[PATCH v1 07/14] perf test: Show snippet failure output for verbose=1
From: Ian Rogers
Date: Wed May 13 2026 - 19:07:20 EST
Currently, when running tests in verbose mode (-v), if a test case fails,
the entire raw standard error buffer is dumped to stderr via
fprintf(stderr, "%s", child->err_output.buf). For tests that generate
massive amounts of debugging or logging output before dying, this results
in multi-page terminal dumps where highly critical diagnostic keywords
(error, fail, segv) are easily lost.
Implement a smart, bounded snippet string processor to improve failure
triaging:
1. Introduce a configurable quota limit static unsigned int
failure_snippet_lines = 10; accessible via a new command-line option
--failure-snippet-lines <N>.
2. Parse the raw error buffer dynamically into lines and run a three-pass
extraction algorithm:
- Pass 0: Prioritize retaining outline marker lines containing dashes
(----) to beautifully frame the start and end execution boundaries.
- Pass 1: Scan forward from the top of the log to pick up to N lines
that contain case-insensitive failure keywords (error, fail, segv,
abort) to isolate the root cause. Automatically pull in the immediate
subsequent line as highly-prioritized context. Allow adjacent matching
lines to overlap without dropping context by evaluating keywords for all
lines (e.g. when "Failed to report" is followed by "Error:").
- Pass 2: If quota remains, scan backward from the absolute tail of
the log to capture trailing crash or abort context.
3. Output the selected lines in their original chronological order,
inserting a clear ... separator between non-contiguous line jumps.
4. Wrap matched failure keywords dynamically in bold red (PERF_COLOR_RED)
to immediately draw the eye to failures.
5. Invoke the smart processor purely when verbose == 1 && ret == TEST_FAIL
in both finish_test and finish_tests_parallel, leaving raw full-output
dumping completely untouched when running highly verbose (-vv).
Example output:
```
---- start ----
...
-- [ FAIL ] -- perf_probe :: test_adding_kernel :: listing added probe :: perf probe -l (output regexp parsing)
-- [ PASS ] -- perf_probe :: test_adding_kernel :: using added probe
...
-- [ FAIL ] -- perf_probe :: test_adding_kernel :: wildcard adding support (command exitcode + output regexp parsing)
Regexp not found: "somenonexistingrandomstuffwhichisalsoprettylongorevenlongertoexceed64"
...
-- [ FAIL ] -- perf_probe :: test_adding_kernel :: non-existing variable (output regexp parsing)
-- [ PASS ] -- perf_probe :: test_adding_kernel :: function with retval :: add
...
-- [ SKIP ] -- perf_probe :: test_basic :: help message :: testcase skipped
...
---- end(-1) ----
143: perftool-testsuite_probe : FAILED!
```
Assisted-by: Gemini-CLI:Google Gemini 3
Signed-off-by: Ian Rogers <irogers@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/perf/tests/builtin-test.c | 218 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 215 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/tools/perf/tests/builtin-test.c b/tools/perf/tests/builtin-test.c
index ad1b941731ca..45c1afb9ad33 100644
--- a/tools/perf/tests/builtin-test.c
+++ b/tools/perf/tests/builtin-test.c
@@ -48,6 +48,8 @@ static bool dont_fork;
static bool sequential;
/* Number of times each test is run. */
static unsigned int runs_per_test = 1;
