[PATCH 0/2] quickstats, kernel sample collector

[PATCH 0/2] quickstats, kernel sample collector

[Luigi Rizzo]

This patchset introduces a small library to collect per-cpu samples and
accumulate distributions to be exported through debugfs.

I have used this to trace the execution times of small sections of code
(network stack functions, drivers and xdp processing, ...)
or entire functions, or latencies (e.g. IPI dispatch, etc.) and the fine
granularity helps identifying outliers, multimodal distributions,
caching effects and generally help in performance analysis.

Samples are 64-bit values that are aggregated into per-cpu logarithmic buckets
with configurable density (typical sample collectors use one buckets for
each power of 2, powers of 2, but that is very coarse and corresponds
to 1 significant bit per value; in quickstats one can specify the number
of significant bits, up to 5, which is useful for finer grain
measurements).

There are two ways to trace a block of code: manual annotations has the best
performance at runtime and is done as follows:

	// create metric and entry in debugfs
	struct kstats *key = kstats_new("foo", frac_bits);

	...
	// instrument the code
	u64 t0 = ktime_get_ns();        // about 20ns
	<section of code to measure>
	t0 = ktime_get_ns() - t0;       // about 20ns
	kstats_record(key, t0);         // 5ns hot cache, 300ns cold

This method has an accuracy of about 20-30ns (inherited from the clock)
and an overhead with hot/cold cache as show above.

Values can be read from debugfs in an easy to parse format

	# cat /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/foo
	...
	slot 55  CPU  0    count      589 avg      480 p 0.027613
	slot 55  CPU  1    count       18 avg      480 p 0.002572
	slot 55  CPU  2    count       25 avg      480 p 0.003325
	...
	slot 55  CPUS 28   count      814 avg      480 p 0.002474
	...
	slot 97  CPU  13   count     1150 avg    20130 p 0.447442
	slot 97  CPUS 28   count   152585 avg    19809 p 0.651747
	...

And write to the file STOP, START, RESET executes the corresponding action

	echo RESET > /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/foo

The second instrumentation mechanism uses kretrprobes or tracepoints and
lets tracing be enabled or removed at runtime from the command line for
any globally visible function

	echo trace some_function bits 3 > /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/_control

Data are exported or controlled as abube. Accuracy is worse due to the
presence of kretprobe trampolines: 90ns with hot cache, 500ns with cold
cache. The overhead on the traced function is 250ns hot, 1500ns cold.

Hope you find this useful

Luigi Rizzo (2):
  quickstats, kernel sample collector
  quickstats: user commands to trace execution time of code

 include/linux/kstats.h |  61 ++++
 lib/Kconfig.debug      |   7 +
 lib/Makefile           |   1 +
 lib/kstats.c           | 659 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 4 files changed, 728 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 include/linux/kstats.h
 create mode 100644 lib/kstats.c

-- 
2.25.0.265.gbab2e86ba0-goog

[PATCH 1/2] quickstats, kernel sample collector

[Luigi Rizzo]

quickstats is a helper to accumulate in-kernel samples (timestamps,
sizes, etc) and show distributions through debugfs. Compiled as a module
by default; set CONFIG_QUICKSTATS=y in your config to make it compiled in.

Creating a metric takes one line of code (and one to destroy it):

  struct kstats *key = kstats_new("foo", 3 /* frac_bits */);
  ...
  kstats_delete(key);

The following line records a u64 sample:

  kstats_record(key, value);

kstats_record is cheap (5ns hot cache, 250ns cold cache). Samples are
accumulated in a per-cpu array with 2^frac_bits slots for each power
of 2. Using frac_bits = 3 gives about 30 slots per decade.

Each metric has an entry in /sys/kernel/debug/kstats which can be used
to read and control data collection:

- writing start/stop/reset starts and stops sample collection,
  or resets the counters, e.g.

  echo reset > /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/foo

- reading from the node produces a detailed output that can be
  processed with external tools for improved presentation:

  cat /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/foo
  ...
  slot 55  CPU  0    count      589 avg      480 p 0.027613
  slot 55  CPU  1    count       18 avg      480 p 0.002572
  slot 55  CPU  2    count       25 avg      480 p 0.003325
  ...
  slot 55  CPUS 16   count      814 avg      480 p 0.002474
  ...
  slot 97  CPU  8    count     1150 avg    20130 p 0.447442
  slot 97  CPU  12   count       26 avg    20294 p 0.275555
  slot 97  CPUS 16   count   152585 avg    19809 p 0.651747
  slot 98  CPU  0    count       38 avg    21360 p 0.954691
  slot 98  CPU  1    count      456 avg    21412 p 0.872619
  ...
  slot 144 CPUS 16   count       12 avg  1061896 p 0.999999
  slot 146 CPU  4    count        1 avg  1313664 p 1.000000
  slot 146 CPUS 16   count        1 avg  1313664 p 1.000000

Examples:
look at statistics for a single CPU (note double space)
        cd /sys/kernel/kstats/
        echo reset > foo; watch grep "'CPU  12 '" foo

Use gnuplot to plot distribution and cdf in a terminal from a remote host
  gnuplot
  set terminal dumb size 200 80
  set logscale x
  plot "<ssh root@myhost grep CPUS /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/foo" u 8:6 w l title "distribution"
  plot "<ssh root@myhost grep CPUS /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/foo" u 8:10 w l title "cdf"

