Re: [PATCH v4 1/6] perf arm-spe: Remove unused enum value ARM_SPE_PER_CPU_MMAPS

From: Leo Yan
Date: Thu Apr 15 2021 - 10:42:08 EST


Hi James,

On Thu, Apr 15, 2021 at 05:13:36PM +0300, James Clark wrote:
> On 12/04/2021 12:10, Leo Yan wrote:
> > The enum value 'ARM_SPE_PER_CPU_MMAPS' is never used so remove it.
>
> Hi Leo,
>
> I think this causes an error when attempting to open a newly recorded file
> with an old version of perf. The value ARM_SPE_AUXTRACE_PRIV_MAX is used here:
>
> size_t min_sz = sizeof(u64) * ARM_SPE_AUXTRACE_PRIV_MAX;
> struct perf_record_time_conv *tc = &session->time_conv;
> struct arm_spe *spe;
> int err;
>
> if (auxtrace_info->header.size < sizeof(struct perf_record_auxtrace_info) +
> min_sz)
> return -EINVAL;
>
> And removing ARM_SPE_PER_CPU_MMAPS changes the value of ARM_SPE_AUXTRACE_PRIV_MAX.
>
> At least I think that's what's causing the problem. I get this error:
>
> ./perf report -i per-thread-spe-time.data
> 0x1c0 [0x18]: failed to process type: 70 [Invalid argument]
> Error:
> failed to process sample
> # To display the perf.data header info, please use --header/--header-only options.
> #

Yes, when working on this patch I had concern as well.

I carefully thought that the perf tool should be backwards-compatible,
but there have no requirement for forwards-compatibility. This is the
main reason why I kept this patch.

If you or anyone could confirm the forwards-compatibility is required,
it's quite fine for me to drop this patch.

Thanks a lot for the reviewing and testing!
Leo