1Intel Processor Trace 2===================== 3 4Overview 5======== 6 7Intel Processor Trace (Intel PT) is an extension of Intel Architecture that 8collects information about software execution such as control flow, execution 9modes and timings and formats it into highly compressed binary packets. 10Technical details are documented in the Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures 11Software Developer Manuals, Chapter 36 Intel Processor Trace. 12 13Intel PT is first supported in Intel Core M and 5th generation Intel Core 14processors that are based on the Intel micro-architecture code name Broadwell. 15 16Trace data is collected by 'perf record' and stored within the perf.data file. 17See below for options to 'perf record'. 18 19Trace data must be 'decoded' which involves walking the object code and matching 20the trace data packets. For example a TNT packet only tells whether a 21conditional branch was taken or not taken, so to make use of that packet the 22decoder must know precisely which instruction was being executed. 23 24Decoding is done on-the-fly. The decoder outputs samples in the same format as 25samples output by perf hardware events, for example as though the "instructions" 26or "branches" events had been recorded. Presently 3 tools support this: 27'perf script', 'perf report' and 'perf inject'. See below for more information 28on using those tools. 29 30The main distinguishing feature of Intel PT is that the decoder can determine 31the exact flow of software execution. Intel PT can be used to understand why 32and how did software get to a certain point, or behave a certain way. The 33software does not have to be recompiled, so Intel PT works with debug or release 34builds, however the executed images are needed - which makes use in JIT-compiled 35environments, or with self-modified code, a challenge. Also symbols need to be 36provided to make sense of addresses. 37 38A limitation of Intel PT is that it produces huge amounts of trace data 39(hundreds of megabytes per second per core) which takes a long time to decode, 40for example two or three orders of magnitude longer than it took to collect. 41Another limitation is the performance impact of tracing, something that will 42vary depending on the use-case and architecture. 43 44 45Quickstart 46========== 47 48It is important to start small. That is because it is easy to capture vastly 49more data than can possibly be processed. 50 51The simplest thing to do with Intel PT is userspace profiling of small programs. 52Data is captured with 'perf record' e.g. to trace 'ls' userspace-only: 53 54 perf record -e intel_pt//u ls 55 56And profiled with 'perf report' e.g. 57 58 perf report 59 60To also trace kernel space presents a problem, namely kernel self-modifying 61code. A fairly good kernel image is available in /proc/kcore but to get an 62accurate image a copy of /proc/kcore needs to be made under the same conditions 63as the data capture. A script perf-with-kcore can do that, but beware that the 64script makes use of 'sudo' to copy /proc/kcore. If you have perf installed 65locally from the source tree you can do: 66 67 ~/libexec/perf-core/perf-with-kcore record pt_ls -e intel_pt// -- ls 68 69which will create a directory named 'pt_ls' and put the perf.data file and 70copies of /proc/kcore, /proc/kallsyms and /proc/modules into it. Then to use 71'perf report' becomes: 72 73 ~/libexec/perf-core/perf-with-kcore report pt_ls 74 75Because samples are synthesized after-the-fact, the sampling period can be 76selected for reporting. e.g. sample every microsecond 77 78 ~/libexec/perf-core/perf-with-kcore report pt_ls --itrace=i1usge 79 80See the sections below for more information about the --itrace option. 81 82Beware the smaller the period, the more samples that are produced, and the 83longer it takes to process them. 84 85Also note that the coarseness of Intel PT timing information will start to 86distort the statistical value of the sampling as the sampling period becomes 87smaller. 88 89To represent software control flow, "branches" samples are produced. By default 90a branch sample is synthesized for every single branch. To get an idea what 91data is available you can use the 'perf script' tool with no parameters, which 92will list all the samples. 