Re: [PATCH v7 00/16] New perf ilist app

[Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>]

Hi Ian,

On Wed, Jul 23, 2025 at 08:32:33AM -0700, Ian Rogers wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 14, 2025 at 9:44 AM Ian Rogers <irogers@google.com> wrote:
> >
> > This patch series builds up to the addition of a new ilist app written
> > in python using textual [1] for the UI. The app presents perf PMUs and
> > events, displays the event information as in `perf list` while at the
> > bottom of the console showing recent activity of the event in total
> > and across all CPUs. It also displays metrics, placed in a tree
> > through their metric group, again with counts being displayed in the
> > bottom panel.
> >
> > The first ground work patches of fixes, cleanup and refactoring were
> > separated into their own series here:
> > https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20250709214029.1769089-1-irogers@google.com/
> >
> > The second part of the patches adds event json for the software PMU
> > and makes the tracepoint PMU support iteration of events and the
> > like. Without these improvements the tracepoint and software PMUs will
> > appear to have no events in the ilist app. As the software PMU moves
> > parsing to json, the legacy hard coded parsing is removed. This has
> > proven controversial for hardware events and so that cleanup isn't
> > done here.
> >
> > The final patches expand the perf python APIs and add the ilist
> > command. To run it you need the updated perf.cpython.so in your
> > PYTHONPATH and then execute the script. Expanding PMUs and then
> > selecting events will cause event informatin to be displayed in the
> > top-right and the counters values to be displayed as sparklines and
> > counts in the bottom half of the screen.
> >
> > [1] https://textual.textualize.io/
> >
> > v7: Better handle errors in the python code and ignore errors when
> >     scanning PMU/events in ilist.py, improving the behavior when not
> >     root. Add a tp_pmu/python clean up. Minor kernel coding style
> >     clean up. Fix behavior of ilist if a search result isn't found but
> >     then next is chosen.
> >
> > v6: For metrics on hybrid systems don't purely match by name, also
> >     match the CPU and thread so that if the same metric exists for
> >     different PMUs the appropriate one is selected and counters may be
> >     read. Likewise use evsel maps and not the evlists.
> >
> > v5: Split the series in two. Add metric support. Various clean ups and
> >     tweaks to the app in particular around the handling of searches.
> >
> > v4: No conflict rebase. Picks up perf-tools-next DRM PMU which
> >     displays as expected.
> >
> > v3: Add a search dialog to the ilist app with 'n'ext and 'p'revious
> >     keys. No changes in the ground work first 14 patches.
> >
> > v2: In the jevents event description duplication, some minor changes
> >     accidentally missed from v1 meaning that in v1 the descriptions
> >     were still duplicated. Expand the cover letter with some thoughts
> >     on the series.
> >
> > Ian Rogers (16):
> >   perf python: Add more exceptions on error paths
> >   perf jevents: Add common software event json
> >   perf parse-events: Remove non-json software events
> >   perf tp_pmu: Factor existing tracepoint logic to new file
> >   perf tp_pmu: Add event APIs
> >   perf list: Remove tracepoint printing code
> >   perf list: Skip ABI PMUs when printing pmu values
> >   perf python: Improve the tracepoint function if no libtraceevent
> >   perf python: Add basic PMU abstraction and pmus sequence
> >   perf python: Add function returning dictionary of all events on a PMU
> >   perf ilist: Add new python ilist command
> >   perf python: Add parse_metrics function
> >   perf python: Add evlist metrics function
> >   perf python: Add evlist compute_metric
> >   perf python: Add metrics function
> >   perf ilist: Add support for metrics
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Is there any more I can do to get this series landed? I appreciate having:
> 
> Tested-by: Gautam Menghani <gautam@linux.ibm.com>
> 
> I think there is some follow up for "make install" for scripts like
> these, but I'm keen for the python API to move forward.
 
I'll review the series today so that we can get some part of it, at
least.  Basically I think we need a wrapper script like perf-ilist to
run this easily (maybe with documentation).

Thanks,
Namhyung

> >
> >  tools/perf/builtin-list.c                     |  65 ++-
> >  .../arch/common/common/software.json          |  92 ++++
> >  tools/perf/pmu-events/empty-pmu-events.c      | 266 +++++----
> >  tools/perf/pmu-events/jevents.py              |  15 +-
> >  tools/perf/python/ilist.py                    | 491 +++++++++++++++++
> >  tools/perf/util/Build                         |   1 +
> >  tools/perf/util/evsel.c                       |  21 +-
> >  tools/perf/util/parse-events.c                | 198 ++-----
> >  tools/perf/util/parse-events.h                |   1 -
> >  tools/perf/util/parse-events.l                |  38 +-
> >  tools/perf/util/parse-events.y                |  29 +-
> >  tools/perf/util/pfm.c                         |   2 +
> >  tools/perf/util/pmu.c                         |   7 +
> >  tools/perf/util/pmus.c                        |   2 +
> >  tools/perf/util/print-events.c                | 100 +---
> >  tools/perf/util/print-events.h                |   4 +-
> >  tools/perf/util/python.c                      | 519 +++++++++++++++++-
> >  tools/perf/util/tp_pmu.c                      | 209 +++++++
> >  tools/perf/util/tp_pmu.h                      |  19 +
> >  19 files changed, 1638 insertions(+), 441 deletions(-)
> >  create mode 100644 tools/perf/pmu-events/arch/common/common/software.json
> >  create mode 100755 tools/perf/python/ilist.py
> >  create mode 100644 tools/perf/util/tp_pmu.c
> >  create mode 100644 tools/perf/util/tp_pmu.h
> >
> > --
> > 2.50.0.727.gbf7dc18ff4-goog
> >