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-rw-r--r--Documentation/trace/events-kmem.txt107
-rw-r--r--Documentation/trace/postprocess/trace-pagealloc-postprocess.pl418
-rw-r--r--Documentation/trace/tracepoint-analysis.txt327
3 files changed, 852 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/trace/events-kmem.txt b/Documentation/trace/events-kmem.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..6ef2a8652e17
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/trace/events-kmem.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+ Subsystem Trace Points: kmem
+
+The tracing system kmem captures events related to object and page allocation
+within the kernel. Broadly speaking there are four major subheadings.
+
+ o Slab allocation of small objects of unknown type (kmalloc)
+ o Slab allocation of small objects of known type
+ o Page allocation
+ o Per-CPU Allocator Activity
+ o External Fragmentation
+
+This document will describe what each of the tracepoints are and why they
+might be useful.
+
+1. Slab allocation of small objects of unknown type
+===================================================
+kmalloc call_site=%lx ptr=%p bytes_req=%zu bytes_alloc=%zu gfp_flags=%s
+kmalloc_node call_site=%lx ptr=%p bytes_req=%zu bytes_alloc=%zu gfp_flags=%s node=%d
+kfree call_site=%lx ptr=%p
+
+Heavy activity for these events may indicate that a specific cache is
+justified, particularly if kmalloc slab pages are getting significantly
+internal fragmented as a result of the allocation pattern. By correlating
+kmalloc with kfree, it may be possible to identify memory leaks and where
+the allocation sites were.
+
+
+2. Slab allocation of small objects of known type
+=================================================
+kmem_cache_alloc call_site=%lx ptr=%p bytes_req=%zu bytes_alloc=%zu gfp_flags=%s
+kmem_cache_alloc_node call_site=%lx ptr=%p bytes_req=%zu bytes_alloc=%zu gfp_flags=%s node=%d
+kmem_cache_free call_site=%lx ptr=%p
+
+These events are similar in usage to the kmalloc-related events except that
+it is likely easier to pin the event down to a specific cache. At the time
+of writing, no information is available on what slab is being allocated from,
+but the call_site can usually be used to extrapolate that information
+
+3. Page allocation
+==================
+mm_page_alloc page=%p pfn=%lu order=%d migratetype=%d gfp_flags=%s
+mm_page_alloc_zone_locked page=%p pfn=%lu order=%u migratetype=%d cpu=%d percpu_refill=%d
+mm_page_free_direct page=%p pfn=%lu order=%d
+mm_pagevec_free page=%p pfn=%lu order=%d cold=%d
+
+These four events deal with page allocation and freeing. mm_page_alloc is
+a simple indicator of page allocator activity. Pages may be allocated from
+the per-CPU allocator (high performance) or the buddy allocator.
+
+If pages are allocated directly from the buddy allocator, the
+mm_page_alloc_zone_locked event is triggered. This event is important as high
+amounts of activity imply high activity on the zone->lock. Taking this lock
+impairs performance by disabling interrupts, dirtying cache lines between
+CPUs and serialising many CPUs.
+
+When a page is freed directly by the caller, the mm_page_free_direct event
+is triggered. Significant amounts of activity here could indicate that the
+callers should be batching their activities.
+
+When pages are freed using a pagevec, the mm_pagevec_free is
+triggered. Broadly speaking, pages are taken off the LRU lock in bulk and
+freed in batch with a pagevec. Significant amounts of activity here could
+indicate that the system is under memory pressure and can also indicate
+contention on the zone->lru_lock.
+
+4. Per-CPU Allocator Activity
+=============================
+mm_page_alloc_zone_locked page=%p pfn=%lu order=%u migratetype=%d cpu=%d percpu_refill=%d
+mm_page_pcpu_drain page=%p pfn=%lu order=%d cpu=%d migratetype=%d
+
+In front of the page allocator is a per-cpu page allocator. It exists only
+for order-0 pages, reduces contention on the zone->lock and reduces the
+amount of writing on struct page.
+
+When a per-CPU list is empty or pages of the wrong type are allocated,
+the zone->lock will be taken once and the per-CPU list refilled. The event
+triggered is mm_page_alloc_zone_locked for each page allocated with the
+event indicating whether it is for a percpu_refill or not.
+
+When the per-CPU list is too full, a number of pages are freed, each one
+which triggers a mm_page_pcpu_drain event.
