perf-record(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | INTEL HYBRID SUPPORT | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

PERF-RECORD(1)                 perf Manual                PERF-RECORD(1)

NAME         top

       perf-record - Run a command and record its profile into perf.data

SYNOPSIS         top

       perf record [-e <EVENT> | --event=EVENT] [-a] <command>
       perf record [-e <EVENT> | --event=EVENT] [-a] -- <command> [<options>]

DESCRIPTION         top

       This command runs a command and gathers a performance counter
       profile from it, into perf.data - without displaying anything.

       This file can then be inspected later on, using perf report.

OPTIONS         top

       <command>...
           Any command you can specify in a shell.

       -e, --event=
           Select the PMU event. Selection can be:

           •   a symbolic event name (use perf list to list all events)

           •   a raw PMU event in the form of rN where N is a
               hexadecimal value that represents the raw register
               encoding with the layout of the event control registers
               as described by entries in
               /sys/bus/event_source/devices/cpu/format/*.

           •   a symbolic or raw PMU event followed by an optional colon
               and a list of event modifiers, e.g., cpu-cycles:p. See
               the perf-list(1) man page for details on event modifiers.

           •   a symbolically formed PMU event like
               pmu/param1=0x3,param2/ where param1, param2, etc are
               defined as formats for the PMU in
               /sys/bus/event_source/devices/<pmu>/format/*.

           •   a symbolically formed event like
               pmu/config=M,config1=N,config3=K/

                   where M, N, K are numbers (in decimal, hex, octal format). Acceptable
                   values for each of 'config', 'config1' and 'config2' are defined by
                   corresponding entries in /sys/bus/event_source/devices/<pmu>/format/*
                   param1 and param2 are defined as formats for the PMU in:
                   /sys/bus/event_source/devices/<pmu>/format/*

                   There are also some parameters which are not defined in .../<pmu>/format/*.
                   These params can be used to overload default config values per event.
                   Here are some common parameters:
                   - 'period': Set event sampling period
                   - 'freq': Set event sampling frequency
                   - 'time': Disable/enable time stamping. Acceptable values are 1 for
                             enabling time stamping. 0 for disabling time stamping.
                             The default is 1.
                   - 'call-graph': Disable/enable callgraph. Acceptable str are "fp" for
                                  FP mode, "dwarf" for DWARF mode, "lbr" for LBR mode and
                                  "no" for disable callgraph.
                   - 'stack-size': user stack size for dwarf mode
                   - 'name' : User defined event name. Single quotes (') may be used to
                             escape symbols in the name from parsing by shell and tool
                             like this: name=\'CPU_CLK_UNHALTED.THREAD:cmask=0x1\'.
                   - 'aux-output': Generate AUX records instead of events. This requires
                                   that an AUX area event is also provided.
                   - 'aux-sample-size': Set sample size for AUX area sampling. If the
                   '--aux-sample' option has been used, set aux-sample-size=0 to disable
                   AUX area sampling for the event.

                   See the linkperf:perf-list[1] man page for more parameters.

                   Note: If user explicitly sets options which conflict with the params,
                   the value set by the parameters will be overridden.

                   Also not defined in .../<pmu>/format/* are PMU driver specific
                   configuration parameters.  Any configuration parameter preceded by
                   the letter '@' is not interpreted in user space and sent down directly
                   to the PMU driver.  For example:

                   perf record -e some_event/@cfg1,@cfg2=config/ ...

                   will see 'cfg1' and 'cfg2=config' pushed to the PMU driver associated
                   with the event for further processing.  There is no restriction on
                   what the configuration parameters are, as long as their semantic is
                   understood and supported by the PMU driver.

           •   a hardware breakpoint event in the form of
               \mem:addr[/len][:access] where addr is the address in
               memory you want to break in. Access is the memory access
               type (read, write, execute) it can be passed as follows:
               \mem:addr[:[r][w][x]]. len is the range, number of bytes
               from specified addr, which the breakpoint will cover. If
               you want to profile read-write accesses in 0x1000, just
               set mem:0x1000:rw. If you want to profile write accesses
               in [0x1000~1008), just set mem:0x1000/8:w.

           •   a group of events surrounded by a pair of brace
               ("{event1,event2,...}"). Each event is separated by
               commas and the group should be quoted to prevent the
               shell interpretation. You also need to use --group on
               "perf report" to view group events together.

       --filter=<filter>
           Event filter. This option should follow an event selector
           (-e). If the event is a tracepoint, the filter string will be
           parsed by the kernel. If the event is a hardware trace PMU
           (e.g. Intel PT or CoreSight), it’ll be processed as an
           address filter. Otherwise it means a general filter using BPF
           which can be applied for any kind of event.

           •   tracepoint filters

                   In the case of tracepoints, multiple '--filter' options are combined
                   using '&&'.

