[PATCH v6 00/37] tracing: Inter-event (e.g. latency) support

Tom Zanussi
2017-11-17T20:33:43Z

Hi,

This is V6 of the inter-event tracing patchset, addressing input from
V5.

There were only a couple comments on the last version, which are
addressed here, in addition to a problems noted while testing, and a
fix for a problem found by the 0day bot:

- fixed parse_var_defs() again, moving the VARS_MAX check up to the
proper place. Also added a hist_err message to parse_assignment()
and removed the hist_err message from create_var_field(), since
it's no longer necessary given the above.
- fixed a bogus format string check in synth_field_fmt()
- merged in a fix from Fengguang Wu for a 0day bot-flagged sizeof
pointer problem (to 24/37, Add support for synthetic events)
- noticed that duplicate variables on the same trigger weren't being
detected and added a fix for that

Changes from V4:

- fixed struct noinline typo
- for the selftests, the following changes were made [from Rajvi Jingar]
- In extended error support test, changed last "&&" to redirect
error/output to /dev/null instead.
- In synthetic event create remove test, changed to same event
style in creating and removing and added a case to check adding
an event with wrong format
- Added -q option in grep since don’t need to show grep results.
- Changes to use newly added exit_pass()/exit_fail().
- in the variable reference handling patch, changed list_add_rcu to
list_add_tail_rcu when adding hist triggers. Using list_add_rcu
causes the triggers to be executed in reverse order to how they
were added, which in the case of multiple triggers with variables
on the same event can lead to variables being accessed before they
were set. [thanks to Rajvi for the bug report]
- noticed and fixed a couple problems with synthetic event refcounting

Changes from V3:

These mainly directly address the input from V3, but there are a
couple new things too - a new set of selftests (thanks to Rajvi Jingar
for those), and a new 'timestamp_mode' ftrace file making it easy to
see exactly what mode the ring buffer timestamping is in at any given
time (delta or absolute). The detailed list:

- fixed up 'if' parsing to also handle variables starting with 'if'
- added lots of comments to the field variable code
- added code to check and not fail if a field variable was already created
- fixed various typos,etc in commit messages
- moved target_hist_data fix from onmatch patch to field var patch
- fixed var_name leak in parse_var_defs()
- changed common_timestamp -> $common_timestamp in commit messages
- discovered and fixed a bug where variable references were not guaranteed unique
- added missing destroy_hist_field() in expression code
- separated synth event list management from synth event de/registration
- added missing 2nd-level variable reference checking in expressions
- added self-reference check to find_any_var_ref()
- removed HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_ONLY and related code
- added WARN_ON_ONCE to hist_trigger_entry_print()
- changed absolute timestamps to allow coexistence with normal (delta) timestamps
- added a new read-only 'timestamp_mode' file to show current timestamp mode
- moved hist trigger Documentation into standalone histogram.txt file
- added new inter-event Documentation to histogram.txt
- removed redundant description of $common_timestamp usage from Documentation
- added missing .log2 line to Documentation
- added missing .usecs line to README pseudo-file
- added new set of selftests for various inter-event features [Rajvi Jingar]

Changes from V2:

- split out standalone bugfixes and cleanups to a separate patchset
- moved hunks around and merged patches as suggested
- added inter-event note in config option
- updates to duplicates patch [Vedang Patel]
- various memory allocation checks and use-after-free bugfix [Rajvi Jingar]
- various code improvements as suggested by Steve
- switched hist_field_flags over to using shifts
- added comments about synth_event mutex usage
- added example and explanation of field variables
- fixed field variable synth_event_mutex bug
- commented the whitespace handling in hist_trigger_func()
(the extra complexity is needed to allow spaces in actions)
- use smp_processor_id() instead of raw_ for cpu field
- added better description of aliases
- use static arrays instead of kmalloc for hist_err code, along with
various other cleanups
- removed 'tracing: Add support for dynamic tracepoints' since I was
mistaken about the need for this

Changes from V1:

There are too many changes to list in detail, most of them directly
addressing input from V1, but here are the major changes from V1
(thanks to everyone who reviewed V1 and thanks to both Vedang Patel
and Baohong Liu for their contributions and included patches):

- cleaned up the event format
- add types to synthetic event fields
- change to mutex ordering to avoid splat
- suppress output of the contributing trace events into the trace
buffer, unless explicitly enabled
- changed from sched_wakeup to sched_waking in the examples
- extended timestamp updates
- use a flag to signify dynamic tracepoints, rather than via api changes
- recursion level fixes
- removal of the possibility of tracing_map duplicates (Vedang)
- removal of duplicate-merging code (Vedang)
- max buffer absolute timestamp fix (Baohong)
- separate variable definition and assignment (Baohong)
- make variables instance-safe
- split a couple larger patches into smaller, various refactoring
- string handling fixes
- use function pointer for synthetic tracepoint func
- use union for actions
- various clean-ups as mentioned in review
- Documentation updates
- special-case recursion allowance for synthetic event generation

NOTE: The first patch in the series, 'tracing: Exclude 'generic
fields' from histograms' should go in regardless of the rest, since it
fixes a bug in existing code.

