new event¶

The Intel PT kernel driver creates a new PMU for Intel PT. PMU events are selected by providing the PMU name followed by the "config" separated by slashes. An enhancement has been made to allow default "config" e.g. the option

-e intel_pt//

will use a default config value. Currently that is the same as

-e intel_pt/tsc,noretcomp=0/

which is the same as

-e intel_pt/tsc=1,noretcomp=0/

Note there are now new config terms - see section config terms further below.

The config terms are listed in /sys/devices/intel_pt/format. They are bit fields within the config member of the struct perf_event_attr which is passed to the kernel by the perf_event_open system call. They correspond to bit fields in the IA32_RTIT_CTL MSR. Here is a list of them and their definitions:

$ grep -H . /sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/format/*
/sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/format/cyc:config:1
/sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/format/cyc_thresh:config:19-22
/sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/format/mtc:config:9
/sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/format/mtc_period:config:14-17
/sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/format/noretcomp:config:11
/sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/format/psb_period:config:24-27
/sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/format/tsc:config:10

Note that the default config must be overridden for each term i.e.

-e intel_pt/noretcomp=0/

is the same as:

-e intel_pt/tsc=1,noretcomp=0/

So, to disable TSC packets use:

-e intel_pt/tsc=0/

It is also possible to specify the config value explicitly:

-e intel_pt/config=0x400/

Note that, as with all events, the event is suffixed with event modifiers:

u        userspace
k        kernel
h        hypervisor
G        guest
H        host
p        precise ip

h, G and H are for virtualization which is not supported by Intel PT. p is also not relevant to Intel PT. So only options u and k are meaningful for Intel PT.

perf_event_attr is displayed if the -vv option is used e.g.

------------------------------------------------------------
perf_event_attr:
type                             6
size                             112
config                           0x400
{ sample_period, sample_freq }   1
sample_type                      IP|TID|TIME|CPU|IDENTIFIER
read_format                      ID
disabled                         1
inherit                          1
exclude_kernel                   1
exclude_hv                       1
enable_on_exec                   1
sample_id_all                    1
------------------------------------------------------------
sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 0  group_fd -1  flags 0x8
sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 1  group_fd -1  flags 0x8
sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 2  group_fd -1  flags 0x8
sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 3  group_fd -1  flags 0x8
------------------------------------------------------------

config terms¶

The June 2015 version of Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer Manuals, Chapter 36 Intel Processor Trace, defined new Intel PT features. Some of the features are reflect in new config terms. All the config terms are described below.

tsc Always supported. Produces TSC timestamp packets to provide timing information. In some cases it is possible to decode without timing information, for example a per-thread context that does not overlap executable memory maps.

The default config selects tsc (i.e. tsc=1).

noretcomp Always supported. Disables "return compression" so a TIP packet is produced when a function returns. Causes more packets to be produced but might make decoding more reliable.

The default config does not select noretcomp (i.e. noretcomp=0).

psb_period Allows the frequency of PSB packets to be specified.

The PSB packet is a synchronization packet that provides a
starting point for decoding or recovery from errors.

Support for psb_period is indicated by:

/sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/caps/psb_cyc

which contains "1" if the feature is supported and "0"
otherwise.

Valid values are given by:

/sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/caps/psb_periods

which contains a hexadecimal value, the bits of which represent
valid values e.g. bit 2 set means value 2 is valid.

The psb_period value is converted to the approximate number of
trace bytes between PSB packets as:

2 ^ (value + 11)

e.g. value 3 means 16KiB bytes between PSBs

If an invalid value is entered, the error message
will give a list of valid values e.g.

$ perf record -e intel_pt/psb_period=15/u uname
Invalid psb_period for intel_pt. Valid values are: 0-5

If MTC packets are selected, the default config selects a value
of 3 (i.e. psb_period=3) or the nearest lower value that is
supported (0 is always supported).  Otherwise the default is 0.

