Re: [RFC PATCH v3 0/3] perf: sparc64 user regs and stack dump, with arch hooks

[Ian Rogers]

On Wed, Sep 23, 2026 at 2:04 AM Stian Halseth <stian@xxxxxx> wrote:
>
> This adds HAVE_PERF_REGS and HAVE_PERF_USER_STACK_DUMP to sparc64, so
> that perf record --call-graph dwarf and elfutils' eu-stackprof work
> there.
>
> Two things about the user stack dump do not fit in arch code. The
> sampled register window's %l/%i registers, which hold the frame pointer
> and return address the unwinder starts from, stay in the register file
> until a window spills. The kernel already flushes them wherever it
> exposes user stack memory (perf_callchain_user(), ptrace), but the stack
> dump has no arch entry point where that could happen. And a 64-bit
> sparc stack pointer is biased by 2047, so a dump that starts at the
> register value begins 2047 bytes below the frame, and is empty when that
> page has never been touched.
>
> Patch 1 therefore adds two hooks in the style of perf_arch_misc_flags(),
> both no-ops by default. Patch 2 is the sparc64 implementation and their
> user. Patch 3 teaches tools/perf the sparc registers and DWARF unwinding
> from the dump. The matching elfutils changes are attached to the
> tracking issue:
>
>   https://github.com/sparclinux/issues/issues/99
>
> Tested on an UltraSPARC T4-1 on 7.3-rc4: register values check out
> against known contents, --call-graph dwarf unwinds correctly for both
> cycles and cpu-clock, as does eu-stackprof, and perf stat/record/record
> -g are unchanged. Starting the dump at the stack's actual address
> matters in practice: with the dump at the biased register value, 94% of
> the user samples of xz -T4 had an empty stack dump; with this series,
> none do.
>
> Changes since v2:
> - Patch 1: add perf_arch_user_stack_pointer(), so an arch can start the
>   dump at the stack's actual address (sashiko review).
> - Patch 2: drop %g0 from the uapi, as trap entry does not save it; the
>   PC takes its slot, as on mips and loongarch (sashiko review).
> - Patch 2: start the dump at %sp + 2047 for a 64-bit stack (sashiko
>   review).
> - Patch 3: follow both, and comment the max_dwarf_reg adjustment (Ian).
>   Drop the memcpy() change to memory_read(), which the unbiased dump
>   start makes unnecessary.
>
> v2: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260922201507.1719668-1-stian@xxxxxx/
> v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260922135653.1622301-1-stian@xxxxxx/
>
> Stian Halseth (3):
>   perf/core: Let an arch prepare and locate the user stack dump
>   sparc64: Support PERF_SAMPLE_REGS_USER and PERF_SAMPLE_STACK_USER
>   perf tools: Support sparc user register samples and dwarf unwinding

For the series:

Reviewed-by: Ian Rogers <irogers@xxxxxxxxxx>

Thanks!
Ian

>  .../features/perf/perf-regs/arch-support.txt  |  2 +-
>  .../perf/perf-stackdump/arch-support.txt      |  2 +-
>  arch/sparc/Kconfig                            |  2 +
>  arch/sparc/include/asm/perf_event.h           |  5 ++
>  arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/perf_regs.h       | 34 +++++++++
>  arch/sparc/kernel/Makefile                    |  2 +-
>  arch/sparc/kernel/perf_regs.c                 | 74 +++++++++++++++++++
>  include/linux/perf_event.h                    | 11 +++
>  kernel/events/core.c                          |  2 +
>  kernel/events/internal.h                      |  2 +-
>  tools/arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/perf_regs.h | 34 +++++++++
>  tools/perf/arch/sparc/include/perf_regs.h     | 18 +++++
>  tools/perf/check-headers.sh                   |  1 +
>  tools/perf/util/dwarf-regs-arch/Build         |  1 +
>  .../util/dwarf-regs-arch/dwarf-regs-sparc.c   | 12 +++
>  tools/perf/util/dwarf-regs.c                  |  4 +
>  tools/perf/util/include/dwarf-regs.h          |  1 +
>  tools/perf/util/perf-regs-arch/Build          |  1 +
>  .../util/perf-regs-arch/perf_regs_sparc.c     | 67 +++++++++++++++++
>  tools/perf/util/perf_regs.c                   | 18 +++++
>  tools/perf/util/perf_regs.h                   |  5 ++
>  tools/perf/util/unwind-libdw.c                | 37 ++++++++++
>  22 files changed, 331 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
>  create mode 100644 arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/perf_regs.h
>  create mode 100644 arch/sparc/kernel/perf_regs.c
>  create mode 100644 tools/arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/perf_regs.h
>  create mode 100644 tools/perf/arch/sparc/include/perf_regs.h
>  create mode 100644 tools/perf/util/dwarf-regs-arch/dwarf-regs-sparc.c
>  create mode 100644 tools/perf/util/perf-regs-arch/perf_regs_sparc.c
>
> --
> 2.55.0
>