Re: [PATCH v1] perf test workload: Add thread count argument to thloop

[Ian Rogers]

On Tue, Oct 28, 2025 at 8:08 AM Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo
<acme@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Oct 27, 2025 at 01:14:05PM -0700, Ian Rogers wrote:
> > Allow the number of threads for the thloop workload to be increased
> > beyond the normal 2. Add error checking to the parsed time and thread
> > count values.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Ian Rogers <irogers@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > ---
> >  tools/perf/tests/workloads/thloop.c | 41 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-----
> >  1 file changed, 35 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/tools/perf/tests/workloads/thloop.c b/tools/perf/tests/workloads/thloop.c
> > index 457b29f91c3e..dbb88bcf49e0 100644
> > --- a/tools/perf/tests/workloads/thloop.c
> > +++ b/tools/perf/tests/workloads/thloop.c
> > @@ -31,21 +31,50 @@ static void *thfunc(void *arg)
> >
> >  static int thloop(int argc, const char **argv)
> >  {
> > -     int sec = 1;
> > -     pthread_t th;
> > +     int nt = 2, sec = 1, err = 1;
> > +     pthread_t *thread_list = NULL;
> >
> >       if (argc > 0)
> >               sec = atoi(argv[0]);
> >
> > +     if (sec <= 0) {
> > +             fprintf(stderr, "Error: seconds (%d) must be >= 1\n", sec);
> > +             return 1;
> > +     }
> > +
> > +     if (argc > 1)
> > +             nt = atoi(argv[1]);
> > +
> > +     if (nt <= 0) {
> > +             fprintf(stderr, "Error: thread count (%d) must be >= 1\n", nt);
> > +             return 1;
> > +     }
> > +
> >       signal(SIGINT, sighandler);
> >       signal(SIGALRM, sighandler);
> > -     alarm(sec);
> >
> > -     pthread_create(&th, NULL, thfunc, test_loop);
> > +     thread_list = calloc(nt, sizeof(pthread_t));
> > +     if (thread_list == NULL) {
> > +             fprintf(stderr, "Error: malloc failed for %d threads\n", nt);
> > +             goto out;
> > +     }
> > +     for (int i = 1; i < nt; i++) {
> > +             int ret = pthread_create(&thread_list[i], NULL, thfunc, test_loop);
> > +
> > +             if (ret) {
> > +                     fprintf(stderr, "Error: failed to create thread %d\n", i);
>
> With nt=2 what happens if you manage to create the first thread but not
> the second? The first would not have its pthread_join()?

Yeah. Let's join them. I was trying to be clean and not just call
exit. Fwiw, the 1st thread is the main thread and I was trying to
avoid "nt - 1" appearing everything, or nt being 1 in the case of 2
threads. Anyway...

Thanks,
Ian

> > +                     goto out;
> > +             }
> > +     }
> > +     alarm(sec);
> >       test_loop();
> > -     pthread_join(th, NULL);
> > +     for (int i = 1; i < nt; i++)
> > +             pthread_join(thread_list[i], /*retval=*/NULL);
> >
> > -     return 0;
> > +     err = 0;
> > +out:
> > +     free(thread_list);
> > +     return err;
> >  }
> >
> >  DEFINE_WORKLOAD(thloop);
> > --
> > 2.51.1.851.g4ebd6896fd-goog