This directory holds Nim micro/stress benchmarks. Neither is part of `nimble test`.
-`bench_codec.nim` — `cbor` vs `c` (cwire) wire-format codec microbenchmark (documented below). Pure measurement, not a gate.
-`bench_ffi_submit.nim` — concurrent-submit stress test + throughput benchmark for `sendRequestToFFIThread` (documented next). Carries a **scaling gate** that fails CI until the per-request submit lock is replaced.
`bench_ffi_submit.nim` motivates [issue #90](https://github.com/logos-messaging/nim-ffi/issues/90): every foreign-thread call serialises the whole `trySend + reqSignal.fireSync + reqReceivedSignal.waitSync` cycle under a single `ctx.lock`. The lock is load-bearing because `reqChannel` is single-slot and the accept handshake waits on a *shared*`reqReceivedSignal`, so producers cannot overlap.
The bench fans **K producer threads (1 → 8)** at one context, each firing the same per-thread volume of no-op requests. It times the **submit phase only** — from the start gate until every producer returns from its last `sendRequestToFFIThread` — because that is the path the fix parallelises; completion is bounded by the single FFI thread and deliberately excluded. Each thread count runs `FFI_SUBMIT_ITERS` times (default 5) and the **median** submit/sec is reported, so run-to-run noise can't move the verdict.
It is also a correctness stress test: the aggregate callback count must match the submit count **exactly** (no drops or double-fires), with zero submit errors and (under asan/lsan/tsan) zero leaks or races.
```sh
nimble bench_ffi_submit
# smaller / faster (handy under sanitizers — they distort timing, so disable the gate):
Env knobs: `FFI_SUBMIT_PER_THREAD` (volume per producer, default 20000), `FFI_SUBMIT_ITERS` (median sample count, default 5), `FFI_SCALING_GATE` (default `1`; set `0` to report numbers without failing).
### Scaling gate — red until the lock is replaced
By default the bench **fails** (non-zero exit) unless submit throughput at 8 threads is at least `1.5x` the 1-thread rate. This is a forcing function: it cannot pass while `sendRequestToFFIThread` holds `ctx.lock` across the synchronous `reqReceivedSignal` accept, because that serialises every submit no matter how many producers run.
Baseline measured 2026-06-24 (16-core Linux, orc, `-d:danger`, median of 5): submit scaling held at **0.98–1.16x** across threads — flat, as the lock dictates. `1.5x` sits above that noise ceiling (so the lock-bound code fails reliably) and well below the `>=2x` that parallel lock-free MPSC ingress yields on any multicore host (so the fix clears it with margin). Once it lands and this turns green, keep the gate as a regression guard.
The gate runs in the non-sanitized **Submit Scaling Gate** CI job (`.github/workflows/ci.yml`); the sanitized jobs run the same bench with `FFI_SCALING_GATE=0` for leak/race coverage only, since sanitizer instrumentation makes throughput scaling meaningless.
