linux/kernel/trace/trace.h, branch v4.7

tracing: Use temp buffer when filtering events

2016-05-03T21:59:24Z

Filtering of events requires the data to be written to the ring buffer before it can be decided to filter or not. This is because the parameters of the filter are based on the result that is written to the ring buffer and not on the parameters that are passed into the trace functions. The ftrace ring buffer is optimized for writing into the ring buffer and committing. The discard procedure used when filtering decides the event should be discarded is much more heavy weight. Thus, using a temporary filter when filtering events can speed things up drastically. Without a temp buffer we have: # trace-cmd start -p nop # perf stat -r 10 hackbench 50 0.790706626 seconds time elapsed ( +- 0.71% ) # trace-cmd start -e all # perf stat -r 10 hackbench 50 1.566904059 seconds time elapsed ( +- 0.27% ) # trace-cmd start -e all -f 'common_preempt_count==20' # perf stat -r 10 hackbench 50 1.690598511 seconds time elapsed ( +- 0.19% ) # trace-cmd start -e all -f 'common_preempt_count!=20' # perf stat -r 10 hackbench 50 1.707486364 seconds time elapsed ( +- 0.30% ) The first run above is without any tracing, just to get a based figure. hackbench takes ~0.79 seconds to run on the system. The second run enables tracing all events where nothing is filtered. This increases the time by 100% and hackbench takes 1.57 seconds to run. The third run filters all events where the preempt count will equal "20" (this should never happen) thus all events are discarded. This takes 1.69 seconds to run. This is 10% slower than just committing the events! The last run enables all events and filters where the filter will commit all events, and this takes 1.70 seconds to run. The filtering overhead is approximately 10%. Thus, the discard and commit of an event from the ring buffer may be about the same time. With this patch, the numbers change: # trace-cmd start -p nop # perf stat -r 10 hackbench 50 0.778233033 seconds time elapsed ( +- 0.38% ) # trace-cmd start -e all # perf stat -r 10 hackbench 50 1.582102692 seconds time elapsed ( +- 0.28% ) # trace-cmd start -e all -f 'common_preempt_count==20' # perf stat -r 10 hackbench 50 1.309230710 seconds time elapsed ( +- 0.22% ) # trace-cmd start -e all -f 'common_preempt_count!=20' # perf stat -r 10 hackbench 50 1.786001924 seconds time elapsed ( +- 0.20% ) The first run is again the base with no tracing. The second run is all tracing with no filtering. It is a little slower, but that may be well within the noise. The third run shows that discarding all events only took 1.3 seconds. This is a speed up of 23%! The discard is much faster than even the commit. The one downside is shown in the last run. Events that are not discarded by the filter will take longer to add, this is due to the extra copy of the event. Cc: Alexei Starovoitov Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt

tracing: Have trace_buffer_unlock_commit() call the _regs version with NULL

2016-04-29T21:44:01Z

There's no real difference between trace_buffer_unlock_commit() and trace_buffer_unlock_commit_regs() except that the former passes NULL to ftrace_stack_trace() instead of regs. Have the former be a static inline of the latter which passes NULL for regs. Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt

tracing: Move trace_buffer_unlock_commit{_regs}() to local header

2016-04-29T20:14:12Z

The functions trace_buffer_unlock_commit() and the _regs() version are only used within the kernel/trace directory. Move them to the local header and remove the export as well. Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt

tracing: Fold filter_check_discard() into its only user

2016-04-29T20:14:08Z

The function filter_check_discard() is small and only called by one user, its code can be folded into that one caller and make the code a bit less comlplex. Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt

tracing: Make filter_check_discard() local

2016-04-27T14:13:46Z

Nothing outside of the tracing directory calls filter_check_discard() or check_filter_check_discard(). They should not be called by modules. Move their prototypes into the local tracing header and remove their EXPORT_SYMBOL() macros. Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt

tracing: Move event_trigger_unlock_commit{_regs}() to local header

2016-04-27T01:24:53Z

The functions event_trigger_unlock_commit() and event_trigger_unlock_commit_regs() are no longer used outside the tracing system. Move them out of the generic headers and into the local one. Along with __event_trigger_test_discard() that is only used by them. Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt

tracing: Add support for named triggers

2016-04-19T22:56:00Z

Named triggers are sets of triggers that share a common set of trigger data. An example of functionality that could benefit from this type of capability would be a set of inlined probes that would each contribute event counts, for example, to a shared counter data structure. The first named trigger registered with a given name owns the common trigger data that the others subsequently registered with the same name will reference. The functions defined here allow users to add, delete, and find named triggers. It also adds functions to pause and unpause named triggers; since named triggers act upon common data, they should also be paused and unpaused as a group. Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/c09ff648360f65b10a3e321eddafe18060b4a04f.1457029949.git.tom.zanussi@linux.intel.com Signed-off-by: Tom Zanussi Tested-by: Masami Hiramatsu Reviewed-by: Namhyung Kim Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt

tracing: Add enable_hist/disable_hist triggers

2016-04-19T22:55:57Z

Similar to enable_event/disable_event triggers, these triggers enable and disable the aggregation of events into maps rather than enabling and disabling their writing into the trace buffer. They can be used to automatically start and stop hist triggers based on a matching filter condition. If there's a paused hist trigger on system:event, the following would start it when the filter condition was hit: # echo enable_hist:system:event [ if filter] > event/trigger And the following would disable a running system:event hist trigger: # echo disable_hist:system:event [ if filter] > event/trigger See Documentation/trace/events.txt for real examples. Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/f812f086e52c8b7c8ad5443487375e03c96a601f.1457029949.git.tom.zanussi@linux.intel.com Signed-off-by: Tom Zanussi Tested-by: Masami Hiramatsu Reviewed-by: Namhyung Kim Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt

tracing: Add 'hist' event trigger command

2016-04-19T16:16:14Z

'hist' triggers allow users to continually aggregate trace events, which can then be viewed afterwards by simply reading a 'hist' file containing the aggregation in a human-readable format. The basic idea is very simple and boils down to a mechanism whereby trace events, rather than being exhaustively dumped in raw form and viewed directly, are automatically 'compressed' into meaningful tables completely defined by the user. This is done strictly via single-line command-line commands and without the aid of any kind of programming language or interpreter. A surprising number of typical use cases can be accomplished by users via this simple mechanism. In fact, a large number of the tasks that users typically do using the more complicated script-based tracing tools, at least during the initial stages of an investigation, can be accomplished by simply specifying a set of keys and values to be used in the creation of a hash table. The Linux kernel trace event subsystem happens to provide an extensive list of keys and values ready-made for such a purpose in the form of the event format files associated with each trace event. By simply consulting the format file for field names of interest and by plugging them into the hist trigger command, users can create an endless number of useful aggregations to help with investigating various properties of the system. See Documentation/trace/events.txt for examples. hist triggers are implemented on top of the existing event trigger infrastructure, and as such are consistent with the existing triggers from a user's perspective as well. The basic syntax follows the existing trigger syntax. Users start an aggregation by writing a 'hist' trigger to the event of interest's trigger file: # echo hist:keys=xxx [ if filter] > event/trigger Once a hist trigger has been set up, by default it continually aggregates every matching event into a hash table using the event key and a value field named 'hitcount'. To view the aggregation at any point in time, simply read the 'hist' file in the same directory as the 'trigger' file: # cat event/hist The detailed syntax provides additional options for user control, and is described exhaustively in Documentation/trace/events.txt and in the virtual tracing/README file in the tracing subsystem. Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/72d263b5e1853fe9c314953b65833c3aa75479f2.1457029949.git.tom.zanussi@linux.intel.com Signed-off-by: Tom Zanussi Tested-by: Masami Hiramatsu Reviewed-by: Namhyung Kim Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt

tracing: Add infrastructure to allow set_event_pid to follow children

2016-04-19T14:28:28Z

Add the infrastructure needed to have the PIDs in set_event_pid to automatically add PIDs of the children of the tasks that have their PIDs in set_event_pid. This will also remove PIDs from set_event_pid when a task exits This is implemented by adding hooks into the fork and exit tracepoints. On fork, the PIDs are added to the list, and on exit, they are removed. Add a new option called event_fork that when set, PIDs in set_event_pid will automatically get their children PIDs added when they fork, as well as any task that exits will have its PID removed from set_event_pid. This works for instances as well. Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt