From patchwork Fri Aug 16 12:59:34 2019 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Patchwork-Submitter: Raphael Gault X-Patchwork-Id: 11097631 Return-Path: Received: from mail.wl.linuxfoundation.org (pdx-wl-mail.web.codeaurora.org [172.30.200.125]) by pdx-korg-patchwork-2.web.codeaurora.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C064F1398 for ; Fri, 16 Aug 2019 13:01:27 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail.wl.linuxfoundation.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail.wl.linuxfoundation.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AD60128995 for ; Fri, 16 Aug 2019 13:01:27 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail.wl.linuxfoundation.org (Postfix, from userid 486) id 9E75E28994; Fri, 16 Aug 2019 13:01:27 +0000 (UTC) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.3.1 (2010-03-16) on pdx-wl-mail.web.codeaurora.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-5.2 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,DKIM_SIGNED, DKIM_VALID,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_MED autolearn=ham version=3.3.1 Received: from bombadil.infradead.org (bombadil.infradead.org [198.137.202.133]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.wl.linuxfoundation.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 3B9C728994 for ; Fri, 16 Aug 2019 13:01:27 +0000 (UTC) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=lists.infradead.org; s=bombadil.20170209; h=Sender: Content-Transfer-Encoding:Content-Type:MIME-Version:Cc:List-Subscribe: List-Help:List-Post:List-Archive:List-Unsubscribe:List-Id:References: In-Reply-To:Message-Id:Date:Subject:To:From:Reply-To:Content-ID: Content-Description:Resent-Date:Resent-From:Resent-Sender:Resent-To:Resent-Cc :Resent-Message-ID:List-Owner; bh=1G8bYIlvoOiXBDLH9o+YrLyzBVesvgeTK9f1QVstBbk=; b=nwlYft0APOXZhBYNWG/dy2V2Nw gNuX0B5BkR67LlR1V+Zt0tsOOOtftTM6fmSF8UCrSXRbGe/jGqAiYJTpBdm5SqXDsGbexSHVynXxj cDCYtlXOTV3lnhDS+Wf9TH7C/pEo8Nt/tH4WehBv+ydSM0SdDzT1efRgBnsajYkFbPBqUFeLR7+DG ViTzUUlRSojzF2nFonhc1ILKw+onapwJ9hQZ8YW4OkCC9qmuHykEilb9AXriX2xXxs4y6JAKmf2IF j7mobdT7Kfr6NC3es3+5rBDSiNqtMQhwUtZhAFxYJ5mjdZaNObR4sKqbpVJ+GbFDnX68lknclXAl+ zObCuMgQ==; Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=bombadil.infradead.org) by bombadil.infradead.org with esmtp (Exim 4.92 #3 (Red Hat Linux)) id 1hybrC-0007DX-4q; Fri, 16 Aug 2019 13:01:26 +0000 Received: from foss.arm.com ([217.140.110.172]) by bombadil.infradead.org with esmtp (Exim 4.92 #3 (Red Hat Linux)) id 1hybph-0004j8-Rx for linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org; Fri, 16 Aug 2019 12:59:55 +0000 Received: from usa-sjc-imap-foss1.foss.arm.com (unknown [10.121.207.14]) by usa-sjc-mx-foss1.foss.arm.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 06F19344; Fri, 16 Aug 2019 05:59:53 -0700 (PDT) Received: from e121650-lin.cambridge.arm.com (e121650-lin.cambridge.arm.com [10.1.196.120]) by usa-sjc-imap-foss1.foss.arm.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id A84833F706; Fri, 16 Aug 2019 05:59:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Raphael Gault To: linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: [PATCH v3 5/5] Documentation: arm64: Document PMU counters access from userspace Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2019 13:59:34 +0100 Message-Id: <20190816125934.18509-6-raphael.gault@arm.com> X-Mailer: git-send-email 2.17.1 In-Reply-To: <20190816125934.18509-1-raphael.gault@arm.com> References: <20190816125934.18509-1-raphael.gault@arm.com> X-CRM114-Version: 20100106-BlameMichelson ( TRE 0.8.0 (BSD) ) MR-646709E3 X-CRM114-CacheID: sfid-20190816_055954_253202_69DBA658 X-CRM114-Status: GOOD ( 13.72 ) X-BeenThere: linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: mark.rutland@arm.com, raph.gault+kdev@gmail.com, peterz@infradead.org, catalin.marinas@arm.com, will.deacon@arm.com, acme@kernel.org, Raphael Gault , mingo@redhat.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: "linux-arm-kernel" Errors-To: linux-arm-kernel-bounces+patchwork-linux-arm=patchwork.kernel.org@lists.infradead.org X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV using ClamSMTP Add a documentation file to describe the access to the pmu hardware counters from userspace Signed-off-by: Raphael Gault --- .../arm64/pmu_counter_user_access.txt | 42 +++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 42 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Documentation/arm64/pmu_counter_user_access.txt diff --git a/Documentation/arm64/pmu_counter_user_access.txt b/Documentation/arm64/pmu_counter_user_access.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..6788b1107381 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/arm64/pmu_counter_user_access.txt @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +Access to PMU hardware counter from userspace +============================================= + +Overview +-------- +The perf user-space tool relies on the PMU to monitor events. It offers an +abstraction layer over the hardware counters since the underlying +implementation is cpu-dependent. +Arm64 allows userspace tools to have access to the registers storing the +hardware counters' values directly. + +This targets specifically self-monitoring tasks in order to reduce the overhead +by directly accessing the registers without having to go through the kernel. + +How-to +------ +The focus is set on the armv8 pmuv3 which makes sure that the access to the pmu +registers is enable and that the userspace have access to the relevent +information in order to use them. + +In order to have access to the hardware counter it is necessary to open the event +using the perf tool interface: the sys_perf_event_open syscall returns a fd which +can subsequently be used with the mmap syscall in order to retrieve a page of memory +containing information about the event. +The PMU driver uses this page to expose to the user the hardware counter's +index. Using this index enables the user to access the PMU registers using the +`mrs` instruction. + +Have a look `at tools/perf/arch/arm64/tests/user-events.c` for an example. It can be +run using the perf tool to check that the access to the registers works +correctly from userspace: + +./perf test -v + +About chained events +-------------------- +When the user requests for an event to be counted on 64 bits, two hardware +counters are used and need to be combined to retrieve the correct value: + +val = read_counter(idx); +if ((event.attr.config1 & 0x1)) + val = (val << 32) | read_counter(idx - 1);