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From: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
To: stable@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Yabin Cui <yabinc@google.com>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>,
	James Clark <james.clark@linaro.org>,
	Anshuman Khandual <anshuman.khandual@arm.com>,
	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>,
	Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@redhat.com>,
	Jiri Olsa <jolsa@redhat.com>,
	Alexander Shishkin <alexander.shishkin@linux.intel.com>,
	Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>,
	Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>,
	Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH 6.12.y 1/2] perf/aux: Allocate non-contiguous AUX pages by default
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2026 15:08:51 -0400	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260910190852.1454402-1-sashal@kernel.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <2026090959-treadmill-straddle-c245@gregkh>

From: Yabin Cui <yabinc@google.com>

[ Upstream commit 18049c8cff9cc89daadc4df6975f7d9069638926 ]

perf always allocates contiguous AUX pages based on aux_watermark.
However, this contiguous allocation doesn't benefit all PMUs. For
instance, ARM SPE and TRBE operate with virtual pages, and Coresight
ETR allocates a separate buffer. For these PMUs, allocating contiguous
AUX pages unnecessarily exacerbates memory fragmentation. This
fragmentation can prevent their use on long-running devices.

This patch modifies the perf driver to be memory-friendly by default,
by allocating non-contiguous AUX pages. For PMUs requiring contiguous
pages (Intel BTS and some Intel PT), the existing
PERF_PMU_CAP_AUX_NO_SG capability can be used. For PMUs that don't
require but can benefit from contiguous pages (some Intel PT), a new
capability, PERF_PMU_CAP_AUX_PREFER_LARGE, is added to maintain their
existing behavior.

Signed-off-by: Yabin Cui <yabinc@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: James Clark <james.clark@linaro.org>
Reviewed-by: Anshuman Khandual <anshuman.khandual@arm.com>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@redhat.com>
Cc: Jiri Olsa <jolsa@redhat.com>
Cc: Alexander Shishkin <alexander.shishkin@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>
Cc: Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250508232642.148767-1-yabinc@google.com
Stable-dep-of: 8767b4d73018 ("perf/x86/intel: Remove anythread_deprecated bit from perf_capabilities")
Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
---
 arch/x86/events/intel/pt.c  |  2 ++
 include/linux/perf_event.h  |  1 +
 kernel/events/ring_buffer.c | 29 ++++++++++++++++++++---------
 3 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/events/intel/pt.c b/arch/x86/events/intel/pt.c
index a087bc0c54987..acdff93985504 100644
--- a/arch/x86/events/intel/pt.c
+++ b/arch/x86/events/intel/pt.c
@@ -1797,6 +1797,8 @@ static __init int pt_init(void)
 
 	if (!intel_pt_validate_hw_cap(PT_CAP_topa_multiple_entries))
 		pt_pmu.pmu.capabilities = PERF_PMU_CAP_AUX_NO_SG;
+	else
+		pt_pmu.pmu.capabilities = PERF_PMU_CAP_AUX_PREFER_LARGE;
 
 	pt_pmu.pmu.capabilities	|= PERF_PMU_CAP_EXCLUSIVE | PERF_PMU_CAP_ITRACE;
 	pt_pmu.pmu.attr_groups		 = pt_attr_groups;
diff --git a/include/linux/perf_event.h b/include/linux/perf_event.h
index c2bd4bc45a27b..be6ddf1961534 100644
--- a/include/linux/perf_event.h
+++ b/include/linux/perf_event.h
@@ -301,6 +301,7 @@ struct perf_event_pmu_context;
 #define PERF_PMU_CAP_AUX_OUTPUT			0x0080
 #define PERF_PMU_CAP_EXTENDED_HW_TYPE		0x0100
 #define PERF_PMU_CAP_AUX_PAUSE			0x0200
+#define PERF_PMU_CAP_AUX_PREFER_LARGE		0x0400
 
 /**
  * pmu::scope
diff --git a/kernel/events/ring_buffer.c b/kernel/events/ring_buffer.c
index 6ecbbc57cdfde..b4edac7d9cd34 100644
--- a/kernel/events/ring_buffer.c
+++ b/kernel/events/ring_buffer.c
@@ -680,7 +680,15 @@ int rb_alloc_aux(struct perf_buffer *rb, struct perf_event *event,
 {
 	bool overwrite = !(flags & RING_BUFFER_WRITABLE);
 	int node = (event->cpu == -1) ? -1 : cpu_to_node(event->cpu);
-	int ret = -ENOMEM, max_order;
+	bool use_contiguous_pages = event->pmu->capabilities & (
+		PERF_PMU_CAP_AUX_NO_SG | PERF_PMU_CAP_AUX_PREFER_LARGE);
+	/*
+	 * Initialize max_order to 0 for page allocation. This allocates single
+	 * pages to minimize memory fragmentation. This is overridden if the
+	 * PMU needs or prefers contiguous pages (use_contiguous_pages = true).
+	 */
+	int max_order = 0;
+	int ret = -ENOMEM;
 
 	if (!has_aux(event))
 		return -EOPNOTSUPP;
@@ -690,8 +698,8 @@ int rb_alloc_aux(struct perf_buffer *rb, struct perf_event *event,
 
 	if (!overwrite) {
 		/*
-		 * Watermark defaults to half the buffer, and so does the
-		 * max_order, to aid PMU drivers in double buffering.
+		 * Watermark defaults to half the buffer, to aid PMU drivers
+		 * in double buffering.
 		 */
 		if (!watermark)
 			watermark = min_t(unsigned long,
@@ -699,16 +707,19 @@ int rb_alloc_aux(struct perf_buffer *rb, struct perf_event *event,
 					  (unsigned long)nr_pages << (PAGE_SHIFT - 1));
 
 		/*
-		 * Use aux_watermark as the basis for chunking to
-		 * help PMU drivers honor the watermark.
+		 * If using contiguous pages, use aux_watermark as the basis
+		 * for chunking to help PMU drivers honor the watermark.
 		 */
-		max_order = get_order(watermark);
+		if (use_contiguous_pages)
+			max_order = get_order(watermark);
 	} else {
 		/*
-		 * We need to start with the max_order that fits in nr_pages,
-		 * not the other way around, hence ilog2() and not get_order.
+		 * If using contiguous pages, we need to start with the
+		 * max_order that fits in nr_pages, not the other way around,
+		 * hence ilog2() and not get_order.
 		 */
-		max_order = ilog2(nr_pages);
+		if (use_contiguous_pages)
+			max_order = ilog2(nr_pages);
 		watermark = 0;
 	}
 
-- 
2.53.0


  reply	other threads:[~2026-09-10 19:08 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-09-09  9:38 FAILED: patch "[PATCH] perf/x86/intel: Remove anythread_deprecated bit from" failed to apply to 6.12-stable tree gregkh
2026-09-10 19:08 ` Sasha Levin [this message]
2026-09-10 19:08   ` [PATCH 6.12.y 2/2] perf/x86/intel: Remove anythread_deprecated bit from perf_capabilities Sasha Levin

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