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https://github.com/theonewolf/libperf

libperf is a library that wraps around the syscall perf_event_open(). This library exposes the kernel performance counters subsystem to userspace code. It can be used to efficiently trace portions of code with kernel support.
https://github.com/theonewolf/libperf

Last synced: 18 days ago
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Host: GitHub
URL: https://github.com/theonewolf/libperf
Owner: theonewolf
Created: 2010-12-14T06:09:42.000Z (almost 14 years ago)
Default Branch: master
Last Pushed: 2021-06-26T22:46:52.000Z (over 3 years ago)
Last Synced: 2024-07-31T22:57:00.746Z (3 months ago)
Language: C
Homepage:
Size: 195 KB
Stars: 53
Watchers: 6
Forks: 19
Open Issues: 7
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README

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README

/******************************************************************************
* README *
* Authors: Wolfgang Richter and Ekaterina Taralova and Karl Naden *
* Contact: {wolf,etaralova,kbn}@cs.cmu.edu *
* *
* Description: This file contains the README for a perf counters interfacing *
* library *
* *
* *
* Copyright (c) 2010 Wolfgang Richter and Ekaterina Taralova and Karl Naden. *
* Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document *
* under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 *
* or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; *
* with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.*
* A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "License". *
* *
******************************************************************************/

Table Of Contents ..................................... [TOC]

Introduction ..................................... [INTRO-1]
Dependencies ..................................... [DEPEN-2]
Building ..................................... [BUILD-3]
Using the Library ..................................... [USING-4]
License ..................................... [LICEN-5]

[INTRO-1] Introduction
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This document describes the libperf library implemented as an interface to a
syscall introduced in a mature form into the Linux Kernel mainline in 2009. This
interface was previously only usable via a binary tool called 'perf' included in
Linux Kernel source distributions today.

There are several key shortcomings of interfacing with the system call only
through a controlled binary. The first is that the granularity of tracing
hardware performance counter registers and software tracepoints is at a whole
binary level. There is no method for tracing portions of code within the
application if desired. This is because there is no nice API exposed to
userspace developers that can interface with this system call. The second
shortcoming is that the tool, although extensive, may not account for every
possible use case for these counters and tracepoints. Offering a
non-restrictive API to userspace gives developers full power and freedom to
implement any functionality desired.

libperf closes this gap and provides an API for interfacing with the system
call used by the perf tool. This provides all of the power of the tool with
the granularity of snippets of code.

[DEPEN-2] Dependencies
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
libperf depends only on having a modern Linux Kernel installed.

libperf is currently compatible with Linux Kernel version 2.6.32+.

Do this on your system [uname -a]:

test@test:/tmp$ uname -a
Linux test 2.6.32-25-generic #45-Ubuntu SMP Sat Oct 16 19:48:22 UTC 2010 \
i686 GNU/Linux

Which tells us that the kernel we have installed is 2.6.32-25-generic.

[BUILD-3] Building
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Building libperf is a snap because there are no dependencies!

Then just run ./configure and make as:

cd libperf
./configure
make
sudo make install

If you're a developer of libperf, there's one extra step:

cd libperf
./bootstrap.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install

[USING-4] Using the Library
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Using the library is fairly simple. Obtain a handle into the library using the
'libperf_initialize' function. This handle may be used in future library calls.
'libperf_readcounter' is used to read a single 64 bit counter from the library.
The available counters are defined in the 'enum libperf_tracepoint'.
'libperf_enablecounter' and 'libperf_disablecounter' are used to enable and
disable individual counters as desired. There are two ways of shutting the
library down cleanly:

(1) 'libperf_finalize' -- use this function to provide a log of all counters
(2) 'libperf_close' -- use this function to just shutdown without final logging

'libperf_finalize' appends logs into a file named after the 'pid' value passed
into 'libperf_initialize'. If the pid value is -1, then the library will use
the system call 'gettid' to obtain the thread id of the current running thread
of execution (equivalent to the pid of a single-threaded application). Also,
setting the 'cpu' value to -1 when initializing causes the libperf counters to
count across all cpu's for a given thread id.

'libperf_getlogger' will give a file stream to write to. This is the same log
file used by the 'libperf_finalize' method and is unique per thread.

'libperf_unit_test' performs a small test of the library, allocating a
gigabyte of memory, touching each byte, and logging performance counters.

Example using some of the functions in an example:

#include /* for PRIu64 definition */
#include /* for uint64_t */
#include /* for printf family */
#include /* for EXIT_SUCCESS definition */
#include "libperf.h" /* standard libperf include */

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
struct libperf_data* pd = libperf_initialize(-1,-1); /* init lib */
libperf_enablecounter(pd, LIBPERF_COUNT_HW_INSTRUCTIONS);
/* enable HW counter */
uint64_t counter = libperf_readcounter(pd,
LIBPERF_COUNT_HW_INSTRUCTIONS);
/* obtain counter value */
libperf_disablecounter(pd, LIBPERF_COUNT_HW_INSTRUCTIONS);
/* disable HW counter */

fprintf(stdout, "counter read: %"PRIu64"\n", counter); /* printout */

FILE* log = libperf_getlogger(pd); /* get log file stream */
fprintf(log, "custom log message\n"); /* print a custom log message */

libperf_finalize(pd, 0); /* log all counter values */

return EXIT_SUCCESS; /* success exit value */
}

To compile the previous program the proper flags must be passed to 'gcc':

test@test:/tmp$ pkg-config --libs --cflags libperf
-I/usr/local/include/perf -I/usr/local/lib/perf/include -L/usr/local/lib -lperf

which tells us to do:

gcc -I/usr/local/include/perf -I/usr/local/lib/perf/include -L/usr/local/lib -lperf example.c

[LICEN-5] License
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
libperf is licensed under the GPLv2 because it includes GPLv2 licensed code from
the perf tool and perf counters subsystem included in the Linux Kernel source
tree. You may find a copy of this license in the file 'gpl-2.0.txt'. In
addition, all source code contains a notice at the top with license details.

What this means to you: if you release applications or libraries linking with or
using code from libperf, either statically or dynamically, your applications or
libraries must also be released under the terms of the GPLv2. Source code must
be made available and contain the proper copyright notices as described in the
GPLv2.

See this official Free Software Foundation FAQ question as reference:

If a library is released under the GPL (not the LGPL), does that mean
that any program which uses it has to be under the GPL?

Yes, because the program as it is actually run includes the
library.

All documentation for libperf is licensed under the GFDLv1.3 which is included
in the file 'fdl-1.3.txt'.