Re: [Patch v3 4/4] perf/x86/intel: Consolidate MSR_IA32_PERF_CFG_C tracking

sashiko-bot
2026-04-27T12:12:31Z

Sashiko AI review found 1 potential issue(s):
- [Medium] intel_pmu_config_acr() clobbers upper Architectural PEBS configuration bits in cfg_c_val and the PERF_CFG_C MSR.
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commit 5ded8e15814c1efc4e7b5c766abdd782de4d360c
Author: Dapeng Mi <dapeng1.mi@linux.intel.com>

perf/x86/intel: Consolidate MSR_IA32_PERF_CFG_C tracking

This commit consolidates the tracking of the PERF_CFG_C MSR into a single
variable, cfg_c_val, to maintain a unified view of the MSR state for both
Auto Counter Reload (ACR) and Architectural PEBS configurations.

> diff --git a/arch/x86/events/intel/core.c b/arch/x86/events/intel/core.c
> --- a/arch/x86/events/intel/core.c
> +++ b/arch/x86/events/intel/core.c
[ ... ]
> @@ -3169,10 +3169,10 @@ static void intel_pmu_config_acr(int idx, u64 mask, u32 reload)
> wrmsrl(msr_b + msr_offset, mask);
> cpuc->acr_cfg_b[idx] = mask;
> }
> - /* Only need to update the reload value when there is a valid config value. */
> - if (mask && cpuc->acr_cfg_c[idx] != reload) {
> + /* Only update CFG_C reload when ACR is actively enabled (mask != 0) */
> + if (mask && ((cpuc->cfg_c_val[idx] & ARCH_PEBS_RELOAD) != reload)) {
> wrmsrl(msr_c + msr_offset, reload);
> - cpuc->acr_cfg_c[idx] = reload;
> + cpuc->cfg_c_val[idx] = reload;
> }
> }

Can this assignment wipe out the upper Architectural PEBS configuration bits?

Since reload is passed as a u32 and cfg_c_val is a 64-bit value, assigning
reload directly zero-extends the value. This will clear the upper 32 bits,
unintentionally removing any existing Architectural PEBS configurations
like ARCH_PEBS_EN from the software cache, and writing zeroes to the
upper bits of the physical MSR.

Although intel_pmu_enable_event_ext() recalculates the full MSR state shortly
after and detects the mismatch, resulting in a second wrmsrq() to restore the
missing PEBS bits, this causes an inefficient double MSR write and seems to
defeat the goal of maintaining a consistent MSR view.

Would it be better to use a read-modify-write pattern here instead?
For example:

cpuc->cfg_c_val[idx] = (cpuc->cfg_c_val[idx] & ~ARCH_PEBS_RELOAD) | reload;

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Sashiko AI review · https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260427085513.3728672-1-dapeng1.mi@linux.intel.com?part=4