Signed-off-by: Luigi Rizzo <lrizzo@google.com>
---
 include/linux/kstats.h |  61 +++++++++
 lib/Kconfig.debug      |   7 +
 lib/Makefile           |   1 +
 lib/kstats.c           | 303 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 4 files changed, 372 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 include/linux/kstats.h
 create mode 100644 lib/kstats.c

diff --git a/include/linux/kstats.h b/include/linux/kstats.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..0ebf504e494ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/linux/kstats.h
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 */
+#ifndef _LINUX_KSTATS_H
+#define _LINUX_KSTATS_H
+
+#include <linux/types.h>
+
+/* Helper to collect and report kernel metrics. Use as follows:
+ *
+ * - creates a new debugfs entry in /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/foo
+ *   to collect the metric, accumulating samples in 2^frac_bits slots
+ *   per power of 2
+ *
+ *	struct kstats *key = kstats_new("foo", frac_bits);
+ *
+ * - add instrumentation around code:
+ *
+ *	u64 t0 = ktime_get_ns();	// about 20ns
+ *	<section of code to measure>
+ *	t0 = ktime_get_ns() - t0;	// about 20ns
+ *	kstats_record(key, t0);		// 5ns hot cache, 300ns cold
+ *
+ * - read values from debugfs
+ *	cat /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/foo
+ *	...
+ *	slot 55  CPU  0    count      589 avg      480 p 0.027613
+ *	slot 55  CPU  1    count       18 avg      480 p 0.002572
+ *	slot 55  CPU  2    count       25 avg      480 p 0.003325
+ *	...
+ *	slot 55  CPUS 28   count      814 avg      480 p 0.002474
+ *	...
+ *	slot 97  CPU  13   count     1150 avg    20130 p 0.447442
+ *	slot 97  CPUS 28   count   152585 avg    19809 p 0.651747
+ *	...
+ *
+ * - write to the file STOP, START, RESET executes the corresponding action
+ *
+ *	echo RESET > /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/foo
+ */
+
+struct kstats;
+
+#if defined(CONFIG_QUICKSTATS) || defined(CONFIG_QUICKSTATS_MODULE)
+/* Add an entry to debugfs. */
+struct kstats *kstats_new(const char *name, u8 frac_bits);
+
+/* Record a sample */
+void kstats_record(struct kstats *key, u64 value);
+
+/* Remove an entry and frees memory */
+void kstats_delete(struct kstats *key);
+#else
+static inline struct kstats *kstats_new(const char *name, u8 frac_bits)
+{
+	return NULL;
+}
+
+static inline void kstats_record(struct kstats *key, u64 value) {}
+static inline void kstats_delete(struct kstats *key) {}
+#endif
+
+#endif /* _LINUX_KSTATS_H */
diff --git a/lib/Kconfig.debug b/lib/Kconfig.debug
index 69def4a9df009..d581ad075d438 100644
--- a/lib/Kconfig.debug
+++ b/lib/Kconfig.debug
@@ -1452,6 +1452,13 @@ config LATENCYTOP
 	  Enable this option if you want to use the LatencyTOP tool
 	  to find out which userspace is blocking on what kernel operations.
 
+config QUICKSTATS
+	tristate "collect percpu metrics and export distributions through debugfs"
+	default m
+	help
+	  Helper library to collect percpu kernel metrics, exporting
+	  distributions through debugfs. See kernel/kstats.c
+
 source "kernel/trace/Kconfig"
 
 config PROVIDE_OHCI1394_DMA_INIT
diff --git a/lib/Makefile b/lib/Makefile
index 611872c069269..3fe272e84b3fa 100644
--- a/lib/Makefile
+++ b/lib/Makefile
@@ -236,6 +236,7 @@ obj-$(CONFIG_RBTREE_TEST) += rbtree_test.o
 obj-$(CONFIG_INTERVAL_TREE_TEST) += interval_tree_test.o
 
 obj-$(CONFIG_PERCPU_TEST) += percpu_test.o
+obj-$(CONFIG_QUICKSTATS) += kstats.o
 
 obj-$(CONFIG_ASN1) += asn1_decoder.o
 
diff --git a/lib/kstats.c b/lib/kstats.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..b8d8c9e60f222
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/kstats.c
@@ -0,0 +1,303 @@
+/*
+ * [quic]kstats, collect samples and export distributions through debugfs
+ *
+ * CREATE OBJECT:
+ *	struct kstats *key = kstats_new("some_name", 3);
+ *
+ * ADD A SAMPLE:
+ *	t0 = ktime_get_ns();		// about 20ns
+ *	<code to instrument>
+ *	kstats_record(key, ktime_get_ns() - t0); // 30ns hot cache, 300ns cold
+ *
+ * SHOW DATA:
+ *	cat /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/some_name
+ *
+ *	...
+ *	slot 12  CPU  0    count      764 avg       12 p 0.011339
+ *	slot 12  CPU  1    count      849 avg       12 p 0.011496
+ *	slot 12  CPU  2    count      712 avg       12 p 0.009705
+ *	...
+ *	slot 12  CPU  243  count        1 avg       12 p 0.000097
+ *	slot 12  CPUS 256  count    19977 avg       12 p 0.006153
+ *	...
+ */
+
+#include <linux/kstats.h>
+#include <linux/mm.h>
+#include <linux/module.h>
+#include <linux/percpu.h>
+#include <linux/seq_file.h>
+#include <linux/slab.h>
+#include <linux/debugfs.h>
+
+/* Values are 64 bit unsigned and are accumulated per cpu, in one bucket for
+ * each power of 2. Each bucket is further subdivided in 2^frac_bits slots.
+ * The range for each slot is 2^-frac_bits of the base value for the bucket.
+ */
+#define BUCKETS	64	/* Total powers of 2 */
+
+/* For large values, sum is scaled to reduce the chance of overflow */
+#define SUM_SCALE 20
+
+/* Internal names start with ks_, external ones with kstats_ */
+
+struct ks_slot {
+	u64 samples;
+	u64 sum;
+};
+
+struct kstats {
+	u16 n_slots;		/* typically BUCKETS * 2^frac_bits + 2 */
+	u8 frac_bits;
+	u8 frac_mask;		/* 2^frac_bits - 1 */
+	bool active;		/* recording status */
+	struct ks_slot __percpu *slots;
+	struct dentry *entry;	/* debugfs entry */
+};
+
+static void ks_print(struct seq_file *p, int slot, int cpu, u64 sum,
+		     u64 tot, unsigned long samples, unsigned long avg)
+{
+	unsigned long frac = (tot == 0) ? 0 : ((sum % tot) * 1000000) / tot;
+
+	seq_printf(p,
+		   "slot %-3d CPU%c %-4d count %8lu avg %8lu p %c.%06lu\n",
+		   slot, cpu == nr_cpu_ids ? 'S' : ' ', cpu,
+		   samples, avg, sum == tot ? '1' : '0', frac);
+}
+
+/* Read handler */
+static int ks_show_entry(struct seq_file *p, void *v)
+{
+	u32 slot, cpu;
+	struct ks_slot *slots, *cur;
+	struct kstats *ks = p->private;
+	u64 *partials, *totals, grand_total = 0;
+	const size_t rowsize = ks ? ks->n_slots * sizeof(struct ks_slot) : 0;
+
+	if (!ks)
+		return -ENOENT;
+	if (!rowsize)
+		return 0;
+	/* Counters are updated while we read them, so make a copy first.
+	 * kvzalloc'ed memory contains three areas:
+	 *
+	 *   slots:	[ nr_cpu_ids ][ ks->n_slots ](struct ks_slot)
+	 *   partials:	[ nr_cpu_ids ](u64)
+	 *   totals:	[ nr_cpu_ids ](u64)
+	 */
+	slots = kvzalloc(nr_cpu_ids * (rowsize + 2 * sizeof(u64)), GFP_KERNEL);
+	if (!slots)
+		return -ENOMEM;
+	partials = (u64 *)(slots + ks->n_slots * nr_cpu_ids);
+	totals = partials + nr_cpu_ids;
+	/* Copy data and compute counts totals (per-cpu and grand_total).
+	 * These values are needed to compute percentiles.
+	 */
+	for_each_possible_cpu(cpu) {
+		cur = slots + ks->n_slots * cpu;
+		memcpy(cur, per_cpu_ptr(ks->slots, cpu), rowsize);
+		for (slot = 0; slot < ks->n_slots; slot++)
+			totals[cpu] += cur[slot].samples;
+		grand_total += totals[cpu];
+	}
+
+	/* Second pass, produce individual lines */
+	for (slot = 0; slot < ks->n_slots; slot++) {
+		u64 n, samples = 0, sum = 0, samples_cumulative = 0;
+		u32 bucket = slot >> ks->frac_bits;
+		u32 sum_shift = bucket < SUM_SCALE ? 0 : bucket - SUM_SCALE;
+
+		for_each_possible_cpu(cpu) {
+			cur = slots + ks->n_slots * cpu;
+			sum += cur[slot].sum;
+			n = cur[slot].samples;
+			samples += n;
+			partials[cpu] += n;
+			samples_cumulative += partials[cpu];
+			if (n == 0)
+				continue;
+			ks_print(p, slot, cpu, partials[cpu], totals[cpu], n,
+				 (cur[slot].sum / n) << sum_shift);
+		}
+		if (samples == 0)
+			continue;
+		ks_print(p, slot, nr_cpu_ids, samples_cumulative, grand_total,
+			 samples, (sum / samples) << sum_shift);
+	}
+	kvfree(slots);
+	return 0;
+}
+
+static ssize_t ks_write(struct file *fp, const char __user *user_buffer,
+			size_t count, loff_t *position)
+{
+	struct inode *ino = fp->f_inode;
+	struct kstats *ks = ino ? ino->i_private : NULL;
+	char buf[256] = {};
+	ssize_t ret;
+	u32 cpu;
+
+	if (count >= sizeof(buf) - 1)
+		return -EINVAL;
+	ret = simple_write_to_buffer(buf, sizeof(buf),
+				     position, user_buffer, count);
+	if (ret < 0)
+		return ret;
+	/* Trim final newline if any */
+	if (count > 0 && buf[count - 1] == '\n')
+		buf[count - 1] = '\0';
+
+	if (ks == NULL)
+		return -EINVAL;
+
+	if (!strcasecmp(buf, "START")) {
+		ks->active = 1;
+	} else if (!strcasecmp(buf, "STOP")) {
+		ks->active = 0;
+	} else if (!strcasecmp(buf, "RESET")) {
+		for_each_possible_cpu(cpu) {
+			memset(per_cpu_ptr(ks->slots, cpu), 0,
+			       ks->n_slots * sizeof(struct ks_slot));
+		}
+	} else {
+		ret = -EINVAL;
+	}
+	/* TODO: add another command to turn off and deallocate memory. */
+	return ret;
+}
+
+static int ks_open(struct inode *inode, struct file *f)
+{
+	return single_open(f, ks_show_entry, inode->i_private);
+}
+
+static const struct file_operations ks_file_ops = {
+	.owner = THIS_MODULE,
+	.open = ks_open,
+	.release = single_release,
+	.read = seq_read,
+	.write = ks_write,
+	.llseek = seq_lseek,
+};
+
+static struct dentry *ks_root;	/* kstats root in debugfs */
+static struct dentry *ks_control_dentry;
+
+static int __init ks_init(void)
+{
+	ks_root = debugfs_create_dir("kstats", NULL);
+	if (IS_ERR_OR_NULL(ks_root)) {
+		pr_warn("kstats: cannot create debugfs root\n");
+		return PTR_ERR(ks_root);
+	}
+	ks_control_dentry = debugfs_create_file("_control", 0644, ks_root,
+						NULL, &ks_file_ops);
+	if (IS_ERR_OR_NULL(ks_control_dentry)) {
+		pr_warn("kstats: cannot create kstats/_control\n");
+		debugfs_remove_recursive(ks_root);
+		return PTR_ERR(ks_control_dentry);
+	}
+	return 0;
+}
+
+static void __exit ks_exit(void)
+{
+	debugfs_remove_recursive(ks_root);
+}
+
+/* Run as soon as possible, but after debugfs, which is in core_initcall */
+postcore_initcall(ks_init);
+module_exit(ks_exit);
+MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");
+
+/* User API: kstats_new(), kstats_delete(), kstats_record() */
+
+struct kstats *kstats_new(const char *name, u8 frac_bits)
+{
+	struct kstats *ks = NULL;
+	const char *errmsg = "";
+
+	if (IS_ERR_OR_NULL(ks_root)) {
+		errmsg = "ks_root not set yet";
+		goto error;
+	}
+
+	if (frac_bits > 5) {
+		pr_info("fractional bits %d too large, using 3\n", frac_bits);
+		frac_bits = 3;
+	}
+	ks = kzalloc(sizeof(*ks), GFP_KERNEL);
+	if (!ks)
+		return NULL;
+	ks->active = 1;
+	ks->frac_bits = frac_bits;
+	ks->frac_mask = (1 << frac_bits) - 1;
+	ks->n_slots = ((BUCKETS - frac_bits + 1) << frac_bits) + 1;
+
+	/* Add one extra bucket for user timestamps */
+	ks->slots = __alloc_percpu((1 + ks->n_slots) * sizeof(struct ks_slot),
+				   sizeof(u64));
+	if (!ks->slots) {
+		errmsg = "failed to allocate pcpu";
+		goto error;
+	}
+
+	/* 'ks' is saved in the inode (entry->d_inode->i_private). */
+	ks->entry = debugfs_create_file(name, 0444, ks_root, ks, &ks_file_ops);
+	if (IS_ERR_OR_NULL(ks->entry)) {
+		errmsg = "failed to create debugfs entry";
+		goto error;
+	}
+	__module_get(THIS_MODULE);
+	return ks;
+
+error:
+	pr_info("kstats: '%s' error %s\n", name, errmsg);
+	kstats_delete(ks);
+	return NULL;
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(kstats_new);
+
+void kstats_delete(struct kstats *ks)
+{
+	if (!ks)
+		return;
+	debugfs_remove(ks->entry);
+	if (ks->slots)
+		free_percpu(ks->slots);
+	*ks = (struct kstats){};
+	kfree(ks);
+	module_put(THIS_MODULE);
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(kstats_delete);
+
+void kstats_record(struct kstats *ks, u64 val)
+{
+	u32 bucket, slot;
+
+	if (!ks || !ks->active)
+		return;
+	/* The leftmost 1 selects the bucket, subsequent frac_bits select
+	 * the slot within the bucket. fls returns 0 when the argument is 0.
+	 */
+	bucket = fls64(val >> ks->frac_bits);
+	slot = bucket == 0 ? val :
+		((bucket << ks->frac_bits) |
+		 ((val >> (bucket - 1)) & ks->frac_mask));
+
+	/* Use the last slot on overflow if BUCKETS < 64 */
+	if (slot > ks->n_slots - 2)
+		slot = ks->n_slots - 1;
+
+	/* preempt_disable makes sure samples and sum modify the same slot.
+	 * this_cpu_add() uses a non-interruptible add to protect against
+	 * hardware interrupts which may call kstats_record.
+	 */
+	preempt_disable();
+	this_cpu_add(ks->slots[slot].samples, 1);
+	this_cpu_add(ks->slots[slot].sum,
+		     bucket < SUM_SCALE ? val : (val >> (bucket - SUM_SCALE)));
+	preempt_enable();
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(kstats_record);
-- 
2.25.0.265.gbab2e86ba0-goog

