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rstudio::global 2021 programming
Introducing xrprof: A New Way to Profile R
January 21, 2021
Tracking down performance issues in R code usually means using R's built-in Rprof() profiler or one of the packages built around it. But the changing nature of the R community (towards more deployed applications) makes local profiling workflows frustrating, which is why I have written a new profiler: xrprof.
xprof is compatible with existing R tools, but unlike them it can be used to profile R code that is already running -- in fact, it is designed to be safe to point at R code running ""in production"". xrprof also works seamlessly when R is run inside Docker, and can even be run in complex environments like Kubernetes clusters.
Taking inspiration from the {jointprof} package, xrprof can also show function calls at the C/C++ level alongside those from R. This can be immensely useful for diagnosing problems in packages that make heavy use of compiled code.
Aaron Jacobs, Neal Richardson, Manuel Rivera, Winston Chang, and Barret Schloerke Q&A
Aaron Jacobs, Barret Schloerke, and Winston Chang Q&A
Aaron Jacobs is a Senior Data Scientist on the R&D team at Crescendo, a technology company in the sports betting space with a large internal R ecosystem. Prior to Crescendo he worked in Canadian public policy research. Aaron has a strong interest in the engineering side of data science and the emerging use of R “in production”. He is the author of several CRAN and GitHub packages, as well as xrprof – a new R profiling tool.
