[PATCH 02/15] perf intel-pt: Update documentation about context switch events

From: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo
Date: Mon Nov 14 2016 - 20:39:38 EST


From: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@xxxxxxxxxx>

Since the unprivileged sched switch event was added in perf, PT doesn't
need need perf_event_paranoid=-1 anymore for per cpu decoding.

Add a note stating that that is only needed for kernels < 4.2.

Reported-by: Andi Kleen <ak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Report-Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/http://lkml.kernel.org/n/tip-x2ybghpqxxn3zu0m8o7qi42r@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Acked-by: Adrian Hunter <adrian.hunter@xxxxxxxxx>
Fixes: 45ac1403f564 ("perf: Add PERF_RECORD_SWITCH to indicate context switches")
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/n/tip-x2ybghpqxxn3zu0m8o7qi42r@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/perf/Documentation/intel-pt.txt | 19 +++++++++++++++++--
1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/perf/Documentation/intel-pt.txt b/tools/perf/Documentation/intel-pt.txt
index c6c8318e38a2..b0b3007d3c9c 100644
--- a/tools/perf/Documentation/intel-pt.txt
+++ b/tools/perf/Documentation/intel-pt.txt
@@ -550,6 +550,18 @@ Unless /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid is set to -1, unprivileged users
have memory limits imposed upon them. That affects what buffer sizes they can
have as outlined above.

+The v4.2 kernel introduced support for a context switch metadata event,
+PERF_RECORD_SWITCH, which allows unprivileged users to see when their processes
+are scheduled out and in, just not by whom, which is left for the
+PERF_RECORD_SWITCH_CPU_WIDE, that is only accessible in system wide context,
+which in turn requires CAP_SYS_ADMIN.
+
+Please see the 45ac1403f564 ("perf: Add PERF_RECORD_SWITCH to indicate context
+switches") commit, that introduces these metadata events for further info.
+
+When working with kernels < v4.2, the following considerations must be taken,
+as the sched:sched_switch tracepoints will be used to receive such information:
+
Unless /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid is set to -1, unprivileged users are
not permitted to use tracepoints which means there is insufficient side-band
information to decode Intel PT in per-cpu mode, and potentially workload-only
@@ -564,8 +576,11 @@ sched_switch tracepoint
-----------------------

The sched_switch tracepoint is used to provide side-band data for Intel PT
-decoding. sched_switch events are automatically added. e.g. the second event
-shown below
+decoding in kernels where the PERF_RECORD_SWITCH metadata event isn't
+available.
+
+The sched_switch events are automatically added. e.g. the second event shown
+below:

$ perf record -vv -e intel_pt//u uname
------------------------------------------------------------
--
2.7.4