+
+The individual nature of the events are so that pages can be tracked
+between allocation and freeing. A number of drain or refill pages that occur
+consecutively imply the zone->lock being taken once. Large amounts of PCP
+refills and drains could imply an imbalance between CPUs where too much work
+is being concentrated in one place. It could also indicate that the per-CPU
+lists should be a larger size. Finally, large amounts of refills on one CPU
+and drains on another could be a factor in causing large amounts of cache
+line bounces due to writes between CPUs and worth investigating if pages
+can be allocated and freed on the same CPU through some algorithm change.
+
+5. External Fragmentation
+=========================
+mm_page_alloc_extfrag page=%p pfn=%lu alloc_order=%d fallback_order=%d pageblock_order=%d alloc_migratetype=%d fallback_migratetype=%d fragmenting=%d change_ownership=%d
+
+External fragmentation affects whether a high-order allocation will be
+successful or not. For some types of hardware, this is important although
+it is avoided where possible. If the system is using huge pages and needs
+to be able to resize the pool over the lifetime of the system, this value
+is important.
+
+Large numbers of this event implies that memory is fragmenting and
+high-order allocations will start failing at some time in the future. One
+means of reducing the occurange of this event is to increase the size of
+min_free_kbytes in increments of 3*pageblock_size*nr_online_nodes where
+pageblock_size is usually the size of the default hugepage size.
diff --git a/Documentation/trace/postprocess/trace-pagealloc-postprocess.pl b/Documentation/trace/postprocess/trace-pagealloc-postprocess.pl
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..7df50e8cf4d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/trace/postprocess/trace-pagealloc-postprocess.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,418 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+# This is a POC (proof of concept or piece of crap, take your pick) for reading the
+# text representation of trace output related to page allocation. It makes an attempt
+# to extract some high-level information on what is going on. The accuracy of the parser
+# may vary considerably
+#
+# Example usage: trace-pagealloc-postprocess.pl < /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace_pipe
+# other options
+# --prepend-parent Report on the parent proc and PID
+# --read-procstat If the trace lacks process info, get it from /proc
+# --ignore-pid Aggregate processes of the same name together
+#
+# Copyright (c) IBM Corporation 2009
+# Author: Mel Gorman <mel@csn.ul.ie>
+use strict;
+use Getopt::Long;
+
+# Tracepoint events
+use constant MM_PAGE_ALLOC => 1;
+use constant MM_PAGE_FREE_DIRECT => 2;
+use constant MM_PAGEVEC_FREE => 3;
+use constant MM_PAGE_PCPU_DRAIN => 4;
+use constant MM_PAGE_ALLOC_ZONE_LOCKED => 5;
+use constant MM_PAGE_ALLOC_EXTFRAG => 6;
+use constant EVENT_UNKNOWN => 7;
+
+# Constants used to track state
+use constant STATE_PCPU_PAGES_DRAINED => 8;
+use constant STATE_PCPU_PAGES_REFILLED => 9;
+
+# High-level events extrapolated from tracepoints
+use constant HIGH_PCPU_DRAINS => 10;
+use constant HIGH_PCPU_REFILLS => 11;
+use constant HIGH_EXT_FRAGMENT => 12;
+use constant HIGH_EXT_FRAGMENT_SEVERE => 13;
+use constant HIGH_EXT_FRAGMENT_MODERATE => 14;
+use constant HIGH_EXT_FRAGMENT_CHANGED => 15;
+
+my %perprocesspid;
+my %perprocess;
+my $opt_ignorepid;
+my $opt_read_procstat;
+my $opt_prepend_parent;
+
+# Catch sigint and exit on request
+my $sigint_report = 0;
+my $sigint_exit = 0;
+my $sigint_pending = 0;
+my $sigint_received = 0;
+sub sigint_handler {
+ my $current_time = time;
+ if ($current_time - 2 > $sigint_received) {
+ print "SIGINT received, report pending. Hit ctrl-c again to exit\n";
+ $sigint_report = 1;
+ } else {
+ if (!$sigint_exit) {
+ print "Second SIGINT received quickly, exiting\n";
+ }
+ $sigint_exit++;
+ }
+
+ if ($sigint_exit > 3) {
+ print "Many SIGINTs received, exiting now without report\n";
