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.Dd Apr 15, 2005
.Dt HWPMC 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm hwpmc
.Nd Hardware performance monitoring counter support
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Cd options PMC_HOOKS
.br
.Cd device hwpmc
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
driver virtualizes the hardware performance monitoring facilities in
modern CPUs and provides support for using these facilities from
user level processes.
.Pp
The driver supports multi-processor systems.
.Pp
PMCs are allocated using the
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE
request.
A successful
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE
request will return an integer handle (typically a small integer) to
the requesting process.
Subsequent operations on the allocated PMC use this handle to denote
the specific PMC.
A process that has successfully allocated a PMC is termed an
.Dq "owner process" .
.Pp
PMCs may be allocated to operate in process-private or in system-wide
modes.
.Bl -hang -width "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
.It Em Process-private
In process-private mode, a PMC is active only when a thread belonging
to a process it is attached to is scheduled on a CPU.
.It Em System-wide
In system-wide mode a PMC operates independently of processes and
measures hardware events for the system as a whole.
.El
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver supports the use of hardware PMCs for counting or for
sampling:
.Bl -hang -width "XXXXXXXXX"
.It Em Counting
In counting modes, the PMCs count hardware events.
These counts are retrievable using the
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCREAD
system call on all architectures, though some architectures like the
x86 and amd64 offer faster methods of reading these counts.
.It Em Sampling
In sampling modes, where PMCs are configured to sample the CPU
instruction pointer after a configurable number of hardware events
have been observed.
These instruction pointer samples are directed to a log file for
subsequent analysis.
.El
.Pp
These modes of operation are orthogonal; a PMC may be configured to
operate in one of four modes:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Process-private, counting
These PMCs count hardware events whenever a thread in their attached process is
scheduled on a CPU.
These PMCs normally count from zero, but the initial count may be
set using the
.Ic PMC_OP_SETCOUNT
operation.
Applications can read the value of the PMC anytime using the
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCRW
operation.
.It Process-private, sampling
These PMCs sample the target processes instruction pointer after they
have seen the configured number of hardware events.
The PMCs only count events when a thread belonging to their attached
process is active.
The desired frequency of sampling is set using the
.Ic PMC_OP_SETCOUNT
operation prior to starting the PMC.
Log files are configured using the
.Ic PMC_OP_CONFIGURELOG
operation.
.It System-wide, counting
These PMCs count hardware events seen by them independent of the
processes that are executing.
The current count on these PMCs can be read using the
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCRW
request.
These PMCs normally count from zero, but the initial count may be
set using the
.Ic PMC_OP_SETCOUNT
operation.
.It System-wide, sampling
These PMCs will periodically sample the instruction pointer of the CPU
they are allocated on, and will write the sample to a log for further
processing.
The desired frequency of sampling is set using the
.Ic PMC_OP_SETCOUNT
operation prior to starting the PMC.
Log files are configured using the
.Ic PMC_OP_CONFIGURELOG
operation.
.Pp
System-wide statistical sampling can only be enabled by a process with
super-user privileges.
.El
.Pp
Processes are allowed to allocate as many PMCs are the hardware and
current operating conditions permit.
Processes may mix allocations of system-wide and process-private
PMCs.
Multiple processes are allowed to be concurrently using the facilities
of the
.Nm
driver.
.Pp
Allocated PMCs are started using the
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCSTART
operation, and stopped using the
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCSTOP
operation.
Stopping and starting a PMC is permitted at any time the owner process
has a valid handle to the PMC.
.Pp
Process-private PMCs need to be attached to a target process before
they can be used.
Attaching a process to a PMC is done using the
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCATTACH
operation.
An already attached PMC may be detached from its target process
using the converse
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCDETACH
operation.
Issuing an
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCSTART
operation on an as yet unattached PMC will cause it to be attached
to its owner process.
The following rules determine whether a given process may attach
a PMC to another target process:
.Bl -bullet -compact
.It
A non-jailed process with super-user privileges is allowed to attach
to any other process in the system.
