Re: [REGRESSION] Perf (userspace) broken on big.LITTLE systems since v6.5

From: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo
Date: Wed Nov 22 2023 - 11:26:42 EST


Em Wed, Nov 22, 2023 at 08:04:26AM -0800, Ian Rogers escreveu:
> On Wed, Nov 22, 2023 at 7:49 AM Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, Nov 22, 2023 at 10:06:23AM -0300, Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo wrote:
> > > Em Wed, Nov 22, 2023 at 12:23:27PM +0900, Hector Martin escreveu:
> > > > On 2023/11/22 1:38, Ian Rogers wrote:
> > > > > On Tue, Nov 21, 2023 at 8:15 AM Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > >> On Tue, Nov 21, 2023 at 08:09:37AM -0800, Ian Rogers wrote:
> > > > >>> On Tue, Nov 21, 2023 at 8:03 AM Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > >>>> On Tue, Nov 21, 2023 at 07:46:57AM -0800, Ian Rogers wrote:
> > > > >>>>> On Tue, Nov 21, 2023 at 7:40 AM Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > >>>>>> On Tue, Nov 21, 2023 at 03:24:25PM +0000, Marc Zyngier wrote:
> > > > >>>>>>> On Tue, 21 Nov 2023 13:40:31 +0000,
> > > > >>>>>>> Marc Zyngier <maz@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > >>>>>>>>
> > > > >>>>>>>> [Adding key people on Cc]
> > > > >>>>>>>>
> > > > >>>>>>>> On Tue, 21 Nov 2023 12:08:48 +0000,
> > > > >>>>>>>> Hector Martin <marcan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > >>>>>>>>>
> > > > >>>>>>>>> Perf broke on all Apple ARM64 systems (tested almost everything), and
> > > > >>>>>>>>> according to maz also on Juno (so, probably all big.LITTLE) since v6.5.
> > > > >>>>>>>>
> > > > >>>>>>>> I can confirm that at least on 6.7-rc2, perf is pretty busted on any
> > > > >>>>>>>> asymmetric ARM platform. It isn't clear what criteria is used to pick
> > > > >>>>>>>> the PMU, but nothing works anymore.
> > > > >>>>>>>>
> > > > >>>>>>>> The saving grace in my case is that Debian still ships a 6.1 perftool
> > > > >>>>>>>> package, but that's obviously not going to last.
> > > > >>>>>>>>
> > > > >>>>>>>> I'm happy to test potential fixes.
> > > > >>>>>>>
> > > > >>>>>>> At Mark's request, I've dumped a couple of perf (as of -rc2) runs with
> > > > >>>>>>> -vvv. And it is quite entertaining (this is taskset to an 'icestorm'
> > > > >>>>>>> CPU):
> > > > >>>>>>
> > > > >>>>>> IIUC the tool is doing the wrong thing here and overriding explicit
> > > > >>>>>> ${pmu}/${event}/ events with PERF_TYPE_HARDWARE events rather than events using
> > > > >>>>>> that ${pmu}'s type and event namespace.
> > > > >>>>>>
> > > > >>>>>> Regardless of the *new* ABI that allows PERF_TYPE_HARDWARE events to be
> > > > >>>>>> targetted to a specific PMU, it's semantically wrong to rewrite events like
> > > > >>>>>> this since ${pmu}/${event}/ is not necessarily equivalent to a similarly-named
> > > > >>>>>> PERF_COUNT_HW_${EVENT}.
> > > > >>>>>
> > > > >>>>> If you name a PMU and an event then the event should only be opened on
> > > > >>>>> that PMU, 100% agree. There's a bunch of output, but when the legacy
> > > > >>>>> cycles event is opened it appears to be because it was explicitly
> > > > >>>>> requested.
> > > > >>>>
> > > > >>>> I think you've missed that the named PMU events are being erreously transformed
> > > > >>>> into PERF_TYPE_HARDWARE events. Look at the -vvv output, e.g.
> > > > >>>>
> > > > >>>> Opening: apple_firestorm_pmu/cycles/
> > > > >>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > >>>> perf_event_attr:
> > > > >>>> type 0 (PERF_TYPE_HARDWARE)
> > > > >>>> size 136
> > > > >>>> config 0 (PERF_COUNT_HW_CPU_CYCLES)
> > > > >>>> sample_type IDENTIFIER
> > > > >>>> read_format TOTAL_TIME_ENABLED|TOTAL_TIME_RUNNING
> > > > >>>> disabled 1
> > > > >>>> inherit 1
> > > > >>>> enable_on_exec 1
> > > > >>>> exclude_guest 1
> > > > >>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > >>>> sys_perf_event_open: pid 1045843 cpu -1 group_fd -1 flags 0x8 = 4
> > > > >>>>
> > > > >>>> ... which should not be PERF_TYPE_HARDWARE && PERF_COUNT_HW_CPU_CYCLES.
> > > > >>>>
> > > > >>>> Marc said that he bisected the issue down to commit:
> > > > >>>>
> > > > >>>> 5ea8f2ccffb23983 ("perf parse-events: Support hardware events as terms")
> > > > >>>>
> > > > >>>> ... so it looks like something is going wrong when the events are being parsed,
> > > > >>>> e.g. losing the HW PMU information?
> > > > >>>
> > > > >>> Ok, I think I'm getting confused by other things. This looks like the issue.
> > > > >>>
> > > > >>> I think it may be working as intended, but not how you intended :-) If
> > > > >>> a core PMU is listed and then a legacy event, the legacy event should
> > >
> > > The point is that "cycles" when prefixed with "pmu/" shouldn't be
> > > considered "cycles" as HW/0, in that setting it is "cycles" for that
> > > PMU.
> >
> > Exactly.
> >
> > > (but we only have "cpu_cycles" for at least the a53 and a72 PMUs I
> > > have access in a Libre Computer rockchip 3399-pc hybrid board, if we use
> > > it, then we get what we want/had before, see below):
> >
> > Both Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A72 have the common PMUv3 events, so they have
> > "cpu_cycles" and "bus_cycles".
> >
> > The Apple PMUs that Hector and Marc anre using don't follow the PMUv3
> > architecture, and just have a "cycles" event.
> >
> > [...]
> >
> > > So what we need here seems to be to translate the generic term "cycles"
> > > to "cpu_cycles" when a PMU is explicitely passed in the event name and
> > > it doesn't have "cycles" and then just retry.
> >
> > I'm not sure we need to map that.
> >
> > My thinking is:
> >
> > * If the user asks for "cycles" without a PMU name, that should use the
> > PERF_TYPE_HARDWARE cycles event. The ARM PMUs handle that correctly when the
> > event is directed to them.
> >
> > * If the user asks for "${pmu}/cycles/", that should only use the "cycles"
> > event in that PMU's namespace, not PERF_TYPE_HARDWARE.
> >
> > * If we need a way so say "use the PERF_TYPE_HARDWARE cycles event on ${pmu}",
> > then we should have a new syntax for that (e.g. as we have for raw events),
> > e.g. it would be possible to have "pmu/hw:cycles/" or something like that.
> >
> > That way there's no ambiguity.
>
> This would break cpu_core/LLC-load-misses/ on Intel hybrid as the
> LLC-load-misses event is legacy and not advertised in either sysfs or
> in json.