[PATCH 2/2] quickstats: user commands to trace execution time of code

[Luigi Rizzo]

Debugfs helpers to add runtime monitoring of the execution time of a
block of code (a function, a section between two function entry points
or tracepoints) _and_ the interval between calls to the block.

Use as follows:

  echo "trace S bits B start X end Y" > /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/_control

	creates node /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/S, traces time between X and Y
	with 2^B buckets. Arguments after S are optional, X defaults to S,
	bits defaults to 3, end defaults to empty. X and Y can be function
	names or __tracepoint_T where T is a tracepoint name.

	Also creates a node /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/GAP-S that tracks
	the time between calls to the block of code on the same CPU.

  echo "remove S" > /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/_control

	removes the nodes created by the trace command.

The code uses 3 different methods to track start and end of the block:
  1. if end is not specified, uses kretprobe to attach to function X.
     Only possible for global functions.
     kretprobe overhead is ~250ns with hot cache, 1500ns with cold cache,
     and possibly much worse under contention (kretprobe has a single
     lock on entry; this is fixed in an upcoming patch).

  2. use kprobe to attach to a function on entry and one on exit.
     Only possible when the two functions are global and uniquely identify
     a path.

  3. attach to tracepoints on entry and exit.
     The name passed to start= and end= should be __tracepoint_XXX

Tracing introduces several out of line code and data accesses so the
overhead and the minimum reported time (e.g. for an empty function)
depend on cache state. They can be easily tested calling the function at
a low rate (e.g. more than 1ms apart) or at high rate (< 20us apart).

On a modern high end CPU:
- the overhead is ~250ns with hot cache, 1500ns with cold cache. This
  includes the 5/250ns spent in kstats_record(), and the 20-40ns spent
  in reading the clock.
  Additionally, kretprobe uses a single lock in the entry path so performance
  under concurrent calls is much worse (this is addressed with another patch
  that introduces percpu optimizations in kretprobe)

- The minimum time reported (for an empty function) is ~90ns with hot
  cache, 500ns with cold cache.

Signed-off-by: Luigi Rizzo <lrizzo@google.com>
---
 lib/kstats.c | 360 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 358 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/lib/kstats.c b/lib/kstats.c
index b8d8c9e60f222..6c0815199d801 100644
--- a/lib/kstats.c
+++ b/lib/kstats.c
@@ -20,6 +20,13 @@
  *	slot 12  CPU  243  count        1 avg       12 p 0.000097
  *	slot 12  CPUS 256  count    19977 avg       12 p 0.006153
  *	...
+ *
+ * Besides manual code annotations, the following two commands add and remove
+ * tracing of the execution time of a function or a section of code, see more
+ * details later in this file:
+ *
+ *	echo "trace some_function" > /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/_control
+ *	echo "remove some_function" > /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/_control
  */
 
 #include <linux/kstats.h>
@@ -66,6 +73,11 @@ static void ks_print(struct seq_file *p, int slot, int cpu, u64 sum,
 		   samples, avg, sum == tot ? '1' : '0', frac);
 }
 
