perf arm64: Inject missing frames when using 'perf record --call-graph=fp'
authorAlexandre Truong <alexandre.truong@arm.com>
Fri, 17 Dec 2021 15:45:20 +0000 (15:45 +0000)
committerArnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@redhat.com>
Tue, 21 Dec 2021 21:37:13 +0000 (18:37 -0300)
commitb9f6fbb3b2c29736970ae9fcc0e82b0bd459442b
treed28d48f7c671a41832a4a4f2da05de9dcde2bdaa
parentffc60350489db9f6e3010ac1e795078cb0d06efe
perf arm64: Inject missing frames when using 'perf record --call-graph=fp'

When unwinding using frame pointers on ARM64, the return address of the
current function may not have been pushed into the stack when a function
was interrupted, which makes perf show an incorrect call graph to the
user.

Consider the following example program:

  void leaf() {
      /* long computation */
  }

  void parent() {
      // (1)
      leaf();
      // (2)
  }

  ... could be compiled into (using gcc -fno-inline -fno-omit-frame-pointer):

  leaf:
      /* long computation */
      nop
      ret
  parent:
      // (1)
      stp     x29, x30, [sp, -16]!
      mov     x29, sp
      bl      parent
      nop
      ldp     x29, x30, [sp], 16
      // (2)
      ret

If the program is interrupted at (1), (2), or any point in "leaf:", the
call graph will skip the callers of the current function. We can unwind
using the dwarf info and check if the return addr is the same as the LR
register, and inject the missing frame into the call graph.

Before this patch, the above example shows the following call-graph when
recording using "--call-graph fp" mode in ARM64:

  # Children      Self  Command   Shared Object     Symbol
  # ........  ........  ........  ................  ......................
  #
      99.86%    99.86%  program3  program3          [.] leaf
       |
       ---_start
          __libc_start_main
          main
          leaf

As can be seen, the "parent" function is missing. This is specially
problematic in "leaf" because for leaf functions the compiler may always
omit pushing the return addr into the stack. After this patch, it shows
the correct graph:

  # Children      Self  Command   Shared Object     Symbol
  # ........  ........  ........  ................  ......................
  #
      99.86%    99.86%  program3  program3          [.] leaf
       |
       ---_start
          __libc_start_main
          main
          parent
          leaf

Reviewed-by: James Clark <james.clark@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Alexandre Truong <alexandre.truong@arm.com>
Acked-by: Jiri Olsa <jolsa@kernel.org>
Cc: Alexander Shishkin <alexander.shishkin@linux.intel.com>
Cc: John Garry <john.garry@huawei.com>
Cc: Leo Yan <leo.yan@linaro.org>
Cc: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>
Cc: Mathieu Poirier <mathieu.poirier@linaro.org>
Cc: Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>
Cc: Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>
Cc: linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20211217154521.80603-7-german.gomez@arm.com
Signed-off-by: German Gomez <german.gomez@arm.com>
[ Rename machine__normalize_is() to machine__normalized_is(), as suggested by James Clark ]
Signed-off-by: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@redhat.com>
tools/perf/util/Build
tools/perf/util/arm64-frame-pointer-unwind-support.c [new file with mode: 0644]
tools/perf/util/arm64-frame-pointer-unwind-support.h [new file with mode: 0644]
tools/perf/util/machine.c
tools/perf/util/machine.h