If decoding is expected to be reliable and the buffer is large
then a large PSB period can be used.

Because a TSC packet is produced with PSB, the PSB period can
also affect the granularity to timing information in the absence
of MTC or CYC.

mtc Produces MTC timing packets.

MTC packets provide finer grain timestamp information than TSC
packets.  MTC packets record time using the hardware crystal
clock (CTC) which is related to TSC packets using a TMA packet.

Support for this feature is indicated by:

/sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/caps/mtc

which contains "1" if the feature is supported and
"0" otherwise.

The frequency of MTC packets can also be specified - see
mtc_period below.

mtc_period Specifies how frequently MTC packets are produced - see mtc above for how to determine if MTC packets are supported.

Valid values are given by:

/sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/caps/mtc_periods

which contains a hexadecimal value, the bits of which represent
valid values e.g. bit 2 set means value 2 is valid.

The mtc_period value is converted to the MTC frequency as:

CTC-frequency / (2 ^ value)

e.g. value 3 means one eighth of CTC-frequency

Where CTC is the hardware crystal clock, the frequency of which
can be related to TSC via values provided in cpuid leaf 0x15.

If an invalid value is entered, the error message
will give a list of valid values e.g.

$ perf record -e intel_pt/mtc_period=15/u uname
Invalid mtc_period for intel_pt. Valid values are: 0,3,6,9

The default value is 3 or the nearest lower value
that is supported (0 is always supported).

cyc Produces CYC timing packets.

CYC packets provide even finer grain timestamp information than
MTC and TSC packets.  A CYC packet contains the number of CPU
cycles since the last CYC packet. Unlike MTC and TSC packets,
CYC packets are only sent when another packet is also sent.

Support for this feature is indicated by:

/sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/caps/psb_cyc

which contains "1" if the feature is supported and
"0" otherwise.

The number of CYC packets produced can be reduced by specifying
a threshold - see cyc_thresh below.

cyc_thresh Specifies how frequently CYC packets are produced - see cyc above for how to determine if CYC packets are supported.

Valid cyc_thresh values are given by:

/sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/caps/cycle_thresholds

which contains a hexadecimal value, the bits of which represent
valid values e.g. bit 2 set means value 2 is valid.

The cyc_thresh value represents the minimum number of CPU cycles
that must have passed before a CYC packet can be sent.  The
number of CPU cycles is:

2 ^ (value - 1)

e.g. value 4 means 8 CPU cycles must pass before a CYC packet
can be sent.  Note a CYC packet is still only sent when another
packet is sent, not at, e.g. every 8 CPU cycles.

If an invalid value is entered, the error message
will give a list of valid values e.g.

$ perf record -e intel_pt/cyc,cyc_thresh=15/u uname
Invalid cyc_thresh for intel_pt. Valid values are: 0-12

CYC packets are not requested by default.

pt Specifies pass-through which enables the branch config term.

The default config selects 'pt' if it is available, so a user will
never need to specify this term.

branch Enable branch tracing. Branch tracing is enabled by default so to disable branch tracing use branch=0.

The default config selects 'branch' if it is available.

ptw Enable PTWRITE packets which are produced when a ptwrite instruction is executed.

Support for this feature is indicated by:

/sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/caps/ptwrite

which contains "1" if the feature is supported and
"0" otherwise.

fup_on_ptw Enable a FUP packet to follow the PTWRITE packet. The FUP packet provides the address of the ptwrite instruction. In the absence of fup_on_ptw, the decoder will use the address of the previous branch if branch tracing is enabled, otherwise the address will be zero. Note that fup_on_ptw will work even when branch tracing is disabled.

pwr_evt Enable power events. The power events provide information about changes to the CPU C-state.

Support for this feature is indicated by:

/sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/caps/power_event_trace

which contains "1" if the feature is supported and
"0" otherwise.

AUX area sampling option¶

To select Intel PT "sampling" the AUX area sampling option can be used:

--aux-sample

Optionally it can be followed by the sample size in bytes e.g.