           •   address filters

                   A hardware trace PMU advertises its ability to accept a number of
                   address filters by specifying a non-zero value in
                   /sys/bus/event_source/devices/<pmu>/nr_addr_filters.

                   Address filters have the format:

                   filter|start|stop|tracestop <start> [/ <size>] [@<file name>]

                   Where:
                   - 'filter': defines a region that will be traced.
                   - 'start': defines an address at which tracing will begin.
                   - 'stop': defines an address at which tracing will stop.
                   - 'tracestop': defines a region in which tracing will stop.

                   <file name> is the name of the object file, <start> is the offset to the
                   code to trace in that file, and <size> is the size of the region to
                   trace. 'start' and 'stop' filters need not specify a <size>.

                   If no object file is specified then the kernel is assumed, in which case
                   the start address must be a current kernel memory address.

                   <start> can also be specified by providing the name of a symbol. If the
                   symbol name is not unique, it can be disambiguated by inserting #n where
                   'n' selects the n'th symbol in address order. Alternately #0, #g or #G
                   select only a global symbol. <size> can also be specified by providing
                   the name of a symbol, in which case the size is calculated to the end
                   of that symbol. For 'filter' and 'tracestop' filters, if <size> is
                   omitted and <start> is a symbol, then the size is calculated to the end
                   of that symbol.

                   If <size> is omitted and <start> is '*', then the start and size will
                   be calculated from the first and last symbols, i.e. to trace the whole
                   file.

                   If symbol names (or '*') are provided, they must be surrounded by white
                   space.

                   The filter passed to the kernel is not necessarily the same as entered.
                   To see the filter that is passed, use the -v option.

                   The kernel may not be able to configure a trace region if it is not
                   within a single mapping.  MMAP events (or /proc/<pid>/maps) can be
                   examined to determine if that is a possibility.

                   Multiple filters can be separated with space or comma.

           •   bpf filters

                   A BPF filter can access the sample data and make a decision based on the
                   data.  Users need to set an appropriate sample type to use the BPF
                   filter.  BPF filters need root privilege.

                   The sample data field can be specified in lower case letter.  Multiple
                   filters can be separated with comma.  For example,

                     --filter 'period > 1000, cpu == 1'
                   or
                     --filter 'mem_op == load || mem_op == store, mem_lvl > l1'

                   The former filter only accept samples with period greater than 1000 AND
                   CPU number is 1.  The latter one accepts either load and store memory
                   operations but it should have memory level above the L1.  Since the
                   mem_op and mem_lvl fields come from the (memory) data_source, it'd only
                   work with some events which set the data_source field.

                   Also user should request to collect that information (with -d option in
                   the above case).  Otherwise, the following message will be shown.

                   $ sudo perf record -e cycles --filter 'mem_op == load'
                   Error: cycles event does not have PERF_SAMPLE_DATA_SRC
                    Hint: please add -d option to perf record.
                   failed to set filter "BPF" on event cycles with 22 (Invalid argument)

                   Essentially the BPF filter expression is:

                   <term> <operator> <value> (("," | "||") <term> <operator> <value>)*

                   The <term> can be one of:
                     ip, id, tid, pid, cpu, time, addr, period, txn, weight, phys_addr,
                     code_pgsz, data_pgsz, weight1, weight2, weight3, ins_lat, retire_lat,
                     p_stage_cyc, mem_op, mem_lvl, mem_snoop, mem_remote, mem_lock,
                     mem_dtlb, mem_blk, mem_hops

                   The <operator> can be one of:
                     ==, !=, >, >=, <, <=, &

                   The <value> can be one of:
                     <number> (for any term)
                     na, load, store, pfetch, exec (for mem_op)
                     l1, l2, l3, l4, cxl, io, any_cache, lfb, ram, pmem (for mem_lvl)
                     na, none, hit, miss, hitm, fwd, peer (for mem_snoop)
                     remote (for mem_remote)
                     na, locked (for mem_locked)
                     na, l1_hit, l1_miss, l2_hit, l2_miss, any_hit, any_miss, walk, fault (for mem_dtlb)
                     na, by_data, by_addr (for mem_blk)
                     hops0, hops1, hops2, hops3 (for mem_hops)

       --exclude-perf
           Don’t record events issued by perf itself. This option should
           follow an event selector (-e) which selects tracepoint
           event(s). It adds a filter expression common_pid != $PERFPID
           to filters. If other --filter exists, the new filter
           expression will be combined with them by &&.

       -a, --all-cpus
           System-wide collection from all CPUs (default if no target is
           specified).

       -p, --pid=
           Record events on existing process ID (comma separated list).

       -t, --tid=
           Record events on existing thread ID (comma separated list).
           This option also disables inheritance by default. Enable it
           by adding --inherit.

       -u, --uid=
           Record events in threads owned by uid. Name or number.