93 94 perf record -e intel_pt//u ls 95 perf script 96 97An interesting field that is not printed by default is 'flags' which can be 98displayed as follows: 99 100 perf script -Fcomm,tid,pid,time,cpu,event,trace,ip,sym,dso,addr,symoff,flags 101 102The flags are "bcrosyiABEx" which stand for branch, call, return, conditional, 103system, asynchronous, interrupt, transaction abort, trace begin, trace end, and 104in transaction, respectively. 105 106While it is possible to create scripts to analyze the data, an alternative 107approach is available to export the data to a postgresql database. Refer to 108script export-to-postgresql.py for more details, and to script 109call-graph-from-postgresql.py for an example of using the database. 110 111As mentioned above, it is easy to capture too much data. One way to limit the 112data captured is to use 'snapshot' mode which is explained further below. 113Refer to 'new snapshot option' and 'Intel PT modes of operation' further below. 114 115Another problem that will be experienced is decoder errors. They can be caused 116by inability to access the executed image, self-modified or JIT-ed code, or the 117inability to match side-band information (such as context switches and mmaps) 118which results in the decoder not knowing what code was executed. 119 120There is also the problem of perf not being able to copy the data fast enough, 121resulting in data lost because the buffer was full. See 'Buffer handling' below 122for more details. 123 124 125perf record 126=========== 127 128new event 129--------- 130 131The Intel PT kernel driver creates a new PMU for Intel PT. PMU events are 132selected by providing the PMU name followed by the "config" separated by slashes. 133An enhancement has been made to allow default "config" e.g. the option 134 135 -e intel_pt// 136 137will use a default config value. Currently that is the same as 138 139 -e intel_pt/tsc,noretcomp=0/ 140 141which is the same as 142 143 -e intel_pt/tsc=1,noretcomp=0/ 144 145Note there are now new config terms - see section 'config terms' further below. 146 147The config terms are listed in /sys/devices/intel_pt/format. They are bit 148fields within the config member of the struct perf_event_attr which is 149passed to the kernel by the perf_event_open system call. They correspond to bit 150fields in the IA32_RTIT_CTL MSR. Here is a list of them and their definitions: 151 152 $ grep -H . /sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/format/* 153 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/format/cyc:config:1 154 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/format/cyc_thresh:config:19-22 155 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/format/mtc:config:9 156 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/format/mtc_period:config:14-17 157 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/format/noretcomp:config:11 158 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/format/psb_period:config:24-27 159 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/format/tsc:config:10 160 161Note that the default config must be overridden for each term i.e. 162 163 -e intel_pt/noretcomp=0/ 164 165is the same as: 166 167 -e intel_pt/tsc=1,noretcomp=0/ 168 169So, to disable TSC packets use: 170 171 -e intel_pt/tsc=0/ 172 173It is also possible to specify the config value explicitly: 174 175 -e intel_pt/config=0x400/ 176 177Note that, as with all events, the event is suffixed with event modifiers: 178 179 u userspace 180 k kernel 181 h hypervisor 182 G guest 183 H host 184 p precise ip 185 186'h', 'G' and 'H' are for virtualization which is not supported by Intel PT. 187'p' is also not relevant to Intel PT. So only options 'u' and 'k' are 188meaningful for Intel PT. 189 190perf_event_attr is displayed if the -vv option is used e.g. 191 192 ------------------------------------------------------------ 193 perf_event_attr: 194 type 6 195 size 112 196 config 0x400 197 { sample_period, sample_freq } 1 198 sample_type IP|TID|TIME|CPU|IDENTIFIER 199 read_format ID 200 disabled 1 201 inherit 1 202 exclude_kernel 1 203 exclude_hv 1 204 enable_on_exec 1 205 sample_id_all 1 206 ------------------------------------------------------------ 207 sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104 cpu 0 group_fd -1 flags 0x8 208 sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104 cpu 1 group_fd -1 flags 0x8 209 sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104 cpu 2 group_fd -1 flags 0x8 210 sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104 cpu 3 group_fd -1 flags 0x8 211 ------------------------------------------------------------ 212 213 214config terms 215------------ 216 217The June 2015 version of Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer 218Manuals, Chapter 36 Intel Processor Trace, defined new Intel PT features. 