Boost Nginx Performance with TCMalloc: Step-by-Step Linux Installation Guide

Integrating TCMalloc with Nginx on Linux

TCMalloc (Thread‑Caching Malloc) is an open‑source memory allocator from Google‑perftools that offers higher allocation speed than the standard glibc malloc, improving server performance under high concurrency.

Installation steps:

1. Install libunwind (if 64‑bit)

[root@htuidc src]# wget http://ftp.twaren.net/Unix/NonGNU//libunwind/libunwind-1.1.tar.gz
[root@htuidc libunwind-1.1]# CFLAGS=-fPIC ./configure
[root@htuidc libunwind-1.1]# make CFLAGS=-fPIC

2. Install gperftools

[root@htuidc src]# wget https://gperftools.googlecode.com/files/gperftools-2.1.tar.gz
[root@htuidc src]# tar zxvf gperftools-2.1.tar.gz
[root@htuidc src]# cd gperftools-2.1
[root@htuidc gperftools-2.1]# ./configure
[root@htuidc gperftools-2.1]# make && make install

After these commands, google‑perftools is installed.

3. Recompile Nginx with the perftools module

[root@htuidc nginx-1.5.4]# ./configure --with-google_perftools_module --with-http_stub_status_module --prefix=/usr/local/nginx1.5
[root@htuidc nginx-1.5.4]# make && make install

Nginx is now built with TCMalloc support.

4. Create a directory for perftools thread profiles

[root@htuidc nginx-1.5.4]# mkdir /tmp/tcmalloc
[root@htuidc nginx-1.5.4]# chmod 0777 /tmp/tcmalloc

5. Modify nginx.conf

Add the following line after the pid directive: google_perftools_profiles /tmp/tcmalloc; Restart Nginx. If you encounter “libprofiler.so.0” or “libunwind.so.8” errors, create symbolic links to the libraries in /lib or /lib64 as shown:

[root@htuidc conf]# ln -s /usr/local/lib/libprofiler.so.0 /lib/
[root@htuidc conf]# ln -s /usr/local/lib/libprofiler.so.0 /usr/lib/
[root@htuidc conf]# ln -s /usr/local/lib/libunwind.so.8 /lib64
[root@htuidc conf]# ln -s /usr/local/lib/libunwind.so.8 /usr/lib64

Verify the module loads with: [root@htuidc lib64]# lsof -n|grep tcmalloc Each Nginx worker creates a file under /tmp/tcmalloc containing its PID.

Finally, to apply TCMalloc to MySQL, add export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/local/lib/libtcmalloc.so to the MySQL startup script and restart the service.