+/* Helpers for user-created nodes via _control */
+static int ks_list_nodes(struct seq_file *p);
+static int ks_control_write(char *buf, int ret);
+static bool ks_delete_nodes(const char *name);
+
 /* Read handler */
 static int ks_show_entry(struct seq_file *p, void *v)
 {
@@ -76,7 +88,7 @@ static int ks_show_entry(struct seq_file *p, void *v)
 	const size_t rowsize = ks ? ks->n_slots * sizeof(struct ks_slot) : 0;
 
 	if (!ks)
-		return -ENOENT;
+		return ks_list_nodes(p);
 	if (!rowsize)
 		return 0;
 	/* Counters are updated while we read them, so make a copy first.
@@ -149,7 +161,7 @@ static ssize_t ks_write(struct file *fp, const char __user *user_buffer,
 		buf[count - 1] = '\0';
 
 	if (ks == NULL)
-		return -EINVAL;
+		return ks_control_write(buf, ret);
 
 	if (!strcasecmp(buf, "START")) {
 		ks->active = 1;
@@ -203,6 +215,7 @@ static int __init ks_init(void)
 
 static void __exit ks_exit(void)
 {
+	ks_delete_nodes(NULL);
 	debugfs_remove_recursive(ks_root);
 }
 
@@ -301,3 +314,346 @@ void kstats_record(struct kstats *ks, u64 val)
 	preempt_enable();
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(kstats_record);
+
+/* The following code supports runtime monitoring of the execution time of
+ * a block of code (a function, a section between two function entry points
+ * or tracepoints) with the following command:
+ *
+ * echo "trace S bits B start X end Y" > /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/_control
+ *
+ *    creates node /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/S, traces time between X and Y
+ *    with 2^B buckets. Arguments after S are optional, X defaults to S,
+ *    bits defaults to 3, end defaults to empty. X and Y can be function names
+ *    or __tracepoint_T where T is a tracepoint name.
+ *
+ * echo "remove S" > /sys/kernel/debug/kstats/_control
+ *
+ *    removes the node
+ *
+ * The code uses 3 different methods to track start and end of the block:
+ *
+ * 1. if end is not specified, uses kretprobe to attach to function X.
+ *    Only possible for global functions.
+ *    kretprobe overhead is ~500ns with hot cache, 1500ns with cold cache,
+ *    and possibly much worse under contention (all instances contend on
+ *    a single lock on entry).
+ *
+ * 2. use kprobe to attach to a function on entry and one on exit.
+ *    Only possible when the two functions are global and uniquely identify
+ *    a path.
+ *    The hooks are slightly cheaper than kretprobe in the cold state,
+ *    roughly 500ns hot, 1200ns cold.
+ *
+ * 3. attach to tracepoints on entry and exit.
+ *    The name passed to start= and end= should be __tracepoint_XXX
+ *    The cost is similar to #2.
+ */
+
+#include <linux/kprobes.h>
+#include <linux/tracepoint.h>
+
+/* Manually added entries are in a list protected by ks_mutex */
+static LIST_HEAD(ks_user_nodes);
+static DEFINE_MUTEX(ks_mutex);
+
+/* Manually added nodes */
+enum node_type { KSN_NONE = 0, KSN_KPROBE, KSN_RETPROBE, KSN_TRACEPOINT };
+struct ks_node {
+	struct kstats *ks;	/* record time for a call */
+	struct kstats *ks_gap;	/* record gap between calls */
+	struct list_head link;	/* Set for nodes added to the main list */
+	enum node_type type;
+	/* These could do in a union */
+	struct kprobe kp1;
+	struct kprobe kp2;
+	struct kretprobe kret;
+	struct tracepoint *tp1;
+	struct tracepoint *tp2;
+	char name[0];
+};
+
+/* Address of the temporary storage for starting timestamp */
+static u64 *ts_addr(struct kstats *ks)
+{
+	return &((this_cpu_ptr(ks->slots) + ks->n_slots + 1)->sum);
+}
+
+/* Store value in slot if not set already */
+static void ks_ts_start(struct kstats *ks, u64 value)
+{
+	u64 *addr = ts_addr(ks);
+
+	if (!*addr)
+		*addr = value;
+}
+
+/* Record value if previous was non zero */
+static void ks_ts_record(struct kstats *ks, u64 value)
+{
+	u64 *addr = ts_addr(ks);
+
+	if (*addr) {
+		kstats_record(ks, value - *addr);
+		*addr = 0;
+	}
+}
+
+/* Method 3, tracepoints. The first argument of the tracepoint callback
+ * comes from tracepoint_probe_register, others as defined in the proto.
+ */
+static int ks_tp_start(struct ks_node *cur)
+{
+	u64 now;
+
+	preempt_disable();
+	now = ktime_get_ns();
+	ks_ts_start(cur->ks, now);
+	if (cur->ks_gap)
+		ks_ts_record(cur->ks_gap, now);
+	preempt_enable();
+	return 0;
+}
+
+static int ks_tp_end(struct ks_node *cur)
+{
+	u64 now;
+
+	preempt_disable();
+	now = ktime_get_ns();
+	ks_ts_record(cur->ks, now);
+	if (cur->ks_gap)
+		ks_ts_start(cur->ks_gap, now);
+	preempt_enable();
+	return 0;
+}
+
+/* Method 1: use kretprobe */
+static int ks_kretp_start(struct kretprobe_instance *r, struct pt_regs *regs)
+{
+	return ks_tp_start(container_of(r->rp, struct ks_node, kret));
+}
+
+static int ks_kretp_end(struct kretprobe_instance *r, struct pt_regs *regs)
+{
+	return ks_tp_end(container_of(r->rp, struct ks_node, kret));
+}
+
+/* Method 2, kprobes */
+static int ks_kprobe_start(struct kprobe *f, struct pt_regs *regs)
+{
+	return ks_tp_start(container_of(f, struct ks_node, kp1));
+}
+
+static int ks_kprobe_end(struct kprobe *f, struct pt_regs *regs)
+{
+	return ks_tp_end(container_of(f, struct ks_node, kp2));
+}
+
+/* Destroy a user-defined node */
