fork_vs_thread/pi_digits_benchmark/README.md

Pi Digits Benchmark

This benchmark compares pthread-based parallelism and fork()-based parallelism for computing digits of pi in independent chunks.

Configuration (environment variables)

• THREAD_COUNT : number of worker threads
• PROCESS_COUNT : number of worker processes
• PI_DIGITS : total digits of pi to compute
• CHUNK_SIZE : digits per worker

Defaults: THREAD_COUNT=4, PROCESS_COUNT=4, PI_DIGITS=2000, CHUNK_SIZE=500

Run

# Run both modes sequentially
bash run_pi_digits_benchmark.sh

# Run a single mode
bash run_pi_digits_benchmark.sh thread
bash run_pi_digits_benchmark.sh process

Outputs

Per-run outputs are stored under runs/:

• pi_digits.txt — final concatenated digits
• workers.csv — per-worker durations and chunk metadata
• results.csv — per-run summary metrics (includes aggregated RSS/VSZ and snapshot overhead)
• stdout.log / stderr.log — benchmark logs