This is a note to let you know that I've just added the patch titled perf/x86/intel: Fix inaccurate period in context switch for auto-reload to the 4.9-stable tree which can be found at: http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git;a=summary The filename of the patch is: perf-x86-intel-fix-inaccurate-period-in-context-switch-for-auto-reload.patch and it can be found in the queue-4.9 subdirectory. If you, or anyone else, feels it should not be added to the stable tree, please let <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> know about it. >From f861854e1b435b27197417f6f90d87188003cb24 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Kan Liang <kan.liang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2020 11:01:25 -0800 Subject: perf/x86/intel: Fix inaccurate period in context switch for auto-reload From: Kan Liang <kan.liang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> commit f861854e1b435b27197417f6f90d87188003cb24 upstream. Perf doesn't take the left period into account when auto-reload is enabled with fixed period sampling mode in context switch. Here is the MSR trace of the perf command as below. (The MSR trace is simplified from a ftrace log.) #perf record -e cycles:p -c 2000000 -- ./triad_loop //The MSR trace of task schedule out //perf disable all counters, disable PEBS, disable GP counter 0, //read GP counter 0, and re-enable all counters. //The counter 0 stops at 0xfffffff82840 write_msr: MSR_CORE_PERF_GLOBAL_CTRL(38f), value 0 write_msr: MSR_IA32_PEBS_ENABLE(3f1), value 0 write_msr: MSR_P6_EVNTSEL0(186), value 40003003c rdpmc: 0, value fffffff82840 write_msr: MSR_CORE_PERF_GLOBAL_CTRL(38f), value f000000ff //The MSR trace of the same task schedule in again //perf disable all counters, enable and set GP counter 0, //enable PEBS, and re-enable all counters. //0xffffffe17b80 (-2000000) is written to GP counter 0. write_msr: MSR_CORE_PERF_GLOBAL_CTRL(38f), value 0 write_msr: MSR_IA32_PMC0(4c1), value ffffffe17b80 write_msr: MSR_P6_EVNTSEL0(186), value 40043003c write_msr: MSR_IA32_PEBS_ENABLE(3f1), value 1 write_msr: MSR_CORE_PERF_GLOBAL_CTRL(38f), value f000000ff When the same task schedule in again, the counter should starts from previous left. However, it starts from the fixed period -2000000 again. A special variant of intel_pmu_save_and_restart() is used for auto-reload, which doesn't update the hwc->period_left. When the monitored task schedules in again, perf doesn't know the left period. The fixed period is used, which is inaccurate. With auto-reload, the counter always has a negative counter value. So the left period is -value. Update the period_left in intel_pmu_save_and_restart_reload(). With the patch: //The MSR trace of task schedule out write_msr: MSR_CORE_PERF_GLOBAL_CTRL(38f), value 0 write_msr: MSR_IA32_PEBS_ENABLE(3f1), value 0 write_msr: MSR_P6_EVNTSEL0(186), value 40003003c rdpmc: 0, value ffffffe25cbc write_msr: MSR_CORE_PERF_GLOBAL_CTRL(38f), value f000000ff //The MSR trace of the same task schedule in again write_msr: MSR_CORE_PERF_GLOBAL_CTRL(38f), value 0 write_msr: MSR_IA32_PMC0(4c1), value ffffffe25cbc write_msr: MSR_P6_EVNTSEL0(186), value 40043003c write_msr: MSR_IA32_PEBS_ENABLE(3f1), value 1 write_msr: MSR_CORE_PERF_GLOBAL_CTRL(38f), value f000000ff Fixes: d31fc13fdcb2 ("perf/x86/intel: Fix event update for auto-reload") Signed-off-by: Kan Liang <kan.liang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@xxxxxxxxxx> Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20200121190125.3389-1-kan.liang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- arch/x86/events/intel/ds.c | 2 ++ 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+) --- a/arch/x86/events/intel/ds.c +++ b/arch/x86/events/intel/ds.c @@ -1326,6 +1326,8 @@ intel_pmu_save_and_restart_reload(struct old = ((s64)(prev_raw_count << shift) >> shift); local64_add(new - old + count * period, &event->count); + local64_set(&hwc->period_left, -new); + perf_event_update_userpage(event); return 0; Patches currently in stable-queue which might be from kan.liang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx are queue-4.9/perf-x86-intel-fix-inaccurate-period-in-context-switch-for-auto-reload.patch