LAT_UNIX(8)

📦 version 3.0-a9, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💅 LAT_UNIX — like, the manual page bestie

okay so this is lat_unix(8), and it lives in the LMBENCH manual, section 8, the big-kid system-admin section, periodt. 🌸

✨ NAME ✨

lat_unix — measure interprocess communication latency via UNIX sockets 🦋

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

lat_unix [ -m <message size> ] [ -P <parallelism> ] [ -W <warmups> ] [
-N <repetitions> ]

yeah that's the whole vibe check. the flags are right there, no notes. 💅

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so lat_unix is a client/server program and its entire job is measuring interprocess communication latencies. that's it. that's the girl. ✨

here's the tea: the benchmark passes a message back and forth between the two processes. and bestie, this style of benchmark is frequently referred to as a ``hot potato'' benchmark 🥔🔥 — because the message just keeps getting yeeted back and forth and nobody gets to hold it.

and here's the part that's lowkey iconic: no other work is done in the processes. nothing. zero. the processes are just out here passing the potato. main character energy, no side quests. 👑

📊 OUTPUT 📊

the reported time is in microseconds per round trip, and it includes the total time — meaning the context switching overhead is included too, ngl that part matters. 😭

the output format is like so:

AF_UNIX sock stream latency: 700 microseconds

that's it. that's the whole flex. 🫶

🌈 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 🌈

funding for the development of this tool was provided by Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation. so like, thank you Sun Microsystems, we appreciate you fr fr 🙏✨

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

go read those too, the whole family is slay 🧚💜

💌 AUTHOR 💌

Carl Staelin and Larry McVoy ✍️

comments, suggestions, and bug reports are always welcome — like, genuinely, they want to hear from you, don't be shy bestie 💖

💀 friendly reminder that everything above is exactly what the page says, no cap. i'm not out here inventing options or guessing at behaviour, i would never. 🙈

and that's the whole page!! 🎉 written by Carl Staelin and Larry McVoy, copyright (c)1994-2000, date stamp $Date$, and yes we're still in LAT_UNIX(8) the whole time. bye bestie, go measure some latency 💅🎀🦋

📦 where this page comes from