+/* Number of lines to include in failure snippet. */
+static unsigned int failure_snippet_lines = 10;
const char *dso_to_test;
const char *test_objdump_path = "objdump";
@@ -343,7 +345,7 @@ static int run_test_child(struct child_process *process)
for (size_t i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(signals); i++)
signal(signals[i], child_test_sig_handler);
- pr_debug("--- start ---\n");
+ pr_debug("---- start ----\n");
pr_debug("test child forked, pid %d\n", getpid());
err = test_function(child->test, child->test_case_num)(child->test, child->test_case_num);
pr_debug("---- end(%d) ----\n", err);
@@ -394,6 +396,210 @@ static int print_test_result(struct test_suite *t, int curr_suite, int curr_test
return 0;
}
+static const char * const fail_keywords[] = {
+ "error", "fail", "segv", "abort",
+ "signal", "fatal", "panic", "corrupt", NULL
+};
+
+static const char *find_next_keyword(const char *str, size_t max_len, size_t *kw_len)
+{
+ const char *best = NULL;
+ size_t best_len = 0;
+ int k;
+
+ for (k = 0; fail_keywords[k]; k++) {
+ const char *s = str;
+ size_t len = strlen(fail_keywords[k]);
+
+ while ((size_t)(s - str) + len <= max_len) {
+ size_t i;
+
+ for (i = 0; i < len; i++) {
+ if (tolower(s[i]) != fail_keywords[k][i])
+ break;
+ }
+ if (i == len) {
+ if (!best || s < best) {
+ best = s;
+ best_len = len;
+ }
+ break;
+ }
+ s++;
+ }
+ }
+ if (best) {
+ *kw_len = best_len;
+ return best;
+ }
+ return NULL;
+}
+
+static void print_line_highlighted(FILE *fp, const char *line, size_t len)
+{
+ const char *s = line;
+
+ while (len > 0) {
+ size_t kw_len = 0;
+ const char *match = find_next_keyword(s, len, &kw_len);
+
+ if (!match) {
+ fwrite(s, 1, len, fp);
+ break;
+ }
+ if (match > s)
+ fwrite(s, 1, match - s, fp);
+ if (perf_use_color_default)
+ fprintf(fp, "%s", PERF_COLOR_RED);
+ fwrite(match, 1, kw_len, fp);
+ if (perf_use_color_default)
+ fprintf(fp, "%s", PERF_COLOR_RESET);
+
+ len -= (match + kw_len) - s;
+ s = match + kw_len;
+ }
+}
+
+static bool line_contains(const char *line, size_t len, const char *tok)
+{
+ size_t tok_len = strlen(tok);
+ const char *s = line;
+
+ while ((size_t)(s - line) + tok_len <= len) {
+ if (memcmp(s, tok, tok_len) == 0)
+ return true;
+ s++;
+ }
+ return false;
+}
+
+static void print_test_failure_snippet(FILE *fp, const char *buf)
+{
+ size_t num_lines = 0;
+ size_t max_lines = 128;
+ const char **lines = calloc(max_lines, sizeof(const char *));
+ size_t *line_lens = calloc(max_lines, sizeof(size_t));
+ const char *s = buf;
+ size_t i;
+ unsigned int picked_count = 0;
+ bool *pick;
+ int last_printed = -1;
+
+ if (!lines || !line_lens) {
+ free(lines); free(line_lens);
+ fprintf(fp, "%s", buf);
+ return;
+ }
+
+ while (*s) {
+ const char *eol = strchr(s, '\n');
+ size_t len;
+
+ if (eol)
+ len = eol - s + 1;
+ else
+ len = strlen(s);
+
+ if (num_lines == max_lines) {
+ const char **new_lines;
+ size_t *new_lens;
+
+ max_lines *= 2;
+ new_lines = realloc(lines, max_lines * sizeof(const char *));
+ if (!new_lines) {
+ free(lines); free(line_lens);
+ fprintf(fp, "%s", buf);
+ return;
+ }
+ lines = new_lines;
+
+ new_lens = realloc(line_lens, max_lines * sizeof(size_t));
+ if (!new_lens) {
+ free(lines); free(line_lens);
+ fprintf(fp, "%s", buf);
+ return;
+ }
+ line_lens = new_lens;
+ }
