[PATCH v1 16/41] perf parse-events: Decode metric-id terms when adding events

From: Ian Rogers

Date: Tue Nov 03 2026 - 18:50:56 EST


Metric events are parsed from an event string where the identifier from
the metric expression is passed as a metric-id term. As characters such
as '@' and ',' can't appear in a term value the metricgroup code encodes
them and, after parsing, walked the parsed evlist replacing each evsel's
metric_id with its decoded version.

Move the encoding and decoding to parse-events.c, adding
parse_events__encode_metric_id() for the metricgroup code, and store the
decoded metric-id on the evsel when it is created in __add_event(). This
avoids rewriting the metric_id of evsels after parsing, leaving
metricgroup with only the replacement of the evsel names of metric
events by friendlier versions of the metric-id. While moving the
decoding, fix the out of bounds check on the encoded character index
and return -EINVAL for a bad encoding.

Signed-off-by: Ian Rogers <irogers@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c | 110 ++++++++-------------------------
tools/perf/util/parse-events.c | 74 +++++++++++++++++++++-
tools/perf/util/parse-events.h | 1 +
3 files changed, 101 insertions(+), 84 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c b/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c
index 51dbdeac5e60..b4a978794cc8 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c
@@ -610,57 +610,13 @@ int metricgroup__add_matching_metrics(struct evlist *evlist, bool system_wide)
find_matching_metrics_cb, &args);
}

-static const char *code_characters = ",-=@";
-
-static int encode_metric_id(struct strbuf *sb, const char *x)
-{
- int ret = 0;
-
- for (; *x; x++) {
- const char *c = strchr(code_characters, *x);
- if (c) {
- ret = strbuf_addch(sb, '!');
- if (ret)
- break;
-
- ret = strbuf_addch(sb, '0' + (c - code_characters));
- if (ret)
- break;
- } else {
- ret = strbuf_addch(sb, *x);
- if (ret)
- break;
- }
- }
- return ret;
-}
-
-static int decode_metric_id(struct strbuf *sb, const char *x)
-{
- const char *orig = x;
- size_t i;
- char c;
- int ret;
-
- for (; *x; x++) {
- c = *x;
- if (*x == '!') {
- x++;
- i = *x - '0';
- if (i > strlen(code_characters)) {
- pr_err("Bad metric-id encoding in: '%s'", orig);
- return -1;
- }
- c = code_characters[i];
- }
- ret = strbuf_addch(sb, c);
- if (ret)
- return ret;
- }
- return 0;
-}
-
-static int decode_all_metric_ids(struct evlist *perf_evlist, const char *modifier)
+/*
+ * The metric events are parsed with a metric-id holding the identifier used in
+ * the metric expression. If the evsel name is just the parsed event, which
+ * contains the encoded metric-id, use the metric-id to give a more friendly
+ * display version.
+ */
+static int set_metric_event_names(struct evlist *perf_evlist, const char *modifier)
{
struct evsel *ev;
struct strbuf sb = STRBUF_INIT;
@@ -668,51 +624,39 @@ static int decode_all_metric_ids(struct evlist *perf_evlist, const char *modifie
int ret = 0;

evlist__for_each_entry(perf_evlist, ev) {
- if (!ev->metric_id)
+ bool has_slash = false;
+
+ if (!ev->metric_id || !strstr(ev->name, "metric-id="))
continue;

ret = strbuf_setlen(&sb, 0);
if (ret)
break;

- ret = decode_metric_id(&sb, ev->metric_id);
+ ret = strbuf_addstr(&sb, ev->metric_id);
if (ret)
break;

- free((char *)ev->metric_id);
- ev->metric_id = strdup(sb.buf);
- if (!ev->metric_id) {
- ret = -ENOMEM;
- break;
+ zfree(&ev->name);
+ for (cur = strchr(sb.buf, '@') ; cur; cur = strchr(++cur, '@')) {
+ *cur = '/';
+ has_slash = true;
}
- /*
- * If the name is just the parsed event, use the metric-id to
- * give a more friendly display version.
- */
- if (strstr(ev->name, "metric-id=")) {
- bool has_slash = false;
-
- zfree(&ev->name);
- for (cur = strchr(sb.buf, '@') ; cur; cur = strchr(++cur, '@')) {
- *cur = '/';
- has_slash = true;
- }

