From: Ian Rogers <irogers@google.com>
To: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>,
Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>,
Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@kernel.org>,
Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>,
Alexander Shishkin <alexander.shishkin@linux.intel.com>,
Jiri Olsa <jolsa@kernel.org>, Ian Rogers <irogers@google.com>,
Adrian Hunter <adrian.hunter@intel.com>,
James Clark <james.clark@linaro.org>,
Xu Yang <xu.yang_2@nxp.com>, Chun-Tse Shao <ctshao@google.com>,
Thomas Richter <tmricht@linux.ibm.com>,
Sumanth Korikkar <sumanthk@linux.ibm.com>,
Collin Funk <collin.funk1@gmail.com>,
Thomas Falcon <thomas.falcon@intel.com>,
Howard Chu <howardchu95@gmail.com>,
Dapeng Mi <dapeng1.mi@linux.intel.com>,
Levi Yun <yeoreum.yun@arm.com>,
Yang Li <yang.lee@linux.alibaba.com>,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-perf-users@vger.kernel.org,
Andi Kleen <ak@linux.intel.com>,
Weilin Wang <weilin.wang@intel.com>
Subject: [PATCH v2 01/18] perf metricgroup: Add care to picking the evsel for displaying a metric
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2025 15:14:51 -0800 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20251106231508.448793-2-irogers@google.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20251106231508.448793-1-irogers@google.com>
Rather than using the first evsel in the matched events, try to find
the least shared non-tool evsel. The aim is to pick the first evsel
that typifies the metric within the list of metrics.
This addresses an issue where Default metric group metrics may lose
their counter value due to how the stat displaying hides counters for
default event/metric output.
For a metricgroup like TopdownL1 on an Intel Alderlake the change is,
before there are 4 events with metrics:
```
$ perf stat -M topdownL1 -a sleep 1
Performance counter stats for 'system wide':
7,782,334,296 cpu_core/TOPDOWN.SLOTS/ # 10.4 % tma_bad_speculation
# 19.7 % tma_frontend_bound
2,668,927,977 cpu_core/topdown-retiring/ # 35.7 % tma_backend_bound
# 34.1 % tma_retiring
803,623,987 cpu_core/topdown-bad-spec/
167,514,386 cpu_core/topdown-heavy-ops/
1,555,265,776 cpu_core/topdown-fe-bound/
2,792,733,013 cpu_core/topdown-be-bound/
279,769,310 cpu_atom/TOPDOWN_RETIRING.ALL/ # 12.2 % tma_retiring
# 15.1 % tma_bad_speculation
457,917,232 cpu_atom/CPU_CLK_UNHALTED.CORE/ # 38.4 % tma_backend_bound
# 34.2 % tma_frontend_bound
783,519,226 cpu_atom/TOPDOWN_FE_BOUND.ALL/
10,790,192 cpu_core/INT_MISC.UOP_DROPPING/
879,845,633 cpu_atom/TOPDOWN_BE_BOUND.ALL/
```
After there are 6 events with metrics:
```
$ perf stat -M topdownL1 -a sleep 1
Performance counter stats for 'system wide':
2,377,551,258 cpu_core/TOPDOWN.SLOTS/ # 7.9 % tma_bad_speculation
# 36.4 % tma_frontend_bound
480,791,142 cpu_core/topdown-retiring/ # 35.5 % tma_backend_bound
186,323,991 cpu_core/topdown-bad-spec/
65,070,590 cpu_core/topdown-heavy-ops/ # 20.1 % tma_retiring
871,733,444 cpu_core/topdown-fe-bound/
848,286,598 cpu_core/topdown-be-bound/
260,936,456 cpu_atom/TOPDOWN_RETIRING.ALL/ # 12.4 % tma_retiring
# 17.6 % tma_bad_speculation
419,576,513 cpu_atom/CPU_CLK_UNHALTED.CORE/
797,132,597 cpu_atom/TOPDOWN_FE_BOUND.ALL/ # 38.0 % tma_frontend_bound
3,055,447 cpu_core/INT_MISC.UOP_DROPPING/
671,014,164 cpu_atom/TOPDOWN_BE_BOUND.ALL/ # 32.0 % tma_backend_bound
```
Signed-off-by: Ian Rogers <irogers@google.com>
---
tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c | 48 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 47 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c b/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c
index 48936e517803..76092ee26761 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/metricgroup.c
@@ -1323,6 +1323,51 @@ static int parse_ids(bool metric_no_merge, bool fake_pmu,
return ret;
}
+/* How many times will a given evsel be used in a set of metrics? */
+static int count_uses(struct list_head *metric_list, struct evsel *evsel)
+{
+ const char *metric_id = evsel__metric_id(evsel);
+ struct metric *m;
+ int uses = 0;
+
+ list_for_each_entry(m, metric_list, nd) {
+ if (hashmap__find(m->pctx->ids, metric_id, NULL))
+ uses++;
+ }
+ return uses;
+}
+
+/*
+ * Select the evsel that stat-display will use to trigger shadow/metric
+ * printing. Pick the least shared non-tool evsel, encouraging metrics to be
+ * with a hardware counter that is specific to them.
