字符串压缩（一）之ZSTD

前言

　　最近项目上有大量的字符串数据需要存储到内存，并且需要储存至一定时间，于是自然而然的想到了使用字符串压缩算法对“源串”进行压缩存储。由此触发了对一些优秀压缩算法的调研。
　　字符串压缩，我们通常的需求有几个，一是高压缩率，二是压缩速率高，三是解压速率高。不过高压缩率与高压缩速率是鱼和熊掌的关系，不可皆得，优秀的算法一般也是采用压缩率与性能折中的方案。从压缩率、压缩速率、解压速率考虑，zstd与lz4有较好的压缩与解压性能，最终选取zstd与lz4进行调研。

　　zstd是facebook开源的提供高压缩比的快速压缩算法（参考https://github.com/facebook/zstd），很想了解一下它在压缩与解压方面的实际表现。

一、zstd压缩与解压

　　ZSTD_compress属于ZSTD的Simple API范畴，只有压缩级别可以设置。

　　ZSTD_compress函数原型如下：

　　size_t ZSTD_compress(void* dst, size_t dstCapacity, const void* src, size_t srcSize, int compressionLevel)

　　ZSTD_decompress函数原型如下：
　　size_t ZSTD_decompress( void* dst, size_t dstCapacity, const void* src, size_t compressedSize);

　　我们先来看看zstd的压缩与解压缩示例。

 1 #include <stdio.h>
 2 #include <string.h>
 3 #include <sys/time.h>
 4 #include <malloc.h>
 5 #include <zstd.h>
 6 #include <iostream>
 7
 8 using namespace std;
 9
10 int main()
11 {
12     // compress
13     size_t com_space_size;
14     size_t peppa_pig_text_size;
15
16     char *com_ptr = NULL;
17     char peppa_pig_buf[2048] = "Narrator: It is raining today. So, Peppa and George cannot play outside.Peppa: Daddy, it's stopped raining. Can we go out to play?Daddy: Alright, run along you two.Narrator: Peppa loves jumping in muddy puddles.Peppa: I love muddy puddles.Mummy: Peppa. If you jumping in muddy puddles, you must wear your boots.Peppa: Sorry, Mummy.Narrator: George likes to jump in muddy puddles, too.Peppa: George. If you jump in muddy puddles, you must wear your boots.Narrator: Peppa likes to look after her little brother, George.Peppa: George, let's find some more pud dles.Narrator: Peppa and George are having a lot of fun. Peppa has found a lttle puddle. George hasfound a big puddle.Peppa: Look, George. There's a really big puddle.Narrator: George wants to jump into the big puddle first.Peppa: Stop, George. | must check if it's safe for you. Good. It is safe for you. Sorry, George. It'sonly mud.Narrator: Peppa and George love jumping in muddy puddles.Peppa: Come on, George. Let's go and show Daddy.Daddy: Goodness me.Peppa: Daddy. Daddy. Guess what we' ve been doing.Daddy: Let me think... Have you been wa tching television?Peppa: No. No. Daddy.Daddy: Have you just had a bath?Peppa: No. No.Daddy: | know. You've been jumping in muddy puddles.Peppa: Yes. Yes. Daddy. We've been jumping in muddy puddles.Daddy: Ho. Ho. And look at the mess you're in.Peppa: Oooh....Daddy: Oh, well, it's only mud. Let's clean up quickly before Mummy sees the mess.Peppa: Daddy, when we've cleaned up, will you and Mummy Come and play, too?Daddy: Yes, we can all play in the garden.Narrator: Peppa and George are wearing their boots. Mummy and Daddy are wearing their boots.Peppa loves jumping up and down in muddy puddles. Everyone loves jumping up and down inmuddy puddles.Mummy: Oh, Daddy pig, look at the mess you're in. .Peppa: It's only mud.";
18
19     peppa_pig_text_size = strlen(peppa_pig_buf);
20     com_space_size= ZSTD_compressBound(peppa_pig_text_size);
21     com_ptr = (char *)malloc(com_space_size);
22     if(NULL == com_ptr) {
23         cout << "compress malloc failed" << endl;
24         return -1;
25     }
26
27     size_t com_size;
28     com_size = ZSTD_compress(com_ptr, com_space_size, peppa_pig_buf, peppa_pig_text_size, ZSTD_fast);
29     cout << "peppa pig text size:" << peppa_pig_text_size << endl;
30     cout << "compress text size:" << com_size << endl;
31     cout << "compress ratio:" << (float)peppa_pig_text_size / (float)com_size << endl << endl;
32
33
34     // decompress
35     char* decom_ptr = NULL;
36     unsigned long long decom_buf_size;
37     decom_buf_size = ZSTD_getFrameContentSize(com_ptr, com_size);
38
39     decom_ptr = (char *)malloc((size_t)decom_buf_size);
40     if(NULL == decom_ptr) {
41         cout << "decompress malloc failed" << endl;
42         return -1;
43     }
44
45     size_t decom_size;
46     decom_size = ZSTD_decompress(decom_ptr, decom_buf_size, com_ptr, com_size);
47     cout << "decompress text size:" << decom_size << endl;
48
49     if(strncmp(peppa_pig_buf, decom_ptr, peppa_pig_text_size)) {
50         cout << "decompress text is not equal peppa pig text" << endl;
51     }
52
53     free(com_ptr);
54     free(decom_ptr);
55     return 0;
56 }