       -r, --realtime=
           Collect data with this RT SCHED_FIFO priority.

       --no-buffering
           Collect data without buffering.

       -c, --count=
           Event period to sample.

       -o, --output=
           Output file name.

       -i, --no-inherit
           Child tasks do not inherit counters.

       -F, --freq=
           Profile at this frequency. Use max to use the currently
           maximum allowed frequency, i.e. the value in the
           kernel.perf_event_max_sample_rate sysctl. Will throttle down
           to the currently maximum allowed frequency. See
           --strict-freq.

       --strict-freq
           Fail if the specified frequency can’t be used.

       -m, --mmap-pages=
           Number of mmap data pages (must be a power of two) or size
           specification with appended unit character - B/K/M/G. The
           size is rounded up to have nearest pages power of two value.
           Also, by adding a comma, the number of mmap pages for AUX
           area tracing can be specified.

       -g
           Enables call-graph (stack chain/backtrace) recording for both
           kernel space and user space.

       --call-graph
           Setup and enable call-graph (stack chain/backtrace)
           recording, implies -g. Default is "fp" (for user space).

               The unwinding method used for kernel space is dependent on the
               unwinder used by the active kernel configuration, i.e
               CONFIG_UNWINDER_FRAME_POINTER (fp) or CONFIG_UNWINDER_ORC (orc)

               Any option specified here controls the method used for user space.

               Valid options are "fp" (frame pointer), "dwarf" (DWARF's CFI -
               Call Frame Information) or "lbr" (Hardware Last Branch Record
               facility).

               In some systems, where binaries are build with gcc
               --fomit-frame-pointer, using the "fp" method will produce bogus
               call graphs, using "dwarf", if available (perf tools linked to
               the libunwind or libdw library) should be used instead.
               Using the "lbr" method doesn't require any compiler options. It
               will produce call graphs from the hardware LBR registers. The
               main limitation is that it is only available on new Intel
               platforms, such as Haswell. It can only get user call chain. It
               doesn't work with branch stack sampling at the same time.

               When "dwarf" recording is used, perf also records (user) stack dump
               when sampled.  Default size of the stack dump is 8192 (bytes).
               User can change the size by passing the size after comma like
               "--call-graph dwarf,4096".

               When "fp" recording is used, perf tries to save stack enties
               up to the number specified in sysctl.kernel.perf_event_max_stack
               by default.  User can change the number by passing it after comma
               like "--call-graph fp,32".

       -q, --quiet
           Don’t print any warnings or messages, useful for scripting.

       -v, --verbose
           Be more verbose (show counter open errors, etc).

       -s, --stat
           Record per-thread event counts. Use it with perf report -T to
           see the values.

       -d, --data
           Record the sample virtual addresses.

       --phys-data
           Record the sample physical addresses.

       --data-page-size
           Record the sampled data address data page size.

       --code-page-size
           Record the sampled code address (ip) page size

       -T, --timestamp
           Record the sample timestamps. Use it with perf report -D to
           see the timestamps, for instance.

       -P, --period
           Record the sample period.

       --sample-cpu
           Record the sample cpu.

       --sample-identifier
           Record the sample identifier i.e. PERF_SAMPLE_IDENTIFIER bit
           set in the sample_type member of the struct perf_event_attr
           argument to the perf_event_open system call.

       -n, --no-samples
           Don’t sample.

       -R, --raw-samples
           Collect raw sample records from all opened counters (default
           for tracepoint counters).

       -C, --cpu
           Collect samples only on the list of CPUs provided. Multiple
           CPUs can be provided as a comma-separated list with no space:
           0,1. Ranges of CPUs are specified with -: 0-2. In per-thread
           mode with inheritance mode on (default), samples are captured
           only when the thread executes on the designated CPUs. Default
           is to monitor all CPUs.

       User space tasks can migrate between CPUs, so when tracing
       selected CPUs, a dummy event is created to track sideband for all
       CPUs.

       -B, --no-buildid
           Do not save the build ids of binaries in the perf.data files.
           This skips post processing after recording, which sometimes
           makes the final step in the recording process to take a long
           time, as it needs to process all events looking for mmap
           records. The downside is that it can misresolve symbols if
           the workload binaries used when recording get locally rebuilt
           or upgraded, because the only key available in this case is
           the pathname. You can also set the "record.build-id" config
           variable to 'skip to have this behaviour permanently.

       -N, --no-buildid-cache
           Do not update the buildid cache. This saves some overhead in
           situations where the information in the perf.data file (which
           includes buildids) is sufficient. You can also set the
           "record.build-id" config variable to no-cache to have the
           same effect.

