Why is threads usage getting increased with Network IO in golang?

Question

I had created a test program to check my understanding of how Golang handles Network IO. The below program creates 1000 goroutines and in each goroutine, it will make a Network IO request.

When I tried to monitor the number of threads getting used, it goes up to 400 Threads. I had used the top command to monitor, My understanding is for network io Golang uses netpoll(i.e async io).

Please correct me if my understanding is wrong.

OS: macos high sierra

Go version: go1.11.2 darwin/amd64

package main

import (
    "encoding/json"
    "log"
    "net/http"
    "sync"
    "time"
)

func main() {
    timeout := time.Duration(5 * time.Second)
    client := http.Client{
        Timeout: timeout,
    }
    var wg sync.WaitGroup

    start := time.Now()
    for i := 0; i < 1000; i++ {
        wg.Add(1)
        go callAPI(&wg, client)
    }
    wg.Wait()
    log.Println(time.Since(start))
}

func callAPI(wg *sync.WaitGroup, client http.Client) {
    defer wg.Done()
    url := `JSON-API-URL-OF-YOUR-CHOICE` // Please enter a valid json api url.
    request, err := http.NewRequest("GET", url, nil)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalln(err)
    }

    resp, err := client.Do(request)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalln(err)
    }

    var result map[string]interface{}
    json.NewDecoder(resp.Body).Decode(&result)
    defer resp.Body.Close()

    log.Println(result)
}

When you say: "When I tried to monitor the number of threads getting used, it goes up to 400 Threads"..... Do you mean 400 Goroutines or 400 OS threads? — overexchange
– overexchange, Commented Mar 22, 2024 at 1:11

Adrian · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-31 14:34:44Z

4

When a thread is blocked on a system IO call, Go may create a new thread to allow other goroutines to continue to run. This has a good explanation: https://povilasv.me/go-scheduler/:

Interesting things happen when your goroutine makes a blocking syscall. Blocking syscall will be intercepted, if there are Gs to run, runtime will detach the thread from the P and create a new OS thread (if idle thread doesn’t exist) to service that processor.

So, instead of having a handful of threads and utilizing 0% of your CPU because all the threads are tied up waiting on a blocking syscall to return, instead it sets those threads aside and spins up new threads so non-blocked goroutines can do their work while it waits for the blocking syscall(s) to return.

answered Dec 31, 2018 at 14:34

Adrian

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2 Comments

Madhu Sudhan Reddy Over a year ago

If the number of blocking calls is increased there is a chance of the application crash due to lack of system resources right? how to avoid such situations.

Adrian Over a year ago

If you use too much memory there is a chance the app will crash due to being unable to allocate requested memory. To avoid that, use less memory or run on a system with more memory.

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