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From:   Ian Rogers <irogers@google.com>
Date:   Fri, 28 Jul 2023 10:29:21 -0700
Message-ID: <CAP-5=fVJ_RL9Md92R4nWBKvZcF9iovL07-=dJ7bqN3LWwufVGw@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH v2 0/3] report task state in symbolic chars from sched tracepoint
To:     Ze Gao <zegao2021@gmail.com>
Cc:     Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>,
        Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>,
        Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>,
        Adrian Hunter <adrian.hunter@intel.com>,
        Alexander Shishkin <alexander.shishkin@linux.intel.com>,
        Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@kernel.org>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>, Jiri Olsa <jolsa@kernel.org>,
        Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>,
        Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org>,
        linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-perf-users@vger.kernel.org,
        linux-trace-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
        linux-trace-devel@vger.kernel.org, Ze Gao <zegao@tencent.com>
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On Wed, Jul 26, 2023 at 5:16=E2=80=AFAM Ze Gao <zegao2021@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> This is the 2nd attempt to fix the report task state issue in sched
> tracepint, here is the first version:
>
> https://lore.kernel.org/linux-trace-kernel/20230725072254.32045-1-zegao@t=
encent.com
>
> Against v1, add a new var to report task state in symbolic char instead
> of replacing the old one and to not to break anything.
>
> --
>
> In the status quo, we should see three different outcomes of the reported
> sched-out task state from perf-script, perf-sched-timehist, and Tp_printk
> of tracepoint sched_switch.  And it's not hard to figure out that the
> former two are built upon the third one, and the reason why we see this
> inconsistency is that the former two does not catch up with the internal
> change of reported task state definitions as the kernel evolves.
>
> IMHO, exporting internal representations of task state in the tracepoint
> sched_switch is not a good practice and not encouraged at all, which can
> easily break userspace tools that relies on it. Especially when tracepoin=
ts
> are massively used in many observability tools nowadays due to its stable
> nature, which makes them no longer used for debug only purpose and we
> should be careful to decide what ought to be reported to userspace and wh=
at
> ought not.
>
> Therefore, to fix the issues mentioned above for good, instead of choosin=
g
> I proposed to add a new variable to report task state in sched_switch wit=
h
> a symbolic character along with the old hardcoded value, and save the
> further processing of userspace tools and spare them from knowing
> implementation details in the kernel.
>
> After this patch seires, we report 'RSDTtXZPI' the same as in procfs, plu=
s
> a 'p' which denotes PREEMP_ACTIVE and is used for sched_switch tracepoint=
 only.
>
> Reviews welcome!

Thanks Ze,

I think this is worthwhile cleanup and makes the code overall simpler.
I don't know if others have strong opinions, I don't often work in
this code, but I think the patches are worth landing this.

Acked-by: Ian Rogers <irogers@google.com>

Thanks,
Ian

> Regards,
>
> Ze
>
> Ze Gao (2):
>   sched, tracing: add to report task state in symbolic chars
>   perf sched: use the new prev_state_char instead in tracepoint
>     sched_switch
>
>  include/trace/events/sched.h | 60 +++++++++++++++++++++---------------
>  tools/perf/builtin-sched.c   | 57 ++++++----------------------------
>  2 files changed, 45 insertions(+), 72 deletions(-)
>
> Ze Gao (1):
>   libtraceevent: use the new prev_state_char instead in tracepoint
>     sched_switch
>
>  plugins/plugin_sched_switch.c | 29 ++++-------------------------
>  1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 25 deletions(-)
>
> --
> 2.40.1
>