cpudist: Summarize task on-CPU time as histograms (iovisor#585)

* cpudist: summarize on-CPU time per task as a histogram

This is the initial implementation of the tool itself, which uses
the sched:sched_switch tracepoint to probe task switches. This is
a slightly more robust approach than using a kernel function, such
as finish_task_switch.

When native BCC support for tracepoints is introduced, this tool
can be reimplemented and reliance on the current Tracepoint module
can be removed.

* cpudist: add man page and examples

README.md

@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ Examples:
 - tools/[btrfsdist](tools/btrfsdist.py): Summarize btrfs operation latency distribution as a histogram. [Examples](tools/btrfsdist_example.txt).
 - tools/[btrfsslower](tools/btrfsslower.py): Trace slow btrfs operations. [Examples](tools/btrfsslower_example.txt).
 - tools/[cachestat](tools/cachestat.py): Trace page cache hit/miss ratio. [Examples](tools/cachestat_example.txt).
+- tools/[cpudist](tools/cpudist.py): Summarize on-CPU time per task as a histogram. [Examples](tools/cpudist_example.txt)
 - tools/[dcsnoop](tools/dcsnoop.py): Trace directory entry cache (dcache) lookups. [Examples](tools/dcsnoop_example.txt).
 - tools/[dcstat](tools/dcstat.py): Directory entry cache (dcache) stats. [Examples](tools/dcstat_example.txt).
 - tools/[execsnoop](tools/execsnoop.py): Trace new processes via exec() syscalls. [Examples](tools/execsnoop_example.txt).

man/man8/cpudist.8

@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+.TH cpudist 8 "2016-06-28" "USER COMMANDS"
+.SH NAME
+cpudist \- On-CPU task time as a histogram.
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.B cpudist [\-h] [\-T] [\-m] [\-P] [\-L] [\-p PID] [interval] [count]
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+This measures the time a task spends on the CPU before being descheduled, and
+shows the times as a histogram. Tasks that spend a very short time on the CPU
+can be indicative of excessive context-switches and poor workload distribution,
+and possibly point to a shared source of contention that keeps tasks switching
+in and out as it becomes available (such as a mutex).
+
+This tool uses in-kernel eBPF maps for storing timestamps and the histogram,
+for efficiency. Despite this, the overhead of this tool may become significant
+for some workloads: see the OVERHEAD section.
+
+This tool uses the sched:sched_switch kernel tracepoint to determine when a
+task is scheduled and descheduled. If the tracepoint arguments change in the 
+future, this tool will have to be updated. Still, it is more reliable than
+using kprobes on the respective kernel functions directly.
+
+Since this uses BPF, only the root user can use this tool.
+.SH REQUIREMENTS
+CONFIG_BPF and bcc.
+.SH OPTIONS
+.TP
+\-h
+Print usage message.
+.TP
+\-T
+Include timestamps on output.
+.TP
+\-m
+Output histogram in milliseconds.
+.TP
+\-P
+Print a histogram for each PID (tgid from the kernel's perspective).
+.TP
+\-L
+Print a histogram for each TID (pid from the kernel's perspective).
+.TP
+\-p PID
+Only show this PID (filtered in kernel for efficiency).
+.TP
+interval
+Output interval, in seconds.
+.TP
+count
+Number of outputs.
+.SH EXAMPLES
+.TP
+Summarize task on-CPU time as a histogram:
+#
+.B cpudist
+.TP
+Print 1 second summaries, 10 times:
+#
+.B cpudist 1 10
+.TP
+Print 1 second summaries, using milliseconds as units for the histogram, and include timestamps on output:
+#
+.B cpudist \-mT 1
+.TP
+Trace PID 186 only, 1 second summaries:
+#
+.B cpudist -P 185 1
+.SH FIELDS
+.TP
+usecs
+Microsecond range
+.TP
+msecs
+Millisecond range
+.TP
+count
+How many times a task event fell into this range
+.TP
+distribution
+An ASCII bar chart to visualize the distribution (count column)
+.SH OVERHEAD
+This traces scheduler tracepoints, which can become very frequent. While eBPF
+has very low overhead, and this tool uses in-kernel maps for efficiency, the
+frequency of scheduler events for some workloads may be high enough that the
+overhead of this tool becomes significant. Measure in a lab environment
+to quantify the overhead before use.
+.SH SOURCE
+This is from bcc.
+.IP
+https://github.com/iovisor/bcc
+.PP
+Also look in the bcc distribution for a companion _example.txt file containing
+example usage, output, and commentary for this tool.
+.SH OS
+Linux
+.SH STABILITY
+Unstable - in development.
+.SH AUTHOR
+Sasha Goldshtein
+.SH SEE ALSO
+pidstat(1), runqlat(8)

