The patch set unblocks collection of LBR call stack data simultaneously with raw thread stack data by --call-graph dwarf,SIZE option:
$perf record -g --call-graph dwarf,1024 -j stack,u -- stack_test Collected LBR call stack can be used to augment dwarf call stack calculated from the raw thread stack data and to provide more comprehensive call stack information for cases when collected SIZE is not enough to cover complete thread stack. Such cases are typical for workloads that allocate large arrays of data on its threads stacks or the possible SIZE to collect can't be large enough due to workload nature or system configuration and this is where hardware captured LBR call stacks can provide missing stack frames. Possible dwarf plus LBR call stacks consolidation algorithm description follows. With this patch set perf report command UI currently ignores collected LBR call stack data and still provides dwarf based call stacks information. =========================================================================== Overview: Legend: THS - thread stack CTX - thread register context SWS - software stack SSF - skipped stack frames PSS - Perf sample stack ip,sp,bp - HW registers values d - allocated stack regions kip - ip address in the kernel space K - captured thread stack size THS ----- | |<-stack bottom ... |---| |ip4| |---| PSS = SWS(THS(K)) | | --> | | | |d3 | user/ | |---| user PSS kernel PSS | |ip3| ------ ------ | |---| |SSF | |SSF | | | | .... .... | | | ------ ------ | |d2 | | -1 | | -1 | |---| user ------ ------ K |ip2| CTX |ip3 | |ip3 | |---| |----| |----| | |d1 | ... |ip2 | , |ip2 | | |---| |---| |----| |----| | |ip1| |bp0| |ip1 | |ip1 | | |---| |---| |----| |----| | | | |ip0|->|ip0 | |ip0 |<-user stack top | | | |---| ------ ------ | | |<-|sp0|<-stack |kip0|<-kernel stack bottom --> ----- ----- top |----| |kip1| |----| |kip2| |----| .... | |<-kernel stack top ------ Algorithm details: Legend: HWS - hardware stack K-SWS - kernel software stack BRANCH TABLE HWS ip ip from to ------ ----------- |ip7`| |ip7`| | |----| |----|----| |ip6`| |ip6`| | user PSS |----| |----|----| |ip5`| |ip5`| | ------ |----| |----|----| | -1 | |ip4`| |ip4`| | ------ |----| |----|----| |ip3 |~~~|ip3`| |ip3`| | |----| |----| |----|----| |ip2 |~~~|ip2`| |ip2`| | |----| |----| |----|----| |ip1 |~~~|ip1`| |ip1`|ip0`| |----| |----| ----------- |ip0 |~~~|ip0`|<---------' ------ ------ 1. if (sym(ipj) == sym(ipj`)), j=0-3 ===> user PSS 2. ipj` , j=4-7 ===> user PSS Augmented PSS = A_SWS(SWS(THS(K)), HWS): user/ user PSS kernel PSS ------ ------ |ip7`| |ip7`|<-user PSS bottom |----| |----| |ip6`| |ip6`| |----| |----| HWS |ip5`| |ip5`| |----| |----| |ip4`| |ip4`| ------ ------ |ip3 | |ip3 | |----| |----| SWS |ip2 | |ip2 | |----| |----| |ip1 | |ip1 | |----| |----| |ip0 | |ip0 |<-user PSS top ------ ------ |kip0|<-kernel PSS bottom |----| |kip1| K-SWS |----| |kip2| |----| |kip3|<-kernel PSS top ------ APSS =========================================================================== --- Alexey Budankov (3): perf record: enable LBR callstack capture jointly with thread stack perf report: dump LBR callstack data by -D jointly with thread stack perf report: prefer dwarf callstacks to LBR ones when captured both tools/perf/builtin-report.c | 2 ++ tools/perf/util/parse-branch-options.c | 1 + tools/perf/util/session.c | 31 ++++++++++++++++---------- 3 files changed, 22 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-) -- 2.20.1