fasthttp
Fast HTTP implementation for Go.
Currently fasthttp is successfully used in a production serving 100K rps from 1M
concurrent keep-alive connections on a single server.
Documentation
Examples from docs
Code examples
Switching from net/http to fasthttp
Fasthttp best practices
Tricks with byte buffers
FAQ
HTTP server performance comparison with net/http
In short, fasthttp server is up to 10 times faster than net/http. Below are benchmark results.
GOMAXPROCS=1
net/http:
$ GOMAXPROCS=1 go test -bench=NetHTTPServerGet -benchmem -benchtime=5s
PASS
BenchmarkNetHTTPServerGet1ReqPerConn 300000 21236 ns/op 2404 B/op 30 allocs/op
BenchmarkNetHTTPServerGet2ReqPerConn 500000 14634 ns/op 2371 B/op 24 allocs/op
BenchmarkNetHTTPServerGet10ReqPerConn 1000000 9447 ns/op 2101 B/op 19 allocs/op
BenchmarkNetHTTPServerGet10KReqPerConn 1000000 7939 ns/op 2033 B/op 18 allocs/op
BenchmarkNetHTTPServerGet1ReqPerConn10KClients 300000 30291 ns/op 4589 B/op 31 allocs/op
BenchmarkNetHTTPServerGet2ReqPerConn10KClients 500000 23199 ns/op 3581 B/op 25 allocs/op
BenchmarkNetHTTPServerGet10ReqPerConn10KClients 500000 13270 ns/op 2621 B/op 19 allocs/op
BenchmarkNetHTTPServerGet100ReqPerConn10KClients 500000 11412 ns/op 2119 B/op 18 allocs/op
fasthttp:
$ GOMAXPROCS=1 go test -bench=kServerGet -benchmem -benchtime=5s
PASS
BenchmarkServerGet1ReqPerConn 3000000 2341 ns/op 0 B/op 0 allocs/op
BenchmarkServerGet2ReqPerConn 5000000 1799 ns/op 0 B/op 0 allocs/op
BenchmarkServerGet10ReqPerConn 5000000 1239 ns/op 0 B/op 0 allocs/op
BenchmarkServerGet10KReqPerConn 10000000 1090 ns/op 0 B/op 0 allocs/op
BenchmarkServerGet1ReqPerConn10KClients 3000000 2860 ns/op 4 B/op 0 allocs/op
BenchmarkServerGet2ReqPerConn10KClients 3000000 1992 ns/op 1 B/op 0 allocs/op
BenchmarkServerGet10ReqPerConn10KClients 5000000 1297 ns/op 1 B/op 0 allocs/op
BenchmarkServerGet100ReqPerConn10KClients 10000000 1264 ns/op 9 B/op 0 allocs/op
GOMAXPROCS=4
net/http:
$ GOMAXPROCS=4 go test -bench=NetHTTPServerGet -benchmem -benchtime=5s
PASS
BenchmarkNetHTTPServerGet1ReqPerConn-4 1000000 5545 ns/op 2433 B/op 30 allocs/op
BenchmarkNetHTTPServerGet2ReqPerConn-4 2000000 4147 ns/op 2398 B/op 24 allocs/op
BenchmarkNetHTTPServerGet10ReqPerConn-4 3000000 2628 ns/op 2118 B/op 19 allocs/op
BenchmarkNetHTTPServerGet10KReqPerConn-4 3000000 2304 ns/op 2037 B/op 18 allocs/op
BenchmarkNetHTTPServerGet1ReqPerConn10KClients-4 1000000 7327 ns/op 3561 B/op 30 allocs/op
BenchmarkNetHTTPServerGet2ReqPerConn10KClients-4 1000000 5952 ns/op 3073 B/op 24 allocs/op
BenchmarkNetHTTPServerGet10ReqPerConn10KClients-4 2000000 4345 ns/op 2530 B/op 19 allocs/op
BenchmarkNetHTTPServerGet100ReqPerConn10KClients-4 2000000 3866 ns/op 2132 B/op 18 allocs/op
fasthttp:
$ GOMAXPROCS=4 go test -bench=kServerGet -benchmem -benchtime=5s
PASS
BenchmarkServerGet1ReqPerConn-4 10000000 1053 ns/op 0 B/op 0 allocs/op
BenchmarkServerGet2ReqPerConn-4 10000000 685 ns/op 0 B/op 0 allocs/op
BenchmarkServerGet10ReqPerConn-4 20000000 393 ns/op 0 B/op 0 allocs/op
BenchmarkServerGet10KReqPerConn-4 20000000 338 ns/op 0 B/op 0 allocs/op
BenchmarkServerGet1ReqPerConn10KClients-4 10000000 1033 ns/op 0 B/op 0 allocs/op
BenchmarkServerGet2ReqPerConn10KClients-4 10000000 668 ns/op 0 B/op 0 allocs/op
BenchmarkServerGet10ReqPerConn10KClients-4 20000000 393 ns/op 0 B/op 0 allocs/op
BenchmarkServerGet100ReqPerConn10KClients-4 20000000 384 ns/op 4 B/op 0 allocs/op
HTTP client comparison with net/http
In short, fasthttp client is up to 10 times faster than net/http. Below are benchmark results.
