.round(2)] p [:all, Benchmark.realtime { test.run2 }.round(2)] ``` **Benchmark Results** On my system, receive_all shows ~4x improvement over individual receive: **Key Observations:** Ractor1 (using receive): Processes each message individually, resulting in frequent I/O calls. Ractor2 (using receive_all): Processes all queued messages at once, minimizing I/O overhead -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/
Issue #21869 has been updated by Eregon (Benoit Daloze). synacker (Mikhail Milovidov) wrote:
More efficient I/O operations (e.g., fewer file writes).
Is it? In your example you call `file.write` for each message in both cases. But you also call `file.flush` after each `file.write` in ractor1 and only only once per batch in ractor2. Could you benchmark without the `file.flush`s? I suspect the difference is much smaller then. I understand the idea that batching helps in this case where you want to explicitly flush, but that's a pretty specific example, e.g. it's uncommon to even call IO#flush at all in Ruby. One could also flush after N messages/bytes in ractor1. ---------------------------------------- Feature #21869: Add receive_all Method to Ractor API for Message Batching https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21869#change-116363 * Author: synacker (Mikhail Milovidov) * Status: Open ---------------------------------------- **Summary** The Ractor API provides an excellent mechanism for inter‑thread communication, but it currently lacks a built‑in message batching technique. I propose adding a receive_all method to enable batch processing of messages, which can significantly improve performance in high‑load scenarios. **Motivation** In distributed queued systems, processing messages one‑by‑one (as with the current receive method) can introduce unnecessary overhead. Batch processing allows: Reduced context‑switching overhead. More efficient I/O operations (e.g., fewer file writes). Better throughput in high‑concurrency environments. **Proposed Solution** Add a receive_all method to the Ractor API that: Returns all available messages in the Ractor’s mailbox at once (as an array). **Demonstration Code** Below is a benchmark comparing individual receive vs. batch receive_all: ``` ruby require 'benchmark' class RactorsTest def initialize(count) @count = count @ractor1 = Ractor.new(count, 'output1.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? message = receive file.write("Ractor 1 received message: #{message}\n") file.flush count -= 1 end end end @ractor2 = Ractor.new(count, 'output2.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? messages = receive_all messages.each do |message| file.write("Ractor 2 received message: #{message}\n") end count -= messages.length file.flush end end end end def run1 @count.times do |i| @ractor1.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor1.join end def run2 @count.times do |i| @ractor2.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor2.join end end records = 1_000_000 test = RactorsTest.new(records) p [:once, Benchmark.realtime { test.run1 }.round(2)] p [:all, Benchmark.realtime { test.run2 }.round(2)] ``` **Benchmark Results** On my system, receive_all shows ~4x improvement over individual receive: **Key Observations:** Ractor1 (using receive): Processes each message individually, resulting in frequent I/O calls. Ractor2 (using receive_all): Processes all queued messages at once, minimizing I/O overhead -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/
Issue #21869 has been updated by synacker (Mikhail Milovidov). ko1 (Koichi Sasada) wrote in #note-2:
Does it block when the queue is empty or returns \[\]? (I think the example expects blocking)
Yes, it blocks if the queue empty. The method ```receive_all``` accepts a limit parameter: 1. ```limit > 0```: collects up to ```limit``` messages (may return fewer if fewer are queued). Block if the queue empty. 2. ```limit == 0```: returns an empty array immediately (no blocking) 3. ```limit <0``` or ```nil``` (default): returns all messages from the queue or blocks if the queue is empty Eregon (Benoit Daloze) wrote in #note-3:
I understand the idea that batching helps in this case where you want to explicitly flush, but that's a pretty specific example, e.g. it's uncommon to even call IO#flush at all in Ruby.
