linux/kernel
Wang Nan 9ecda41acb perf/core: Add ::write_backward attribute to perf event
This patch introduces 'write_backward' bit to perf_event_attr, which
controls the direction of a ring buffer. After set, the corresponding
ring buffer is written from end to beginning. This feature is design to
support reading from overwritable ring buffer.

Ring buffer can be created by mapping a perf event fd. Kernel puts event
records into ring buffer, user tooling like perf fetch them from
address returned by mmap(). To prevent racing between kernel and tooling,
they communicate to each other through 'head' and 'tail' pointers.
Kernel maintains 'head' pointer, points it to the next free area (tail
of the last record). Tooling maintains 'tail' pointer, points it to the
tail of last consumed record (record has already been fetched). Kernel
determines the available space in a ring buffer using these two
pointers to avoid overwrite unfetched records.

By mapping without 'PROT_WRITE', an overwritable ring buffer is created.
Different from normal ring buffer, tooling is unable to maintain 'tail'
pointer because writing is forbidden. Therefore, for this type of ring
buffers, kernel overwrite old records unconditionally, works like flight
recorder. This feature would be useful if reading from overwritable ring
buffer were as easy as reading from normal ring buffer. However,
there's an obscure problem.

The following figure demonstrates a full overwritable ring buffer. In
this figure, the 'head' pointer points to the end of last record, and a
long record 'E' is pending. For a normal ring buffer, a 'tail' pointer
would have pointed to position (X), so kernel knows there's no more
space in the ring buffer. However, for an overwritable ring buffer,
kernel ignore the 'tail' pointer.

   (X)                              head
    .                                |
    .                                V
    +------+-------+----------+------+---+
    |A....A|B.....B|C........C|D....D|   |
    +------+-------+----------+------+---+

Record 'A' is overwritten by event 'E':

      head
       |
       V
    +--+---+-------+----------+------+---+
    |.E|..A|B.....B|C........C|D....D|E..|
    +--+---+-------+----------+------+---+

Now tooling decides to read from this ring buffer. However, none of these
two natural positions, 'head' and the start of this ring buffer, are
pointing to the head of a record. Even the full ring buffer can be
accessed by tooling, it is unable to find a position to start decoding.

The first attempt tries to solve this problem AFAIK can be found from
[1]. It makes kernel to maintain 'tail' pointer: updates it when ring
buffer is half full. However, this approach introduces overhead to
fast path. Test result shows a 1% overhead [2]. In addition, this method
utilizes no more tham 50% records.

Another attempt can be found from [3], which allows putting the size of
an event at the end of each record. This approach allows tooling to find
records in a backward manner from 'head' pointer by reading size of a
record from its tail. However, because of alignment requirement, it
needs 8 bytes to record the size of a record, which is a huge waste. Its
performance is also not good, because more data need to be written.
This approach also introduces some extra branch instructions to fast
path.

'write_backward' is a better solution to this problem.

Following figure demonstrates the state of the overwritable ring buffer
when 'write_backward' is set before overwriting:

       head
        |
        V
    +---+------+----------+-------+------+
    |   |D....D|C........C|B.....B|A....A|
    +---+------+----------+-------+------+

and after overwriting:
                                     head
                                      |
                                      V
    +---+------+----------+-------+---+--+
    |..E|D....D|C........C|B.....B|A..|E.|
    +---+------+----------+-------+---+--+

In each situation, 'head' points to the beginning of the newest record.
From this record, tooling can iterate over the full ring buffer and fetch
records one by one.

The only limitation that needs to be considered is back-to-back reading.
Due to the non-deterministic of user programs, it is impossible to ensure
the ring buffer keeps stable during reading. Consider an extreme situation:
tooling is scheduled out after reading record 'D', then a burst of events
come, eat up the whole ring buffer (one or multiple rounds). When the
tooling process comes back, reading after 'D' is incorrect now.

To prevent this problem, we need to find a way to ensure the ring buffer
is stable during reading. ioctl(PERF_EVENT_IOC_PAUSE_OUTPUT) is
suggested because its overhead is lower than
ioctl(PERF_EVENT_IOC_ENABLE).

