PMC(3) FreeBSD Library Functions Manual PMC(3)
NAME
pmc - library for accessing hardware performance monitoring counters
LIBRARY
Performance Counters Library (libpmc, -lpmc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <pmc.h>
DESCRIPTION
The Performance Counters Library (libpmc, -lpmc) provides a programming
interface that allows applications to use hardware performance counters
to gather performance data about specific processes or for the system as
a whole. The library is implemented using the lower-level facilities
offered by the hwpmc(4) driver.
Key Concepts
Performance monitoring counters (PMCs) are represented by the library
using a software abstraction. These "abstract" PMCs can have two scopes:
• System scope. These PMCs measure events in a whole-system manner,
i.e., independent of the currently executing thread. System scope
PMCs are allocated on specific CPUs and do not migrate between CPUs.
Non-privileged process are allowed to allocate system scope PMCs if
the hwpmc(4) sysctl tunable: security.bsd.unprivileged_syspmcs is
non-zero.
• Process scope. These PMCs only measure hardware events when the
processes they are attached to are executing on a CPU. In an SMP
system, process scope PMCs migrate between CPUs along with their
target processes.
Orthogonal to PMC scope, PMCs may be allocated in one of two operational
modes:
• Counting PMCs measure events according to their scope (system or
process). The application needs to explicitly read these counters to
retrieve their value.
• Sampling PMCs cause the CPU to be periodically interrupted and
information about its state of execution to be collected. Sampling
PMCs are used to profile specific processes and kernel threads or to
profile the system as a whole.
The scope and operational mode for a software PMC are specified at PMC
allocation time. An application is allowed to allocate multiple PMCs
subject to availability of hardware resources.
The library uses human-readable strings to name the event being measured
by hardware. The syntax used for specifying a hardware event along with
additional event specific qualifiers (if any) is described in detail in
section EVENT SPECIFIERS below.
PMCs are associated with the process that allocated them and will be
automatically reclaimed by the system when the process exits.
Additionally, process-scope PMCs have to be attached to one or more
target processes before they can perform measurements. A process-scope
PMC may be attached to those target processes that its owner process
would otherwise be permitted to debug. An owner process may attach PMCs
to itself allowing it to measure its own behavior. Additionally, on some
machine architectures, such self-attached PMCs may be read cheaply using
specialized instructions supported by the processor.
Certain kinds of PMCs require that a log file be configured before they
may be started. These include:
• System scope sampling PMCs.
• Process scope sampling PMCs.
• Process scope counting PMCs that have been configured to report PMC
readings on process context switches or process exits.
Up to one log file may be configured per owner process. Events logged to
a log file may be subsequently analyzed using the pmclog(3) family of
functions.
Supported CPUs
The CPUs known to the PMC library are named by the enum pmc_cputype
enumeration. Supported CPUs include:
PMC_CPU_AMD_K7 AMD Athlon CPUs.
PMC_CPU_AMD_K8 AMD Athlon64 CPUs.
PMC_CPU_INTEL_ATOM Intel Atom CPUs and other CPUs conforming to
version 3 of the Intel performance measurement
architecture.
PMC_CPU_INTEL_CORE Intel Core Solo and Core Duo CPUs, and other CPUs
conforming to version 1 of the Intel performance
measurement architecture.
PMC_CPU_INTEL_CORE2 Intel Core2 Solo, Core2 Duo and Core2 Extreme
CPUs, and other CPUs conforming to version 2 of
the Intel performance measurement architecture.
Supported PMCs
PMC supported by this library are named by the enum pmc_class
enumeration. Supported PMC kinds include:
PMC_CLASS_IAF Fixed function hardware counters presents in CPUs
conforming to the Intel performance measurement
architecture version 2 and later.
PMC_CLASS_IAP Programmable hardware counters present in CPUs
conforming to the Intel performance measurement
architecture version 1 and later.
PMC_CLASS_K7 Programmable hardware counters present in AMD Athlon
CPUs.
PMC_CLASS_K8 Programmable hardware counters present in AMD Athlon64
CPUs.
PMC_CLASS_TSC The timestamp counter on i386 and amd64 architecture
CPUs.
PMC_CLASS_SOFT Software events.