--aux-sample=8192

In addition, the Intel PT event to sample must be defined e.g.

-e intel_pt//u

Samples on other events will be created containing Intel PT data e.g. the following will create Intel PT samples on the branch-misses event, note the events must be grouped using {}:

perf record --aux-sample -e '{intel_pt//u,branch-misses:u}'

An alternative to --aux-sample is to add the config term aux-sample-size to events. In this case, the grouping is implied e.g.

perf record -e intel_pt//u -e branch-misses/aux-sample-size=8192/u

is the same as:

perf record -e '{intel_pt//u,branch-misses/aux-sample-size=8192/u}'

but allows for also using an address filter e.g.:

perf record -e intel_pt//u --filter 'filter * @/bin/ls' -e branch-misses/aux-sample-size=8192/u -- ls

It is important to select a sample size that is big enough to contain at least one PSB packet. If not a warning will be displayed:

Intel PT sample size (%zu) may be too small for PSB period (%zu)

The calculation used for that is: if sample_size ⇐ psb_period + 256 display the warning. When sampling is used, psb_period defaults to 0 (2KiB).

The default sample size is 4KiB.

The sample size is passed in aux_sample_size in struct perf_event_attr. The sample size is limited by the maximum event size which is 64KiB. It is difficult to know how big the event might be without the trace sample attached, but the tool validates that the sample size is not greater than 60KiB.

new snapshot option¶

The difference between full trace and snapshot from the kernel’s perspective is that in full trace we don’t overwrite trace data that the user hasn’t collected yet (and indicated that by advancing aux_tail), whereas in snapshot mode we let the trace run and overwrite older data in the buffer so that whenever something interesting happens, we can stop it and grab a snapshot of what was going on around that interesting moment.

To select snapshot mode a new option has been added:

-S

Optionally it can be followed by the snapshot size e.g.

-S0x100000

The default snapshot size is the auxtrace mmap size. If neither auxtrace mmap size nor snapshot size is specified, then the default is 4MiB for privileged users (or if /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid < 0), 128KiB for unprivileged users. If an unprivileged user does not specify mmap pages, the mmap pages will be reduced as described in the new auxtrace mmap size option section below.

The snapshot size is displayed if the option -vv is used e.g.

Intel PT snapshot size: %zu

new auxtrace mmap size option¶

Intel PT buffer size is specified by an addition to the -m option e.g.

-m,16

selects a buffer size of 16 pages i.e. 64KiB.

Note that the existing functionality of -m is unchanged. The auxtrace mmap size is specified by the optional addition of a comma and the value.

The default auxtrace mmap size for Intel PT is 4MiB/page_size for privileged users (or if /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid < 0), 128KiB for unprivileged users. If an unprivileged user does not specify mmap pages, the mmap pages will be reduced from the default 512KiB/page_size to 256KiB/page_size, otherwise the user is likely to get an error as they exceed their mlock limit (Max locked memory as shown in /proc/self/limits). Note that perf does not count the first 512KiB (actually /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_mlock_kb minus 1 page) per cpu against the mlock limit so an unprivileged user is allowed 512KiB per cpu plus their mlock limit (which defaults to 64KiB but is not multiplied by the number of cpus).

In full-trace mode, powers of two are allowed for buffer size, with a minimum size of 2 pages. In snapshot mode or sampling mode, it is the same but the minimum size is 1 page.

The mmap size and auxtrace mmap size are displayed if the -vv option is used e.g.

mmap length 528384
auxtrace mmap length 4198400

Intel PT modes of operation¶

Intel PT can be used in 3 modes: full-trace mode sample mode snapshot mode

Full-trace mode traces continuously e.g.

perf record -e intel_pt//u uname

Sample mode attaches a Intel PT sample to other events e.g.

perf record --aux-sample -e intel_pt//u -e branch-misses:u

Snapshot mode captures the available data when a signal is sent or "snapshot" control command is issued. e.g. using a signal

perf record -v -e intel_pt//u -S ./loopy 1000000000 &
[1] 11435
kill -USR2 11435
Recording AUX area tracing snapshot

Note that the signal sent is SIGUSR2. Note that "Recording AUX area tracing snapshot" is displayed because the -v option is used.