The example demonstrates how you can collect messages during long I/O operations and batch them together to reduce the number of subsequent I/O calls. The ```file.flush``` call simulates a long I/O operation - it could equally represent a database call or something like that ---------------------------------------- Feature #21869: Add receive_all Method to Ractor API for Message Batching https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21869#change-116366 * Author: synacker (Mikhail Milovidov) * Status: Open ---------------------------------------- **Summary** The Ractor API provides an excellent mechanism for inter‑thread communication, but it currently lacks a built‑in message batching technique. I propose adding a receive_all method to enable batch processing of messages, which can significantly improve performance in high‑load scenarios. **Motivation** In distributed queued systems, processing messages one‑by‑one (as with the current receive method) can introduce unnecessary overhead. Batch processing allows: Reduced context‑switching overhead. More efficient I/O operations (e.g., fewer file writes). Better throughput in high‑concurrency environments. **Proposed Solution** Add a receive_all method to the Ractor API that: Returns all available messages in the Ractor’s mailbox at once (as an array). **Demonstration Code** Below is a benchmark comparing individual receive vs. batch receive_all: ``` ruby require 'benchmark' class RactorsTest def initialize(count) @count = count @ractor1 = Ractor.new(count, 'output1.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? message = receive file.write("Ractor 1 received message: #{message}\n") file.flush count -= 1 end end end @ractor2 = Ractor.new(count, 'output2.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? messages = receive_all messages.each do |message| file.write("Ractor 2 received message: #{message}\n") end count -= messages.length file.flush end end end end def run1 @count.times do |i| @ractor1.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor1.join end def run2 @count.times do |i| @ractor2.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor2.join end end records = 1_000_000 test = RactorsTest.new(records) p [:once, Benchmark.realtime { test.run1 }.round(2)] p [:all, Benchmark.realtime { test.run2 }.round(2)] ``` **Benchmark Results** On my system, receive_all shows ~4x improvement over individual receive: **Key Observations:** Ractor1 (using receive): Processes each message individually, resulting in frequent I/O calls. Ractor2 (using receive_all): Processes all queued messages at once, minimizing I/O overhead -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/
Issue #21869 has been updated by synacker (Mikhail Milovidov). Eregon (Benoit Daloze) wrote in #note-3:
Is it? In your example you call `file.write` for each message in both cases.
But you also call `file.flush` after each `file.write` in ractor1 and only only once per batch in ractor2.
This is also a realistic scenario. To guarantee messages are saved to file, you'd normally need to call ```flush``` after each message - but that's inefficient when processing single messages. ---------------------------------------- Feature #21869: Add receive_all Method to Ractor API for Message Batching https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21869#change-116367 * Author: synacker (Mikhail Milovidov) * Status: Open ---------------------------------------- **Summary** The Ractor API provides an excellent mechanism for inter‑thread communication, but it currently lacks a built‑in message batching technique. I propose adding a receive_all method to enable batch processing of messages, which can significantly improve performance in high‑load scenarios. **Motivation** In distributed queued systems, processing messages one‑by‑one (as with the current receive method) can introduce unnecessary overhead. Batch processing allows: Reduced context‑switching overhead. More efficient I/O operations (e.g., fewer file writes). Better throughput in high‑concurrency environments. **Proposed Solution** Add a receive_all method to the Ractor API that: Returns all available messages in the Ractor’s mailbox at once (as an array). **Demonstration Code** Below is a benchmark comparing individual receive vs. batch receive_all: ``` ruby require 'benchmark' class RactorsTest def initialize(count) @count = count @ractor1 = Ractor.new(count, 'output1.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? message = receive file.write("Ractor 1 received message: #{message}\n") file.flush count -= 1 end end end @ractor2 = Ractor.new(count, 'output2.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? messages = receive_all messages.each do |message| file.write("Ractor 2 received message: #{message}\n") end count -= messages.length file.flush end end end end def run1 @count.times do |i| @ractor1.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor1.join end def run2 @count.times do |i| @ractor2.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor2.join end end records = 1_000_000 test = RactorsTest.new(records) p [:once, Benchmark.realtime { test.run1 }.round(2)] p [:all, Benchmark.realtime { test.run2 }.round(2)] ``` **Benchmark Results** On my system, receive_all shows ~4x improvement over individual receive: **Key Observations:** Ractor1 (using receive): Processes each message individually, resulting in frequent I/O calls. Ractor2 (using receive_all): Processes all queued messages at once, minimizing I/O overhead -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/
Issue #21869 has been updated by byroot (Jean Boussier).