       -G name,..., --cgroup name,...
           monitor only in the container (cgroup) called "name". This
           option is available only in per-cpu mode. The cgroup
           filesystem must be mounted. All threads belonging to
           container "name" are monitored when they run on the monitored
           CPUs. Multiple cgroups can be provided. Each cgroup is
           applied to the corresponding event, i.e., first cgroup to
           first event, second cgroup to second event and so on. It is
           possible to provide an empty cgroup (monitor all the time)
           using, e.g., -G foo,,bar. Cgroups must have corresponding
           events, i.e., they always refer to events defined earlier on
           the command line. If the user wants to track multiple events
           for a specific cgroup, the user can use -e e1 -e e2 -G
           foo,foo or just use -e e1 -e e2 -G foo.

       If wanting to monitor, say, cycles for a cgroup and also for
       system wide, this command line can be used: perf stat -e cycles
       -G cgroup_name -a -e cycles.

       -b, --branch-any
           Enable taken branch stack sampling. Any type of taken branch
           may be sampled. This is a shortcut for --branch-filter any.
           See --branch-filter for more infos.

       -j, --branch-filter
           Enable taken branch stack sampling. Each sample captures a
           series of consecutive taken branches. The number of branches
           captured with each sample depends on the underlying hardware,
           the type of branches of interest, and the executed code. It
           is possible to select the types of branches captured by
           enabling filters. The following filters are defined:

           •   any: any type of branches

           •   any_call: any function call or system call

           •   any_ret: any function return or system call return

           •   ind_call: any indirect branch

           •   ind_jmp: any indirect jump

           •   call: direct calls, including far (to/from kernel) calls

           •   u: only when the branch target is at the user level

           •   k: only when the branch target is in the kernel

           •   hv: only when the target is at the hypervisor level

           •   in_tx: only when the target is in a hardware transaction

           •   no_tx: only when the target is not in a hardware
               transaction

           •   abort_tx: only when the target is a hardware transaction
               abort

           •   cond: conditional branches

           •   call_stack: save call stack

           •   no_flags: don’t save branch flags e.g prediction,
               misprediction etc

           •   no_cycles: don’t save branch cycles

           •   hw_index: save branch hardware index

           •   save_type: save branch type during sampling in case
               binary is not available later For the platforms with
               Intel Arch LBR support (12th-Gen+ client or 4th-Gen Xeon+
               server), the save branch type is unconditionally enabled
               when the taken branch stack sampling is enabled.

           •   priv: save privilege state during sampling in case binary
               is not available later

           •   counter: save occurrences of the event since the last
               branch entry. Currently, the feature is only supported by
               a newer CPU, e.g., Intel Sierra Forest and later
               platforms. An error out is expected if it’s used on the
               unsupported kernel or CPUs.

           The option requires at least one branch type among any,
           any_call, any_ret, ind_call, cond. The privilege levels may
           be omitted, in which case, the privilege levels of the
           associated event are applied to the branch filter. Both
           kernel (k) and hypervisor (hv) privilege levels are subject
           to permissions. When sampling on multiple events, branch
           stack sampling is enabled for all the sampling events. The
           sampled branch type is the same for all events. The various
           filters must be specified as a comma separated list:
           --branch-filter any_ret,u,k Note that this feature may not be
           available on all processors.

       -W, --weight
           Enable weightened sampling. An additional weight is recorded
           per sample and can be displayed with the weight and
           local_weight sort keys. This currently works for TSX abort
           events and some memory events in precise mode on modern Intel
           CPUs.

       --namespaces
           Record events of type PERF_RECORD_NAMESPACES. This enables
           cgroup_id sort key.

       --all-cgroups
           Record events of type PERF_RECORD_CGROUP. This enables cgroup
           sort key.

       --transaction
           Record transaction flags for transaction related events.

       --per-thread
           Use per-thread mmaps. By default per-cpu mmaps are created.
           This option overrides that and uses per-thread mmaps. A
           side-effect of that is that inheritance is automatically
           disabled. --per-thread is ignored with a warning if combined
           with -a or -C options.

       -D, --delay=
           After starting the program, wait msecs before measuring (-1:
           start with events disabled), or enable events only for
           specified ranges of msecs (e.g. -D 10-20,30-40 means wait 10
           msecs, enable for 10 msecs, wait 10 msecs, enable for 10
           msecs, then stop). Note, delaying enabling of events is
           useful to filter out the startup phase of the program, which
           is often very different.

       -I, --intr-regs
           Capture machine state (registers) at interrupt, i.e., on
           counter overflows for each sample. List of captured registers
           depends on the architecture. This option is off by default.
           It is possible to select the registers to sample using their
           symbolic names, e.g. on x86, ax, si. To list the available
           registers use --intr-regs=\?. To name registers, pass a comma
           separated list such as --intr-regs=ax,bx. The list of
           register is architecture dependent.

       --user-regs
           Similar to -I, but capture user registers at sample time. To
           list the available user registers use --user-regs=\?.