Thanks,

Tom

This patchset adds support for 'inter-event' quantities to the trace
event subsystem. The most important example of inter-event quantities
are latencies, or the time differences between two events.

One of the main motivations for adding this capability is to provide a
general-purpose base that existing existing tools such as the -RT
latency_hist patchset can be built upon, while at the same time
providing a simple way for users to track latencies (or any
inter-event quantity) generically between any two events.

Previous -RT latency_hist patchsets that take advantage of the trace
event subsystem have been submitted, but they essentially hard-code
special-case tracepoints and application logic in ways that can't be
reused. It seemed to me that rather than providing a one-off patchset
devoted specifically to generating the specific histograms in the
latency_hist patchset, it should be possible to build the same
functionality on top of a generic layer allowing users to do similar
things for other non-latency_hist applications.

In addition to preliminary patches that add some basic missing
functionality such as a common ringbuffer-derived timestamp and
dynamically-creatable tracepoints, the overall patchset is divided up
into a few different areas that combine to produce the overall goal
(The Documentation patch explains all the details):

- variables and simple expressions required to calculate a latency

In order to calculate a latency or any inter-event value,
something from one event needs to be saved and later retrieved,
and some operation such as subtraction or addition is performed on
it. This means some minimal form of variables and expressions,
which the first set of patches implements. Saving and retrieving
events to use in a latency calculation is normally done using a
hash table, and that's exactly what we have with trace event hist
triggers, so that's where variables are instantiated, set, and
retrieved. Basically, variables are set on one entry and
retrieved and used by a 'matching' event.

- 'synthetic' events, combining variables from other events

The trace event interface is based on pseudo-files associated with
individual events, so it wouldn't really make sense to have
quantities derived from multiple events attached to any one of
those events. For that reason, the patchset implements a means of
combining variables from other events into a separate 'synthetic'
event, which can be treated as if it were just like any other
trace event in the system.

- 'actions' generating synthetic events, among other things

Variables and synthetic events provide the data and data structure
for new events, but something still needs to actually generate an
event using that data. 'Actions' are expanded to provide that
capability. Though it hasn't been explicitly called as much
before, the default 'action' currently for a hist trigger is to
update the matching histogram entry's sum values. This patchset
essentially expands that to provide a new 'onmatch.trace(event)'
action that can be used to have one event generate another. The
mechanism is extensible to other actions, and in fact the patchset
also includes another, 'onmax(var).save(field,...)' that can be
used to save context whenever a value exceeds the previous maximum
(something also needed by latency_hist).

I'm submitting the patchset (based on tracing/for-next) as an RFC not
only to get comments, but because there are still some problems I
haven't fixed yet...

Here are some examples that should make things less abstract.

====
Example - wakeup latency
====

This basically implements the -RT latency_hist 'wakeup_latency'
histogram using the synthetic events, variables, and actions
described. The output below is from a run of cyclictest using the
following command:

# rt-tests/cyclictest -p 80 -n -s -t 2

What we're measuring the latency of is the time between when a
thread (of cyclictest) is awakened and when it's scheduled in. To
do that we add triggers to sched_waking and sched_switch with the
appropriate variables, and on a matching sched_switch event,
generate a synthetic 'wakeup_latency' event. Since it's just
another trace event like any other, we can also define a histogram
on that event, the output of which is what we see displayed when
reading the wakeup_latency 'hist' file.

First, we create a synthetic event called wakeup_latency, that
creates 3 fields which will reference variables from other events:

# echo 'wakeup_latency u64 lat; pid_t pid; int prio' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/synthetic_events

Next we add a trigger to sched_waking, which saves the value of the
'$common_timestamp' when that event is hit in a variable, ts0. Note
that this happens only when 'comm==cyclictest'.

Also, '$common_timestamp' is a new field defined on every event (if
needed - if there are no users of timestamps in a trace, timestamps
won't be saved and there's no additional overhead from that).

