perf tools: Take Intel PT into use

Intel Processor Trace

=====================

Overview

========

Intel Processor Trace (Intel PT) is an extension of Intel Architecture that

collects information about software execution such as control flow, execution

modes and timings and formats it into highly compressed binary packets.

Technical details are documented in the Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures

Software Developer Manuals, Chapter 36 Intel Processor Trace.

Intel PT is first supported in Intel Core M and 5th generation Intel Core

processors that are based on the Intel micro-architecture code name Broadwell.

Trace data is collected by 'perf record' and stored within the perf.data file.

See below for options to 'perf record'.

Trace data must be 'decoded' which involves walking the object code and matching

the trace data packets. For example a TNT packet only tells whether a

conditional branch was taken or not taken, so to make use of that packet the

decoder must know precisely which instruction was being executed.

Decoding is done on-the-fly.  The decoder outputs samples in the same format as

samples output by perf hardware events, for example as though the "instructions"

or "branches" events had been recorded.  Presently 3 tools support this:

'perf script', 'perf report' and 'perf inject'.  See below for more information

on using those tools.

The main distinguishing feature of Intel PT is that the decoder can determine

the exact flow of software execution.  Intel PT can be used to understand why

and how did software get to a certain point, or behave a certain way.  The

software does not have to be recompiled, so Intel PT works with debug or release

builds, however the executed images are needed - which makes use in JIT-compiled

environments, or with self-modified code, a challenge.  Also symbols need to be

provided to make sense of addresses.

A limitation of Intel PT is that it produces huge amounts of trace data

(hundreds of megabytes per second per core) which takes a long time to decode,

for example two or three orders of magnitude longer than it took to collect.

Another limitation is the performance impact of tracing, something that will

vary depending on the use-case and architecture.

Quickstart

==========

It is important to start small.  That is because it is easy to capture vastly

more data than can possibly be processed.

The simplest thing to do with Intel PT is userspace profiling of small programs.

Data is captured with 'perf record' e.g. to trace 'ls' userspace-only:

	perf record -e intel_pt//u ls

And profiled with 'perf report' e.g.

	perf report

To also trace kernel space presents a problem, namely kernel self-modifying

code.  A fairly good kernel image is available in /proc/kcore but to get an

accurate image a copy of /proc/kcore needs to be made under the same conditions

as the data capture.  A script perf-with-kcore can do that, but beware that the

script makes use of 'sudo' to copy /proc/kcore.  If you have perf installed

locally from the source tree you can do:

	~/libexec/perf-core/perf-with-kcore record pt_ls -e intel_pt// -- ls

which will create a directory named 'pt_ls' and put the perf.data file and

copies of /proc/kcore, /proc/kallsyms and /proc/modules into it.  Then to use

'perf report' becomes:

	~/libexec/perf-core/perf-with-kcore report pt_ls

Because samples are synthesized after-the-fact, the sampling period can be

selected for reporting. e.g. sample every microsecond

	~/libexec/perf-core/perf-with-kcore report pt_ls --itrace=i1usge

See the sections below for more information about the --itrace option.

Beware the smaller the period, the more samples that are produced, and the

longer it takes to process them.

Also note that the coarseness of Intel PT timing information will start to

distort the statistical value of the sampling as the sampling period becomes

smaller.

To represent software control flow, "branches" samples are produced.  By default

a branch sample is synthesized for every single branch.  To get an idea what

data is available you can use the 'perf script' tool with no parameters, which

will list all the samples.

	perf record -e intel_pt//u ls

	perf script

An interesting field that is not printed by default is 'flags' which can be

displayed as follows:

	perf script -Fcomm,tid,pid,time,cpu,event,trace,ip,sym,dso,addr,symoff,flags

The flags are "bcrosyiABEx" which stand for branch, call, return, conditional,

system, asynchronous, interrupt, transaction abort, trace begin, trace end, and

in transaction, respectively.

While it is possible to create scripts to analyze the data, an alternative

approach is available to export the data to a postgresql database.  Refer to

script export-to-postgresql.py for more details, and to script

call-graph-from-postgresql.py for an example of using the database.

As mentioned above, it is easy to capture too much data.  One way to limit the

data captured is to use 'snapshot' mode which is explained further below.

Refer to 'new snapshot option' and 'Intel PT modes of operation' further below.

Another problem that will be experienced is decoder errors.  They can be caused

by inability to access the executed image, self-modified or JIT-ed code, or the

inability to match side-band information (such as context switches and mmaps)

which results in the decoder not knowing what code was executed.

