|  |  | 
|  | ------------------------------ | 
|  | ****** perf by examples ****** | 
|  | ------------------------------ | 
|  |  | 
|  | [ From an e-mail by Ingo Molnar, http://lkml.org/lkml/2009/8/4/346 ] | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | First, discovery/enumeration of available counters can be done via | 
|  | 'perf list': | 
|  |  | 
|  | titan:~> perf list | 
|  | [...] | 
|  | kmem:kmalloc                             [Tracepoint event] | 
|  | kmem:kmem_cache_alloc                    [Tracepoint event] | 
|  | kmem:kmalloc_node                        [Tracepoint event] | 
|  | kmem:kmem_cache_alloc_node               [Tracepoint event] | 
|  | kmem:kfree                               [Tracepoint event] | 
|  | kmem:kmem_cache_free                     [Tracepoint event] | 
|  | kmem:mm_page_free                        [Tracepoint event] | 
|  | kmem:mm_page_free_batched                [Tracepoint event] | 
|  | kmem:mm_page_alloc                       [Tracepoint event] | 
|  | kmem:mm_page_alloc_zone_locked           [Tracepoint event] | 
|  | kmem:mm_page_pcpu_drain                  [Tracepoint event] | 
|  | kmem:mm_page_alloc_extfrag               [Tracepoint event] | 
|  |  | 
|  | Then any (or all) of the above event sources can be activated and | 
|  | measured. For example the page alloc/free properties of a 'hackbench | 
|  | run' are: | 
|  |  | 
|  | titan:~> perf stat -e kmem:mm_page_pcpu_drain -e kmem:mm_page_alloc | 
|  | -e kmem:mm_page_free_batched -e kmem:mm_page_free ./hackbench 10 | 
|  | Time: 0.575 | 
|  |  | 
|  | Performance counter stats for './hackbench 10': | 
|  |  | 
|  | 13857  kmem:mm_page_pcpu_drain | 
|  | 27576  kmem:mm_page_alloc | 
|  | 6025  kmem:mm_page_free_batched | 
|  | 20934  kmem:mm_page_free | 
|  |  | 
|  | 0.613972165  seconds time elapsed | 
|  |  | 
|  | You can observe the statistical properties as well, by using the | 
|  | 'repeat the workload N times' feature of perf stat: | 
|  |  | 
|  | titan:~> perf stat --repeat 5 -e kmem:mm_page_pcpu_drain -e | 
|  | kmem:mm_page_alloc -e kmem:mm_page_free_batched -e | 
|  | kmem:mm_page_free ./hackbench 10 | 
|  | Time: 0.627 | 
|  | Time: 0.644 | 
|  | Time: 0.564 | 
|  | Time: 0.559 | 
|  | Time: 0.626 | 
|  |  | 
|  | Performance counter stats for './hackbench 10' (5 runs): | 
|  |  | 
|  | 12920  kmem:mm_page_pcpu_drain    ( +-   3.359% ) | 
|  | 25035  kmem:mm_page_alloc         ( +-   3.783% ) | 
|  | 6104  kmem:mm_page_free_batched  ( +-   0.934% ) | 
|  | 18376  kmem:mm_page_free	    ( +-   4.941% ) | 
|  |  | 
|  | 0.643954516  seconds time elapsed   ( +-   2.363% ) | 
|  |  | 
|  | Furthermore, these tracepoints can be used to sample the workload as | 
|  | well. For example the page allocations done by a 'git gc' can be | 
|  | captured the following way: | 
|  |  | 
|  | titan:~/git> perf record -e kmem:mm_page_alloc -c 1 ./git gc | 
|  | Counting objects: 1148, done. | 
|  | Delta compression using up to 2 threads. | 
|  | Compressing objects: 100% (450/450), done. | 
|  | Writing objects: 100% (1148/1148), done. | 
|  | Total 1148 (delta 690), reused 1148 (delta 690) | 
