Runtime Parameters Estimator

Use this tool to measure the running time of elementary runtime operations that have associated fees.

1. Run the estimator

   cargo run --release --package runtime-params-estimator --features required --bin runtime-params-estimator -- --accounts-num 20000 --additional-accounts-num 200000 --iters 1 --warmup-iters 1 --metric time

   With the given parameters above estimator will run relatively fast. Note the --metric time flag: it instructs the estimator to use wall-clock time for estimation, which is quick, but highly variable between runs and physical machines. To get more robust estimates, use these arguments:

   --accounts-num 20000 --additional-accounts-num 200000 --iters 1 --warmup-iters 1 \
     --docker --metric icount

   This will run and build the estimator inside a docker container, using QEMU to precisely count the number of executed instructions.

   We will be using different parameters to do the actual parameter estimation. The instructions in emu-cost/README.md should be followed to get the real data.

2. The result of the estimator run is the costs-$timestamp$.txt file, which contains human-readable representation of the costs. It can be compared with costs.txt file in the repository, which contains the current costs we are using. Note that, at the moment, costs.txt is not the source of truth. Rather, the costs are hard-codded in the Default impl for RuntimeConfig. You can run cargo run --package runtime-params-estimator --bin runtime-params-estimator -- --costs-file costs.txt to convert cost table into RuntimeConfig.

Note, if you use the plotting functionality you would need to install gnuplot to see the graphs.