The advantage of using "snapshot" control command is that the access is controlled by access to a FIFO e.g.

$ mkfifo perf.control
$ mkfifo perf.ack
$ cat perf.ack &
[1] 15235
$ sudo ~/bin/perf record --control fifo:perf.control,perf.ack -S -e intel_pt//u -- sleep 60 &
[2] 15243
$ ps -e | grep perf
15244 pts/1    00:00:00 perf
$ kill -USR2 15244
bash: kill: (15244) - Operation not permitted
$ echo snapshot > perf.control
ack

The 3 Intel PT modes of operation cannot be used together.

Buffer handling¶

There may be buffer limitations (i.e. single ToPa entry) which means that actual buffer sizes are limited to powers of 2 up to 4MiB (MAX_ORDER). In order to provide other sizes, and in particular an arbitrarily large size, multiple buffers are logically concatenated. However an interrupt must be used to switch between buffers. That has two potential problems: a) the interrupt may not be handled in time so that the current buffer becomes full and some trace data is lost. b) the interrupts may slow the system and affect the performance results.

If trace data is lost, the driver sets truncated in the PERF_RECORD_AUX event which the tools report as an error.

In full-trace mode, the driver waits for data to be copied out before allowing the (logical) buffer to wrap-around. If data is not copied out quickly enough, again truncated is set in the PERF_RECORD_AUX event. If the driver has to wait, the intel_pt event gets disabled. Because it is difficult to know when that happens, perf tools always re-enable the intel_pt event after copying out data.

Intel PT and build ids¶

By default "perf record" post-processes the event stream to find all build ids for executables for all addresses sampled. Deliberately, Intel PT is not decoded for that purpose (it would take too long). Instead the build ids for all executables encountered (due to mmap, comm or task events) are included in the perf.data file.

To see buildids included in the perf.data file use the command:

perf buildid-list

If the perf.data file contains Intel PT data, that is the same as:

perf buildid-list --with-hits

Snapshot mode and event disabling¶

In order to make a snapshot, the intel_pt event is disabled using an IOCTL, namely PERF_EVENT_IOC_DISABLE. However doing that can also disable the collection of side-band information. In order to prevent that, a dummy software event has been introduced that permits tracking events (like mmaps) to continue to be recorded while intel_pt is disabled. That is important to ensure there is complete side-band information to allow the decoding of subsequent snapshots.

A test has been created for that. To find the test:

perf test list
...
23: Test using a dummy software event to keep tracking

To run the test:

perf test 23
23: Test using a dummy software event to keep tracking     : Ok

perf record modes (nothing new here)¶

perf record essentially operates in one of three modes: per thread per cpu workload only

"per thread" mode is selected by -t or by --per-thread (with -p or -u or just a workload). "per cpu" is selected by -C or -a. "workload only" mode is selected by not using the other options but providing a command to run (i.e. the workload).

In per-thread mode an exact list of threads is traced. There is no inheritance. Each thread has its own event buffer.

In per-cpu mode all processes (or processes from the selected cgroup i.e. -G option, or processes selected with -p or -u) are traced. Each cpu has its own buffer. Inheritance is allowed.

In workload-only mode, the workload is traced but with per-cpu buffers. Inheritance is allowed. Note that you can now trace a workload in per-thread mode by using the --per-thread option.

Privileged vs non-privileged users¶

Unless /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid is set to -1, unprivileged users have memory limits imposed upon them. That affects what buffer sizes they can have as outlined above.

