[PATCH bpf-next v3 0/1] libbpf: perfbuf expose ring buffer

[Jon Doron <arilou@gmail.com>]

From: Jon Doron <jond@wiz.io>

Add support for writing a custom event reader, by exposing the ring
buffer.

Few simple examples where this type of needed:
1. perf_event_read_simple is allocating using malloc, perhaps you want
   to handle the wrap-around in some other way.
2. Since perf buf is per-cpu then the order of the events is not
   guarnteed, for example:
   Given 3 events where each event has a timestamp t0 < t1 < t2,
   and the events are spread on more than 1 CPU, then we can end
   up with the following state in the ring buf:
   CPU[0] => [t0, t2]
   CPU[1] => [t1]
   When you consume the events from CPU[0], you could know there is
   a t1 missing, (assuming there are no drops, and your event data
   contains a sequential index).
   So now one can simply do the following, for CPU[0], you can store
   the address of t0 and t2 in an array (without moving the tail, so
   there data is not perished) then move on the CPU[1] and set the
   address of t1 in the same array.
   So you end up with something like:
   void **arr[] = [&t0, &t1, &t2], now you can consume it orderely
   and move the tails as you process in order.
3. Assuming there are multiple CPUs and we want to start draining the
   messages from them, then we can "pick" with which one to start with
   according to the remaining free space in the ring buffer.

Jon Doron (1):
  libbpf: perfbuf: Add API to get the ring buffer

 tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.c   | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.h   |  2 ++
 tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.map |  1 +
 3 files changed, 29 insertions(+)

-- 
2.36.1