.It
Other processes are only allowed to attach to targets that they would
be able to attach to for debugging (as determined by
.Xr p_candebug 9 ) .
.El
.Pp
PMCs are released using
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCRELEASE .
After a successful
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCRELEASE
operation the handle to the PMC will become invalid.
.Ss MODIFIER FLAGS
The
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE
operation supports the following flags that modify the behavior
of an allocated PMC:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Dv PMC_F_DESCENDANTS
This flag is valid only for a PMC being allocated in process-private
mode.
It signifies that the PMC will track hardware events for its
target process and the target's current and future descendants.
.El
.Ss SIGNALS
The
.Nm
driver may deliver signals to processes that have allocated PMCs:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Bq SIGIO
A
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCRW
operation was attempted on a process-private PMC that does not have
attached target processes.
.It Bq SIGBUS
The
.Nm
driver is being unloaded from the kernel.
.El
.Sh PROGRAMMING API
The recommended way for application programs to use the facilities of
the
.Nm
driver is using the API provided by the library
.Xr pmc 3 .
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver operates using a system call number that is dynamically
allotted to it when it is loaded into the kernel.
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver supports the following operations:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Ic PMC_OP_CONFIGURELOG
Configure a log file for sampling mode PMCs.
.It Ic PMC_OP_GETCPUINFO
Retrieve information about the number of CPUs on the system and
the number of hardware performance monitoring counters available per-CPU.
.It Ic PMC_OP_GETDRIVERSTATS
Retrieve module statistics (for analyzing the behavior of
.Nm
itself).
.It Ic PMC_OP_GETMODULEVERSION
Retrieve the version number of API.
.It Ic PMC_OP_GETPMCINFO
Retrieve information about the current state of the PMCs on a
given CPU.
.It Ic PMC_OP_PMCADMIN
Set the administrative state (i.e., whether enabled or disabled) for
the hardware PMCs managed by the
.Nm
driver.
.It Ic PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE
Allocate and configure a PMC.
On successful allocation, a handle to the PMC (a small integer)
is returned.
.It Ic PMC_OP_PMCATTACH
Attach a process mode PMC to a target process.
The PMC will be active whenever a thread in the target process is
scheduled on a CPU.
.Pp
If the
.Dv PMC_F_DESCENDANTS
flag had been specified at PMC allocation time, then the PMC is
attached to all current and future descendants of the target process.
.It Ic PMC_OP_PMCDETACH
Detach a PMC from its target process.
.It Ic PMC_OP_PMCRELEASE
Release a PMC.
.It Ic PMC_OP_PMCRW
Read and write a PMC.
This operation is valid only for PMCs configured in counting modes.
.It Ic PMC_OP_SETCOUNT
Set the initial count (for counting mode PMCs) or the desired sampling
rate (for sampling mode PMCs).
.It Ic PMC_OP_PMCSTART
Start a PMC.
.It Ic PMC_OP_PMCSTOP
Stop a PMC.
.It Ic PMC_OP_WRITELOG
Insert a timestamped user record into the log file.
.El
.Ss i386 SPECIFIC API
Some i386 family CPUs support the RDPMC instruction which allows a
user process to read a PMC value without needing to invoke a
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCRW
operation.
On such CPUs, the machine address associated with an allocated PMC is
retrievable using the
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCX86GETMSR
system call.
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Ic PMC_OP_PMCX86GETMSR
Retrieve the MSR (machine specific register) number associated with
the given PMC handle.
.Pp
The PMC needs to be in process-private mode and allocated without the
.Va PMC_F_DESCENDANTS
modifier flag, and should be attached only to its owner process at the
time of the call.
.El
.Ss amd64 SPECIFIC API
AMD64 cpus support the RDPMC instruction which allows a
user process to read a PMC value without needing to invoke a
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCRW
operation.
The machine address associated with an allocated PMC is
retrievable using the
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCX86GETMSR
system call.
