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+
+Performance Counters for Linux
+------------------------------
+
+Performance counters are special hardware registers available on most modern
+CPUs. These registers count the number of certain types of hw events: such
+as instructions executed, cachemisses suffered, or branches mis-predicted -
+without slowing down the kernel or applications. These registers can also
+trigger interrupts when a threshold number of events have passed - and can
+thus be used to profile the code that runs on that CPU.
+
+The Linux Performance Counter subsystem provides an abstraction of these
+hardware capabilities. It provides per task and per CPU counters, counter
+groups, and it provides event capabilities on top of those.
+
+Performance counters are accessed via special file descriptors.
+There's one file descriptor per virtual counter used.
+
+The special file descriptor is opened via the perf_counter_open()
+system call:
+
+   int sys_perf_counter_open(struct perf_counter_hw_event *hw_event_uptr,
+                             pid_t pid, int cpu, int group_fd);
+
+The syscall returns the new fd. The fd can be used via the normal
+VFS system calls: read() can be used to read the counter, fcntl()
+can be used to set the blocking mode, etc.
+
+Multiple counters can be kept open at a time, and the counters
+can be poll()ed.
+
+When creating a new counter fd, 'perf_counter_hw_event' is:
+
+/*
+ * Hardware event to monitor via a performance monitoring counter:
+ */
+struct perf_counter_hw_event {
+        s64                     type;
+
+        u64                     irq_period;
+        u32                     record_type;
+
+        u32                     disabled     :  1, /* off by default */
+                                nmi          :  1, /* NMI sampling   */
+                                raw          :  1, /* raw event type */
+                                __reserved_1 : 29;
+
+        u64                     __reserved_2;
+};
+
+/*
+ * Generalized performance counter event types, used by the hw_event.type
+ * parameter of the sys_perf_counter_open() syscall:
+ */
+enum hw_event_types {
+        /*
+         * Common hardware events, generalized by the kernel:
+         */
+        PERF_COUNT_CYCLES               =  0,
+        PERF_COUNT_INSTRUCTIONS         =  1,
+        PERF_COUNT_CACHE_REFERENCES     =  2,
+        PERF_COUNT_CACHE_MISSES         =  3,
+        PERF_COUNT_BRANCH_INSTRUCTIONS  =  4,
+        PERF_COUNT_BRANCH_MISSES        =  5,
+
+        /*
+         * Special "software" counters provided by the kernel, even if
+         * the hardware does not support performance counters. These
+         * counters measure various physical and sw events of the
+         * kernel (and allow the profiling of them as well):
+         */
+        PERF_COUNT_CPU_CLOCK            = -1,
+        PERF_COUNT_TASK_CLOCK           = -2,
+        /*
+         * Future software events:
+         */
+        /* PERF_COUNT_PAGE_FAULTS       = -3,
+           PERF_COUNT_CONTEXT_SWITCHES  = -4, */
+};
+
+These are standardized types of events that work uniformly on all CPUs
+that implements Performance Counters support under Linux. If a CPU is
+not able to count branch-misses, then the system call will return
+-EINVAL.
+
+More hw_event_types are supported as well, but they are CPU
+specific and are enumerated via /sys on a per CPU basis. Raw hw event
+types can be passed in under hw_event.type if hw_event.raw is 1.
+For example, to count "External bus cycles while bus lock signal asserted"
+events on Intel Core CPUs, pass in a 0x4064 event type value and set
+hw_event.raw to 1.
+
+'record_type' is the type of data that a read() will provide for the
+counter, and it can be one of:
+
+/*
+ * IRQ-notification data record type:
+ */
+enum perf_counter_record_type {
+        PERF_RECORD_SIMPLE              =  0,
+        PERF_RECORD_IRQ                 =  1,
+        PERF_RECORD_GROUP               =  2,
+};
+
+a "simple" counter is one that counts hardware events and allows
+them to be read out into a u64 count value. (read() returns 8 on
+a successful read of a simple counter.)
+
+An "irq" counter is one that will also provide an IRQ context information:
+the IP of the interrupted context. In this case read() will return
+the 8-byte counter value, plus the Instruction Pointer address of the
+interrupted context.
+
+The parameter 'hw_event_period' is the number of events before waking up
+a read() that is blocked on a counter fd. Zero value means a non-blocking
+counter.
+
+The 'pid' parameter allows the counter to be specific to a task:
+
+ pid == 0: if the pid parameter is zero, the counter is attached to the
+ current task.
+
+ pid > 0: the counter is attached to a specific task (if the current task
+ has sufficient privilege to do so)
+
+ pid < 0: all tasks are counted (per cpu counters)
+
+The 'cpu' parameter allows a counter to be made specific to a full
+CPU:
+
+ cpu >= 0: the counter is restricted to a specific CPU
+ cpu == -1: the counter counts on all CPUs
+
+(Note: the combination of 'pid == -1' and 'cpu == -1' is not valid.)
+
+A 'pid > 0' and 'cpu == -1' counter is a per task counter that counts
+events of that task and 'follows' that task to whatever CPU the task
+gets schedule to. Per task counters can be created by any user, for
+their own tasks.
+
+A 'pid == -1' and 'cpu == x' counter is a per CPU counter that counts
+all events on CPU-x. Per CPU counters need CAP_SYS_ADMIN privilege.
+
+Group counters are created by passing in a group_fd of another counter.
+Groups are scheduled at once and can be used with PERF_RECORD_GROUP
+to record multi-dimensional timestamps.
+