srl has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I'm doing a project for a group that's using IRC as the guts of a chatroom, and I'm load-testing the irc daemon with a Perl script. It uses Net::IRC to make one connection to the server, then blathers endlessly, every $X seconds, on a channel until it's stopped. (All machines concerned here are running Linux 2.2.)

I need to run arbitrary huge numbers of connections (500+ per bot machine would be nice), so I can find out what the ircd can take. Problem is, I can only run about 100 bot processes before the bot machine starts flailing against the open-files limit of the OS. What can I do about this problem, short of recompiling the kernel?

Are there any general things I should be doing to increase the efficiency of the bot? I'm avoiding threads because I've heard they're unstable in Perl. Thoughts?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Net::IRC
by lindex (Friar) on Jul 21, 2000 at 05:30 UTC
    I my self run an IRC server and remember trying to run such
    a test with Net::IRC. If I remember correctly it doesnt
    allow you to have more than one Net::IRC handle. But you
    be able to do so by editing the module. I would suggest
    writing a Socket based tester or not even bother, If your using
    an ircd that is used by one of the big networks then you shouldn't
    have to bother



    lindex 
    /****************************/
  jason@gost.net, wh@ckz.org
    http://jason.gost.net
/*****************************/

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
      Actually, you can run more than one connection with Net::IRC. Here is a minimal demonstration script:

      #!/usr/bin/perl

use Net::IRC;
use strict;

my $server = "myserver";

my $irc = new Net::IRC;
my $conn1 = $irc->newconn(Nick    => "test1",
                          Server  => $server,
                          Port    => 6667);

my $conn2 = $irc->newconn(Nick    => "test2",
                          Server  => $server,
                          Port    => 6667);

$conn1->add_global_handler('msg', \&on_msg);
$conn2->add_global_handler('msg', \&on_msg);

$irc->start;

sub on_msg {
    my ($self, $event) = @_;
    my $who = $event->nick;

    $self->privmsg($who, "hello, $who!!");
}

      [download]
      Send a message to either of the bots, and they'll reply. You can also add different handlers for each connection, and it'll do the right thing.

      However, I don't know if this gets you a win or a lose as to open file handles overall...

      Alan

[reply]
[d/l]
        Iam humbled yet agian :) get my vote.


        lindex 
        /****************************/
  jason@gost.net, wh@ckz.org
    http://jason.gost.net
/*****************************/

        [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
RE: Net::IRC, load testing, and threads
by ferrency (Deacon) on Jul 20, 2000 at 23:58 UTC
    You could check out what files your bot is holding open, using fstat. Get rid of any that aren't Absolutely Necessary. I'm not familiar with the innards of Net::IRC, but you might be able to reduce open file resource use by creating multiple Net::IRC's in one bot, and using a select() over all of them. This could complicate your bot quickly if it does anything besides randomly talk occasionally, though.

    Alan

    ps I assume you're on some UNIX-like OS since "recompiling the kernel" was mentioned as an option...

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