219Some of the features are reflect in new config terms. All the config terms are 220described below. 221 222tsc Always supported. Produces TSC timestamp packets to provide 223 timing information. In some cases it is possible to decode 224 without timing information, for example a per-thread context 225 that does not overlap executable memory maps. 226 227 The default config selects tsc (i.e. tsc=1). 228 229noretcomp Always supported. Disables "return compression" so a TIP packet 230 is produced when a function returns. Causes more packets to be 231 produced but might make decoding more reliable. 232 233 The default config does not select noretcomp (i.e. noretcomp=0). 234 235psb_period Allows the frequency of PSB packets to be specified. 236 237 The PSB packet is a synchronization packet that provides a 238 starting point for decoding or recovery from errors. 239 240 Support for psb_period is indicated by: 241 242 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/caps/psb_cyc 243 244 which contains "1" if the feature is supported and "0" 245 otherwise. 246 247 Valid values are given by: 248 249 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/caps/psb_periods 250 251 which contains a hexadecimal value, the bits of which represent 252 valid values e.g. bit 2 set means value 2 is valid. 253 254 The psb_period value is converted to the approximate number of 255 trace bytes between PSB packets as: 256 257 2 ^ (value + 11) 258 259 e.g. value 3 means 16KiB bytes between PSBs 260 261 If an invalid value is entered, the error message 262 will give a list of valid values e.g. 263 264 $ perf record -e intel_pt/psb_period=15/u uname 265 Invalid psb_period for intel_pt. Valid values are: 0-5 266 267 If MTC packets are selected, the default config selects a value 268 of 3 (i.e. psb_period=3) or the nearest lower value that is 269 supported (0 is always supported). Otherwise the default is 0. 270 271 If decoding is expected to be reliable and the buffer is large 272 then a large PSB period can be used. 273 274 Because a TSC packet is produced with PSB, the PSB period can 275 also affect the granularity to timing information in the absence 276 of MTC or CYC. 277 278mtc Produces MTC timing packets. 279 280 MTC packets provide finer grain timestamp information than TSC 281 packets. MTC packets record time using the hardware crystal 282 clock (CTC) which is related to TSC packets using a TMA packet. 283 284 Support for this feature is indicated by: 285 286 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/caps/mtc 287 288 which contains "1" if the feature is supported and 289 "0" otherwise. 290 291 The frequency of MTC packets can also be specified - see 292 mtc_period below. 293 294mtc_period Specifies how frequently MTC packets are produced - see mtc 295 above for how to determine if MTC packets are supported. 296 297 Valid values are given by: 298 299 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/caps/mtc_periods 300 301 which contains a hexadecimal value, the bits of which represent 302 valid values e.g. bit 2 set means value 2 is valid. 303 304 The mtc_period value is converted to the MTC frequency as: 305 306 CTC-frequency / (2 ^ value) 307 308 e.g. value 3 means one eighth of CTC-frequency 309 310 Where CTC is the hardware crystal clock, the frequency of which 311 can be related to TSC via values provided in cpuid leaf 0x15. 312 313 If an invalid value is entered, the error message 314 will give a list of valid values e.g. 315 316 $ perf record -e intel_pt/mtc_period=15/u uname 317 Invalid mtc_period for intel_pt. Valid values are: 0,3,6,9 318 319 The default value is 3 or the nearest lower value 320 that is supported (0 is always supported). 321 322cyc Produces CYC timing packets. 323 324 CYC packets provide even finer grain timestamp information than 325 MTC and TSC packets. A CYC packet contains the number of CPU 326 cycles since the last CYC packet. Unlike MTC and TSC packets, 327 CYC packets are only sent when another packet is also sent. 328 329 Support for this feature is indicated by: 330 331 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/caps/psb_cyc 332 333 which contains "1" if the feature is supported and 334 "0" otherwise. 