|  | [ perf record: Captured and wrote 0.267 MB perf.data (~11679 samples) ] | 
|  |  | 
|  | To check which functions generated page allocations: | 
|  |  | 
|  | titan:~/git> perf report | 
|  | # Samples: 10646 | 
|  | # | 
|  | # Overhead          Command               Shared Object | 
|  | # ........  ...............  .......................... | 
|  | # | 
|  | 23.57%       git-repack  /lib64/libc-2.5.so | 
|  | 21.81%              git  /lib64/libc-2.5.so | 
|  | 14.59%              git  ./git | 
|  | 11.79%       git-repack  ./git | 
|  | 7.12%              git  /lib64/ld-2.5.so | 
|  | 3.16%       git-repack  /lib64/libpthread-2.5.so | 
|  | 2.09%       git-repack  /bin/bash | 
|  | 1.97%               rm  /lib64/libc-2.5.so | 
|  | 1.39%               mv  /lib64/ld-2.5.so | 
|  | 1.37%               mv  /lib64/libc-2.5.so | 
|  | 1.12%       git-repack  /lib64/ld-2.5.so | 
|  | 0.95%               rm  /lib64/ld-2.5.so | 
|  | 0.90%  git-update-serv  /lib64/libc-2.5.so | 
|  | 0.73%  git-update-serv  /lib64/ld-2.5.so | 
|  | 0.68%             perf  /lib64/libpthread-2.5.so | 
|  | 0.64%       git-repack  /usr/lib64/libz.so.1.2.3 | 
|  |  | 
|  | Or to see it on a more finegrained level: | 
|  |  | 
|  | titan:~/git> perf report --sort comm,dso,symbol | 
|  | # Samples: 10646 | 
|  | # | 
|  | # Overhead          Command               Shared Object  Symbol | 
|  | # ........  ...............  ..........................  ...... | 
|  | # | 
|  | 9.35%       git-repack  ./git                       [.] insert_obj_hash | 
|  | 9.12%              git  ./git                       [.] insert_obj_hash | 
|  | 7.31%              git  /lib64/libc-2.5.so          [.] memcpy | 
|  | 6.34%       git-repack  /lib64/libc-2.5.so          [.] _int_malloc | 
|  | 6.24%       git-repack  /lib64/libc-2.5.so          [.] memcpy | 
|  | 5.82%       git-repack  /lib64/libc-2.5.so          [.] __GI___fork | 
|  | 5.47%              git  /lib64/libc-2.5.so          [.] _int_malloc | 
|  | 2.99%              git  /lib64/libc-2.5.so          [.] memset | 
|  |  | 
|  | Furthermore, call-graph sampling can be done too, of page | 
|  | allocations - to see precisely what kind of page allocations there | 
|  | are: | 
|  |  | 
|  | titan:~/git> perf record -g -e kmem:mm_page_alloc -c 1 ./git gc | 
|  | Counting objects: 1148, done. | 
|  | Delta compression using up to 2 threads. | 
|  | Compressing objects: 100% (450/450), done. | 
|  | Writing objects: 100% (1148/1148), done. | 
|  | Total 1148 (delta 690), reused 1148 (delta 690) | 
|  | [ perf record: Captured and wrote 0.963 MB perf.data (~42069 samples) ] | 
|  |  | 
|  | titan:~/git> perf report -g | 
|  | # Samples: 10686 | 
|  | # | 
|  | # Overhead          Command               Shared Object | 
|  | # ........  ...............  .......................... | 
|  | # | 
|  | 23.25%       git-repack  /lib64/libc-2.5.so | 
|  | | | 
|  | |--50.00%-- _int_free | 
|  | | | 
|  | |--37.50%-- __GI___fork | 
|  | |          make_child | 
|  | | | 
|  | |--12.50%-- ptmalloc_unlock_all2 | 
|  | |          make_child | 
|  | | | 