# echo 'hist:keys=pid:ts0=$common_timestamp.usecs if comm=="cyclictest"' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_waking/trigger

Next, we add a trigger to sched_switch. When the pid being switched
to matches the pid woken up by a previous sched_waking event, this
event grabs the ts0 variable saved on that event, takes the
difference between it and the current sched_switch's
$common_timestamp, and assigns it to a new 'wakeup_lat' variable.
It then generates the wakeup_latency synthetic event defined earlier
by 'invoking' it as a function using as parameters the wakeup_lat
variable and two sched_switch event fields directly:

# echo 'hist:keys=next_pid:wakeup_lat=$common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0: \
onmatch(sched.sched_waking).wakeup_latency($wakeup_lat,next_pid,next_prio) \
if next_comm=="cyclictest"' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_switch/trigger

Finally, all we have left to do is create a standard histogram
simply naming the fields of the wakeup_latency synthetic event:

# echo 'hist:keys=pid,prio,lat:sort=pid,lat' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/synthetic/wakeup_latency/trigger

At any time, we can see the histogram output by simply reading the
synthetic/wakeup_latency/hist file:

# cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/synthetic/wakeup_latency/hist

# event histogram
#
# trigger info: hist:keys=pid,prio,lat:vals=hitcount:sort=pid,lat:size=2048 [active]
#

{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 6 } hitcount: 21
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 7 } hitcount: 62
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 8 } hitcount: 44
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 9 } hitcount: 34
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 10 } hitcount: 16
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 11 } hitcount: 5
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 12 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 13 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 14 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 15 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 16 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 18 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 19 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 20 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 21 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 22 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 23 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 56 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 60 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2418, prio: 120, lat: 123 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 4 } hitcount: 12
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 5 } hitcount: 230
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 6 } hitcount: 343
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 7 } hitcount: 485
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 8 } hitcount: 574
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 9 } hitcount: 164
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 10 } hitcount: 51
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 11 } hitcount: 36
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 12 } hitcount: 23
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 13 } hitcount: 16
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 14 } hitcount: 13
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 15 } hitcount: 5
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 16 } hitcount: 6
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 17 } hitcount: 5
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 18 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 19 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 26 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 29 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 37 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2419, prio: 19, lat: 38 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 4 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 5 } hitcount: 45
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 6 } hitcount: 96
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 7 } hitcount: 227
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 8 } hitcount: 558
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 9 } hitcount: 236
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 10 } hitcount: 67
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 11 } hitcount: 27
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 12 } hitcount: 17
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 13 } hitcount: 12
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 14 } hitcount: 11
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 15 } hitcount: 8
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 16 } hitcount: 6
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 17 } hitcount: 3
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 18 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 23 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 25 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 26 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2420, prio: 19, lat: 434 } hitcount: 1

Totals:
Hits: 3488
Entries: 59
Dropped: 0

The above output uses the .usecs modifier to common_timestamp, so
the latencies are reported in microseconds. The default, without
the modifier, is nanoseconds, but that's too fine-grained to put
directly into a histogram - for that however we can use the .log2
modifier on the 'lat' key. Otherwise the rest is the same:

# echo 'wakeup_latency u64 lat; pid_t pid; int prio' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/synthetic_events

# echo 'hist:keys=pid:ts0=$common_timestamp if comm=="cyclictest"' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_waking/trigger

# echo 'hist:keys=next_pid:wakeup_lat=$common_timestamp-$ts0: \
onmatch(sched.sched_waking).wakeup_latency($wakeup_lat,next_pid,next_prio) \
if next_comm=="cyclictest"' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_switch/trigger

# echo 'hist:keys=pid,prio,lat.log2:sort=pid,lat' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/synthetic/wakeup_latency/trigger

# cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/synthetic/wakeup_latency/hist

# event histogram
#
# trigger info: hist:keys=pid,prio,lat.log2:vals=hitcount:sort=pid,lat.log2:size=2048 [active]
#

{ pid: 2457, prio: 120, lat: ~ 2^13 } hitcount: 99
{ pid: 2457, prio: 120, lat: ~ 2^14 } hitcount: 91
{ pid: 2457, prio: 120, lat: ~ 2^15 } hitcount: 8
{ pid: 2458, prio: 19, lat: ~ 2^13 } hitcount: 1437
{ pid: 2458, prio: 19, lat: ~ 2^14 } hitcount: 519
{ pid: 2458, prio: 19, lat: ~ 2^15 } hitcount: 11
{ pid: 2458, prio: 19, lat: ~ 2^16 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 2458, prio: 19, lat: ~ 2^18 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2459, prio: 19, lat: ~ 2^13 } hitcount: 874
{ pid: 2459, prio: 19, lat: ~ 2^14 } hitcount: 442
{ pid: 2459, prio: 19, lat: ~ 2^15 } hitcount: 4

Totals:
Hits: 3488
Entries: 11
Dropped: 0

====
Example - wakeup latency with onmax()
====

This example is the same as the previous ones, but here we're
additionally using the onmax() action to save some context (several
fields of the sched_switch event) whenever the latency (wakeup_lat)
exceeds the previous maximum.

As with the similar functionality of the -RT latency_hist
histograms, it's useful to be able to capture information about the
previous process, which potentially could have contributed to the
maximum latency that was saved.

