Re: [RFC PATCH v1 2/5] perf stat: Fork and launch perf record when perf stat needs to get retire latency value for a metric.

[Ian Rogers]

On Wed, Feb 21, 2024 at 9:52 AM Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo
<acme@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Feb 21, 2024 at 02:20:56AM -0500, weilin.wang@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> > From: Weilin Wang <weilin.wang@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> You wrote no description for this patch, please add one and show
> examples of the feature being used, if possible.
>
> See below for more comments.
>
> > Signed-off-by: Weilin Wang <weilin.wang@xxxxxxxxx>
> > +static int __cmd_script(struct child_process *cmd __maybe_unused)
> > +{
> > +     int err = 0;
> > +     struct perf_session *session;
> > +     struct perf_data data = {
> > +             .mode = PERF_DATA_MODE_READ,
> > +             .path = PERF_DATA,
> > +             .fd   = cmd->out,
> > +     };
> > +     struct perf_script script = {
> > +             .tool = {
> > +             .sample          = process_sample_event,
> > +             .ordered_events  = true,
> > +             .ordering_requires_timestamps = true,
> > +             .feature         = process_feature_event,
> > +             .attr            = perf_event__process_attr,
> > +             },
> > +     };
> > +     struct tpebs_event *e;
> > +
> > +     list_for_each_entry(e, &stat_config.tpebs_events, nd) {
> > +             struct tpebs_retire_lat *new = malloc(sizeof(struct tpebs_retire_lat));
> > +
> > +             if (!new)
> > +                     return -1;
> > +             new->name = strdup(e->name);
> > +             new->tpebs_name = strdup(e->tpebs_name);
> > +             new->count = 0;
> > +             new->sum = 0;
>
> Without even having thought that much about this overall architecture,
> that looks too heavy at first sight, the above is done in tools/perf/
> as:
>
> void tpebs_retire_lat__delete(struct tpebs_retire_lat *retire_lat)
> {
>         if (retire_lat == NULL)
>                 return;
>
>         zfree(&retire_lat->tpebs_name);
>         zfree(&retire_lat->tpebs_name);
> }
>
> struct tpebs_retire_lat__new(tpebs_event *e)
> {
>         struct tpebs_retire_lat *retire_lat = zalloc(sizeof(*retire_lat));
>
>         if (retire_lat != NULL) {
>                 retire_lat->name = strdup(e->name);
>                 retire_lat->tpebs_name = strdup(e->tpebs_name);
>
>                 if (retire_lat->name == NULL || retire_lat->tpebs_name == NULL) {
>                         tpebs_retire_lat__delete(retire_lat);
>                         retire_lat = NULL;
>                 }
>         }
>
>         return retire_lat;
> }
>
> And then you call the constructor  in that loop, and the destructor at
> some point when those data structures are not needed.
>
> We do it because perf has a TUI mode and we may end up calling tools
> from them in a long running session, so we need to avoid leaks.
>
> Also can we somehow hide Intel specific terms in arch specific files
> while leaving something generic, possibly implementable in other arches
> in the core code? I mean hiding clearly intel specific stuff like the
> "tpebs" term in tools/perf/arch/x86/.

Thanks Arnaldo, TPEBS support is necessary to support TMA metrics 4.7
on meteorlake. The timed values replace hard coded constants that
assume worst case latencies. You can see the metrics here:
https://github.com/intel/perfmon/blob/main/TMA_Metrics-full.csv
in the MTL (meteorlake) column row 29 there is:
MEM_INST_RETIRED.STLB_HIT_LOADS*min($PEBS, #Mem_STLB_Hit_Cost) / CLKS
+ Load_STLB_Miss
where the $PEBS is supposed to be replaced with the latency from a
sample of MEM_INST_RETIRED.STLB_HIT_LOADS. There are meteorlake
machines shipping but currently there are no perf metrics.

Weilin raised the TPEBS problem in the LPC 2023 talk, the issue being
that sampling and counting don't really exist in the current perf tool
code at the same time. BPF could be a workaround but permissions are
an issue. Perhaps leader sampling but then what to do if two latencies
are needed. Forking perf to do this is an expedient and ideally we'd
not do it.

I'm against stuff going in the arch directory in general. If something
is specific to a PMU, let's special case the logic for that PMU in the
tool. The arch directory gets us into messes like:
https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAP-5=fVABSBZnsmtRn1uF-k-G1GWM-L5SgiinhPTfHbQsKXb_g@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/
Where a heterogenous/hybrid/big.little fix is in the x86 arch folder
(overriding a weak symbol) but not in the arm or other ones leading to
an arm bug.

I think the idea of a count coming from an external or tool source is
something of a more generic concept. I think what Weilin is doing here
is setting the groundwork for doing that, a first implementation. I'd
like the expr literals, like #smt_on, #num_cpus, etc. to be more like
tool events such as duration_time. I think we can move in the
direction that Weilin is adding here and then iterate to clean up
these things, hopefully move them to events that then other tools
could use, etc.