+ exit;
+ }
+
+ $sigint_received = $current_time;
+ $sigint_pending = 1;
+}
+$SIG{INT} = "sigint_handler";
+
+# Parse command line options
+GetOptions(
+ 'ignore-pid' => \$opt_ignorepid,
+ 'read-procstat' => \$opt_read_procstat,
+ 'prepend-parent' => \$opt_prepend_parent,
+);
+
+# Defaults for dynamically discovered regex's
+my $regex_fragdetails_default = 'page=([0-9a-f]*) pfn=([0-9]*) alloc_order=([-0-9]*) fallback_order=([-0-9]*) pageblock_order=([-0-9]*) alloc_migratetype=([-0-9]*) fallback_migratetype=([-0-9]*) fragmenting=([-0-9]) change_ownership=([-0-9])';
+
+# Dyanically discovered regex
+my $regex_fragdetails;
+
+# Static regex used. Specified like this for readability and for use with /o
+# (process_pid) (cpus ) ( time ) (tpoint ) (details)
+my $regex_traceevent = '\s*([a-zA-Z0-9-]*)\s*(\[[0-9]*\])\s*([0-9.]*):\s*([a-zA-Z_]*):\s*(.*)';
+my $regex_statname = '[-0-9]*\s\((.*)\).*';
+my $regex_statppid = '[-0-9]*\s\(.*\)\s[A-Za-z]\s([0-9]*).*';
+
+sub generate_traceevent_regex {
+ my $event = shift;
+ my $default = shift;
+ my $regex;
+
+ # Read the event format or use the default
+ if (!open (FORMAT, "/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/$event/format")) {
+ $regex = $default;
+ } else {
+ my $line;
+ while (!eof(FORMAT)) {
+ $line = <FORMAT>;
+ if ($line =~ /^print fmt:\s"(.*)",.*/) {
+ $regex = $1;
+ $regex =~ s/%p/\([0-9a-f]*\)/g;
+ $regex =~ s/%d/\([-0-9]*\)/g;
+ $regex =~ s/%lu/\([0-9]*\)/g;
+ }
+ }
+ }
+
+ # Verify fields are in the right order
+ my $tuple;
+ foreach $tuple (split /\s/, $regex) {
+ my ($key, $value) = split(/=/, $tuple);
+ my $expected = shift;
+ if ($key ne $expected) {
+ print("WARNING: Format not as expected '$key' != '$expected'");
+ $regex =~ s/$key=\((.*)\)/$key=$1/;
+ }
+ }
+
+ if (defined shift) {
+ die("Fewer fields than expected in format");
+ }
+
+ return $regex;
+}
+$regex_fragdetails = generate_traceevent_regex("kmem/mm_page_alloc_extfrag",
+ $regex_fragdetails_default,
+ "page", "pfn",
+ "alloc_order", "fallback_order", "pageblock_order",
+ "alloc_migratetype", "fallback_migratetype",
+ "fragmenting", "change_ownership");
+
+sub read_statline($) {
+ my $pid = $_[0];
+ my $statline;
+
+ if (open(STAT, "/proc/$pid/stat")) {
+ $statline = <STAT>;
+ close(STAT);
+ }
+
+ if ($statline eq '') {
+ $statline = "-1 (UNKNOWN_PROCESS_NAME) R 0";
+ }
+
+ return $statline;
+}
+
+sub guess_process_pid($$) {
+ my $pid = $_[0];
+ my $statline = $_[1];
+
+ if ($pid == 0) {
+ return "swapper-0";
+ }
+
+ if ($statline !~ /$regex_statname/o) {
+ die("Failed to math stat line for process name :: $statline");
+ }
+ return "$1-$pid";
+}
+
+sub parent_info($$) {
+ my $pid = $_[0];
+ my $statline = $_[1];
+ my $ppid;
+
+ if ($pid == 0) {
+ return "NOPARENT-0";
+ }
+
+ if ($statline !~ /$regex_statppid/o) {
+ die("Failed to match stat line process ppid:: $statline");
+ }
+
+ # Read the ppid stat line
+ $ppid = $1;
+ return guess_process_pid($ppid, read_statline($ppid));
+}
+
+sub process_events {
+ my $traceevent;
+ my $process_pid;
+ my $cpus;
+ my $timestamp;
+ my $tracepoint;
+ my $details;
+ my $statline;
+
+ # Read each line of the event log
+EVENT_PROCESS:
+ while ($traceevent = <STDIN>) {
+ if ($traceevent =~ /$regex_traceevent/o) {
+ $process_pid = $1;
+ $tracepoint = $4;
+
+ if ($opt_read_procstat || $opt_prepend_parent) {
+ $process_pid =~ /(.*)-([0-9]*)$/;
+ my $process = $1;
+ my $pid = $2;
+
+ $statline = read_statline($pid);
+
+ if ($opt_read_procstat && $process eq '') {
+ $process_pid = guess_process_pid($pid, $statline);
+ }
+
+ if ($opt_prepend_parent) {
+ $process_pid = parent_info($pid, $statline) . " :: $process_pid";
+ }
+ }
+
+ # Unnecessary in this script. Uncomment if required
+ # $cpus = $2;
+ # $timestamp = $3;
+ } else {
+ next;
+ }
+
+ # Perl Switch() sucks majorly
+ if ($tracepoint eq "mm_page_alloc") {
+ $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGE_ALLOC}++;
+ } elsif ($tracepoint eq "mm_page_free_direct") {
+ $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGE_FREE_DIRECT}++;
+ } elsif ($tracepoint eq "mm_pagevec_free") {
+ $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGEVEC_FREE}++;
+ } elsif ($tracepoint eq "mm_page_pcpu_drain") {
+ $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGE_PCPU_DRAIN}++;
+ $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{STATE_PCPU_PAGES_DRAINED}++;
+ } elsif ($tracepoint eq "mm_page_alloc_zone_locked") {
+ $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGE_ALLOC_ZONE_LOCKED}++;
+ $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{STATE_PCPU_PAGES_REFILLED}++;
+ } elsif ($tracepoint eq "mm_page_alloc_extfrag") {
+
+ # Extract the details of the event now
+ $details = $5;
+
+ my ($page, $pfn);
+ my ($alloc_order, $fallback_order, $pageblock_order);
+ my ($alloc_migratetype, $fallback_migratetype);
+ my ($fragmenting, $change_ownership);
+
+ if ($details !~ /$regex_fragdetails/o) {
+ print "WARNING: Failed to parse mm_page_alloc_extfrag as expected\n";
+ next;
+ }
+
+ $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGE_ALLOC_EXTFRAG}++;
+ $page = $1;
+ $pfn = $2;
+ $alloc_order = $3;
+ $fallback_order = $4;
+ $pageblock_order = $5;
+ $alloc_migratetype = $6;
+ $fallback_migratetype = $7;
+ $fragmenting = $8;
+ $change_ownership = $9;
+
+ if ($fragmenting) {
+ $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{HIGH_EXT_FRAG}++;
+ if ($fallback_order <= 3) {
+ $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{HIGH_EXT_FRAGMENT_SEVERE}++;
+ } else {
+ $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{HIGH_EXT_FRAGMENT_MODERATE}++;
+ }
+ }
+ if ($change_ownership) {
+ $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{HIGH_EXT_FRAGMENT_CHANGED}++;
+ }
+ } else {
+ $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{EVENT_UNKNOWN}++;
+ }
+
+ # Catch a full pcpu drain event
+ if ($perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{STATE_PCPU_PAGES_DRAINED} &&
+ $tracepoint ne "mm_page_pcpu_drain") {
+
+ $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{HIGH_PCPU_DRAINS}++;
+ $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{STATE_PCPU_PAGES_DRAINED} = 0;
+ }
+
+ # Catch a full pcpu refill event
+ if ($perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{STATE_PCPU_PAGES_REFILLED} &&
+ $tracepoint ne "mm_page_alloc_zone_locked") {
+ $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{HIGH_PCPU_REFILLS}++;
+ $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{STATE_PCPU_PAGES_REFILLED} = 0;
+ }
+
+ if ($sigint_pending) {
+ last EVENT_PROCESS;
+ }
+ }
+}
+
+sub dump_stats {
+ my $hashref = shift;
+ my %stats = %$hashref;
+
+ # Dump per-process stats
+ my $process_pid;
+ my $max_strlen = 0;
+
+ # Get the maximum process name
+ foreach $process_pid (keys %perprocesspid) {
+ my $len = length($process_pid);
+ if ($len > $max_strlen) {
+ $max_strlen = $len;
+ }
+ }
+ $max_strlen += 2;
+
+ printf("\n");
+ printf("%-" . $max_strlen . "s %8s %10s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s\n",
+ "Process", "Pages", "Pages", "Pages", "Pages", "PCPU", "PCPU", "PCPU", "Fragment", "Fragment", "MigType", "Fragment", "Fragment", "Unknown");
+ printf("%-" . $max_strlen . "s %8s %10s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s\n",
+ "details", "allocd", "allocd", "freed", "freed", "pages", "drains", "refills", "Fallback", "Causing", "Changed", "Severe", "Moderate", "");
+
+ printf("%-" . $max_strlen . "s %8s %10s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s\n",
+ "", "", "under lock", "direct", "pagevec", "drain", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
+
+ foreach $process_pid (keys %stats) {
+ # Dump final aggregates
+ if ($stats{$process_pid}->{STATE_PCPU_PAGES_DRAINED}) {
+ $stats{$process_pid}->{HIGH_PCPU_DRAINS}++;
+ $stats{$process_pid}->{STATE_PCPU_PAGES_DRAINED} = 0;
+ }
+ if ($stats{$process_pid}->{STATE_PCPU_PAGES_REFILLED}) {
+ $stats{$process_pid}->{HIGH_PCPU_REFILLS}++;
+ $stats{$process_pid}->{STATE_PCPU_PAGES_REFILLED} = 0;
+ }
+
+ printf("%-" . $max_strlen . "s %8d %10d %8d %8d %8d %8d %8d %8d %8d %8d %8d %8d %8d\n",
+ $process_pid,
+ $stats{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGE_ALLOC},
+ $stats{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGE_ALLOC_ZONE_LOCKED},
+ $stats{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGE_FREE_DIRECT},
+ $stats{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGEVEC_FREE},
+ $stats{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGE_PCPU_DRAIN},
+ $stats{$process_pid}->{HIGH_PCPU_DRAINS},
+ $stats{$process_pid}->{HIGH_PCPU_REFILLS},
+ $stats{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGE_ALLOC_EXTFRAG},
+ $stats{$process_pid}->{HIGH_EXT_FRAG},
+ $stats{$process_pid}->{HIGH_EXT_FRAGMENT_CHANGED},
+ $stats{$process_pid}->{HIGH_EXT_FRAGMENT_SEVERE},
+ $stats{$process_pid}->{HIGH_EXT_FRAGMENT_MODERATE},
+ $stats{$process_pid}->{EVENT_UNKNOWN});
+ }
+}
+
+sub aggregate_perprocesspid() {
+ my $process_pid;
+ my $process;
+ undef %perprocess;
+
+ foreach $process_pid (keys %perprocesspid) {
+ $process = $process_pid;
+ $process =~ s/-([0-9])*$//;
+ if ($process eq '') {
+ $process = "NO_PROCESS_NAME";
+ }
+
+ $perprocess{$process}->{MM_PAGE_ALLOC} += $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGE_ALLOC};
+ $perprocess{$process}->{MM_PAGE_ALLOC_ZONE_LOCKED} += $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGE_ALLOC_ZONE_LOCKED};
+ $perprocess{$process}->{MM_PAGE_FREE_DIRECT} += $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGE_FREE_DIRECT};
+ $perprocess{$process}->{MM_PAGEVEC_FREE} += $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGEVEC_FREE};
+ $perprocess{$process}->{MM_PAGE_PCPU_DRAIN} += $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGE_PCPU_DRAIN};
+ $perprocess{$process}->{HIGH_PCPU_DRAINS} += $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{HIGH_PCPU_DRAINS};
+ $perprocess{$process}->{HIGH_PCPU_REFILLS} += $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{HIGH_PCPU_REFILLS};
+ $perprocess{$process}->{MM_PAGE_ALLOC_EXTFRAG} += $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{MM_PAGE_ALLOC_EXTFRAG};
+ $perprocess{$process}->{HIGH_EXT_FRAG} += $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{HIGH_EXT_FRAG};
+ $perprocess{$process}->{HIGH_EXT_FRAGMENT_CHANGED} += $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{HIGH_EXT_FRAGMENT_CHANGED};
+ $perprocess{$process}->{HIGH_EXT_FRAGMENT_SEVERE} += $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{HIGH_EXT_FRAGMENT_SEVERE};
+ $perprocess{$process}->{HIGH_EXT_FRAGMENT_MODERATE} += $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{HIGH_EXT_FRAGMENT_MODERATE};
+ $perprocess{$process}->{EVENT_UNKNOWN} += $perprocesspid{$process_pid}->{EVENT_UNKNOWN};
+ }
+}
+
+sub report() {
+ if (!$opt_ignorepid) {
+ dump_stats(\%perprocesspid);
+ } else {
+ aggregate_perprocesspid();
+ dump_stats(\%perprocess);
+ }
+}
+
+# Process events or signals until neither is available
+sub signal_loop() {
+ my $sigint_processed;
+ do {
+ $sigint_processed = 0;
+ process_events();
+
+ # Handle pending signals if any
+ if ($sigint_pending) {
+ my $current_time = time;
+
+ if ($sigint_exit) {
+ print "Received exit signal\n";
+ $sigint_pending = 0;
+ }
+ if ($sigint_report) {
+ if ($current_time >= $sigint_received + 2) {
+ report();
+ $sigint_report = 0;
+ $sigint_pending = 0;
+ $sigint_processed = 1;
+ }
+ }
+ }
+ } while ($sigint_pending || $sigint_processed);
+}
+
+signal_loop();
+report();
diff --git a/Documentation/trace/tracepoint-analysis.txt b/Documentation/trace/tracepoint-analysis.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..5eb4e487e667
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/trace/tracepoint-analysis.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,327 @@
+ Notes on Analysing Behaviour Using Events and Tracepoints
+
+ Documentation written by Mel Gorman
+ PCL information heavily based on email from Ingo Molnar
+
+1. Introduction
+===============
+
+Tracepoints (see Documentation/trace/tracepoints.txt) can be used without
+creating custom kernel modules to register probe functions using the event
+tracing infrastructure.
+
+Simplistically, tracepoints will represent an important event that when can
+be taken in conjunction with other tracepoints to build a "Big Picture" of
+what is going on within the system. There are a large number of methods for
+gathering and interpreting these events. Lacking any current Best Practises,
+this document describes some of the methods that can be used.
+
+This document assumes that debugfs is mounted on /sys/kernel/debug and that
+the appropriate tracing options have been configured into the kernel. It is
+assumed that the PCL tool tools/perf has been installed and is in your path.
+
+2. Listing Available Events
+===========================
+
+2.1 Standard Utilities
+----------------------
+
+All possible events are visible from /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events. Simply
+calling
+
+ $ find /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events -type d
+
+will give a fair indication of the number of events available.
+
+2.2 PCL
+-------
+
+Discovery and enumeration of all counters and events, including tracepoints
+are available with the perf tool. Getting a list of available events is a
+simple case of
+
+ $ perf list 2>&1 | grep Tracepoint
+ ext4:ext4_free_inode [Tracepoint event]
+ ext4:ext4_request_inode [Tracepoint event]
+ ext4:ext4_allocate_inode [Tracepoint event]
+ ext4:ext4_write_begin [Tracepoint event]
+ ext4:ext4_ordered_write_end [Tracepoint event]
+ [ .... remaining output snipped .... ]
+
+
+2. Enabling Events
+==================
+
+2.1 System-Wide Event Enabling
+------------------------------
+
+See Documentation/trace/events.txt for a proper description on how events
+can be enabled system-wide. A short example of enabling all events related
+to page allocation would look something like
+
+ $ for i in `find /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events -name "enable" | grep mm_`; do echo 1 > $i; done
+
+2.2 System-Wide Event Enabling with SystemTap
+---------------------------------------------
+
+In SystemTap, tracepoints are accessible using the kernel.trace() function
+call. The following is an example that reports every 5 seconds what processes
+were allocating the pages.
+
+ global page_allocs
+
+ probe kernel.trace("mm_page_alloc") {
+ page_allocs[execname()]++
+ }
+
+ function print_count() {
+ printf ("%-25s %-s\n", "#Pages Allocated", "Process Name")
+ foreach (proc in page_allocs-)
+ printf("%-25d %s\n", page_allocs[proc], proc)
+ printf ("\n")
+ delete page_allocs
+ }
+
+ probe timer.s(5) {
+ print_count()
+ }
+
+2.3 System-Wide Event Enabling with PCL
+---------------------------------------
+
+By specifying the -a switch and analysing sleep, the system-wide events
+for a duration of time can be examined.
+
+ $ perf stat -a \
+ -e kmem:mm_page_alloc -e kmem:mm_page_free_direct \
+ -e kmem:mm_pagevec_free \
+ sleep 10
+ Performance counter stats for 'sleep 10':
+
+ 9630 kmem:mm_page_alloc
+ 2143 kmem:mm_page_free_direct
+ 7424 kmem:mm_pagevec_free
+
+ 10.002577764 seconds time elapsed
+
+Similarly, one could execute a shell and exit it as desired to get a report
+at that point.
+
+2.4 Local Event Enabling
+------------------------
+
+Documentation/trace/ftrace.txt describes how to enable events on a per-thread
+basis using set_ftrace_pid.
+
+2.5 Local Event Enablement with PCL
+-----------------------------------
+
+Events can be activate and tracked for the duration of a process on a local
+basis using PCL such as follows.
+
+ $ perf stat -e kmem:mm_page_alloc -e kmem:mm_page_free_direct \
+ -e kmem:mm_pagevec_free ./hackbench 10
+ Time: 0.909
+
+ Performance counter stats for './hackbench 10':
+
+ 17803 kmem:mm_page_alloc
+ 12398 kmem:mm_page_free_direct
+ 4827 kmem:mm_pagevec_free
+
+ 0.973913387 seconds time elapsed
+
+3. Event Filtering
+==================
+
+Documentation/trace/ftrace.txt covers in-depth how to filter events in
+ftrace. Obviously using grep and awk of trace_pipe is an option as well
+as any script reading trace_pipe.
+
+4. Analysing Event Variances with PCL
+=====================================
+
+Any workload can exhibit variances between runs and it can be important
+to know what the standard deviation in. By and large, this is left to the
+performance analyst to do it by hand. In the event that the discrete event
+occurrences are useful to the performance analyst, then perf can be used.
+
+ $ perf stat --repeat 5 -e kmem:mm_page_alloc -e kmem:mm_page_free_direct
+ -e kmem:mm_pagevec_free ./hackbench 10
+ Time: 0.890
+ Time: 0.895
+ Time: 0.915
+ Time: 1.001
+ Time: 0.899
+
+ Performance counter stats for './hackbench 10' (5 runs):
+
+ 16630 kmem:mm_page_alloc ( +- 3.542% )
+ 11486 kmem:mm_page_free_direct ( +- 4.771% )
+ 4730 kmem:mm_pagevec_free ( +- 2.325% )
+
+ 0.982653002 seconds time elapsed ( +- 1.448% )
+
+In the event that some higher-level event is required that depends on some
+aggregation of discrete events, then a script would need to be developed.
+
+Using --repeat, it is also possible to view how events are fluctuating over
+time on a system wide basis using -a and sleep.
+
+ $ perf stat -e kmem:mm_page_alloc -e kmem:mm_page_free_direct \
+ -e kmem:mm_pagevec_free \
+ -a --repeat 10 \
+ sleep 1
+ Performance counter stats for 'sleep 1' (10 runs):
+
+ 1066 kmem:mm_page_alloc ( +- 26.148% )
+ 182 kmem:mm_page_free_direct ( +- 5.464% )
+ 890 kmem:mm_pagevec_free ( +- 30.079% )
+
+ 1.002251757 seconds time elapsed ( +- 0.005% )
+
+5. Higher-Level Analysis with Helper Scripts
+============================================
+
+When events are enabled the events that are triggering can be read from
+/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace_pipe in human-readable format although binary
+options exist as well. By post-processing the output, further information can
+be gathered on-line as appropriate. Examples of post-processing might include
+
+ o Reading information from /proc for the PID that triggered the event
+ o Deriving a higher-level event from a series of lower-level events.
+ o Calculate latencies between two events
+
+Documentation/trace/postprocess/trace-pagealloc-postprocess.pl is an example
+script that can read trace_pipe from STDIN or a copy of a trace. When used
+on-line, it can be interrupted once to generate a report without existing
+and twice to exit.
+
+Simplistically, the script just reads STDIN and counts up events but it
+also can do more such as
+
+ o Derive high-level events from many low-level events. If a number of pages
+ are freed to the main allocator from the per-CPU lists, it recognises
+ that as one per-CPU drain even though there is no specific tracepoint
+ for that event
+ o It can aggregate based on PID or individual process number
+ o In the event memory is getting externally fragmented, it reports
+ on whether the fragmentation event was severe or moderate.
+ o When receiving an event about a PID, it can record who the parent was so
+ that if large numbers of events are coming from very short-lived
+ processes, the parent process responsible for creating all the helpers
+ can be identified
+
+6. Lower-Level Analysis with PCL
+================================
+
+There may also be a requirement to identify what functions with a program
+were generating events within the kernel. To begin this sort of analysis, the
+data must be recorded. At the time of writing, this required root
+
+ $ perf record -c 1 \
+ -e kmem:mm_page_alloc -e kmem:mm_page_free_direct \
+ -e kmem:mm_pagevec_free \
+ ./hackbench 10
+ Time: 0.894
+ [ perf record: Captured and wrote 0.733 MB perf.data (~32010 samples) ]
+
+Note the use of '-c 1' to set the event period to sample. The default sample
+period is quite high to minimise overhead but the information collected can be
+very coarse as a result.
+
+This record outputted a file called perf.data which can be analysed using
+perf report.
+
+ $ perf report
+ # Samples: 30922
+ #
+ # Overhead Command Shared Object
+ # ........ ......... ................................
+ #
+ 87.27% hackbench [vdso]
+ 6.85% hackbench /lib/i686/cmov/libc-2.9.so
+ 2.62% hackbench /lib/ld-2.9.so
+ 1.52% perf [vdso]
+ 1.22% hackbench ./hackbench
+ 0.48% hackbench [kernel]
+ 0.02% perf /lib/i686/cmov/libc-2.9.so
+ 0.01% perf /usr/bin/perf
+ 0.01% perf /lib/ld-2.9.so
+ 0.00% hackbench /lib/i686/cmov/libpthread-2.9.so
+ #
+ # (For more details, try: perf report --sort comm,dso,symbol)
+ #
+
+According to this, the vast majority of events occured triggered on events
+within the VDSO. With simple binaries, this will often be the case so lets
+take a slightly different example. In the course of writing this, it was
+noticed that X was generating an insane amount of page allocations so lets look
+at it
+
+ $ perf record -c 1 -f \
+ -e kmem:mm_page_alloc -e kmem:mm_page_free_direct \
+ -e kmem:mm_pagevec_free \
+ -p `pidof X`
+
+This was interrupted after a few seconds and
+
+ $ perf report
+ # Samples: 27666
+ #
+ # Overhead Command Shared Object
+ # ........ ....... .......................................
+ #
+ 51.95% Xorg [vdso]
+ 47.95% Xorg /opt/gfx-test/lib/libpixman-1.so.0.13.1
+ 0.09% Xorg /lib/i686/cmov/libc-2.9.so
+ 0.01% Xorg [kernel]
+ #
+ # (For more details, try: perf report --sort comm,dso,symbol)
+ #
+
+So, almost half of the events are occuring in a library. To get an idea which
+symbol.
+
+ $ perf report --sort comm,dso,symbol
+ # Samples: 27666
+ #
+ # Overhead Command Shared Object Symbol
+ # ........ ....... ....................................... ......
+ #
+ 51.95% Xorg [vdso] [.] 0x000000ffffe424
+ 47.93% Xorg /opt/gfx-test/lib/libpixman-1.so.0.13.1 [.] pixmanFillsse2
+ 0.09% Xorg /lib/i686/cmov/libc-2.9.so [.] _int_malloc
+ 0.01% Xorg /opt/gfx-test/lib/libpixman-1.so.0.13.1 [.] pixman_region32_copy_f
+ 0.01% Xorg [kernel] [k] read_hpet
+ 0.01% Xorg /opt/gfx-test/lib/libpixman-1.so.0.13.1 [.] get_fast_path
+ 0.00% Xorg [kernel] [k] ftrace_trace_userstack
+
+To see where within the function pixmanFillsse2 things are going wrong
+
+ $ perf annotate pixmanFillsse2
+ [ ... ]
+ 0.00 : 34eeb: 0f 18 08 prefetcht0 (%eax)
+ : }
+ :
+ : extern __inline void __attribute__((__gnu_inline__, __always_inline__, _
+ : _mm_store_si128 (__m128i *__P, __m128i __B) : {
+ : *__P = __B;
+ 12.40 : 34eee: 66 0f 7f 80 40 ff ff movdqa %xmm0,-0xc0(%eax)
+ 0.00 : 34ef5: ff
+ 12.40 : 34ef6: 66 0f 7f 80 50 ff ff movdqa %xmm0,-0xb0(%eax)
+ 0.00 : 34efd: ff
+ 12.39 : 34efe: 66 0f 7f 80 60 ff ff movdqa %xmm0,-0xa0(%eax)
+ 0.00 : 34f05: ff
+ 12.67 : 34f06: 66 0f 7f 80 70 ff ff movdqa %xmm0,-0x90(%eax)
+ 0.00 : 34f0d: ff
+ 12.58 : 34f0e: 66 0f 7f 40 80 movdqa %xmm0,-0x80(%eax)
+ 12.31 : 34f13: 66 0f 7f 40 90 movdqa %xmm0,-0x70(%eax)
+ 12.40 : 34f18: 66 0f 7f 40 a0 movdqa %xmm0,-0x60(%eax)
+ 12.31 : 34f1d: 66 0f 7f 40 b0 movdqa %xmm0,-0x50(%eax)
+
+At a glance, it looks like the time is being spent copying pixmaps to
+the card. Further investigation would be needed to determine why pixmaps
+are being copied around so much but a starting point would be to take an
+ancient build of libpixmap out of the library path where it was totally
+forgotten about from months ago!
generated by cgit v1.2.3 (git 2.39.1) at 2024-12-19 14:21:05 +0000