golang/go

testing: document -test.benchmem and ReportAllocs output format

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#42,239 opened on Oct 28, 2020

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Description

Filing this bug on behalf of someone who prefers not to do it directly:

The ⁠(*testing.B).ReportAllocs function's documentation says that its output is the same as setting -test.benchmem. However, there is as far as I can tell no explanation anywhere of what, exactly, -test.benchmem is or what it does. There is also no explanation as to what the output format is. For instance, in an output line like

BenchmarkF-34         	    9718	    672043 ns/op	   34474 B/op	     508 allocs/op

I can see the lines with four numbers, but one of them is completely dimensionless and the others aren't entirely clear.

Contributor guide

Research direction
Examine the testing package documentation for test.benchmem and ReportAllocs. Look at the source code for output formatting. Consider adding an explanation of the benchmark output fields to the package documentation.
Tech stack
go
Domain
documentation
Issue type
Documentation
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
Under 1 hour
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
Go
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
85