Re: [PATCH v4 11/13] coresight: Extend width of timestamp format attribute

[Leo Yan <leo.yan@arm.com>]

On Wed, Nov 12, 2025 at 03:22:17PM +0000, James Clark wrote:
> 'timestamp' is currently 1 bit wide for on/off. To enable setting
> different intervals in a later commit, extend it to 4 bits wide. Keep
> the old bit position for backward compatibility but don't publish in the
> format/ folder. It will be removed from the documentation and can be
> removed completely after enough time has passed.
> 
> ETM3x doesn't support different intervals, so validate that the value is
> either 0 or 1.
> 
> Tools that read the bit positions from the format/ folder will continue
> to work as before, setting either 0 or 1 for off/on. Tools that
> incorrectly didn't do this and set the ETM_OPT_TS bit directly will also
> continue to work because that old bit is still checked.
> 
> This avoids adding a second timestamp attribute for setting the
> interval. This would be awkward to use because tools would have to be
> updated to ensure that the timestamps are always enabled when an
> interval is set, and the driver would have to validate that both options
> are provided together. All this does is implement the semantics of a
> single enum but spread over multiple fields.

Just a bit thoughts.  My understanding is that the PMU format would
clearly represent the PMU characteristics.  I imagine that after reading
the ETM specification, someone should be able to easily map to the PMU
formats (enable field and counter field separately).

Alternatively, this patch provides a user-friendly interface that allows
all settings (enable + counter) in one go.  Users can benefit from it
without knowing the underlying hardware mechanism, but might need to
digest its semantics.  As this will be well documented, I am fine for
current approach:

Reviewed-by: Leo Yan <leo.yan@arm.com>


> Signed-off-by: James Clark <james.clark@linaro.org>
> ---
>  drivers/hwtracing/coresight/coresight-etm-perf.h   | 13 ++++++++++---
>  drivers/hwtracing/coresight/coresight-etm3x-core.c |  9 ++++++++-
>  drivers/hwtracing/coresight/coresight-etm4x-core.c |  4 +++-
>  3 files changed, 21 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/hwtracing/coresight/coresight-etm-perf.h b/drivers/hwtracing/coresight/coresight-etm-perf.h
> index c794087a0e99..24d929428633 100644
> --- a/drivers/hwtracing/coresight/coresight-etm-perf.h
> +++ b/drivers/hwtracing/coresight/coresight-etm-perf.h
> @@ -23,6 +23,9 @@ struct cscfg_config_desc;
>  #define ATTR_CFG_FLD_preset_CFG			config
>  #define ATTR_CFG_FLD_preset_LO			0
>  #define ATTR_CFG_FLD_preset_HI			3
> +#define ATTR_CFG_FLD_timestamp_CFG		config
> +#define ATTR_CFG_FLD_timestamp_LO		4
> +#define ATTR_CFG_FLD_timestamp_HI		7
>  #define ATTR_CFG_FLD_branch_broadcast_CFG	config
>  #define ATTR_CFG_FLD_branch_broadcast_LO	8
>  #define ATTR_CFG_FLD_branch_broadcast_HI	8
> @@ -35,9 +38,13 @@ struct cscfg_config_desc;
>  #define ATTR_CFG_FLD_contextid2_CFG		config
>  #define ATTR_CFG_FLD_contextid2_LO		15
>  #define ATTR_CFG_FLD_contextid2_HI		15
> -#define ATTR_CFG_FLD_timestamp_CFG		config
> -#define ATTR_CFG_FLD_timestamp_LO		28
> -#define ATTR_CFG_FLD_timestamp_HI		28
> +/*
> + * Old position of 'timestamp' and not published in sysfs. Remove at a later
> + * date if necessary.
> + */
> +#define ATTR_CFG_FLD_deprecated_timestamp_CFG	config
> +#define ATTR_CFG_FLD_deprecated_timestamp_LO	28
> +#define ATTR_CFG_FLD_deprecated_timestamp_HI	28
>  #define ATTR_CFG_FLD_retstack_CFG		config
>  #define ATTR_CFG_FLD_retstack_LO		29
>  #define ATTR_CFG_FLD_retstack_HI		29
> diff --git a/drivers/hwtracing/coresight/coresight-etm3x-core.c b/drivers/hwtracing/coresight/coresight-etm3x-core.c
> index 584d653eda81..d4c04e563bf6 100644
> --- a/drivers/hwtracing/coresight/coresight-etm3x-core.c
> +++ b/drivers/hwtracing/coresight/coresight-etm3x-core.c
> @@ -338,9 +338,16 @@ static int etm_parse_event_config(struct etm_drvdata *drvdata,
>  	if (ATTR_CFG_GET_FLD(attr, cycacc))
>  		config->ctrl |= ETMCR_CYC_ACC;
>  
> -	if (ATTR_CFG_GET_FLD(attr, timestamp))
> +	if (ATTR_CFG_GET_FLD(attr, deprecated_timestamp) ||
> +	    ATTR_CFG_GET_FLD(attr, timestamp))
>  		config->ctrl |= ETMCR_TIMESTAMP_EN;
>  
> +	if (ATTR_CFG_GET_FLD(attr, timestamp) > 1) {
> +		dev_dbg(&drvdata->csdev->dev,
> +			"timestamp format attribute should be 0 (off) or 1 (on)\n");
> +		return -EINVAL;
> +	}
> +
>  	/*
>  	 * Possible to have cores with PTM (supports ret stack) and ETM (never
>  	 * has ret stack) on the same SoC. So only enable when it can be honored
> diff --git a/drivers/hwtracing/coresight/coresight-etm4x-core.c b/drivers/hwtracing/coresight/coresight-etm4x-core.c
> index 1aa0357a5ce7..d4e294cd48ae 100644
> --- a/drivers/hwtracing/coresight/coresight-etm4x-core.c
> +++ b/drivers/hwtracing/coresight/coresight-etm4x-core.c
> @@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
>  #include <linux/amba/bus.h>
>  #include <linux/seq_file.h>
>  #include <linux/uaccess.h>
> +#include <linux/perf/arm_pmu.h>
>  #include <linux/perf_event.h>
>  #include <linux/perf/arm_pmu.h>
>  #include <linux/platform_device.h>
> @@ -800,7 +801,8 @@ static int etm4_parse_event_config(struct coresight_device *csdev,
>  			cc_threshold = drvdata->ccitmin;
>  		config->ccctlr = cc_threshold;
>  	}
> -	if (ATTR_CFG_GET_FLD(attr, timestamp)) {
> +	if (ATTR_CFG_GET_FLD(attr, deprecated_timestamp) ||
> +	    ATTR_CFG_GET_FLD(attr, timestamp)) {
>  		/*
>  		 * Configure timestamps to be emitted at regular intervals in
>  		 * order to correlate instructions executed on different CPUs
> 
> -- 
> 2.34.1
>