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NAME

       perf-trace-python - Process trace data with a Python script

SYNOPSIS

       perf trace [-s [Python]:script[.py] ]

DESCRIPTION

       This perf trace option is used to process perf trace data using perf's
       built-in Python interpreter. It reads and processes the input file and
       displays the results of the trace analysis implemented in the given
       Python script, if any.

A QUICK EXAMPLE

       This section shows the process, start to finish, of creating a working
       Python script that aggregates and extracts useful information from a
       raw perf trace stream. You can avoid reading the rest of this document
       if an example is enough for you; the rest of the document provides more
       details on each step and lists the library functions available to
       script writers.

       This example actually details the steps that were used to create the
       syscall-counts script you see when you list the available perf trace
       scripts via perf trace -l. As such, this script also shows how to
       integrate your script into the list of general-purpose perf trace
       scripts listed by that command.

       The syscall-counts script is a simple script, but demonstrates all the
       basic ideas necessary to create a useful script. Here's an example of
       its output (syscall names are not yet supported, they will appear as
       numbers):

           .ft C
           syscall events:

           event                                          count
           ----------------------------------------  -----------
           sys_write                                     455067
           sys_getdents                                    4072
           sys_close                                       3037
           sys_swapoff                                     1769
           sys_read                                         923
           sys_sched_setparam                               826
           sys_open                                         331
           sys_newfstat                                     326
           sys_mmap                                         217
           sys_munmap                                       216
           sys_futex                                        141
           sys_select                                       102
           sys_poll                                          84
           sys_setitimer                                     12
           sys_writev                                         8
           15                                                 8
           sys_lseek                                          7
           sys_rt_sigprocmask                                 6
           sys_wait4                                          3
           sys_ioctl                                          3
           sys_set_robust_list                                1
           sys_exit                                           1
           56                                                 1
           sys_access                                         1
           .ft

       Basically our task is to keep a per-syscall tally that gets updated
       every time a system call occurs in the system. Our script will do that,
       but first we need to record the data that will be processed by that
       script. Theoretically, there are a couple of ways we could do that:

       o   we could enable every event under the tracing/events/syscalls
           directory, but this is over 600 syscalls, well beyond the number
           allowable by perf. These individual syscall events will however be
           useful if we want to later use the guidance we get from the
           general-purpose scripts to drill down and get more detail about
           individual syscalls of interest.

       o   we can enable the sys_enter and/or sys_exit syscalls found under
           tracing/events/raw_syscalls. These are called for all syscalls; the
           id field can be used to distinguish between individual syscall
           numbers.

       For this script, we only need to know that a syscall was entered; we
       don't care how it exited, so we'll use perf record to record only the
       sys_enter events:

           .ft C
           # perf record -a -e raw_syscalls:sys_enter

           ^C[ perf record: Woken up 1 times to write data ]
           [ perf record: Captured and wrote 56.545 MB perf.data (~2470503 samples) ]
           .ft

       The options basically say to collect data for every syscall event
       system-wide and multiplex the per-cpu output into a single stream. That
       single stream will be recorded in a file in the current directory
       called perf.data.

       Once we have a perf.data file containing our data, we can use the -g
       perf trace option to generate a Python script that will contain a
       callback handler for each event type found in the perf.data trace
       stream (for more details, see the STARTER SCRIPTS section).

           .ft C
           # perf trace -g python
           generated Python script: perf-trace.py

           The output file created also in the current directory is named
           perf-trace.py.  Here's the file in its entirety:

           # perf trace event handlers, generated by perf trace -g python
           # Licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL License version 2

           # The common_* event handler fields are the most useful fields common to
           # all events.  They don't necessarily correspond to the 'common_*' fields
           # in the format files.  Those fields not available as handler params can
           # be retrieved using Python functions of the form common_*(context).
           # See the perf-trace-python Documentation for the list of available functions.