       --running-time
           Record running and enabled time for read events (:S)

       -k, --clockid
           Sets the clock id to use for the various time fields in the
           perf_event_type records. See clock_gettime(). In particular
           CLOCK_MONOTONIC and CLOCK_MONOTONIC_RAW are supported, some
           events might also allow CLOCK_BOOTTIME, CLOCK_REALTIME and
           CLOCK_TAI.

       -S, --snapshot
           Select AUX area tracing Snapshot Mode. This option is valid
           only with an AUX area tracing event. Optionally, certain
           snapshot capturing parameters can be specified in a string
           that follows this option:

           •   e: take one last snapshot on exit; guarantees that there
               is at least one snapshot in the output file;

           •   <size>: if the PMU supports this, specify the desired
               snapshot size.

       In Snapshot Mode trace data is captured only when signal SIGUSR2
       is received and on exit if the above e option is given.

       --aux-sample[=OPTIONS]
           Select AUX area sampling. At least one of the events selected
           by the -e option must be an AUX area event. Samples on other
           events will be created containing data from the AUX area.
           Optionally sample size may be specified, otherwise it
           defaults to 4KiB.

       --proc-map-timeout
           When processing pre-existing threads /proc/XXX/mmap, it may
           take a long time, because the file may be huge. A time out is
           needed in such cases. This option sets the time out limit.
           The default value is 500 ms.

       --switch-events
           Record context switch events i.e. events of type
           PERF_RECORD_SWITCH or PERF_RECORD_SWITCH_CPU_WIDE. In some
           cases (e.g. Intel PT, CoreSight or Arm SPE) switch events
           will be enabled automatically, which can be suppressed by by
           the option --no-switch-events.

       --vmlinux=PATH
           Specify vmlinux path which has debuginfo. (enabled when BPF
           prologue is on)

       --buildid-all
           Record build-id of all DSOs regardless whether it’s actually
           hit or not.

       --buildid-mmap
           Record build ids in mmap2 events, disables build id cache
           (implies --no-buildid).

       --aio[=n]
           Use <n> control blocks in asynchronous (Posix AIO) trace
           writing mode (default: 1, max: 4). Asynchronous mode is
           supported only when linking Perf tool with libc library
           providing implementation for Posix AIO API.

       --affinity=mode
           Set affinity mask of trace reading thread according to the
           policy defined by mode value:

           •   node - thread affinity mask is set to NUMA node cpu mask
               of the processed mmap buffer

           •   cpu - thread affinity mask is set to cpu of the processed
               mmap buffer

       --mmap-flush=number
           Specify minimal number of bytes that is extracted from mmap
           data pages and processed for output. One can specify the
           number using B/K/M/G suffixes.

       The maximal allowed value is a quarter of the size of mmaped data
       pages.

       The default option value is 1 byte which means that every time
       that the output writing thread finds some new data in the mmaped
       buffer the data is extracted, possibly compressed (-z) and
       written to the output, perf.data or pipe.

       Larger data chunks are compressed more effectively in comparison
       to smaller chunks so extraction of larger chunks from the mmap
       data pages is preferable from the perspective of output size
       reduction.

       Also at some cases executing less output write syscalls with
       bigger data size can take less time than executing more output
       write syscalls with smaller data size thus lowering runtime
       profiling overhead.

       -z, --compression-level[=n]
           Produce compressed trace using specified level n (default: 1
           - fastest compression, 22 - smallest trace)

       --all-kernel
           Configure all used events to run in kernel space.

       --all-user
           Configure all used events to run in user space.

       --kernel-callchains
           Collect callchains only from kernel space. I.e. this option
           sets perf_event_attr.exclude_callchain_user to 1.

       --user-callchains
           Collect callchains only from user space. I.e. this option
           sets perf_event_attr.exclude_callchain_kernel to 1.

       Don’t use both --kernel-callchains and --user-callchains at the
       same time or no callchains will be collected.

       --timestamp-filename Append timestamp to output file name.

       --timestamp-boundary
           Record timestamp boundary (time of first/last samples).

       --switch-output[=mode]
           Generate multiple perf.data files, timestamp prefixed,
           switching to a new one based on mode value:

           •   "signal" - when receiving a SIGUSR2 (default value) or

           •   <size> - when reaching the size threshold, size is
               expected to be a number with appended unit character -
               B/K/M/G

           •   <time> - when reaching the time threshold, size is
               expected to be a number with appended unit character -
               s/m/h/d

                   Note: the precision of  the size  threshold  hugely depends
                   on your configuration  - the number and size of  your  ring
                   buffers (-m). It is generally more precise for higher sizes
                   (like >5M), for lower values expect different sizes.

       A possible use case is to, given an external event, slice the
       perf.data file that gets then processed, possibly via a perf
       script, to decide if that particular perf.data snapshot should be
       kept or not.

