[PATCH v3 09/18] perf stat: Sort default events/metrics

Ian Rogers
2025-11-11T04:04:43Z

To improve the readability of default events/metrics, sort the evsels
after the Default metric groups have be parsed.

Before:
```
$ perf stat -a sleep 1
Performance counter stats for 'system wide':

21,194 context-switches # 752.1 cs/sec cs_per_second
TopdownL1 (cpu_core) # 9.4 % tma_bad_speculation
# 25.0 % tma_frontend_bound
# 37.0 % tma_backend_bound
# 28.7 % tma_retiring
6,371 page-faults # 226.1 faults/sec page_faults_per_second
734,456,525 cpu_atom/cpu-cycles/ # 0.0 GHz cycles_frequency (49.77%)
1,679,085,181 cpu_core/cpu-cycles/ # 0.1 GHz cycles_frequency
TopdownL1 (cpu_atom) # 19.2 % tma_bad_speculation
# 15.1 % tma_retiring (50.15%)
# 32.9 % tma_backend_bound
# 32.9 % tma_frontend_bound (50.34%)
86,758,824 cpu_atom/branches/ # 3.1 K/sec branch_frequency (60.26%)
524,281,539 cpu_core/branches/ # 18.6 K/sec branch_frequency
1,458 cpu-migrations # 51.7 migrations/sec migrations_per_second
28,178,124,975 cpu-clock # 28.0 CPUs CPUs_utilized
776,037,182 cpu_atom/cpu-cycles/ # 0.6 instructions insn_per_cycle (60.18%)
1,679,168,140 cpu_core/cpu-cycles/ # 1.8 instructions insn_per_cycle
4,045,615 cpu_atom/branches-misses/ # 5.3 % branch_miss_rate (49.65%)
6,656,795 cpu_core/branches-misses/ # 1.3 % branch_miss_rate

1.007340329 seconds time elapsed

```
After:
```
$ perf stat -a sleep 1

Performance counter stats for 'system wide':

25,701 context-switches # 911.8 cs/sec cs_per_second
28,187,404,943 cpu-clock # 28.0 CPUs CPUs_utilized
2,053 cpu-migrations # 72.8 migrations/sec migrations_per_second
12,390 page-faults # 439.6 faults/sec page_faults_per_second
592,082,798 cpu_core/branches/ # 21.0 K/sec branch_frequency
7,762,204 cpu_core/branches-misses/ # 1.3 % branch_miss_rate
1,925,833,804 cpu_core/cpu-cycles/ # 0.1 GHz cycles_frequency
1,925,848,650 cpu_core/cpu-cycles/ # 1.7 instructions insn_per_cycle
95,449,119 cpu_atom/branches/ # 3.4 K/sec branch_frequency (59.78%)
4,278,932 cpu_atom/branches-misses/ # 4.3 % branch_miss_rate (50.26%)
980,441,753 cpu_atom/cpu-cycles/ # 0.0 GHz cycles_frequency (50.34%)
1,091,626,599 cpu_atom/cpu-cycles/ # 0.6 instructions insn_per_cycle (50.37%)
TopdownL1 (cpu_core) # 9.1 % tma_bad_speculation
# 27.3 % tma_frontend_bound
# 35.7 % tma_backend_bound
# 27.9 % tma_retiring
TopdownL1 (cpu_atom) # 31.1 % tma_backend_bound
# 34.3 % tma_frontend_bound (49.74%)
# 24.1 % tma_bad_speculation
# 10.5 % tma_retiring (59.57%)
```

Signed-off-by: Ian Rogers <irogers@google.com>
---
tools/perf/builtin-stat.c | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 32 insertions(+)

diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
index 7862094b93c8..095016b2209e 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@
#include "util/intel-tpebs.h"
#include "asm/bug.h"

+#include <linux/list_sort.h>
#include <linux/time64.h>
#include <linux/zalloc.h>
#include <api/fs/fs.h>
@@ -1857,6 +1858,35 @@ static int perf_stat_init_aggr_mode_file(struct perf_stat *st)
return 0;
}

+static int default_evlist_evsel_cmp(void *priv __maybe_unused,
+ const struct list_head *l,
+ const struct list_head *r)
+{
+ const struct perf_evsel *lhs_core = container_of(l, struct perf_evsel, node);
+ const struct evsel *lhs = container_of(lhs_core, struct evsel, core);
+ const struct perf_evsel *rhs_core = container_of(r, struct perf_evsel, node);
+ const struct evsel *rhs = container_of(rhs_core, struct evsel, core);
+
+ if (evsel__leader(lhs) == evsel__leader(rhs)) {
+ /* Within the same group, respect the original order. */
+ return lhs_core->idx - rhs_core->idx;
+ }
+
+ /* Sort default metrics evsels first, and default show events before those. */
+ if (lhs->default_metricgroup != rhs->default_metricgroup)
+ return lhs->default_metricgroup ? -1 : 1;
+
+ if (lhs->default_show_events != rhs->default_show_events)
+ return lhs->default_show_events ? -1 : 1;
+
+ /* Sort by PMU type (prefers legacy types first). */
+ if (lhs->pmu != rhs->pmu)
+ return lhs->pmu->type - rhs->pmu->type;
+
+ /* Sort by name. */
+ return strcmp(evsel__name((struct evsel *)lhs), evsel__name((struct evsel *)rhs));
+}
+
/*
* Add default events, if there were no attributes specified or
* if -d/--detailed, -d -d or -d -d -d is used:
@@ -2023,6 +2053,8 @@ static int add_default_events(void)
&metric_evlist->metric_events);
evlist__delete(metric_evlist);
}
+ list_sort(/*priv=*/NULL, &evlist->core.entries, default_evlist_evsel_cmp);
+
}
out:
if (!ret) {
--
2.51.2.1041.gc1ab5b90ca-goog