           import os
           import sys

           sys.path.append(os.environ['PERF_EXEC_PATH'] + \
                   '/scripts/python/Perf-Trace-Util/lib/Perf/Trace')

           from perf_trace_context import *
           from Core import *

           def trace_begin():
                   print "in trace_begin"

           def trace_end():
                   print "in trace_end"

           def raw_syscalls__sys_enter(event_name, context, common_cpu,
                   common_secs, common_nsecs, common_pid, common_comm,
                   id, args):
                           print_header(event_name, common_cpu, common_secs, common_nsecs,
                                   common_pid, common_comm)

                           print "id=%d, args=%s\n" % \
                           (id, args),

           def trace_unhandled(event_name, context, common_cpu, common_secs, common_nsecs,
                           common_pid, common_comm):
                           print_header(event_name, common_cpu, common_secs, common_nsecs,
                           common_pid, common_comm)

           def print_header(event_name, cpu, secs, nsecs, pid, comm):
                   print "%-20s %5u %05u.%09u %8u %-20s " % \
                   (event_name, cpu, secs, nsecs, pid, comm),
           .ft

       At the top is a comment block followed by some import statements and a
       path append which every perf trace script should include.

       Following that are a couple generated functions, trace_begin() and
       trace_end(), which are called at the beginning and the end of the
       script respectively (for more details, see the SCRIPT_LAYOUT section
       below).

       Following those are the event handler functions generated one for every
       event in the perf record output. The handler functions take the form
       subsystemevent_name, and contain named parameters, one for each field
       in the event; in this case, there's only one event,
       raw_syscallssys_enter(). (see the EVENT HANDLERS section below for more
       info on event handlers).

       The final couple of functions are, like the begin and end functions,
       generated for every script. The first, trace_unhandled(), is called
       every time the script finds an event in the perf.data file that doesn't
       correspond to any event handler in the script. This could mean either
       that the record step recorded event types that it wasn't really
       interested in, or the script was run against a trace file that doesn't
       correspond to the script.

       The script generated by -g option simply prints a line for each event
       found in the trace stream i.e. it basically just dumps the event and
       its parameter values to stdout. The print_header() function is simply a
       utility function used for that purpose. Let's rename the script and run
       it to see the default output:

           .ft C
           # mv perf-trace.py syscall-counts.py
           # perf trace -s syscall-counts.py

           raw_syscalls__sys_enter     1 00840.847582083     7506 perf                  id=1, args=
           raw_syscalls__sys_enter     1 00840.847595764     7506 perf                  id=1, args=
           raw_syscalls__sys_enter     1 00840.847620860     7506 perf                  id=1, args=
           raw_syscalls__sys_enter     1 00840.847710478     6533 npviewer.bin          id=78, args=
           raw_syscalls__sys_enter     1 00840.847719204     6533 npviewer.bin          id=142, args=
           raw_syscalls__sys_enter     1 00840.847755445     6533 npviewer.bin          id=3, args=
           raw_syscalls__sys_enter     1 00840.847775601     6533 npviewer.bin          id=3, args=
           raw_syscalls__sys_enter     1 00840.847781820     6533 npviewer.bin          id=3, args=
           .
           .
           .
           .ft

       Of course, for this script, we're not interested in printing every
       trace event, but rather aggregating it in a useful way. So we'll get
       rid of everything to do with printing as well as the trace_begin() and
       trace_unhandled() functions, which we won't be using. That leaves us
       with this minimalistic skeleton:

           .ft C
           import os
           import sys

           sys.path.append(os.environ['PERF_EXEC_PATH'] + \
                   '/scripts/python/Perf-Trace-Util/lib/Perf/Trace')

           from perf_trace_context import *
           from Core import *

           def trace_end():
                   print "in trace_end"

           def raw_syscalls__sys_enter(event_name, context, common_cpu,
                   common_secs, common_nsecs, common_pid, common_comm,
                   id, args):
           .ft

       In trace_end(), we'll simply print the results, but first we need to
       generate some results to print. To do that we need to have our
       sys_enter() handler do the necessary tallying until all events have
       been counted. A hash table indexed by syscall id is a good way to store
       that information; every time the sys_enter() handler is called, we
       simply increment a count associated with that hash entry indexed by
       that syscall id:

           .ft C
             syscalls = autodict()

             try:
               syscalls[id] += 1
             except TypeError:
               syscalls[id] = 1
           .ft

       The syscalls autodict object is a special kind of Python dictionary
       (implemented in Core.py) that implements Perl's autovivifying hashes in
       Python i.e. with autovivifying hashes, you can assign nested hash
       values without having to go to the trouble of creating intermediate
       levels if they don't exist e.g syscalls[comm][pid][id] = 1 will create
       the intermediate hash levels and finally assign the value 1 to the hash
       entry for id (because the value being assigned isn't a hash object
       itself, the initial value is assigned in the TypeError exception. Well,
       there may be a better way to do this in Python but that's what works
       for now).

