| ############### |
| Timerlat tracer |
| ############### |
| |
| The timerlat tracer aims to help the preemptive kernel developers to |
| find sources of wakeup latencies of real-time threads. Like cyclictest, |
| the tracer sets a periodic timer that wakes up a thread. The thread then |
| computes a *wakeup latency* value as the difference between the *current |
| time* and the *absolute time* that the timer was set to expire. The main |
| goal of timerlat is tracing in such a way to help kernel developers. |
| |
| Usage |
| ----- |
| |
| Write the ASCII text "timerlat" into the current_tracer file of the |
| tracing system (generally mounted at /sys/kernel/tracing). |
| |
| For example:: |
| |
| [root@f32 ~]# cd /sys/kernel/tracing/ |
| [root@f32 tracing]# echo timerlat > current_tracer |
| |
| It is possible to follow the trace by reading the trace trace file:: |
| |
| [root@f32 tracing]# cat trace |
| # tracer: timerlat |
| # |
| # _-----=> irqs-off |
| # / _----=> need-resched |
| # | / _---=> hardirq/softirq |
| # || / _--=> preempt-depth |
| # || / |
| # |||| ACTIVATION |
| # TASK-PID CPU# |||| TIMESTAMP ID CONTEXT LATENCY |
| # | | | |||| | | | | |
| <idle>-0 [000] d.h1 54.029328: #1 context irq timer_latency 932 ns |
| <...>-867 [000] .... 54.029339: #1 context thread timer_latency 11700 ns |
| <idle>-0 [001] dNh1 54.029346: #1 context irq timer_latency 2833 ns |
| <...>-868 [001] .... 54.029353: #1 context thread timer_latency 9820 ns |
| <idle>-0 [000] d.h1 54.030328: #2 context irq timer_latency 769 ns |
| <...>-867 [000] .... 54.030330: #2 context thread timer_latency 3070 ns |
| <idle>-0 [001] d.h1 54.030344: #2 context irq timer_latency 935 ns |
| <...>-868 [001] .... 54.030347: #2 context thread timer_latency 4351 ns |
| |
| |
| The tracer creates a per-cpu kernel thread with real-time priority that |
| prints two lines at every activation. The first is the *timer latency* |
| observed at the *hardirq* context before the activation of the thread. |
| The second is the *timer latency* observed by the thread. The ACTIVATION |
| ID field serves to relate the *irq* execution to its respective *thread* |
| execution. |
| |
| The *irq*/*thread* splitting is important to clarify in which context |
| the unexpected high value is coming from. The *irq* context can be |
| delayed by hardware-related actions, such as SMIs, NMIs, IRQs, |
| or by thread masking interrupts. Once the timer happens, the delay |
| can also be influenced by blocking caused by threads. For example, by |
| postponing the scheduler execution via preempt_disable(), scheduler |
| execution, or masking interrupts. Threads can also be delayed by the |
| interference from other threads and IRQs. |
| |
| Tracer options |
| --------------------- |
| |
| The timerlat tracer is built on top of osnoise tracer. |
| So its configuration is also done in the osnoise/ config |
| directory. The timerlat configs are: |
| |
| - cpus: CPUs at which a timerlat thread will execute. |
| - timerlat_period_us: the period of the timerlat thread. |
| - stop_tracing_us: stop the system tracing if a |
| timer latency at the *irq* context higher than the configured |
| value happens. Writing 0 disables this option. |
| - stop_tracing_total_us: stop the system tracing if a |
| timer latency at the *thread* context is higher than the configured |
| value happens. Writing 0 disables this option. |
| - print_stack: save the stack of the IRQ occurrence, and print |
| it after the *thread context* event". |
| |
| timerlat and osnoise |
| ---------------------------- |
| |
| The timerlat can also take advantage of the osnoise: traceevents. |
| For example:: |
| |
| [root@f32 ~]# cd /sys/kernel/tracing/ |
| [root@f32 tracing]# echo timerlat > current_tracer |
| [root@f32 tracing]# echo 1 > events/osnoise/enable |
| [root@f32 tracing]# echo 25 > osnoise/stop_tracing_total_us |
| [root@f32 tracing]# tail -10 trace |
| cc1-87882 [005] d..h... 548.771078: #402268 context irq timer_latency 13585 ns |
| cc1-87882 [005] dNLh1.. 548.771082: irq_noise: local_timer:236 start 548.771077442 duration 7597 ns |
