[PATCH v14 00/11] perf: Support the deferred unwinding infrastructure

From: Steven Rostedt
Date: Fri Jul 18 2025 - 12:43:37 EST


This is based on top of the deferred unwind core patch series:

https://lore.kernel.org/linux-trace-kernel/20250717004910.297898999@xxxxxxxxxx/
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace.git
unwind/core

This series implements the perf interface to use deferred user space stack
tracing.

The first 5 patches are clean ups and simplifications. There's a standalone
series with these patches here:

https://lore.kernel.org/linux-trace-kernel/20250717173125.434618999@xxxxxxxxxx/


Patch 6 implements a task deferred tracing that works with events following
a specific task (per thread).

Patch 7 implements a per CPU deferred tracing that requires the application
(perf user space) to have a per CPU event buffer for every CPU where a task
may migrate to from the time a deferred request is made to when the stack
trace occurs, as a task may migrate to a different CPU after the request and
before it goes back to user space.

The rest of the patches implement the tool side of perf.

KNOWN ISSUES:

- The marker that adds the USER_DEFERRED when the request was made, should
also add the cookie. As the cookie can be used to figure out if dropped
events missed a stack trace and not to attach a stack trace to the wrong
events.

- The writing of the stack trace should probably be changed to act more like
get_perf_callchain() where it does fixups to uprobes.

The code for this series is located here:

git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace.git
unwind/perf

Head SHA1: 5753b61c16f61e50f35bf0f3dfbf8a00b8de2d51

Changes since v13: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-trace-kernel/20250708020003.565862284@xxxxxxxxxx/

- Missed one location to replace the current->mm == NULL check that still
only checked PF_KTHREAD. It must also check PF_USER_WORKER.

- Need to copy the trace.entries[] one a at a time as the perf entry in
the ring buffer has 64 bit entries, but trace.entries[] are size long.

- Added back the cookie field in perf_callchain_deferred_event structure
(Note, it was a timestamp before) (Namhyung Kim)

- Add the cookie to the comment explaining perf_callchain_deferred_event.

- Fixed deferred_unwind_request() to return 1 if the request was already
queued or was already executed to not incorrectly increment
nr_no_switch_fast.

- Display the cookie in the -D output


Josh Poimboeuf (5):
perf: Remove get_perf_callchain() init_nr argument
perf: Have get_perf_callchain() return NULL if crosstask and user are set
perf: Simplify get_perf_callchain() user logic
perf: Skip user unwind if the task is a kernel thread
perf: Support deferred user callchains

Namhyung Kim (4):
perf tools: Minimal CALLCHAIN_DEFERRED support
perf record: Enable defer_callchain for user callchains
perf script: Display PERF_RECORD_CALLCHAIN_DEFERRED
perf tools: Merge deferred user callchains

Steven Rostedt (2):
perf: Use current->flags & PF_KTHREAD|PF_USER_WORKER instead of current->mm == NULL
perf: Support deferred user callchains for per CPU events

----
include/linux/perf_event.h | 13 +-
include/uapi/linux/perf_event.h | 20 +-
kernel/bpf/stackmap.c | 8 +-
kernel/events/callchain.c | 49 ++--
kernel/events/core.c | 424 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
tools/include/uapi/linux/perf_event.h | 19 +-
tools/lib/perf/include/perf/event.h | 8 +
tools/perf/Documentation/perf-script.txt | 5 +
tools/perf/builtin-script.c | 92 +++++++
tools/perf/util/callchain.c | 24 ++
tools/perf/util/callchain.h | 3 +
tools/perf/util/event.c | 1 +
tools/perf/util/evlist.c | 1 +
tools/perf/util/evlist.h | 1 +
tools/perf/util/evsel.c | 39 +++
tools/perf/util/evsel.h | 1 +
tools/perf/util/machine.c | 1 +
tools/perf/util/perf_event_attr_fprintf.c | 1 +
tools/perf/util/sample.h | 3 +-
tools/perf/util/session.c | 79 ++++++
tools/perf/util/tool.c | 2 +
tools/perf/util/tool.h | 4 +-
22 files changed, 762 insertions(+), 36 deletions(-)