perf-test: initial version of memory test infrastructure.

The idea is run some code under valgrind --leak-check=full and report
a summary, leaving the user to peruse the log file if they want.

We go to some lengths to preserve the log files from accidental
overwriting; the full corpus takes about 3 hours to run under valgrind
on my machine.

The naming of the log directories may be slightly controversial; in
the unlikely event of two runs in less than a second, the log will be
overwritten. A previous version with mktemp+timestamp was dismissed as
overkill; just mktemp alone does not sort nicely.

One new test is included, to check notmuch new for memory leaks.

1 files changed, 39 insertions, 18 deletions

diff --git a/performance-test/README b/performance-test/README
index d1fb6de4..996724cd 100644
--- a/performance-test/README
+++ b/performance-test/README
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+Performance Tests
+-----------------
+
+This directory contains two kinds of performance tests: time tests,
+and memory tests. The former use gnu time, and the latter use
+valgrind.
+
 Pre-requisites
 --------------
 
@@ -5,9 +12,10 @@ In addition to having notmuch, you need:
 
 - gpg
 - gnu tar
-- gnu time
+- gnu time (for the time tests)
 - xz. Some speedup can be gotten by installing "pixz", but this is
   probably only worthwhile if you are debugging the tests.
+- valgrind (for the memory tests)
 
 Getting set up to run tests:
 ----------------------------
@@ -36,34 +44,47 @@ for a list of mirrors.
 Running tests
 -------------
 
-The easiest way to run performance tests is to say "make time-test", (or
-simply run the notmuch-time-test script). Either command will run all
-available performance tests.
-
-Alternately, you can run a specific subset of tests by simply invoking
-one of the executable scripts in this directory, (such as ./basic).
-Each test script supports the following arguments
+The easiest way to run performance tests is to say "make perf-test".
+This will run all time and memory tests.  Be aware that the memory
+tests are quite time consuming when run on the full corpus, and that
+depending on your interests it may be more sensible to run "make
+time-test" or "make memory-test".  You can also invoke one of the
+scripts notmuch-time-test or notmuch-memory-test or run a more
+specific subset of tests by simply invoking one of the executable
+scripts in this directory, (such as ./T00-new).  Each test script
+supports the following arguments
 
 --small / --medium / --large	Choose corpus size.
 --debug				Enable debugging. In particular don't delete
 				temporary directories.
 
+When using the make targets, you can pass arguments to all test
+scripts by defining the make variable OPTIONS.
+
 Writing tests
 -------------
 
-Have a look at "T01-dump-restore" for an example. Sourcing
-"perf-test-lib.sh" is mandatory.  Utility functions include
+Have a look at "T01-dump-restore" for an example time test and
+"M00-new" for an example memory test. In both cases sourcing
+"perf-test-lib.sh" is mandatory.
 
-- 'add_email_corpus' unpacks a set of messages and adds them to the database.
-- 'cache_database': makes a snapshot of the current database
-- 'uncache_database': forces the next 'add_email_corpus' to rebuild the
-  database.
-- 'time_start' unpacks the mail corpus and calls notmuch new if it
+Basics:
+
+- '(time|memory)_start' unpacks the mail corpus and calls notmuch new if it
    cannot find a cache of the appropriate corpus.
-- 'time_done' does the cleanup; comment it out or pass --debug to the
+- '(time|memory)_run' runs the command under time or valgrind. Currently
+  "memory_run" does not support i/o redirection in the command.
+- '(time|memory)_done' does the cleanup; comment it out or pass --debug to the
   script to leave the temporary files around.
 
+Utility functions include
+
+- 'add_email_corpus' unpacks a set of messages and tags
+- 'cache_database': makes a snapshot of the current database
+- 'uncache_database': forces the next '(time|memory)_start' to rebuild the
+  database.
+
 Scripts are run in the order specified in notmuch-perf-test. In the
 future this order might be chosen automatically so please follow the
-convention of starting the name with 'T' followed by two digits to
-specify the order.
+convention of starting the name with 'T' or 'M' followed by two digits
+to specify the order.