       Implies --timestamp-filename, --no-buildid and
       --no-buildid-cache. The reason for the latter two is to reduce
       the data file switching overhead. You can still switch them on
       with:

           --switch-output --no-no-buildid  --no-no-buildid-cache

       --switch-output-event
           Events that will cause the switch of the perf.data file,
           auto-selecting --switch-output=signal, the results are
           similar as internally the side band thread will also send a
           SIGUSR2 to the main one.

       Uses the same syntax as --event, it will just not be recorded,
       serving only to switch the perf.data file as soon as the
       --switch-output event is processed by a separate sideband thread.

       This sideband thread is also used to other purposes, like
       processing the PERF_RECORD_BPF_EVENT records as they happen,
       asking the kernel for extra BPF information, etc.

       --switch-max-files=N
           When rotating perf.data with --switch-output, only keep N
           files.

       --dry-run
           Parse options then exit. --dry-run can be used to detect
           errors in cmdline options.

       perf record --dry-run -e can act as a BPF script compiler if
       llvm.dump-obj in config file is set to true.

       --synth=TYPE
           Collect and synthesize given type of events (comma
           separated). Note that this option controls the synthesis from
           the /proc filesystem which represent task status for
           pre-existing threads.

       Kernel (and some other) events are recorded regardless of the
       choice in this option. For example, --synth=no would have MMAP
       events for kernel and modules.

       Available types are:

       •   task - synthesize FORK and COMM events for each task

       •   mmap - synthesize MMAP events for each process (implies task)

       •   cgroup - synthesize CGROUP events for each cgroup

       •   all - synthesize all events (default)

       •   no - do not synthesize any of the above events

           --tail-synthesize
               Instead of collecting non-sample events (for example,
               fork, comm, mmap) at the beginning of record, collect
               them during finalizing an output file. The collected
               non-sample events reflects the status of the system when
               record is finished.

           --overwrite
               Makes all events use an overwritable ring buffer. An
               overwritable ring buffer works like a flight recorder:
               when it gets full, the kernel will overwrite the oldest
               records, that thus will never make it to the perf.data
               file.

       When --overwrite and --switch-output are used perf records and
       drops events until it receives a signal, meaning that something
       unusual was detected that warrants taking a snapshot of the most
       current events, those fitting in the ring buffer at that moment.

       overwrite attribute can also be set or canceled for an event
       using config terms. For example: cycles/overwrite/ and
       instructions/no-overwrite/.

       Implies --tail-synthesize.

       --kcore
           Make a copy of /proc/kcore and place it into a directory with
           the perf data file.

       --max-size=<size>
           Limit the sample data max size, <size> is expected to be a
           number with appended unit character - B/K/M/G

       --num-thread-synthesize
           The number of threads to run when synthesizing events for
           existing processes. By default, the number of threads equals
           1.

       --control=fifo:ctl-fifo[,ack-fifo], --control=fd:ctl-fd[,ack-fd]
           ctl-fifo / ack-fifo are opened and used as ctl-fd / ack-fd as
           follows. Listen on ctl-fd descriptor for command to control
           measurement.

       Available commands:

       •   enable : enable events

       •   disable : disable events

       •   enable name : enable event namedisable name : disable event namesnapshot : AUX area tracing snapshot).

       •   stop : stop perf record

       •   ping : ping

       •   'evlist [-v|-g|-F] : display all events

               -F  Show just the sample frequency used for each event.
               -v  Show all fields.
               -g  Show event group information.

       Measurements can be started with events disabled using --delay=-1
       option. Optionally send control command completion (ack\n) to
       ack-fd descriptor to synchronize with the controlling process.
       Example of bash shell script to enable and disable events during
       measurements:

           #!/bin/bash

           ctl_dir=/tmp/

           ctl_fifo=${ctl_dir}perf_ctl.fifo
           test -p ${ctl_fifo} && unlink ${ctl_fifo}
           mkfifo ${ctl_fifo}
           exec {ctl_fd}<>${ctl_fifo}

           ctl_ack_fifo=${ctl_dir}perf_ctl_ack.fifo
           test -p ${ctl_ack_fifo} && unlink ${ctl_ack_fifo}
           mkfifo ${ctl_ack_fifo}
           exec {ctl_fd_ack}<>${ctl_ack_fifo}

           perf record -D -1 -e cpu-cycles -a               \
                       --control fd:${ctl_fd},${ctl_fd_ack} \
                       -- sleep 30 &
           perf_pid=$!

           sleep 5  && echo 'enable' >&${ctl_fd} && read -u ${ctl_fd_ack} e1 && echo "enabled(${e1})"
           sleep 10 && echo 'disable' >&${ctl_fd} && read -u ${ctl_fd_ack} d1 && echo "disabled(${d1})"

           exec {ctl_fd_ack}>&-
           unlink ${ctl_ack_fifo}

           exec {ctl_fd}>&-
           unlink ${ctl_fifo}

           wait -n ${perf_pid}
           exit $?