- if (modifier) {
- if (!has_slash && !strchr(sb.buf, ':')) {
- ret = strbuf_addch(&sb, ':');
- if (ret)
- break;
- }
- ret = strbuf_addstr(&sb, modifier);
+ if (modifier) {
+ if (!has_slash && !strchr(sb.buf, ':')) {
+ ret = strbuf_addch(&sb, ':');
if (ret)
break;
}
- ev->name = strdup(sb.buf);
- if (!ev->name) {
- ret = -ENOMEM;
+ ret = strbuf_addstr(&sb, modifier);
+ if (ret)
break;
- }
+ }
+ ev->name = strdup(sb.buf);
+ if (!ev->name) {
+ ret = -ENOMEM;
+ break;
}
}
strbuf_release(&sb);
@@ -787,7 +731,7 @@ static int metricgroup__build_event_string(struct strbuf *events,
ret = strbuf_addstr(events, "/metric-id=");
RETURN_IF_NON_ZERO(ret);
}
- ret = encode_metric_id(events, id);
+ ret = parse_events__encode_metric_id(events, id);
RETURN_IF_NON_ZERO(ret);
ret = strbuf_addstr(events, "/");
RETURN_IF_NON_ZERO(ret);
@@ -1513,7 +1457,7 @@ static int parse_ids(bool metric_no_merge, bool fake_pmu,
parse_events_error__print(&parse_error, events.buf);
goto err_out;
}
- ret = decode_all_metric_ids(parsed_evlist, modifier);
+ ret = set_metric_event_names(parsed_evlist, modifier);
if (ret)
goto err_out;

diff --git a/tools/perf/util/parse-events.c b/tools/perf/util/parse-events.c
index 159d847f44ce..1c02c2b90684 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/parse-events.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/parse-events.c
@@ -171,6 +171,73 @@ static void fix_raw(struct parse_events_terms *config_terms, struct perf_pmu *pm
}
}

+/*
+ * Characters that can't appear in a metric-id term value are encoded as '!'
+ * followed by the character's index in this string.
+ */
+static const char *metric_id_code_characters = ",-=@";
+
+/**
+ * parse_events__encode_metric_id - Encode a metric identifier as a metric-id
+ * term value.
+ * @sb: The buffer the encoded identifier is appended to.
+ * @x: The metric identifier to encode.
+ *
+ * Return: 0 on success or the strbuf error.
+ */
+int parse_events__encode_metric_id(struct strbuf *sb, const char *x)
+{
+ int ret = 0;
+
+ for (; *x; x++) {
+ const char *c = strchr(metric_id_code_characters, *x);
+
+ if (c) {
+ ret = strbuf_addch(sb, '!');
+ if (ret)
+ break;
+
+ ret = strbuf_addch(sb, '0' + (c - metric_id_code_characters));
+ if (ret)
+ break;
+ } else {
+ ret = strbuf_addch(sb, *x);
+ if (ret)
+ break;
+ }
+ }
+ return ret;
+}
+
+/*
+ * Decode a metric-id term value encoded by parse_events__encode_metric_id()
+ * into @sb.
+ */
+static int parse_events__decode_metric_id(struct strbuf *sb, const char *x)
+{
+ const char *orig = x;
+ size_t i;
+ char c;
+ int ret;
+
+ for (; *x; x++) {
+ c = *x;
+ if (*x == '!') {
+ x++;
+ i = *x - '0';
+ if (i >= strlen(metric_id_code_characters)) {
+ pr_err("Bad metric-id encoding in: '%s'", orig);
+ return -EINVAL;
+ }
+ c = metric_id_code_characters[i];
+ }
+ ret = strbuf_addch(sb, c);
+ if (ret)
+ return ret;
+ }
+ return 0;
+}
+
static struct evsel *
__add_event(struct list_head *list, int *idx,
struct perf_event_attr *attr,
@@ -261,7 +328,12 @@ __add_event(struct list_head *list, int *idx,
}

if (metric_id) {
- evsel->metric_id = strdup(metric_id);
+ struct strbuf sb = STRBUF_INIT;
+ int ret = parse_events__decode_metric_id(&sb, metric_id);
+
+ if (!ret)
+ evsel->metric_id = strdup(sb.buf);
+ strbuf_release(&sb);
if (!evsel->metric_id)
goto out_err;
}
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/parse-events.h b/tools/perf/util/parse-events.h
index 57eabdb97890..bec75c2d7b32 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/parse-events.h
+++ b/tools/perf/util/parse-events.h
@@ -245,6 +245,7 @@ int parse_events_add_breakpoint(struct parse_events_state *parse_state,
struct evsel *parse_events__add_event(int idx, struct perf_event_attr *attr,
const char *name, const char *metric_id,
struct perf_pmu *pmu);
+int parse_events__encode_metric_id(struct strbuf *sb, const char *x);

int parse_events_multi_pmu_add(struct parse_events_state *parse_state,
const char *event_name,
--
2.56.0.385.gac671c819a-goog