[v1,2/4] perf: Allow adding fixed random jitter to the alternate sampling period

Commit Message

Deepak Surti Nov. 7, 2024, 4:07 p.m. UTC

From: Ben Gainey <[e-mail]>

This change modifies the core perf overflow handler, adding some small
random jitter to each sample period whenever an event switches between the
two alternate sample periods. A new flag is added to perf_event_attr to
opt into this behaviour.

This change follows the discussion in [1], where it is recognized that it
may be possible for certain patterns of execution to end up with biased
results.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-perf-users/Zc24eLqZycmIg3d2@tassilo/

Signed-off-by: Ben Gainey <[e-mail]>
---
 include/uapi/linux/perf_event.h | 10 +++++++++-
 kernel/events/core.c            | 10 +++++++++-
 2 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

Patch

diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/perf_event.h b/include/uapi/linux/perf_event.h
index bedae424ba36..16dbeea5803e 100644
--- a/include/uapi/linux/perf_event.h
+++ b/include/uapi/linux/perf_event.h
@@ -461,7 +461,15 @@  struct perf_event_attr {
 				inherit_thread :  1, /* children only inherit if cloned with CLONE_THREAD */
 				remove_on_exec :  1, /* event is removed from task on exec */
 				sigtrap        :  1, /* send synchronous SIGTRAP on event */
-				__reserved_1   : 26;
+				/*
+				 * jitter_alternate_period:
+				 *
+				 * add a limited amount of jitter on each
+				 * alternate period, where the jitter is between
+				 * [0, (2<<jitter_alternate_period) - 1]
+				 */
+				jitter_alternate_period : 3,
+				__reserved_1   : 23;
 
 	union {
 		__u32		wakeup_events;	  /* wakeup every n events */
diff --git a/kernel/events/core.c b/kernel/events/core.c
index 579b04af70a2..14dfac6f13dd 100644
--- a/kernel/events/core.c
+++ b/kernel/events/core.c
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ 
 #include <linux/idr.h>
 #include <linux/file.h>
 #include <linux/poll.h>
+#include <linux/random.h>
 #include <linux/slab.h>
 #include <linux/hash.h>
 #include <linux/tick.h>
@@ -9831,7 +9832,11 @@  static int __perf_event_overflow(struct perf_event *event,
 	if (event->attr.alternative_sample_period) {
 		bool using_alt = hwc->using_alternative_sample_period;
 		u64 sample_period = (using_alt ? event->attr.sample_period
-					       : event->attr.alternative_sample_period);
+					       : event->attr.alternative_sample_period)
+				  + (event->attr.jitter_alternate_period
+					? get_random_u32_below(2 <<
+								event->attr.jitter_alternate_period)
+					: 0);
 
 		hwc->sample_period = sample_period;
 		hwc->using_alternative_sample_period = !using_alt;
@@ -12744,6 +12749,9 @@  SYSCALL_DEFINE5(perf_event_open,
 		}
 	}
 
+	if (attr.jitter_alternate_period && !attr.alternative_sample_period)
+		return -EINVAL;
+
 	/* Only privileged users can get physical addresses */
 	if ((attr.sample_type & PERF_SAMPLE_PHYS_ADDR)) {
 		err = perf_allow_kernel(&attr);