       --threads=<spec>
           Write collected trace data into several data files using
           parallel threads. <spec> value can be user defined list of
           masks. Masks separated by colon define CPUs to be monitored
           by a thread and affinity mask of that thread is separated by
           slash:

               <cpus mask 1>/<affinity mask 1>:<cpus mask 2>/<affinity mask 2>:...

       CPUs or affinity masks must not overlap with other corresponding
       masks. Invalid CPUs are ignored, but masks containing only
       invalid CPUs are not allowed.

       For example user specification like the following:

           0,2-4/2-4:1,5-7/5-7

       specifies parallel threads layout that consists of two threads,
       the first thread monitors CPUs 0 and 2-4 with the affinity mask
       2-4, the second monitors CPUs 1 and 5-7 with the affinity mask
       5-7.

       <spec> value can also be a string meaning predefined parallel
       threads layout:

       •   cpu - create new data streaming thread for every monitored
           cpu

       •   core - create new thread to monitor CPUs grouped by a core

       •   package - create new thread to monitor CPUs grouped by a
           package

       •   numa - create new threed to monitor CPUs grouped by a NUMA
           domain

       Predefined layouts can be used on systems with large number of
       CPUs in order not to spawn multiple per-cpu streaming threads but
       still avoid LOST events in data directory files. Option specified
       with no or empty value defaults to CPU layout. Masks defined or
       provided by the option value are filtered through the mask
       provided by -C option.

       --debuginfod[=URLs]
           Specify debuginfod URL to be used when cacheing perf.data
           binaries, it follows the same syntax as the DEBUGINFOD_URLS
           variable, like:

               http://192.168.122.174:8002

               If the URLs is not specified, the value of DEBUGINFOD_URLS
               system environment variable is used.

       --off-cpu
           Enable off-cpu profiling with BPF. The BPF program will
           collect task scheduling information with (user) stacktrace
           and save them as sample data of a software event named
           "offcpu-time". The sample period will have the time the task
           slept in nanoseconds.

               Note that BPF can collect stack traces using frame pointer ("fp")
               only, as of now.  So the applications built without the frame
               pointer might see bogus addresses.

INTEL HYBRID SUPPORT         top

       Support for Intel hybrid events within perf tools.

       For some Intel platforms, such as AlderLake, which is hybrid
       platform and it consists of atom cpu and core cpu. Each cpu has
       dedicated event list. Part of events are available on core cpu,
       part of events are available on atom cpu and even part of events
       are available on both.

       Kernel exports two new cpu pmus via sysfs: /sys/devices/cpu_core
       /sys/devices/cpu_atom

       The cpus files are created under the directories. For example,

       cat /sys/devices/cpu_core/cpus 0-15

       cat /sys/devices/cpu_atom/cpus 16-23

       It indicates cpu0-cpu15 are core cpus and cpu16-cpu23 are atom
       cpus.

       As before, use perf-list to list the symbolic event.

       perf list

       inst_retired.any [Fixed Counter: Counts the number of
       instructions retired. Unit: cpu_atom] inst_retired.any [Number of
       instructions retired. Fixed Counter - architectural event. Unit:
       cpu_core]

       The Unit: xxx is added to brief description to indicate which pmu
       the event is belong to. Same event name but with different pmu
       can be supported.

       Enable hybrid event with a specific pmu

       To enable a core only event or atom only event, following syntax
       is supported:

                   cpu_core/<event name>/
           or
                   cpu_atom/<event name>/

       For example, count the cycles event on core cpus.

           perf stat -e cpu_core/cycles/

       Create two events for one hardware event automatically

       When creating one event and the event is available on both atom
       and core, two events are created automatically. One is for atom,
       the other is for core. Most of hardware events and cache events
       are available on both cpu_core and cpu_atom.

       For hardware events, they have pre-defined configs (e.g. 0 for
       cycles). But on hybrid platform, kernel needs to know where the
       event comes from (from atom or from core). The original perf
       event type PERF_TYPE_HARDWARE can’t carry pmu information. So now
       this type is extended to be PMU aware type. The PMU type ID is
       stored at attr.config[63:32].

       PMU type ID is retrieved from sysfs. /sys/devices/cpu_atom/type
       /sys/devices/cpu_core/type

       The new attr.config layout for PERF_TYPE_HARDWARE:

       PERF_TYPE_HARDWARE: 0xEEEEEEEE000000AA AA: hardware event ID
       EEEEEEEE: PMU type ID

       Cache event is similar. The type PERF_TYPE_HW_CACHE is extended
       to be PMU aware type. The PMU type ID is stored at
       attr.config[63:32].