I understand the idea that batching helps in this case where you want to explicitly flush, but that's a pretty specific example, e.g. it's uncommon to even call IO#flush at all in Ruby.
Not specific to Ractor, but I relatively often had a similar use case with `Thread::Queue`. When implementing instrumentation libraries (e.g. `statsd` or `opentelemetry`) what you generally want to do is to push as much work as possible to a background thread (possibly ractor in the future), but you also want this background thread to serialize and send packets in batch. In such context, being able to pop `1..N` elements from the queue would be convenient. Currently with queue it's semi-doable by first doing a blocking pop, followed by a bounded number of non-blocking one. ---------------------------------------- Feature #21869: Add receive_all Method to Ractor API for Message Batching https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21869#change-116631 * Author: synacker (Mikhail Milovidov) * Status: Open * Assignee: ractor ---------------------------------------- **Summary** The Ractor API provides an excellent mechanism for inter‑thread communication, but it currently lacks a built‑in message batching technique. I propose adding a receive_all method to enable batch processing of messages, which can significantly improve performance in high‑load scenarios. **Motivation** In distributed queued systems, processing messages one‑by‑one (as with the current receive method) can introduce unnecessary overhead. Batch processing allows: Reduced context‑switching overhead. More efficient I/O operations (e.g., fewer file writes). Better throughput in high‑concurrency environments. **Proposed Solution** Add a receive_all method to the Ractor API that: Returns all available messages in the Ractor’s mailbox at once (as an array). **Demonstration Code** Below is a benchmark comparing individual receive vs. batch receive_all: ``` ruby require 'benchmark' class RactorsTest def initialize(count) @count = count @ractor1 = Ractor.new(count, 'output1.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? message = receive file.write("Ractor 1 received message: #{message}\n") file.flush count -= 1 end end end @ractor2 = Ractor.new(count, 'output2.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? messages = receive_all messages.each do |message| file.write("Ractor 2 received message: #{message}\n") end count -= messages.length file.flush end end end end def run1 @count.times do |i| @ractor1.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor1.join end def run2 @count.times do |i| @ractor2.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor2.join end end records = 1_000_000 test = RactorsTest.new(records) p [:once, Benchmark.realtime { test.run1 }.round(2)] p [:all, Benchmark.realtime { test.run2 }.round(2)] ``` **Benchmark Results** On my system, receive_all shows ~4x improvement over individual receive: **Key Observations:** Ractor1 (using receive): Processes each message individually, resulting in frequent I/O calls. Ractor2 (using receive_all): Processes all queued messages at once, minimizing I/O overhead -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/
Issue #21869 has been updated by ko1 (Koichi Sasada). synacker (Mikhail Milovidov) wrote in #note-4:
Yes, it blocks if the queue empty. The method ```receive_all``` accepts a limit parameter: 1. ```limit > 0```: collects up to ```limit``` messages (may return fewer if fewer are queued). Blocks if the queue is empty. 2. ```limit == 0```: returns an empty array immediately (no blocking) 3. ```limit < 0``` or ```nil``` (default): returns all messages from the queue or blocks if the queue is empty
