[REPORT] [GSoC - TCG Continuous Benchmarking] [#5] Finding Commits Affecting QEMU Performance

[Ahmed Karaman]

Hi,

The fifth report of the TCG Continuous Benchmarking project concludes
a mini-series of three reports that dealt with the performance
comparison and analysis of QEMU 5.0 and 5.1-pre-soft-freeze.

The report presents a new Python script that utilizes "git bisect" for
running a binary search within a specified range of commits to
automatically detect the commit causing a performance improvement or
degradation.

The new script is then used to find the commit introducing the PowerPC
performance degradation as well as that introducing the performance
improvement in MIPS. The results obtained for both commits proves the
correctness of the conclusions and analyses presented in the two
previous reports.

Report link:
https://ahmedkrmn.github.io/TCG-Continuous-Benchmarking/Finding-Commits-Affecting-QEMU-Performance/

Previous reports:
Report 1 - Measuring Basic Performance Metrics of QEMU:
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2020-06/msg06692.html
Report 2 - Dissecting QEMU Into Three Main Parts:
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2020-06/msg09441.html
Report 3 - QEMU 5.0 and 5.1-pre-soft-freeze Dissect Comparison:
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2020-07/msg01978.html
Report 4 - Listing QEMU Helpers and Function Callees:
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2020-07/msg04227.html

Best regards,
Ahmed Karaman