linux-kernel - [PATCH] perf tools: Dump callchain context marker names

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Message-Id: <20260102-james-perf-dump-callchain-markers-v1-1-3a9bdec20c58@linaro.org>
Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2026 12:15:43 +0000
From: James Clark <james.clark@...aro.org>
To: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>, 
 Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@...nel.org>, 
 Namhyung Kim <namhyung@...nel.org>, Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@....com>, 
 Alexander Shishkin <alexander.shishkin@...ux.intel.com>, 
 Jiri Olsa <jolsa@...nel.org>, Ian Rogers <irogers@...gle.com>, 
 Adrian Hunter <adrian.hunter@...el.com>, Leo Yan <leo.yan@....com>
Cc: linux-perf-users@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, 
 James Clark <james.clark@...aro.org>
Subject: [PATCH] perf tools: Dump callchain context marker names

These are hard to interpret in the raw output because they are printed
as hex but are defined in perf_event.h as decimal. Make it much easier
to read the raw callchains by just printing their names.

For example:

  $ perf report -D

  1798195372321 0x4638 [0xb0]: PERF_RECORD_SAMPLE(IP, 0x4002): 44922/44922: 0x7c8046dd3400 period: 120218 addr: 0
  ... FP chain: nr:12
  .....  0: fffffffffffffe00 (PERF_CONTEXT_USER)
  .....  1: 00007c8046dd3400
  .....  2: 00007c8046db86d3

Signed-off-by: James Clark <james.clark@...aro.org>
---
 tools/perf/util/session.c | 25 +++++++++++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 23 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/perf/util/session.c b/tools/perf/util/session.c
index 4236503c8f6c..e812f8954075 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/session.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/session.c
@@ -841,6 +841,26 @@ static void callchain__lbr_callstack_printf(struct perf_sample *sample)
 	}
 }
 
+static const char *callchain_context_str(u64 ip)
+{
+	switch (ip) {
+	case PERF_CONTEXT_HV:
+		return " (PERF_CONTEXT_HV)";
+	case PERF_CONTEXT_KERNEL:
+		return " (PERF_CONTEXT_KERNEL)";
+	case PERF_CONTEXT_USER:
+		return " (PERF_CONTEXT_USER)";
+	case PERF_CONTEXT_GUEST:
+		return " (PERF_CONTEXT_GUEST)";
+	case PERF_CONTEXT_GUEST_KERNEL:
+		return " (PERF_CONTEXT_GUEST_KERNEL)";
+	case PERF_CONTEXT_GUEST_USER:
+		return " (PERF_CONTEXT_GUEST_USER)";
+	default:
+		return "";
+	}
+}
+
 static void callchain__printf(struct evsel *evsel,
 			      struct perf_sample *sample)
 {
@@ -853,8 +873,9 @@ static void callchain__printf(struct evsel *evsel,
 	printf("... FP chain: nr:%" PRIu64 "\n", callchain->nr);
 
 	for (i = 0; i < callchain->nr; i++)
-		printf("..... %2d: %016" PRIx64 "\n",
-		       i, callchain->ips[i]);
+		printf("..... %2d: %016" PRIx64 "%s\n",
+		       i, callchain->ips[i],
+		       callchain_context_str(callchain->ips[i]));
 
 	if (sample->deferred_callchain)
 		printf("...... (deferred)\n");

---
base-commit: cbd41c6d4c26c161a2b0e70ad411d3885ff13507
change-id: 20260102-james-perf-dump-callchain-markers-64d175b108c8

Best regards,
-- 
James Clark <james.clark@...aro.org>