illumos: manual page: cpc_buf

CPC_BUF_CREATE(3CPC) CPU Performance Counters Library Functions

NAME

cpc_buf_create, cpc_buf_destroy, cpc_set_sample, cpc_buf_get,
cpc_buf_set, cpc_buf_hrtime, cpc_buf_tick, cpc_buf_sub, cpc_buf_add,
cpc_buf_copy, cpc_buf_zero - sample and manipulate CPC data

SYNOPSIS

cc [ flag... ] file... -lcpc [ library... ]
#include <libcpc.h>

cpc_buf_t *cpc_buf_create(cpc_t *cpc, cpc_set_t *set);

int cpc_buf_destroy(cpc_t *cpc, cpc_buf_t *buf);

int cpc_set_sample(cpc_t *cpc, cpc_set_t *set, cpc_buf_t *buf);

int cpc_buf_get(cpc_t *cpc, cpc_buf_t *buf, int index, uint64_t *val);

int cpc_buf_set(cpc_t *cpc, cpc_buf_t *buf, int index, uint64_t val);

hrtime_t cpc_buf_hrtime(cpc_t *cpc, cpc_buf_t *buf);

uint64_t cpc_buf_tick(cpc_t *cpc, cpc_buf_t *buf);

void cpc_buf_sub(cpc_t *cpc, cpc_buf_t *ds, cpc_buf_t *a, cpc_buf_t *b);

void cpc_buf_add(cpc_t *cpc, cpc_buf_t *ds, cpc_buf_t *a, cpc_buf_t *b);

void cpc_buf_copy(cpc_t *cpc, cpc_buf_t *ds, cpc_buf_t *src);

void cpc_buf_zero(cpc_t *cpc, cpc_buf_t *buf);

DESCRIPTION

Counter data is sampled into CPC buffers, which are represented by the
opaque data type cpc_buf_t. A CPC buffer is created with cpc_buf_create()
to hold the data for a specific CPC set. Once a CPC buffer has been
created, it can only be used to store and manipulate the data of the CPC
set for which it was created.

Once a set has been successfully bound, the counter values are sampled
using cpc_set_sample(). The cpc_set_sample() function takes a snapshot of
the hardware performance counters counting on behalf of the requests in
set and stores the 64-bit virtualized software representations of the
counters in the supplied CPC buffer. If a set was bound with
cpc_bind_curlwp(3CPC) or cpc_bind_curlwp(3CPC), the set can only be
sampled by the LWP that bound it.

The kernel maintains 64-bit virtual software counters to hold the counts
accumulated for each request in the set, thereby allowing applications to
count past the limits of the underlying physical counter, which can be
significantly smaller than 64 bits. The kernel attempts to maintain the
full 64-bit counter values even in the face of physical counter overflow
on architectures and processors that can automatically detect overflow.
If the processor is not capable of overflow detection, the caller must
ensure that the counters are sampled often enough to avoid the physical
counters wrapping. The events most prone to wrap are those that count
processor clock cycles. If such an event is of interest, sampling should
occur frequently so that the counter does not wrap between samples.

The cpc_buf_get() function retrieves the last sampled value of a
particular request in buf. The index argument specifies which request
value in the set to retrieve. The index for each request is returned
during set configuration by cpc_set_add_request(3CPC). The 64-bit
virtualized software counter value is stored in the location pointed to
by the val argument.

The cpc_buf_set() function stores a 64-bit value to a specific request in
the supplied buffer. This operation can be useful for performing
calculations with CPC buffers, but it does not affect the value of the
hardware counter (and thus will not affect the next sample).

The cpc_buf_hrtime() function returns a high-resolution timestamp
indicating exactly when the set was last sampled by the kernel.

The cpc_buf_tick() function returns a 64-bit virtualized cycle counter
indicating how long the set has been programmed into the counter since it
was bound. The units of the values returned by cpc_buf_tick() are CPU
clock cycles.

The cpc_buf_sub() function calculates the difference between each request
in sets a and b, storing the result in the corresponding request within
set ds. More specifically, for each request index n, this function
performs ds[n] = a[n] - b[n]. Similarly, cpc_buf_add() adds each request
in sets a and b and stores the result in the corresponding request within
set ds.

The cpc_buf_copy() function copies each value from buffer src into buffer
ds. Both buffers must have been created from the same cpc_set_t.

The cpc_buf_zero() function sets each request's value in the buffer to
zero.

The cpc_buf_destroy() function frees all resources associated with the
CPC buffer.

RETURN VALUES

Upon successful completion, cpc_buf_create() returns a pointer to a CPC
buffer which can be used to hold data for the set argument. Otherwise,
this function returns NULL and sets errno to indicate the error.

Upon successful completion, cpc_set_sample(), cpc_buf_get(), and
cpc_buf_set() return 0. Otherwise, they return -1 and set errno to
indicate the error.

ERRORS

These functions will fail if:

EINVAL
For cpc_set_sample(), the set is not bound, the set and/or CPC
buffer were not created with the given cpc handle, or the CPC
buffer was not created with the supplied set.

EAGAIN
When using cpc_set_sample() to sample a CPU-bound set, the LWP
has been unbound from the processor it is measuring.

ENOMEM
The library could not allocate enough memory for its internal
data structures.

ATTRIBUTES

NOTES

Often the overhead of performing a system call can be too disruptive to
the events being measured. Once a cpc_bind_curlwp(3CPC) call has been
issued, it is possible to access directly the performance hardware
registers from within the application. If the performance counter context
is active, the counters will count on behalf of the current LWP.

Not all processors support this type of access. On processors where
direct access is not possible, cpc_set_sample() must be used to read the
counters.

SPARC

rd %pic, %rN ! All UltraSPARC
wr %rN, %pic ! (All UltraSPARC, but see text)

x86

rdpmc ! Pentium II, III, and 4 only

If the counter context is not active or has been invalidated, the %pic
register (SPARC), and the rdpmc instruction (Pentium) becomes
unavailable.

Pentium II and III processors support the non-privileged rdpmc
instruction that requires that the counter of interest be specified in
%ecx and return a 40-bit value in the %edx:%eax register pair. There is
no non-privileged access mechanism for Pentium I processors.

January 30, 2004 CPC_BUF_CREATE(3CPC)