linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] ftrace: Provide trace clock monotonic raw

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <1434206731.45802.1431048476130.JavaMail.zimbra@efficios.com>
Date:	Fri, 8 May 2015 01:27:56 +0000 (UTC)
From:	Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com>
To:	Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>
Cc:	Drew Richardson <drew.richardson@....com>,
	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	John Stultz <john.stultz@...aro.org>,
	Wade Cherry <Wade.Cherry@....com>,
	Pawel Moll <Pawel.Moll@....com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] ftrace: Provide trace clock monotonic raw

----- Original Message -----
> On Tue, 5 May 2015 07:54:46 -0700
> Drew Richardson <drew.richardson@....com> wrote:
> 
> > CLOCK_MONOTONIC_RAW will advance more constantly than CLOCK_MONOTONIC.
> > 
> > Imagine someone is trying to optimize a particular program to reduce
> > instructions executed for a given workload while minimizing the effect
> > on runtime. Also suppose that ntp is running and potentially making
> > larger adjustments to CLOCK_MONOTONIC. If ntp is adjusting
> > CLOCK_MONOTONIC to advance more rapidly, the program will appear to
> > use fewer instructions per second but run longer than it would if
> > CLOCK_MONOTONIC_RAW had been used. The total number of instructions
> > observed would be the same regardless of the clock source used, but
> > how it's attributed to time would be affected.
> > 
> > Conversely if ntp is adjusting CLOCK_MONOTONIC to advance more slowly,
> > the program will appear to use more instructions per second but run
> > more quickly. Of course there are many sources that can cause jitter
> > in performance measurements on modern processors, but I'd like to
> > remove ntp from the list.
> 
> What's the consensus on this patch? Everyone OK with it? If so, can you
> please post a new patch with the proper change log. And can everyone
> else give acks. I can take it in my tree.

I can see it being useful for tracing early boot, e.g.
when debugging issues with NTP. So adding it to ftrace
makes sense to me.

Acked-by: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com>

Thanks,

Mathieu

-- 
Mathieu Desnoyers
EfficiOS Inc.
http://www.efficios.com
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/