Re: [Patch 0/3] OProfile SPU event profiling support for IBM Cell processor

2008-11-25 Thread Arnd Bergmann
On Tuesday 25 November 2008, Carl Love wrote:
 This patch set consists of two kernel patches and one user level patch
 to add SPU event based profiling support to OProfile for the IBM Cell
 processor.  The first patch in the series is the user level patch that
 adds the needed events and event checking to the user tool.  The second
 patch is the first of two kernel patches.  It makes some structural
 changes to the kernel code to make it easier to add the specific
 functions for doing SPU event profiling.  The first kernel patch does
 not make any functional changes.  The third patch in the series is the
 second kernel patch where the actual SPU event profiling code support is
 added to the kernel.

Thanks for your submission!

I can't comment on the oprofile user code, but I have some comments
on the implementation in the third patch.

Are the patches interdependent, or will old versions of the oprofile
tool work with new kernels and vice versa?

Arnd 
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Re: [Patch 0/3] OProfile SPU event profiling support for IBM Cell processor

2008-11-25 Thread Carl Love

On Tue, 2008-11-25 at 17:00 +0100, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
 On Tuesday 25 November 2008, Carl Love wrote:
  This patch set consists of two kernel patches and one user level patch
  to add SPU event based profiling support to OProfile for the IBM Cell
  processor.  The first patch in the series is the user level patch that
  adds the needed events and event checking to the user tool.  The second
  patch is the first of two kernel patches.  It makes some structural
  changes to the kernel code to make it easier to add the specific
  functions for doing SPU event profiling.  The first kernel patch does
  not make any functional changes.  The third patch in the series is the
  second kernel patch where the actual SPU event profiling code support is
  added to the kernel.
 
 Thanks for your submission!
 
 I can't comment on the oprofile user code, but I have some comments
 on the implementation in the third patch.
 
 Are the patches interdependent, or will old versions of the oprofile
 tool work with new kernels and vice versa?
 
   Arnd 

There are two cases:1) new kernel code and old user tool. This works
fine, user is not able to do SPU events as the user code doesn't support
them.  Case 2) old kernel code and new user tool.  I realized that I
hadn't tested this case.  So, I just did.  What happens is the event
counters get setup for the SPU event but the kernel code treats it as if
it is a PPU event.  OProfile runs, you get a report for the PPU
processors listing the SPU event as the PPU event used.  Unfortunately,
the report is all garbage and not obvious to the naive user that it is
garbage.  Looks like we will need to put a check into the user code to
make sure it does not try to do SPU event profiling if the kernel
doesn't support it.  Argh!

  Carl Love


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