Cpu docker tcmalloc (dmlc#5969)

DominikaJedynak · Mar 12, 2024 · e258b89 · e258b89
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diff --git a/docker/Dockerfile.ci_cpu b/docker/Dockerfile.ci_cpu
@@ -13,6 +13,10 @@ RUN bash /install/ubuntu_install_core.sh
 COPY install/ubuntu_install_build.sh /install/ubuntu_install_build.sh
 RUN bash /install/ubuntu_install_build.sh
 
+# tcmalloc
+RUN apt-get install -y libgoogle-perftools4
+ENV LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtcmalloc.so.4:$LD_PRELOAD
+
 # python
 COPY install/ubuntu_install_conda.sh /install/ubuntu_install_conda.sh
 RUN bash /install/ubuntu_install_conda.sh

diff --git a/tutorials/cpu/cpu_best_practises.py b/tutorials/cpu/cpu_best_practises.py
@@ -15,6 +15,16 @@
 is to turn off hyperthreading.
 Turning off the hyper threading feature can be done at BIOS [#f1]_ or operating system level [#f2]_ [#f3]_ .
 
+Alternative memory allocators
+---------------------------
+
+Alternative memory allocators, such as *tcmalloc*, might provide significant performance improvements by more efficient memory usage, reducing overhead on unnecessary memory allocations or deallocations. *tcmalloc* uses thread-local caches to reduce overhead on thread synchronization, locks contention by using spinlocks and per-thread arenas respectively and categorizes memory allocations by sizes to reduce overhead on memory fragmentation.
+
+To take advantage of optimizations *tcmalloc* provides, install it on your system (on Ubuntu *tcmalloc* is included in libgoogle-perftools4 package) and add shared library to the LD_PRELOAD environment variable:
+
+.. code-block:: shell
+
+  export LD_PRELOAD=/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtcmalloc.so.4:$LD_PRELOAD
 
 OpenMP settings
 ---------------------------