1perf-list(1) 2============ 3 4NAME 5---- 6perf-list - List all symbolic event types 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'perf list' [--no-desc] [--long-desc] 12 [hw|sw|cache|tracepoint|pmu|sdt|metric|metricgroup|event_glob] 13 14DESCRIPTION 15----------- 16This command displays the symbolic event types which can be selected in the 17various perf commands with the -e option. 18 19OPTIONS 20------- 21-d:: 22--desc:: 23Print extra event descriptions. (default) 24 25--no-desc:: 26Don't print descriptions. 27 28-v:: 29--long-desc:: 30Print longer event descriptions. 31 32--debug:: 33Enable debugging output. 34 35--details:: 36Print how named events are resolved internally into perf events, and also 37any extra expressions computed by perf stat. 38 39--deprecated:: 40Print deprecated events. By default the deprecated events are hidden. 41 42--cputype:: 43Print events applying cpu with this type for hybrid platform 44(e.g. --cputype core or --cputype atom) 45 46[[EVENT_MODIFIERS]] 47EVENT MODIFIERS 48--------------- 49 50Events can optionally have a modifier by appending a colon and one or 51more modifiers. Modifiers allow the user to restrict the events to be 52counted. The following modifiers exist: 53 54 u - user-space counting 55 k - kernel counting 56 h - hypervisor counting 57 I - non idle counting 58 G - guest counting (in KVM guests) 59 H - host counting (not in KVM guests) 60 p - precise level 61 P - use maximum detected precise level 62 S - read sample value (PERF_SAMPLE_READ) 63 D - pin the event to the PMU 64 W - group is weak and will fallback to non-group if not schedulable, 65 e - group or event are exclusive and do not share the PMU 66 67The 'p' modifier can be used for specifying how precise the instruction 68address should be. The 'p' modifier can be specified multiple times: 69 70 0 - SAMPLE_IP can have arbitrary skid 71 1 - SAMPLE_IP must have constant skid 72 2 - SAMPLE_IP requested to have 0 skid 73 3 - SAMPLE_IP must have 0 skid, or uses randomization to avoid 74 sample shadowing effects. 75 76For Intel systems precise event sampling is implemented with PEBS 77which supports up to precise-level 2, and precise level 3 for 78some special cases 79 80On AMD systems it is implemented using IBS (up to precise-level 2). 81The precise modifier works with event types 0x76 (cpu-cycles, CPU 82clocks not halted) and 0xC1 (micro-ops retired). Both events map to 83IBS execution sampling (IBS op) with the IBS Op Counter Control bit 84(IbsOpCntCtl) set respectively (see the 85Core Complex (CCX) -> Processor x86 Core -> Instruction Based Sampling (IBS) 86section of the [AMD Processor Programming Reference (PPR)] relevant to the 87family, model and stepping of the processor being used). 88 89Manual Volume 2: System Programming, 13.3 Instruction-Based 90Sampling). Examples to use IBS: 91 92 perf record -a -e cpu-cycles:p ... # use ibs op counting cycles 93 perf record -a -e r076:p ... # same as -e cpu-cycles:p 94 perf record -a -e r0C1:p ... # use ibs op counting micro-ops 95 96RAW HARDWARE EVENT DESCRIPTOR 97----------------------------- 98Even when an event is not available in a symbolic form within perf right now, 99it can be encoded in a per processor specific way. 100 101For instance on x86 CPUs, N is a hexadecimal value that represents the raw register encoding with the 102layout of IA32_PERFEVTSELx MSRs (see [Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual Volume 3B: System Programming Guide] Figure 30-1 Layout 103of IA32_PERFEVTSELx MSRs) or AMD's PERF_CTL MSRs (see the 104Core Complex (CCX) -> Processor x86 Core -> MSR Registers section of the 105[AMD Processor Programming Reference (PPR)] relevant to the family, model 106and stepping of the processor being used). 107 108Note: Only the following bit fields can be set in x86 counter 109registers: event, umask, edge, inv, cmask. Esp. guest/host only and 110OS/user mode flags must be setup using <<EVENT_MODIFIERS, EVENT 111MODIFIERS>>. 112 113Example: 114 115If the Intel docs for a QM720 Core i7 describe an event as: 116 117 Event Umask Event Mask 118 Num. Value Mnemonic Description Comment 119 120 A8H 01H LSD.UOPS Counts the number of micro-ops Use cmask=1 and 121 delivered by loop stream detector invert to count 122 cycles 123 124raw encoding of 0x1A8 can be used: 125 126 perf stat -e r1a8 -a sleep 1 127 perf record -e r1a8 ... 