The parameter `limit` is not in the description. Let me clarify `limit == 0`. In above quote, it returns empty array. If it returns `[]` always, I think we don't need to introduce it. If it returns existing messages, we can consider about it. For this purpose, it is possible to introduce another parameter such as `timeout: 0`. - `receive_all(3, timeout: 0)` returns up to 3 messages already arrived. If there is no messages arrived, returns `nil` (timeout). - `receive_all(timeout: 1)` returns all messages in a queue, or wait for 1 second. If a message arrived, return the `[received_one_message]`. If no message arrived in 1 second, return `nil`. - `receive_all(0 or negative parameter)` raises an exception. We can extend `timeout:` on `receive` method with same manner. ---------------------------------------- Feature #21869: Add receive_all Method to Ractor API for Message Batching https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21869#change-116724 * Author: synacker (Mikhail Milovidov) * Status: Open * Assignee: ractor ---------------------------------------- **Summary** The Ractor API provides an excellent mechanism for inter‑thread communication, but it currently lacks a built‑in message batching technique. I propose adding a receive_all method to enable batch processing of messages, which can significantly improve performance in high‑load scenarios. **Motivation** In distributed queued systems, processing messages one‑by‑one (as with the current receive method) can introduce unnecessary overhead. Batch processing allows: Reduced context‑switching overhead. More efficient I/O operations (e.g., fewer file writes). Better throughput in high‑concurrency environments. **Proposed Solution** Add a receive_all method to the Ractor API that: Returns all available messages in the Ractor’s mailbox at once (as an array). **Demonstration Code** Below is a benchmark comparing individual receive vs. batch receive_all: ``` ruby require 'benchmark' class RactorsTest def initialize(count) @count = count @ractor1 = Ractor.new(count, 'output1.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? message = receive file.write("Ractor 1 received message: #{message}\n") file.flush count -= 1 end end end @ractor2 = Ractor.new(count, 'output2.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? messages = receive_all messages.each do |message| file.write("Ractor 2 received message: #{message}\n") end count -= messages.length file.flush end end end end def run1 @count.times do |i| @ractor1.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor1.join end def run2 @count.times do |i| @ractor2.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor2.join end end records = 1_000_000 test = RactorsTest.new(records) p [:once, Benchmark.realtime { test.run1 }.round(2)] p [:all, Benchmark.realtime { test.run2 }.round(2)] ``` **Benchmark Results** On my system, receive_all shows ~4x improvement over individual receive: **Key Observations:** Ractor1 (using receive): Processes each message individually, resulting in frequent I/O calls. Ractor2 (using receive_all): Processes all queued messages at once, minimizing I/O overhead -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/
Issue #21869 has been updated by synacker (Mikhail Milovidov). ko1 (Koichi Sasada) wrote in #note-8:
For this purpose, it is possible to introduce another parameter such as `timeout: 0`.
* `receive_all(3, timeout: 0)` returns up to 3 messages already arrived. If there is no messages arrived, returns `nil` (timeout). * `receive_all(timeout: 1)` returns all messages in a queue, or wait for 1 second. If a message arrived, return the `[received_one_message]`. If no message arrived in 1 second, return `nil`. * `receive_all(0 or negative parameter)` raises an exception.
