[PATCH] perf/ui/tui: don't force a refresh during progress update

[PATCH] perf/ui/tui: don't force a refresh during progress update

[Patrick Palka]

Each call to tui_progress__update() would forcibly refresh the entire
screen.  This is somewhat inefficient and causes noticable flickering
during the startup of perf-report, especially on large/slow terminals.

It looks like the force-refresh in tui_progress__update() serves no
purpose other than to clear the screen so that the progress bar of a
previous operation does not subsume with that of a subsequent operation.
But we can do just that in a much more efficient manner by clearing only
the region that a previous progress bar may have occupied before
repainting the new progress bar.  Then the force-refresh could be
removed with no change in visuals.

This patch disables the slow force-refresh in tui_progress__update() and
instead calls SLsmg_fill_region() on the entire area that the progress
bar may occupy before repainting it.  This change makes the startup of
perf-report much faster and appear much "smoother".

It turns out that this was a big bottleneck in the startup speed of
perf-report -- with this patch, perf-report starts up ~1.6x faster (0.8s
vs 0.5s) on my machines.  (These numbers were measured by running "time
perf report" on an 8MB perf.data and pressing 'q' immediately.)

Cc: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl>
Cc: Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Patrick Palka <patrick@parcs.ath.cx>
---
 tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c | 3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c b/tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c
index 6c2184d..641049a 100644
--- a/tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c
+++ b/tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c
@@ -17,13 +17,14 @@ static void tui_progress__update(u64 curr, u64 total, const char *title)
 	if (total == 0)
 		return;
 
-	ui__refresh_dimensions(true);
+	ui__refresh_dimensions(false);
 	pthread_mutex_lock(&ui__lock);
 	y = SLtt_Screen_Rows / 2 - 2;
 	SLsmg_set_color(0);
 	SLsmg_draw_box(y, 0, 3, SLtt_Screen_Cols);
 	SLsmg_gotorc(y++, 1);
 	SLsmg_write_string((char *)title);
+	SLsmg_fill_region(y, 1, 1, SLtt_Screen_Cols - 2, ' ');
 	SLsmg_set_color(HE_COLORSET_SELECTED);
 	bar = ((SLtt_Screen_Cols - 2) * curr) / total;
 	SLsmg_fill_region(y, 1, 1, bar, ' ');
-- 
1.8.4.rc3

Re: [PATCH] perf/ui/tui: don't force a refresh during progress update

[Ingo Molnar]

* Patrick Palka <patrick@parcs.ath.cx> wrote:

> Each call to tui_progress__update() would forcibly refresh the entire
> screen.  This is somewhat inefficient and causes noticable flickering
> during the startup of perf-report, especially on large/slow terminals.
> 
> It looks like the force-refresh in tui_progress__update() serves no
> purpose other than to clear the screen so that the progress bar of a
> previous operation does not subsume with that of a subsequent operation.
> But we can do just that in a much more efficient manner by clearing only
> the region that a previous progress bar may have occupied before
> repainting the new progress bar.  Then the force-refresh could be
> removed with no change in visuals.
> 
> This patch disables the slow force-refresh in tui_progress__update() and
> instead calls SLsmg_fill_region() on the entire area that the progress
> bar may occupy before repainting it.  This change makes the startup of
> perf-report much faster and appear much "smoother".
> 
> It turns out that this was a big bottleneck in the startup speed of
> perf-report -- with this patch, perf-report starts up ~1.6x faster (0.8s
> vs 0.5s) on my machines.  (These numbers were measured by running "time
> perf report" on an 8MB perf.data and pressing 'q' immediately.)
> 
> Cc: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl>
> Cc: Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>
> Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>
> Signed-off-by: Patrick Palka <patrick@parcs.ath.cx>
> ---
>  tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c | 3 ++-
>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c b/tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c
> index 6c2184d..641049a 100644
> --- a/tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c
> +++ b/tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c
> @@ -17,13 +17,14 @@ static void tui_progress__update(u64 curr, u64 total, const char *title)
>  	if (total == 0)
>  		return;
>  
> -	ui__refresh_dimensions(true);
> +	ui__refresh_dimensions(false);
>  	pthread_mutex_lock(&ui__lock);
>  	y = SLtt_Screen_Rows / 2 - 2;
>  	SLsmg_set_color(0);
>  	SLsmg_draw_box(y, 0, 3, SLtt_Screen_Cols);
>  	SLsmg_gotorc(y++, 1);
>  	SLsmg_write_string((char *)title);
> +	SLsmg_fill_region(y, 1, 1, SLtt_Screen_Cols - 2, ' ');
>  	SLsmg_set_color(HE_COLORSET_SELECTED);
>  	bar = ((SLtt_Screen_Cols - 2) * curr) / total;
>  	SLsmg_fill_region(y, 1, 1, bar, ' ');

