Profiling execution time for __alloc_pages_nodemask

From: Shivank Garg
Date: Mon May 10 2021 - 11:23:03 EST


Hi Everyone!

I want to profile the time taken to execute the __alloc_pages_nodemask
for different linux configurations/parameters.
To measure the execution time, I use the ktime_get() apis. I get the
ktime_get() on the top, and I want to do ktime_sub(ktime_get(),ktime)
and record it in a tracepoint.
However, the patch on implementation prevents the kernel from booting
up. I debugged the bug to find out that the issue recurs on adding
ktime_get() inside the __alloc_pages_nodemask path. So, that the
kernel fails to boot up ( and show the blank screen without any logs )
I'm using the Linux kernel 5.6.13 (5821a5593fa9f28eb6fcc95c35d00454d9bb8624)

Is it an expected behavior? or a BUG? Has anyone else faced the same issue?

Can you please suggest, what would be a good way to measure execution
time for page allocation (if not ktime_get)

Stay Safe!
Best Regards,
Shivank Garg
Open-Source Enthusiast and Student, IIT Kanpur