Re: [RFC][PATCH 1/5] perf: Check if we should exclude idle threadin perf_exclude_event()

From: Frederic Weisbecker
Date: Tue Aug 31 2010 - 10:54:15 EST


On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 01:13:43PM +0100, Matt Fleming wrote:
> Don't open code the event check for excluding the idle thread. Instead
> include the check in perf_exclude_event().
>
> Signed-off-by: Matt Fleming <matt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> kernel/perf_event.c | 8 +++++---
> 1 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/kernel/perf_event.c b/kernel/perf_event.c
> index 0d38f27..16b0476 100644
> --- a/kernel/perf_event.c
> +++ b/kernel/perf_event.c
> @@ -4310,6 +4310,9 @@ static int perf_exclude_event(struct perf_event *event,
>
> if (event->attr.exclude_kernel && !user_mode(regs))
> return 1;
> +
> + if (event->attr.exclude_idle && current->pid == 0)
> + return 1;



Right.

But one of the problems people have reported is that they can miss
interrupts samples if they happen in idle. Hence we have decided
that exclude_idle should exclude events that happen in idle process
context but not in interrupts interrupting idle.

So adding an in_interrupt() check would perhaps be better.

I plan to do this exclusion using the per context exclusion, which is
a patchset I have in queue. But until then, having this patch is better.



> }
>
> return 0;
> @@ -4512,9 +4515,8 @@ static enum hrtimer_restart perf_swevent_hrtimer(struct hrtimer *hrtimer)
> regs = get_irq_regs();
>
> if (regs && !perf_exclude_event(event, regs)) {
> - if (!(event->attr.exclude_idle && current->pid == 0))
> - if (perf_event_overflow(event, 0, &data, regs))
> - ret = HRTIMER_NORESTART;
> + if (perf_event_overflow(event, 0, &data, regs))
> + ret = HRTIMER_NORESTART;



But yeah if we add an in_interrupt() check in perf_exclude_event(), it
won't work here. This one needs to check if irqs are nesting :)

Bah, checking we interrupted softirqs is probably enough. I guess we
don't care about nesting hardirqs.

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