       Putting that code into the raw_syscalls__sys_enter() handler, we
       effectively end up with a single-level dictionary keyed on syscall id
       and having the counts we've tallied as values.

       The print_syscall_totals() function iterates over the entries in the
       dictionary and displays a line for each entry containing the syscall
       name (the dictonary keys contain the syscall ids, which are passed to
       the Util function syscall_name(), which translates the raw syscall
       numbers to the corresponding syscall name strings). The output is
       displayed after all the events in the trace have been processed, by
       calling the print_syscall_totals() function from the trace_end()
       handler called at the end of script processing.

       The final script producing the output shown above is shown in its
       entirety below (syscall_name() helper is not yet available, you can
       only deal with id's for now):

           .ft C
           import os
           import sys

           sys.path.append(os.environ['PERF_EXEC_PATH'] + \
                   '/scripts/python/Perf-Trace-Util/lib/Perf/Trace')

           from perf_trace_context import *
           from Core import *
           from Util import *

           syscalls = autodict()

           def trace_end():
                   print_syscall_totals()

           def raw_syscalls__sys_enter(event_name, context, common_cpu,
                   common_secs, common_nsecs, common_pid, common_comm,
                   id, args):
                   try:
                           syscalls[id] += 1
                   except TypeError:
                           syscalls[id] = 1

           def print_syscall_totals():
               if for_comm is not None:
                       print "\nsyscall events for %s:\n\n" % (for_comm),
               else:
                       print "\nsyscall events:\n\n",

               print "%-40s  %10s\n" % ("event", "count"),
               print "%-40s  %10s\n" % ("----------------------------------------", \
                                            "-----------"),

               for id, val in sorted(syscalls.iteritems(), key = lambda(k, v): (v, k), \
                                             reverse = True):
                       print "%-40s  %10d\n" % (syscall_name(id), val),
           .ft

       The script can be run just as before:

           # perf trace -s syscall-counts.py

       So those are the essential steps in writing and running a script. The
       process can be generalized to any tracepoint or set of tracepoints
       you're interested in - basically find the tracepoint(s) you're
       interested in by looking at the list of available events shown by perf
       list and/or look in /sys/kernel/debug/tracing events for detailed event
       and field info, record the corresponding trace data using perf record,
       passing it the list of interesting events, generate a skeleton script
       using perf trace -g python and modify the code to aggregate and display
       it for your particular needs.

       After you've done that you may end up with a general-purpose script
       that you want to keep around and have available for future use. By
       writing a couple of very simple shell scripts and putting them in the
       right place, you can have your script listed alongside the other
       scripts listed by the perf trace -l command e.g.:

           .ft C
           root@tropicana:~# perf trace -l
           List of available trace scripts:
             workqueue-stats                      workqueue stats (ins/exe/create/destroy)
             wakeup-latency                       system-wide min/max/avg wakeup latency
             rw-by-file <comm>                    r/w activity for a program, by file
             rw-by-pid                            system-wide r/w activity
           .ft

       A nice side effect of doing this is that you also then capture the
       probably lengthy perf record command needed to record the events for
       the script.

       To have the script appear as a built-in script, you write two simple
       scripts, one for recording and one for reporting.