There is also the problem of perf not being able to copy the data fast enough,

resulting in data lost because the buffer was full.  See 'Buffer handling' below

for more details.

perf record

===========

new event

---------

The Intel PT kernel driver creates a new PMU for Intel PT.  PMU events are

selected by providing the PMU name followed by the "config" separated by slashes.

An enhancement has been made to allow default "config" e.g. the option

	-e intel_pt//

will use a default config value.  Currently that is the same as

	-e intel_pt/tsc,noretcomp=0/

which is the same as

	-e intel_pt/tsc=1,noretcomp=0/

The config terms are listed in /sys/devices/intel_pt/format.  They are bit

fields within the config member of the struct perf_event_attr which is

passed to the kernel by the perf_event_open system call.  They correspond to bit

fields in the IA32_RTIT_CTL MSR.  Here is a list of them and their definitions:

	$ for f in `ls /sys/devices/intel_pt/format`;do

	> echo $f

	> cat /sys/devices/intel_pt/format/$f

	> done

	noretcomp

	config:11

	tsc

	config:10

Note that the default config must be overridden for each term i.e.

	-e intel_pt/noretcomp=0/

is the same as:

	-e intel_pt/tsc=1,noretcomp=0/

So, to disable TSC packets use:

	-e intel_pt/tsc=0/

It is also possible to specify the config value explicitly:

	-e intel_pt/config=0x400/

Note that, as with all events, the event is suffixed with event modifiers:

	u	userspace

	k	kernel

	h	hypervisor

	G	guest

	H	host

	p	precise ip

'h', 'G' and 'H' are for virtualization which is not supported by Intel PT.

'p' is also not relevant to Intel PT.  So only options 'u' and 'k' are

meaningful for Intel PT.

perf_event_attr is displayed if the -vv option is used e.g.

	------------------------------------------------------------

	perf_event_attr:

	type                             6

	size                             112

	config                           0x400

	{ sample_period, sample_freq }   1

	sample_type                      IP|TID|TIME|CPU|IDENTIFIER

	read_format                      ID

	disabled                         1

	inherit                          1

	exclude_kernel                   1

	exclude_hv                       1

	enable_on_exec                   1

	sample_id_all                    1

	------------------------------------------------------------

	sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 0  group_fd -1  flags 0x8

	sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 1  group_fd -1  flags 0x8

	sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 2  group_fd -1  flags 0x8

	sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 3  group_fd -1  flags 0x8

	------------------------------------------------------------

new snapshot option

-------------------

To select snapshot mode a new option has been added:

	-S

Optionally it can be followed by the snapshot size e.g.

	-S0x100000

The default snapshot size is the auxtrace mmap size.  If neither auxtrace mmap size

nor snapshot size is specified, then the default is 4MiB for privileged users

(or if /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid < 0), 128KiB for unprivileged users.

If an unprivileged user does not specify mmap pages, the mmap pages will be

reduced as described in the 'new auxtrace mmap size option' section below.

The snapshot size is displayed if the option -vv is used e.g.

	Intel PT snapshot size: %zu

new auxtrace mmap size option

---------------------------

Intel PT buffer size is specified by an addition to the -m option e.g.

	-m,16

selects a buffer size of 16 pages i.e. 64KiB.

Note that the existing functionality of -m is unchanged.  The auxtrace mmap size

is specified by the optional addition of a comma and the value.

The default auxtrace mmap size for Intel PT is 4MiB/page_size for privileged users

(or if /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid < 0), 128KiB for unprivileged users.

If an unprivileged user does not specify mmap pages, the mmap pages will be

reduced from the default 512KiB/page_size to 256KiB/page_size, otherwise the

user is likely to get an error as they exceed their mlock limit (Max locked

memory as shown in /proc/self/limits).  Note that perf does not count the first

512KiB (actually /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_mlock_kb minus 1 page) per cpu

against the mlock limit so an unprivileged user is allowed 512KiB per cpu plus

their mlock limit (which defaults to 64KiB but is not multiplied by the number

of cpus).

In full-trace mode, powers of two are allowed for buffer size, with a minimum

size of 2 pages.  In snapshot mode, it is the same but the minimum size is

1 page.

