ring-buffer: add benchmark and tester

This patch adds code that can benchmark the ring buffer as well as
test it. This code can be compiled into the kernel (not recommended)
or as a module.

A separate ring buffer is used to not interfer with other users, like
ftrace. It creates a producer and a consumer (option to disable creation
of the consumer) and will run for 10 seconds, then sleep for 10 seconds
and then repeat.

While running, the producer will write 10 byte loads into the ring
buffer with just putting in the current CPU number. The reader will
continually try to read the buffer. The reader will alternate from reading
the buffer via event by event, or by full pages.

The output is a pr_info, thus it will fill up the syslogs.

  Starting ring buffer hammer
  End ring buffer hammer
  Time:     9000349 (usecs)
  Overruns: 12578640
  Read:     5358440  (by events)
  Entries:  0
  Total:    17937080
  Missed:   0
  Hit:      17937080
  Entries per millisec: 1993
  501 ns per entry
  Sleeping for 10 secs
  Starting ring buffer hammer
  End ring buffer hammer
  Time:     9936350 (usecs)
  Overruns: 0
  Read:     28146644  (by pages)
  Entries:  74
  Total:    28146718
  Missed:   0
  Hit:      28146718
  Entries per millisec: 2832
  353 ns per entry
  Sleeping for 10 secs

Time:      is the time the test ran
Overruns:  the number of events that were overwritten and not read
Read:      the number of events read (either by pages or events)
Entries:   the number of entries left in the buffer
                 (the by pages will only read full pages)
Total:     Entries + Read + Overruns
Missed:    the number of entries that failed to write
Hit:       the number of entries that were written

The above example shows that it takes ~353 nanosecs per entry when
there is a reader, reading by pages (and no overruns)

The event by event reader slowed the producer down to 501 nanosecs.

[ Impact: see how changes to the ring buffer affect stability and performance ]

Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>

1 files changed, 16 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/kernel/trace/Kconfig b/kernel/trace/Kconfig
index 450d3c2cfbd..50f62a296e1 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/Kconfig
+++ b/kernel/trace/Kconfig
@@ -471,6 +471,22 @@ config MMIOTRACE_TEST
 
 	  Say N, unless you absolutely know what you are doing.
 
+config RING_BUFFER_BENCHMARK
+	tristate "Ring buffer benchmark stress tester"
+	depends on RING_BUFFER
+	help
+	  This option creates a test to stress the ring buffer and bench mark it.
+	  It creates its own ring buffer such that it will not interfer with
+	  any other users of the ring buffer (such as ftrace). It then creates
+	  a producer and consumer that will run for 10 seconds and sleep for
+	  10 seconds. Each interval it will print out the number of events
+	  it recorded and give a rough estimate of how long each iteration took.
+
+	  It does not disable interrupts or raise its priority, so it may be
+	  affected by processes that are running.
+
+	  If unsure, say N
+
 endif # FTRACE
 
 endif # TRACING_SUPPORT