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01 : Building a Simple GraalVM Native Image

Estimated time: 15 minutes

References:

• Native Image : Build a Native Image

Overview

GraalVM native image can process your application compiling it ahead of time into a standalone executable.

Some of the benefits you get from it are:

• Small standalone distribution, not requiring a JDK
• Instant Startup
• Lower memory footprint

Let's take a look...

Creating a Micronaut Application

We'll create a Micronaut application to compute sequences of prime numbers & then we will see how we can easily create a fast starting Native Image form this Java application.

First, let's make sure that we have (and they are the latest versions) the tools we need:

• Micronaut (Install Micronaut using SDKMan), version 2.3.0
• GraalVM EE, 21.0.0

# Check Micronaut version
mn --version
Micronaut Version: 2.3.0

# Check Java version
java --version
java version "11.0.10" 2021-01-19 LTS
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment GraalVM EE 21.0.0 (build 11.0.10+8-LTS-jvmci-21.0-b06)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM GraalVM EE 21.0.0 (build 11.0.10+8-LTS-jvmci-21.0-b06, mixed mode, sharing)

# Check that we have Native Image installed as well
native-image --version
GraalVM Version 21.0.0 EE (Java Version 11.0.10+8-LTS-jvmci-21.0-b06)

Now, create the application using Micronaut!

mn create-cli-app primes; cd primes

Adding Functionality to Our App

Create and edit the src/main/java/primes/PrimesComputer.java file:

package primes;

import javax.inject.Singleton;
import java.util.stream.*;
import java.util.*;

@Singleton
public class PrimesComputer {
    private Random r = new Random(41);

    public List<Long> random(int upperbound) {
        int to = 2 + r.nextInt(upperbound - 2);
        int from = 1 + r.nextInt(to - 1);
        return primeSequence(from, to);
    }

    public static List<Long> primeSequence(long min, long max) {
        return LongStream.range(min, max)
            .filter(PrimesComputer::isPrime)
            .boxed()
            .collect(Collectors.toList());
    }
    
    /**
     * If n is not a prime, then n = a * b (some a & b)
     * Both a and b can't be larger than sqrt(n), or the product of them would be greater than n
     * One of the factors has to be smaller than sqrt(n).
     * So, if we don't find any factors by the time we get to sqrt(n), then n must be prime
     */
    public static boolean isPrime(long n) {
        return LongStream.rangeClosed(2, (long) Math.sqrt(n))
                .allMatch(i -> n % i != 0);
    }
}

Edit the src/main/java/primes/PrimesCommand.java file:

package primes;

import io.micronaut.configuration.picocli.PicocliRunner;
import io.micronaut.context.ApplicationContext;
import picocli.CommandLine;
import picocli.CommandLine.Command;
import picocli.CommandLine.Option;
import picocli.CommandLine.Parameters;
import javax.inject.*;
import java.util.*;

@Command(name = "primes", description = "...",
        mixinStandardHelpOptions = true)
public class PrimesCommand implements Runnable {
    @Option(names = {"-n", "--n-iterations"}, description = "How many iterations to run")
    int n;

    @Option(names = {"-l", "--limit"}, description = "Upper limit for the sequence")
    int l;

    @Inject
    PrimesComputer primesComputer;

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        PicocliRunner.run(PrimesCommand.class, args);
    }

    public void run() {
        for(int i =0; i < n; i++) {
            List<Long> result = primesComputer.random(l);
            System.out.println(result);
        }
    }
}

Remove the tests because we changed the functionality of the main command:

rm src/test/java/primes/PrimesCommandTest.java

Build the Java Application

Now we can build this Micronaut project to get the jar file with our functionality:

./gradlew build

Test the application that it prints the prime numbers:

java -jar build/libs/primes-0.1-all.jar -n 1 -l 100
[53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73]

Build a Native Image

Now you can build the native image too:

./gradlew nativeImage

Micronaut includes a Gradle plugin to invoke the native-image utility and configure its execution.

You can find the resulting executable in build/native-image/application.

Let's take a look at the Native App

Inspect it with the ldd utility and check that it's linked to the OS libraries.

# On linux
ldd build/native-image/application

If you are on a mac, then you will need to use the otool, as below:

# On OsX
otool -L build/native-image/application

Take a look at its file type:

file build/native-image/application

Comparing the Startup Time & Performance of JIT & Native Image

If you have GNU time utility (brew install gnu-time on Macos), you can time the execution and the memory usage of the process. Compare the following:

/usr/bin/time -v java -jar build/libs/primes-0.1-all.jar -n 1 -l 100

vs.

/usr/bin/time -v build/native-image/application -n 1 -l 100

Next, we'll try to explore some more options how to configure the build process for native images.

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