335 336 The number of CYC packets produced can be reduced by specifying 337 a threshold - see cyc_thresh below. 338 339cyc_thresh Specifies how frequently CYC packets are produced - see cyc 340 above for how to determine if CYC packets are supported. 341 342 Valid cyc_thresh values are given by: 343 344 /sys/bus/event_source/devices/intel_pt/caps/cycle_thresholds 345 346 which contains a hexadecimal value, the bits of which represent 347 valid values e.g. bit 2 set means value 2 is valid. 348 349 The cyc_thresh value represents the minimum number of CPU cycles 350 that must have passed before a CYC packet can be sent. The 351 number of CPU cycles is: 352 353 2 ^ (value - 1) 354 355 e.g. value 4 means 8 CPU cycles must pass before a CYC packet 356 can be sent. Note a CYC packet is still only sent when another 357 packet is sent, not at, e.g. every 8 CPU cycles. 358 359 If an invalid value is entered, the error message 360 will give a list of valid values e.g. 361 362 $ perf record -e intel_pt/cyc,cyc_thresh=15/u uname 363 Invalid cyc_thresh for intel_pt. Valid values are: 0-12 364 365 CYC packets are not requested by default. 366 367 368new snapshot option 369------------------- 370 371The difference between full trace and snapshot from the kernel's perspective is 372that in full trace we don't overwrite trace data that the user hasn't collected 373yet (and indicated that by advancing aux_tail), whereas in snapshot mode we let 374the trace run and overwrite older data in the buffer so that whenever something 375interesting happens, we can stop it and grab a snapshot of what was going on 376around that interesting moment. 377 378To select snapshot mode a new option has been added: 379 380 -S 381 382Optionally it can be followed by the snapshot size e.g. 383 384 -S0x100000 385 386The default snapshot size is the auxtrace mmap size. If neither auxtrace mmap size 387nor snapshot size is specified, then the default is 4MiB for privileged users 388(or if /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid < 0), 128KiB for unprivileged users. 389If an unprivileged user does not specify mmap pages, the mmap pages will be 390reduced as described in the 'new auxtrace mmap size option' section below. 391 392The snapshot size is displayed if the option -vv is used e.g. 393 394 Intel PT snapshot size: %zu 395 396 397new auxtrace mmap size option 398--------------------------- 399 400Intel PT buffer size is specified by an addition to the -m option e.g. 401 402 -m,16 403 404selects a buffer size of 16 pages i.e. 64KiB. 405 406Note that the existing functionality of -m is unchanged. The auxtrace mmap size 407is specified by the optional addition of a comma and the value. 408 409The default auxtrace mmap size for Intel PT is 4MiB/page_size for privileged users 410(or if /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid < 0), 128KiB for unprivileged users. 411If an unprivileged user does not specify mmap pages, the mmap pages will be 412reduced from the default 512KiB/page_size to 256KiB/page_size, otherwise the 413user is likely to get an error as they exceed their mlock limit (Max locked 414memory as shown in /proc/self/limits). Note that perf does not count the first 415512KiB (actually /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_mlock_kb minus 1 page) per cpu 416against the mlock limit so an unprivileged user is allowed 512KiB per cpu plus 417their mlock limit (which defaults to 64KiB but is not multiplied by the number 418of cpus). 419 420In full-trace mode, powers of two are allowed for buffer size, with a minimum 421size of 2 pages. In snapshot mode, it is the same but the minimum size is 4221 page. 423 424The mmap size and auxtrace mmap size are displayed if the -vv option is used e.g. 425 426 mmap length 528384 427 auxtrace mmap length 4198400 428 429 430Intel PT modes of operation 431--------------------------- 432 433Intel PT can be used in 2 modes: 434 full-trace mode 435 snapshot mode 436 437Full-trace mode traces continuously e.g. 438 439 perf record -e intel_pt//u uname 440 441Snapshot mode captures the available data when a signal is sent e.g. 442 443 perf record -v -e intel_pt//u -S ./loopy 1000000000 & 444 [1] 11435 445 kill -USR2 11435 446 Recording AUX area tracing snapshot 447 448Note that the signal sent is SIGUSR2. 