+ */
+static struct evsel *pick_display_evsel(struct list_head *metric_list,
+ struct evsel **metric_events)
+{
+ struct evsel *selected = metric_events[0];
+ size_t selected_uses;
+ bool selected_is_tool;
+
+ if (!selected)
+ return NULL;
+
+ selected_uses = count_uses(metric_list, selected);
+ selected_is_tool = evsel__is_tool(selected);
+ for (int i = 1; metric_events[i]; i++) {
+ struct evsel *candidate = metric_events[i];
+ size_t candidate_uses = count_uses(metric_list, candidate);
+
+ if ((selected_is_tool && !evsel__is_tool(candidate)) ||
+ (candidate_uses < selected_uses)) {
+ selected = candidate;
+ selected_uses = candidate_uses;
+ selected_is_tool = evsel__is_tool(selected);
+ }
+ }
+ return selected;
+}
+
static int parse_groups(struct evlist *perf_evlist,
const char *pmu, const char *str,
bool metric_no_group,
@@ -1430,7 +1475,8 @@ static int parse_groups(struct evlist *perf_evlist,
goto out;
}
- me = metricgroup__lookup(&perf_evlist->metric_events, metric_events[0],
+ me = metricgroup__lookup(&perf_evlist->metric_events,
+ pick_display_evsel(&metric_list, metric_events),
/*create=*/true);
expr = malloc(sizeof(struct metric_expr));
--
2.51.2.1041.gc1ab5b90ca-goog
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2025-11-06 23:15 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 21+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-11-06 23:14 [PATCH v2 00/18] Switch the default perf stat metrics to json Ian Rogers
2025-11-06 23:14 ` Ian Rogers [this message]
2025-11-06 23:14 ` [PATCH v2 02/18] perf expr: Add #target_cpu literal Ian Rogers
2025-11-06 23:14 ` [PATCH v2 03/18] perf jevents: Add set of common metrics based on default ones Ian Rogers
2025-11-06 23:14 ` [PATCH v2 04/18] perf jevents: Add metric DefaultShowEvents Ian Rogers
2025-11-06 23:14 ` [PATCH v2 05/18] perf stat: Add detail -d,-dd,-ddd metrics Ian Rogers
2025-11-06 23:14 ` [PATCH v2 06/18] perf script: Change metric format to use json metrics Ian Rogers
2025-11-06 23:14 ` [PATCH v2 07/18] perf stat: Remove hard coded shadow metrics Ian Rogers
2025-11-06 23:14 ` [PATCH v2 08/18] perf stat: Fix default metricgroup display on hybrid Ian Rogers
2025-11-06 23:14 ` [PATCH v2 09/18] perf stat: Sort default events/metrics Ian Rogers
2025-11-06 23:15 ` [PATCH v2 10/18] perf stat: Remove "unit" workarounds for metric-only Ian Rogers
2025-11-06 23:15 ` [PATCH v2 11/18] perf test stat+json: Improve metric-only testing Ian Rogers
2025-11-06 23:15 ` [PATCH v2 12/18] perf test stat: Ignore failures in Default[234] metricgroups Ian Rogers
2025-11-06 23:15 ` [PATCH v2 13/18] perf test stat: Update std_output testing metric expectations Ian Rogers
2025-11-06 23:15 ` [PATCH v2 14/18] perf test metrics: Update all metrics for possibly failing default metrics Ian Rogers
2025-11-06 23:15 ` [PATCH v2 15/18] perf test stat: Update shadow test to use metrics Ian Rogers
2025-11-06 23:15 ` [PATCH v2 16/18] perf test stat: Update test expectations and events Ian Rogers
2025-11-06 23:15 ` [PATCH v2 17/18] perf test stat csv: " Ian Rogers
2025-11-06 23:15 ` [PATCH v2 18/18] perf tool_pmu: Make core_wide and target_cpu json events Ian Rogers
2025-11-10 8:38 ` [PATCH v2 00/18] Switch the default perf stat metrics to json Mi, Dapeng
2025-11-11 3:46 ` Ian Rogers
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