Indeed:

[root@quaco ~]# ls /sys/devices/cpu/events/
branch-instructions bus-cycles cache-references instructions mem-stores topdown-fetch-bubbles topdown-recovery-bubbles.scale topdown-slots-retired topdown-total-slots.scale
branch-misses cache-misses cpu-cycles mem-loads ref-cycles topdown-recovery-bubbles topdown-slots-issued topdown-total-slots
[root@quaco ~]# strace -e perf_event_open perf stat -e cpu/LLC-load-misses/ echo
perf_event_open({type=PERF_TYPE_HW_CACHE, size=0x88 /* PERF_ATTR_SIZE_??? */, config=PERF_COUNT_HW_CACHE_RESULT_MISS<<16|PERF_COUNT_HW_CACHE_OP_READ<<8|PERF_COUNT_HW_CACHE_LL, sample_period=0, sample_type=PERF_SAMPLE_IDENTIFIER, read_format=PERF_FORMAT_TOTAL_TIME_ENABLED|PERF_FORMAT_TOTAL_TIME_RUNNING, disabled=1, inherit=1, enable_on_exec=1, precise_ip=0 /* arbitrary skid */, exclude_guest=1, ...}, 41467, -1, -1, PERF_FLAG_FD_CLOEXEC) = 3

--- SIGCHLD {si_signo=SIGCHLD, si_code=CLD_EXITED, si_pid=41467, si_uid=0, si_status=0, si_utime=0, si_stime=0} ---

Performance counter stats for 'echo':

1,015 cpu/LLC-load-misses/

0.005167119 seconds time elapsed

0.000821000 seconds user
0.004105000 seconds sys


--- SIGCHLD {si_signo=SIGCHLD, si_code=SI_USER, si_pid=41466, si_uid=0} ---
+++ exited with 0 +++
[root@quaco ~]#

Is it difficult to before doing the current expansion to
PERF_TYPE_HARDWARE/PERF_HW_CPU_CYCLES just check if there is an event
with the name specified in the PMU specified, if there is, use that.

- Arnaldo