benchkit 0.2.0

Lightweight benchmarking toolkit focused on practical performance analysis and report generation. Non-restrictive alternative to criterion, designed for easy integration and markdown report generation.
Documentation

benchkit

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Practical, Documentation-First Benchmarking for Rust.

benchkit is a lightweight toolkit for performance analysis, born from the hard-learned lessons of optimizing high-performance libraries. It rejects rigid, all-or-nothing frameworks in favor of flexible, composable tools that integrate seamlessly into your existing workflow.

The Benchmarking Dilemma

In Rust, developers often face a frustrating choice:

  1. The Heavy Framework (criterion): Statistically powerful, but forces a rigid structure (benches/), complex setup, and produces reports that are difficult to integrate into your project's documentation. You must adapt your project to the framework.
  2. The Manual Approach (std::time): Simple to start, but statistically naive. It leads to boilerplate, inconsistent measurements, and conclusions that are easily skewed by system noise.

benchkit offers a third way.

A Toolkit, Not a Framework

This is the core philosophy of benchkit. It doesn't impose a workflow; it provides a set of professional, composable tools that you can use however you see fit.

  • ✅ Integrate Anywhere: Write benchmarks in your test files, examples, or binaries. No required directory structure.
  • ✅ Documentation-First: Treat performance reports as a first-class part of your documentation, with tools to automatically keep them in sync with your code.
  • ✅ Practical Focus: Surface the key metrics needed for optimization decisions, hiding deep statistical complexity until you ask for it.
  • ✅ Zero Setup: Start measuring performance in minutes with a simple, intuitive API.

🚀 Quick Start: Compare, Analyze, and Document

This example demonstrates the core benchkit workflow: comparing two algorithms and automatically updating a performance section in your README.md.

1. Add to dev-dependencies in Cargo.toml:

[dev-dependencies]
benchkit = { version = "0.1", features = [ "full" ] }

2. Create a benchmark in your tests directory:

// In tests/performance_test.rs
#![ cfg( feature = "integration" ) ]
use benchkit::prelude::*;

fn generate_data( size : usize ) -> Vec< u32 >
{
  ( 0..size ).map( | x | x as u32 ).collect()
}

#[ test ]
fn update_readme_performance_docs()
{
  let mut comparison = ComparativeAnalysis::new( "Sorting Algorithms" );
  let data = generate_data( 1000 );

  // Benchmark the first algorithm
  comparison = comparison.algorithm
  (
    "std_stable_sort",
    {
      let mut d = data.clone();
      move ||
      {
        d.sort();
      }
    }
  );

  // Benchmark the second algorithm
  comparison = comparison.algorithm
  (
    "std_unstable_sort",
    {
      let mut d = data.clone();
      move ||
      {
        d.sort_unstable();
      }
    }
  );

  // Run the comparison and update the documentation
  let report = comparison.run();
  let markdown = report.to_markdown();

  let updater = MarkdownUpdater::new( "README.md", "Performance" );
  updater.update_section( &markdown ).unwrap();
}

3. Add a placeholder section to your README.md:

## Performance

<!-- benchkit-performance-start -->
Old performance data will be replaced here.
<!-- benchkit-performance-end -->

4. Run cargo test:

Your README.md is automatically updated with a clean, version-controlled report:

## Performance

<!-- benchkit-performance-start -->
<!-- Last updated: 2025-08-08 12:30:00 UTC -->

### Sorting Algorithms Comparison

| Algorithm | Mean Time | Operations/sec | Relative Performance |
|---|---|---|---|
| std_unstable_sort | 4.31µs | 231,842 | **Fastest** |
| std_stable_sort | 8.12µs | 123,152 | 1.9x slower |

### Key Insights

- **Best performing**: std_unstable_sort algorithm
- **Performance range**: 1.9x difference between fastest and slowest
<!-- benchkit-performance-end -->

🧰 What's in the Toolkit?

benchkit provides a suite of composable tools. Use only what you need.

At its heart, benchkit provides simple and accurate measurement primitives.

use benchkit::prelude::*;

// A robust measurement with multiple iterations and statistical cleanup.
let result = bench_function
(
  "summation_1000",
  ||
  {
    ( 0..1000 ).fold( 0, | acc, x | acc + x )
  }
);
println!( "Avg time: {:.2?}", result.mean_time() );
println!( "Throughput: {:.0} ops/sec", result.operations_per_second() );

// Track memory usage patterns alongside timing.
let memory_benchmark = MemoryBenchmark::new( "allocation_test" );
let ( timing, memory_stats ) = memory_benchmark.run_with_tracking
(
  10,
  ||
  {
    let data = vec![ 0u8; 1024 ];
    memory_benchmark.tracker.record_allocation( 1024 );
    std::hint::black_box( data );
  }
);
println!( "Peak memory usage: {} bytes", memory_stats.peak_usage );

Turn raw numbers into actionable insights.

use benchkit::prelude::*;

// Compare multiple implementations to find the best one.
let report = ComparativeAnalysis::new( "Hashing" )
.algorithm( "fnv", || { /* ... */ } )
.algorithm( "siphash", || { /* ... */ } )
.run();

if let Some( ( fastest_name, _ ) ) = report.fastest()
{
  println!( "Fastest algorithm: {}", fastest_name );
}

// Compare performance results like a git diff.
let diff_set = diff_benchmark_sets( &baseline_results, &current_results );
for regression in diff_set.regressions()
{
  println!( "{}", regression.to_diff_format() );
}

// Use research-grade statistics when you need high confidence.
let comparison = StatisticalAnalysis::compare
(
  &result_a,
  &result_b,
  SignificanceLevel::Standard,
)?;
println!( "{}", comparison.conclusion() );

Stop writing boilerplate to create test data. benchkit provides generators for common scenarios.

use benchkit::prelude::*;

// Generate a comma-separated list of 100 items.
let list_data = generate_list_data( DataSize::Medium );

// Generate realistic unilang command strings for parser benchmarking.
let command_generator = DataGenerator::new()
.complexity( DataComplexity::Complex );
let commands = command_generator.generate_unilang_commands( 10 );

// Create reproducible data with a specific seed.
let mut seeded_gen = SeededGenerator::new( 42 );
let random_data = seeded_gen.random_string( 1024 );

The "documentation-first" philosophy is enabled by powerful report generation and file updating tools.

use benchkit::prelude::*;

let mut suite = BenchmarkSuite::new( "api_performance" );
suite.benchmark( "get_user", || { /* ... */ } );
suite.benchmark( "create_user", || { /* ... */ } );
let results = suite.run_analysis();

// Generate a markdown report from the results.
let markdown_report = results.generate_markdown_report().generate();

// Automatically update the "## Performance" section of a file.
let updater = MarkdownUpdater::new( "README.md", "Performance" );
updater.update_section( &markdown_report )?;

The benchkit Workflow

benchkit is designed to make performance analysis a natural part of your development cycle.

[ 1. Write Code ] -> [ 2. Add Benchmark in `tests/` ] -> [ 3. Run `cargo test` ]
       ^                                                              |
       |                                                              v
[ 5. Commit Code + Perf Docs ] <- [ 4. Auto-Update `README.md` ] <- [ Analyze Console Results ]

Installation

Add benchkit to your [dev-dependencies] in Cargo.toml.

[dev-dependencies]
# For core functionality
benchkit = "0.1"

# Or enable all features for the full toolkit
benchkit = { version = "0.1", features = [ "full" ] }

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! benchkit aims to be a community-driven toolkit that solves real-world benchmarking problems. Please see our contribution guidelines and open tasks.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.