LGTM, I’ll update the PR with this suggestion. ---------------------------------------- Feature #21869: Add receive_all Method to Ractor API for Message Batching https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21869#change-116749 * Author: synacker (Mikhail Milovidov) * Status: Open * Assignee: ractor ---------------------------------------- **Summary** The Ractor API provides an excellent mechanism for inter‑thread communication, but it currently lacks a built‑in message batching technique. I propose adding a receive_all method to enable batch processing of messages, which can significantly improve performance in high‑load scenarios. **Motivation** In distributed queued systems, processing messages one‑by‑one (as with the current receive method) can introduce unnecessary overhead. Batch processing allows: Reduced context‑switching overhead. More efficient I/O operations (e.g., fewer file writes). Better throughput in high‑concurrency environments. **Proposed Solution** Add a receive_all method to the Ractor API that: Returns all available messages in the Ractor’s mailbox at once (as an array). **Demonstration Code** Below is a benchmark comparing individual receive vs. batch receive_all: ``` ruby require 'benchmark' class RactorsTest def initialize(count) @count = count @ractor1 = Ractor.new(count, 'output1.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? message = receive file.write("Ractor 1 received message: #{message}\n") file.flush count -= 1 end end end @ractor2 = Ractor.new(count, 'output2.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? messages = receive_all messages.each do |message| file.write("Ractor 2 received message: #{message}\n") end count -= messages.length file.flush end end end end def run1 @count.times do |i| @ractor1.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor1.join end def run2 @count.times do |i| @ractor2.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor2.join end end records = 1_000_000 test = RactorsTest.new(records) p [:once, Benchmark.realtime { test.run1 }.round(2)] p [:all, Benchmark.realtime { test.run2 }.round(2)] ``` **Benchmark Results** On my system, receive_all shows ~4x improvement over individual receive: **Key Observations:** Ractor1 (using receive): Processes each message individually, resulting in frequent I/O calls. Ractor2 (using receive_all): Processes all queued messages at once, minimizing I/O overhead -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/
Issue #21869 has been updated by synacker (Mikhail Milovidov). ko1 (Koichi Sasada) wrote in #note-8:
If it returns `[]` always, I think we don't need to introduce it.
I've updated pr. The limit parameter behaves as fallow: 1. ```limit == nil```: returns all messages in the queue, or blocks if the queue is empty. 2. ```limit > 0```: returns an array of up to `limit` messages, or blocks if the queue is empty. 3. ```limit <= 0```: raises an `ArgumentError` ko1 (Koichi Sasada) wrote in #note-8:
For this purpose, it is possible to introduce another parameter such as `timeout: 0`.
Regarding the `timeout` suggestion: implementing it would require significant changes to the Ractor logic. I propose addressing this in a separate task. ---------------------------------------- Feature #21869: Add receive_all Method to Ractor API for Message Batching https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21869#change-116756 * Author: synacker (Mikhail Milovidov) * Status: Open * Assignee: ractor ---------------------------------------- **Summary** The Ractor API provides an excellent mechanism for inter‑thread communication, but it currently lacks a built‑in message batching technique. I propose adding a receive_all method to enable batch processing of messages, which can significantly improve performance in high‑load scenarios. **Motivation** In distributed queued systems, processing messages one‑by‑one (as with the current receive method) can introduce unnecessary overhead. Batch processing allows: Reduced context‑switching overhead. More efficient I/O operations (e.g., fewer file writes). Better throughput in high‑concurrency environments. **Proposed Solution** Add a receive_all method to the Ractor API that: Returns all available messages in the Ractor’s mailbox at once (as an array). **Demonstration Code** Below is a benchmark comparing individual receive vs. batch receive_all: ``` ruby require 'benchmark' class RactorsTest def initialize(count) @count = count @ractor1 = Ractor.new(count, 'output1.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? message = receive file.write("Ractor 1 received message: #{message}\n") file.flush count -= 1 end end end @ractor2 = Ractor.new(count, 'output2.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? messages = receive_all messages.each do |message| file.write("Ractor 2 received message: #{message}\n") end count -= messages.length file.flush end end end end def run1 @count.times do |i| @ractor1.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor1.join end def run2 @count.times do |i| @ractor2.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor2.join end end records = 1_000_000 test = RactorsTest.new(records) p [:once, Benchmark.realtime { test.run1 }.round(2)] p [:all, Benchmark.realtime { test.run2 }.round(2)] ``` **Benchmark Results** On my system, receive_all shows ~4x improvement over individual receive: **Key Observations:** Ractor1 (using receive): Processes each message individually, resulting in frequent I/O calls. Ractor2 (using receive_all): Processes all queued messages at once, minimizing I/O overhead -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/
