Unleash the Power of BenchmarkDotNet: Customizing Assemblies for Test Environment

Are you tired of dealing with unnecessary assemblies cluttering your test environment? Do you want to take control of what gets copied and what doesn’t? Look no further! In this article, we’ll dive into the world of BenchmarkDotNet and explore how to customize the set of assemblies copied to the test environment folder prior to running the benchmark.

Why Customize Assemblies?

By default, BenchmarkDotNet copies all referenced assemblies to the test environment folder. While this might seem convenient, it can lead to:

• Performance issues due to unnecessary assemblies being loaded
• Version conflicts between dependencies
• A cluttered test environment making it harder to debug issues

Customizing the set of assemblies copied to the test environment allows you to:

• Optimize performance by only loading required assemblies
• Ensure compatibility by specifying exact versions of dependencies
• Keep your test environment tidy and organized

Step 1: Understanding the Basics of BenchmarkDotNet

BenchmarkDotNet is a popular .NET library for benchmarking .NET applications. It provides a simple and intuitive way to write benchmarks, allowing you to measure the performance of your code and identify areas for optimization.

To get started with BenchmarkDotNet, you’ll need to:

1. Install the BenchmarkDotNet NuGet package in your project
2. Create a benchmark class with methods annotated with the [Benchmark] attribute
3. Run the benchmarks using the dotnet benchmark command

Step 2: Customizing Assemblies using the AssemblyResolver

The secret to customizing assemblies lies in the AssemblyResolver class. This class is responsible for resolving assemblies during the benchmarking process. By creating a custom implementation of AssemblyResolver, you can control which assemblies are copied to the test environment folder.

public class CustomAssemblyResolver : AssemblyResolver
{
    public override IReadOnlyList<Assembly> ResolveAssemblies( BenchmarkAssembly benchmarkAssembly)
    {
        // Customize assembly resolution logic here
        return base.ResolveAssemblies(benchmarkAssembly);
    }
}

In this example, we’ve created a CustomAssemblyResolver class that inherits from the AssemblyResolver class. The ResolveAssemblies method is where the magic happens. This method is responsible for resolving the list of assemblies required for the benchmark.

Assembly Resolution Strategies

There are two common strategies for customizing assembly resolution:

Strategy	Description
Whitelist	Specify a list of allowed assemblies, and only those will be copied to the test environment folder
Blacklist	Specify a list of disallowed assemblies, and all other assemblies will be copied to the test environment folder

Let’s implement a simple whitelist strategy:

public class CustomAssemblyResolver : AssemblyResolver
{
    private readonly string[] _allowedAssemblies = new[] { "MyAssembly", "AnotherAssembly" };

    public override IReadOnlyList<Assembly> ResolveAssemblies( BenchmarkAssembly benchmarkAssembly)
    {
        var assemblies = new List<Assembly>();

        foreach (var assembly in benchmarkAssembly.assemblies)
        {
            if (_allowedAssemblies.Contains(assembly.GetName().Name))
            {
                assemblies.Add(assembly);
            }
        }

        return assemblies;
    }
}

In this example, we’ve created a whitelist of allowed assemblies using a string array. We then iterate through the list of assemblies provided by the BenchmarkAssembly and add only the allowed assemblies to the list of resolved assemblies.

Step 3: Configuring BenchmarkDotNet to Use the Custom Assembly Resolver

To use the custom assembly resolver with BenchmarkDotNet, you’ll need to configure the BenchmarkConfig class:

public class MyBenchmarkConfig : ManualConfig
{
    public MyBenchmarkConfig()
    {
        AddResolver(new CustomAssemblyResolver());
    }
}

In this example, we’ve created a custom BenchmarkConfig class that inherits from the ManualConfig class. We then add an instance of our custom assembly resolver to the config using the AddResolver method.

Running the Benchmark with Custom Assembly Resolver

With the custom assembly resolver configured, you can run the benchmark using the dotnet benchmark command:

dotnet benchmark -c Release -f netcoreapp3.1 -m MyBenchmarkConfig

BenchmarkDotNet will now use the custom assembly resolver to resolve assemblies, copying only the allowed assemblies to the test environment folder.

Conclusion

Customizing the set of assemblies copied to the test environment folder with BenchmarkDotNet is a powerful feature that can help you optimize performance, ensure compatibility, and keep your test environment organized. By implementing a custom assembly resolver and configuring BenchmarkDotNet to use it, you can take control of the benchmarking process and ensure that only the necessary assemblies are loaded.

Remember to experiment with different assembly resolution strategies and customize the approach to fit your specific needs. Happy benchmarking!

Keywords: BenchmarkDotNet, Custom Assembly Resolver, Test Environment, Performance Optimization, .NET Benchmarking

Frequently Asked Question

BenchmarkDotNet is an amazing tool for benchmarking .NET code, but have you ever wondered how to customize the set of assemblies copied to the test environment folder before running the benchmark?