+static void ks_node_delete(struct ks_node *cur)
+{
+	if (!cur)
+		return;
+#ifdef CONFIG_TRACEPOINTS
+	if (cur->tp2)
+		tracepoint_probe_unregister(cur->tp2, ks_tp_end, cur);
+	if (cur->tp1)
+		tracepoint_probe_unregister(cur->tp1, ks_tp_start, cur);
+	tracepoint_synchronize_unregister();
+#endif
+	unregister_kretprobe(&cur->kret);
+	unregister_kprobe(&cur->kp1);
+	unregister_kprobe(&cur->kp2);
+	kstats_delete(cur->ks);
+	kstats_delete(cur->ks_gap);
+	kfree(cur);
+}
+
+/* Some names cannot be attached to */
+static bool blacklisted(const char *name)
+{
+	static const char * const blacklist[] = {
+		"kstats_record",
+		NULL
+	};
+	int i;
+
+	for (i = 0; name && blacklist[i]; i++) {
+		if (!strcmp(name, blacklist[i])) {
+			pr_info("%s is blacklisted\n", name);
+			return true;
+		}
+	}
+	return false;
+}
+
+static const char gap[] = "GAP-";
+static char *ksn_name(struct ks_node *cur)
+{
+	return cur->name + sizeof(gap) - 1;
+}
+
+/* Create a new user-defined node */
+static struct ks_node *ks_node_new(int n, char *argv[])
+{
+	static const char *tp_prefix = "__tracepoint_";
+	char *name = argv[1], *start = name, *end = NULL;
+	struct ks_node *cur;
+	u64 bits = 3;
+	int i, ret;
+
+	/* 'arg value' pairs may override defaults */
+	for (i = 2; i < n - 1; i += 2) {
+		if (!strcasecmp(argv[i], "bits")) {
+			if (kstrtou64(argv[i + 1], 0, &bits) || bits > 4) {
+				pr_info("invalid bits %d\n", (int)bits);
+				break;
+			}
+		} else if (!strcasecmp(argv[i], "start")) {
+			start = argv[i + 1];
+		} else if (!strcasecmp(argv[i], "end")) {
+			end = argv[i + 1];
+		} else {
+			break;
+		}
+	}
+	if (i != n)
+		return ERR_PTR(-EINVAL);
+
+	cur = kzalloc(sizeof(*cur) + strlen(name) + sizeof(gap), GFP_KERNEL);
+	if (!cur) {
+		pr_info("%s: no memory to add %s\n", __func__, name);
+		return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
+	}
+	strcpy(ksn_name(cur), name);
+	if (blacklisted(start) || blacklisted(end))
+		return ERR_PTR(-EINVAL);
+
+	cur->ks = kstats_new(name, bits);
+	if (!cur->ks)
+		goto fail;
+
+	if (!end || !*end) {
+		/* try to create an entry with the gap between calls */
+		memcpy(cur->name, gap, sizeof(gap) - 1);
+		cur->ks_gap = kstats_new(cur->name, bits);
+
+		cur->kret.entry_handler = ks_kretp_start;
+		cur->kret.handler = ks_kretp_end;
+		cur->kret.data_size = 0;
+		cur->kret.kp.symbol_name = start;
+		ret = register_kretprobe(&cur->kret);
+		if (ret)
+			goto fail;
+	} else if (strncmp(start, tp_prefix, strlen(tp_prefix)) != 0) {
+		pr_info("XXX use kprobe on '%s', '%s'\n", start, end);
+		cur->kp2.symbol_name = end;
+		cur->kp2.pre_handler = ks_kprobe_end;
+		if (register_kprobe(&cur->kp2))
+			goto fail;
+		cur->kp1.symbol_name = start;
+		cur->kp1.pre_handler = ks_kprobe_start;
+		if (register_kprobe(&cur->kp1))
+			goto fail;
+	} else {
+		cur->tp1 = (void *)kallsyms_lookup_name(start);
+		cur->tp2 = (void *)kallsyms_lookup_name(end);
+		if (!cur->tp1 || !cur->tp2)
+			goto fail;
+#ifndef CONFIG_TRACEPOINTS
+		goto fail;
+#else
+		ret = tracepoint_probe_register(cur->tp1, ks_tp_start, cur);
+		if (ret)
+			goto fail;
+		ret = tracepoint_probe_register(cur->tp2, ks_tp_end, cur);
+		if (ret)
+			goto fail;
+#endif
+	}
+	return cur;
+
+fail:
+	ks_node_delete(cur);
+	return ERR_PTR(-EINVAL);
+
+}
+
+static int ks_list_nodes(struct seq_file *p)
+{
+	struct ks_node *cur;
+	const char *sep = "";
+
+	mutex_lock(&ks_mutex);
+	list_for_each_entry(cur, &ks_user_nodes, link) {
+		seq_printf(p, "%s%s", sep, ksn_name(cur));
+		sep = " ";
+	}
+	mutex_unlock(&ks_mutex);
+	seq_printf(p, "\n");
+	return 0;
+}
+
+/* Split a string into words, returns number of words */
+static int ks_split_command(char *s, char *words[], int count)
+{
+	int i = 0, n;
+
+	for (n = 0; n < count; n++) {
+		/* Skip and clear leading whitespace */
+		while (s[i] && strchr(" \t\r\n", s[i]))
+			s[i++] = '\0';
+		words[n] = s + i; /* Tentative offset */
+		/* Find end of word */
+		while (s[i] && s[i] > ' ' && s[i] < 127)
+			i++;
+		if (s + i == words[n])
+			break;
+	}
+	return n;
+}
+
+/* Delete one/all nodes (name == NULL). Returns true if some are deleted */
+static bool ks_delete_nodes(const char *name)
+{
+	struct ks_node *tmp, *cur;
+	bool found = false;
+
+	mutex_lock(&ks_mutex);
+	list_for_each_entry_safe(cur, tmp, &ks_user_nodes, link) {
+		if (name != NULL && strcmp(ksn_name(cur), name))
+			continue; /* no match */
+		found = true;
+		list_del(&cur->link);
+		ks_node_delete(cur);
+	}
+	mutex_unlock(&ks_mutex);
+	return found;
+}
+
+static int ks_control_write(char *buf, int ret)
+{
+	char *args[10];	/* we don't need more than 8 */
+	struct ks_node *cur;
+	int n;
+
+	n = ks_split_command(buf, args, ARRAY_SIZE(args));
+	if (n < 2 || n == ARRAY_SIZE(args))
+		return -EINVAL;
+	if (!strcasecmp(args[0], "remove")) {
+		if (n != 2)
+			return -EINVAL;
+		if (!ks_delete_nodes(args[1]))
+			return -ENOENT;
+	} else if (!strcasecmp(args[0], "trace")) {
+		cur = ks_node_new(n, args);
+		if (IS_ERR_OR_NULL(cur))
+			return PTR_ERR(cur);
+		mutex_lock(&ks_mutex);
+		list_add(&cur->link, &ks_user_nodes);
+		mutex_unlock(&ks_mutex);
+	} else {
+		ret = -EINVAL;
+	}
+	return ret;
+}
-- 
2.25.0.265.gbab2e86ba0-goog

