perf intel-pt: Do not try to queue auxtrace data on pipe

When it processes AUXTRACE_INFO, it calls to auxtrace_queue_data() to
collect AUXTRACE data first.  That won't work with pipe since it needs
lseek() to read the scattered aux data.

  $ perf record -o- -e intel_pt// true | perf report -i- --itrace=i100
  # To display the perf.data header info, please use --header/--header-only options.
  #
  0x4118 [0xa0]: failed to process type: 70
  Error:
  failed to process sample

For the pipe mode, it can handle the aux data as it gets.  But there's
no guarantee it can get the aux data in time.  So the following warning
will be shown at the beginning:

  WARNING: Intel PT with pipe mode is not recommended.
           The output cannot relied upon.  In particular,
           time stamps and the order of events may be incorrect.

Fixes: dbd134322e74f19d ("perf intel-pt: Add support for decoding AUX area samples")
Reviewed-by: Adrian Hunter <adrian.hunter@intel.com>
Reviewed-by: James Clark <james.clark@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>
Cc: Adrian Hunter <adrian.hunter@intel.com>
Cc: Ian Rogers <irogers@google.com>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Cc: Jiri Olsa <jolsa@kernel.org>
Cc: Leo Yan <leo.yan@linaro.org>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Stephane Eranian <eranian@google.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20230131023350.1903992-3-namhyung@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@redhat.com>

diff --git a/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-intel-pt.txt b/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-intel-pt.txt
index 7b6ccd2fa3bf1705ac458a9f3d51eaa549b58c69..9d485a9cdb1984f5d69635ee02a2664b8c2415b0 100644 (file)
--- a/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-intel-pt.txt
+++ b/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-intel-pt.txt
@@ -1821,6 +1821,36 @@ Can be compiled and traced:
  $
 
 
+Pipe mode
+---------
+Pipe mode is a problem for Intel PT and possibly other auxtrace users.
+It's not recommended to use a pipe as data output with Intel PT because
+of the following reason.
+
+Essentially the auxtrace buffers do not behave like the regular perf
+event buffers.  That is because the head and tail are updated by
+software, but in the auxtrace case the data is written by hardware.
+So the head and tail do not get updated as data is written.
+
+In the Intel PT case, the head and tail are updated only when the trace
+is disabled by software, for example:
+    - full-trace, system wide : when buffer passes watermark
+    - full-trace, not system-wide : when buffer passes watermark or
+                                    context switches
+    - snapshot mode : as above but also when a snapshot is made
+    - sample mode : as above but also when a sample is made
+
+That means finished-round ordering doesn't work.  An auxtrace buffer
+can turn up that has data that extends back in time, possibly to the
+very beginning of tracing.
+
+For a perf.data file, that problem is solved by going through the trace
+and queuing up the auxtrace buffers in advance.
+
+For pipe mode, the order of events and timestamps can presumably
+be messed up.
+
+
 EXAMPLE
 -------
 

diff --git a/tools/perf/util/auxtrace.c b/tools/perf/util/auxtrace.c
index c2e323cd7d496c737024c15b930756c80eb2b542..d4b04fa07a11903a6e28b40db8640720d5075369 100644 (file)
--- a/tools/perf/util/auxtrace.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/auxtrace.c
@@ -1133,6 +1133,9 @@ int auxtrace_queue_data(struct perf_session *session, bool samples, bool events)
        if (auxtrace__dont_decode(session))
                return 0;
 
+       if (perf_data__is_pipe(session->data))
+               return 0;
+
        if (!session->auxtrace || !session->auxtrace->queue_data)
                return -EINVAL;
 

diff --git a/tools/perf/util/intel-pt.c b/tools/perf/util/intel-pt.c
index 6d3921627e3323f7728cf484cf3576d8de0af152..b8b29756fbf1364661c326dc6449cf9afb4101a5 100644 (file)
--- a/tools/perf/util/intel-pt.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/intel-pt.c
@@ -4379,6 +4379,12 @@ int intel_pt_process_auxtrace_info(union perf_event *event,
 
        intel_pt_setup_pebs_events(pt);
 
+       if (perf_data__is_pipe(session->data)) {
+               pr_warning("WARNING: Intel PT with pipe mode is not recommended.\n"
+                          "         The output cannot relied upon.  In particular,\n"
+                          "         timestamps and the order of events may be incorrect.\n");
+       }
+
        if (pt->sampling_mode || list_empty(&session->auxtrace_index))
                err = auxtrace_queue_data(session, true, true);
        else