| cc1-87882 [005] dNLh2.. 548.771099: irq_noise: qxl:21 start 548.771085017 duration 7139 ns |
| cc1-87882 [005] d...3.. 548.771102: thread_noise: cc1:87882 start 548.771078243 duration 9909 ns |
| timerlat/5-1035 [005] ....... 548.771104: #402268 context thread timer_latency 39960 ns |
| |
| In this case, the root cause of the timer latency does not point to a |
| single cause but to multiple ones. Firstly, the timer IRQ was delayed |
| for 13 us, which may point to a long IRQ disabled section (see IRQ |
| stacktrace section). Then the timer interrupt that wakes up the timerlat |
| thread took 7597 ns, and the qxl:21 device IRQ took 7139 ns. Finally, |
| the cc1 thread noise took 9909 ns of time before the context switch. |
| Such pieces of evidence are useful for the developer to use other |
| tracing methods to figure out how to debug and optimize the system. |
| |
| It is worth mentioning that the *duration* values reported |
| by the osnoise: events are *net* values. For example, the |
| thread_noise does not include the duration of the overhead caused |
| by the IRQ execution (which indeed accounted for 12736 ns). But |
| the values reported by the timerlat tracer (timerlat_latency) |
| are *gross* values. |
| |
| The art below illustrates a CPU timeline and how the timerlat tracer |
| observes it at the top and the osnoise: events at the bottom. Each "-" |
| in the timelines means circa 1 us, and the time moves ==>:: |
| |
| External timer irq thread |
| clock latency latency |
| event 13585 ns 39960 ns |
| | ^ ^ |
| v | | |
| |-------------| | |
| |-------------+-------------------------| |
| ^ ^ |
| ======================================================================== |
| [tmr irq] [dev irq] |
| [another thread...^ v..^ v.......][timerlat/ thread] <-- CPU timeline |
| ========================================================================= |
| |-------| |-------| |
| |--^ v-------| |
| | | | |
| | | + thread_noise: 9909 ns |
| | +-> irq_noise: 6139 ns |
| +-> irq_noise: 7597 ns |
| |
| IRQ stacktrace |
| --------------------------- |
| |
| The osnoise/print_stack option is helpful for the cases in which a thread |
| noise causes the major factor for the timer latency, because of preempt or |
| irq disabled. For example:: |
| |
| [root@f32 tracing]# echo 500 > osnoise/stop_tracing_total_us |
| [root@f32 tracing]# echo 500 > osnoise/print_stack |
| [root@f32 tracing]# echo timerlat > current_tracer |
| [root@f32 tracing]# tail -21 per_cpu/cpu7/trace |
| insmod-1026 [007] dN.h1.. 200.201948: irq_noise: local_timer:236 start 200.201939376 duration 7872 ns |
| insmod-1026 [007] d..h1.. 200.202587: #29800 context irq timer_latency 1616 ns |
| insmod-1026 [007] dN.h2.. 200.202598: irq_noise: local_timer:236 start 200.202586162 duration 11855 ns |
| insmod-1026 [007] dN.h3.. 200.202947: irq_noise: local_timer:236 start 200.202939174 duration 7318 ns |
| insmod-1026 [007] d...3.. 200.203444: thread_noise: insmod:1026 start 200.202586933 duration 838681 ns |
| timerlat/7-1001 [007] ....... 200.203445: #29800 context thread timer_latency 859978 ns |
| timerlat/7-1001 [007] ....1.. 200.203446: <stack trace> |
| => timerlat_irq |
| => __hrtimer_run_queues |
| => hrtimer_interrupt |
| => __sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt |
| => asm_call_irq_on_stack |
| => sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt |
| => asm_sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt |
| => delay_tsc |
| => dummy_load_1ms_pd_init |
| => do_one_initcall |
| => do_init_module |
| => __do_sys_finit_module |
| => do_syscall_64 |
| => entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe |
| |
| In this case, it is possible to see that the thread added the highest |
| contribution to the *timer latency* and the stack trace, saved during |
| the timerlat IRQ handler, points to a function named |
| dummy_load_1ms_pd_init, which had the following code (on purpose):: |
| |
| static int __init dummy_load_1ms_pd_init(void) |
| { |
| preempt_disable(); |
| mdelay(1); |
| preempt_enable(); |
| return 0; |
| |
| } |
