[PATCH v5 0/9] perf c2c: add a function view

From: Jiebin Sun

Date: Thu Jul 30 2026 - 05:15:40 EST


This series adds a new "function view" to perf c2c report, on top of the
existing cacheline view. Existing cacheline-view data and operations remain
unchanged; TAB adds access to a complementary way to inspect the same
cache-to-cache (C2C) data.

v1: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-perf-users/20260626070355.1556721-1-jiebin.sun@xxxxxxxxx/
v2: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-perf-users/20260710084247.3576706-1-jiebin.sun@xxxxxxxxx/
v3: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-perf-users/20260717020530.1645123-1-jiebin.sun@xxxxxxxxx/
v4: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-perf-users/20260724095842.995920-1-jiebin.sun@xxxxxxxxx/

Changes since v4
================

- Rebase onto perf-tools-next at 0d40fedcd1b9.

- Require `iaddr` in --coalesce before entering the function view;
without it, coalesced samples cannot be reliably attributed.

- Reuse each source cacheline's existing index as the level-3 identity,
so same-address sources no longer merge and 'd' finds the original
entry, without adding fields to the shared C2C structures.

- Keep same-function reader/writer pairs, which the coalesced view cannot
reliably tell apart from cross-thread contention.

- Robustness and cleanup: build the hierarchy only from filtered
cachelines with a lightweight entry allocator; explicit
mem_info__new() handling; a local bound in the symbol renderer; a
NULL-map guard; deterministic tie-breaks; function-view-local row
recounting; Ctrl-C as an exit key; and expanded man-page docs.

No intended change to cacheline-view data, existing cacheline operations,
or --stdio output.

Changes since v3
================

Reworked the function view into a true function-centric hierarchy, as
discussed with Namhyung:

- Level 1 is the read-side function itself, aggregating all of its code
addresses into one entry and sorting by Cycles %.

- Level 2 is the contending function that writes the shared lines,
aggregated across cachelines and sorted by store count. Level 3 is the
specific cachelines.

- Dedicated code-address and offset columns were removed from the main
view. Verbose function formatting can still include a representative
code address, and full code-address information remains available in
the per-cacheline detail view ('d').

- Lower-level entries are indented like the normal perf report hierarchy
view, and entries with no contending writer are pruned.

- Reorganized the series from 14 mechanical patches into 9 logically
self-contained patches.

Changes since v2
================

- Prefix helpers exported from builtin-c2c.c with c2c_, as suggested by
Namhyung.

Changes since v1
================

- Add a worked man-page example, as suggested by Namhyung.

In the perf c2c TUI, press TAB in the cacheline view to switch to the
function view. It presents a three-level hierarchy:

Level 1: read-side function, sorted by Cycles %
Level 2: functions writing the shared lines, sorted by store count
Level 3: cachelines where the two functions contend

For example, with dequeue_pushable_task expanded to its level-2 writers and
two of those writers expanded to their level-3 cachelines:

Shared Data Functions Table (19 entries, sorted on Cycles %)
Cycles Store
% count Function / Contending function / Cacheline
----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ 35.67% 876 + [k] cpupri_set
+ 24.31% 424 + [k] pull_rt_task
- 16.53% 555 - [k] dequeue_pushable_task
145 - [k] pull_rt_task
145 0xff2d0082809da080
139 - [k] enqueue_pushable_task
70 0xff2d00a2071f9640
69 0xff2d0082809da000

A level-1 store count decomposes into its level-2 writers, and each writer's
count decomposes into its level-3 cachelines (here 145 = 145, 139 = 70 + 69).

Keys in the function view:

TAB/ESC/q/Ctrl-C return to the cacheline view
d show details for the selected level-3 cacheline
e / + expand / collapse the selected entry
? help

The function view is a separate hist_browser in
tools/perf/ui/browsers/c2c-function.c. Shared types and helpers used by
both views are factored out of builtin-c2c.c into c2c.h. The hierarchy is
constructed from the existing cacheline histograms into dedicated hists
and rendered with custom column formatters.

Testing: each commit builds individually; the full series builds with and
without SLANG support; perf test c2c passes (one permission-related skip);
cacheline --stdio output is byte-identical to the base commit; and the
perf-c2c man page builds.

Jiebin Sun (9):
perf c2c: extract shared data structures into c2c.h
perf c2c: add function view browser skeleton
perf c2c: add column rendering for function view
perf c2c: add HPP list parsing for function view columns
perf c2c: add function view stats merge and memory management
perf c2c: add function view hierarchy entry creation
perf c2c: build and finalize the function view hierarchy
perf c2c: add function view browser UI and cacheline detail
perf c2c: document function view in perf-c2c man page

tools/perf/Documentation/perf-c2c.txt | 71 +
tools/perf/builtin-c2c.c | 130 +-
tools/perf/c2c.h | 145 ++
tools/perf/ui/browsers/Build | 1 +
tools/perf/ui/browsers/c2c-function.c | 1831 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
5 files changed, 2059 insertions(+), 119 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 tools/perf/c2c.h
create mode 100644 tools/perf/ui/browsers/c2c-function.c


base-commit: 0d40fedcd1b9e809f966c97d40f32943fb89e0d4
--
2.52.0