perf record: Add "nodelay" mode, disabled by default

Sometimes there is a need to use perf in "live-log" mode. The problem
is, for seldom events, actual info output is largely delayed because
perf-record reads sample data in whole pages.

So for such scenarious, add flag for perf-record to go in "nodelay"
mode. To track e.g. what's going on in icmp_rcv while ping is running
Use it with something like this:

(1) $ perf probe -L icmp_rcv | grep -U8 '^ *43\>'
                                    goto error;
                    }
         38         if (!pskb_pull(skb, sizeof(*icmph)))
                            goto error;
                    icmph = icmp_hdr(skb);

         43         ICMPMSGIN_INC_STATS_BH(net, icmph->type);
                    /*
                     *      18 is the highest 'known' ICMP type. Anything else is a mystery
                     *
                     *      RFC 1122: 3.2.2  Unknown ICMP messages types MUST be silently
                     *                discarded.
                     */
         50         if (icmph->type > NR_ICMP_TYPES)
                            goto error;

    $ perf probe icmp_rcv:43 'type=icmph->type'

(2) $ cat trace-icmp.py
    [...]
    def trace_begin():
            print "in trace_begin"

    def trace_end():
            print "in trace_end"

    def probe__icmp_rcv(event_name, context, common_cpu,
            common_secs, common_nsecs, common_pid, common_comm,
            __probe_ip, type):
                    print_header(event_name, common_cpu, common_secs, common_nsecs,
                            common_pid, common_comm)

                    print "__probe_ip=%u, type=%u\n" % \
                    (__probe_ip, type),
    [...]

(3) $ perf record -a -D -e probe:icmp_rcv -o - | \
      perf script -i - -s trace-icmp.py

Thanks to Peter Zijlstra for pointing how to do it.

Cc: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@redhat.com>
Cc: Frederic Weisbecker <fweisbec@gmail.com>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>, Mike Galbraith <efault@gmx.de>
Cc: Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Stephane Eranian <eranian@google.com>
Cc: Tom Zanussi <tzanussi@gmail.com>
LKML-Reference: <20110112140613.GA11698@tugrik.mns.mnsspb.ru>
Signed-off-by: Kirill Smelkov <kirr@mns.spb.ru>
Signed-off-by: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@redhat.com>

1 files changed, 3 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-record.txt b/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-record.txt
index 52462ae2645..e032716c839 100644
--- a/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-record.txt
+++ b/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-record.txt
@@ -61,6 +61,9 @@ OPTIONS
 -r::
 --realtime=::
 	Collect data with this RT SCHED_FIFO priority.
+-D::
+--no-delay::
+	Collect data without buffering.
 -A::
 --append::
 	Append to the output file to do incremental profiling.