I'm looking for ways to load an executable once and run it multiple times on a large dataset without having to reload it from scratch each time. My objective is to process hundreds or thousands of inputs quickly, using the same options for each execution. Is there a method to achieve parallel execution as well? I'd love tips on optimizing this process for better performance!
4 Answers
You can leverage GNU Parallel or xargs to handle large inputs in parallel. Just make sure you don’t create too many processes compared to your CPU cores; otherwise, it could lead to more overhead. Another approach is to rewrite bottleneck parts of your Perl script in a faster language like Rust or Go if you need more performance.
Caching is managed quite well in Linux, especially with executables that are called frequently. However, executing commands in parallel might introduce overhead due to process management, so if possible, figure out if you can keep a single instance of your program running while processing inputs. This could dramatically cut down your execution times.
That sounds promising! I assume I’d need to handle input/output streams carefully?
Using named pipes for communication can let you run a program continuously, feeding it tasks in real-time instead of starting fresh with each execution. This technique has led to significant performance boosts for projects similar to yours, especially when dealing with large datasets. It's a bit more technical but worth considering!
Yeah, I’ve thought about that approach. Any example commands to get me started?
Linux typically does a decent job optimizing performance, including caching often-used binaries in RAM. This means if you're running a program multiple times, it should be quicker after the first load. However, optimization can depend on specifics, so run some tests to find where the bottlenecks are in your particular case. If starting new processes is slow for you, consider running a single instance and feeding it your inputs in a loop instead of spawning new processes each time.
Thanks, that makes sense! I’ll definitely gather some data on my current execution times.
I'll look into using xargs for my input processing; thanks for the tip!