Re: [PATCH v3 1/3] perf: Skip and warn on unknown format 'configN' attrs

[Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>]

On Mon, Sep 26, 2022 at 6:32 AM Rob Herring <robh@kernel.org> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Sep 16, 2022 at 1:12 PM Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org> wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, Sep 14, 2022 at 1:09 PM Rob Herring <robh@kernel.org> wrote:
> > >
> > > If the kernel exposes a new perf_event_attr field in a format attr, perf
> > > will return an error stating the specified PMU can't be found. For
> > > example, a format attr with 'config3:0-63' causes an error as config3 is
> > > unknown to perf. This causes a compatibility issue between a newer
> > > kernel with older perf tool.
> > >
> > > Before this change with a kernel adding 'config3' I get:
> > >
> > > $ perf record -e arm_spe// -- true
> > > event syntax error: 'arm_spe//'
> > >                      \___ Cannot find PMU `arm_spe'. Missing kernel support?
> > > Run 'perf list' for a list of valid events
> > >
> > >  Usage: perf record [<options>] [<command>]
> > >     or: perf record [<options>] -- <command> [<options>]
> > >
> > >     -e, --event <event>   event selector. use 'perf list' to list
> > > available events
> > >
> > > After this change, I get:
> > >
> > > $ perf record -e arm_spe// -- true
> > > WARNING: 'arm_spe_0' format 'inv_event_filter' requires 'perf_event_attr::config3' which is not supported by this version of perf!
> > > [ perf record: Woken up 2 times to write data ]
> > > [ perf record: Captured and wrote 0.091 MB perf.data ]
> > >
> > > To support unknown configN formats, rework the YACC implementation to
> > > pass any config[0-9]+ format to perf_pmu__new_format() to handle with a
> > > warning.
> >
> > It only handles configN formats but it might add a completely different
> > name later, right?
>
> Right. An unknown configN is a warning. An unknown name is still an
> error as before. Given that sysfs format attrs are for mapping fields
> which could be anything to "generic" perf_event_attr fields, how would
> we ever have anything other than configN?

I'm not sure I'm following.  It could be anything other than configN.

But I don't object to this particular change as it's needed for current
work.  Later, we can fix the issue if another name comes in.

Thanks,
Namhyung