|  | --6.25%-- __GI_strcpy | 
|  | 21.61%              git  /lib64/libc-2.5.so | 
|  | | | 
|  | |--30.00%-- __GI_read | 
|  | |          | | 
|  | |           --83.33%-- git_config_from_file | 
|  | |                     git_config | 
|  | |                     | | 
|  | [...] | 
|  |  | 
|  | Or you can observe the whole system's page allocations for 10 | 
|  | seconds: | 
|  |  | 
|  | titan:~/git> perf stat -a -e kmem:mm_page_pcpu_drain -e | 
|  | kmem:mm_page_alloc -e kmem:mm_page_free_batched -e | 
|  | kmem:mm_page_free sleep 10 | 
|  |  | 
|  | Performance counter stats for 'sleep 10': | 
|  |  | 
|  | 171585  kmem:mm_page_pcpu_drain | 
|  | 322114  kmem:mm_page_alloc | 
|  | 73623  kmem:mm_page_free_batched | 
|  | 254115  kmem:mm_page_free | 
|  |  | 
|  | 10.000591410  seconds time elapsed | 
|  |  | 
|  | Or observe how fluctuating the page allocations are, via statistical | 
|  | analysis done over ten 1-second intervals: | 
|  |  | 
|  | titan:~/git> perf stat --repeat 10 -a -e kmem:mm_page_pcpu_drain -e | 
|  | kmem:mm_page_alloc -e kmem:mm_page_free_batched -e | 
|  | kmem:mm_page_free sleep 1 | 
|  |  | 
|  | Performance counter stats for 'sleep 1' (10 runs): | 
|  |  | 
|  | 17254  kmem:mm_page_pcpu_drain    ( +-   3.709% ) | 
|  | 34394  kmem:mm_page_alloc         ( +-   4.617% ) | 
|  | 7509  kmem:mm_page_free_batched  ( +-   4.820% ) | 
|  | 25653  kmem:mm_page_free	    ( +-   3.672% ) | 
|  |  | 
|  | 1.058135029  seconds time elapsed   ( +-   3.089% ) | 
|  |  | 
|  | Or you can annotate the recorded 'git gc' run on a per symbol basis | 
|  | and check which instructions/source-code generated page allocations: | 
|  |  | 
|  | titan:~/git> perf annotate __GI___fork | 
|  | ------------------------------------------------ | 
|  | Percent |      Source code & Disassembly of libc-2.5.so | 
|  | ------------------------------------------------ | 
|  | : | 
|  | : | 
|  | :      Disassembly of section .plt: | 
|  | :      Disassembly of section .text: | 
|  | : | 
|  | :      00000031a2e95560 <__fork>: | 
|  | [...] | 
|  | 0.00 :        31a2e95602:   b8 38 00 00 00          mov    $0x38,%eax | 
|  | 0.00 :        31a2e95607:   0f 05                   syscall | 
|  | 83.42 :        31a2e95609:   48 3d 00 f0 ff ff       cmp    $0xfffffffffffff000,%rax | 
|  | 0.00 :        31a2e9560f:   0f 87 4d 01 00 00       ja     31a2e95762 <__fork+0x202> | 
|  | 0.00 :        31a2e95615:   85 c0                   test   %eax,%eax | 
|  |  | 
|  | ( this shows that 83.42% of __GI___fork's page allocations come from | 
|  | the 0x38 system call it performs. ) | 
|  |  | 
|  | etc. etc. - a lot more is possible. I could list a dozen of | 
|  | other different usecases straight away - neither of which is | 
|  | possible via /proc/vmstat. | 
|  |  | 
|  | /proc/vmstat is not in the same league really, in terms of | 
|  | expressive power of system analysis and performance | 
|  | analysis. | 
|  |  | 
|  | All that the above results needed were those new tracepoints | 
|  | in include/tracing/events/kmem.h. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Ingo | 
|  |  | 
|  |  |