Re: [PATCH v2 04/16] perf annotate-arm64: Handle load and store instructions

From: Tengda Wu

Date: Fri Apr 10 2026 - 06:16:54 EST




On 2026/4/7 15:09, Namhyung Kim wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 03, 2026 at 09:47:48AM +0000, Tengda Wu wrote:
>> Add ldst_ops to handle load and store instructions in order to parse
>> the data types and offsets associated with PMU events for memory access
>> instructions. There are many variants of load and store instructions in
>> ARM64, making it difficult to match all of these instruction names
>> completely. Therefore, only the instruction prefixes are matched. The
>> prefix 'ld|st' covers most of the memory access instructions, 'cas|swp'
>> matches atomic instructions, and 'prf' matches memory prefetch
>> instructions.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Li Huafei <lihuafei1@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> Signed-off-by: Tengda Wu <wutengda@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> ---
>> .../perf/util/annotate-arch/annotate-arm64.c | 72 +++++++++++++++++++
>> 1 file changed, 72 insertions(+)
>>
>> diff --git a/tools/perf/util/annotate-arch/annotate-arm64.c b/tools/perf/util/annotate-arch/annotate-arm64.c
>> index 4c42323b0c18..8209faaa6086 100644
>> --- a/tools/perf/util/annotate-arch/annotate-arm64.c
>> +++ b/tools/perf/util/annotate-arch/annotate-arm64.c
>> @@ -3,7 +3,9 @@
>> #include <errno.h>
>> #include <stdlib.h>
>> #include <string.h>
>> +#include <ctype.h>
>> #include <linux/zalloc.h>
>> +#include <linux/string.h>
>> #include <regex.h>
>> #include "../annotate.h"
>> #include "../disasm.h"
>> @@ -12,6 +14,7 @@ struct arch_arm64 {
>> struct arch arch;
>> regex_t call_insn;
>> regex_t jump_insn;
>> + regex_t ldst_insn; /* load and store instruction */
>> };
>>
>> static bool arm64__check_multi_regs(const char *op)
>> @@ -114,6 +117,59 @@ static const struct ins_ops arm64_mov_ops = {
>> .scnprintf = mov__scnprintf,
>> };
>>
>> +static int arm64_ldst__parse(const struct arch *arch __maybe_unused,
>
> The 'arch' is used. :)
>

Oh, will fix it.

>
>> + struct ins_operands *ops,
>> + struct map_symbol *ms __maybe_unused,
>> + struct disasm_line *dl __maybe_unused)
>> +{
>> + char *s, *target;
>> +
>> + /*
>> + * The part starting from the memory access annotation '[' is parsed
>> + * as 'target', while the part before it is parsed as 'source'.
>
> It'd be nice if you can show some examples. So it always looks like:
>
> LDR x1, [x2, #4]
> STR x1, [x3], #8
>
> Right? What about other instructions?
>

Yeah. Here are some representative examples that this patch handles:

ldr x1, [x2]
ldr x2, [x0, #968]
ldr w3, [x25], #4
ldp x29, x30, [sp], #16
ldr x0, [x1, #16]!
ldr x6, [x23, w25, sxtw #3]

It might be better to add these examples as a block comment above
the arm64_ldst__parse().

>
>> + */
>> + target = s = strchr(ops->raw, arch->objdump.memory_ref_char);
>> + if (!s)
>> + return -1;
>> +
>> + while (s > ops->raw && *s != ',')
>> + --s;
>> +
>> + if (s == ops->raw)
>> + return -1;
>> +
>> + *s = '\0';
>> + ops->source.raw = strdup(ops->raw);
>> +
>> + *s = ',';
>> + if (!ops->source.raw)
>> + return -1;
>> +
>> + ops->source.multi_regs = arm64__check_multi_regs(ops->source.raw);
>
> Probably it's better to set ops->source.mem_ref to false. Then you
> won't need to set multi_regs.
>
> Thanks,
> Namhyung

Agreed.

-- Tengda

>
>> +
>> + ops->target.raw = strdup(target);
>> + if (!ops->target.raw) {
>> + zfree(&ops->source.raw);
>> + return -1;
>> + }
>> + ops->target.mem_ref = true;
>> + ops->target.multi_regs = arm64__check_multi_regs(ops->target.raw);
>> +
>> + return 0;
>> +}
>> +
>> +static int arm64_ldst__scnprintf(const struct ins *ins, char *bf, size_t size,
>> + struct ins_operands *ops, int max_ins_name)
>> +{
>> + return scnprintf(bf, size, "%-*s %s,%s", max_ins_name, ins->name,
>> + ops->source.raw, ops->target.raw);
>> +}
>> +
>> +static struct ins_ops arm64_ldst_ops = {
>> + .parse = arm64_ldst__parse,
>> + .scnprintf = arm64_ldst__scnprintf,
>> +};
>> +
>> static const struct ins_ops *arm64__associate_instruction_ops(struct arch *arch, const char *name)
>> {
>> struct arch_arm64 *arm = container_of(arch, struct arch_arm64, arch);
>> @@ -124,6 +180,8 @@ static const struct ins_ops *arm64__associate_instruction_ops(struct arch *arch,
>> ops = &jump_ops;
>> else if (!regexec(&arm->call_insn, name, 2, match, 0))
>> ops = &call_ops;
>> + else if (!regexec(&arm->ldst_insn, name, 2, match, 0))
>> + ops = &arm64_ldst_ops;
>> else if (!strcmp(name, "ret"))
>> ops = &ret_ops;
>> else
>> @@ -148,6 +206,8 @@ const struct arch *arch__new_arm64(const struct e_machine_and_e_flags *id,
>> arch->id = *id;
>> arch->objdump.comment_char = '/';
>> arch->objdump.skip_functions_char = '+';
>> + arch->objdump.memory_ref_char = '[';
>> + arch->objdump.imm_char = '#';
>> arch->associate_instruction_ops = arm64__associate_instruction_ops;
>>
>> /* bl, blr */
>> @@ -161,8 +221,20 @@ const struct arch *arch__new_arm64(const struct e_machine_and_e_flags *id,
>> if (err)
>> goto out_free_call;
>>
>> + /*
>> + * The ARM64 architecture has many variants of load/store instructions.
>> + * It is quite challenging to match all of them completely. Here, we
>> + * only match the prefixes of these instructions.
>> + */
>> + err = regcomp(&arm->ldst_insn, "^(ld|st|cas|prf|swp)",
>> + REG_EXTENDED);
>> + if (err)
>> + goto out_free_jump;
>> +
>> return arch;
>>
>> +out_free_jump:
>> + regfree(&arm->jump_insn);
>> out_free_call:
>> regfree(&arm->call_insn);
>> out_free_arm:
>> --
>> 2.34.1
>>