The timerlat tracer aims to help the preemptive kernel developers to
found souces of wakeup latencies of real-time threads. Like cyclictest,
the tracer sets a periodic timer that wakes up a thread. The thread then
computes a *wakeup latency* value as the difference between the *current
time* and the *absolute time* that the timer was set to expire. The main
goal of timerlat is tracing in such a way to help kernel developers.
Usage
Write the ASCII text "timerlat" into the current_tracer file of the
tracing system (generally mounted at /sys/kernel/tracing).
For example:
[root@f32 ~]# cd /sys/kernel/tracing/
[root@f32 tracing]# echo timerlat > current_tracer
It is possible to follow the trace by reading the trace trace file:
[root@f32 tracing]# cat trace
# tracer: timerlat
#
# _-----=> irqs-off
# / _----=> need-resched
# | / _---=> hardirq/softirq
# || / _--=> preempt-depth
# || /
# |||| ACTIVATION
# TASK-PID CPU# |||| TIMESTAMP ID CONTEXT LATENCY
# | | | |||| | | | |
<idle>-0 [000] d.h1 54.029328: #1 context irq timer_latency 932 ns
<...>-867 [000] .... 54.029339: #1 context thread timer_latency 11700 ns
<idle>-0 [001] dNh1 54.029346: #1 context irq timer_latency 2833 ns
<...>-868 [001] .... 54.029353: #1 context thread timer_latency 9820 ns
<idle>-0 [000] d.h1 54.030328: #2 context irq timer_latency 769 ns
<...>-867 [000] .... 54.030330: #2 context thread timer_latency 3070 ns
<idle>-0 [001] d.h1 54.030344: #2 context irq timer_latency 935 ns
<...>-868 [001] .... 54.030347: #2 context thread timer_latency 4351 ns
The tracer creates a per-cpu kernel thread with real-time priority that
prints two lines at every activation. The first is the *timer latency*
observed at the *hardirq* context before the activation of the thread.
The second is the *timer latency* observed by the thread, which is the
same level that cyclictest reports. The ACTIVATION ID field
serves to relate the *irq* execution to its respective *thread* execution.
The irq/thread splitting is important to clarify at which context
the unexpected high value is coming from. The *irq* context can be
delayed by hardware related actions, such as SMIs, NMIs, IRQs
or by a thread masking interrupts. Once the timer happens, the delay
can also be influenced by blocking caused by threads. For example, by
postponing the scheduler execution via preempt_disable(), by the
scheduler execution, or by masking interrupts. Threads can
also be delayed by the interference from other threads and IRQs.
The timerlat can also take advantage of the osnoise: traceevents.
For example:
[root@f32 ~]# cd /sys/kernel/tracing/
[root@f32 tracing]# echo timerlat > current_tracer
[root@f32 tracing]# echo osnoise > set_event
[root@f32 tracing]# echo 25 > osnoise/stop_tracing_total_us
[root@f32 tracing]# tail -10 trace
cc1-87882 [005] d..h... 548.771078: #402268 context irq timer_latency 1585 ns
cc1-87882 [005] dNLh1.. 548.771082: irq_noise: local_timer:236 start 548.771077442 duration 4597 ns
cc1-87882 [005] dNLh2.. 548.771083: irq_noise: reschedule:253 start 548.771083017 duration 56 ns
cc1-87882 [005] dNLh2.. 548.771086: irq_noise: call_function_single:251 start 548.771083811 duration 2048 ns
cc1-87882 [005] dNLh2.. 548.771088: irq_noise: call_function_single:251 start 548.771086814 duration 1495 ns
cc1-87882 [005] dNLh2.. 548.771091: irq_noise: call_function_single:251 start 548.771089194 duration 1558 ns
cc1-87882 [005] dNLh2.. 548.771094: irq_noise: call_function_single:251 start 548.771091719 duration 1932 ns
cc1-87882 [005] dNLh2.. 548.771096: irq_noise: call_function_single:251 start 548.771094696 duration 1050 ns
cc1-87882 [005] d...3.. 548.771101: thread_noise: cc1:87882 start 548.771078243 duration 10909 ns
timerlat/5-1035 [005] ....... 548.771103: #402268 context thread timer_latency 25960 ns
For further information see: Documentation/trace/timerlat-tracer.rst
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/71f18efc013e1194bcaea1e54db957de2b19ba62.1624372313.git.bristot@redhat.com
Cc: Phil Auld <pauld@redhat.com>
Cc: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@linutronix.de>
Cc: Kate Carcia <kcarcia@redhat.com>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: Alexandre Chartre <alexandre.chartre@oracle.com>
Cc: Clark Willaims <williams@redhat.com>
Cc: John Kacur <jkacur@redhat.com>
Cc: Juri Lelli <juri.lelli@redhat.com>
Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>
Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
Cc: x86@kernel.org
Cc: linux-doc@vger.kernel.org
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Daniel Bristot de Oliveira <bristot@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt (VMware) <rostedt@goodmis.org>
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