PMC Capabilities
Capabilities of performance monitoring hardware are denoted using the
enum pmc_caps enumeration. Supported capabilities include:
PMC_CAP_CASCADE The ability to cascade counters.
PMC_CAP_EDGE The ability to count negated to asserted
transitions of the hardware conditions being probed
for.
PMC_CAP_INTERRUPT The ability to interrupt the CPU.
PMC_CAP_INVERT The ability to invert the sense of the hardware
conditions being measured.
PMC_CAP_PRECISE The ability to perform precise sampling.
PMC_CAP_QUALIFIER The hardware allows monitored to be further
qualified in some system dependent way.
PMC_CAP_READ The ability to read from performance counters.
PMC_CAP_SYSTEM The ability to restrict counting of hardware events
to when the CPU is running privileged code.
PMC_CAP_THRESHOLD The ability to ignore simultaneous hardware events
below a programmable threshold.
PMC_CAP_USER The ability to restrict counting of hardware events
to those when the CPU is running unprivileged code.
PMC_CAP_WRITE The ability to write to performance counters.
CPU Naming Conventions
CPUs are named using small integers from zero up to, but excluding, the
value returned by function pmc_ncpu(). On platforms supporting sparsely
numbered CPUs not all the numbers in this range will denote valid CPUs.
Operations on non-existent CPUs will return an error.
Functional Grouping of the API
This section contains a brief overview of the available functionality in
the PMC library. Each function listed here is described further in its
own manual page.
Administration
pmc_disable(), pmc_enable()
Administratively disable (enable) specific performance
monitoring counter hardware. Counters that are disabled will
not be available to applications to use.
Convenience Functions
pmc_event_names_of_class()
Returns a list of event names supported by a given PMC type.
pmc_name_of_capability()
Convert a PMC_CAP_* flag to a human-readable string.
pmc_name_of_class()
Convert a PMC_CLASS_* constant to a human-readable string.
pmc_name_of_cputype()
Return a human-readable name for a CPU type.
pmc_name_of_disposition()
Return a human-readable string describing a PMC's
disposition.
pmc_name_of_event()
Convert a numeric event code to a human-readable string.
pmc_name_of_mode()
Convert a PMC_MODE_* constant to a human-readable name.
pmc_name_of_state()
Return a human-readable string describing a PMC's current
state.
Library Initialization
pmc_init()
Initialize the library. This function must be called before
any other library function.
Log File Handling
pmc_configure_logfile()
Configure a log file for hwpmc(4) to write logged events to.
pmc_flush_logfile()
Flush all pending log data in hwpmc(4)'s buffers.
pmc_close_logfile()
Flush all pending log data and close hwpmc(4)'s side of the
stream.
pmc_writelog()
Append arbitrary user data to the current log file.
PMC Management
pmc_allocate(), pmc_release()
Allocate (free) a PMC.
pmc_attach(), pmc_detach()
Attach (detach) a process scope PMC to a target.
pmc_read(), pmc_write(), pmc_rw()
Read (write) a value from (to) a PMC.
pmc_start(), pmc_stop()
Start (stop) a software PMC.
pmc_set()
Set the reload value for a sampling PMC.
Queries
pmc_capabilities()
Retrieve the capabilities for a given PMC.
pmc_cpuinfo()
Retrieve information about the CPUs and PMC hardware present
in the system.
pmc_get_driver_stats()
Retrieve statistics maintained by hwpmc(4).
pmc_ncpu()
Determine the greatest possible CPU number on the system.
pmc_npmc()
Return the number of hardware PMCs present in a given CPU.
pmc_pmcinfo()
Return information about the state of a given CPU's PMCs.
pmc_width()
Determine the width of a hardware counter in bits.
x86 Architecture Specific API
pmc_get_msr()
Returns the processor model specific register number
associated with pmc. Applications may then use the x86 RDPMC
instruction to directly read the contents of the PMC.
Signal Handling Requirements
Applications using PMCs are required to handle the following signals:
SIGBUS When the hwpmc(4) module is unloaded using kldunload(8),
processes that have PMCs allocated to them will be sent a
SIGBUS signal.
SIGIO The hwpmc(4) driver will send a PMC owning process a SIGIO
signal if:
• If any process-mode PMC allocated by it loses all its
target processes.