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Ic PMC_OP_PMCX86GETMSR
Retrieve the MSR (machine specific register) number associated with
the given PMC handle.
.Pp
The PMC needs to be in process-private mode and allocated without the
.Va PMC_F_DESCENDANTS
modifier flag, and should be attached only to its owner process at the
time of the call.
.El
.Sh SYSCTL TUNABLES
The behavior of
.Nm
is influenced by the following
.Xr sysctl 8
tunables:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Va kern.hwpmc.debugflags
(Only available if the
.Nm
driver was compiled with
.Fl DDEBUG ) .
Control the verbosity of debug messages from the
.Nm
driver.
.It Va kern.hwpmc.hashsize
The number of rows in the hash-tables used to keep track of owner and
target processes.
.It Va kern.hwpmc.mtxpoolsize
The size of the spin mutex pool used by the PMC driver.
.It Va kern.hwpmc.pcpubuffersize
The size of the per-cpu hash table used when performing system-wide
statistical profiling.
.It Va security.bsd.unprivileged_syspmcs
If set to non-zero, allow unprivileged processes to allocate system-wide
PMCs.
The default value is 0.
.It Va security.bsd.unprivileged_proc_debug
If set to 0, the
.Nm
driver will only allow privileged process to attach PMCs to other
processes.
.El
.Pp
These variables may be set in the kernel environment using
.Xr kenv 1
before
.Nm
is loaded.
.Sh SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
PMCs may be used to monitor the actual behaviour of the system on hardware.
In situations where this constitutes an undesirable information leak,
the following options are available:
.Bl -enum
.It
Set the
.Xr sysctl 8
tunable
.Va "security.bsd.unprivileged_syspmcs"
to 0.
.Pp
This ensures that unprivileged processes cannot allocate system-wide
PMCs and thus cannot observe the hardware behavior of the system
as a whole.
.Pp
This tunable may also be set at boot time using
.Xr loader 8 ,
or with
.Xr kenv 1
prior to loading the
.Nm
driver into the kernel.
.It
Set the
.Xr sysctl 8
tunable
.Va "security.bsd.unprivileged_proc_debug"
to 0.
.Pp
This will ensure that an unprivileged process cannot attach a PMC
to any process other than itself and thus cannot observe the hardware
behavior of other processes with the same credentials.
.El
.Pp
System administrators should note that on IA-32 platforms
.Fx
makes the content of the IA-32 TSC counter available to all processes
via the RDTSC instruction.
.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
.Ss i386 TSC Handling
Historically, on the x86 architecture,
.Fx
has permitted user processes running at a processor CPL of 3 to
read the TSC using the RDTSC instruction.
The
.Nm
driver preserves this semantic.
.Pp
TSCs are treated as shared, read-only counters and hence are
only allowed to be allocated in system-wide counting mode.
.Ss Intel P4/HTT Handling
On CPUs with HTT support, Intel P4 PMCs are capable of qualifying
only a subset of hardware events on a per-logical CPU basis.
Consequently, if HTT is enabled on a system with Intel Pentium P4
PMCs, then the
.Nm
driver will reject allocation requests for process-private PMCs that
request counting of hardware events that cannot be counted separately
for each logical CPU.
.Sh ERRORS
An command issued to the
.Nm
driver may fail with the following errors:
.Bl -tag -width Er
.It Bq Er EBUSY
An
.Ic OP_CONFIGURELOG
operation was requested while an existing log was active.
.It Bq Er EBUSY
A
.Ic DISABLE
operation was requested using the
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCADMIN
request for a set of hardware resources currently in use for
process-private PMCs.
.It Bq Er EBUSY
A
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCADMIN
operation was requested on an active system mode PMC.
.It Bq Er EBUSY
A
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCATTACH
operation was requested for a target process that already had another
PMC using the same hardware resources attached to it.
.It Bq Er EBUSY
An
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCRW
request writing a new value was issued on a PMC that was active.