128 129It's also possible to use pmu syntax: 130 131 perf record -e r1a8 -a sleep 1 132 perf record -e cpu/r1a8/ ... 133 perf record -e cpu/r0x1a8/ ... 134 135Some processors, like those from AMD, support event codes and unit masks 136larger than a byte. In such cases, the bits corresponding to the event 137configuration parameters can be seen with: 138 139 cat /sys/bus/event_source/devices/<pmu>/format/<config> 140 141Example: 142 143If the AMD docs for an EPYC 7713 processor describe an event as: 144 145 Event Umask Event Mask 146 Num. Value Mnemonic Description 147 148 28FH 03H op_cache_hit_miss.op_cache_hit Counts Op Cache micro-tag 149 hit events. 150 151raw encoding of 0x0328F cannot be used since the upper nibble of the 152EventSelect bits have to be specified via bits 32-35 as can be seen with: 153 154 cat /sys/bus/event_source/devices/cpu/format/event 155 156raw encoding of 0x20000038F should be used instead: 157 158 perf stat -e r20000038f -a sleep 1 159 perf record -e r20000038f ... 160 161It's also possible to use pmu syntax: 162 163 perf record -e r20000038f -a sleep 1 164 perf record -e cpu/r20000038f/ ... 165 perf record -e cpu/r0x20000038f/ ... 166 167You should refer to the processor specific documentation for getting these 168details. Some of them are referenced in the SEE ALSO section below. 169 170ARBITRARY PMUS 171-------------- 172 173perf also supports an extended syntax for specifying raw parameters 174to PMUs. Using this typically requires looking up the specific event 175in the CPU vendor specific documentation. 176 177The available PMUs and their raw parameters can be listed with 178 179 ls /sys/devices/*/format 180 181For example the raw event "LSD.UOPS" core pmu event above could 182be specified as 183 184 perf stat -e cpu/event=0xa8,umask=0x1,name=LSD.UOPS_CYCLES,cmask=0x1/ ... 185 186 or using extended name syntax 187 188 perf stat -e cpu/event=0xa8,umask=0x1,cmask=0x1,name=\'LSD.UOPS_CYCLES:cmask=0x1\'/ ... 189 190PER SOCKET PMUS 191--------------- 192 193Some PMUs are not associated with a core, but with a whole CPU socket. 194Events on these PMUs generally cannot be sampled, but only counted globally 195with perf stat -a. They can be bound to one logical CPU, but will measure 196all the CPUs in the same socket. 197 198This example measures memory bandwidth every second 199on the first memory controller on socket 0 of a Intel Xeon system 200 201 perf stat -C 0 -a uncore_imc_0/cas_count_read/,uncore_imc_0/cas_count_write/ -I 1000 ... 202 203Each memory controller has its own PMU. Measuring the complete system 204bandwidth would require specifying all imc PMUs (see perf list output), 205and adding the values together. To simplify creation of multiple events, 206prefix and glob matching is supported in the PMU name, and the prefix 207'uncore_' is also ignored when performing the match. So the command above 208can be expanded to all memory controllers by using the syntaxes: 209 210 perf stat -C 0 -a imc/cas_count_read/,imc/cas_count_write/ -I 1000 ... 211 perf stat -C 0 -a *imc*/cas_count_read/,*imc*/cas_count_write/ -I 1000 ... 212 213This example measures the combined core power every second 214 215 perf stat -I 1000 -e power/energy-cores/ -a 216 217ACCESS RESTRICTIONS 218------------------- 219 220For non root users generally only context switched PMU events are available. 221This is normally only the events in the cpu PMU, the predefined events 222like cycles and instructions and some software events. 223 224Other PMUs and global measurements are normally root only. 225Some event qualifiers, such as "any", are also root only. 226 227This can be overridden by setting the kernel.perf_event_paranoid 228sysctl to -1, which allows non root to use these events. 229 230For accessing trace point events perf needs to have read access to 231/sys/kernel/debug/tracing, even when perf_event_paranoid is in a relaxed 232setting. 233 234TRACING 235------- 236 237Some PMUs control advanced hardware tracing capabilities, such as Intel PT, 238that allows low overhead execution tracing. These are described in a separate 239intel-pt.txt document. 