gistfile1.txt

 # running the benchmark as-is

$ ruby benchmarks/excon_vs.rb 
  
  [curb (persistent), em-http-request, Excon/home/phiggins/projects/excon/lib/excon/response.rb:12:in `readline': end of file reached (Excon::Errors::SocketError)
        from /home/phiggins/projects/excon/lib/excon/response.rb:12:in `parse'
        from /home/phiggins/projects/excon/lib/excon/connection.rb:98:in `request'
        from (eval):2:in `get'
        from benchmarks/excon_vs.rb:94:in `block (3 levels) in <main>'
        from /home/phiggins/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p0/gems/tach-0.0.7/lib/tach.rb:63:in `call'
        from /home/phiggins/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p0/gems/tach-0.0.7/lib/tach.rb:63:in `block in run_tach'
        from /home/phiggins/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p0/gems/tach-0.0.7/lib/tach.rb:63:in `times'
        from /home/phiggins/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p0/gems/tach-0.0.7/lib/tach.rb:63:in `run_tach'
        from /home/phiggins/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p0/gems/tach-0.0.7/lib/tach.rb:37:in `block in initialize'
        from /home/phiggins/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p0/gems/tach-0.0.7/lib/tach.rb:36:in `each'
        from /home/phiggins/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p0/gems/tach-0.0.7/lib/tach.rb:36:in `initialize'
        from /home/phiggins/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p0/gems/tach-0.0.7/lib/tach.rb:11:in `new'
        from /home/phiggins/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p0/gems/tach-0.0.7/lib/tach.rb:11:in `meter'
        from benchmarks/excon_vs.rb:59:in `block in <main>'
        from benchmarks/excon_vs.rb:42:in `with_server'
        from benchmarks/excon_vs.rb:57:in `<main>'

 ### With curb removed

$ ruby benchmarks/excon_vs.rb 
  
  [em-http-request, Excon, Excon (persistent), HTTParty, Net::HTTP, Net::HTTP (persistent), open-uri, RestClient, StreamlyFFI (persistent), Typhoeus]

  +--------------------------+-----------+
  | tach                     | total     |
  +--------------------------+-----------+
  | Net::HTTP (persistent)   | 2.118156  |
  +--------------------------+-----------+
  | Net::HTTP                | 2.173303  |
  +--------------------------+-----------+
  | open-uri                 | 2.346923  |
  +--------------------------+-----------+
  | HTTParty                 | 2.353703  |
  +--------------------------+-----------+
  | RestClient               | 2.357862  |
  +--------------------------+-----------+
  | em-http-request          | 20.342394 |
  +--------------------------+-----------+
  | Typhoeus                 | 40.480771 |
  +--------------------------+-----------+
  | Excon                    | 40.618864 |
  +--------------------------+-----------+
  | Excon (persistent)       | 40.748701 |
  +--------------------------+-----------+
  | StreamlyFFI (persistent) | 40.922385 |
  +--------------------------+-----------+
  

I dunno, seems to work for me. I had wondered if maybe it was a 1.9.2 thing (as I usually test/work in 1.8.7 still). But I tried that and it still worked on my machine. What OS? Didn't you have it occasionally failing prior to adding curb as well? (maybe by rearranging to run excon later in the list) Basically I'd like to fix it but I haven't been able to reproduce it yet...

Yes, if I move excon to the bottom of the list it fails everytime.

The machine I'm currently using is 64-bit Kubuntu 10.10, but I've also seen this on my other machine which is 64-bit gentoo.