We detected a serious issue with PERF_SAMPLE_READ and
timing information when events were being multiplexing.
Samples would have time_running > time_enabled. That
was easy to reproduce with a libpfm4 example (ran 3
times to cause multiplexing on Core 2):
$ syst_smpl -e uops_retired:freq=1 &
$ syst_smpl -e uops_retired:freq=1 &
$ syst_smpl -e uops_retired:freq=1 &
IIP:0x0000000040062d ... PERIOD:2355332948 ENA=40144625315 RUN=60014875184
syst_smpl: WARNING: time_running > time_enabled
63277537998 uops_retired:freq=1 , scaled
The bug was not present in kernel up to (and including) 3.0. It turns
out the bug was introduced by the following commit:
commit c479429591
events: Move lockless timer calculation into helper function
The parameters of the function got reversed yet the call sites
were not updated to reflect the change. That lead to time_running
and time_enabled being swapped. That had no effect when there was
no multiplexing because in that case time_running = time_enabled
but it would show up in any other scenario.
Signed-off-by: Stephane Eranian <eranian@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl>
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20110829124112.GA4828@quad
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Eric B Munson
7f310a5d4e