# echo 'wakeup_latency u64 lat; pid_t pid; int prio' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/synthetic_events

# echo 'hist:keys=pid:ts0=$common_timestamp.usecs if comm=="cyclictest"' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_waking/trigger

Here we add an onmax() action that saves some important fields of
the sched_switch event along with the maximum, in addition to
sending some of the same data to the synthetic event:

# echo 'hist:keys=next_pid:wakeup_lat=$common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0: \
onmax($wakeup_lat).save(next_comm,prev_pid,prev_prio,prev_comm): \
onmatch(sched.sched_waking).wakeup_latency($wakeup_lat,next_pid,next_prio) \
if next_comm=="cyclictest"' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_switch/trigger

# echo 'hist:keys=pid,prio,lat:sort=pid,lat' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/synthetic/wakeup_latency/trigger

To see the maximums and associated data for each pid, cat the
sched_switch event, as that's the event the onmax() action is
associated with:

# cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_switch/hist

# event histogram
#
# trigger info: hist:keys=next_pid:vals=hitcount:wakeup_lat=$common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0:sort=hitcount:size=2048:clock=global:onmax($wakeup_lat).save(next_comm,prev_pid,prev_prio,prev_comm):onmatch(sched.sched_waking).wakeup_latency($wakeup_lat,next_pid,next_prio) if next_comm=="cyclictest" [active]
#

{ next_pid: 2803 } hitcount: 198
max: 55 next_comm: cyclictest prev_pid: 0
prev_prio: 120 prev_comm: swapper/2

{ next_pid: 2805 } hitcount: 1319
max: 53 next_comm: cyclictest prev_pid: 0
prev_prio: 120 prev_comm: swapper/1

{ next_pid: 2804 } hitcount: 1970
max: 79 next_comm: cyclictest prev_pid: 0
prev_prio: 120 prev_comm: swapper/0

Totals:
Hits: 3487
Entries: 3
Dropped: 0

And, verifying, we can see that the max latencies captured above
match the highest latencies for each thread in the wakeup_latency
histogram:

# cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/synthetic/wakeup_latency/hist
# event histogram
#
# trigger info: hist:keys=pid,prio,lat:vals=hitcount:sort=pid,lat:size=2048 [active]
#

{ pid: 2803, prio: 120, lat: 6 } hitcount: 12
{ pid: 2803, prio: 120, lat: 7 } hitcount: 42
...
{ pid: 2803, prio: 120, lat: 22 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 2803, prio: 120, lat: 55 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2804, prio: 19, lat: 4 } hitcount: 5
{ pid: 2804, prio: 19, lat: 5 } hitcount: 188
...
{ pid: 2804, prio: 19, lat: 30 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2804, prio: 19, lat: 79 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2805, prio: 19, lat: 5 } hitcount: 19
{ pid: 2805, prio: 19, lat: 6 } hitcount: 73
...
{ pid: 2805, prio: 19, lat: 44 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 2805, prio: 19, lat: 53 } hitcount: 1

Totals:
Hits: 3487
Entries: 57
Dropped: 0

====
Example - combined wakeup and switchtime (wakeupswitch) latency
====

Finally, this example is quite a bit more involved, but that's
because it implements 3 latencies, one which is a combination of the
other two. This also, is something that the -RT latency_hist
patchset does and which this patchset adds generic support for.

The latency_hist patchset creates a few individual latency
histograms but also combines them into larger overall combined
histograms. For example, the time between when a thread is awakened
and when it actually continues executing in userspace is something
covered by a histogram, but it's also broken down into two
sub-histograms, one covering the time between sched_waking and the
time the thread is scheduled in (wakeup_latency as above), and the
time between when the thread is scheduled in and the time it
actually begins executing again (return from sys_nanosleep), covered
by a separate switchtime_latency histogram.

The below combines the wakeup_latency histogram from before, adds a
new switchtime_latency histogram, and another, wakeupswitch_latency,
that's a combination of the other two.

There isn't anything really new here, other than that the use of the
addition operator to add two latencies to produce the
wakeupswitch_latency.

First, we create the familiar wakeup_latency histogram:

# echo 'wakeup_latency u64 lat; pid_t pid' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/synthetic_events

# echo 'hist:keys=pid:ts0=$common_timestamp.usecs \
if comm=="cyclictest"' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_waking/trigger

# echo 'hist:keys=next_pid:wakeup_lat=$common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0:\
onmatch(sched.sched_waking).wakeup_latency($wakeup_lat,next_pid) \
if next_comm=="cyclictest"' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_switch/trigger

Here we save the wakeup_latency lat value as wakeup_lat for use
later in the combined latency:

# echo 'hist:keys=pid,lat:wakeup_lat=lat:sort=pid,lat' \
>> /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/synthetic/wakeup_latency/trigger

Next, we create the switchtime_latency histogram:

# echo 'switchtime_latency u64 lat; pid_t pid' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/synthetic_events

Here we save the sched_switch next_pid field as 'pid'. This is so
we can access the next_pid in the matching sys_exit_nanosleep event.