执行结果：

　　从结果可以发现，压缩之前的peppa pig文本长度为1827，压缩后的文本长度为759，压缩率为2.4，解压后的长度与压缩前相等。

　　另外，上文提到可以调整ZSTD_compress函数的压缩级别，zstd的默认级别为ZSTD_CLEVEL_DEFAULT = 3，最小值为0，最大值为ZSTD_MAX_CLEVEL = 22。另外也提供一些策略设置，例如 ZSTD_fast, ZSTD_greedy, ZSTD_lazy, ZSTD_lazy2, ZSTD_btlazy2。压缩级别越高，压缩率越高，但是压缩速率越低。

二、ZSTD压缩与解压性能探索

　　上面探索了zstd的基础压缩与解压方法，接下来再摸索一下zstd的压缩与解压缩性能。

　　测试方法是，使用ZSTD_compress连续压缩同一段文本并持续10秒，最后得到每一秒的平均压缩速率。测试压缩性能的代码示例如下：

 1 #include <stdio.h>
 2 #include <string.h>
 3 #include <sys/time.h>
 4 #include <malloc.h>
 5 #include <zstd.h>
 6 #include <iostream>
 7
 8 using namespace std;
 9
10 int main()
11 {
12     int cnt = 0;
13
14     size_t com_size;
15     size_t com_space_size;
16     size_t peppa_pig_text_size;
17
18     char *com_ptr = NULL;
19     char peppa_pig_buf[2048] = "Narrator: It is raining today. So, Peppa and George cannot play outside.Peppa: Daddy, it's stopped raining. Can we go out to play?Daddy: Alright, run along you two.Narrator: Peppa loves jumping in muddy puddles.Peppa: I love muddy puddles.Mummy: Peppa. If you jumping in muddy puddles, you must wear your boots.Peppa: Sorry, Mummy.Narrator: George likes to jump in muddy puddles, too.Peppa: George. If you jump in muddy puddles, you must wear your boots.Narrator: Peppa likes to look after her little brother, George.Peppa: George, let's find some more pud dles.Narrator: Peppa and George are having a lot of fun. Peppa has found a lttle puddle. George hasfound a big puddle.Peppa: Look, George. There's a really big puddle.Narrator: George wants to jump into the big puddle first.Peppa: Stop, George. | must check if it's safe for you. Good. It is safe for you. Sorry, George. It'sonly mud.Narrator: Peppa and George love jumping in muddy puddles.Peppa: Come on, George. Let's go and show Daddy.Daddy: Goodness me.Peppa: Daddy. Daddy. Guess what we' ve been doing.Daddy: Let me think... Have you been wa tching television?Peppa: No. No. Daddy.Daddy: Have you just had a bath?Peppa: No. No.Daddy: | know. You've been jumping in muddy puddles.Peppa: Yes. Yes. Daddy. We've been jumping in muddy puddles.Daddy: Ho. Ho. And look at the mess you're in.Peppa: Oooh....Daddy: Oh, well, it's only mud. Let's clean up quickly before Mummy sees the mess.Peppa: Daddy, when we've cleaned up, will you and Mummy Come and play, too?Daddy: Yes, we can all play in the garden.Narrator: Peppa and George are wearing their boots. Mummy and Daddy are wearing their boots.Peppa loves jumping up and down in muddy puddles. Everyone loves jumping up and down inmuddy puddles.Mummy: Oh, Daddy pig, look at the mess you're in. .Peppa: It's only mud.";
20
21     timeval st, et;
22
23     peppa_pig_text_size = strlen(peppa_pig_buf);
24     com_space_size= ZSTD_compressBound(peppa_pig_text_size);
25
26     gettimeofday(&st, NULL);
27     while(1) {
28
29         com_ptr = (char *)malloc(com_space_size);
30         com_size = ZSTD_compress(com_ptr, com_space_size, peppa_pig_buf, peppa_pig_text_size, ZSTD_fast);
31
32         free(com_ptr);
33         cnt++;
34
35         gettimeofday(&et, NULL);
36         if(et.tv_sec - st.tv_sec >= 10) {
37             break;
38         }
39     }
40
41     cout << "comparess per second:" << cnt/10 << " times" << endl;
42     return 0;
43 }