       The record script is a shell script with the same base name as your
       script, but with -record appended. The shell script should be put into
       the perf/scripts/python/bin directory in the kernel source tree. In
       that script, you write the perf record command-line needed for your
       script:

           .ft C
           # cat kernel-source/tools/perf/scripts/python/bin/syscall-counts-record

           #!/bin/bash
           perf record -a -e raw_syscalls:sys_enter
           .ft

       The report script is also a shell script with the same base name as
       your script, but with -report appended. It should also be located in
       the perf/scripts/python/bin directory. In that script, you write the
       perf trace -s command-line needed for running your script:

           .ft C
           # cat kernel-source/tools/perf/scripts/python/bin/syscall-counts-report

           #!/bin/bash
           # description: system-wide syscall counts
           perf trace -s ~/libexec/perf-core/scripts/python/syscall-counts.py
           .ft

       Note that the location of the Python script given in the shell script
       is in the libexec/perf-core/scripts/python directory - this is where
       the script will be copied by make install when you install perf. For
       the installation to install your script there, your script needs to be
       located in the perf/scripts/python directory in the kernel source tree:

           .ft C
           # ls -al kernel-source/tools/perf/scripts/python

           root@tropicana:/home/trz/src/tip# ls -al tools/perf/scripts/python
           total 32
           drwxr-xr-x 4 trz trz 4096 2010-01-26 22:30 .
           drwxr-xr-x 4 trz trz 4096 2010-01-26 22:29 ..
           drwxr-xr-x 2 trz trz 4096 2010-01-26 22:29 bin
           -rw-r--r-- 1 trz trz 2548 2010-01-26 22:29 check-perf-trace.py
           drwxr-xr-x 3 trz trz 4096 2010-01-26 22:49 Perf-Trace-Util
           -rw-r--r-- 1 trz trz 1462 2010-01-26 22:30 syscall-counts.py
           .ft

       Once you've done that (don't forget to do a new make install, otherwise
       your script won't show up at run-time), perf trace -l should show a new
       entry for your script:

           .ft C
           root@tropicana:~# perf trace -l
           List of available trace scripts:
             workqueue-stats                      workqueue stats (ins/exe/create/destroy)
             wakeup-latency                       system-wide min/max/avg wakeup latency
             rw-by-file <comm>                    r/w activity for a program, by file
             rw-by-pid                            system-wide r/w activity
             syscall-counts                       system-wide syscall counts
           .ft

       You can now perform the record step via perf trace record:

           # perf trace record syscall-counts

       and display the output using perf trace report:

           # perf trace report syscall-counts

STARTER SCRIPTS

       You can quickly get started writing a script for a particular set of
       trace data by generating a skeleton script using perf trace -g python
       in the same directory as an existing perf.data trace file. That will
       generate a starter script containing a handler for each of the event
       types in the trace file; it simply prints every available field for
       each event in the trace file.

       You can also look at the existing scripts in
       ~/libexec/perf-core/scripts/python for typical examples showing how to
       do basic things like aggregate event data, print results, etc. Also,
       the check-perf-trace.py script, while not interesting for its results,
       attempts to exercise all of the main scripting features.

EVENT HANDLERS

       When perf trace is invoked using a trace script, a user-defined handler
       function is called for each event in the trace. If there's no handler
       function defined for a given event type, the event is ignored (or
       passed to a trace_handled function, see below) and the next event is
       processed.

       Most of the event's field values are passed as arguments to the handler
       function; some of the less common ones aren't - those are available as
       calls back into the perf executable (see below).

       As an example, the following perf record command can be used to record
       all sched_wakeup events in the system:

           # perf record -a -e sched:sched_wakeup

       Traces meant to be processed using a script should be recorded with the
       above option: -a to enable system-wide collection.

       The format file for the sched_wakep event defines the following fields
       (see /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_wakeup/format):

           .ft C
            format:
                   field:unsigned short common_type;
                   field:unsigned char common_flags;
                   field:unsigned char common_preempt_count;
                   field:int common_pid;
                   field:int common_lock_depth;

                   field:char comm[TASK_COMM_LEN];
                   field:pid_t pid;
                   field:int prio;
                   field:int success;
                   field:int target_cpu;
           .ft

       The handler function for this event would be defined as:

           .ft C
           def sched__sched_wakeup(event_name, context, common_cpu, common_secs,
                  common_nsecs, common_pid, common_comm,
                  comm, pid, prio, success, target_cpu):
                  pass
           .ft

       The handler function takes the form subsystem__event_name.

