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Diffstat (limited to 'tools/perf/Documentation/examples.txt')
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diff --git a/tools/perf/Documentation/examples.txt b/tools/perf/Documentation/examples.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..8eb6c489fb1 --- /dev/null +++ b/tools/perf/Documentation/examples.txt @@ -0,0 +1,225 @@ + + ------------------------------ + ****** 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_direct [Tracepoint event] + kmem:mm_pagevec_free [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_pagevec_free -e kmem:mm_page_free_direct ./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_pagevec_free + 20934 kmem:mm_page_free_direct + + 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_pagevec_free -e + kmem:mm_page_free_direct ./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_pagevec_free ( +- 0.934% ) + 18376 kmem:mm_page_free_direct ( +- 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 -f -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 -f -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_pagevec_free -e +kmem:mm_page_free_direct sleep 10 + + Performance counter stats for 'sleep 10': + + 171585 kmem:mm_page_pcpu_drain + 322114 kmem:mm_page_alloc + 73623 kmem:mm_pagevec_free + 254115 kmem:mm_page_free_direct + + 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_pagevec_free -e + kmem:mm_page_free_direct 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_pagevec_free ( +- 4.820% ) + 25653 kmem:mm_page_free_direct ( +- 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 + + |