Re: [F.A.Q.] perf ABI backwards and forwards compatibility

Ingo Molnar
2011-11-08T12:17:11Z

* Pekka Enberg <penberg@cs.helsinki.fi> wrote:

> [...] There's an easy fix for this too: improve "perf test" to
> cover the cases you're intested in. While ABI spec would be a nice
> addition, it's not going to make compatibility problems magically
> go away.

Yes, exactly - 'perf test' has been written with that exact purpose.
In practice 'perf' will cover almost all parts of the ABI.

The one notable thing that isnt being tested in a natural way is the
'group of events' abstraction - which, ironically, has been added on
the perfmon guys' insistence. No app beyond the PAPI self-test makes
actual use of it though, which results in an obvious lack of testing.

Vince: the code is in tools/perf/builtin-test.c and our offer still
stands, feel free to extend it. Maybe there's some other volunteer
willing to do that?

Thanks,

Ingo