[PATCH V6 19/26] coresight: updating documentation to reflect integration with perf

Mathieu Poirier
2015-12-03T21:09:12Z

Adding a new section giving information on how coresight has been
integrated with the perf subsystem along with a general idea of how
to control tracing from the perf tool cmd line.

Signed-off-by: Mathieu Poirier <mathieu.poirier@linaro.org>
---
Documentation/trace/coresight.txt | 138 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----
1 file changed, 124 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/trace/coresight.txt b/Documentation/trace/coresight.txt
index 0a5c3290e732..9515206b4b1a 100644
--- a/Documentation/trace/coresight.txt
+++ b/Documentation/trace/coresight.txt
@@ -20,13 +20,13 @@ Components are generally categorised as source, link and sinks and are

"Sources" generate a compressed stream representing the processor instruction
path based on tracing scenarios as configured by users. From there the stream
-flows through the coresight system (via ATB bus) using links that are connecting
-the emanating source to a sink(s). Sinks serve as endpoints to the coresight
+flows through the Coresight system (via ATB bus) using links that are connecting
+the emanating source to a sink(s). Sinks serve as endpoints to the Coresight
implementation, either storing the compressed stream in a memory buffer or
creating an interface to the outside world where data can be transferred to a
-host without fear of filling up the onboard coresight memory buffer.
+host without fear of filling up the onboard Coresight memory buffer.

-At typical coresight system would look like this:
+At typical Coresight system would look like this:

*****************************************************************
**************************** AMBA AXI ****************************===||
@@ -83,8 +83,8 @@ While on target configuration of the components is done via the APB bus,
all trace data are carried out-of-band on the ATB bus. The CTM provides
a way to aggregate and distribute signals between CoreSight components.

-The coresight framework provides a central point to represent, configure and
-manage coresight devices on a platform. This first implementation centers on
+The Coresight framework provides a central point to represent, configure and
+manage Coresight devices on a platform. This first implementation centers on
the basic tracing functionality, enabling components such ETM/PTM, funnel,
replicator, TMC, TPIU and ETB. Future work will enable more
intricate IP blocks such as STM and CTI.
@@ -129,11 +129,11 @@ expected to be added as the solution matures.
Framework and implementation
----------------------------

-The coresight framework provides a central point to represent, configure and
-manage coresight devices on a platform. Any coresight compliant device can
+The Coresight framework provides a central point to represent, configure and
+manage Coresight devices on a platform. Any Coresight compliant device can
register with the framework for as long as they use the right APIs:

-struct coresight_device *coresight_register(struct coresight_desc *desc);
+struct Coresight_device *coresight_register(struct coresight_desc *desc);
void coresight_unregister(struct coresight_device *csdev);

The registering function is taking a "struct coresight_device *csdev" and
@@ -193,10 +193,120 @@ the information carried in "THIS_MODULE".
How to use
----------

