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

Mike Galbraith
2009-07-03T08:29:03Z

On Fri, 2009-07-03 at 10:15 +0200, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> * 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.

Cool. I love free samples to bend/spindle/mutilate :)

-Mike