449Note that "Recording AUX area tracing snapshot" is displayed because the -v 450option is used. 451 452The 2 modes cannot be used together. 453 454 455Buffer handling 456--------------- 457 458There may be buffer limitations (i.e. single ToPa entry) which means that actual 459buffer sizes are limited to powers of 2 up to 4MiB (MAX_ORDER). In order to 460provide other sizes, and in particular an arbitrarily large size, multiple 461buffers are logically concatenated. However an interrupt must be used to switch 462between buffers. That has two potential problems: 463 a) the interrupt may not be handled in time so that the current buffer 464 becomes full and some trace data is lost. 465 b) the interrupts may slow the system and affect the performance 466 results. 467 468If trace data is lost, the driver sets 'truncated' in the PERF_RECORD_AUX event 469which the tools report as an error. 470 471In full-trace mode, the driver waits for data to be copied out before allowing 472the (logical) buffer to wrap-around. If data is not copied out quickly enough, 473again 'truncated' is set in the PERF_RECORD_AUX event. If the driver has to 474wait, the intel_pt event gets disabled. Because it is difficult to know when 475that happens, perf tools always re-enable the intel_pt event after copying out 476data. 477 478 479Intel PT and build ids 480---------------------- 481 482By default "perf record" post-processes the event stream to find all build ids 483for executables for all addresses sampled. Deliberately, Intel PT is not 484decoded for that purpose (it would take too long). Instead the build ids for 485all executables encountered (due to mmap, comm or task events) are included 486in the perf.data file. 487 488To see buildids included in the perf.data file use the command: 489 490 perf buildid-list 491 492If the perf.data file contains Intel PT data, that is the same as: 493 494 perf buildid-list --with-hits 495 496 497Snapshot mode and event disabling 498--------------------------------- 499 500In order to make a snapshot, the intel_pt event is disabled using an IOCTL, 501namely PERF_EVENT_IOC_DISABLE. However doing that can also disable the 502collection of side-band information. In order to prevent that, a dummy 503software event has been introduced that permits tracking events (like mmaps) to 504continue to be recorded while intel_pt is disabled. That is important to ensure 505there is complete side-band information to allow the decoding of subsequent 506snapshots. 507 508A test has been created for that. To find the test: 509 510 perf test list 511 ... 512 23: Test using a dummy software event to keep tracking 513 514To run the test: 515 516 perf test 23 517 23: Test using a dummy software event to keep tracking : Ok 518 519 520perf record modes (nothing new here) 521------------------------------------ 522 523perf record essentially operates in one of three modes: 524 per thread 525 per cpu 526 workload only 527 528"per thread" mode is selected by -t or by --per-thread (with -p or -u or just a 529workload). 530"per cpu" is selected by -C or -a. 531"workload only" mode is selected by not using the other options but providing a 532command to run (i.e. the workload). 533 534In per-thread mode an exact list of threads is traced. There is no inheritance. 535Each thread has its own event buffer. 536 537In per-cpu mode all processes (or processes from the selected cgroup i.e. -G 538option, or processes selected with -p or -u) are traced. Each cpu has its own 539buffer. Inheritance is allowed. 540 541In workload-only mode, the workload is traced but with per-cpu buffers. 542Inheritance is allowed. Note that you can now trace a workload in per-thread 543mode by using the --per-thread option. 544 545 546Privileged vs non-privileged users 547---------------------------------- 548 549Unless /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid is set to -1, unprivileged users 550have memory limits imposed upon them. That affects what buffer sizes they can 551have as outlined above. 552 553Unless /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid is set to -1, unprivileged users are 554not permitted to use tracepoints which means there is insufficient side-band 555information to decode Intel PT in per-cpu mode, and potentially workload-only 556mode too if the workload creates new processes. 