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Using TruffleRuby with GraalVM Native Images

The GraalVM Native Image Generator is a closed-world analysis ahead-of-time compiler for Java, and an implementation of parts of a JVM.

We use Native Images to ahead-of-time compile TruffleRuby and the GraalVM Compiler to a single, statically-linked native binary executable, that has no dependency on a JVM, and does not link to any JVM libraries. The technique is more sophisticated than just appending a JAR as a resource in a copy of the JVM - only parts of the JVM which are needed are included and they are specialised for how TruffleRuby uses them. There is no Java bytecode - only compiled native machine code and compiler graphs for dynamic compilation.

Note that the GraalVM Native Image Generator is not an ahead-of time compiler for your Ruby program. It only ahead-of-time compiles the Java code that implements the TruffleRuby interpreter and the GraalVM Compiler.

The GraalVM Native Image Generator itself, like the GraalVM Compiler and TruffleRuby, is implemented in Java.

https://youtu.be/FJY96_6Y3a4?t=10023

More information can be found in Kevin Menard's blog post.

The TruffleRuby that is distributed in the GraalVM by default uses a version compiled using the Native Image Generator - this is to prioritise fast start-up and warm-up time for shorter running commands and benchmarks.

$ cd graalvm
$ otool -L bin/ruby
bin/ruby:
  /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Versions/A/CoreFoundation (compatibility version 150.0.0, current version 1348.28.0)
  /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1238.0.0)
  /usr/lib/libz.1.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1.2.8)
$ du -h bin/ruby
200M bin/ruby

The Native Image version of TruffleRuby has better startup performance and lower memory footprint than JRuby, Rubinius and TruffleRuby on the JVM, and similar or better startup performance than MRI.

Implementation Real Time (s) Max RSS (MB)
TruffleRuby Native 0.025 65
MRI 2.6.2 0.048 14
Rubinius 3.107 0.150 78
JRuby 9.2.7.0 1.357 160
TruffleRuby JVM 1.787 456

Run on Linux with an Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz with a SSD.

cd graalvm-ce-1.0.0-rc15
bin/ruby -e 'puts "Hello"'       # TruffleRuby on the SVM
bin/ruby --jvm -e 'puts "Hello"' # TruffleRuby on the JVM

chruby ruby-2.6.2
ruby -e 'puts "Hello"'

chruby rbx-3.107
rbx -e 'puts "Hello"'

chruby jruby-9.2.7.0
jruby -e 'puts "Hello"'

The real time and the maximum resident set size are measured with a custom C program as time cannot measure real time in milliseconds and max RSS. Each command is run 10 times and the average is reported. clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC) is used to measure time and getrusage() to measure max RSS.

There is no need to do so, but you can actually also compile your own copy of the Native Image version of TruffleRuby using a tool distributed as part of GraalVM and the Java version of TruffleRuby from GraalVM.

native-image -H:Name=native-ruby --language:ruby

native-ruby is the output file name.

You can build a native build of TruffleRuby using the Native Image Tool from a source distribution using:

jt build --env native

The disadvantages of the Native Image version of TruffleRuby are:

  • It has lower peak performance, as the GC is simpler and some optimisations such as compressed ordinary object pointers (OOPS) are not yet available.
  • You can't use standard Java tools like VisualVM.
  • Java interoperability works in the native configuration but requires more setup. First, only for classes loaded in the image can be accessed. You can add more classes by compiling a native image including TruffleRuby. See Build Native Images from Polyglot Applications for details.

So the native version may not be appropriate for all uses.

For the highest performance for long-running processes you want to use the JVM version of TruffleRuby, using --jvm.