• If the driver encounters an error when writing log data
to a configured log file. This error may be retrieved by
a subsequent call to pmc_flush_logfile().
Typical Program Flow
1. An application would first invoke function pmc_init() to allow the
library to initialize itself.
2. Signal handling would then be set up.
3. Next the application would allocate the PMCs it desires using
function pmc_allocate().
4. Initial values for PMCs may be set using function pmc_set().
5. If a log file is necessary for the PMCs to work, it would be
configured using function pmc_configure_logfile().
6. Process scope PMCs would then be attached to their target processes
using function pmc_attach().
7. The PMCs would then be started using function pmc_start().
8. Once started, the values of counting PMCs may be read using function
pmc_read(). For PMCs that write events to the log file, this logged
data would be read and parsed using the pmclog(3) family of
functions.
9. PMCs are stopped using function pmc_stop(), and process scope PMCs
are detached from their targets using function pmc_detach().
10. Before the process exits, its may release its PMCs using function
pmc_release(). Any configured log file may be closed using function
pmc_configure_logfile().
EVENT SPECIFIERS
Event specifiers are strings comprising of an event name, followed by
optional parameters modifying the semantics of the hardware event being
probed. Event names are PMC architecture dependent, but the PMC library
defines machine independent aliases for commonly used events.
Event specifiers spellings are case-insensitive and space characters,
periods, underscores and hyphens are considered equivalent to each other.
Thus the event specifiers "Example Event", "example-event", and
"EXAMPLE_EVENT" are equivalent.
PMC Architecture Dependent Events
PMC architecture dependent event specifiers are described in the
following manual pages:
PMC Class Manual Page
PMC_CLASS_IAF pmc.iaf(3)
PMC_CLASS_IAP pmc.atom(3), pmc.core(3), pmc.core2(3)
PMC_CLASS_K7 pmc.k7(3)
PMC_CLASS_K8 pmc.k8(3)
PMC_CLASS_TSC pmc.tsc(3)
Event Name Aliases
Event name aliases are PMC-independent names for commonly used events.
The following aliases are known to this version of the pmc library:
branches
Measure the number of branches retired.
branch-mispredicts
Measure the number of retired branches that were mispredicted.
cycles Measure processor cycles. This event is implemented using the
processor's Time Stamp Counter register.
dc-misses
Measure the number of data cache misses.
ic-misses
Measure the number of instruction cache misses.
instructions
Measure the number of instructions retired.
interrupts
Measure the number of interrupts seen.
unhalted-cycles
Measure the number of cycles the processor is not in a halted or
sleep state.
COMPATIBILITY
The interface between the pmc library and the hwpmc(4) driver is intended
to be private to the implementation and may change. In order to ease
forward compatibility with future versions of the hwpmc(4) driver,
applications are urged to dynamically link with the pmc library.
The pmc API is currently under development.
SEE ALSO
pmc.atom(3), pmc.core(3), pmc.core2(3), pmc.haswell(3), pmc.haswelluc(3),
pmc.haswellxeon(3), pmc.iaf(3), pmc.ivybridge(3), pmc.ivybridgexeon(3),
pmc.k7(3), pmc.k8(3), pmc.mips24k(3), pmc.octeon(3), pmc.sandybridge(3),
pmc.sandybridgeuc(3), pmc.sandybridgexeon(3), pmc.soft(3), pmc.tsc(3),
pmc.westmere(3), pmc.westmereuc(3), pmc_allocate(3), pmc_attach(3),
pmc_capabilities(3), pmc_configure_logfile(3), pmc_disable(3),
pmc_event_names_of_class(3), pmc_get_driver_stats(3), pmc_get_msr(3),
pmc_init(3), pmc_name_of_capability(3), pmc_read(3), pmc_set(3),
pmc_start(3), pmclog(3), hwpmc(4), pmccontrol(8), pmcstat(8)
HISTORY
The pmc library first appeared in FreeBSD 6.0.
AUTHORS
The Performance Counters Library (libpmc, -lpmc) library was written by
Joseph Koshy <jkoshy@FreeBSD.org>.
FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6 August 10, 2021 FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6
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