# echo 'hist:keys=next_pid:pid=next_pid:ts0=$common_timestamp.usecs \
if next_comm=="cyclictest"' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_switch/trigger

# echo 'hist:keys=common_pid:switchtime_lat=$common_timestamp.usecs-$ts0: \
onmatch(sched.sched_switch).switchtime_latency($switchtime_lat,$pid)' \
>> /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/syscalls/sys_exit_nanosleep/trigger

# echo 'hist:keys=pid,lat:sort=pid,lat' \
>> /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/synthetic/switchtime_latency/trigger

Finally, we create the combined wakeupswitch_latency:

# echo 'wakeupswitch_latency u64 lat; pid_t pid' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/synthetic_events

Here we calculate the combined latency using the saved $wakeup_lat
variable from the wakeup_latency histogram and the lat value of the
switchtime_latency, save it as ws_lat and then use it to generate
the combined wakeupswitch latency:

# echo 'hist:keys=pid,lat:sort=pid,lat:ws_lat=$wakeup_lat+lat: \
onmatch(synthetic.wakeup_latency).wakeupswitch_latency($ws_lat,pid)' \
>> /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/synthetic/switchtime_latency/trigger

# echo 'hist:keys=pid,lat:sort=pid,lat' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/synthetic/wakeupswitch_latency/trigger

After running our cyclictest workload, we can now look at each
histogram, starting with wakeup_latency:

# cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/synthetic/wakeup_latency/hist

# event histogram
#
# trigger info: hist:keys=pid,lat:vals=hitcount:wakeup_lat=lat:sort=pid,lat:size=2048 [active]
#

{ pid: 4146, lat: 6 } hitcount: 8
{ pid: 4146, lat: 7 } hitcount: 50
{ pid: 4146, lat: 8 } hitcount: 53
{ pid: 4146, lat: 9 } hitcount: 34
{ pid: 4146, lat: 10 } hitcount: 22
{ pid: 4146, lat: 11 } hitcount: 6
{ pid: 4146, lat: 12 } hitcount: 4
{ pid: 4146, lat: 13 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 14 } hitcount: 4
{ pid: 4146, lat: 15 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4146, lat: 16 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4146, lat: 17 } hitcount: 3
{ pid: 4146, lat: 19 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 20 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4146, lat: 21 } hitcount: 4
{ pid: 4146, lat: 24 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 53 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4147, lat: 4 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4147, lat: 5 } hitcount: 156
{ pid: 4147, lat: 6 } hitcount: 344
{ pid: 4147, lat: 7 } hitcount: 560
{ pid: 4147, lat: 8 } hitcount: 540
{ pid: 4147, lat: 9 } hitcount: 195
{ pid: 4147, lat: 10 } hitcount: 50
{ pid: 4147, lat: 11 } hitcount: 38
{ pid: 4147, lat: 12 } hitcount: 26
{ pid: 4147, lat: 13 } hitcount: 13
{ pid: 4147, lat: 14 } hitcount: 12
{ pid: 4147, lat: 15 } hitcount: 10
{ pid: 4147, lat: 16 } hitcount: 3
{ pid: 4147, lat: 17 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4147, lat: 18 } hitcount: 4
{ pid: 4147, lat: 19 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4147, lat: 20 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4147, lat: 21 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4147, lat: 26 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4147, lat: 35 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4147, lat: 59 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4148, lat: 5 } hitcount: 38
{ pid: 4148, lat: 6 } hitcount: 229
{ pid: 4148, lat: 7 } hitcount: 219
{ pid: 4148, lat: 8 } hitcount: 486
{ pid: 4148, lat: 9 } hitcount: 181
{ pid: 4148, lat: 10 } hitcount: 59
{ pid: 4148, lat: 11 } hitcount: 27
{ pid: 4148, lat: 12 } hitcount: 23
{ pid: 4148, lat: 13 } hitcount: 16
{ pid: 4148, lat: 14 } hitcount: 7
{ pid: 4148, lat: 15 } hitcount: 7
{ pid: 4148, lat: 16 } hitcount: 6
{ pid: 4148, lat: 17 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4148, lat: 18 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4148, lat: 19 } hitcount: 4
{ pid: 4148, lat: 20 } hitcount: 3
{ pid: 4148, lat: 25 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4148, lat: 26 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4148, lat: 27 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4148, lat: 29 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4148, lat: 47 } hitcount: 1

Totals:
Hits: 3474
Entries: 59
Dropped: 0

Here's the switchtime histogram:

# cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/synthetic/switchtime_latency/hist

# event histogram
#
# trigger info: hist:keys=pid,lat:vals=hitcount:sort=pid,lat:size=2048 [active]
#

{ pid: 4146, lat: 3 } hitcount: 11
{ pid: 4146, lat: 4 } hitcount: 32
{ pid: 4146, lat: 5 } hitcount: 65
{ pid: 4146, lat: 6 } hitcount: 37
{ pid: 4146, lat: 7 } hitcount: 35
{ pid: 4146, lat: 8 } hitcount: 5
{ pid: 4146, lat: 10 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 11 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 12 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 13 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 14 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 15 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 16 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4146, lat: 17 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 18 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 20 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 22 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 55 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4147, lat: 3 } hitcount: 554
{ pid: 4147, lat: 4 } hitcount: 999
{ pid: 4147, lat: 5 } hitcount: 193
{ pid: 4147, lat: 6 } hitcount: 102
{ pid: 4147, lat: 7 } hitcount: 38
{ pid: 4147, lat: 8 } hitcount: 21
{ pid: 4147, lat: 9 } hitcount: 8
{ pid: 4147, lat: 10 } hitcount: 10
{ pid: 4147, lat: 11 } hitcount: 11
{ pid: 4147, lat: 12 } hitcount: 7
{ pid: 4147, lat: 13 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4147, lat: 14 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4147, lat: 15 } hitcount: 5
{ pid: 4147, lat: 16 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4147, lat: 17 } hitcount: 3
{ pid: 4147, lat: 18 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4147, lat: 23 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4148, lat: 3 } hitcount: 245
{ pid: 4148, lat: 4 } hitcount: 761
{ pid: 4148, lat: 5 } hitcount: 152
{ pid: 4148, lat: 6 } hitcount: 64
{ pid: 4148, lat: 7 } hitcount: 25
{ pid: 4148, lat: 8 } hitcount: 7
{ pid: 4148, lat: 9 } hitcount: 14
{ pid: 4148, lat: 10 } hitcount: 11
{ pid: 4148, lat: 11 } hitcount: 12
{ pid: 4148, lat: 12 } hitcount: 6
{ pid: 4148, lat: 13 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4148, lat: 14 } hitcount: 7
{ pid: 4148, lat: 15 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4148, lat: 17 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4148, lat: 18 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4148, lat: 19 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4148, lat: 24 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4148, lat: 25 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4148, lat: 42 } hitcount: 1

Totals:
Hits: 3474
Entries: 54
Dropped: 0

And here's the combined wakeupswitch latency histogram:

# cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/synthetic/wakeupswitch_latency/hist

# event histogram
#
# trigger info: hist:keys=pid,lat:vals=hitcount:sort=pid,lat:size=2048 [active]
#

{ pid: 4146, lat: 10 } hitcount: 16
{ pid: 4146, lat: 11 } hitcount: 18
{ pid: 4146, lat: 12 } hitcount: 25
{ pid: 4146, lat: 13 } hitcount: 38
{ pid: 4146, lat: 14 } hitcount: 25
{ pid: 4146, lat: 15 } hitcount: 14
{ pid: 4146, lat: 16 } hitcount: 17
{ pid: 4146, lat: 17 } hitcount: 14
{ pid: 4146, lat: 18 } hitcount: 7
{ pid: 4146, lat: 19 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 20 } hitcount: 3
{ pid: 4146, lat: 21 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4146, lat: 22 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 23 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 24 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 25 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4146, lat: 26 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4146, lat: 29 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 30 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 32 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 33 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4146, lat: 36 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 37 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 38 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 39 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 73 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4146, lat: 76 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4147, lat: 8 } hitcount: 54
{ pid: 4147, lat: 9 } hitcount: 205
{ pid: 4147, lat: 10 } hitcount: 391
{ pid: 4147, lat: 11 } hitcount: 544
{ pid: 4147, lat: 12 } hitcount: 342
{ pid: 4147, lat: 13 } hitcount: 141
{ pid: 4147, lat: 14 } hitcount: 68
{ pid: 4147, lat: 15 } hitcount: 46
{ pid: 4147, lat: 16 } hitcount: 42
{ pid: 4147, lat: 17 } hitcount: 23
{ pid: 4147, lat: 18 } hitcount: 23
{ pid: 4147, lat: 19 } hitcount: 17
{ pid: 4147, lat: 20 } hitcount: 8
{ pid: 4147, lat: 21 } hitcount: 7
{ pid: 4147, lat: 22 } hitcount: 7
{ pid: 4147, lat: 23 } hitcount: 8
{ pid: 4147, lat: 24 } hitcount: 4
{ pid: 4147, lat: 25 } hitcount: 6
{ pid: 4147, lat: 26 } hitcount: 4
{ pid: 4147, lat: 27 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4147, lat: 28 } hitcount: 4
{ pid: 4147, lat: 29 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4147, lat: 30 } hitcount: 3
{ pid: 4147, lat: 31 } hitcount: 3
{ pid: 4147, lat: 32 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4147, lat: 34 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4147, lat: 35 } hitcount: 3
{ pid: 4147, lat: 36 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4147, lat: 50 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4147, lat: 71 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4148, lat: 8 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4148, lat: 9 } hitcount: 100
{ pid: 4148, lat: 10 } hitcount: 156
{ pid: 4148, lat: 11 } hitcount: 340
{ pid: 4148, lat: 12 } hitcount: 341
{ pid: 4148, lat: 13 } hitcount: 139
{ pid: 4148, lat: 14 } hitcount: 55
{ pid: 4148, lat: 15 } hitcount: 42
{ pid: 4148, lat: 16 } hitcount: 24
{ pid: 4148, lat: 17 } hitcount: 17
{ pid: 4148, lat: 18 } hitcount: 18
{ pid: 4148, lat: 19 } hitcount: 17
{ pid: 4148, lat: 20 } hitcount: 7
{ pid: 4148, lat: 21 } hitcount: 4
{ pid: 4148, lat: 22 } hitcount: 7
{ pid: 4148, lat: 23 } hitcount: 6
{ pid: 4148, lat: 24 } hitcount: 3
{ pid: 4148, lat: 25 } hitcount: 7
{ pid: 4148, lat: 26 } hitcount: 5
{ pid: 4148, lat: 27 } hitcount: 3
{ pid: 4148, lat: 28 } hitcount: 3
{ pid: 4148, lat: 29 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4148, lat: 30 } hitcount: 4
{ pid: 4148, lat: 31 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4148, lat: 32 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4148, lat: 33 } hitcount: 3
{ pid: 4148, lat: 34 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4148, lat: 36 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4148, lat: 37 } hitcount: 2
{ pid: 4148, lat: 38 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4148, lat: 41 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4148, lat: 53 } hitcount: 1
{ pid: 4148, lat: 71 } hitcount: 1

