[PATCH] Add debugging feature /proc/timer_stat

Add /proc/timer_stats support: debugging feature to profile timer expiration.
Both the starting site, process/PID and the expiration function is captured.
This allows the quick identification of timer event sources in a system.

Sample output:

# echo 1 > /proc/timer_stats
# cat /proc/timer_stats
Timer Stats Version: v0.1
Sample period: 4.010 s
  24,     0 swapper          hrtimer_stop_sched_tick (hrtimer_sched_tick)
  11,     0 swapper          sk_reset_timer (tcp_delack_timer)
   6,     0 swapper          hrtimer_stop_sched_tick (hrtimer_sched_tick)
   2,     1 swapper          queue_delayed_work_on (delayed_work_timer_fn)
  17,     0 swapper          hrtimer_restart_sched_tick (hrtimer_sched_tick)
   2,     1 swapper          queue_delayed_work_on (delayed_work_timer_fn)
   4,  2050 pcscd            do_nanosleep (hrtimer_wakeup)
   5,  4179 sshd             sk_reset_timer (tcp_write_timer)
   4,  2248 yum-updatesd     schedule_timeout (process_timeout)
  18,     0 swapper          hrtimer_restart_sched_tick (hrtimer_sched_tick)
   3,     0 swapper          sk_reset_timer (tcp_delack_timer)
   1,     1 swapper          neigh_table_init_no_netlink (neigh_periodic_timer)
   2,     1 swapper          e1000_up (e1000_watchdog)
   1,     1 init             schedule_timeout (process_timeout)
100 total events, 25.24 events/sec

[ cleanups and hrtimers support from Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> ]
[bunk@stusta.de: nr_entries can become static]
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: john stultz <johnstul@us.ibm.com>
Cc: Roman Zippel <zippel@linux-m68k.org>
Cc: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de>
Signed-off-by: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>

1 files changed, 68 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/hrtimer/timer_stats.txt b/Documentation/hrtimer/timer_stats.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..27f782e3593
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/hrtimer/timer_stats.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+timer_stats - timer usage statistics
+------------------------------------
+
+timer_stats is a debugging facility to make the timer (ab)usage in a Linux
+system visible to kernel and userspace developers. It is not intended for
+production usage as it adds significant overhead to the (hr)timer code and the
+(hr)timer data structures.
+
+timer_stats should be used by kernel and userspace developers to verify that
+their code does not make unduly use of timers. This helps to avoid unnecessary
+wakeups, which should be avoided to optimize power consumption.
+
+It can be enabled by CONFIG_TIMER_STATS in the "Kernel hacking" configuration
+section.
+
+timer_stats collects information about the timer events which are fired in a
+Linux system over a sample period:
+
+- the pid of the task(process) which initialized the timer
+- the name of the process which initialized the timer
+- the function where the timer was intialized
+- the callback function which is associated to the timer
+- the number of events (callbacks)
+
+timer_stats adds an entry to /proc: /proc/timer_stats
+
+This entry is used to control the statistics functionality and to read out the
+sampled information.
+
+The timer_stats functionality is inactive on bootup.
+
+To activate a sample period issue:
+# echo 1 >/proc/timer_stats
+
+To stop a sample period issue:
+# echo 0 >/proc/timer_stats
+
+The statistics can be retrieved by:
+# cat /proc/timer_stats
+
+The readout of /proc/timer_stats automatically disables sampling. The sampled
+information is kept until a new sample period is started. This allows multiple
+readouts.
+
+Sample output of /proc/timer_stats:
+
+Timerstats sample period: 3.888770 s
+  12,     0 swapper          hrtimer_stop_sched_tick (hrtimer_sched_tick)
+  15,     1 swapper          hcd_submit_urb (rh_timer_func)
+   4,   959 kedac            schedule_timeout (process_timeout)
+   1,     0 swapper          page_writeback_init (wb_timer_fn)
+  28,     0 swapper          hrtimer_stop_sched_tick (hrtimer_sched_tick)
+  22,  2948 IRQ 4            tty_flip_buffer_push (delayed_work_timer_fn)
+   3,  3100 bash             schedule_timeout (process_timeout)
+   1,     1 swapper          queue_delayed_work_on (delayed_work_timer_fn)
+   1,     1 swapper          queue_delayed_work_on (delayed_work_timer_fn)
+   1,     1 swapper          neigh_table_init_no_netlink (neigh_periodic_timer)
+   1,  2292 ip               __netdev_watchdog_up (dev_watchdog)
+   1,    23 events/1         do_cache_clean (delayed_work_timer_fn)
+90 total events, 30.0 events/sec
+
+The first column is the number of events, the second column the pid, the third
+column is the name of the process. The forth column shows the function which
+initialized the timer and in parantheses the callback function which was
+executed on expiry.
+
+    Thomas, Ingo
+