tools/cpudist.py

@@ -0,0 +1,167 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+# @lint-avoid-python-3-compatibility-imports
+#
+# cpudist Summarize on-CPU time per task as a histogram.
+#
+# USAGE: cpudist [-h] [-T] [-m] [-P] [-L] [-p PID] [interval] [count]
+#
+# This measures the time a task spends on the CPU, and shows this time as a
+# histogram, optionally per-process.
+#
+# Copyright 2016 Sasha Goldshtein
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License")
+
+from __future__ import print_function
+from bcc import BPF, Tracepoint
+from time import sleep, strftime
+import argparse
+
+examples = """examples:
+ cpudist # summarize on-CPU time as a histogram
+ cpudist 1 10 # print 1 second summaries, 10 times
+ cpudist -mT 1 # 1s summaries, milliseconds, and timestamps
+ cpudist -P # show each PID separately
+ cpudist -p 185 # trace PID 185 only
+"""
+parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
+ description="Summarize on-CPU time per task as a histogram.",
+ formatter_class=argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter,
+ epilog=examples)
+parser.add_argument("-T", "--timestamp", action="store_true",
+ help="include timestamp on output")
+parser.add_argument("-m", "--milliseconds", action="store_true",
+ help="millisecond histogram")
+parser.add_argument("-P", "--pids", action="store_true",
+ help="print a histogram per process ID")
+parser.add_argument("-L", "--tids", action="store_true",
+ help="print a histogram per thread ID")
+parser.add_argument("-p", "--pid",
+ help="trace this PID only")
+parser.add_argument("interval", nargs="?", default=99999999,
+ help="output interval, in seconds")
+parser.add_argument("count", nargs="?", default=99999999,
+ help="number of outputs")
+args = parser.parse_args()
+countdown = int(args.count)
+debug = 0
+
+tp = Tracepoint.enable_tracepoint("sched", "sched_switch")
+bpf_text = "#include <uapi/linux/ptrace.h>\n"
+bpf_text += "#include <linux/sched.h>\n"
+bpf_text += tp.generate_decl()
+bpf_text += tp.generate_entry_probe()
+bpf_text += tp.generate_struct()
+
+bpf_text += """
+typedef struct pid_key {
+ u64 id;
+ u64 slot;
+} pid_key_t;
+
+// We need to store the start time, which is when the thread got switched in,
+// and the tgid for the pid because the sched_switch tracepoint doesn't provide
+// that information.
+BPF_HASH(start, u32, u64);
+BPF_HASH(tgid_for_pid, u32, u32);
+STORAGE
+
+int sched_switch(struct pt_regs *ctx)
+{
+ u64 pid_tgid = bpf_get_current_pid_tgid();
+ u64 *di = __trace_di.lookup(&pid_tgid);
+ if (di == 0)
+ return 0;
+
+ struct sched_switch_trace_entry args = {};
+ bpf_probe_read(&args, sizeof(args), (void *)*di);
+
+ u32 tgid, pid;
+ u64 ts = bpf_ktime_get_ns();
+
+ if (args.prev_state == TASK_RUNNING) {
+ pid = args.prev_pid;
+
+ u32 *stored_tgid = tgid_for_pid.lookup(&pid);
+ if (stored_tgid == 0)
+ goto BAIL;
+ tgid = *stored_tgid;
+
+ if (FILTER)
+ goto BAIL;
+
+ u64 *tsp = start.lookup(&pid);
+ if (tsp == 0)
+ goto BAIL;
+
+ u64 delta = ts - *tsp;
+ FACTOR
+ STORE
+ }
+
+BAIL:
+ tgid = pid_tgid >> 32;
+ pid = pid_tgid;
+ if (FILTER)
+ return 0;
+
+ start.update(&pid, &ts);
+ tgid_for_pid.update(&pid, &tgid);
+
+ return 0;
+}
+"""
+
+if args.pid:
+ bpf_text = bpf_text.replace('FILTER', 'tgid != %s' % args.pid)
+else:
+ bpf_text = bpf_text.replace('FILTER', '0')
+if args.milliseconds:
+ bpf_text = bpf_text.replace('FACTOR', 'delta /= 1000000;')
+ label = "msecs"
+else:
+ bpf_text = bpf_text.replace('FACTOR', 'delta /= 1000;')
+ label = "usecs"
+if args.pids or args.tids:
+ section = "pid"
+ pid = "tgid"
+ if args.tids:
+ pid = "pid"
+ section = "tid"
+ bpf_text = bpf_text.replace('STORAGE',
+ 'BPF_HISTOGRAM(dist, pid_key_t);')
+ bpf_text = bpf_text.replace('STORE',
+ 'pid_key_t key = {.id = ' + pid + ', .slot = bpf_log2l(delta)}; ' +
+ 'dist.increment(key);')
+else:
+ section = ""
+ bpf_text = bpf_text.replace('STORAGE', 'BPF_HISTOGRAM(dist);')
+ bpf_text = bpf_text.replace('STORE',
+ 'dist.increment(bpf_log2l(delta));')
+if debug:
+ print(bpf_text)
+
+b = BPF(text=bpf_text)
+Tracepoint.attach(b)
+b.attach_kprobe(event="perf_trace_sched_switch", fn_name="sched_switch")
+
+print("Tracing on-CPU time... Hit Ctrl-C to end.")
+
+exiting = 0 if args.interval else 1
+dist = b.get_table("dist")
+while (1):
+ try:
+ sleep(int(args.interval))
+ except KeyboardInterrupt:
+ exiting = 1
+
+ print()
+ if args.timestamp:
+ print("%-8s\n" % strftime("%H:%M:%S"), end="")
+
+ dist.print_log2_hist(label, section, section_print_fn=int)
+ dist.clear()
+
+ countdown -= 1
+ if exiting or countdown == 0:
+ exit()
+