[PATCH] tools/perf: Fix aggr_printout to display cpu field irrespective of core value

Athira Rajeev atrajeev at linux.vnet.ibm.com
Thu Sep 29 18:49:21 AEST 2022



> On 28-Sep-2022, at 9:05 PM, James Clark <james.clark at arm.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 

Hi James,

Thanks for looking at the patch and sharing review comments.

> On 13/09/2022 12:57, Athira Rajeev wrote:
>> perf stat includes option to specify aggr_mode to display
>> per-socket, per-core, per-die, per-node counter details.
>> Also there is option -A ( AGGR_NONE, -no-aggr ), where the
>> counter values are displayed for each cpu along with "CPU"
>> value in one field of the output.
>> 
>> Each of the aggregate mode uses the information fetched
>> from "/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpuX/topology" like core_id,
> 
> I thought that this wouldn't apply to the cpu field because cpu is
> basically interchangeable as an index in cpumap, rather than anything
> being read from the topology file.

The cpu value is filled in this function:

Function : aggr_cpu_id__cpu
Code: util/cpumap.c

> 
>> physical_package_id. Utility functions in "cpumap.c" fetches
>> this information and populates the socket id, core id, cpu etc.
>> If the platform does not expose the topology information,
>> these values will be set to -1. Example, in case of powerpc,
>> details like physical_package_id is restricted to be exposed
>> in pSeries platform. So id.socket, id.core, id.cpu all will
>> be set as -1.
>> 
>> In case of displaying socket or die value, there is no check
>> done in the "aggr_printout" function to see if it points to
>> valid socket id or die. But for displaying "cpu" value, there
>> is a check for "if (id.core > -1)". In case of powerpc pSeries
>> where detail like physical_package_id is restricted to be
>> exposed, id.core will be set to -1. Hence the column or field
>> itself for CPU won't be displayed in the output.
>> 
>> Result for per-socket:
>> 
>> <<>>
>> perf stat -e branches --per-socket -a true
>> 
>> Performance counter stats for 'system wide':
>> 
>> S-1      32            416,851      branches
>> <<>>
>> 
>> Here S has -1 in above result. But with -A option which also
>> expects CPU in one column in the result, below is observed.
>> 
>> <<>>
>> /bin/perf stat -e instructions -A -a true
>> 
>> Performance counter stats for 'system wide':
>> 
>>            47,146      instructions
>>            45,226      instructions
>>            43,354      instructions
>>            45,184      instructions
>> <<>>
>> 
>> If the cpu id value is pointing to -1 also, it makes sense
>> to display the column in the output to replicate the behaviour
>> or to be in precedence with other aggr options(like per-socket,
>> per-core). Remove the check "id.core" so that CPU field gets
>> displayed in the output.
> 
> Why would you want to print -1 out? Seems like the if statement was a
> good one to me, otherwise the output looks a bit broken to users. Are
> the other aggregation modes even working if -1 is set for socket and
> die? Maybe we need to not print -1 in those cases or exit earlier with a
> failure.
> 
> The -1 value has a specific internal meaning which is "to not
> aggregate". It doesn't mean "not set".

Currently, this check is done only for printing cpu value.
For socket/die/core values, this check is not done. Pasting an
example snippet from a powerpc system ( specifically from pseries platform where
the value is set to -1 )

./perf stat --per-core -a -C 1 true

 Performance counter stats for 'system wide':

S-1-D-1-C-1          1               1.06 msec cpu-clock                        #    1.018 CPUs utilized          
S-1-D-1-C-1          1                  2      context-switches                 #    1.879 K/sec                  
S-1-D-1-C-1          1                  0      cpu-migrations                   #    0.000 /sec                   

Here though the value is -1, we are displaying it. Where as in case of cpu, the first column will be
empty since we do a check before printing. 

Example:

./perf stat --per-core -A -C 1 true

 Performance counter stats for 'CPU(s) 1':

              0.88 msec cpu-clock                        #    1.022 CPUs utilized          
                 2      context-switches                                                   
                 0      cpu-migrations                                                     


No sure, whether there are scripts out there, which consume the current format and
not displaying -1 may break it. That is why we tried with change to remove check for cpu, similar to
other modes like socket, die, core etc.

Also perf code ie “aggr_cpu_id__empty” in util/cpumap.c initialises the
values to -1 . I was checking to see where we are mapping -1 to “to not aggregate”.
What I could find is AGGR_NONE ( which is for no-aggr ) has value as zero.

Reference: defined in util/stat.h

enum aggr_mode {
        AGGR_NONE,

James, can you point me to reference for that meaning if I have missed anything.

Thanks
Athira

> 
>> 
>> After the fix:
>> 
>> <<>>
>> perf stat -e instructions -A -a true
>> 
>> Performance counter stats for 'system wide':
>> 
>> CPU-1                  64,034      instructions
>> CPU-1                  68,941      instructions
>> CPU-1                  59,418      instructions
>> CPU-1                  70,478      instructions
>> CPU-1                  65,201      instructions
>> CPU-1                  63,704      instructions
>> <<>>
>> 
>> This is caught while running "perf test" for
>> "stat+json_output.sh" and "stat+csv_output.sh".
> 
> Is it possible to fix the issue by making the tests cope with the lack
> of the CPU id?
> 
>> 
>> Reported-by: Disha Goel <disgoel at linux.vnet.ibm.com>
>> Signed-off-by: Athira Rajeev <atrajeev at linux.vnet.ibm.com>
>> ---
>> tools/perf/util/stat-display.c | 6 ++----
>> 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
>> 
>> diff --git a/tools/perf/util/stat-display.c b/tools/perf/util/stat-display.c
>> index b82844cb0ce7..1b751a730271 100644
>> --- a/tools/perf/util/stat-display.c
>> +++ b/tools/perf/util/stat-display.c
>> @@ -168,10 +168,9 @@ static void aggr_printout(struct perf_stat_config *config,
>> 					id.socket,
>> 					id.die,
>> 					id.core);
>> -			} else if (id.core > -1) {
>> +			} else
> 
> This should have been "id.cpu.cpu > -1". Looks like it was changed by
> some kind of bad merge or rebase in df936cadfb because there is no
> obvious justification for the change to .core in that commit.

> 
>> 				fprintf(config->output, "\"cpu\" : \"%d\", ",
>> 					id.cpu.cpu);
>> -			}
>> 		} else {
>> 			if (evsel->percore && !config->percore_show_thread) {
>> 				fprintf(config->output, "S%d-D%d-C%*d%s",
>> @@ -179,11 +178,10 @@ static void aggr_printout(struct perf_stat_config *config,
>> 					id.die,
>> 					config->csv_output ? 0 : -3,
>> 					id.core, config->csv_sep);
>> -			} else if (id.core > -1) {
>> +			} else
>> 				fprintf(config->output, "CPU%*d%s",
>> 					config->csv_output ? 0 : -7,
>> 					id.cpu.cpu, config->csv_sep);
>> -			}
>> 		}
>> 		break;
>> 	case AGGR_THREAD:



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