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NAME
hwpmc — Hardware Performance Monitoring Counter support
SYNOPSIS
options HWPMC_HOOKS
device hwpmc
Additionally, for i386 systems:
device apic
DESCRIPTION
The hwpmc driver virtualizes the hardware performance monitoring facilities in modern CPUs and provides
support for using these facilities from user level processes.
The driver supports multi-processor systems.
PMCs are allocated using the PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE request. A successful PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE request will
return a handle 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 “owner process”.
PMCs may be allocated with process or system scope.
Process-scope The PMC is active only when a thread belonging to a process it is attached to is scheduled
on a CPU.
System-scope The PMC operates independently of processes and measures hardware events for the system as
a whole.
PMCs may be allocated for counting or for sampling:
Counting In counting modes, the PMCs count hardware events. These counts are retrievable using the
PMC_OP_PMCREAD system call on all architectures. Some architectures offer faster methods of
reading these counts.
Sampling In sampling modes, the PMCs are configured to sample the CPU instruction pointer (and
optionally to capture the call chain leading up to the sampled instruction pointer) after a
configurable number of hardware events have been observed. Instruction pointer samples and
call chain records are usually directed to a log file for subsequent analysis.
Scope and operational mode are orthogonal; a PMC may thus be configured to operate in one of the
following four modes:
Process-scope, 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
PMC_OP_SETCOUNT operation. Applications can read the value of the PMC anytime using the
PMC_OP_PMCRW operation.
Process-scope, 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 PMC_OP_SETCOUNT operation
prior to starting the PMC. Log files are configured using the PMC_OP_CONFIGURELOG operation.
System-scope, 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 PMC_OP_PMCRW request. These PMCs normally
count from zero, but the initial count may be set using the PMC_OP_SETCOUNT operation.
System-scope, 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 PMC_OP_SETCOUNT operation prior to starting the PMC. Log files are configured using
the PMC_OP_CONFIGURELOG operation.
System-wide statistical sampling can only be enabled by a process with super-user privileges.
Processes are allowed to allocate as many PMCs as the hardware and current operating conditions permit.
Processes may mix allocations of system-wide and process-private PMCs. Multiple processes may be using
PMCs simultaneously.
Allocated PMCs are started using the PMC_OP_PMCSTART operation, and stopped using the PMC_OP_PMCSTOP
operation. Stopping and starting a PMC is permitted at any time the owner process has a valid handle to
the PMC.
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 PMC_OP_PMCATTACH operation. An already attached PMC may be detached
from its target process using the converse PMC_OP_PMCDETACH operation. Issuing a 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:
• A non-jailed process with super-user privileges is allowed to attach to any other process in the
system.
• Other processes are only allowed to attach to targets that they would be able to attach to for
debugging (as determined by p_candebug(9)).
PMCs are released using PMC_OP_PMCRELEASE. After a successful PMC_OP_PMCRELEASE operation the handle to
the PMC will become invalid.
Modifier Flags
The PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE operation supports the following flags that modify the behavior of an allocated
PMC:
PMC_F_CALLCHAIN
This modifier informs sampling PMCs to record a callchain when capturing a sample. The maximum
depth to which call chains are recorded is specified by the kern.hwpmc.callchaindepth kernel
tunable.
PMC_F_DESCENDANTS
This modifier 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.
PMC_F_KGMON
This modifier is valid only for a PMC being allocated in system-wide sampling mode. It signifies
that the PMC's sampling interrupt is to be used to drive kernel profiling via kgmon(8). This
functionality is currently unimplemented.
PMC_F_LOG_PROCCSW
This modifier is valid only for a PMC being allocated in process-private mode. When this
modifier is present, at every context switch, hwpmc will log a record containing the number of
hardware events seen by the target process when it was scheduled on the CPU.
PMC_F_LOG_PROCEXIT
This modifier is valid only for a PMC being allocated in process-private mode. With this
modifier present, hwpmc will maintain per-process counts for each target process attached to a
PMC. At process exit time, a record containing the target process' PID and the accumulated per-
process count for that process will be written to the configured log file.