       The new attr.config layout for PERF_TYPE_HW_CACHE:

       PERF_TYPE_HW_CACHE: 0xEEEEEEEE00DDCCBB BB: hardware cache ID CC:
       hardware cache op ID DD: hardware cache op result ID EEEEEEEE:
       PMU type ID

       When enabling a hardware event without specified pmu, such as,
       perf stat -e cycles -a (use system-wide in this example), two
       events are created automatically.

           ------------------------------------------------------------
           perf_event_attr:
             size                             120
             config                           0x400000000
             sample_type                      IDENTIFIER
             read_format                      TOTAL_TIME_ENABLED|TOTAL_TIME_RUNNING
             disabled                         1
             inherit                          1
             exclude_guest                    1
           ------------------------------------------------------------

       and

           ------------------------------------------------------------
           perf_event_attr:
             size                             120
             config                           0x800000000
             sample_type                      IDENTIFIER
             read_format                      TOTAL_TIME_ENABLED|TOTAL_TIME_RUNNING
             disabled                         1
             inherit                          1
             exclude_guest                    1
           ------------------------------------------------------------

       type 0 is PERF_TYPE_HARDWARE. 0x4 in 0x400000000 indicates it’s
       cpu_core pmu. 0x8 in 0x800000000 indicates it’s cpu_atom pmu
       (atom pmu type id is random).

       The kernel creates cycles (0x400000000) on cpu0-cpu15 (core
       cpus), and create cycles (0x800000000) on cpu16-cpu23 (atom
       cpus).

       For perf-stat result, it displays two events:

           Performance counter stats for 'system wide':

           6,744,979      cpu_core/cycles/
           1,965,552      cpu_atom/cycles/

       The first cycles is core event, the second cycles is atom event.

       Thread mode example:

       perf-stat reports the scaled counts for hybrid event and with a
       percentage displayed. The percentage is the event’s running
       time/enabling time.

       One example, triad_loop runs on cpu16 (atom core), while we can
       see the scaled value for core cycles is 160,444,092 and the
       percentage is 0.47%.

       perf stat -e cycles -- taskset -c 16 ./triad_loop

       As previous, two events are created.

           .ft C
           perf_event_attr:
             size                             120
             config                           0x400000000
             sample_type                      IDENTIFIER
             read_format                      TOTAL_TIME_ENABLED|TOTAL_TIME_RUNNING
             disabled                         1
             inherit                          1
             enable_on_exec                   1
             exclude_guest                    1
           .ft

       and

           .ft C
           perf_event_attr:
             size                             120
             config                           0x800000000
             sample_type                      IDENTIFIER
             read_format                      TOTAL_TIME_ENABLED|TOTAL_TIME_RUNNING
             disabled                         1
             inherit                          1
             enable_on_exec                   1
             exclude_guest                    1
           .ft

           Performance counter stats for 'taskset -c 16 ./triad_loop':

           233,066,666      cpu_core/cycles/                                              (0.43%)
           604,097,080      cpu_atom/cycles/                                              (99.57%)

       perf-record:

       If there is no -e specified in perf record, on hybrid platform,
       it creates two default cycles and adds them to event list. One is
       for core, the other is for atom.

       perf-stat:

       If there is no -e specified in perf stat, on hybrid platform,
       besides of software events, following events are created and
       added to event list in order.

       cpu_core/cycles/, cpu_atom/cycles/, cpu_core/instructions/,
       cpu_atom/instructions/, cpu_core/branches/, cpu_atom/branches/,
       cpu_core/branch-misses/, cpu_atom/branch-misses/

       Of course, both perf-stat and perf-record support to enable
       hybrid event with a specific pmu.

       e.g. perf stat -e cpu_core/cycles/ perf stat -e cpu_atom/cycles/
       perf stat -e cpu_core/r1a/ perf stat -e cpu_atom/L1-icache-loads/
       perf stat -e cpu_core/cycles/,cpu_atom/instructions/ perf stat -e
       {cpu_core/cycles/,cpu_core/instructions/}

       But {cpu_core/cycles/,cpu_atom/instructions/} will return warning
       and disable grouping, because the pmus in group are not matched
       (cpu_core vs. cpu_atom).

SEE ALSO         top

       perf-stat(1), perf-list(1), perf-intel-pt(1)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the perf (Performance analysis tools for
       Linux (in Linux source tree)) project.  Information about the
       project can be found at 
       ⟨https://perf.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page⟩.  If you have a
       bug report for this manual page, send it to
       [email protected].  This page was obtained from the
       project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git⟩
       on 2024-06-14.  (At that time, the date of the most recent commit
       that was found in the repository was 2024-06-13.)  If you
       discover any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page,
       or you believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for
       the page, or you have corrections or improvements to the
       information in this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original
       manual page), send a mail to [email protected]

perf                           2023-11-09                 PERF-RECORD(1)

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