The v4.2 kernel introduced support for a context switch metadata event, PERF_RECORD_SWITCH, which allows unprivileged users to see when their processes are scheduled out and in, just not by whom, which is left for the PERF_RECORD_SWITCH_CPU_WIDE, that is only accessible in system wide context, which in turn requires CAP_PERFMON or CAP_SYS_ADMIN.

Please see the 45ac1403f564 ("perf: Add PERF_RECORD_SWITCH to indicate context switches") commit, that introduces these metadata events for further info.

When working with kernels < v4.2, the following considerations must be taken, as the sched:sched_switch tracepoints will be used to receive such information:

Unless /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid is set to -1, unprivileged users are not permitted to use tracepoints which means there is insufficient side-band information to decode Intel PT in per-cpu mode, and potentially workload-only mode too if the workload creates new processes.

Note also, that to use tracepoints, read-access to debugfs is required. So if debugfs is not mounted or the user does not have read-access, it will again not be possible to decode Intel PT in per-cpu mode.

sched_switch tracepoint¶

The sched_switch tracepoint is used to provide side-band data for Intel PT decoding in kernels where the PERF_RECORD_SWITCH metadata event isn’t available.

The sched_switch events are automatically added. e.g. the second event shown below:

$ perf record -vv -e intel_pt//u uname
------------------------------------------------------------
perf_event_attr:
type                             6
size                             112
config                           0x400
{ sample_period, sample_freq }   1
sample_type                      IP|TID|TIME|CPU|IDENTIFIER
read_format                      ID
disabled                         1
inherit                          1
exclude_kernel                   1
exclude_hv                       1
enable_on_exec                   1
sample_id_all                    1
------------------------------------------------------------
sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 0  group_fd -1  flags 0x8
sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 1  group_fd -1  flags 0x8
sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 2  group_fd -1  flags 0x8
sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 3  group_fd -1  flags 0x8
------------------------------------------------------------
perf_event_attr:
type                             2
size                             112
config                           0x108
{ sample_period, sample_freq }   1
sample_type                      IP|TID|TIME|CPU|PERIOD|RAW|IDENTIFIER
read_format                      ID
inherit                          1
sample_id_all                    1
exclude_guest                    1
------------------------------------------------------------
sys_perf_event_open: pid -1  cpu 0  group_fd -1  flags 0x8
sys_perf_event_open: pid -1  cpu 1  group_fd -1  flags 0x8
sys_perf_event_open: pid -1  cpu 2  group_fd -1  flags 0x8
sys_perf_event_open: pid -1  cpu 3  group_fd -1  flags 0x8
------------------------------------------------------------
perf_event_attr:
type                             1
size                             112
config                           0x9
{ sample_period, sample_freq }   1
sample_type                      IP|TID|TIME|IDENTIFIER
read_format                      ID
disabled                         1
inherit                          1
exclude_kernel                   1
exclude_hv                       1
mmap                             1
comm                             1
enable_on_exec                   1
task                             1
sample_id_all                    1
mmap2                            1
comm_exec                        1
------------------------------------------------------------
sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 0  group_fd -1  flags 0x8
sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 1  group_fd -1  flags 0x8
sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 2  group_fd -1  flags 0x8
sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104  cpu 3  group_fd -1  flags 0x8
mmap size 528384B
AUX area mmap length 4194304
perf event ring buffer mmapped per cpu
Synthesizing auxtrace information
Linux
[ perf record: Woken up 1 times to write data ]
[ perf record: Captured and wrote 0.042 MB perf.data ]

Note, the sched_switch event is only added if the user is permitted to use it and only in per-cpu mode.

Note also, the sched_switch event is only added if TSC packets are requested. That is because, in the absence of timing information, the sched_switch events cannot be matched against the Intel PT trace.

