Re: [tip:perfcounters/core] perf_counter: x86: Fix call-chain support to use NMI-safe methods

Linus Torvalds
2009-06-15T20:05:16Z

On Mon, 15 Jun 2009, Ingo Molnar wrote:
>
> Well i guess it depends. For server apps it is true - syscalls are a
> lot more dominant, MMs are long-running so any startup cost gets
> amortized and pagefaults are avoided.
>
> For something like a kernel build we have 7 times as many pagefaults
> as syscalls:

Ingo - calm down.

This is not about page faults.

This is purely about taps FROM KERNEL SPACE.

Yes, for the kernel build we have 7 times as many page faults as system
calls, BUT I BET 99.9% of them are from user mode!

The whole "open-code iret" only works for exceptions that happened in
kernel mode. That's a _vanishingly_ small number (outside of device
interrupts that happen during idle).

Linus