+ lines[num_lines] = s;
+ line_lens[num_lines] = len;
+ num_lines++;
+ s += len;
+ }
+
+ if (num_lines <= failure_snippet_lines) {
+ for (i = 0; i < num_lines; i++)
+ print_line_highlighted(fp, lines[i], line_lens[i]);
+ free(lines); free(line_lens);
+ return;
+ }
+
+ pick = calloc(num_lines, sizeof(bool));
+ if (!pick) {
+ for (i = 0; i < num_lines; i++)
+ print_line_highlighted(fp, lines[i], line_lens[i]);
+ free(lines); free(line_lens);
+ return;
+ }
+
+ /* Pass 0: Unconditionally pick marker lines */
+ for (i = 0; i < num_lines; i++) {
+ if (line_contains(lines[i], line_lens[i], "----")) {
+ pick[i] = true;
+ if (picked_count < failure_snippet_lines)
+ picked_count++;
+ }
+ }
+
+ /* Pass 1: Pick lines with failure keywords from start */
+ for (i = 0; i < num_lines && picked_count < failure_snippet_lines; i++) {
+ size_t dummy;
+
+ if (find_next_keyword(lines[i], line_lens[i], &dummy)) {
+ if (!pick[i]) {
+ pick[i] = true;
+ picked_count++;
+ }
+ /* Prioritize getting the next line for context */
+ if (i + 1 < num_lines && !pick[i + 1] &&
+ picked_count < failure_snippet_lines) {
+ pick[i + 1] = true;
+ picked_count++;
+ }
+ }
+ }
+
+ /* Pass 2: Fill remaining quota from the end backwards */
+ if (picked_count < failure_snippet_lines) {
+ size_t j = num_lines;
+
+ while (j > 0 && picked_count < failure_snippet_lines) {
+ j--;
+ if (!pick[j]) {
+ pick[j] = true;
+ picked_count++;
+ }
+ }
+ }
+
+ for (i = 0; i < num_lines; i++) {
+ if (!pick[i])
+ continue;
+ if (last_printed != -1 && (int)i > last_printed + 1) {
+ if (perf_use_color_default)
+ fprintf(fp, "%s...%s\n", PERF_COLOR_BLUE, PERF_COLOR_RESET);
+ else
+ fprintf(fp, "...\n");
+ }
+ print_line_highlighted(fp, lines[i], line_lens[i]);
+ last_printed = i;
+ }
+
+ free(pick);
+ free(lines);
+ free(line_lens);
+}
+
static void finish_test(struct child_test **child_tests, int running_test, int child_test_num,
int width)
{
@@ -501,8 +707,10 @@ static void finish_test(struct child_test **child_tests, int running_test, int c
}
/* Clean up child process. */
ret = finish_command(&child_test->process);
- if (verbose > 1 || (verbose == 1 && ret == TEST_FAIL))
+ if (verbose > 1)
fprintf(stderr, "%s", err_output.buf);
+ else if (verbose == 1 && ret == TEST_FAIL)
+ print_test_failure_snippet(stderr, err_output.buf);
strbuf_release(&err_output);
print_test_result(t, curr_suite, curr_test_case, ret, width, /*running=*/0);
@@ -675,8 +883,10 @@ static int finish_tests_parallel(struct child_test **child_tests, size_t num_tes
}
}
- if (verbose > 1 || (verbose == 1 && child->result == TEST_FAIL))
+ if (verbose > 1)
fprintf(stderr, "%s", child->err_output.buf);
+ else if (verbose == 1 && child->result == TEST_FAIL)
+ print_test_failure_snippet(stderr, child->err_output.buf);
print_test_result(child->test, child->suite_num, child->test_case_num,
child->result, width, 0);
@@ -1004,6 +1214,8 @@ int cmd_test(int argc, const char **argv)
OPT_STRING(0, "dso", &dso_to_test, "dso", "dso to test"),
OPT_STRING(0, "objdump", &test_objdump_path, "path",
"objdump binary to use for disassembly and annotations"),
+ OPT_UINTEGER(0, "failure-snippet-lines", &failure_snippet_lines,
+ "Number of lines to include in failure snippet, default 10"),
OPT_END()
};
const char * const test_subcommands[] = { "list", NULL };
--
2.54.0.563.g4f69b47b94-goog