Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1756052AbaKSSMT (ORCPT ); Wed, 19 Nov 2014 13:12:19 -0500 Received: from foss-mx-na.foss.arm.com ([217.140.108.86]:33919 "EHLO foss-mx-na.foss.arm.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755100AbaKSSMS (ORCPT ); Wed, 19 Nov 2014 13:12:18 -0500 Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 18:11:58 +0000 From: Will Deacon To: Daniel Thompson Cc: Russell King , "linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org" , "linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org" , Peter Zijlstra , Paul Mackerras , Ingo Molnar , Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo , "patches@linaro.org" , "linaro-kernel@lists.linaro.org" , John Stultz , Sumit Semwal Subject: Re: [PATCH] arm: perf: Prevent wraparound during overflow Message-ID: <20141119181158.GJ15985@arm.com> References: <1416412346-8759-1-git-send-email-daniel.thompson@linaro.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1416412346-8759-1-git-send-email-daniel.thompson@linaro.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.23 (2014-03-12) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 03:52:26PM +0000, Daniel Thompson wrote: > If the overflow threshold for a counter is set above or near the > 0xffffffff boundary then the kernel may lose track of the overflow > causing only events that occur *after* the overflow to be recorded. > Specifically the problem occurs when the value of the performance counter > overtakes its original programmed value due to wrap around. > > Typical solutions to this problem are either to avoid programming in > values likely to be overtaken or to treat the overflow bit as the 33rd > bit of the counter. > > Its somewhat fiddly to refactor the code to correctly handle the 33rd bit > during irqsave sections (context switches for example) so instead we take > the simpler approach of avoiding values likely to be overtaken. > > We set the limit to half of max_period because this matches the limit > imposed in __hw_perf_event_init(). This causes a doubling of the interrupt > rate for large threshold values, however even with a very fast counter > ticking at 4GHz the interrupt rate would only be ~1Hz. > > Signed-off-by: Daniel Thompson > --- > > Notes: > There is similar code in the arm64 tree which retains the assumptions of > the original arm code regarding 32-bit wide performance counters. If > this patch doesn't get beaten up during review I'll also share a similar > patch for arm64. > > > arch/arm/kernel/perf_event.c | 10 ++++++++-- > 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) > > diff --git a/arch/arm/kernel/perf_event.c b/arch/arm/kernel/perf_event.c > index 266cba46db3e..b50a770f8c99 100644 > --- a/arch/arm/kernel/perf_event.c > +++ b/arch/arm/kernel/perf_event.c > @@ -115,8 +115,14 @@ int armpmu_event_set_period(struct perf_event *event) > ret = 1; > } > > - if (left > (s64)armpmu->max_period) > - left = armpmu->max_period; > + /* > + * Limit the maximum period to prevent the counter value > + * from overtaking the one we are about to program. In > + * effect we are reducing max_period to account for > + * interrupt latency (and we are being very conservative). > + */ > + if (left > (s64)(armpmu->max_period >> 1)) > + left = armpmu->max_period >> 1; The s64 cast looks off here, can we just drop it entirely? Will -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/