240 241PARAMETERIZED EVENTS 242-------------------- 243 244Some pmu events listed by 'perf-list' will be displayed with '?' in them. For 245example: 246 247 hv_gpci/dtbp_ptitc,phys_processor_idx=?/ 248 249This means that when provided as an event, a value for '?' must 250also be supplied. For example: 251 252 perf stat -C 0 -e 'hv_gpci/dtbp_ptitc,phys_processor_idx=0x2/' ... 253 254EVENT QUALIFIERS: 255 256It is also possible to add extra qualifiers to an event: 257 258percore: 259 260Sums up the event counts for all hardware threads in a core, e.g.: 261 262 263 perf stat -e cpu/event=0,umask=0x3,percore=1/ 264 265 266EVENT GROUPS 267------------ 268 269Perf supports time based multiplexing of events, when the number of events 270active exceeds the number of hardware performance counters. Multiplexing 271can cause measurement errors when the workload changes its execution 272profile. 273 274When metrics are computed using formulas from event counts, it is useful to 275ensure some events are always measured together as a group to minimize multiplexing 276errors. Event groups can be specified using { }. 277 278 perf stat -e '{instructions,cycles}' ... 279 280The number of available performance counters depend on the CPU. A group 281cannot contain more events than available counters. 282For example Intel Core CPUs typically have four generic performance counters 283for the core, plus three fixed counters for instructions, cycles and 284ref-cycles. Some special events have restrictions on which counter they 285can schedule, and may not support multiple instances in a single group. 286When too many events are specified in the group some of them will not 287be measured. 288 289Globally pinned events can limit the number of counters available for 290other groups. On x86 systems, the NMI watchdog pins a counter by default. 291The nmi watchdog can be disabled as root with 292 293 echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/nmi_watchdog 294 295Events from multiple different PMUs cannot be mixed in a group, with 296some exceptions for software events. 297 298LEADER SAMPLING 299--------------- 300 301perf also supports group leader sampling using the :S specifier. 302 303 perf record -e '{cycles,instructions}:S' ... 304 perf report --group 305 306Normally all events in an event group sample, but with :S only 307the first event (the leader) samples, and it only reads the values of the 308other events in the group. 309 310However, in the case AUX area events (e.g. Intel PT or CoreSight), the AUX 311area event must be the leader, so then the second event samples, not the first. 312 313OPTIONS 314------- 315 316Without options all known events will be listed. 317 318To limit the list use: 319 320. 'hw' or 'hardware' to list hardware events such as cache-misses, etc. 321 322. 'sw' or 'software' to list software events such as context switches, etc. 323 324. 'cache' or 'hwcache' to list hardware cache events such as L1-dcache-loads, etc. 325 326. 'tracepoint' to list all tracepoint events, alternatively use 327 'subsys_glob:event_glob' to filter by tracepoint subsystems such as sched, 328 block, etc. 329 330. 'pmu' to print the kernel supplied PMU events. 331 332. 'sdt' to list all Statically Defined Tracepoint events. 333 334. 'metric' to list metrics 335 336. 'metricgroup' to list metricgroups with metrics. 337 338. If none of the above is matched, it will apply the supplied glob to all 339 events, printing the ones that match. 340 341. As a last resort, it will do a substring search in all event names. 342 343One or more types can be used at the same time, listing the events for the 344types specified. 345 346Support raw format: 347 348. '--raw-dump', shows the raw-dump of all the events. 349. '--raw-dump [hw|sw|cache|tracepoint|pmu|event_glob]', shows the raw-dump of 350 a certain kind of events. 351 352SEE ALSO 353-------- 354linkperf:perf-stat[1], linkperf:perf-top[1], 355linkperf:perf-record[1], 356http://www.intel.com/sdm/[Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual Volume 3B: System Programming Guide], 357https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=206537[AMD Processor Programming Reference (PPR)] 358