Issue #21869 has been updated by synacker (Mikhail Milovidov). This my first pr and issue. I’m unsure about the current status — is the request rejected, or are there any actions required from my side? ---------------------------------------- Feature #21869: Add receive_all Method to Ractor API for Message Batching https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21869#change-116934 * Author: synacker (Mikhail Milovidov) * Status: Open * Assignee: ractor ---------------------------------------- **Summary** The Ractor API provides an excellent mechanism for inter‑thread communication, but it currently lacks a built‑in message batching technique. I propose adding a receive_all method to enable batch processing of messages, which can significantly improve performance in high‑load scenarios. **Motivation** In distributed queued systems, processing messages one‑by‑one (as with the current receive method) can introduce unnecessary overhead. Batch processing allows: Reduced context‑switching overhead. More efficient I/O operations (e.g., fewer file writes). Better throughput in high‑concurrency environments. **Proposed Solution** Add a receive_all method to the Ractor API that: Returns all available messages in the Ractor’s mailbox at once (as an array). **Demonstration Code** Below is a benchmark comparing individual receive vs. batch receive_all: ``` ruby require 'benchmark' class RactorsTest def initialize(count) @count = count @ractor1 = Ractor.new(count, 'output1.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? message = receive file.write("Ractor 1 received message: #{message}\n") file.flush count -= 1 end end end @ractor2 = Ractor.new(count, 'output2.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? messages = receive_all messages.each do |message| file.write("Ractor 2 received message: #{message}\n") end count -= messages.length file.flush end end end end def run1 @count.times do |i| @ractor1.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor1.join end def run2 @count.times do |i| @ractor2.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor2.join end end records = 1_000_000 test = RactorsTest.new(records) p [:once, Benchmark.realtime { test.run1 }.round(2)] p [:all, Benchmark.realtime { test.run2 }.round(2)] ``` **Benchmark Results** On my system, receive_all shows ~4x improvement over individual receive: **Key Observations:** Ractor1 (using receive): Processes each message individually, resulting in frequent I/O calls. Ractor2 (using receive_all): Processes all queued messages at once, minimizing I/O overhead -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/
Issue #21869 has been updated by ko1 (Koichi Sasada). Sorry for late response. Could you rebase it to the current master, and could you show some benchmark example we can understand it should be merged? Now we are not sure it is valuable to introduce or not. Or I can take over this proposal (and ask Claude code). BTW
Reduced context‑switching overhead.
doesn't make sense nowadays because `a << o while o = Ractor.receive(timeout:0))` can emulate it and no context switch now. ---------------------------------------- Feature #21869: Add receive_all Method to Ractor API for Message Batching https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21869#change-118857 * Author: synacker (Mikhail Milovidov) * Status: Open * Assignee: ractor ---------------------------------------- **Summary** The Ractor API provides an excellent mechanism for inter‑thread communication, but it currently lacks a built‑in message batching technique. I propose adding a receive_all method to enable batch processing of messages, which can significantly improve performance in high‑load scenarios. **Motivation** In distributed queued systems, processing messages one‑by‑one (as with the current receive method) can introduce unnecessary overhead. Batch processing allows: Reduced context‑switching overhead. More efficient I/O operations (e.g., fewer file writes). Better throughput in high‑concurrency environments. **Proposed Solution** Add a receive_all method to the Ractor API that: Returns all available messages in the Ractor’s mailbox at once (as an array). **Demonstration Code** Below is a benchmark comparing individual receive vs. batch receive_all: ``` ruby require 'benchmark' class RactorsTest def initialize(count) @count = count @ractor1 = Ractor.new(count, 'output1.