The mmap size and auxtrace mmap size are displayed if the -vv option is used e.g.

	mmap length 528384

	auxtrace mmap length 4198400

Intel PT modes of operation

---------------------------

Intel PT can be used in 2 modes:

	full-trace mode

	snapshot mode

Full-trace mode traces continuously e.g.

	perf record -e intel_pt//u uname

Snapshot mode captures the available data when a signal is sent e.g.

	perf record -v -e intel_pt//u -S ./loopy 1000000000 &

	[1] 11435

	kill -USR2 11435

	Recording AUX area tracing snapshot

Note that the signal sent is SIGUSR2.

Note that "Recording AUX area tracing snapshot" is displayed because the -v

option is used.

The 2 modes cannot be used together.

Buffer handling

---------------

There may be buffer limitations (i.e. single ToPa entry) which means that actual

buffer sizes are limited to powers of 2 up to 4MiB (MAX_ORDER).  In order to

provide other sizes, and in particular an arbitrarily large size, multiple

buffers are logically concatenated.  However an interrupt must be used to switch

between buffers.  That has two potential problems:

	a) the interrupt may not be handled in time so that the current buffer

	becomes full and some trace data is lost.

	b) the interrupts may slow the system and affect the performance

	results.

If trace data is lost, the driver sets 'truncated' in the PERF_RECORD_AUX event

which the tools report as an error.

In full-trace mode, the driver waits for data to be copied out before allowing

the (logical) buffer to wrap-around.  If data is not copied out quickly enough,

again 'truncated' is set in the PERF_RECORD_AUX event.  If the driver has to

wait, the intel_pt event gets disabled.  Because it is difficult to know when

that happens, perf tools always re-enable the intel_pt event after copying out

data.

Intel PT and build ids

----------------------

By default "perf record" post-processes the event stream to find all build ids

for executables for all addresses sampled.  Deliberately, Intel PT is not

decoded for that purpose (it would take too long).  Instead the build ids for

all executables encountered (due to mmap, comm or task events) are included

in the perf.data file.

To see buildids included in the perf.data file use the command:

	perf buildid-list

If the perf.data file contains Intel PT data, that is the same as:

	perf buildid-list --with-hits

Snapshot mode and event disabling

---------------------------------

In order to make a snapshot, the intel_pt event is disabled using an IOCTL,

namely PERF_EVENT_IOC_DISABLE.  However doing that can also disable the

collection of side-band information.  In order to prevent that,  a dummy

software event has been introduced that permits tracking events (like mmaps) to

continue to be recorded while intel_pt is disabled.  That is important to ensure

there is complete side-band information to allow the decoding of subsequent

snapshots.

A test has been created for that.  To find the test:

	perf test list

	...

	23: Test using a dummy software event to keep tracking

To run the test:

	perf test 23

	23: Test using a dummy software event to keep tracking     : Ok

perf record modes (nothing new here)

------------------------------------

perf record essentially operates in one of three modes:

	per thread

	per cpu

	workload only

"per thread" mode is selected by -t or by --per-thread (with -p or -u or just a

workload).

"per cpu" is selected by -C or -a.

"workload only" mode is selected by not using the other options but providing a

command to run (i.e. the workload).

In per-thread mode an exact list of threads is traced.  There is no inheritance.

Each thread has its own event buffer.

In per-cpu mode all processes (or processes from the selected cgroup i.e. -G

option, or processes selected with -p or -u) are traced.  Each cpu has its own

buffer. Inheritance is allowed.

In workload-only mode, the workload is traced but with per-cpu buffers.

Inheritance is allowed.  Note that you can now trace a workload in per-thread

mode by using the --per-thread option.

Privileged vs non-privileged users

----------------------------------

Unless /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid is set to -1, unprivileged users

have memory limits imposed upon them.  That affects what buffer sizes they can

have as outlined above.

Unless /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid is set to -1, unprivileged users are

not permitted to use tracepoints which means there is insufficient side-band

information to decode Intel PT in per-cpu mode, and potentially workload-only

mode too if the workload creates new processes.

Note also, that to use tracepoints, read-access to debugfs is required.  So if

debugfs is not mounted or the user does not have read-access, it will again not

be possible to decode Intel PT in per-cpu mode.

