Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2016 12:16:10 -0300
From: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@kernel.org>
To: Wang Nan <wangnan0@huawei.com>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, pi3orama@163.com,
        Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@redhat.com>,
        Adrian Hunter <adrian.hunter@intel.com>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>, David Ahern <dsahern@gmail.com>,
        Jiri Olsa <jolsa@kernel.org>, Milian Wolff <milian.wolff@kdab.com>,
        Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>,
        Brendan Gregg <brendan.d.gregg@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] perf tools: Add sample types for bpf-output event
Message-ID: <20160401151610.GG7115@kernel.org>
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Em Fri, Apr 01, 2016 at 01:26:42PM +0000, Wang Nan escreveu:
> Before this patch we can see very large time in the events before
> bpf-output event. For example:
> 
>  # perf trace --ev bpf-output/no-inherit,name=evt/ \
>               --ev ./test_bpf_trace.c/map:channel.event=evt/ \
>               usleep 10

Thanks, applied and tested, now one idea that occurred to me to shorten
the above command line: automagically create a
"__perf_trace_bpf_stdout__" bpf-output event when a .c bpf event is
specified and no bpf-output is present, i.e. the following command line
would produce the same result as the one above:

  # trace --ev test_bpf_trace.c usleep 10

Well, it would have to build test_bpf_trace.c and see if it references
the equivalent of a "stdout", i.e. it expects a bpf-output event to be
present to send output to.

I.e. in this example we have a:

 struct bpf_map_def SEC("maps") channel = {

That later on you use to do "puts(msg)" like operations, i.e. to a
"stdout" of sorts:

 func(void *ctx, int type)
 {
	char output_str[] = "Raise a BPF event!";
	char err_str[] = "BAD %d\n";
	int err;

        err = perf_event_output(ctx, &channel, get_smp_processor_id(),
			        &output_str, sizeof(output_str));
	if (err)
		trace_printk(err_str, sizeof(err_str), err);
        return 1;
 }

Perhaps, to make all more familiar we could even define equivalents to
stdio.h functions like puts, printf, fputs, etc, that would send to this
bpf-output based "stdout" "channel", then the above would end up being:


 func(void *ctx, int type)
 {
        char err_str[] = "BAD %d\n";
        int err;

        err = puts("Raise a BPF event!");
        if (err)
                trace_printk(err_str, sizeof(err_str), err);
        return 1;
 }

This trace_printk() in turn could become error() (glibc's error.h header), i.e.
the error mechanism would use the equivalent to userland's "syslog", i.e.
trace_printk :-)

In general trying to make BPF C scriptlets fed via perf to be as compact as
possible, hiding all these details while allowing them to be used, if desired.

- Arnaldo