Re: [patch 0/4] perf_counter tools: support annotation of live kernel modules

Ingo Molnar
2009-07-03T08:16:29Z

* Mike Galbraith <efault@gmx.de> wrote:

> > We need to calculate and cache the objdump annotation output
> > once, but after that it should be pretty fast as we just display
> > updated counts with the same lines over and over again. No
> > repeated objdump runs are needed.
>
> But active files follow symbols, which change on the fly.
>
> Besides, as mentioned previously, while displayed annotation was
> very cool, it took a lot of display space. For me, top with the
> ability to emit bic-disposable mini-reports would be my primary
> perf tools usage. I'd only use big brothers when I needed their
> power/detail.

Ok, then how about putting some sort of interactivity into perf top?

Up and down arrows would allow the walking of the histogram, and
hitting enter on a symbol would show the annotated function? It
would be way cool and more usable and more flexible than some
side-channel for mini-reports.

PowerTop has a lot of good text interactivity code that might be
reused. (assuming it's under a kernel compatible license?)

There's also the 'tig' tool - an interactive tool to walk Git
trees/commits. If it's under a compatible license that would be a
nice place to look for clues too - it has a very mature and
well-thought-out TUI in my opinion.

Ingo