557 558Note also, that to use tracepoints, read-access to debugfs is required. So if 559debugfs is not mounted or the user does not have read-access, it will again not 560be possible to decode Intel PT in per-cpu mode. 561 562 563sched_switch tracepoint 564----------------------- 565 566The sched_switch tracepoint is used to provide side-band data for Intel PT 567decoding. sched_switch events are automatically added. e.g. the second event 568shown below 569 570 $ perf record -vv -e intel_pt//u uname 571 ------------------------------------------------------------ 572 perf_event_attr: 573 type 6 574 size 112 575 config 0x400 576 { sample_period, sample_freq } 1 577 sample_type IP|TID|TIME|CPU|IDENTIFIER 578 read_format ID 579 disabled 1 580 inherit 1 581 exclude_kernel 1 582 exclude_hv 1 583 enable_on_exec 1 584 sample_id_all 1 585 ------------------------------------------------------------ 586 sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104 cpu 0 group_fd -1 flags 0x8 587 sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104 cpu 1 group_fd -1 flags 0x8 588 sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104 cpu 2 group_fd -1 flags 0x8 589 sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104 cpu 3 group_fd -1 flags 0x8 590 ------------------------------------------------------------ 591 perf_event_attr: 592 type 2 593 size 112 594 config 0x108 595 { sample_period, sample_freq } 1 596 sample_type IP|TID|TIME|CPU|PERIOD|RAW|IDENTIFIER 597 read_format ID 598 inherit 1 599 sample_id_all 1 600 exclude_guest 1 601 ------------------------------------------------------------ 602 sys_perf_event_open: pid -1 cpu 0 group_fd -1 flags 0x8 603 sys_perf_event_open: pid -1 cpu 1 group_fd -1 flags 0x8 604 sys_perf_event_open: pid -1 cpu 2 group_fd -1 flags 0x8 605 sys_perf_event_open: pid -1 cpu 3 group_fd -1 flags 0x8 606 ------------------------------------------------------------ 607 perf_event_attr: 608 type 1 609 size 112 610 config 0x9 611 { sample_period, sample_freq } 1 612 sample_type IP|TID|TIME|IDENTIFIER 613 read_format ID 614 disabled 1 615 inherit 1 616 exclude_kernel 1 617 exclude_hv 1 618 mmap 1 619 comm 1 620 enable_on_exec 1 621 task 1 622 sample_id_all 1 623 mmap2 1 624 comm_exec 1 625 ------------------------------------------------------------ 626 sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104 cpu 0 group_fd -1 flags 0x8 627 sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104 cpu 1 group_fd -1 flags 0x8 628 sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104 cpu 2 group_fd -1 flags 0x8 629 sys_perf_event_open: pid 31104 cpu 3 group_fd -1 flags 0x8 630 mmap size 528384B 631 AUX area mmap length 4194304 632 perf event ring buffer mmapped per cpu 633 Synthesizing auxtrace information 634 Linux 635 [ perf record: Woken up 1 times to write data ] 636 [ perf record: Captured and wrote 0.042 MB perf.data ] 637 638Note, the sched_switch event is only added if the user is permitted to use it 639and only in per-cpu mode. 640 641Note also, the sched_switch event is only added if TSC packets are requested. 642That is because, in the absence of timing information, the sched_switch events 643cannot be matched against the Intel PT trace. 644 645 646perf script 647=========== 648 649By default, perf script will decode trace data found in the perf.data file. 650This can be further controlled by new option --itrace. 651 652 653New --itrace option 654------------------- 655 656Having no option is the same as 657 658 --itrace 659 660which, in turn, is the same as 661 662 --itrace=ibxe 663 664The letters are: 665 666 i synthesize "instructions" events 667 b synthesize "branches" events 668 x synthesize "transactions" events 669 c synthesize branches events (calls only) 670 r synthesize branches events (returns only) 671 e synthesize tracing error events 672 d create a debug log 673 g synthesize a call chain (use with i or x) 674 l synthesize last branch entries (use with i or x) 675 676"Instructions" events look like they were recorded by "perf record -e 677instructions". 678 679"Branches" events look like they were recorded by "perf record -e branches". "c" 680and "r" can be combined to get calls and returns. 681 682"Transactions" events correspond to the start or end of transactions. The 683'flags' field can be used in perf script to determine whether the event is a 684tranasaction start, commit or abort. 