Nice! This is something I noticed as well, never figured out the 
root cause of it.

Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>

Thanks,

	Ingo

[PATCH rebase] perf/ui/tui: don't force a refresh during progress update

[Patrick Palka]

Each call to tui_progress__update() would forcibly refresh the entire
screen.  This is somewhat inefficient and causes noticable flickering
during the startup of perf-report, especially on large/slow terminals.

It looks like the force-refresh in tui_progress__update() serves no
purpose other than to clear the screen so that the progress bar of a
previous operation does not subsume that of a subsequent operation.
But we can do just that in a much more efficient manner by clearing only
the region that a previous progress bar may have occupied before
repainting the new progress bar.  Then the force-refresh could be
removed with no change in visuals.

This patch disables the slow force-refresh in tui_progress__update() and
instead calls SLsmg_fill_region() on the entire area that the progress
bar may occupy before repainting it.  This change makes the startup of
perf-report much faster and appear much "smoother".

It turns out that this was a big bottleneck in the startup speed of
perf-report -- with this patch, perf-report starts up ~2x faster (1.1s
vs 0.55s) on my machines.  (These numbers were measured by running
"time perf report" on an 8MB perf.data and pressing 'q' immediately.)

Cc: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl>
Cc: Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>
Cc: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@ghostprotocols.net>
Cc: Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Patrick Palka <patrick@parcs.ath.cx>
---
Rebased against
  git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/acme/linux.git perf/core

And also CC'd two more relevant persons.

 tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c | 3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c b/tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c
index 3e2d936..c61d14b 100644
--- a/tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c
+++ b/tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c
@@ -18,13 +18,14 @@ static void tui_progress__update(struct ui_progress *p)
 	if (p->total == 0)
 		return;
 
-	ui__refresh_dimensions(true);
+	ui__refresh_dimensions(false);
 	pthread_mutex_lock(&ui__lock);
 	y = SLtt_Screen_Rows / 2 - 2;
 	SLsmg_set_color(0);
 	SLsmg_draw_box(y, 0, 3, SLtt_Screen_Cols);
 	SLsmg_gotorc(y++, 1);
 	SLsmg_write_string((char *)p->title);
+	SLsmg_fill_region(y, 1, 1, SLtt_Screen_Cols - 2, ' ');
 	SLsmg_set_color(HE_COLORSET_SELECTED);
 	bar = ((SLtt_Screen_Cols - 2) * p->curr) / p->total;
 	SLsmg_fill_region(y, 1, 1, bar, ' ');
-- 
1.8.4.rc3

Re: [PATCH rebase] perf/ui/tui: don't force a refresh during progress update

[Namhyung Kim]