By carefully verifying 'header' pointer, reader can avoid pausing the
ring-buffer. For example:

    /* A union of all possible events */
    union perf_event event;

    p = head = perf_mmap__read_head();
    while (true) {
        /* copy header of next event */
        fetch(&event.header, p, sizeof(event.header));

        /* read 'head' pointer */
        head = perf_mmap__read_head();

        /* check overwritten: is the header good? */
        if (!verify(sizeof(event.header), p, head))
            break;

        /* copy the whole event */
        fetch(&event, p, event.header.size);

        /* read 'head' pointer again */
        head = perf_mmap__read_head();

        /* is the whole event good? */
        if (!verify(event.header.size, p, head))
            break;
        p += event.header.size;
    }

However, the overhead is high because:

 a) In-place decoding is not safe.
    Copying-verifying-decoding is required.
 b) Fetching 'head' pointer requires additional synchronization.

(From Alexei Starovoitov:

Even when this trick works, pause is needed for more than stability of
reading. When we collect the events into overwrite buffer we're waiting
for some other trigger (like all cpu utilization spike or just one cpu
running and all others are idle) and when it happens the buffer has
valuable info from the past. At this point new events are no longer
interesting and buffer should be paused, events read and unpaused until
next trigger comes.)

This patch utilizes event's default overflow_handler introduced
previously. perf_event_output_backward() is created as the default
overflow handler for backward ring buffers. To avoid extra overhead to
fast path, original perf_event_output() becomes __perf_event_output()
and marked '__always_inline'. In theory, there's no extra overhead
introduced to fast path.

Performance testing:

Calling 3000000 times of 'close(-1)', use gettimeofday() to check
duration.  Use 'perf record -o /dev/null -e raw_syscalls:*' to capture
system calls. In ns.

Testing environment:

  CPU    : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz
  Kernel : v4.5.0
                    MEAN         STDVAR
 BASE            800214.950    2853.083
 PRE1           2253846.700    9997.014
 PRE2           2257495.540    8516.293
 POST           2250896.100    8933.921

Where 'BASE' is pure performance without capturing. 'PRE1' is test
result of pure 'v4.5.0' kernel. 'PRE2' is test result before this
patch. 'POST' is test result after this patch. See [4] for the detailed
experimental setup.

Considering the stdvar, this patch doesn't introduce performance
overhead to the fast path.

 [1] http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1304.1/04584.html
 [2] http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1307.1/00535.html
 [3] http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1512.0/01265.html
 [4] http://lkml.kernel.org/g/56F89DCD.1040202@huawei.com

Signed-off-by: Wang Nan <wangnan0@huawei.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Acked-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Cc: <acme@kernel.org>
Cc: <pi3orama@163.com>
Cc: Alexander Shishkin <alexander.shishkin@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@redhat.com>
Cc: Brendan Gregg <brendan.d.gregg@gmail.com>
Cc: He Kuang <hekuang@huawei.com>
Cc: Jiri Olsa <jolsa@kernel.org>
Cc: Jiri Olsa <jolsa@redhat.com>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Masami Hiramatsu <masami.hiramatsu.pt@hitachi.com>
Cc: Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Stephane Eranian <eranian@google.com>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: Vince Weaver <vincent.weaver@maine.edu>
Cc: Zefan Li <lizefan@huawei.com>
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1459865478-53413-1-git-send-email-wangnan0@huawei.com
[ Fixed the changelog some more. ]
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>

Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
2016-04-23 14:12:39 +02:00
..
bpf bpf: add missing map_flags to bpf_map_show_fdinfo 2016-03-25 11:36:41 -04:00
configs kconfig: add xenconfig defconfig helper 2015-06-16 11:04:29 +01:00
debug mm/init: Add 'rodata=off' boot cmdline parameter to disable read-only kernel mappings 2016-02-22 08:51:37 +01:00
events perf/core: Add ::write_backward attribute to perf event 2016-04-23 14:12:39 +02:00
gcov gcov: use within_module() helper. 2015-12-04 22:46:25 +01:00
irq kernel/...: convert pr_warning to pr_warn 2016-03-22 15:36:02 -07:00
livepatch livepatch/module: remove livepatch module notifier 2016-03-17 09:45:10 +01:00
locking locking/lockdep: Fix print_collision() unused warning 2016-04-04 11:41:34 +02:00
power Power management and ACPI material for v4.6-rc1, part 2 2016-03-24 22:59:58 -07:00
printk printk: add clear_idx symbol to vmcoreinfo 2016-03-17 15:09:34 -07:00
rcu kernel: add kcov code coverage 2016-03-22 15:36:02 -07:00
sched locking/atomic, sched: Unexport fetch_or() 2016-03-29 11:52:11 +02:00
time timers/nohz: Convert tick dependency mask to atomic_t 2016-03-29 11:52:11 +02:00
trace Linux 4.6-rc3 2016-04-13 08:57:03 +02:00
.gitignore certs: add .gitignore to stop git nagging about x509_certificate_list 2015-10-21 15:18:35 +01:00
Kconfig.freezer
Kconfig.hz
Kconfig.locks locking/qrwlock: Rename QUEUE_RWLOCK to QUEUED_RWLOCKS 2015-05-12 09:46:00 +02:00
Kconfig.preempt
Makefile kernel: add kcov code coverage 2016-03-22 15:36:02 -07:00
acct.c
async.c async: export current_is_async() 2015-11-19 17:51:48 +01:00
audit.c Merge branch 'stable-4.6' of git://git.infradead.org/users/pcmoore/audit 2016-03-19 17:52:49 -07:00
audit.h security: Make inode argument of inode_getsecid non-const 2015-12-24 11:09:39 -05:00
audit_fsnotify.c wrappers for ->i_mutex access 2016-01-22 18:04:28 -05:00
audit_tree.c audit: audit_tree_match can be boolean 2015-11-04 08:23:51 -05:00
audit_watch.c Merge branch 'stable-4.6' of git://git.infradead.org/users/pcmoore/audit 2016-03-19 17:52:49 -07:00
auditfilter.c audit: Fix typo in comment 2016-02-08 11:25:39 -05:00
auditsc.c auditsc: for seccomp events, log syscall compat state using in_compat_syscall 2016-03-22 15:36:02 -07:00
backtracetest.c
bounds.c
capability.c
cgroup.c Merge branch 'for-4.6-ns' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tj/cgroup 2016-03-21 10:05:13 -07:00
cgroup_freezer.c cgroup: kill cgrp_ss_priv[CGROUP_CANFORK_COUNT] and friends 2015-12-03 10:24:08 -05:00
cgroup_pids.c cgroup_pids: fix a typo. 2015-12-14 14:54:37 -05:00
compat.c compat: cleanup coding in compat_get_bitmap() and compat_put_bitmap() 2015-06-04 23:57:18 +02:00
configs.c
context_tracking.c context_tracking: Switch to new static_branch API 2015-11-24 09:56:43 +01:00
cpu.c cpu/hotplug: Document states better 2016-03-12 20:57:38 +01:00
cpu_pm.c kernel/cpu_pm: fix cpu_cluster_pm_exit comment 2015-09-03 02:42:20 +02:00
cpuset.c Merge branch 'for-4.6-ns' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tj/cgroup 2016-03-21 10:05:13 -07:00
crash_dump.c
cred.c kmemcg: account certain kmem allocations to memcg 2016-01-14 16:00:49 -08:00
delayacct.c kmemcg: account certain kmem allocations to memcg 2016-01-14 16:00:49 -08:00
dma.c
elfcore.c
exec_domain.c
exit.c oom: clear TIF_MEMDIE after oom_reaper managed to unmap the address space 2016-03-25 16:37:42 -07:00
extable.c kernel/extable.c: remove duplicated include 2015-09-10 13:29:01 -07:00
fork.c kernel: add kcov code coverage 2016-03-22 15:36:02 -07:00
freezer.c
futex.c futex: Replace barrier() in unqueue_me() with READ_ONCE() 2016-03-08 17:04:02 +01:00
futex_compat.c ptrace: use fsuid, fsgid, effective creds for fs access checks 2016-01-20 17:09:18 -08:00
groups.c
hung_task.c kernel/hung_task.c: use timeout diff when timeout is updated 2016-03-22 15:36:02 -07:00
irq_work.c treewide: Remove old email address 2015-11-23 09:44:58 +01:00
jump_label.c treewide: Remove old email address 2015-11-23 09:44:58 +01:00
kallsyms.c kallsyms: add support for relative offsets in kallsyms address table 2016-03-15 16:55:16 -07:00
kcmp.c ptrace: use fsuid, fsgid, effective creds for fs access checks 2016-01-20 17:09:18 -08:00
kcov.c kernel: add kcov code coverage 2016-03-22 15:36:02 -07:00
