Re: [PATCH 6/9] perf report: Support instruction latency

[Liang, Kan]

On 2/6/2021 3:09 AM, Namhyung Kim wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 5, 2021 at 11:38 PM Liang, Kan <kan.liang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > On 2/5/2021 6:08 AM, Namhyung Kim wrote:
> > > On Wed, Feb 3, 2021 at 5:14 AM <kan.liang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > From: Kan Liang <kan.liang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > > >
> > > > The instruction latency information can be recorded on some platforms,
> > > > e.g., the Intel Sapphire Rapids server. With both memory latency
> > > > (weight) and the new instruction latency information, users can easily
> > > > locate the expensive load instructions, and also understand the time
> > > > spent in different stages. The users can optimize their applications
> > > > in different pipeline stages.
> > > >
> > > > The 'weight' field is shared among different architectures. Reusing the
> > > > 'weight' field may impacts other architectures. Add a new field to store
> > > > the instruction latency.
> > > >
> > > > Like the 'weight' support, introduce a 'ins_lat' for the global
> > > > instruction latency, and a 'local_ins_lat' for the local instruction
> > > > latency version.
> > >
> > > Could you please clarify the difference between the global latency
> > > and the local latency?
> >
> > The global means the total latency.
> > The local means average latency, aka total / number of samples.
>
> Thanks for the explanation, but I think it's confusing.
> Why not call it just total_latency and avg_latency?

The instruction latency field is an extension of the weight field, so I 
follow the same way to name the field. I still think we should make the 
naming consistency.

To address the confusion, I think we may update the document for both 
the weight and the instruction latency fields.

How about the below patch?

From d5e80f541cb7288b24a7c5661ae5faede4747807 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Kan Liang <kan.liang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2021 05:27:03 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] perf documentation: Add comments to the local/global 
weight related fields

Current 'local' and 'global' prefix is confusing for the weight related
fields, e.g., weight, instruction latency.

Add comments to clarify.
'global' means total weight/instruction latency sum.
'local' means average weight/instruction latency per sample

Signed-off-by: Kan Liang <kan.liang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
 tools/perf/Documentation/perf-report.txt | 10 ++++++----
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-report.txt 
b/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-report.txt
index f546b5e..acc1c1d 100644
--- a/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-report.txt
+++ b/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-report.txt
@@ -92,8 +92,9 @@ OPTIONS
 	- srcfile: file name of the source file of the samples. Requires dwarf
 	information.
 	- weight: Event specific weight, e.g. memory latency or transaction
-	abort cost. This is the global weight.
-	- local_weight: Local weight version of the weight above.
+	abort cost. This is the global weight (total weight sum).
+	- local_weight: Local weight (average weight per sample) version of the
+	  weight above.
 	- cgroup_id: ID derived from cgroup namespace device and inode numbers.
 	- cgroup: cgroup pathname in the cgroupfs.
 	- transaction: Transaction abort flags.
@@ -110,8 +111,9 @@ OPTIONS
 	--time-quantum (default 100ms). Specify with overhead and before it.
 	- code_page_size: the code page size of sampled code address (ip)
 	- ins_lat: Instruction latency in core cycles. This is the global 
instruction
-	  latency
-	- local_ins_lat: Local instruction latency version
+	  latency (total instruction latency sum)
+	- local_ins_lat: Local instruction latency (average instruction 
latency per
+	  sample) version

 	By default, comm, dso and symbol keys are used.
 	(i.e. --sort comm,dso,symbol)
--
2.7.4


Thanks,
Kan