Hi Patrick,

On Fri, 25 Oct 2013 20:25:49 -0400, Patrick Palka wrote:
> Each call to tui_progress__update() would forcibly refresh the entire
> screen.  This is somewhat inefficient and causes noticable flickering
> during the startup of perf-report, especially on large/slow terminals.
>
> It looks like the force-refresh in tui_progress__update() serves no
> purpose other than to clear the screen so that the progress bar of a
> previous operation does not subsume that of a subsequent operation.
> But we can do just that in a much more efficient manner by clearing only
> the region that a previous progress bar may have occupied before
> repainting the new progress bar.  Then the force-refresh could be
> removed with no change in visuals.
>
> This patch disables the slow force-refresh in tui_progress__update() and
> instead calls SLsmg_fill_region() on the entire area that the progress
> bar may occupy before repainting it.  This change makes the startup of
> perf-report much faster and appear much "smoother".
>
> It turns out that this was a big bottleneck in the startup speed of
> perf-report -- with this patch, perf-report starts up ~2x faster (1.1s
> vs 0.55s) on my machines.  (These numbers were measured by running
> "time perf report" on an 8MB perf.data and pressing 'q' immediately.)

Acked-by: Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>

Thanks,
Namhyung

[tip:perf/urgent] perf ui tui progress: Don' t force a refresh during progress update

[tip-bot for Patrick Palka]

Commit-ID:  d53e57d039c323fe3a43630e9f729df48134e2c9
Gitweb:     http://git.kernel.org/tip/d53e57d039c323fe3a43630e9f729df48134e2c9
Author:     Patrick Palka <patrick@parcs.ath.cx>
AuthorDate: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 20:25:49 -0400
Committer:  Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@redhat.com>
CommitDate: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 15:56:39 -0300

perf ui tui progress: Don't force a refresh during progress update

Each call to tui_progress__update() would forcibly refresh the entire
screen.  This is somewhat inefficient and causes noticable flickering
during the startup of perf-report, especially on large/slow terminals.

It looks like the force-refresh in tui_progress__update() serves no
purpose other than to clear the screen so that the progress bar of a
previous operation does not subsume that of a subsequent operation.  But
we can do just that in a much more efficient manner by clearing only the
region that a previous progress bar may have occupied before repainting
the new progress bar.  Then the force-refresh could be removed with no
change in visuals.

This patch disables the slow force-refresh in tui_progress__update() and
instead calls SLsmg_fill_region() on the entire area that the progress
bar may occupy before repainting it.  This change makes the startup of
perf-report much faster and appear much "smoother".

It turns out that this was a big bottleneck in the startup speed of
perf-report -- with this patch, perf-report starts up ~2x faster (1.1s
vs 0.55s) on my machines.  (These numbers were measured by running "time
perf report" on an 8MB perf.data and pressing 'q' immediately.)

Signed-off-by: Patrick Palka <patrick@parcs.ath.cx>
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Cc: Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>
Cc: Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl>
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1382747149-9716-1-git-send-email-patrick@parcs.ath.cx
Signed-off-by: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@redhat.com>
---
 tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c | 3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c b/tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c
index 3e2d936..c61d14b 100644
--- a/tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c
+++ b/tools/perf/ui/tui/progress.c
@@ -18,13 +18,14 @@ static void tui_progress__update(struct ui_progress *p)
 	if (p->total == 0)
 		return;
 
-	ui__refresh_dimensions(true);
+	ui__refresh_dimensions(false);
 	pthread_mutex_lock(&ui__lock);
 	y = SLtt_Screen_Rows / 2 - 2;
 	SLsmg_set_color(0);
 	SLsmg_draw_box(y, 0, 3, SLtt_Screen_Cols);
 	SLsmg_gotorc(y++, 1);
 	SLsmg_write_string((char *)p->title);
+	SLsmg_fill_region(y, 1, 1, SLtt_Screen_Cols - 2, ' ');
 	SLsmg_set_color(HE_COLORSET_SELECTED);
 	bar = ((SLtt_Screen_Cols - 2) * p->curr) / p->total;
 	SLsmg_fill_region(y, 1, 1, bar, ' ');