Memory profiling of http.rb and other popular Ruby HTTP client libraries

.ruby-version

2.6.6

app.ru

# Run with `rackup app.ru`

require "roda"

Roda.route do |r|
  r.post "upload" do
    "Success"
  end

  r.get "download" do
    "a" * 10*1024*1024 # 10 MB
  end
end

run Roda.app

common.rb

require "http"
require "net/http"
require "rest-client"
require "httparty"
require 'patron'
require 'typhoeus'
def profile(name)
  memory_before = `ps -p #{Process::pid} -o rss`.split("\n")[1].chomp.to_i
  result = yield
  memory_after = `ps -p #{Process::pid} -o rss`.split("\n")[1].chomp.to_i

  total_memory = memory_after - memory_before
  puts "#{name}: #{"%.2f" % (total_memory.to_f / 1024)} MB"

  result
end

GC.disable

download.rb

require_relative "common"

url = "http://localhost:9292/download"

profile("http.rb") do
  response = HTTP.post(url)
  response.body.each { |chunk| chunk.clear }
end

profile("Net::HTTP") do
  uri = URI.parse(url)
  Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port) do |http|
    http.request_get(uri.request_uri) do |response|
      response.read_body { |chunk| chunk.clear }
    end
  end
end

profile("RestClient") do
  RestClient::Request.execute(
    method: :get,
    url: url,
    block_response: -> (response) { response.read_body { |chunk| chunk.clear } })
end

profile("HTTParty") do
  HTTParty.get(url, stream_body: true) { |chunk| chunk.clear }
end

profile("Patron") do
  sess = Patron::Session.new
  sess.timeout = 10
  sess.base_url = "http://localhost:9292"
  sess.headers['User-Agent'] = 'myapp/1.0'
  resp = sess.get("/download")
  if resp.status < 400
    resp.body
  end
end

profile("Typhoeus") do
  # request = Typhoeus::Request.new(url)
  Typhoeus.get(url)
  # request.run
end
# Results (download)
# ==================
#
# http.rb: 0.17 MB
# Net::HTTP: 0.04 MB
# RestClient: 0.01 MB
# HTTParty: 10.47 MB
# Patron: 24.09 MB
# Typhoeus: 20.46 MB

Gemfile

source "https://rubygems.org"

gem "roda"
gem "http", "~> 3.3"
gem "rest-client"
gem "httparty"
gem 'patron'
gem "typhoeus"

upload.rb

require_relative "common"
require "tempfile"

tempfile = Tempfile.new
tempfile.write "a" * 10*1024*1024 # 10 MB
tempfile.rewind

path = tempfile.path
url  = "http://localhost:9292/upload"

profile("http.rb") do
  HTTP.post(url, form: { file: HTTP::FormData::File.new(path) })
end

profile("Net::HTTP") do
  uri = URI.parse(url)
  Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port) do |http|
    post = Net::HTTP::Post.new(uri.request_uri)
    post.set_form({ "file" => File.open(path) }, "multipart/form-data")

    http.request(post)
  end
end

profile("RestClient") do
  RestClient.post(url, file: File.open(path))
end

profile("HTTParty") do
  HTTParty.post(url, body: { file: tempfile })
end

profile("Patron") do
  sess = Patron::Session.new
  sess.timeout = 10
  sess.post(url, { file: tempfile })
end

profile("Typhoeus") do 
  Typhoeus.post(
    url,
    body: {
      file: tempfile
    }
  )
end

# Results (upload)
# ================
#
# http.rb: 0.36 MB
# Net::HTTP: 0.05 MB
# RestClient: 9.02 MB
# HTTParty: 40.04 MB
# Patron: 0.05 MB
# Typhoeus: 0.11 MB