New --itrace option¶

Having no option is the same as

--itrace

which, in turn, is the same as

--itrace=cepwx

The letters are:

i        synthesize "instructions" events
b        synthesize "branches" events
x        synthesize "transactions" events
w        synthesize "ptwrite" events
p        synthesize "power" events
c        synthesize branches events (calls only)
r        synthesize branches events (returns only)
e        synthesize tracing error events
d        create a debug log
g        synthesize a call chain (use with i or x)
G        synthesize a call chain on existing event records
l        synthesize last branch entries (use with i or x)
L        synthesize last branch entries on existing event records
s        skip initial number of events
q        quicker (less detailed) decoding

"Instructions" events look like they were recorded by "perf record -e instructions".

"Branches" events look like they were recorded by "perf record -e branches". "c" and "r" can be combined to get calls and returns.

"Transactions" events correspond to the start or end of transactions. The flags field can be used in perf script to determine whether the event is a tranasaction start, commit or abort.

Note that "instructions", "branches" and "transactions" events depend on code flow packets which can be disabled by using the config term "branch=0". Refer to the config terms section above.

"ptwrite" events record the payload of the ptwrite instruction and whether "fup_on_ptw" was used. "ptwrite" events depend on PTWRITE packets which are recorded only if the "ptw" config term was used. Refer to the config terms section above. perf script "synth" field displays "ptwrite" information like this: "ip: 0 payload: 0x123456789abcdef0" where "ip" is 1 if "fup_on_ptw" was used.

"Power" events correspond to power event packets and CBR (core-to-bus ratio) packets. While CBR packets are always recorded when tracing is enabled, power event packets are recorded only if the "pwr_evt" config term was used. Refer to the config terms section above. The power events record information about C-state changes, whereas CBR is indicative of CPU frequency. perf script "event,synth" fields display information like this: cbr: cbr: 22 freq: 2189 MHz (200%) mwait: hints: 0x60 extensions: 0x1 pwre: hw: 0 cstate: 2 sub-cstate: 0 exstop: ip: 1 pwrx: deepest cstate: 2 last cstate: 2 wake reason: 0x4 Where: "cbr" includes the frequency and the percentage of maximum non-turbo "mwait" shows mwait hints and extensions "pwre" shows C-state transitions (to a C-state deeper than C0) and whether initiated by hardware "exstop" indicates execution stopped and whether the IP was recorded exactly, "pwrx" indicates return to C0 For more details refer to the Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer Manuals.

Error events show where the decoder lost the trace. Error events are quite important. Users must know if what they are seeing is a complete picture or not. The "e" option may be followed by flags which affect what errors will or will not be reported. Each flag must be preceded by either + or -. The flags supported by Intel PT are: -o Suppress overflow errors -l Suppress trace data lost errors For example, for errors but not overflow or data lost errors:

--itrace=e-o-l

The "d" option will cause the creation of a file "intel_pt.log" containing all decoded packets and instructions. Note that this option slows down the decoder and that the resulting file may be very large. The "d" option may be followed by flags which affect what debug messages will or will not be logged. Each flag must be preceded by either + or -. The flags support by Intel PT are: -a Suppress logging of perf events +a Log all perf events By default, logged perf events are filtered by any specified time ranges, but flag +a overrides that.

In addition, the period of the "instructions" event can be specified. e.g.

--itrace=i10us

sets the period to 10us i.e. one instruction sample is synthesized for each 10 microseconds of trace. Alternatives to "us" are "ms" (milliseconds), "ns" (nanoseconds), "t" (TSC ticks) or "i" (instructions).

"ms", "us" and "ns" are converted to TSC ticks.

The timing information included with Intel PT does not give the time of every instruction. Consequently, for the purpose of sampling, the decoder estimates the time since the last timing packet based on 1 tick per instruction. The time on the sample is not adjusted and reflects the last known value of TSC.

For Intel PT, the default period is 100us.

Setting it to a zero period means "as often as possible".

In the case of Intel PT that is the same as a period of 1 and a unit of instructions (i.e. --itrace=i1i).

