Re: [PATCH 4/8] perf tools: Introduce struct perf_log

[Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>]

Hi Arnaldo,

On Thu, 26 Dec 2013 11:50:51 -0300, Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo wrote:
> Em Thu, Dec 26, 2013 at 02:38:00PM +0900, Namhyung Kim escreveu:
>> From: Namhyung Kim <namhyung.kim@lge.com>
>> 
>> Add new functions to save error messages in a temp file.  It'll be
>> used by some UI front-ends to see the messages.

[SNIP]
>> +struct perf_log {
>> +	FILE *fp;
>> +	off_t *linemap;
>> +	u32 lines;
>> +	u32 nr_alloc;
>> +	bool seen_newline;
>> +};
>> +
>> +extern struct perf_log perf_log;
>> +
>> +int perf_log_init(void);
>> +int perf_log_exit(void);
>> +void perf_log_add(const char *msg);
>> +void perf_log_addv(const char *fmt, va_list ap);
>
> The convention in tools/perf/ has been to use class__method, i.e. in the
> above case we would have:
>
> int perf_log__init(void);
> int perf_log__exit(void);
> void perf_log__add(const char *msg);
> void perf_log__addv(const char *fmt, va_list ap);

Okay.  (I wasn't follow the convention since the functions do not pass
the perf_log as an argument, but I agree it's better to follow it.)
Will change.

>
>
> But I have some questions about the implementation, will we go on
> allocating memory for each and every line?

Yes, it needs an offset for each line in order to find starting point.

>
> Can't we just come out with a simple ui_file_browser class that would
> then be usable for any file, including this one?

Yes we can do it if need be.  Do you think of another use case?

>
> The ui_file_browser__seek() method would have to go on reading lines and
> seeking newlines, with the ui_file_browser__seek(browser, 0, SEEK_SET)
> would map directly to fseek(log_fp, 0, SEEK_SET), etc.

It supposed to.  But in this case, the ->seek() method is called in
ui_browser__run() which is not protected by ui__lock.  So it's possible
that new log message alters file position if it's called after ->seek()
method was executed.

If it's guaranteed that there's no concurrent access to the file, we can
move fseek() to the ->seek() method IMHO.

>
> It should handle "live" files, like the one we're feeding log lines,
> etc.
>
> The way you implemented it will grow memory consumption without
> limits, no?

Right, it'll consume 8 bytes for each line of the file.  What's the
reasonable limitation?

Thanks,
Namhyung