perf: make bump the default guest allocator

.github/workflows/benchmark-pr.yml

@@ -12,6 +12,13 @@ on:
       - 'executor/**'
       - 'bin/cli/**'
       - 'tooling/ethrex-fixtures/**'
+      # syscalls is linked into the guest ELF this job builds, so a change confined to
+      # it changes the bytes proven — a guest allocator swap moves cycles on every
+      # workload. Without it main's baseline would stay stale until some prover file
+      # happened to change, and the comparison guard would suppress the table until
+      # then. pr_main.yaml:99 already hashes 'syscalls/**' into the guest-ELF cache
+      # key; the two lists must agree on what rebuilds the guest.
+      - 'syscalls/**'
       # A baseline is only valid for the workload it measured, and the Makefile is
       # what defines that workload: it names the block and pins the URL and sha256
       # of the .bin this job fetches. Without it a repointed block would leave
@@ -28,6 +35,7 @@ on:
   #     - 'crypto/**'
   #     - 'executor/**'
   #     - 'bin/cli/**'
+  #     - 'syscalls/**'
 
 permissions:
   contents: read

.github/workflows/hyperfine.yaml

@@ -6,6 +6,11 @@ on:
     paths:
       - 'executor/src/**'
       - 'executor/Cargo.toml'
+      # syscalls is linked into the guest ELFs this job builds and measures, so a change
+      # confined to it moves cycles on every benchmark. The cache key below already
+      # hashes it; both lists must agree on what rebuilds the guest, or a syscalls-only
+      # change (a guest allocator swap, say) never gets benchmarked at all.
+      - 'syscalls/**'
 
 concurrency:
   group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
@@ -35,7 +40,7 @@ jobs:
         id: cache
         with:
           path: ${{ matrix.branch }}_programs/*.elf
-          key: benchmarks-${{ matrix.branch }}-${{ hashFiles( 'executor/programs/bench/**', 'syscalls/src/**' ) }}
+          key: benchmarks-${{ matrix.branch }}-${{ hashFiles( 'executor/programs/bench/**', 'syscalls/**' ) }}
           restore-keys: benchmarks-${{ matrix.branch }}-
 
       - name: Setup Rust Environment
@@ -51,7 +56,7 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Export benchmark hashes
         id: export-hashes
-        run: echo "benchmark-hashes-${{ matrix.branch }}=${{ hashFiles( 'executor/programs/bench/**', 'syscalls/src/**' ) }}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+        run: echo "benchmark-hashes-${{ matrix.branch }}=${{ hashFiles( 'executor/programs/bench/**', 'syscalls/**' ) }}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
 
   build-binaries:
     strategy:

.github/workflows/pr_main.yaml

@@ -175,9 +175,17 @@ jobs:
       - name: Run CLI tests
         run: cargo test -p cli
 
-      - name: Run syscalls host tests (keccak differential vs sha3)
+      - name: Run syscalls host tests (allocator + keccak differential vs sha3)
         run: make test-syscalls
 
+      # The dlmalloc fallback is feature-selected, so nothing else in CI compiles it and it
+      # can rot silently. Its tests run here too.
+      - name: Test the dlmalloc guest allocator fallback
+        run: |
+          cd syscalls
+          cargo test --features dlmalloc-alloc
+          cargo test --release --features dlmalloc-alloc
+
       - name: Run ethrex-crypto host tests (hint verify-then-fallback + ecrecover)
         run: make test-ethrex-crypto
 

Makefile

@@ -514,8 +514,12 @@ check-ethrex-fixture-checksums:
 # differential tests (the keccak sponge vs sha3 reference). Run them explicitly
 # in the crate dir; wired into `test` below and run as a dedicated step
 # in CI's cli-test job (pr_main.yaml).
+# Release too: the allocator's `init` guard degrades to an early return once
+# `debug_assert!` is compiled out, which is the configuration guests are built in,
+# and the test for that path is `#[cfg(not(debug_assertions))]`.
 test-syscalls:
 	cd syscalls && cargo test
+	cd syscalls && cargo test --release
 
 # ethrex-crypto is a detached workspace (excluded from the root members), so a
 # root `cargo test` never runs it. Run it explicitly, like test-syscalls.