GOMAXPROCS=1
net/http:
$ GOMAXPROCS=1 go test -bench='HTTPClient(Do|GetEndToEnd)' -benchmem -benchtime=5s
PASS
BenchmarkNetHTTPClientDoFastServer 500000 17535 ns/op 2624 B/op 38 allocs/op
BenchmarkNetHTTPClientGetEndToEnd 200000 56593 ns/op 5012 B/op 59 allocs/op
fasthttp:
$ GOMAXPROCS=1 go test -bench='kClient(Do|GetEndToEnd)' -benchmem -benchtime=5s
PASS
BenchmarkClientDoFastServer 5000000 1420 ns/op 0 B/op 0 allocs/op
BenchmarkClientGetEndToEnd 500000 17912 ns/op 0 B/op 0 allocs/op
GOMAXPROCS=4
net/http:
$ GOMAXPROCS=4 go test -bench='HTTPClient(Do|GetEndToEnd)' -benchmem -benchtime=5s
PASS
BenchmarkNetHTTPClientDoFastServer-4 1000000 5795 ns/op 2626 B/op 38 allocs/op
BenchmarkNetHTTPClientGetEndToEnd-4 500000 19304 ns/op 5953 B/op 62 allocs/op
fasthttp:
$ GOMAXPROCS=4 go test -bench='kClient(Do|GetEndToEnd)' -benchmem -benchtime=5s
PASS
BenchmarkClientDoFastServer-4 20000000 443 ns/op 0 B/op 0 allocs/op
BenchmarkClientGetEndToEnd-4 1000000 5954 ns/op 0 B/op 0 allocs/op
Switching from net/http to fasthttp
Unfortunately, fasthttp doesn't provide API identical to net/http.
See the FAQ for details.
There is net/http -> fasthttp handler converter,
but it is advisable writing fasthttp request handlers by hands for gaining
all the fasthttp advantages (especially high performance :) ).
Important points:
type MyHandler struct {
foobar string
}
func (h *MyHandler) HandleFastHTTP(ctx *fasthttp.RequestCtx) {
fmt.Fprintf(ctx, "Hello, world! Requested path is %q. Foobar is %q",
ctx.Path(), h.foobar)
}
func fastHTTPHandler(ctx *fasthttp.RequestCtx) {
fmt.Fprintf(ctx, "Hi there! RequestURI is %q", ctx.RequestURI())
}
myHandler := &MyHandler{
foobar: "foobar",
}
fasthttp.ListenAndServe(":8080", myHandler.HandleFastHTTP)
fasthttp.ListenAndServe(":8081", fastHTTPHandler)
- The RequestHandler
accepts only one argument - RequestCtx.
It contains all the functionality required for http request processing
and response writing. Below is an example of a simple request handler conversion
from net/http to fasthttp.
requestHandler := func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
switch r.URL.Path {
case "/foo":
fooHandler(w, r)
case "/bar":
barHandler(w, r)
default:
http.Error(w, "Unsupported path", http.StatusNotFound)
}
}
requestHandler := func(ctx *fasthttp.RequestCtx) {
switch string(ctx.Path()) {
case "/foo":
fooHandler(ctx)
case "/bar":
barHandler(ctx)
default:
ctx.Error("Unsupported path", fasthttp.StatusNotFound)
}
}
- Fasthttp allows setting response headers and writing response body
in arbitray order. There is no 'headers first, then body' restriction
like in net/http. The following code is valid for fasthttp:
requestHandler := func(ctx *fasthttp.RequestCtx) {
ctx.SetContentType("foo/bar")
ctx.SetStatusCode(fasthttp.StatusOK)
fmt.Fprintf(ctx, "this is the first part of body\n")
ctx.Response.Header.Set("Foo-Bar", "baz")
fmt.Fprintf(ctx, "this is the second part of body\n")
ctx.SetBody([]byte("this is completely new body contents"))
ctx.SetStatusCode(fasthttp.StatusNotFound)
}
- Fasthttp doesn't provide ServeMux,
since I believe third-party request routers like
fasthttprouter must be used instead,
Net/http code with simple ServeMux is trivially converted
to fasthttp code:
m := &http.ServeMux{}
m.HandleFunc("/foo", fooHandlerFunc)
m.HandleFunc("/bar", barHandlerFunc)
m.Handle("/baz", bazHandler)
http.ListenAndServe(":80", m)
m := func(ctx *fasthttp.RequestCtx) {
switch string(ctx.Path()) {
case "/foo":
fooHandlerFunc(ctx)
case "/bar":
barHandlerFunc(ctx)
case "/baz":
bazHandler.HandlerFunc(ctx)
default:
ctx.Error("not found", fasthttp.StatusNotFound)
}
}
fastttp.ListenAndServe(":80", m)
-
net/http -> fasthttp conversion table:
- All the pseudocode below assumes w, r and ctx have these types:
var (
w http.ResponseWriter
r *http.Request
ctx *fasthttp.RequestCtx
)
-
VERY IMPORTANT! Fasthttp disallows holding references
to RequestCtx or to its'
members after returning from RequestHandler.
