Re: Re: [RFC PATCH 0/2] kvm/vmx: Output TSC offset

From: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
To: Yoshihiro YUNOMAE <yoshihiro.yunomae.ez@hitachi.com>
Cc: David Sharp <dhsharp@google.com>,
	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, kvm@vger.kernel.org,
	Joerg Roedel <joerg.roedel@amd.com>,
	Marcelo Tosatti <mtosatti@redhat.com>,
	Hidehiro Kawai <hidehiro.kawai.ez@hitachi.com>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>, Avi Kivity <avi@redhat.com>,
	yrl.pp-manager.tt@hitachi.com,
	Masami Hiramatsu <masami.hiramatsu.pt@hitachi.com>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Subject: Re: Re: [RFC PATCH 0/2] kvm/vmx: Output TSC offset
Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:05:54 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <1353078354.7586.14.camel@gandalf.local.home> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <50A355A2.5040101@hitachi.com>

On Wed, 2012-11-14 at 17:26 +0900, Yoshihiro YUNOMAE wrote:
> Thank you for commenting on my patch set.
> 
> (2012/11/14 11:31), Steven Rostedt wrote:
> > On Tue, 2012-11-13 at 18:03 -0800, David Sharp wrote:
> >> On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 6:00 PM, Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> wrote:
> >>> On Wed, 2012-11-14 at 10:36 +0900, Yoshihiro YUNOMAE wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> To merge the data like previous pattern, we apply this patch set. Then, we can
> >>>> get TSC offset of the guest as follows:
> >>>>
> >>>> $ dmesg | grep kvm
> >>>> [   57.717180] kvm: (2687) write TSC offset 18446743360465545001, now clock ##
> >>>>                       ^^^^                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^            |
> >>>>                       PID                         TSC offset                 |
> >>>>                                                             HOST TSC value --+
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> Using printk to export something like this is IMO a nasty hack.
> >>>
> >>> Can't we create a /sys or /proc file to export the same thing?
> >>
> >> Since the value changes over the course of the trace, and seems to be
> >> part of the context of the trace, I think I'd include it as a
> >> tracepoint.
> >>
> >
> > I'm fine with that too.
> 
> Using some tracepoint is a nice idea, but there is one problem. Here,
> our discussion point is "the event which TSC offset is changed does not
> frequently occur, but the buffer must keep the event data."

If you can hold off a bit, for the 3.9 window, I plan on pushing
multiple buffers for ftrace. That is, you can create a separate buffer
just for the TSC offset events:

cd /sys/kernel/debug
echo tsc > instances/new
echo 1 > instances/tsc/events/tsc/offset/enable

Then the buffer will be used only for that event.

The code is pretty much ready, but I want to test it more before the 3.8
window opens, which is why I'm waiting for 3.9.

You can see the latest version here:

git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rostedt/linux-trace.git
branch: rfc/multi-buffers-v7

-- Steve