Understanding the Go Scheduler

Summary

↑ ↓ Go Scheduler Disclaimer This blog post primarily focuses on Go 1.24 programming language for Linux on ARM architecture. It may not cover platform-specific details for other operating systems or architectures. The content is based on other sources and my own understanding of Go, so it might not be entirely accurate. Feel free to correct me or give suggestions in the comment section 😄. Introduction ⚠️ This post assumes that you already have a basic understanding of Go concurrency (goroutines, channels, etc.). If you’re new to these concepts, consider reviewing them before continuing. Go, introduced in 2009, has steadily grown in popularity as a programming language for building concurrent applications. It is designed to be simple, efficient, and easy to use, with a focus on concurrency programming. Go’s concurrency model is built around the concept of goroutines, which are lightweight user threads managed by the Go runtime on user space. Go offers useful primitives for synchronization, such as channels, to help developers write concurrent code easily. It also uses non-trivial techniques to make I/O bound programs efficient. Understanding the Go scheduler is crucial for Go programmer to write efficient concurrent programs. It also helps us become better at troubleshooting performance issues or tuning the performance of our Go programs. In this post, we will explore how Go scheduler evolved over time, and how the Go code we write happens under the hood. Compilation and Go Runtime This post covers a lot of source code walkthrough, so it is better to have a basic understanding of how Go code is compiled and executed first. When a Go program is built, there are three stages: Compilation: Go source files (*.go) are compiled into assembly files (*.s). Assembling: The assembly files (*.s) are then assembled into object files (*.o). Linking: The object files (*.o) are linked together to produce a single executable binary file. flowchart LR start((Start)) ==> |*.go files|co...