kexec.c kexec: set KEXEC_TYPE_CRASH before sanity_check_segment_list() 2016-01-20 17:09:18 -08:00
kexec_core.c kexec: Set IORESOURCE_SYSTEM_RAM for System RAM 2016-01-30 09:49:57 +01:00
kexec_file.c Merge branch 'next' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jmorris/linux-security 2016-03-17 11:33:45 -07:00
kexec_internal.h kexec: move some memembers and definitions within the scope of CONFIG_KEXEC_FILE 2016-01-20 17:09:18 -08:00
kmod.c kmod: don't run async usermode helper as a child of kworker thread 2015-10-23 17:55:10 +09:00
kprobes.c perf/x86/hw_breakpoints: Disallow kernel breakpoints unless kprobe-safe 2015-08-04 10:16:54 +02:00
ksysfs.c rcu: Remove TINY_RCU bloat from pointless boot parameters 2015-12-07 16:59:37 -08:00
kthread.c kernel/kthread.c:kthread_create_on_node(): clarify documentation 2015-09-04 16:54:41 -07:00
latencytop.c sched/debug: Make schedstats a runtime tunable that is disabled by default 2016-02-09 11:54:23 +01:00
membarrier.c sys_membarrier(): system-wide memory barrier (generic, x86) 2015-09-11 15:21:34 -07:00
memremap.c memremap: add MEMREMAP_WC flag 2016-03-22 15:36:02 -07:00
module-internal.h
module.c Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jikos/livepatching 2016-03-17 21:46:32 -07:00
module_signing.c X.509: Make algo identifiers text instead of enum 2016-03-03 21:49:27 +00:00
notifier.c Merge branch 'x86-asm-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2015-09-01 08:40:25 -07:00
nsproxy.c cgroup: introduce cgroup namespaces 2016-02-16 13:04:58 -05:00
padata.c
panic.c panic: change nmi_panic from macro to function 2016-03-22 15:36:02 -07:00
params.c Nothing exciting, minor tweaks and cleanups. 2015-11-09 15:53:39 -08:00
pid.c Merge branch 'sched-urgent-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2016-01-31 15:44:04 -08:00
pid_namespace.c
profile.c profile: hide unused functions when !CONFIG_PROC_FS 2016-03-22 15:36:02 -07:00
ptrace.c ptrace: change __ptrace_unlink() to clear ->ptrace under ->siglock 2016-03-22 15:36:02 -07:00
range.c
reboot.c kexec: split kexec_load syscall from kexec core code 2015-09-10 13:29:01 -07:00
relay.c wrappers for ->i_mutex access 2016-01-22 18:04:28 -05:00
resource.c /proc/iomem: only expose physical resource addresses to privileged users 2016-04-14 12:56:09 -07:00
seccomp.c seccomp: check in_compat_syscall, not is_compat_task, in strict mode 2016-03-22 15:36:02 -07:00
signal.c kernel/signal.c: add compile-time check for __ARCH_SI_PREAMBLE_SIZE 2016-03-22 15:36:02 -07:00
smp.c Merge branch 'smp-hotplug-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2016-03-15 13:50:29 -07:00
smpboot.c cpu/hotplug: Unpark smpboot threads from the state machine 2016-03-01 20:36:56 +01:00
smpboot.h cpu/hotplug: Create hotplug threads 2016-03-01 20:36:56 +01:00
softirq.c arch, ftrace: for KASAN put hard/soft IRQ entries into separate sections 2016-03-25 16:37:42 -07:00
stacktrace.c
stop_machine.c kernel/stop_machine.c: remove CONFIG_SMP dependencies 2016-01-16 11:17:24 -08:00
sys.c timer: convert timer_slack_ns from unsigned long to u64 2016-03-17 15:09:34 -07:00
sys_ni.c vfs: add copy_file_range syscall and vfs helper 2015-12-01 14:00:53 -05:00
sysctl.c mm: scale kswapd watermarks in proportion to memory 2016-03-17 15:09:34 -07:00
sysctl_binary.c fs/coredump: prevent fsuid=0 dumps into user-controlled directories 2016-03-22 15:36:02 -07:00
task_work.c task_work: remove fifo ordering guarantee 2015-09-05 13:46:58 -07:00
taskstats.c
test_kprobes.c
torture.c torture: Consolidate cond_resched_rcu_qs() into stutter_wait() 2015-10-06 11:25:01 -07:00
tracepoint.c kernel/...: convert pr_warning to pr_warn 2016-03-22 15:36:02 -07:00
tsacct.c time, acct: Drop irq save & restore from __acct_update_integrals() 2016-02-29 09:53:09 +01:00
uid16.c
up.c
user-return-notifier.c
user.c
user_namespace.c kernel/*: switch to memdup_user_nul() 2016-01-04 10:27:55 -05:00
utsname.c
utsname_sysctl.c
watchdog.c watchdog: don't run proc_watchdog_update if new value is same as old 2016-03-17 15:09:34 -07:00
workqueue.c Merge branch 'for-4.6' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tj/wq 2016-03-18 20:05:39 -07:00
workqueue_internal.h sched/core: Get rid of 'cpu' argument in wq_worker_sleeping() 2016-03-02 10:28:47 -05:00