[nodejs] Node is insanely slow on ARMv6

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[nodejs] Node is insanely slow on ARMv6

Postby peoro » Sat Nov 11, 2017 4:59 am

Node.js (installed by `nodejs 8.8.1-1` ) takes ages to start on my ARMv6 (Raspberry Pi Zero W): more than 7 seconds to run an empty script.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
$ time node -e ''
real 0m7.996s
user 0m6.750s
sys 0m0.170s
')

I tried to download the binaries for ARMv6 from the Node.js website (version v9.1.0, as the file seems to be missing for the 8.x.x branch), and they perform so much better!
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
$ bin/node -v
v9.1.0
$ time bin/node -e ''
real 0m1.290s
user 0m1.160s
sys 0m0.060s
')

`community/nodejs-lts-boron 6.11.5-1` has a similar performance to the binary downloaded mainstream, while `community/nodejs-lts-argon` is somewhere inbetween (it takes about 2~3 seconds to run an empty script).
peoro
 
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Nov 11, 2017 4:53 am

Re: [nodejs] Node is insanely slow on ARMv6

Postby peoro » Sat Nov 11, 2017 5:05 am

I also own an Odroid-C2 (ARMv8), am running ALARM on that one as well, and just noticed that there's a similar issue.

Node packaged by ALARM (`community/nodejs 8.8.1-1`) is a lot slower than the mainstream binaries, both the 8.x.x and 9.x.x series:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
$ time node -e ''
real 0m1.825s
user 0m1.720s
sys 0m0.100s
$ time node-v8.9.1-linux-arm64/bin/node -e ''
real 0m0.268s
user 0m0.220s
sys 0m0.040s
$ time node-v9.1.0-linux-arm64/bin/node -e ''
real 0m0.266s
user 0m0.250s
sys 0m0.010s
')
peoro
 
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Nov 11, 2017 4:53 am

Re: [nodejs] Node is insanely slow on ARMv6

Postby peoro » Sat Nov 11, 2017 3:40 pm

In case anybody else cares, I created an AUR package `nodejs-latest-bin` that installs the official binary release of nodejs and npm.

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/nodejs-latest-bin/
peoro
 
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Nov 11, 2017 4:53 am

Re: [nodejs] Node is insanely slow on ARMv6

Postby peoro » Sun Nov 12, 2017 9:22 pm

I opened an issue on the Github repository of node.

Somebody there suggested that it's the `--without-snapshot` option used to compile node that has the largest impact on startup times.

I noticed that the Arch Linux community/nodejs package doesn't use that option, while ALARM does.

Why is it used by Arch Linux ARM?
Can it be removed?
peoro
 
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Nov 11, 2017 4:53 am

Re: [nodejs] Node is insanely slow on ARMv6

Postby WarheadsSE » Tue Nov 14, 2017 7:31 pm

It may be removable now. Snapshot broke the piss out of ARM a while back.
Core Developer
Remember: Arch Linux ARM is entirely community donation supported!
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