Totals:
Hits: 3474
Entries: 90
Dropped: 0

Finally, just to show that synthetic events are indeed just like any
other event as far as the event subsystem is concerned, we can
enable the synthetic events and see the events appear in the trace
buffer:

# echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/synthetic/wakeup_latency/enable
# echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/synthetic/switchtime_latency/enable
# echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/synthetic/wakeupswitch_latency/enable

Below is a snippet of the contents of the trace file produced when
the above histograms were generated:

# cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace

# tracer: nop
#
# entries-in-buffer/entries-written: 10503/10503 #P:4
#
# _-----=> irqs-off
# / _----=> need-resched
# | / _---=> hardirq/softirq
# || / _--=> preempt-depth
# ||| / delay
# TASK-PID CPU# |||| TIMESTAMP FUNCTION
# | | | |||| | |
<idle>-0 [001] d..2 23532.240146: wakeup_latency: lat=4, pid=6853
cyclictest-6853 [001] .... 23532.240153: switchtime_latency: lat=7, pid=6853
cyclictest-6853 [001] .... 23532.240157: wakeupswitch_latency: lat=11, pid=6853
gnome-terminal--2500 [001] d..2 23532.240672: wakeup_latency: lat=5, pid=6854
cyclictest-6854 [001] .... 23532.240676: switchtime_latency: lat=4, pid=6854
cyclictest-6854 [001] .... 23532.240677: wakeupswitch_latency: lat=9, pid=6854
gnome-terminal--2500 [001] d..2 23532.241169: wakeup_latency: lat=4, pid=6853
cyclictest-6853 [001] .... 23532.241172: switchtime_latency: lat=3, pid=6853
cyclictest-6853 [001] .... 23532.241174: wakeupswitch_latency: lat=7, pid=6853
<idle>-0 [001] d..2 23532.242189: wakeup_latency: lat=6, pid=6853
cyclictest-6853 [001] .... 23532.242195: switchtime_latency: lat=8, pid=6853
<idle>-0 [000] d..2 23532.242196: wakeup_latency: lat=12, pid=6854
cyclictest-6853 [001] .... 23532.240146: wakeupswitch_latency: lat=14, pid=6853
cyclictest-6854 [000] .... 23532.242196: switchtime_latency: lat=4, pid=6854
<idle>-0 [001] d..2 23532.240146: wakeup_latency: lat=2, pid=6853
cyclictest-6854 [000] .... 23532.242196: wakeupswitch_latency: lat=16, pid=6854
cyclictest-6853 [001] .... 23532.240146: switchtime_latency: lat=3, pid=6853
...

One quick note about usage - the introduction of variables and
actions obviously makes it harder to determine the cause of a hist
trigger command failure - 'Invalid argument' is no longer sufficient
in many cases.

For that reason, a new 'extended error' mechanism has been added to
hist triggers, initially focused on variable and action-related
errors, but something that could possibly expanded to other error
conditions later.

To make use of it, simply read the 'hist' file of the event that was
the target of the command.

