[PATCH v3 2/7] documentation for stats_fs

Emanuele Giuseppe Esposito
2020-05-26T11:04:34Z

Html docs for a complete documentation of the stats_fs API,
filesystem and usage.

Signed-off-by: Emanuele Giuseppe Esposito <eesposit@redhat.com>
---
Documentation/filesystems/index.rst | 1 +
Documentation/filesystems/stats_fs.rst | 222 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
2 files changed, 223 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 Documentation/filesystems/stats_fs.rst

diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/index.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/index.rst
index e7b46dac7079..9a46fd851c6e 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/index.rst
@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@ Documentation for filesystem implementations.
relay
romfs
squashfs
+ stats_fs
sysfs
sysv-fs
tmpfs
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/stats_fs.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/stats_fs.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..292c689ffb98
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/stats_fs.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,222 @@
+========
+Stats_FS
+========
+
+Stats_fs is a synthetic ram-based virtual filesystem that takes care of
+gathering and displaying statistics for the Linux kernel subsystems.
+
+The motivation for stats_fs comes from the fact that there is no common
+way for Linux kernel subsystems to expose statistics to userspace shared
+throughout the Linux kernel; subsystems have to take care of gathering and
+displaying statistics by themselves, for example in the form of files in
+debugfs.
+
+Allowing each subsystem of the kernel to do so has two disadvantages.
+First, it will introduce redundant code. Second, debugfs is anyway not the
+right place for statistics (for example it is affected by lockdown).
+
+Stats_fs offers a generic and stable API, allowing any kind of
+directory/file organization and supporting multiple kind of aggregations
+(not only sum, but also average, max, min and count_zero) and data types
+(boolean, all unsigned/signed and custom types). The implementation takes
+care of gathering and displaying information at run time; users only need
+to specify the values to be included in each source. Optionally, users can
+also provide a display function for each value, that will take care of
+displaying the provided value in a custom format.
+
+Its main function is to display each statistics as a file in the desired
+folder hierarchy defined through the API. Stats_fs files can be read, and
+possibly cleared if their file mode allows it.
+
+Stats_fs is typically mounted with a command like::
+
+ mount -t stats_fs stats_fs /sys/kernel/stats_fs
+
+(Or an equivalent /etc/fstab line).
+
+Stats_fs has two main components: the public API defined by
+include/linux/stats_fs.h, and the virtual file system in
+/sys/kernel/stats.
+
+The API has two main elements, values and sources. Kernel
+subsystems will create a source, add child
+sources/values/aggregates and register it to the root source (that on the
+virtual fs would be /sys/kernel/stats).
+
+The stats_fs API is defined in ``<linux/stats_fs.h>``.
+
+ Sources
+ Sources are created via ``stats_fs_source_create()``, and each
+ source becomes a directory in the file system. Sources form a
+ parent-child relationship; root sources are added to the file
+ system via ``stats_fs_source_register()``. Therefore each Linux
+ subsystem will add its own entry to the root, filesystem similar
+ to what it is done in debugfs. Every other source is added to or
+ removed from a parent through the
+ ``stats_fs_source_add_subordinate()`` and
+ ``stats_fs_source_remove_subordinate()`` APIs. Once a source is
+ created and added to the tree (via add_subordinate), it will be
+ used to compute aggregate values in the parent source. A source
+ can optionally be hidden from the filesystem but still considered
+ in the aggregation operations if the corresponding flag is set
+ during initialization.
+
+ Values
+ Values represent quantites that are gathered by the stats_fs user.
+ Examples of values include the number of vm exits of a given kind,
+ the amount of memory used by some data structure, the length of
+ the longest hash table chain, or anything like that. Values are
+ defined with the stats_fs_source_add_values function. Each value
+ is defined by a ``struct stats_fs_value``; the same
+ ``stats_fs_value`` can be added to many different sources. A value
+ can be considered "simple" if it fetches data from a user-provided
+ location, or "aggregate" if it groups all values in the
+ subordinate sources that include the same ``stats_fs_value``.
+ Values by default are considered to be cumulative, meaning the
+ value they represent never decreases, but can also be defined as
+ floating if they exibith a different behavior. The main difference
+ between these two is reflected into the file permission, since a