Also the call chain size (default 16, max. 1024) for instructions or transactions events can be specified. e.g.

--itrace=ig32
--itrace=xg32

Also the number of last branch entries (default 64, max. 1024) for instructions or transactions events can be specified. e.g.

--itrace=il10
--itrace=xl10

Note that last branch entries are cleared for each sample, so there is no overlap from one sample to the next.

The G and L options are designed in particular for sample mode, and work much like g and l but add call chain and branch stack to the other selected events instead of synthesized events. For example, to record branch-misses events for ls and then add a call chain derived from the Intel PT trace:

perf record --aux-sample -e '{intel_pt//u,branch-misses:u}' -- ls
perf report --itrace=Ge

Although in fact G is a default for perf report, so that is the same as just:

perf report

One caveat with the G and L options is that they work poorly with "Large PEBS". Large PEBS means PEBS records will be accumulated by hardware and the written into the event buffer in one go. That reduces interrupts, but can give very late timestamps. Because the Intel PT trace is synchronized by timestamps, the PEBS events do not match the trace. Currently, Large PEBS is used only in certain circumstances: - hardware supports it - PEBS is used - event period is specified, instead of frequency - the sample type is limited to the following flags: PERF_SAMPLE_IP | PERF_SAMPLE_TID | PERF_SAMPLE_ADDR | PERF_SAMPLE_ID | PERF_SAMPLE_CPU | PERF_SAMPLE_STREAM_ID | PERF_SAMPLE_DATA_SRC | PERF_SAMPLE_IDENTIFIER | PERF_SAMPLE_TRANSACTION | PERF_SAMPLE_PHYS_ADDR | PERF_SAMPLE_REGS_INTR | PERF_SAMPLE_REGS_USER | PERF_SAMPLE_PERIOD (and sometimes) | PERF_SAMPLE_TIME Because Intel PT sample mode uses a different sample type to the list above, Large PEBS is not used with Intel PT sample mode. To avoid Large PEBS in other cases, avoid specifying the event period i.e. avoid the perf record -c option, --count option, or period config term.

To disable trace decoding entirely, use the option --no-itrace.

It is also possible to skip events generated (instructions, branches, transactions) at the beginning. This is useful to ignore initialization code.

--itrace=i0nss1000000

skips the first million instructions.

The q option changes the way the trace is decoded. The decoding is much faster but much less detailed. Specifically, with the q option, the decoder does not decode TNT packets, and does not walk object code, but gets the ip from FUP and TIP packets. The q option can be used with the b and i options but the period is not used. The q option decodes more quickly, but is useful only if the control flow of interest is represented or indicated by FUP, TIP, TIP.PGE, or TIP.PGD packets (refer below). However the q option could be used to find time ranges that could then be decoded fully using the --time option.

What will not be decoded with the (single) q option:

What will be decoded with the (single) q option:

Note the q option does not specify what events will be synthesized e.g. the p option must be used also to show power events.

Repeating the q option (double-q i.e. qq) results in even faster decoding and even less detail. The decoder decodes only extended PSB (PSB+) packets, getting the instruction pointer if there is a FUP packet within PSB+ (i.e. between PSB and PSBEND). Note PSB packets occur regularly in the trace based on the psb_period config term (refer config terms section). There will be a FUP packet if the PSB+ occurs while control flow is being traced.

What will not be decoded with the qq option:

What will be decoded with the qq option:

dump option¶

perf script has an option (-D) to "dump" the events i.e. display the binary data.

When -D is used, Intel PT packets are displayed. The packet decoder does not pay attention to PSB packets, but just decodes the bytes - so the packets seen by the actual decoder may not be identical in places where the data is corrupt. One example of that would be when the buffer-switching interrupt has been too slow, and the buffer has been filled completely. In that case, the last packet in the buffer might be truncated and immediately followed by a PSB as the trace continues in the next buffer.

To disable the display of Intel PT packets, combine the -D option with --no-itrace.