Modifiers PMC_F_LOG_PROCEXIT and PMC_F_LOG_PROCCSW may be used in combination with modifier
PMC_F_DESCENDANTS to track the behavior of complex pipelines of processes. PMCs with modifiers
PMC_F_LOG_PROCEXIT and PMC_F_LOG_PROCCSW cannot be started until their owner process has configured a log
file.
Signals
The hwpmc driver may deliver signals to processes that have allocated PMCs:
SIGIO A PMC_OP_PMCRW operation was attempted on a process-private PMC that does not have attached
target processes.
SIGBUS The hwpmc driver is being unloaded from the kernel.
PMC ROW DISPOSITIONS
A PMC row is defined as the set of PMC resources at the same hardware address in the CPUs in a system.
Since process scope PMCs need to move between CPUs following their target threads, allocation of a
process scope PMC reserves all PMCs in a PMC row for use only with process scope PMCs. Accordingly a PMC
row will be in one of the following dispositions:
PMC_DISP_FREE Hardware counters in this row are free and may be use to satisfy either of system
scope or process scope allocation requests.
PMC_DISP_THREAD Hardware counters in this row are in use by process scope PMCs and are only
available for process scope allocation requests.
PMC_DISP_STANDALONE Some hardware counters in this row have been administratively disabled or are in use
by system scope PMCs. Non-disabled hardware counters in such a row may be used for
satisfying system scope allocation requests. No process scope PMCs will use
hardware counters in this row.
PROGRAMMING API
The recommended way for application programs to use the facilities of the hwpmc driver is using the API
provided by the pmc(3) library.
The hwpmc driver operates using a system call number that is dynamically allotted to it when it is loaded
into the kernel.
The hwpmc driver supports the following operations:
PMC_OP_CONFIGURELOG
Configure a log file for PMCs that require a log file. The hwpmc driver will write log data to
this file asynchronously. If it encounters an error, logging will be stopped and the error code
encountered will be saved for subsequent retrieval by a PMC_OP_FLUSHLOG request.
PMC_OP_FLUSHLOG
Transfer buffered log data inside hwpmc to a configured output file. This operation returns to
the caller after the write operation has returned. The returned error code reflects any pending
error state inside hwpmc.
PMC_OP_GETCPUINFO
Retrieve information about the highest possible CPU number for the system, and the number of
hardware performance monitoring counters available per CPU.
PMC_OP_GETDRIVERSTATS
Retrieve module statistics (for analyzing the behavior of hwpmc itself).
PMC_OP_GETMODULEVERSION
Retrieve the version number of API.
PMC_OP_GETPMCINFO
Retrieve information about the current state of the PMCs on a given CPU.
PMC_OP_PMCADMIN
Set the administrative state (i.e., whether enabled or disabled) for the hardware PMCs managed by
the hwpmc driver. The invoking process needs to possess the PRIV_PMC_MANAGE privilege.
PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE
Allocate and configure a PMC. On successful allocation, a handle to the PMC (a 32 bit value) is
returned.
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.
If the 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.
PMC_OP_PMCDETACH
Detach a PMC from its target process.
PMC_OP_PMCRELEASE
Release a PMC.
PMC_OP_PMCRW
Read and write a PMC. This operation is valid only for PMCs configured in counting modes.
PMC_OP_SETCOUNT
Set the initial count (for counting mode PMCs) or the desired sampling rate (for sampling mode
PMCs).
PMC_OP_PMCSTART
Start a PMC.
PMC_OP_PMCSTOP
Stop a PMC.
PMC_OP_WRITELOG
Insert a timestamped user record into the log file.
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 PMC_OP_PMCRW operation. On such CPUs, the machine address associated with an
allocated PMC is retrievable using the PMC_OP_PMCX86GETMSR system call.
PMC_OP_PMCX86GETMSR
Retrieve the MSR (machine specific register) number associated with the given PMC handle.
