Re: [RFC PATCH 0/2] KVM: selftests: Rename perf_test_util to memstress

[Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>]

On Tue, Jul 26, 2022, David Matlack wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 25, 2022 at 3:45 PM Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Mon, Jul 25, 2022, David Matlack wrote:
> > > This series renames the perf_test_util to memstress. patch 1 renames the files
> > > perf_test_util.[ch] to memstress.[ch], and patch 2 replaces the perf_test_
> > > prefix on symbols with memstress_.
> > >
> > > The reason for this rename, as with any rename, is to improve readability.
> > > perf_test_util is too generic and does not describe at all what the library
> > > does, other than being used for perf tests.
> > >
> > > I considered a lot of different names (naming is hard) and eventually settled
> > > on memstress for a few reasons:
> > >
> > >  - "memstress" better describes the functionality proveded by this library,
> > >    which is to run a VM that reads/writes to memory from all vCPUs in parallel
> > >    (i.e. stressing VM memory).
> >
> > Hmm, but the purpose of the library isn't to stress VM memory so much as it is to
> > stress KVM's MMU. And typically "stress" tests just hammer a resource to try and
> > make it fail, whereas measuring performance is one of the main
> >
> > In other words, IMO it would be nice to keep "perf" in there somehwere.
> 
> The reasons I leaned toward "stress" rather than "perf" is that this
> library itself does not measure performance (it's just a workload) and
> it's not always used for performance tests (e.g.
> memslot_modification_stress_test.c).

Yeah, I don't disagree on any point, it's purely that memstress makes me think of
memtest (the pre-boot test that blasts memory with patterns to detect bad DRAM).

> > Maybe mmu_perf or something along those lines?
> 
> How about "memperf"? "mmu_perf" makes me think it'd be explicitly
> measuring the performance of MMU operations.

Let's go with your original "memstress".  I like how it looks in code, and once I
get past the initial "memtest" association, it's a good fit.

> Another contender was "memstorm", but I thought it might be too cute.

Heh.  mem_minions?  Then we can have "mm_args" and really confuse everyone.