Make a program run slowly

Question

Is there any way to run a C++ program slower by changing any OS parameters in Linux? In this way I would like to simulate what will happen if that particular program happens to run on a real slower machine.

In other words, a faster machine should behave as a slower machine to that particular program.

Answer 1

• Lower the priority using nice (and/or renice). You can also do it programmatically using nice() system call. This will not slow down the execution speed per se, but will make Linux scheduler allocate less (and possibly shorter) execution time frames, preempt more often, etc. See Process Scheduling (Chapter 10) of Understanding the Linux Kernel for more details on scheduling.
• You may want to increase the timer interrupt frequency to put more load on the kernel, which will in turn slow everything down. This requires a kernel rebuild.
• You can use CPU Frequency Scaling mechanism (requires kernel module) and control (slow down, speed up) the CPU using the cpufreq-set command.
• Another possibility is to call sched_yield(), which will yield quantum to other processes, in performance critical parts of your program (requires code change).
• You can hook common functions like malloc(), free(), clock_gettime() etc. using LD_PRELOAD, and do some silly stuff like burn a few million CPU cycles with rep; hop;, insert memory barriers etc. This will slow down the program for sure. (See this answer for an example of how to do some of this stuff).
• As @Bill mentioned, you can always run Linux in a virtualization software which allows you to limit the amount of allocated CPU resources, memory, etc.
• If you really want your program to be slow, run it under Valgrind (may also help you find some problems in your application like memory leaks, bad memory references, etc).
• Some slowness can be achieved by recompiling your binary with disabled optimizations (i.e. -O0 and enable assertions (i.e. -DDEBUG).
• You can always buy an old PC or a cheap netbook (like One Laptop Per Child, and don't forget to donate it to a child once you are done testing) with a slow CPU and run your program.

Hope it helps.