tree 15353ed042227640ade576095a70384863406f26
parent 032db28e5fa3594dfa3df585c54d8b612657f537
author Milind Chabbi <chabbi.milind@gmail.com> 1520862347 +0100
committer Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org> 1520951042 +0100

perf/core: Implement fast breakpoint modification via _IOC_MODIFY_ATTRIBUTES

Problem and motivation: Once a breakpoint perf event (PERF_TYPE_BREAKPOINT)
is created, there is no flexibility to change the breakpoint type
(bp_type), breakpoint address (bp_addr), or breakpoint length (bp_len). The
only option is to close the perf event and configure a new breakpoint
event. This inflexibility has a significant performance overhead. For
example, sampling-based, lightweight performance profilers (and also
concurrency bug detection tools),  monitor different addresses for a short
duration using PERF_TYPE_BREAKPOINT and change the address (bp_addr) to
another address or change the kind of breakpoint (bp_type) from  "write" to
a "read" or vice-versa or change the length (bp_len) of the address being
monitored. The cost of these modifications is prohibitive since it involves
unmapping the circular buffer associated with the perf event, closing the
perf event, opening another perf event and mmaping another circular buffer.

Solution: The new ioctl flag for perf events,
PERF_EVENT_IOC_MODIFY_ATTRIBUTES, introduced in this patch takes a pointer
to a struct perf_event_attr as an argument to update an old breakpoint
event with new address, type, and size. This facility allows retaining a
previous mmaped perf events ring buffer and avoids having to close and
reopen another perf event.

This patch supports only changing PERF_TYPE_BREAKPOINT event type; future
implementations can extend this feature. The patch replicates some of its
functionality of modify_user_hw_breakpoint() in
kernel/events/hw_breakpoint.c. modify_user_hw_breakpoint cannot be called
directly since perf_event_ctx_lock() is already held in _perf_ioctl().

Evidence: Experiments show that the baseline (not able to modify an already
created breakpoint) costs an order of magnitude (~10x) more than the
suggested optimization (having the ability to dynamically modifying a
configured breakpoint via ioctl). When the breakpoints typically do not
trap, the speedup due to the suggested optimization is ~10x; even when the
breakpoints always trap, the speedup is ~4x due to the suggested
optimization.

Testing: tests posted at
https://github.com/linux-contrib/perf_event_modify_bp demonstrate the
performance significance of this patch. Tests also check the functional
correctness of the patch.

Signed-off-by: Milind Chabbi <chabbi.milind@gmail.com>
[ Using modify_user_hw_breakpoint_check function. ]
[ Reformated PERF_EVENT_IOC_*, so the values are all in one column. ]
Signed-off-by: Jiri Olsa <jolsa@kernel.org>
Cc: Alexander Shishkin <alexander.shishkin@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@redhat.com>
Cc: David Ahern <dsahern@gmail.com>
Cc: Frederic Weisbecker <fweisbec@gmail.com>
Cc: Hari Bathini <hbathini@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Cc: Jin Yao <yao.jin@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Jiri Olsa <jolsa@redhat.com>
Cc: Kan Liang <kan.liang@intel.com>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au>
Cc: Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>
Cc: Oleg Nesterov <onestero@redhat.com>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Sukadev Bhattiprolu <sukadev@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20180312134548.31532-8-jolsa@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>