Re: [PATCH 1/2] quickstats, kernel sample collector

[Randy Dunlap]

Hi,

(Aside: in patch 0, is "abube" a typo?
Data are exported or controlled as abube.
)

For both patch 1 & patch 2, please use the expected/documented multi-line
comment style (in Documentation/process/coding-style.rst):

The preferred style for long (multi-line) comments is:
{except in net/ and drivers/net/}

	/*
	 * This is the preferred style for multi-line
	 * comments in the Linux kernel source code.
	 * Please use it consistently.
	 *
	 * Description:  A column of asterisks on the left side,
	 * with beginning and ending almost-blank lines.
	 */

On 2/25/20 6:30 PM, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
> quickstats is a helper to accumulate in-kernel samples (timestamps,
> sizes, etc) and show distributions through debugfs. Compiled as a module
> by default; set CONFIG_QUICKSTATS=y in your config to make it compiled in.

For inclusion in the kernel source tree, it should default to n, not m.

[snip]


> Signed-off-by: Luigi Rizzo <lrizzo@google.com>
> ---
>  include/linux/kstats.h |  61 +++++++++
>  lib/Kconfig.debug      |   7 +
>  lib/Makefile           |   1 +
>  lib/kstats.c           | 303 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  4 files changed, 372 insertions(+)
>  create mode 100644 include/linux/kstats.h
>  create mode 100644 lib/kstats.c
> 

> diff --git a/lib/Kconfig.debug b/lib/Kconfig.debug
> index 69def4a9df009..d581ad075d438 100644
> --- a/lib/Kconfig.debug
> +++ b/lib/Kconfig.debug
> @@ -1452,6 +1452,13 @@ config LATENCYTOP
>  	  Enable this option if you want to use the LatencyTOP tool
>  	  to find out which userspace is blocking on what kernel operations.
>  
> +config QUICKSTATS
> +	tristate "collect percpu metrics and export distributions through debugfs"
> +	default m

Drop the "default m".
Add:	depends on DEBUG_FS

This code should build OK even when CONFIG_DEBUG_FS is not set/enabled,
but it seems that it would be useless in that case.


> +	help
> +	  Helper library to collect percpu kernel metrics, exporting
> +	  distributions through debugfs. See kernel/kstats.c
> +
>  source "kernel/trace/Kconfig"
>  
>  config PROVIDE_OHCI1394_DMA_INIT


thanks.
-- 
~Randy

Re: [PATCH 1/2] quickstats, kernel sample collector

[kbuild test robot]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1719 bytes --]

Hi Luigi,

Thank you for the patch! Yet something to improve:

[auto build test ERROR on linux/master]
[also build test ERROR on linus/master v5.6-rc3 next-20200225]
[if your patch is applied to the wrong git tree, please drop us a note to help
improve the system. BTW, we also suggest to use '--base' option to specify the
base tree in git format-patch, please see https://stackoverflow.com/a/37406982]

url:    https://github.com/0day-ci/linux/commits/Luigi-Rizzo/quickstats-kernel-sample-collector/20200226-103738
base:   https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git f5ae2ea6347a308cfe91f53b53682ce635497d0d
config: arm-shmobile_defconfig (attached as .config)
compiler: arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc (GCC) 7.5.0
reproduce:
        wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/intel/lkp-tests/master/sbin/make.cross -O ~/bin/make.cross
        chmod +x ~/bin/make.cross
        # save the attached .config to linux build tree
        GCC_VERSION=7.5.0 make.cross ARCH=arm 

If you fix the issue, kindly add following tag
Reported-by: kbuild test robot <lkp@intel.com>

All errors (new ones prefixed by >>):

   lib/kstats.o: In function `ks_show_entry':
>> kstats.c:(.text+0x33c): undefined reference to `__aeabi_uldivmod'
   kstats.c:(.text+0x35c): undefined reference to `__aeabi_uldivmod'
   kstats.c:(.text+0x370): undefined reference to `__aeabi_uldivmod'
   kstats.c:(.text+0x44c): undefined reference to `__aeabi_uldivmod'
   kstats.c:(.text+0x470): undefined reference to `__aeabi_uldivmod'
   lib/kstats.o:kstats.c:(.text+0x484): more undefined references to `__aeabi_uldivmod' follow

---
0-DAY CI Kernel Test Service, Intel Corporation
https://lists.01.org/hyperkitty/list/kbuild-all@lists.01.org

[-- Attachment #2: .config.gz --]
[-- Type: application/gzip, Size: 30377 bytes --]

Re: [PATCH 0/2] quickstats, kernel sample collector

[Greg KH]

On Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 06:30:25PM -0800, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
> This patchset introduces a small library to collect per-cpu samples and
> accumulate distributions to be exported through debugfs.

Shouldn't this be part of the tracing infrastructure instead of being
"stand-alone"?

thanks,

greg k-h

Re: [PATCH 1/2] quickstats, kernel sample collector

[Greg KH]

On Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 06:30:26PM -0800, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
> +static int __init ks_init(void)
> +{
> +	ks_root = debugfs_create_dir("kstats", NULL);
> +	if (IS_ERR_OR_NULL(ks_root)) {
> +		pr_warn("kstats: cannot create debugfs root\n");
> +		return PTR_ERR(ks_root);
> +	}

Do not check debugfs_create_* calls as there is no need to.  Just take
the return value (if you care to use it again) and move on.