685 686Error events are new. They show where the decoder lost the trace. Error events 687are quite important. Users must know if what they are seeing is a complete 688picture or not. 689 690The "d" option will cause the creation of a file "intel_pt.log" containing all 691decoded packets and instructions. Note that this option slows down the decoder 692and that the resulting file may be very large. 693 694In addition, the period of the "instructions" event can be specified. e.g. 695 696 --itrace=i10us 697 698sets the period to 10us i.e. one instruction sample is synthesized for each 10 699microseconds of trace. Alternatives to "us" are "ms" (milliseconds), 700"ns" (nanoseconds), "t" (TSC ticks) or "i" (instructions). 701 702"ms", "us" and "ns" are converted to TSC ticks. 703 704The timing information included with Intel PT does not give the time of every 705instruction. Consequently, for the purpose of sampling, the decoder estimates 706the time since the last timing packet based on 1 tick per instruction. The time 707on the sample is *not* adjusted and reflects the last known value of TSC. 708 709For Intel PT, the default period is 100us. 710 711Setting it to a zero period means "as often as possible". 712 713In the case of Intel PT that is the same as a period of 1 and a unit of 714'instructions' (i.e. --itrace=i1i). 715 716Also the call chain size (default 16, max. 1024) for instructions or 717transactions events can be specified. e.g. 718 719 --itrace=ig32 720 --itrace=xg32 721 722Also the number of last branch entries (default 64, max. 1024) for instructions or 723transactions events can be specified. e.g. 724 725 --itrace=il10 726 --itrace=xl10 727 728Note that last branch entries are cleared for each sample, so there is no overlap 729from one sample to the next. 730 731To disable trace decoding entirely, use the option --no-itrace. 732 733 734dump option 735----------- 736 737perf script has an option (-D) to "dump" the events i.e. display the binary 738data. 739 740When -D is used, Intel PT packets are displayed. The packet decoder does not 741pay attention to PSB packets, but just decodes the bytes - so the packets seen 742by the actual decoder may not be identical in places where the data is corrupt. 743One example of that would be when the buffer-switching interrupt has been too 744slow, and the buffer has been filled completely. In that case, the last packet 745in the buffer might be truncated and immediately followed by a PSB as the trace 746continues in the next buffer. 747 748To disable the display of Intel PT packets, combine the -D option with 749--no-itrace. 750 751 752perf report 753=========== 754 755By default, perf report will decode trace data found in the perf.data file. 756This can be further controlled by new option --itrace exactly the same as 757perf script, with the exception that the default is --itrace=igxe. 758 759 760perf inject 761=========== 762 763perf inject also accepts the --itrace option in which case tracing data is 764removed and replaced with the synthesized events. e.g. 765 766 perf inject --itrace -i perf.data -o perf.data.new 767 768Below is an example of using Intel PT with autofdo. It requires autofdo 769(https://github.com/google/autofdo) and gcc version 5. The bubble 770sort example is from the AutoFDO tutorial (https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/AutoFDO/Tutorial) 771amended to take the number of elements as a parameter. 772 773 $ gcc-5 -O3 sort.c -o sort_optimized 774 $ ./sort_optimized 30000 775 Bubble sorting array of 30000 elements 776 2254 ms 777 778 $ cat ~/.perfconfig 779 [intel-pt] 780 mispred-all 781 782 $ perf record -e intel_pt//u ./sort 3000 783 Bubble sorting array of 3000 elements 784 58 ms 785 [ perf record: Woken up 2 times to write data ] 786 [ perf record: Captured and wrote 3.939 MB perf.data ] 787 $ perf inject -i perf.data -o inj --itrace=i100usle --strip 788 $ ./create_gcov --binary=./sort --profile=inj --gcov=sort.gcov -gcov_version=1 789 $ gcc-5 -O3 -fauto-profile=sort.gcov sort.c -o sort_autofdo 790 $ ./sort_autofdo 30000 791 Bubble sorting array of 30000 elements 792 2155 ms 793 794Note there is currently no advantage to using Intel PT instead of LBR, but 795that may change in the future if greater use is made of the data. 796