The PMC needs to be in process-private mode and allocated without the PMC_F_DESCENDANTS modifier
flag, and should be attached only to its owner process at the time of the call.
amd64 Specific API
AMD64 CPUs support the RDPMC instruction which allows a user process to read a PMC value without needing
to invoke a PMC_OP_PMCRW operation. The machine address associated with an allocated PMC is retrievable
using the PMC_OP_PMCX86GETMSR system call.
PMC_OP_PMCX86GETMSR
Retrieve the MSR (machine specific register) number associated with the given PMC handle.
The PMC needs to be in process-private mode and allocated without the PMC_F_DESCENDANTS modifier
flag, and should be attached only to its owner process at the time of the call.
SYSCTL VARIABLES AND LOADER TUNABLES
The behavior of hwpmc is influenced by the following sysctl(8) and loader(8) tunables:
kern.hwpmc.callchaindepth (integer, read-only)
The maximum number of call chain records to capture per sample. The default is 8.
kern.hwpmc.debugflags (string, read-write)
(Only available if the hwpmc driver was compiled with -DDEBUG.) Control the verbosity of debug
messages from the hwpmc driver.
kern.hwpmc.hashsize (integer, read-only)
The number of rows in the hash tables used to keep track of owner and target processes. The
default is 16.
kern.hwpmc.logbuffersize (integer, read-only)
The size in kilobytes of each log buffer used by hwpmc's logging function. The default buffer
size is 4KB.
kern.hwpmc.mtxpoolsize (integer, read-only)
The size of the spin mutex pool used by the PMC driver. The default is 32.
kern.hwpmc.nbuffers (integer, read-only)
The number of log buffers used by hwpmc for logging. The default is 64.
kern.hwpmc.nsamples (integer, read-only)
The number of entries in the per-CPU ring buffer used during sampling. The default is 512.
security.bsd.unprivileged_syspmcs (boolean, read-write)
If set to non-zero, allow unprivileged processes to allocate system-wide PMCs. The default value
is 0.
security.bsd.unprivileged_proc_debug (boolean, read-write)
If set to 0, the hwpmc driver will only allow privileged processes to attach PMCs to other
processes.
These variables may be set in the kernel environment using kenv(1) before hwpmc is loaded.
IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
SMP Symmetry
The kernel driver requires all physical CPUs in an SMP system to have identical performance monitoring
counter hardware.
Sparse CPU Numbering
On platforms that sparsely number CPUs and which support hot-plugging of CPUs, requests that specify non-
existent or disabled CPUs will fail with an error. Applications allocating system-scope PMCs need to be
aware of the possibility of such transient failures.
x86 TSC Handling
Historically, on the x86 architecture, FreeBSD has permitted user processes running at a processor CPL of
3 to read the TSC using the RDTSC instruction. The hwpmc driver preserves this behavior.
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
hwpmc driver will reject allocation requests for process-private PMCs that request counting of hardware
events that cannot be counted separately for each logical CPU.
Intel Pentium-Pro Handling
Writing a value to the PMC MSRs found in Intel Pentium-Pro style PMCs (found in Intel Pentium Pro,
Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium M and Celeron processors) will replicate bit 31 of the value being
written into the upper 8 bits of the MSR, bringing down the usable width of these PMCs to 31 bits. For
process-virtual PMCs, the hwpmc driver implements a workaround in software and makes the corrected 64 bit
count available via the PMC_OP_RW operation. Processes that intend to use RDPMC instructions directly or
that intend to write values larger than 2^31 into these PMCs with PMC_OP_RW need to be aware of this
hardware limitation.
DIAGNOSTICS
hwpmc: [class/npmc/capabilities]... Announce the presence of npmc PMCs of class class, with capabilities
described by bit string capabilities.
hwpmc: kernel version (0x%x) does not match module version (0x%x). The module loading process failed
because a version mismatch was detected between the currently executing kernel and the module being
loaded.
hwpmc: this kernel has not been compiled with 'options HWPMC_HOOKS'. The module loading process failed
because the currently executing kernel was not configured with the required configuration option
HWPMC_HOOKS.
hwpmc: tunable hashsize=%d must be greater than zero. A negative value was supplied for tunable
kern.hwpmc.hashsize.
hwpmc: tunable logbuffersize=%d must be greater than zero. A negative value was supplied for tunable
kern.hwpmc.logbuffersize.
hwpmc: tunable nlogbuffers=%d must be greater than zero. A negative value was supplied for tunable
kern.hwpmc.nlogbuffers.
hwpmc: tunable nsamples=%d out of range. The value for tunable kern.hwpmc.nsamples was negative or
greater than 65535.