执行结果：

　　结果显示ZSTD的压缩性能大概在每秒6-7万次左右，这个结果其实并不是太理想。需要说明的是压缩性能与待压缩文本的长度、字符内容也是有关系的。

　　我们再来探索一下ZSTD的解压缩性能。与上面的测试方法类似，先对本文进行压缩，然后连续解压同一段被压缩过的数据并持续10秒，最后得到每一秒的平均解压速率。测试解压性能的代码示例如下：

 1 #include <stdio.h>
 2 #include <string.h>
 3 #include <sys/time.h>
 4 #include <malloc.h>
 5 #include <zstd.h>
 6 #include <iostream>
 7
 8 using namespace std;
 9
10 int main()
11 {
12     int cnt = 0;
13
14     size_t com_size;
15     size_t com_space_size;
16     size_t peppa_pig_text_size;
17
18     timeval st, et;
19
20     char *com_ptr = NULL;
21     char peppa_pig_buf[2048] = "Narrator: It is raining today. So, Peppa and George cannot play outside.Peppa: Daddy, it's stopped raining. Can we go out to play?Daddy: Alright, run along you two.Narrator: Peppa loves jumping in muddy puddles.Peppa: I love muddy puddles.Mummy: Peppa. If you jumping in muddy puddles, you must wear your boots.Peppa: Sorry, Mummy.Narrator: George likes to jump in muddy puddles, too.Peppa: George. If you jump in muddy puddles, you must wear your boots.Narrator: Peppa likes to look after her little brother, George.Peppa: George, let's find some more pud dles.Narrator: Peppa and George are having a lot of fun. Peppa has found a lttle puddle. George hasfound a big puddle.Peppa: Look, George. There's a really big puddle.Narrator: George wants to jump into the big puddle first.Peppa: Stop, George. | must check if it's safe for you. Good. It is safe for you. Sorry, George. It'sonly mud.Narrator: Peppa and George love jumping in muddy puddles.Peppa: Come on, George. Let's go and show Daddy.Daddy: Goodness me.Peppa: Daddy. Daddy. Guess what we' ve been doing.Daddy: Let me think... Have you been wa tching television?Peppa: No. No. Daddy.Daddy: Have you just had a bath?Peppa: No. No.Daddy: | know. You've been jumping in muddy puddles.Peppa: Yes. Yes. Daddy. We've been jumping in muddy puddles.Daddy: Ho. Ho. And look at the mess you're in.Peppa: Oooh....Daddy: Oh, well, it's only mud. Let's clean up quickly before Mummy sees the mess.Peppa: Daddy, when we've cleaned up, will you and Mummy Come and play, too?Daddy: Yes, we can all play in the garden.Narrator: Peppa and George are wearing their boots. Mummy and Daddy are wearing their boots.Peppa loves jumping up and down in muddy puddles. Everyone loves jumping up and down inmuddy puddles.Mummy: Oh, Daddy pig, look at the mess you're in. .Peppa: It's only mud.";
22
23     size_t decom_size;
24     char* decom_ptr = NULL;
25     unsigned long long decom_buf_size;
26
27     peppa_pig_text_size = strlen(peppa_pig_buf);
28     com_space_size= ZSTD_compressBound(peppa_pig_text_size);
29     com_ptr = (char *)malloc(com_space_size);
30
31     com_size = ZSTD_compress(com_ptr, com_space_size, peppa_pig_buf, peppa_pig_text_size, 1);
32
33     gettimeofday(&st, NULL);
34     decom_buf_size = ZSTD_getFrameContentSize(com_ptr, com_size);
35
36     while(1) {
37
38         decom_ptr = (char *)malloc((size_t)decom_buf_size);
39
40         decom_size = ZSTD_decompress(decom_ptr, decom_buf_size, com_ptr, com_size);
41         if(decom_size != peppa_pig_text_size) {
42
43             cout << "decompress error" << endl;
44             break;
45         }
46
47         free(decom_ptr);
48
49         cnt++;
50         gettimeofday(&et, NULL);
51         if(et.tv_sec - st.tv_sec >= 10) {
52             break;
53         }
54     }
55
56     cout << "decompress per second:" << cnt/10 << " times" << endl;
57
58     free(com_ptr);
59     return 0;
60 }

执行结果：

　　结果显示ZSTD的解压缩性能大概在每秒12万次左右，解压性能比压缩性能高。

三、zstd的高级用法

　　zstd提供了一个名为PZSTD的压缩和解压工具。PZSTD（parallel zstd），并行压缩的zstd，是一个使用多线程对待压缩文本进行切片分段，且进行并行压缩的命令行工具。

