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author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2016-10-06 18:48:41 (GMT) |
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committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2016-10-06 18:48:41 (GMT) |
commit | 95107b30be68953e3a4f1c3994c2233500502ccf (patch) | |
tree | ed1824ce842d9813f2ee8a5fa8683e0d6b13f662 /Documentation | |
parent | 541efb7632642cab55361178d73d544f025b593c (diff) | |
parent | a0d0c6216afad4b2b1704a72bd76bea259e07655 (diff) | |
download | linux-95107b30be68953e3a4f1c3994c2233500502ccf.tar.xz |
Merge tag 'trace-v4.9' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rostedt/linux-trace
Pull tracing updates from Steven Rostedt:
"This release cycle is rather small. Just a few fixes to tracing.
The big change is the addition of the hwlat tracer. It not only
detects SMIs, but also other latency that's caused by the hardware. I
have detected some latency from large boxes having bus contention"
* tag 'trace-v4.9' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rostedt/linux-trace:
tracing: Call traceoff trigger after event is recorded
ftrace/scripts: Add helper script to bisect function tracing problem functions
tracing: Have max_latency be defined for HWLAT_TRACER as well
tracing: Add NMI tracing in hwlat detector
tracing: Have hwlat trace migrate across tracing_cpumask CPUs
tracing: Add documentation for hwlat_detector tracer
tracing: Added hardware latency tracer
ftrace: Access ret_stack->subtime only in the function profiler
function_graph: Handle TRACE_BPUTS in print_graph_comment
tracing/uprobe: Drop isdigit() check in create_trace_uprobe
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/trace/ftrace.txt | 10 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/trace/hwlat_detector.txt | 79 |
2 files changed, 84 insertions, 5 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/trace/ftrace.txt b/Documentation/trace/ftrace.txt index a6b3705..185c39f 100644 --- a/Documentation/trace/ftrace.txt +++ b/Documentation/trace/ftrace.txt @@ -858,11 +858,11 @@ x494] <- /root/a.out[+0x4a8] <- /lib/libc-2.7.so[+0x1e1a6] When enabled, it will account time the task has been scheduled out as part of the function call. - graph-time - When running function graph tracer, to include the - time to call nested functions. When this is not set, - the time reported for the function will only include - the time the function itself executed for, not the time - for functions that it called. + graph-time - When running function profiler with function graph tracer, + to include the time to call nested functions. When this is + not set, the time reported for the function will only + include the time the function itself executed for, not the + time for functions that it called. record-cmd - When any event or tracer is enabled, a hook is enabled in the sched_switch trace point to fill comm cache diff --git a/Documentation/trace/hwlat_detector.txt b/Documentation/trace/hwlat_detector.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3207717 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/trace/hwlat_detector.txt @@ -0,0 +1,79 @@ +Introduction: +------------- + +The tracer hwlat_detector is a special purpose tracer that is used to +detect large system latencies induced by the behavior of certain underlying +hardware or firmware, independent of Linux itself. The code was developed +originally to detect SMIs (System Management Interrupts) on x86 systems, +however there is nothing x86 specific about this patchset. It was +originally written for use by the "RT" patch since the Real Time +kernel is highly latency sensitive. + +SMIs are not serviced by the Linux kernel, which means that it does not +even know that they are occuring. SMIs are instead set up by BIOS code +and are serviced by BIOS code, usually for "critical" events such as +management of thermal sensors and fans. Sometimes though, SMIs are used for +other tasks and those tasks can spend an inordinate amount of time in the +handler (sometimes measured in milliseconds). Obviously this is a problem if +you are trying to keep event service latencies down in the microsecond range. + +The hardware latency detector works by hogging one of the cpus for configurable +amounts of time (with interrupts disabled), polling the CPU Time Stamp Counter +for some period, then looking for gaps in the TSC data. Any gap indicates a +time when the polling was interrupted and since the interrupts are disabled, +the only thing that could do that would be an SMI or other hardware hiccup +(or an NMI, but those can be tracked). + +Note that the hwlat detector should *NEVER* be used in a production environment. +It is intended to be run manually to determine if the hardware platform has a +problem with long system firmware service routines. + +Usage: +------ + +Write the ASCII text "hwlat" into the current_tracer file of the tracing system +(mounted at /sys/kernel/tracing or /sys/kernel/tracing). It is possible to +redefine the threshold in microseconds (us) above which latency spikes will +be taken into account. + +Example: + + # echo hwlat > /sys/kernel/tracing/current_tracer + # echo 100 > /sys/kernel/tracing/tracing_thresh + +The /sys/kernel/tracing/hwlat_detector interface contains the following files: + +width - time period to sample with CPUs held (usecs) + must be less than the total window size (enforced) +window - total period of sampling, width being inside (usecs) + +By default the width is set to 500,000 and window to 1,000,000, meaning that +for every 1,000,000 usecs (1s) the hwlat detector will spin for 500,000 usecs +(0.5s). If tracing_thresh contains zero when hwlat tracer is enabled, it will +change to a default of 10 usecs. If any latencies that exceed the threshold is +observed then the data will be written to the tracing ring buffer. + +The minimum sleep time between periods is 1 millisecond. Even if width +is less than 1 millisecond apart from window, to allow the system to not +be totally starved. + +If tracing_thresh was zero when hwlat detector was started, it will be set +back to zero if another tracer is loaded. Note, the last value in +tracing_thresh that hwlat detector had will be saved and this value will +be restored in tracing_thresh if it is still zero when hwlat detector is +started again. + +The following tracing directory files are used by the hwlat_detector: + +in /sys/kernel/tracing: + + tracing_threshold - minimum latency value to be considered (usecs) + tracing_max_latency - maximum hardware latency actually observed (usecs) + tracing_cpumask - the CPUs to move the hwlat thread across + hwlat_detector/width - specified amount of time to spin within window (usecs) + hwlat_detector/window - amount of time between (width) runs (usecs) + +The hwlat detector's kernel thread will migrate across each CPU specified in +tracing_cpumask between each window. To limit the migration, either modify +tracing_cpumask, or modify the hwlat kernel thread (named [hwlatd]) CPU +affinity directly, and the migration will stop. |