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GeezerVison is showing github.com — build,src,crypto: improve startup performance by avivkeller · Pull Request #65549 · nodejs/node

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@avivkeller

@avivkeller avivkeller commented Aug 25, 2026 •
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(I can split these into separate PRs if needed, but I figured a single PR with separate commits would be sufficient since the changes are related: ce94bb8 made me think about 2dffdbf, which in turn relied on a1ba046.)

In order of commits, this:

  • Avoids atexit(), since it's slow (dladdr() performs an expensive linear scan of the executable's symbol table)
  • Lazily-loads well-known Crypto ciphers
  • Once again avoids atexit(), this time in OpenSSL.

On my mac, improves startups by ~15%:

$ hyperfine --warmup 25 --runs 100 'node -e "0"' './node -e "0"'

Benchmark 1: node -e "0"
  Time (mean ± σ):      39.3 ms ±   2.2 ms    [User: 31.6 ms, System: 6.4 ms]
  Range (min … max):    36.5 ms …  55.0 ms    100 runs
 
  Warning: Statistical outliers were detected. Consider re-running this benchmark on a quiet system without any interferences from other programs. It might help to use the '--warmup' or '--prepare' options.
 
Benchmark 2: ./node -e "0"
  Time (mean ± σ):      34.2 ms ±   2.1 ms    [User: 26.4 ms, System: 6.4 ms]
  Range (min … max):    32.4 ms …  49.3 ms    100 runs
 
  Warning: Statistical outliers were detected. Consider re-running this benchmark on a quiet system without any interferences from other programs. It might help to use the '--warmup' or '--prepare' options.
 
Summary
  ./node -e "0" ran
    1.15 ± 0.10 times faster than node -e "0"

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@avivkeller avivkeller added performance Issues and PRs related to the performance of Node.js. commit-queue-rebase PRs the Commit Queue should land as multiple self-contained commits. labels Aug 25, 2026
@nodejs-github-bot

nodejs-github-bot commented Aug 25, 2026

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Review requested:

  • @nodejs/crypto
  • @nodejs/gyp
  • @nodejs/security-wg
  • @nodejs/startup
  • @nodejs/v8-update
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@nodejs-github-bot nodejs-github-bot added lib / src Issues and PRs involving general changes in the lib/ or src/ directories. needs-ci PRs that need a full CI run. labels Aug 25, 2026
avivkeller added 3 commits August 25, 2026 15:04
@avivkeller
src: avoid atexit() for ResetStdio
ce94bb8 
atexit() calls dladdr() to find the image that
owns the callback. dladdr() performs an expensive
linear scan of the executable's symbol
table, so we now avoid it entirely.

Signed-off-by: Aviv Keller <[email protected]>
@avivkeller
crypto: resolve ciphers lazily
a1ba046 
The Cipher::AES_* and Cipher::CHACHA20_POLY1305
constants were initialized by static initializers
while the executable is still being loaded.

Lazily-load them now, so they are only init'd on
first use.

Signed-off-by: Aviv Keller <[email protected]>
@avivkeller
src: do not register OpenSSL's atexit() handler
2dffdbf 
Now that crypto no longer initializes OpenSSL
from a static initalizer (see previous commit),
nothing requires OpenSSL to be torn down at process
exit. As mentioned in an earlier commit, `atexit`
is expensive, so we now once again avoid it.

Signed-off-by: Aviv Keller <[email protected]>
@avivkeller
avivkeller force-pushed the startup-perf branch from 78b0626 to 2dffdbf Compare August 25, 2026 19:04
@jasnell

jasnell commented Aug 25, 2026

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Please separate out the crypto ones into a separate PR and coordinate with @panva ... he has some other edits that may conflict.
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@panva

panva commented Aug 25, 2026 •
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a1ba046 conflicts with #65484, please hold off updating crypto until those changes land.
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@avivkeller
avivkeller marked this pull request as draft August 25, 2026 19:07
@panva

panva commented Aug 25, 2026

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Thank you
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@codecov

codecov Bot commented Aug 25, 2026

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Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 78.57143% with 3 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 90.11%. Comparing base (ce40aa2) to head (2dffdbf).
⚠️ Report is 3 commits behind head on main.

Files with missing lines Patch % Lines
src/crypto/crypto_context.cc 77.77% 0 Missing and 2 partials ⚠️
src/node.cc 75.00% 0 Missing and 1 partial ⚠️
Additional details and impacted files 
@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main   #65549      +/-   ##
==========================================
- Coverage   90.14%   90.11%   -0.03%     
==========================================
  Files         751      751              
  Lines      253635   253645      +10     
  Branches    47793    47786       -7     
==========================================
- Hits       228632   228574      -58     
- Misses      16249    16315      +66     
- Partials     8754     8756       +2
Files with missing lines Coverage Δ
src/crypto/crypto_aes.h 33.33% <ø> (ø)
src/crypto/crypto_chacha20_poly1305.cc 52.27% <100.00%> (ø)
src/node.cc 76.58% <75.00%> (-0.07%) ⬇️
src/crypto/crypto_context.cc 71.75% <77.77%> (+0.08%) ⬆️

... and 38 files with indirect coverage changes

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@panva

panva commented Aug 27, 2026

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@avivkeller #65484 is in, i guess you're good to go
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anonrig
anonrig approved these changes Aug 30, 2026
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mertcanaltin
mertcanaltin approved these changes Sep 23, 2026
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@mertcanaltin

mertcanaltin commented Sep 23, 2026 •
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Hi @avivkeller , could you rebase this pr? I guess after we can merge.
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@daniellockyer

daniellockyer commented Oct 8, 2026

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Funnily enough, I just independently discovered the atexit win and then found this PR. So I'd love to see this land 🙂
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@anonrig anonrig anonrig approved these changes
+1 more reviewer
@mertcanaltin mertcanaltin mertcanaltin approved these changes
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commit-queue-rebase PRs the Commit Queue should land as multiple self-contained commits. lib / src Issues and PRs involving general changes in the lib/ or src/ directories. needs-ci PRs that need a full CI run. performance Issues and PRs related to the performance of Node.js.

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@avivkeller @nodejs-github-bot @jasnell @panva @mertcanaltin @daniellockyer @anonrig
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