Otherwise data races are inevitable.
Carefully inspect all the net/http request handlers converted to fasthttp whether
they retain references to RequestCtx or to its' members after returning.
RequestCtx provides the following band aids for this case:
- Wrap RequestHandler into TimeoutHandler.
- Call TimeoutError
before returning from RequestHandler if there are references to RequestCtx or to its' members.
See the example
for more details.
Use brilliant tool - race detector -
for detecting and eliminating data races in your program. If you detected
data race related to fasthttp in your program, then there is high probability
you forgot calling TimeoutError
before returning from RequestHandler.
- Blind switching from net/http to fasthttp won't give you performance boost.
While fasthttp is optimized for speed, its' performance may be easily saturated
by slow RequestHandler.
So profile and optimize your
code after switching to fasthttp.
Performance optimization tips for multi-core systems
- Use reuseport listener.
- Run a separate server instance per CPU core with GOMAXPROCS=1.
- Pin each server instance to a separate CPU core using taskset.
- Ensure the interrupts of multiqueue network card are evenly distributed between CPU cores.
See this article for details.
Fasthttp best practices
- Do not allocate objects and
[]byte
buffers - just reuse them as much
as possible. Fasthttp API design encourages this. - sync.Pool is your best friend.
- Profile your program
in production.
go tool pprof --alloc_objects your-program mem.pprof
usually gives better
insights for optimization opportunities than go tool pprof your-program cpu.pprof
. - Write tests and benchmarks for hot paths.
- Avoid conversion between
[]byte
and string
, since this may result in memory
allocation+copy. Fasthttp API provides functions for both []byte
and string
-
use these functions instead of converting manually between []byte
and string
. - Verify your tests and production code under
race detector on a regular basis.
Tricks with []byte
buffers
The following tricks are used by fasthttp. Use them in your code too.
- Standard Go functions accept nil buffers
var (
dst []byte
src []byte
)
dst = append(dst, src...)
copy(dst, src)
(string(src) == "")
(len(src) == 0)
src = src[:0]
for i, ch := range src {
doSomething(i, ch)
}
So throw away nil checks for []byte
buffers from you code. For example,
srcLen := 0
if src != nil {
srcLen = len(src)
}
becomes
srcLen := len(src)
- String may be appended to
[]byte
buffer with append
dst = append(dst, "foobar"...)
[]byte
buffer may be extended to its' capacity.
buf := make([]byte, 100)
a := buf[:10]
b := a[:100]
- All fasthttp functions accept nil
[]byte
buffer
statusCode, body, err := fasthttp.Get(nil, "http://google.com/")
uintBuf := fasthttp.AppendUint(nil, 1234)
FAQ
-
Why creating yet another http package instead of optimizing net/http?
Because net/http API limits many optimization opportunities.
For example:
- net/http Request object lifetime isn't limited by request handler execution
time. So the server must create new request object per each request instead
of reusing existing objects like fasthttp do.
- net/http headers are stored in a
map[string][]string
. So the server
must parse all the headers, convert them from []byte
to string
and put
them into the map before calling user-provided request handler.
This all requires unnesessary memory allocations avoided by fasthttp. - net/http client API requires creating new response object per each request.
-
Why fasthttp API is incompatible with net/http?
Because net/http API limits many optimization opportunities. See the answer
above for more details. Also certain net/http API parts are suboptimal
for use:
-
Why fasthttp doesn't support HTTP/2.0 and WebSockets?
There are plans for adding HTTP/2.0 and WebSockets support
in the future.
In the mean time, third parties may use RequestCtx.Hijack
for implementing these goodies. See the first third-party websocket implementation on the top of fasthttp.
-
Are there known net/http advantages comparing to fasthttp?
Yes:
- net/http supports HTTP/2.0 starting from go1.6.
- net/http API is stable, while fasthttp API constantly evolves.
- net/http handles more HTTP corner cases.
- net/http should contain less bugs, since it is used and tested by much
wider audience.
- Many existing web frameworks and request routers are built on top
of net/http.
- net/http works on Go older than 1.5.
-
Which GO versions are supported by fasthttp?
Go1.5+. Older versions won't be supported, since their standard package
miss useful functions.
-
Please provide real benchmark data and sever information
See this issue.
-
Are there plans to add request routing to fasthttp?
There are no plans to add request routing into fasthttp. I believe request
routing must be implemented in a separate package(s) like
httprouter.
Try fasthttprouter,
httprouter fork for fasthttp.
See also this issue for more info.
-
I detected data race in fasthttp!
Cool! File a bug. But before
doing this check the following in your code: