linux/tools/perf/Documentation
Wang Nan 4ea648aec0 perf record: Add --tail-synthesize option
When working with overwritable ring buffer there's a inconvenience
problem: if perf dumps data after a long period after it starts,
non-sample events may lost, which makes following 'perf report' unable
to identify proc name and mmap layout. For example:

 # perf record -m 4 -e raw_syscalls:* -g --overwrite --switch-output \
        dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/null

send SIGUSR2 after dd runs long enough. The resuling perf.data lost
correct comm and mmap events:

 # perf script -i perf.data.2016061522374354
 perf 24478 [004] 2581325.601789:  raw_syscalls:sys_exit: NR 0 = 512
 ^^^^
 Should be 'dd'
                   27b2e8 syscall_slow_exit_work+0xfe2000e3 (/lib/modules/4.6.0-rc3+/build/vmlinux)
                   203cc7 do_syscall_64+0xfe200117 (/lib/modules/4.6.0-rc3+/build/vmlinux)
                   b18d83 return_from_SYSCALL_64+0xfe200000 (/lib/modules/4.6.0-rc3+/build/vmlinux)
             7f47c417edf0 [unknown] ([unknown])
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^
             Fail to unwind

This patch provides a '--tail-synthesize' option, allows perf to collect
system status when finalizing output file. In resuling output file, the
non-sample events reflect system status when dumping data.

After this patch:
 # perf record -m 4 -e raw_syscalls:* -g --overwrite --switch-output --tail-synthesize \
        dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/null

 # perf script -i perf.data.2016061600544998
 dd 27364 [004] 2583244.994464: raw_syscalls:sys_enter: NR 1 (1, ...
 ^^
 Correct comm
                   203a18 syscall_trace_enter_phase2+0xfe2001a8 ([kernel.kallsyms])
                   203aa5 syscall_trace_enter+0xfe200055 ([kernel.kallsyms])
                   203caa do_syscall_64+0xfe2000fa ([kernel.kallsyms])
                   b18d83 return_from_SYSCALL_64+0xfe200000 ([kernel.kallsyms])
                    d8e50 __GI___libc_write+0xffff01d9639f4010 (/tmp/oxygen_root-w00229757/lib64/libc-2.18.so)
                    ^^^^^
                    Correct unwind

This option doesn't aim to solve this problem completely. If a process
terminates before SIGUSR2, we still lost its COMM and MMAP events. For
example, we can't unwind correctly from the final perf.data we get from
the previous example, because when perf collects the final output file
(when we press C-c), 'dd' has been terminated so its '/proc/<pid>/mmap'
becomes empty.

However, this is a cheaper choice. To completely solve this problem we
need to continously output non-sample events. To satisify the
requirement of daemonization, we need to merge them periodically. It is
possible but requires much more code and cycles.

Automatically select --tail-synthesize when --overwrite is provided.

Signed-off-by: Wang Nan <wangnan0@huawei.com>
Cc: He Kuang <hekuang@huawei.com>
Cc: Jiri Olsa <jolsa@kernel.org>
Cc: Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org>
Cc: Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>
Cc: Nilay Vaish <nilayvaish@gmail.com>
Cc: Zefan Li <lizefan@huawei.com>
Cc: pi3orama@163.com
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1468485287-33422-16-git-send-email-wangnan0@huawei.com
Signed-off-by: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@redhat.com>
2016-07-15 17:27:52 -03:00
..
Build.txt perf build: Add build documentation 2015-02-12 17:53:00 -03:00
Makefile tools: Move utilities.mak from perf to tools/scripts/ 2016-03-18 13:57:20 -03:00
android.txt perf tools: Update android build documentation 2016-07-04 20:27:27 -03:00
asciidoc.conf perf_counter tools: Move from Documentation/perf_counter/ to tools/perf/ 2009-06-06 20:33:43 +02:00
callchain-overhead-calculation.txt perf tools: Document --children option in more detail 2015-04-29 10:38:06 -03:00
examples.txt perf record: Remove -f/--force option 2013-07-08 17:37:25 -03:00
intel-bts.txt perf tools: Add Intel BTS support 2015-08-21 11:34:10 -03:00
intel-pt.txt perf tools: Add support for skipping itrace instructions 2016-03-30 11:14:09 -03:00
itrace.txt perf tools: Add support for skipping itrace instructions 2016-03-30 11:14:09 -03:00
jit-interface.txt perf symbols: Add description of JIT interface 2012-08-13 14:55:02 -03:00
manpage-1.72.xsl perf_counter tools: Move from Documentation/perf_counter/ to tools/perf/ 2009-06-06 20:33:43 +02:00
manpage-base.xsl perf_counter tools: Move from Documentation/perf_counter/ to tools/perf/ 2009-06-06 20:33:43 +02:00
manpage-bold-literal.xsl perf_counter tools: Move from Documentation/perf_counter/ to tools/perf/ 2009-06-06 20:33:43 +02:00
manpage-normal.xsl perf_counter tools: Move from Documentation/perf_counter/ to tools/perf/ 2009-06-06 20:33:43 +02:00
manpage-suppress-sp.xsl perf_counter tools: Move from Documentation/perf_counter/ to tools/perf/ 2009-06-06 20:33:43 +02:00
perf-annotate.txt perf annotate: Introduce --stdio-color to setup the color output mode selection 2016-07-12 00:00:39 -03:00
perf-archive.txt perf archive: Remove duplicated 'runs' in man page 2013-12-09 15:21:45 -03:00
perf-bench.txt perf bench mem: Rename 'routine' to 'function' 2015-10-19 16:10:25 -03:00
perf-buildid-cache.txt perf buildid-cache: Scan and import user SDT events to probe cache 2016-07-04 19:39:00 -03:00
perf-buildid-list.txt perf report: Accept fifos as input file 2011-12-23 17:01:03 -02:00
perf-config.txt perf config: Add '--system' and '--user' options to select which config file is used 2016-02-12 10:54:46 -03:00
perf-data.txt perf data ctf: Add '--all' option for 'perf data convert' 2016-06-28 10:54:57 -03:00
perf-diff.txt perf tools: Make -f/--force option documentation consistent across tools 2016-03-30 11:14:08 -03:00
perf-evlist.txt perf evlist: Add --trace-fields option to show trace fields 2016-01-08 14:23:02 -03:00
perf-help.txt perf_counter tools: Move from Documentation/perf_counter/ to tools/perf/ 2009-06-06 20:33:43 +02:00
perf-inject.txt perf inject: Add jitdump mmap injection support 2016-02-05 09:46:45 -03:00
perf-kmem.txt perf kmem: Add --live option for current allocation stat 2015-05-04 13:34:47 -03:00
perf-kvm.txt perf tools: Configurable per thread proc map processing time out 2015-06-19 18:27:13 -03:00
perf-list.txt perf list: Document event specifications better 2016-04-06 11:19:18 -03:00
perf-lock.txt perf lock: Account for lock average wait time 2013-10-09 11:24:01 -03:00
perf-mem.txt perf mem: Add --ldlat option 2016-06-15 10:35:27 -03:00
perf-probe.txt perf probe: Support a special SDT probe format 2016-07-13 23:09:09 -03:00
perf-record.txt perf record: Add --tail-synthesize option 2016-07-15 17:27:52 -03:00
perf-report.txt perf report: Introduce --stdio-color to setup the color output mode selection 2016-07-12 00:00:39 -03:00
perf-sched.txt perf sched map: Display only given cpus 2016-04-13 10:11:52 -03:00
perf-script-perl.txt perf Documentation: Fix typos in perf/Documentation 2014-10-15 17:39:02 -03:00
perf-script-python.txt perf Documentation: Fix typos in perf/Documentation 2014-10-15 17:39:02 -03:00
perf-script.txt perf script: Add callindent option 2016-06-23 17:04:26 -03:00
perf-stat.txt perf stat: Basic support for TopDown in perf stat 2016-06-06 17:04:15 -03:00
perf-test.txt perf test: Add -F/--dont-fork option 2016-06-30 18:27:45 -03:00
perf-timechart.txt perf timechart: Add more options to IO mode 2014-07-10 00:22:54 +02:00
perf-top.txt perf tools: Set the maximum allowed stack from /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_max_stack 2016-04-27 10:29:07 -03:00
perf-trace.txt perf tools: Fix usage of max_stack sysctl 2016-05-20 11:43:56 -03:00
perf.data-file-format.txt perf tools: Add documentation for perf.data on disk format 2016-06-29 10:07:23 -03:00
perf.txt perf tools: Handle -h and -v options 2015-10-05 16:36:18 -03:00
perfconfig.example perf annotate: Rename 'colors.code' to 'colors.jump_arrows' 2016-01-26 11:52:46 -03:00
tips.txt perf report: Add --hierarchy option 2016-02-24 20:21:15 -03:00