.It Bq Er EBUSY
An
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCSETCOUNT
request was issued on a PMC that was active.
.It Bq Er EEXIST
A
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCATTACH
request was reissued for a target process that already is the target
of this PMC.
.It Bq Er EFAULT
A bad address was passed in to the driver.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
A process specified an invalid PMC handle.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
An invalid CPU number was passed in for an
.Ic PMC_OP_GETPMCINFO
operation.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
An invalid CPU number was passed in for an
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCADMIN
operation.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
An invalid operation request was passed in for an
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCADMIN
operation.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
An invalid PMC id was passed in for an
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCADMIN
operation.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
A suitable PMC matching the parameters passed in to a
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE
request could not be allocated.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
An invalid PMC mode was requested during a
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE
request.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
An invalid CPU number was specified during a
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE
request.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
A cpu other than
.Li PMC_CPU_ANY
was specified in a
.Ic PMC_OP_ALLOCATE
request for a process-private PMC.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
A cpu number of
.Li PMC_CPU_ANY
was specified in a
.Ic PMC_OP_ALLOCATE
request for a system-wide PMC.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
The
.Ar pm_flags
argument to an
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE
request contained unknown flags.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
A PMC allocated for system-wide operation was specified with a
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCATTACH
request.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
The
.Ar pm_pid
argument to a
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCATTACH
request specified an illegal process id.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
A
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCDETACH
request was issued for a PMC not attached to the target process.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
Argument
.Ar pm_flags
to a
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCRW
request contained illegal flags.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
A
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCX86GETMSR
operation was requested for a PMC not in process-virtual mode, or
for a PMC that is not solely attached to its owner process, or for
a PMC that was allocated with flag
.Va PMC_F_DESCENDANTS .
.It Bq Er EINVAL
(On Intel Pentium 4 CPUs with HTT support) An allocation request for
a process-private PMC was issued for an event that does not support
counting on a per-logical CPU basis.
.It Bq Er ENOMEM
The system was not able to allocate kernel memory.
.It Bq Er ENOSYS
(i386 architectures) A
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCX86GETMSR
operation was requested for hardware that does not support reading
PMCs directly with the RDPMC instruction.
.It Bq Er ENXIO
An
.Ic OP_GETPMCINFO
operation was requested for a disabled CPU.
.It Bq Er ENXIO
A system-wide PMC on a disabled CPU was requested to be allocated with
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE .
.It Bq Er ENXIO
A
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCSTART
or
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCSTOP
request was issued for a system-wide PMC that was allocated on a
currently disabled CPU.
.It Bq Er EPERM
An
.Ic OP_PMCADMIN
request was issued by a process without super-user
privilege or by a jailed super-user process.
.It Bq Er EPERM
An
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCATTACH
operation was issued for a target process that the current process
does not have permission to attach to.
.It Bq Er EPERM
.Pq "i386 and amd64 architectures"
An
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCATTACH
operation was issued on a PMC whose MSR has been retrieved using
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCX86GETMSR .
.It Bq Er ESRCH
A process issued a PMC operation request without having allocated any PMCs.
.It Bq Er ESRCH
A
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCATTACH
request specified a non-existent process id.
.It Bq Er ESRCH
The target process for a
.Ic PMC_OP_PMCDETACH
operation is not being monitored by the
.Nm
driver.
.El
.Sh BUGS
The kernel driver requires all CPUs in an SMP system to be symmetric
with respect to their performance monitoring counter resources.
.Pp
The driver samples the state of the kernel's logical processor support
at the time of initialization (i.e., at module load time).
On CPUs supporting logical processors, the driver could misbehave if
logical processors are subsequently enabled or disabled while the
driver is active.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr kenv 1 ,
.Xr pmc 3 ,
.Xr kldload 8 ,
.Xr pmccontrol 8 ,
.Xr pmcstat 8 ,
.Xr sysctl 8 ,
.Xr p_candebug 9