[PATCH] perf record: Simplify open event error logs

From: Leo Yan

Date: Fri Feb 06 2026 - 11:32:22 EST


Instead of printing error messages for every event failure, this commit
prints a log only when the first error occurs.

Duplicate event names are a special case. Print an explicit log message
only when verbose logging is enabled.

Signed-off-by: Leo Yan <leo.yan@xxxxxxx>
---
tools/perf/builtin-record.c | 69 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------------
1 file changed, 43 insertions(+), 26 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-record.c b/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
index aa8dc3e18190dd7db1ed5e3c7673fde8d5785a26..9382ff57a822ad4ee5391116510941ce180a12d8 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
@@ -1343,6 +1343,31 @@ static int record__mmap(struct record *rec)
return record__mmap_evlist(rec, rec->evlist);
}

+static bool record__is_event_name_duplicated(struct evlist *evlist,
+ struct evsel *pos)
+{
+#if defined(__aarch64__) || defined(__arm__)
+ if (strstr(evsel__name(pos), "cycles")) {
+ struct evsel *pos2;
+
+ /*
+ * Unfortunately ARM has many events named
+ * "cycles" on PMUs like the system-level (L3)
+ * cache which don't support sampling. Only
+ * display such failures to open when there is
+ * only 1 cycles event or verbose is enabled.
+ */
+ evlist__for_each_entry(evlist, pos2) {
+ if (pos2 == pos)
+ continue;
+ if (strstr(evsel__name(pos2), "cycles"))
+ return true;
+ }
+ }
+#endif
+ return false;
+}
+
static int record__open(struct record *rec)
{
char msg[BUFSIZ];
@@ -1353,6 +1378,7 @@ static int record__open(struct record *rec)
int rc = 0;
bool skipped = false;
bool removed_tracking = false;
+ bool report_once = true;

evlist__for_each_entry(evlist, pos) {
if (removed_tracking) {
@@ -1370,8 +1396,6 @@ static int record__open(struct record *rec)
}
try_again:
if (evsel__open(pos, pos->core.cpus, pos->core.threads) < 0) {
- bool report_error = true;
-
if (evsel__fallback(pos, &opts->target, errno, msg, sizeof(msg))) {
if (verbose > 0)
ui__warning("%s\n", msg);
@@ -1383,36 +1407,29 @@ static int record__open(struct record *rec)
pos = evlist__reset_weak_group(evlist, pos, true);
goto try_again;
}
-#if defined(__aarch64__) || defined(__arm__)
- if (strstr(evsel__name(pos), "cycles")) {
- struct evsel *pos2;
- /*
- * Unfortunately ARM has many events named
- * "cycles" on PMUs like the system-level (L3)
- * cache which don't support sampling. Only
- * display such failures to open when there is
- * only 1 cycles event or verbose is enabled.
- */
- evlist__for_each_entry(evlist, pos2) {
- if (pos2 == pos)
- continue;
- if (strstr(evsel__name(pos2), "cycles")) {
- report_error = false;
- break;
- }
- }
+
+ if (pos->tracking)
+ removed_tracking = true;
+ pos->skippable = true;
+ skipped = true;
+
+ if (record__is_event_name_duplicated(evlist, pos)) {
+ if (verbose > 0)
+ ui__error("Skip to open event '%s' on PMU '%s' due to "
+ "the duplicated naming.\n",
+ evsel__name(pos), evsel__pmu_name(pos));
+ continue;
}
-#endif
- if (report_error || verbose > 0) {
+
+ if (verbose > 0 || report_once) {
evsel__open_strerror(pos, &opts->target, errno, msg, sizeof(msg));
ui__error("Failure to open event '%s' on PMU '%s' which will be "
"removed.\n%s\n",
evsel__name(pos), evsel__pmu_name(pos), msg);
+
+ if (report_once)
+ report_once = false;
}
- if (pos->tracking)
- removed_tracking = true;
- pos->skippable = true;
- skipped = true;
}
}


---
base-commit: 3d8b2baefecdd5e84a1c738bcfdb079aa536d997
change-id: 20260204-perf_improve_log_for_open_event_failures-deda2c61b93d

Best regards,
--
Leo Yan <leo.yan@xxxxxxx>