-Before trace collection can start, a coresight sink needs to be identify.
-There is no limit on the amount of sinks (nor sources) that can be enabled at
-any given moment. As a generic operation, all device pertaining to the sink
-class will have an "active" entry in sysfs:
+There is two ways to use the Coresight framework: 1) using the perf cmd line
+tool and 2) interacting directly with the Coresight devices using the sysFS
+interface. The latter will slowly be faded out as more functionality become
+available from the perf cmd line tool but for the time being both are still
+supported. The following sections provide details on using both methods.
+
+1) Using perf framework:
+
+Coresight tracers like ETM and PTM are represented using the Perf framework's
+Performance Monitoring Unit (PMU). As such the perf framework takes charge of
+controlling when tracing happens based on when the process(es) of interest are
+scheduled. When configure in a system, Coresight PMUs will be listed when
+queried by the perf command line tool:
+
+linaro@linaro-nano:~$ ./perf list pmu
+
+List of pre-defined events (to be used in -e):
+
+ cs_etm// [Kernel PMU event]
+
+linaro@linaro-nano:~$
+
+Regardless of the amount ETM/PTM IP block in a system (usually equal to the
+amount of processor core), the "cs_etm" PMU will be listed only once.
+
+Before a trace can be configured and started a Coresight sink needs to be
+selected using the sysFS method (see below). This is only temporary until
+sink selection can be made from the command line tool.
+
+linaro@linaro-nano:~$ ls /sys/bus/coresight/devices
+20010000.etb 20030000.tpiu 20040000.funnel 2201c000.ptm
+2201d000.ptm 2203c000.etm 2203d000.etm 2203e000.etm replicator
+
+linaro@linaro-nano:~$ echo 1 > /sys/bus/coresight/devices/20010000.etb/enable_sink
+
+Once a sink has been selected configuring a Coresight PMU works the same way as
+any other PMU. As such tracing can happen for a single CPU, a group of CPU, per
+thread or a combination of those:
+
+linaro@linaro-nano:~$ perf record -e cs_etm// --per-thread <command>
+
+linaro@linaro-nano:~$ perf record -C 0,2-3 -e cs_etm// <command>
+
+Tracing limited to user and kernel space can also be used to narrow the amount
+of collected traces:
+
+linaro@linaro-nano:~$ perf record -e cs_etm//u --per-thread <command>
+
+linaro@linaro-nano:~$ perf record -C 0,2-3 -e cs_etm//k <command>
+
+As of this writing two ETM/PTM specific options have are available: cycle
+accurate and timestamp (please refer to the Embedded Trace Macrocell reference
+manual for details on these options). By default both are disabled but using
+the "cycacc" and "timestamp" mnemonic within the double '/' will see those
+options configure for the upcoming trace run:
+
+linaro@linaro-nano:~$ perf record -e cs_etm/cycacc/ --per-thread <command>
+
+linaro@linaro-nano:~$ perf record -C 0,2-3 -e cs_etm/cycacc,timestamp/ <command>
+
+The Coresight PMUs can be configured to work in "full trace" or "snapshot" mode.
+In full trace mode trace acquisition is enabled from beginning to end with trace
+data being recorded continuously:
+
+linaro@linaro-nano:~$ perf record -e cs_etm// dd if=/dev/random of=./test.txt bs=1k count=1000
+
+Since this can lead to a significant amount of data and because some devices are
+limited in disk space snapshot mode can be used instead. In snapshot mode
+traces are still collected in the ring buffer but not communicated to user
+space. The ring buffer is allowed to wrap around, providing the latest
+information before an event of interest happens. Significant events are
+communicated by sending a USR2 signal to the user space command line tool.
+From there the tool will stop trace collection and harvest data from the ring
+buffer before re-enabling traces. Snapshot mode can be invoked using '-S' when
+launching a trace collection:
+
+linaro@linaro-nano:~$ perf record -S -e cs_etm// dd if=/dev/random of=./test.txt bs=1k count=1000
+
+Trace data collected during trace runs ends up in the "perf.data" file. Trace
+configuration information necessary for trace decoding is also embedded in the
+"perf.data" file. Two new headers, 'PERF_RECORD_AUXTRACE_INFO' and
+'PERF_RECORD_AUXTRACE' have been added to the list of event types in order to
+find out where the different sections start.
+
+It is worth noting that a set of metadata information exists for each tracer
+that participated in a trace run. As such if 5 processors have been engaged,
+5 sets of metadata will be found in the perf.data file. This is to ensure that
+tracer decompression tools have all the information they need in order to
+process the trace data.
+
+Metadata information is collected directly from the ETM/PTM management registers
+using the sysFS interface. Since there is no way for the perf command line
+tool to associate a CPU with a tracer, a symbolic link has been created between
+the cs_etm sysFS event directory and each Coresight tracer:
+
+linaro@linaro-nano:~$ ls /sys/bus/event_source/devices/cs_etm
+cpu0 cpu1 cpu2 cpu3 cpu4 format perf_event_mux_interval_ms
+power subsystem type uevent
+
+linaro@linaro-nano:~$ ls /sys/bus/event_source/devices/cs_etm/cpu0/mgmt/
+etmccer etmccr etmcr etmidr etmscr etmtecr1 etmtecr2
+etmteevr etmtraceidr etmtssvr
+
+2) Using the sysFS interface:
+
+Most, if not all, configuration registers are made available to users via the
+sysFS interface. Until all Coresight ETM drivers have been converted to perf,
+it will also be possible to start and stop traces from sysFS.
+
+As with the perf method described above, a Coresight sink needs to be identify
+before trace collection can commence. Using the sysFS method _only_, there is
+no limit on the amount of sinks (nor sources) that can be enabled at
+any given moment. As a generic operation, all devices pertaining to the sink
+class will have an "enable_sink" entry in sysfs:

root:/sys/bus/coresight/devices# ls
replicator 20030000.tpiu 2201c000.ptm 2203c000.etm 2203e000.etm
@@ -246,7 +356,7 @@ The file cstrace.bin can be decompressed using "ptm2human", DS-5 or Trace32.

Following is a DS-5 output of an experimental loop that increments a variable up
to a certain value. The example is simple and yet provides a glimpse of the
-wealth of possibilities that coresight provides.
+wealth of possibilities that Coresight provides.

Info Tracing enabled
Instruction 106378866 0x8026B53C E52DE004 false PUSH {lr}
--
2.1.4