Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: [PATCH v2 07/10] coresight: trbe: Do not truncate buffer on IRQ | From | Suzuki K Poulose <> | Date | Tue, 27 Jul 2021 14:06:33 +0100 |
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On 27/07/2021 11:46, Mike Leach wrote: > HI Suzuki, > > On Mon, 26 Jul 2021 at 17:01, Suzuki K Poulose <suzuki.poulose@arm.com> wrote: >> >> Hi Mike, >> >> On 26/07/2021 13:34, Mike Leach wrote: >>> Hi Suzuki, >>> >>> On Fri, 23 Jul 2021 at 13:46, Suzuki K Poulose <suzuki.poulose@arm.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> The TRBE driver marks the AUX buffer as TRUNCATED when we get an IRQ >>>> on FILL event. This has rather unwanted side-effect of the event >>>> being disabled when there may be more space in the ring buffer. >>>> >>>> So, instead of TRUNCATE we need a different flag to indicate >>>> that the trace may have lost a few bytes (i.e from the point of >>>> generating the FILL event until the IRQ is consumed). Anyways, the >>>> userspace must use the size from RECORD_AUX headers to restrict >>>> the "trace" decoding. >>>> >>>> Using PARTIAL flag causes the perf tool to generate the >>>> following warning: >>>> >>>> Warning: >>>> AUX data had gaps in it XX times out of YY! >>>> >>>> Are you running a KVM guest in the background? >>>> >>>> which is pointlessly scary for a user. The other remaining options >>>> are : >>>> - COLLISION - Use by SPE to indicate samples collided >>>> - Add a new flag - Specifically for CoreSight, doesn't sound >>>> so good, if we can re-use something. >>>> >>> >>> What is the user visible behaviour when using COLLISION? >> >> If you meant a Warning from the perf tool (similar to TRUNCATE or >> PARTIAL), the answer is none. We could add one in the perf tool >> if you think this is necessary. >> > > I do - the problem is that we have replaced a visible warning with a > silent failure. > > While we agree that the side effects of TRUNCATE mean it unfeasible as > a solution here - at least the PARTIAL message does give some > indication. > The average perf user is going to rely on the output from the tool - > if there is no warning they will assume all is good, but they have > possible non-contiguous trace and no indication of such. > > Since we are using a collision flag in a particular context - i.e. > coresight trace - we have the chance to provide an appropriate message > for this context. > >>> The TRUNCATE warning is at least accurate - even if the KVM thing is >>> something of a red herring. >> > > Sorry - I meant PARTIAL here - but the comment stands otherwise. > >> >>> It is easier to explain a "scary" warning, than try to debug someones >>> problems if perf is silent or misleading when using the COLLISION >>> flag. >> >> The RECORD_AUX still has this flag. So, if someone really wanted to >> know how many times the TRBE fired the IRQ and thus potentially lost a >> few bytes of the trace, they could always look at this. >> > > They could - but how would they know that they needed to - what > indicators would they have that the trace was not continuous? > The point of the perf tool is that it presents an accurate picture to > the user, based on the data collected. Most users aren't going to > start digging into the intricacies of the perf data file formats and > nor should they have to. > >> Definitely this is not something similar to "TRUNCATED", which we >> realized the hard way, nor the PARTIAL. But the perf tool could >> report something similar. Please remember that the perf tool always >> uses the "size" field from the RECORD_AUX to limit the trace decoding. >> >> So, I am not sure how this could create new problems. >> > > There is no issue with decode - but if a user is investigating a > problem using trace, they need to be aware that some trace might be > dropped. > That way they can take mitigating action.
Agreed. This is something that can be done by the perf tool.
Kind regards Suzuki
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