Thanks,
Ian




> > +             list_add_tail(&new->nd, &stat_config.tpebs_results);
> > +     }
> > +
> > +     kill(cmd->pid, SIGTERM);
> > +     session = perf_session__new(&data, &script.tool);
> > +     if (IS_ERR(session))
> > +             return PTR_ERR(session);
> > +     script.session = session;
> > +     err = perf_session__process_events(session);
> > +     perf_session__delete(session);
> > +
> > +     return err;
> > +}
> > +
> >  static int __run_perf_stat(int argc, const char **argv, int run_idx)
> >  {
> >       int interval = stat_config.interval;
> > @@ -709,12 +866,14 @@ static int __run_perf_stat(int argc, const char **argv, int run_idx)
> >       struct affinity saved_affinity, *affinity = NULL;
> >       int err;
> >       bool second_pass = false;
> > +     struct child_process cmd;
> >
> >       //Prepare perf record for sampling event retire_latency before fork and prepare workload
> >       if (stat_config.tpebs_event_size > 0) {
> >               int ret;
> >
> > -             ret = __run_perf_record();
> > +             pr_debug("perf stat pid = %d\n", getpid());
> > +             ret = prepare_perf_record(&cmd);
> >               if (ret)
> >                       return ret;
> >       }
> > @@ -924,6 +1083,17 @@ static int __run_perf_stat(int argc, const char **argv, int run_idx)
> >
> >       t1 = rdclock();
> >
> > +     if (stat_config.tpebs_event_size > 0) {
> > +             int ret;
> > +
> > +             pr_debug("pid = %d\n", getpid());
> > +             pr_debug("cmd.pid = %d\n", cmd.pid);
> > +
> > +             ret = __cmd_script(&cmd);
> > +             close(cmd.out);
> > +             pr_debug("%d\n", ret);
> > +     }
> > +
> >       if (stat_config.walltime_run_table)
> >               stat_config.walltime_run[run_idx] = t1 - t0;
> >
> > @@ -2714,6 +2884,7 @@ int cmd_stat(int argc, const char **argv)
> >       }
> >
> >       INIT_LIST_HEAD(&stat_config.tpebs_events);
> > +     INIT_LIST_HEAD(&stat_config.tpebs_results);
> >
> >       /*
> >        * Metric parsing needs to be delayed as metrics may optimize events
> > @@ -2921,5 +3092,7 @@ int cmd_stat(int argc, const char **argv)
> >       metricgroup__rblist_exit(&stat_config.metric_events);
> >       evlist__close_control(stat_config.ctl_fd, stat_config.ctl_fd_ack, &stat_config.ctl_fd_close);
> >
> > +     tpebs_data__delete();
> > +
> >       return status;
> >  }
> > diff --git a/tools/perf/util/data.c b/tools/perf/util/data.c
> > index fc16299c915f..2298ca3b370b 100644
> > --- a/tools/perf/util/data.c
> > +++ b/tools/perf/util/data.c
> > @@ -173,6 +173,10 @@ static bool check_pipe(struct perf_data *data)
> >       int fd = perf_data__is_read(data) ?
> >                STDIN_FILENO : STDOUT_FILENO;
> >
> > +     if (data->fd > 0) {
> > +             fd = data->fd;
> > +     }
> > +
> >       if (!data->path) {
> >               if (!fstat(fd, &st) && S_ISFIFO(st.st_mode))
> >                       is_pipe = true;
> > diff --git a/tools/perf/util/data.h b/tools/perf/util/data.h
> > index effcc195d7e9..5554d46ad212 100644
> > --- a/tools/perf/util/data.h
> > +++ b/tools/perf/util/data.h
> > @@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ struct perf_data_file {
> >
> >  struct perf_data {
> >       const char              *path;
> > +     int                      fd;
> >       struct perf_data_file    file;
> >       bool                     is_pipe;
> >       bool                     is_dir;
> > diff --git a/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c b/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c
> > index 6c16e5a0b1fc..8518e2b3e5be 100644
> > --- a/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c
> > +++ b/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c
> > @@ -691,8 +691,17 @@ static int metricgroup__build_event_string(struct strbuf *events,
> >
> >               if (p) {
> >                       struct tpebs_event *new_event = malloc(sizeof(struct tpebs_event));
> > -                     *p = '\0';
> > +                     char *name;
> > +
> >                       new_event->tpebs_name = strdup(id);
> > +                     *p = '\0';
> > +                     name = malloc(strlen(id) + 2);
> > +                     if (!name)
> > +                             return -ENOMEM;
> > +
> > +                     strcpy(name, id);
> > +                     strcat(name, ":p");
> > +                     new_event->name = name;
>
> For such cases we use asprintf(), that allocates and formats the string
> in one call, look for examples in other tools/perf/ files.
>
> >                       *tpebs_event_size += 1;
> >                       pr_debug("retire_latency required, tpebs_event_size=%lu, new_event=%s\n",
> >                       *tpebs_event_size, new_event->name);
> > diff --git a/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.h b/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.h
> > index 7c24ed768ff3..1fa12cc3294e 100644
> > --- a/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.h
> > +++ b/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.h
> > @@ -71,6 +71,13 @@ struct tpebs_event {
> >       const char *name;
> >       const char *tpebs_name;
> >  };
> > +struct tpebs_retire_lat {
> > +     struct list_head nd;
> > +     const char *name;
> > +     const char *tpebs_name;
> > +     size_t count;
> > +     int sum;
> > +};
>
> Here you declare the constructor and destructor I suggested above.
>
> >  struct metric_event *metricgroup__lookup(struct rblist *metric_events,
> >                                        struct evsel *evsel,
> > diff --git a/tools/perf/util/stat.h b/tools/perf/util/stat.h
> > index 9d0186316b29..8e180f13aa2d 100644
> > --- a/tools/perf/util/stat.h
> > +++ b/tools/perf/util/stat.h
> > @@ -111,6 +111,9 @@ struct perf_stat_config {
> >       struct rblist            metric_events;
> >       struct list_head         tpebs_events;
> >       size_t                   tpebs_event_size;
> > +     struct list_head         tpebs_results;
> > +     pid_t                    tpebs_pid;
> > +     int                      tpebs_pipe;
> >       int                      ctl_fd;
> >       int                      ctl_fd_ack;
> >       bool                     ctl_fd_close;
> > --
> > 2.43.0
> >