       The common_* arguments in the handler's argument list are the set of
       arguments passed to all event handlers; some of the fields correspond
       to the common_* fields in the format file, but some are synthesized,
       and some of the common_* fields aren't common enough to to be passed to
       every event as arguments but are available as library functions.

       Here's a brief description of each of the invariant event args:

           event_name                 the name of the event as text
           context                    an opaque 'cookie' used in calls back into perf
           common_cpu                 the cpu the event occurred on
           common_secs                the secs portion of the event timestamp
           common_nsecs               the nsecs portion of the event timestamp
           common_pid                 the pid of the current task
           common_comm                the name of the current process

       All of the remaining fields in the event's format file have
       counterparts as handler function arguments of the same name, as can be
       seen in the example above.

       The above provides the basics needed to directly access every field of
       every event in a trace, which covers 90% of what you need to know to
       write a useful trace script. The sections below cover the rest.

SCRIPT LAYOUT

       Every perf trace Python script should start by setting up a Python
       module search path and 'import'ing a few support modules (see module
       descriptions below):

           .ft C
            import os
            import sys

            sys.path.append(os.environ['PERF_EXEC_PATH'] + \
                         '/scripts/python/Perf-Trace-Util/lib/Perf/Trace')

            from perf_trace_context import *
            from Core import *
           .ft

       The rest of the script can contain handler functions and support
       functions in any order.

       Aside from the event handler functions discussed above, every script
       can implement a set of optional functions:

       trace_begin, if defined, is called before any event is processed and
       gives scripts a chance to do setup tasks:

           .ft C
           def trace_begin:
               pass
           .ft

       trace_end, if defined, is called after all events have been processed
       and gives scripts a chance to do end-of-script tasks, such as display
       results:

           .ft C
           def trace_end:
               pass
           .ft

       trace_unhandled, if defined, is called after for any event that doesn't
       have a handler explicitly defined for it. The standard set of common
       arguments are passed into it:

           .ft C
           def trace_unhandled(event_name, context, common_cpu, common_secs,
                   common_nsecs, common_pid, common_comm):
               pass
           .ft

       The remaining sections provide descriptions of each of the available
       built-in perf trace Python modules and their associated functions.

AVAILABLE MODULES AND FUNCTIONS

       The following sections describe the functions and variables available
       via the various perf trace Python modules. To use the functions and
       variables from the given module, add the corresponding from XXXX import
       line to your perf trace script.

   Core.py Module
       These functions provide some essential functions to user scripts.

       The flag_str and symbol_str functions provide human-readable strings
       for flag and symbolic fields. These correspond to the strings and
       values parsed from the print fmt fields of the event format files:

           flag_str(event_name, field_name, field_value) - returns the string represention corresponding to field_value for the flag field field_name of event event_name
           symbol_str(event_name, field_name, field_value) - returns the string represention corresponding to field_value for the symbolic field field_name of event event_name

       The autodict function returns a special kind of Python dictionary that
       implements Perl's autovivifying hashes in Python i.e. with
       autovivifying hashes, you can assign nested hash values without having
       to go to the trouble of creating intermediate levels if they don't
       exist.

           autodict() - returns an autovivifying dictionary instance

   perf_trace_context Module
       Some of the common fields in the event format file aren't all that
       common, but need to be made accessible to user scripts nonetheless.

       perf_trace_context defines a set of functions that can be used to
       access this data in the context of the current event. Each of these
       functions expects a context variable, which is the same as the context
       variable passed into every event handler as the second argument.

           common_pc(context) - returns common_preempt count for the current event
           common_flags(context) - returns common_flags for the current event
           common_lock_depth(context) - returns common_lock_depth for the current event

   Util.py Module
       Various utility functions for use with perf trace:

           nsecs(secs, nsecs) - returns total nsecs given secs/nsecs pair
           nsecs_secs(nsecs) - returns whole secs portion given nsecs
           nsecs_nsecs(nsecs) - returns nsecs remainder given nsecs
           nsecs_str(nsecs) - returns printable string in the form secs.nsecs
           avg(total, n) - returns average given a sum and a total number of values

SEE ALSO

       perf-trace(1)