Also, the check you made here is incorrect :)

> +	ks_control_dentry = debugfs_create_file("_control", 0644, ks_root,
> +						NULL, &ks_file_ops);
> +	if (IS_ERR_OR_NULL(ks_control_dentry)) {
> +		pr_warn("kstats: cannot create kstats/_control\n");
> +		debugfs_remove_recursive(ks_root);
> +		return PTR_ERR(ks_control_dentry);
> +	}

Same here, just call debugfs_create_file and move on.

You do this same thing in other places too.

thanks,

greg k-h

Re: [PATCH 0/2] quickstats, kernel sample collector

[Luigi Rizzo]

On Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 12:10 AM Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 06:30:25PM -0800, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
> > This patchset introduces a small library to collect per-cpu samples and
> > accumulate distributions to be exported through debugfs.
>
> Shouldn't this be part of the tracing infrastructure instead of being
> "stand-alone"?

That's an option. My reasoning for making it standalone was that
there are no dependencies in the (trivial) collection/aggregation part,
so that code might conveniently replace/extend existing snippets of
code that collect distributions in ad-hoc and perhaps suboptimal ways.

cheers
luigi

Re: [PATCH 0/2] quickstats, kernel sample collector

[Greg KH]

On Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 01:52:25AM -0800, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 12:10 AM Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 06:30:25PM -0800, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
> > > This patchset introduces a small library to collect per-cpu samples and
> > > accumulate distributions to be exported through debugfs.
> >
> > Shouldn't this be part of the tracing infrastructure instead of being
> > "stand-alone"?
> 
> That's an option. My reasoning for making it standalone was that
> there are no dependencies in the (trivial) collection/aggregation part,
> so that code might conveniently replace/extend existing snippets of
> code that collect distributions in ad-hoc and perhaps suboptimal ways.

But that's what perf and tracing already does today, right?  You need to
integrate into the existing subsystems of the kernel and not duplicate
things, creating new user/kernel apis whenever possible.

thanks,

greg k-h

Re: [PATCH 0/2] quickstats, kernel sample collector

[Luigi Rizzo]

On Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 2:15 AM Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 01:52:25AM -0800, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
> > On Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 12:10 AM Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 06:30:25PM -0800, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
> > > > This patchset introduces a small library to collect per-cpu samples and
> > > > accumulate distributions to be exported through debugfs.
> > >
> > > Shouldn't this be part of the tracing infrastructure instead of being
> > > "stand-alone"?
> >
> > That's an option. My reasoning for making it standalone was that
> > there are no dependencies in the (trivial) collection/aggregation part,
> > so that code might conveniently replace/extend existing snippets of
> > code that collect distributions in ad-hoc and perhaps suboptimal ways.
>
> But that's what perf and tracing already does today, right?

Maybe I am mistaken but I believe there are substantial performance and use case
differences between kstats and existing perf/tracing code, as described below.

kstats is meant to be a) used for manual code annotations and b) be as
fast as possible.
For a) there are already several places in the kernel (a grep
indicates fs/fscache, drivers/md/,
some drivers; I am sure there are more places) where we accumulate and export
metrics in ad-hoc ways (packet sizes, memory requests, requests
execution times).
There are other places where we would in principle have the information (eg
CONFIG_IRQ_TIME_ACCOUNTING knows intervals spent in soft/hard interrupts;
napi calls report how much of the budget has been used; NIC drivers know actual
batch sizes) but we don't try to accumulate it even though it would be
precious for
performance tuning.
kstats in my view fits this use case

For b), the manual annotations are as fast as possible, and kstats_record() with
a hot cache takes only about 5ns, and 250ns with cold cache (this is probably
the same as the existing code that it is meant to replace), and
inherits the accuracy
of the base clock (ktime_get_ns() is about 20ns on x86).
This means that we can definitely tell apart samples that differ by
O(50ns), which is
the order of magnitude of cache misses, and instrument even
sub-microsecond sections
of code with limited impact on performance. For networking code for
instance, or other
high speed drivers, scheduler-related functions, signaling latencies
etc, those are
a significant use case.

The tracepoint/kprobe/kretprobe solution is much more expensive --
from my measurements,
the hooks that invoke the various handlers take ~250ns with hot cache,
1500+ns with cold
cache, and tracing an empty function this way reports 90ns with hot
cache, 500ns with
cold cache.
As a consequence, enabling tracing through those hooks is only viable
on much longer time
intervals, and the much coarser accuracy (anything shorter than those
90..500ns becomes
hidden in the noise) would hide shorter phenomena.

>  You need to
> integrate into the existing subsystems of the kernel and not duplicate
> things, creating new user/kernel apis whenever possible.

For the above, I am not sure this is a duplication.
Perhaps part of the problem is that "perf and tracing" are too general
terms, and while
at a high level they encompass every possible monitoring activity, the
actual implementation
seems to me orthogonal to kstats. Of course we can fold the 300 lines
of kstats into
perf/tracing, but then I wonder, do we need to bring in the whole
thing when all we need
is just the smaller component ?

cheers
luigi

Re: [PATCH 0/2] quickstats, kernel sample collector

[Greg KH]

On Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 03:40:27AM -0800, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 2:15 AM Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 01:52:25AM -0800, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
> > > On Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 12:10 AM Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > On Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 06:30:25PM -0800, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
> > > > > This patchset introduces a small library to collect per-cpu samples and
> > > > > accumulate distributions to be exported through debugfs.
> > > >
> > > > Shouldn't this be part of the tracing infrastructure instead of being
> > > > "stand-alone"?
> > >
> > > That's an option. My reasoning for making it standalone was that
> > > there are no dependencies in the (trivial) collection/aggregation part,
> > > so that code might conveniently replace/extend existing snippets of
> > > code that collect distributions in ad-hoc and perhaps suboptimal ways.
> >
> > But that's what perf and tracing already does today, right?
> 
> Maybe I am mistaken but I believe there are substantial performance and use case
> differences between kstats and existing perf/tracing code, as described below.

<snip>

Then put that in the changelog text and get the perf and tracing
developers to agree with you on it and sign off on the patches.

Don't try to create yet-another-tracing interface without getting their
approval please.  That's not how to do things.

thanks,

greg k-h