　　其实高版本（v1.4.0及以上）的zstd也提供了指定多线程对文本进行并行压缩的相关API接口，也就是本小节要介绍的zstd高级API用法。下面我们再来探索一下zstd的多线程压缩使用方法。

　　多线程并行压缩的两个关键API，一个是参数设置API，另一个是压缩API。

　　参数设置API的原型是：

　　size_t ZSTD_CCtx_setParameter(ZSTD_CCtx* cctx, ZSTD_cParameter param, int value)

　　压缩API的原型是：

　　size_t ZSTD_compress2(ZSTD_CCtx* cctx, void* dst, size_t dstCapacity, const void* src, size_t srcSize)

　　下面给出zstd并行压缩的示例demo，通过ZSTD_CCtx_setParameter设置线程数为3，即指定宏ZSTD_c_nbWorkers为3，通过ZSTD_compress2压缩相关文本。另外，为了展示zstd确实使用了多线程，需要先读取一个非常大的文件，作为zstd的压缩文本源，尽量使zstd运行较长时间。

 1 #include <stdio.h>
 2 #include <string.h>
 3 #include <sys/time.h>
 4 #include <malloc.h>
 5 #include <zstd.h>
 6 #include <iostream>
 7
 8 using namespace std;
 9
10 int main()
11 {
12     size_t com_size;
13     size_t com_space_size;
14
15     FILE *fp = NULL;
16     unsigned int file_len;
17
18     char *com_ptr = NULL;
19     char *file_text_ptr = NULL;
20
21     fp = fopen("xxxxxx", "r");
22     if(NULL == fp){
23          cout << "file open failed" << endl;
24          return -1;
25     }
26
27     fseek(fp, 0, SEEK_END);
28     file_len = ftell(fp);
29     fseek(fp, 0, SEEK_SET);
30     cout << "file length:" << file_len << endl;
31
32     // malloc space for file content
33     file_text_ptr = (char *)malloc(file_len);
34     if(NULL == file_text_ptr) {
35         cout << "malloc failed" << endl;
36         return -1;
37     }
38
39     // malloc space for compress space
40     com_space_size = ZSTD_compressBound(file_len);
41     com_ptr = (char *)malloc(com_space_size);
42     if(NULL == com_ptr) {
43         cout << "malloc failed" << endl;
44         return -1;
45     }
46
47     // read text from source file
48     fread(file_text_ptr, 1, file_len, fp);
49     fclose(fp);
50
51     ZSTD_CCtx* cctx;
52     cctx = ZSTD_createCCtx();
53
54     // set multi-thread parameter
55     ZSTD_CCtx_setParameter(cctx, ZSTD_c_nbWorkers, 3);
56     ZSTD_CCtx_setParameter(cctx, ZSTD_c_compressionLevel, ZSTD_btlazy2);
57
58     com_size = ZSTD_compress2(cctx, com_ptr, com_space_size, file_text_ptr, file_len);
59
60     free(com_ptr);
61     free(file_text_ptr);
62     return 0;
63 }

　　运行上述demo，可见zstd确实启动了3个线程对文本进行了并行压缩。且设置的线程数越多，压缩时间越短，这里就不详细展示了，读者可以自行实验。

　　需要说明的是，zstd当前默认编译单线程的库文件，要实现多线程的API调用，需要在make的时候指定编译参数ZSTD_MULTITHREAD。

　　

　　另外，zstd还支持线程池的方式，线程池的函数原型：

　　POOL_ctx* ZSTD_createThreadPool(size_t numThreads)

　　线程池可以避免在多次、连续压缩场景时频繁的去创建线程、撤销线程产生的非必要开销，使得算力主要开销在文本压缩方面。

四、总结

　　本篇分享了zstd压缩与解压缩使用的基本方法，对压缩与解压的性能进行了摸底，最后探索了zstd多线程压缩的使用方法。

　　从压缩测试来看，zstd的压缩比其实已经比较好了，比原文所占用空间缩小了一半以上，当然压缩比也跟待压缩文本的内容有关。

　　从性能执行结果来看，zstd的压缩与解压性能表现比较勉强，我认为zstd在鱼（性能）和熊掌（压缩比）之间更偏向熊掌一些，不过对一些性能要求不太高的，但是要高压缩比的场景是比较符合的。

　　多线程并行压缩，在有大文本需要连续多次压缩的场景下，结合线程池可以很好的提升压缩速率。

　　下一篇介绍调研的LZ4压缩算法。码字不易，还请各位技术爱好者登录点个赞呀！