In this example, we've entered the same command twice, resulting in
an attempt to define the same variable (ts0) twice. After seeing
the 'Invalid argument' error for the command, we read the same
event's hist file and see a message to that effect at the bottom of
the file:

# echo 'hist:keys=pid:ts0=$common_timestamp.usecs if comm=="cyclictest"' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_waking/trigger

# echo 'hist:keys=pid:ts0=$common_timestamp.usecs if comm=="cyclictest"' >> \
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_waking/trigger

-su: echo: write error: Invalid argument

# cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_waking/hist
# event histogram
#
#

Totals:
Hits: 0
Entries: 0
Dropped: 0

ERROR: Variable already defined: ts0
Last command: keys=pid:ts0=$common_timestamp.usecs if comm=="cyclictest"

The following changes since commit a96a5037ed0f52e2d86739f4a1ef985bd036e575:

tracing, thermal: Hide cpu cooling trace events when not in use (2017-10-17 19:03:09 -0400)

are available in the git repository at:

https://github.com/tzanussi/linux-trace-inter-event.git tzanussi/inter-event-v6
https://github.com/tzanussi/linux-trace-inter-event/tree/tzanussi/inter-event-v6

Rajvi Jingar (1):
selftests: ftrace: Add inter-event hist triggers testcases

Tom Zanussi (34):
tracing: Move hist trigger Documentation to histogram.txt
tracing: Add Documentation for log2 modifier
ring-buffer: Add interface for setting absolute time stamps
ring-buffer: Redefine the unimplemented RINGBUF_TYPE_TIME_STAMP
tracing: Add timestamp_mode trace file
tracing: Give event triggers access to ring_buffer_event
tracing: Add ring buffer event param to hist field functions
tracing: Break out hist trigger assignment parsing
tracing: Add hist trigger timestamp support
tracing: Add per-element variable support to tracing_map
tracing: Add hist_data member to hist_field
tracing: Add usecs modifier for hist trigger timestamps
tracing: Add variable support to hist triggers
tracing: Account for variables in named trigger compatibility
tracing: Move get_hist_field_flags()
tracing: Add simple expression support to hist triggers
tracing: Generalize per-element hist trigger data
tracing: Pass tracing_map_elt to hist_field accessor functions
tracing: Add hist_field 'type' field
tracing: Add variable reference handling to hist triggers
tracing: Add hist trigger action hook
tracing: Add support for 'synthetic' events
tracing: Add support for 'field variables'
tracing: Add 'onmatch' hist trigger action support
tracing: Add 'onmax' hist trigger action support
tracing: Allow whitespace to surround hist trigger filter
tracing: Add cpu field for hist triggers
tracing: Add hist trigger support for variable reference aliases
tracing: Add 'last error' error facility for hist triggers
tracing: Add inter-event hist trigger Documentation
tracing: Make tracing_set_clock() non-static
tracing: Add a clock attribute for hist triggers
tracing: Increase trace_recursive_lock() limit for synthetic events
tracing: Add inter-event blurb to HIST_TRIGGERS config option

Vedang Patel (2):
tracing: Add support to detect and avoid duplicates
tracing: Remove code which merges duplicates

Documentation/trace/events.txt | 1548 +------
Documentation/trace/ftrace.txt | 24 +
Documentation/trace/histogram.txt | 1998 ++++++++
include/linux/ring_buffer.h | 14 +-
include/linux/trace_events.h | 14 +-
kernel/trace/Kconfig | 3 +
kernel/trace/ring_buffer.c | 125 +-
kernel/trace/trace.c | 97 +-
kernel/trace/trace.h | 18 +-
kernel/trace/trace_events_hist.c | 4748 ++++++++++++++++++--
kernel/trace/trace_events_trigger.c | 53 +-
kernel/trace/tracing_map.c | 232 +-
kernel/trace/tracing_map.h | 18 +-
tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/test.d/functions | 7 +
.../inter-event/trigger-extended-error-support.tc | 39 +
.../inter-event/trigger-field-variable-support.tc | 54 +
.../trigger-inter-event-combined-hist.tc | 58 +
.../inter-event/trigger-onmatch-action-hist.tc | 50 +
.../trigger-onmatch-onmax-action-hist.tc | 50 +
.../inter-event/trigger-onmax-action-hist.tc | 48 +
.../trigger-synthetic-event-createremove.tc | 54 +
21 files changed, 7146 insertions(+), 2106 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 Documentation/trace/histogram.txt
create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/test.d/trigger/inter-event/trigger-extended-error-support.tc
create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/test.d/trigger/inter-event/trigger-field-variable-support.tc
create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/test.d/trigger/inter-event/trigger-inter-event-combined-hist.tc
create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/test.d/trigger/inter-event/trigger-onmatch-action-hist.tc
create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/test.d/trigger/inter-event/trigger-onmatch-onmax-action-hist.tc
create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/test.d/trigger/inter-event/trigger-onmax-action-hist.tc
create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/test.d/trigger/inter-event/trigger-synthetic-event-createremove.tc

--
1.9.3