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? message = receive file.write("Ractor 1 received message: #{message}\n") file.flush count -= 1 end end end @ractor2 = Ractor.new(count, 'output2.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? messages = receive_all messages.each do |message| file.write("Ractor 2 received message: #{message}\n") end count -= messages.length file.flush end end end end def run1 @count.times do |i| @ractor1.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor1.join end def run2 @count.times do |i| @ractor2.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor2.join end end records = 1_000_000 test = RactorsTest.new(records) p [:once, Benchmark.realtime { test.run1 }.round(2)] p [:all, Benchmark.realtime { test.run2 }.round(2)] ``` **Benchmark Results** On my system, receive_all shows ~4x improvement over individual receive: **Key Observations:** Ractor1 (using receive): Processes each message individually, resulting in frequent I/O calls. Ractor2 (using receive_all): Processes all queued messages at once, minimizing I/O overhead -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/
Issue #21869 has been updated by synacker (Mikhail Milovidov). Thank you for the feedback, Koichi! I’ve rebased the PR to the current master and added benchmark examples to illustrate the performance characteristics of `receive_all`. You can find the benchmarks here: https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/16105/changes#diff-49ab12719789e1f00ae1d1a... Here are the local results: ``` backlog fixnums receive 0.04s 25637547/s receive_all 0.02s 49357428/s x1.93 backlog frozen strings receive 0.06s 17879134/s receive_all 0.05s 21309728/s x1.19 backlog strings receive 0.21s 4681628/s receive_all 0.26s 3904338/s x0.83 backlog 4 producers receive 0.22s 4585560/s receive_all 0.27s 3768649/s x0.82 backlog 8 producers receive 0.22s 4470051/s receive_all 0.29s 3416123/s x0.76 backlog 4 producers shared receive 0.07s 13843510/s receive_all 0.05s 18782983/s x1.36 backlog 8 producers shared receive 0.08s 12997252/s receive_all 0.06s 16489434/s x1.27 ``` The performance degradation in some cases (e.g., strings, multiple producers) is due to GC overhead: frequent array allocations interfere with efficient GC behavior. In scenarios with shared backlogs or simpler objects (fixnums, frozen strings), `receive_all` shows a clear benefit. ---------------------------------------- Feature #21869: Add receive_all Method to Ractor API for Message Batching https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21869#change-118970 * Author: synacker (Mikhail Milovidov) * Status: Open * Assignee: ractor ---------------------------------------- **Summary** The Ractor API provides an excellent mechanism for inter‑thread communication, but it currently lacks a built‑in message batching technique. I propose adding a receive_all method to enable batch processing of messages, which can significantly improve performance in high‑load scenarios. **Motivation** In distributed queued systems, processing messages one‑by‑one (as with the current receive method) can introduce unnecessary overhead. Batch processing allows: Reduced context‑switching overhead. More efficient I/O operations (e.g., fewer file writes). Better throughput in high‑concurrency environments. **Proposed Solution** Add a receive_all method to the Ractor API that: Returns all available messages in the Ractor’s mailbox at once (as an array). **Demonstration Code** Below is a benchmark comparing individual receive vs. batch receive_all: ``` ruby require 'benchmark' class RactorsTest def initialize(count) @count = count @ractor1 = Ractor.new(count, 'output1.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? message = receive file.write("Ractor 1 received message: #{message}\n") file.flush count -= 1 end end end @ractor2 = Ractor.new(count, 'output2.txt') do |count, filename| File.open(filename, 'w') do |file| while count.positive? messages = receive_all messages.each do |message| file.write("Ractor 2 received message: #{message}\n") end count -= messages.length file.flush end end end end def run1 @count.times do |i| @ractor1.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor1.join end def run2 @count.times do |i| @ractor2.send("Message #{i + 1}") end @ractor2.join end end records = 1_000_000 test = RactorsTest.new(records) p [:once, Benchmark.realtime { test.run1 }.round(2)] p [:all, Benchmark.realtime { test.run2 }.round(2)] ``` **Benchmark Results** On my system, receive_all shows ~4x improvement over individual receive: **Key Observations:** Ractor1 (using receive): Processes each message individually, resulting in frequent I/O calls. Ractor2 (using receive_all): Processes all queued messages at once, minimizing I/O overhead -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/
participants (4)
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byroot (Jean Boussier) -
Eregon (Benoit Daloze)
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ko1 (Koichi Sasada)
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synacker (Mikhail Milovidov)