sched_switch tracepoint

-----------------------

The sched_switch tracepoint is used to provide side-band data for Intel PT

decoding.  sched_switch events are automatically added. e.g. the second event

shown below

	$ perf record -vv -e intel_pt//u uname

	------------------------------------------------------------

	perf_event_attr:

	type                             6

	size                             112

	config                           0x400

	{ sample_period, sample_freq }   1

	sample_type                      IP|TID|TIME|CPU|IDENTIFIER

	read_format                      ID

	disabled                         1

	inherit                          1

	exclude_kernel                   1

	exclude_hv                       1

	enable_on_exec                   1

	sample_id_all                    1

	------------------------------------------------------------

	sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 0  group_fd -1  flags 0x8

	sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 1  group_fd -1  flags 0x8

	sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 2  group_fd -1  flags 0x8

	sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 3  group_fd -1  flags 0x8

	------------------------------------------------------------

	perf_event_attr:

	type                             2

	size                             112

	config                           0x108

	{ sample_period, sample_freq }   1

	sample_type                      IP|TID|TIME|CPU|PERIOD|RAW|IDENTIFIER

	read_format                      ID

	inherit                          1

	sample_id_all                    1

	exclude_guest                    1

	------------------------------------------------------------

	sys_perf_event_open: pid -1  cpu 0  group_fd -1  flags 0x8

	sys_perf_event_open: pid -1  cpu 1  group_fd -1  flags 0x8

	sys_perf_event_open: pid -1  cpu 2  group_fd -1  flags 0x8

	sys_perf_event_open: pid -1  cpu 3  group_fd -1  flags 0x8

	------------------------------------------------------------

	perf_event_attr:

	type                             1

	size                             112

	config                           0x9

	{ sample_period, sample_freq }   1

	sample_type                      IP|TID|TIME|IDENTIFIER

	read_format                      ID

	disabled                         1

	inherit                          1

	exclude_kernel                   1

	exclude_hv                       1

	mmap                             1

	comm                             1

	enable_on_exec                   1

	task                             1

	sample_id_all                    1

	mmap2                            1

	comm_exec                        1

	------------------------------------------------------------

	sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 0  group_fd -1  flags 0x8

	sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 1  group_fd -1  flags 0x8

	sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 2  group_fd -1  flags 0x8

	sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 3  group_fd -1  flags 0x8

	mmap size 528384B

	AUX area mmap length 4194304

	perf event ring buffer mmapped per cpu

	Synthesizing auxtrace information

	Linux

	[ perf record: Woken up 1 times to write data ]

	[ perf record: Captured and wrote 0.042 MB perf.data ]

Note, the sched_switch event is only added if the user is permitted to use it

and only in per-cpu mode.

Note also, the sched_switch event is only added if TSC packets are requested.

That is because, in the absence of timing information, the sched_switch events

cannot be matched against the Intel PT trace.

perf script

===========

By default, perf script will decode trace data found in the perf.data file.

This can be further controlled by new option --itrace.

New --itrace option

-------------------

Having no option is the same as

	--itrace

which, in turn, is the same as

	--itrace=ibxe

The letters are:

	i	synthesize "instructions" events

	b	synthesize "branches" events

	x	synthesize "transactions" events

	c	synthesize branches events (calls only)

	r	synthesize branches events (returns only)

	e	synthesize tracing error events

	d	create a debug log

	g	synthesize a call chain (use with i or x)

"Instructions" events look like they were recorded by "perf record -e

instructions".

"Branches" events look like they were recorded by "perf record -e branches". "c"

and "r" can be combined to get calls and returns.

"Transactions" events correspond to the start or end of transactions. The

'flags' field can be used in perf script to determine whether the event is a

tranasaction start, commit or abort.

Error events are new.  They show where the decoder lost the trace.  Error events

are quite important.  Users must know if what they are seeing is a complete

picture or not.

The "d" option will cause the creation of a file "intel_pt.log" containing all

decoded packets and instructions.  Note that this option slows down the decoder

and that the resulting file may be very large.

In addition, the period of the "instructions" event can be specified. e.g.

	--itrace=i10us

sets the period to 10us i.e. one  instruction sample is synthesized for each 10

microseconds of trace.  Alternatives to "us" are "ms" (milliseconds),

"ns" (nanoseconds), "t" (TSC ticks) or "i" (instructions).

"ms", "us" and "ns" are converted to TSC ticks.

The timing information included with Intel PT does not give the time of every

instruction.  Consequently, for the purpose of sampling, the decoder estimates

the time since the last timing packet based on 1 tick per instruction.  The time

on the sample is *not* adjusted and reflects the last known value of TSC.

For Intel PT, the default period is 100us.

Also the call chain size (default 16, max. 1024) for instructions or

transactions events can be specified. e.g.

	--itrace=ig32

	--itrace=xg32

To disable trace decoding entirely, use the option --no-itrace.

dump option

-----------

perf script has an option (-D) to "dump" the events i.e. display the binary

data.

