Re: [RFC] perf: EBNF for event syntax

From: Lin Ming
Date: Fri Mar 25 2011 - 09:35:25 EST


On Fri, 2011-03-25 at 19:07 +0800, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> On Wed, 2011-03-23 at 11:36 +0800, Lin Ming wrote:
> > Hi, all
> >
> > On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 2:02 AM, Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > How about we start writing proper EBNF syntax rules for this stuff, its
> > > getting seriously out of hand.
> > http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=130029871318866&w=2
> >
> > As Peter suggested, I wrote a simple EBNF for event syntax, as below.
> > My first plan is to pass in extra config value for some events,
> > for example, offcore response and load latency.
> >
> > perf record -e r100b(0004):p
> >
> > As above, the extra config value 0004 is passed in the parentheses.
> >
> > The EBNF
> > ========
> >
> > EventList := Event [',' EventList]
>
> There was a suggestion a while back to make:
>
> -e ev1,ev2,ev3
>
> create an event group with ev2 and ev3 siblings of ev1, and have
> multiple -e instances create separate counters.
>
> The problem is that its not backwards compatible, but something like
> that would still be very nice to have.

Currently, it means a list of independent events, right?

>
> > Event := HardwareEvent |
> > RawEvent |
> > SoftwareEvent |
> > TracepointEvent |
> > HardwareBreakpointEvent
> >
> > HardwareEvent := HardwareEventName [ExtraConfig] [Modifer]
> > HardwareEventName := 'cpu-cycles' | 'cycles' | 'instructions' /* and so on ...*/
> > ExtraConfig := '(' ConfigValue [',' ConfigValue] ')'
> > ConfigValue := HexNumber
> >
> > RawEvent := RawSeperator RawCode [ExtraConfig] [Modifer]
> > RawSeperator := 'r'
> > RawCode := HexNumber
> >
> > SoftwareEvent := SoftwareEventName
> > SoftwareEventName := 'cpu-clock' | 'task-clock' | 'faults' /* and so on ...*/
> >
> > TracepointEvent := SubsystemName ':' TracepointName
> > SubsystemName := /* All AsciiString except the pre-defined hardware/software/cache events name and BreakpointSeparator */
> > TracepointName := '*' | AsciiString
> >
> > HardwareBreakpointEvent := BreakpointSeparator BreakpointAddress [':' AccessType]
> > BreakpointSeparator := 'mem:'
> > BreakpointAddress := HexNumber
> > AccessType := 'r' | 'w' | 'x'
> >
> > Modifier := ModifierSperator ModifierList
> > ModifierSperator := ':'
> > ModifierList := ModifierItem ModifierList
> > ModifierItem := {PreciseModifer} | kernelModifer | UserModifer | HypervisorModifer
> > PreciseModifer := 'p' /* Can be multiple PreciseModifers */
> > kernelModifer := 'k'
> > UserModifer := 'u'
> > HypervisorModifer := 'h'
>
> Otherwise, very nice. Eventually we'll be able to use a parser generator
> for this.

Yes, bison/yacc is good for this.


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