+ floating value file does not allow the user to clear it. Each
+ value has a ``stats_fs_type`` pointer in order to allow the user
+ to provide custom get and clear functions. The library, however,
+ also exports default ``stats_fs_type`` structs for the standard
+ types (all unsigned and signed types plus boolean). A value can
+ also provide a show function that takes care of displaying the
+ value in a custom string format. This can be especially useful
+ when displaying enums.
+
+Because stats_fs is a different mountpoint than debugfs, it is not affected
+by security lockdown.
+
+Using Stats_fs
+================
+
+Define a value::
+
+ struct statistics{
+ uint64_t exit;
+ ...
+ };
+
+ struct kvm {
+ ...
+ struct statistics stat;
+ };
+
+ struct stats_fs_value kvm_stats[] = {
+ { "exit_vm", offsetof(struct kvm, stat.exit), &stats_fs_type_u64,
+ STATS_FS_SUM },
+ { NULL }
+ };
+
+The same ``struct stats_fs_value`` is used for both simple and aggregate
+values, though the type and offset are only used for simple values.
+Aggregates merge all values that use the same ``struct stats_fs_value``.
+
+Create the parent source::
+
+ struct stats_fs_source parent_source = stats_fs_source_create(0, "parent");
+
+Register it (files and folders
+will only be visible after this function is called)::
+
+ stats_fs_source_register(parent_source);
+
+Create and add a child::
+
+ struct stats_fs_source child_source = stats_fs_source_create(STATS_FS_HIDDEN, "child");
+
+ stats_fs_source_add_subordinate(parent_source, child_source);
+
+The STATS_FS_HIDDEN attribute won't affect the aggregation, it will only
+block the creation of the files.
+
+Add values to parent and child (also here order doesn't matter)::
+
+ struct kvm *base_ptr = kmalloc(..., sizeof(struct kvm));
+ ...
+ stats_fs_source_add_values(child_source, kvm_stats, base_ptr, 0);
+ stats_fs_source_add_values(parent_source, kvm_stats, NULL, STATS_FS_HIDDEN);
+
+``child_source`` will be a simple value, since it has a non-NULL base
+pointer, while ``parent_source`` will be an aggregate. During the adding
+phase, also values can optionally be marked as hidden, so that the folder
+and other values can be still shown.
+
+Of course the same ``struct stats_fs_value`` array can be also passed with a
+different base pointer, to represent the same value but in another instance
+of the kvm struct.
+
+Search:
+
+Fetch a value from the child source, returning the value
+pointed by ``(uint64_t *) base_ptr + kvm_stats[0].offset``::
+
+ uint64_t ret_child, ret_parent;
+
+ stats_fs_source_get_value(child_source, &kvm_stats[0], &ret_child);
+
+Fetch an aggregate value, searching all subsources of ``parent_source`` for
+the specified ``struct stats_fs_value``::
+
+ stats_fs_source_get_value(parent_source, &kvm_stats[0], &ret_parent);
+
+ assert(ret_child == ret_parent); // check expected result
+
+To make it more interesting, add another child::
+
+ struct stats_fs_source child_source2 = stats_fs_source_create(0, "child2");
+
+ stats_fs_source_add_subordinate(parent_source, child_source2);
+ // now the structure is parent -> child1
+ // -> child2
+
+ struct kvm *other_base_ptr = kmalloc(..., sizeof(struct kvm));
+ ...
+ stats_fs_source_add_values(child_source2, kvm_stats, other_base_ptr, 0);
+
+Note that other_base_ptr points to another instance of kvm, so the struct
+stats_fs_value is the same but the address at which they point is not.
+
+Now get the aggregate value::
+
+ uint64_t ret_child, ret_child2, ret_parent;
+
+ stats_fs_source_get_value(child_source, &kvm_stats[0], &ret_child);
+ stats_fs_source_get_value(parent_source, &kvm_stats[0], &ret_parent);
+ stats_fs_source_get_value(child_source2, &kvm_stats[0], &ret_child2);
+
+ assert((ret_child + ret_child2) == ret_parent);
+
+Cleanup::
+
+ stats_fs_source_remove_subordinate(parent_source, child_source);
+ stats_fs_source_revoke(child_source);
+ stats_fs_source_put(child_source);
+
+ stats_fs_source_remove_subordinate(parent_source, child_source2);
+ stats_fs_source_revoke(child_source2);
+ stats_fs_source_put(child_source2);
+
+ stats_fs_source_put(parent_source);
+ kfree(other_base_ptr);
+ kfree(base_ptr);
+
+Calling stats_fs_source_revoke is very important, because it will ensure
+that stats_fs will not access the data that were passed to
+stats_fs_source_add_value for this source.
+
+Because open files increase the reference count for a stats_fs_source, the
+source can end up living longer than the data that provides the values for
+the source. Calling stats_fs_source_revoke just before the backing data
+is freed avoids accesses to freed data structures. The sources will return
+0.
+
+This is not needed for the parent_source, since it just contains
+aggregates that would be 0 anyways if no matching child value exist.
+
+API Documentation
+=================
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/stats_fs.h
+ :export: fs/stats_fs/*.c
\ No newline at end of file
--
2.25.4