When -D is used, Intel PT packets are displayed.  The packet decoder does not

pay attention to PSB packets, but just decodes the bytes - so the packets seen

by the actual decoder may not be identical in places where the data is corrupt.

One example of that would be when the buffer-switching interrupt has been too

slow, and the buffer has been filled completely.  In that case, the last packet

in the buffer might be truncated and immediately followed by a PSB as the trace

continues in the next buffer.

To disable the display of Intel PT packets, combine the -D option with

--no-itrace.

perf report

===========

By default, perf report will decode trace data found in the perf.data file.

This can be further controlled by new option --itrace exactly the same as

perf script, with the exception that the default is --itrace=igxe.

perf inject

===========

perf inject also accepts the --itrace option in which case tracing data is

removed and replaced with the synthesized events. e.g.

	perf inject --itrace -i perf.data -o perf.data.new

libperf-y += header.o

libperf-y += header.o

libperf-y += tsc.o

libperf-y += tsc.o

libperf-y += pmu.o

libperf-y += kvm-stat.o

libperf-y += kvm-stat.o

libperf-$(CONFIG_DWARF) += dwarf-regs.o

libperf-$(CONFIG_DWARF) += dwarf-regs.o

libperf-$(CONFIG_LIBUNWIND)          += unwind-libunwind.o

libperf-$(CONFIG_LIBUNWIND)          += unwind-libunwind.o

libperf-$(CONFIG_LIBDW_DWARF_UNWIND) += unwind-libdw.o

libperf-$(CONFIG_LIBDW_DWARF_UNWIND) += unwind-libdw.o

libperf-$(CONFIG_AUXTRACE) += auxtrace.o

libperf-$(CONFIG_AUXTRACE) += intel-pt.o

libperf-$(CONFIG_AUXTRACE) += intel-pt.o

/*

 * auxtrace.c: AUX area tracing support

 * Copyright (c) 2013-2014, Intel Corporation.

 *

 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it

 * under the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License,

 * version 2, as published by the Free Software Foundation.

 *

 * This program is distributed in the hope it will be useful, but WITHOUT

 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or

 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for

 * more details.

 *

 */

#include "../../util/header.h"

#include "../../util/auxtrace.h"

#include "../../util/intel-pt.h"

struct auxtrace_record *auxtrace_record__init(struct perf_evlist *evlist __maybe_unused,

					      int *err)

{

	char buffer[64];

	int ret;

	*err = 0;

	ret = get_cpuid(buffer, sizeof(buffer));

	if (ret) {

		*err = ret;

		return NULL;

	}

	if (!strncmp(buffer, "GenuineIntel,", 13))

		return intel_pt_recording_init(err);

	return NULL;

}

#include <string.h>

#include <linux/perf_event.h>

#include "../../util/intel-pt.h"

#include "../../util/pmu.h"

struct perf_event_attr *perf_pmu__get_default_config(struct perf_pmu *pmu __maybe_unused)

{

#ifdef HAVE_AUXTRACE_SUPPORT

	if (!strcmp(pmu->name, INTEL_PT_PMU_NAME))

		return intel_pt_pmu_default_config(pmu);

#endif

	return NULL;

}

#include "debug.h"

#include "debug.h"

#include "parse-options.h"

#include "parse-options.h"

#include "intel-pt.h"

int auxtrace_mmap__mmap(struct auxtrace_mmap *mm,

int auxtrace_mmap__mmap(struct auxtrace_mmap *mm,

			struct auxtrace_mmap_params *mp,

			struct auxtrace_mmap_params *mp,

			void *userpg, int fd)

			void *userpg, int fd)

int perf_event__process_auxtrace_info(struct perf_tool *tool __maybe_unused,

int perf_event__process_auxtrace_info(struct perf_tool *tool __maybe_unused,

				      union perf_event *event,

				      union perf_event *event,

				      struct perf_session *session __maybe_unused)

				      struct perf_session *session)

{

{

	enum auxtrace_type type = event->auxtrace_info.type;

	enum auxtrace_type type = event->auxtrace_info.type;

	switch (type) {

	switch (type) {

	case PERF_AUXTRACE_INTEL_PT:

	case PERF_AUXTRACE_INTEL_PT:

		return intel_pt_process_auxtrace_info(event, session);

	case PERF_AUXTRACE_UNKNOWN:

	case PERF_AUXTRACE_UNKNOWN:

	default:

	default:

		return -EINVAL;

		return -EINVAL;