[PATCH 08/23] perf/x86: Export available PMU counters to sysfs

From: Zide Chen

Date: Fri Aug 21 2026 - 18:35:08 EST


With PMU partitioning support, the set of PMU counters available to a
PMU can vary from the architectural maximum. While this information is
available through CPUID, it is not easily consumable from scripts.

Add two new sysfs ABI files, gp_counters and fixed_counters, under the
PMU caps group to export the available counters. The fixed_counters
file is omitted when the PMU does not support fixed-function counters.

$ grep . /sys/devices/cpu/caps/*_counters
/sys/devices/cpu/caps/fixed_counters:0-3
/sys/devices/cpu/caps/gp_counters:0-7

Suggested-by: Andi Kleen <ak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Zide Chen <zide.chen@xxxxxxxxx>
---
.../sysfs-bus-event_source-devices-caps | 5 +++
arch/x86/events/core.c | 37 +++++++++++++++++++
2 files changed, 42 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-bus-event_source-devices-caps b/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-bus-event_source-devices-caps
index a5f506f7d481..385ad7a23dd6 100644
--- a/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-bus-event_source-devices-caps
+++ b/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-bus-event_source-devices-caps
@@ -22,3 +22,8 @@ Description:
of PERF_SAMPLE_BRANCH_COUNTERS, while the "branch_counter_width"
exposes the width of each counter. Both of them can be used by
the perf tool to parse the logged counters in each branch.
+
+ The "gp_counters" and "fixed_counters" attributes expose the
+ available general-purpose and fixed-function PMU counters as
+ a range list, e.g. "0-7". The "fixed_counters" attribute is
+ omitted if the PMU does not support fixed-function counters.
diff --git a/arch/x86/events/core.c b/arch/x86/events/core.c
index 76af9cfaf0ad..282170f7c1e1 100644
--- a/arch/x86/events/core.c
+++ b/arch/x86/events/core.c
@@ -2814,14 +2814,51 @@ static ssize_t max_precise_show(struct device *cdev,

static DEVICE_ATTR_RO(max_precise);

+static ssize_t gp_counters_show(struct device *dev,
+ struct device_attribute *attr, char *buf)
+{
+ struct pmu *pmu = dev_get_drvdata(dev);
+
+ return sysfs_emit(buf, "%*pbl\n", INTEL_PMC_MAX_GENERIC,
+ hybrid(pmu, cntr_mask));
+}
+
+static ssize_t fixed_counters_show(struct device *dev,
+ struct device_attribute *attr, char *buf)
+{
+ struct pmu *pmu = dev_get_drvdata(dev);
+
+ return sysfs_emit(buf, "%*pbl\n", INTEL_PMC_MAX_FIXED,
+ hybrid(pmu, fixed_cntr_mask));
+}
+
+static DEVICE_ATTR_RO(gp_counters);
+static DEVICE_ATTR_RO(fixed_counters);
+
+static umode_t x86_pmu_caps_is_visible(struct kobject *kobj,
+ struct attribute *attr, int n)
+{
+ struct device *dev = kobj_to_dev(kobj);
+ struct pmu *pmu = dev_get_drvdata(dev);
+
+ if (attr == &dev_attr_fixed_counters.attr &&
+ !hybrid(pmu, fixed_cntr_mask64))
+ return 0;
+
+ return attr->mode;
+}
+
static struct attribute *x86_pmu_caps_attrs[] = {
&dev_attr_max_precise.attr,
+ &dev_attr_gp_counters.attr,
+ &dev_attr_fixed_counters.attr,
NULL
};

static struct attribute_group x86_pmu_caps_group __ro_after_init = {
.name = "caps",
.attrs = x86_pmu_caps_attrs,
+ .is_visible = x86_pmu_caps_is_visible,
};

static const struct attribute_group *x86_pmu_attr_groups[] = {
--
2.55.0