Date:   Fri, 8 Jun 2018 17:05:09 +0100
From:   Suzuki K Poulose <Suzuki.Poulose@....com>
To:     Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@....com>
Cc:     linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        will.deacon@....com, robin.murphy@....com
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 5/5] arm64: perf: Add support for chaining event
 counters

On 08/06/18 16:24, Mark Rutland wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 08, 2018 at 03:46:57PM +0100, Suzuki K Poulose wrote:
>> On 06/06/2018 07:01 PM, Mark Rutland wrote:
>>>> Thus we need special allocation schemes
>>>> to make the full use of available counters. So, we allocate the
>>>> counters from either ends. i.e, chained counters are allocated
>>>> from the lower end in pairs of two and the normal counters are
>>>> allocated from the higher number. Also makes necessary changes to
>>>> handle the chained events as a single event with 2 counters.
>>>
>>> Why do we need to allocate in this way?
>>>
>>> I can see this might make allocating a pair of counters more likely in
>>> some cases, but there are still others where it wouldn't be possible
>>> (and we'd rely on the rotation logic to repack the counters for us).
>>
>> It makes the efficient use of the counters in all cases and allows
>> counting maximum number of events with any given set, keeping the precedence
>> on the order of their "inserts".
>> e.g, if the number of counters happened to be "odd" (not sure if it is even
>> possible).
> 
> Unfortunately, that doesn't always work.
> 
> Say you have a system with 8 counters, and you open 8 (32-bit) events.

I was talking about the following (imaginary) case :

We have 7 counters, and you have 5 32bit counters and 1 64bit counter.
Without the above scheme, you would place first 5 events on the first
5 counters and then you can't place the 64bit counter, as you are now
left with a low/odd counter and a high/even counter.

> 
> Then you close the events in counters 0, 2, 4, and 6. The live events
> aren't moved, and stay where they are, in counters 1, 3, 5, and 7.
> 
> Now, say you open a 64-bit event. When we try to add it, we try to
> allocate an index for two consecutive counters, and find that we can't,
> despite 4 counters being free.
> 
> We return -EAGAIN to the core perf code, whereupon it removes any other
> events in that group (none in this case).
> 
> Then we wait for the rotation logic to pull all of the events out and
> schedule them back in, re-packing them, which should (eventually) work
> regardless of how we allocate counters.
> 
> ... we might need to re-pack events to solve that. :/

I agree, removing and putting them back in is not going to work unless
we re-pack or delay allocating the counters until we start the PMU.

> 
> [...]
> 
>>>> +static inline void armv8pmu_write_chain_counter(int idx, u64 value)
>>>> +{
>>>> +	armv8pmu_write_evcntr(idx, value >> 32);
>>>> +	isb();
>>>> +	armv8pmu_write_evcntr(idx - 1, value);
>>>> +}
>>>
>>> Can we use upper_32_bits() and lower_32_bits() here?
>>>
>>> As a more general thing, I think we need to clean up the way we
>>> read/write counters, because I don't think that it's right that we poke
>>> them while they're running -- that means you get some arbitrary skew on
>>> counter groups.
>>>
>>> It looks like the only case we do that is the IRQ handler, so we should
>>> be able to stop/start the PMU there.
>>
>> Since we don't stop the "counting" of events usually when an IRQ is
>> triggered, the skew will be finally balanced when the events are stopped
>> in a the group. So, I think, stopping the PMU may not be really a good
>> thing after all. Just my thought.
> 
> That's not quite right -- if one event in a group overflows, we'll
> reprogram it *while* other events are counting, losing some events in
> the process.

Oh yes, you're right. I can fix it.


> 
> Stopping the PMU for the duration of the IRQ handler ensures that events
> in a group are always in-sync with one another.

Suzuki

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