COMPATIBILITY
The hwpmc driver is currently under development. The API and ABI documented in this manual page may
change in the future. The recommended method of accessing this driver is using the pmc(3) API.
ERRORS
A command issued to the hwpmc driver may fail with the following errors:
[EAGAIN] Helper process creation failed for a PMC_OP_CONFIGURELOG request due to a temporary
resource shortage in the kernel.
[EBUSY] A PMC_OP_CONFIGURELOG operation was requested while an existing log was active.
[EBUSY] A DISABLE operation was requested using the PMC_OP_PMCADMIN request for a set of
hardware resources currently in use for process-private PMCs.
[EBUSY] A PMC_OP_PMCADMIN operation was requested on an active system mode PMC.
[EBUSY] A PMC_OP_PMCATTACH operation was requested for a target process that already had
another PMC using the same hardware resources attached to it.
[EBUSY] A PMC_OP_PMCRW request writing a new value was issued on a PMC that was active.
[EBUSY] A PMC_OP_PMCSETCOUNT request was issued on a PMC that was active.
[EDOOFUS] A PMC_OP_PMCSTART operation was requested without a log file being configured for a
PMC allocated with PMC_F_LOG_PROCCSW and PMC_F_LOG_PROCEXIT modifiers.
[EDOOFUS] A PMC_OP_PMCSTART operation was requested on a system-wide sampling PMC without a log
file being configured.
[EEXIST] A PMC_OP_PMCATTACH request was reissued for a target process that already is the
target of this PMC.
[EFAULT] A bad address was passed in to the driver.
[EINVAL] An invalid PMC handle was specified.
[EINVAL] An invalid CPU number was passed in for a PMC_OP_GETPMCINFO operation.
[EINVAL] A PMC_OP_CONFIGURELOG request to de-configure a log file was issued without a log file
being configured.
[EINVAL] A PMC_OP_FLUSHLOG request was issued without a log file being configured.
[EINVAL] An invalid CPU number was passed in for a PMC_OP_PMCADMIN operation.
[EINVAL] An invalid operation request was passed in for a PMC_OP_PMCADMIN operation.
[EINVAL] An invalid PMC ID was passed in for a PMC_OP_PMCADMIN operation.
[EINVAL] A suitable PMC matching the parameters passed in to a PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE request could
not be allocated.
[EINVAL] An invalid PMC mode was requested during a PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE request.
[EINVAL] An invalid CPU number was specified during a PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE request.
[EINVAL] A CPU other than PMC_CPU_ANY was specified in a PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE request for a
process-private PMC.
[EINVAL] A CPU number of PMC_CPU_ANY was specified in a PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE request for a
system-wide PMC.
[EINVAL] The pm_flags argument to an PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE request contained unknown flags.
[EINVAL] (On Intel Pentium 4 CPUs with HTT support) A PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE request for a process-
private PMC was issued for an event that does not support counting on a per-logical
CPU basis.
[EINVAL] A PMC allocated for system-wide operation was specified with a PMC_OP_PMCATTACH or
PMC_OP_PMCDETACH request.
[EINVAL] The pm_pid argument to a PMC_OP_PMCATTACH or PMC_OP_PMCDETACH request specified an
illegal process ID.
[EINVAL] A PMC_OP_PMCDETACH request was issued for a PMC not attached to the target process.
[EINVAL] Argument pm_flags to a PMC_OP_PMCRW request contained illegal flags.
[EINVAL] A 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 PMC_F_DESCENDANTS.
[EINVAL] A PMC_OP_WRITELOG request was issued for an owner process without a log file
configured.
[ENOMEM] The system was not able to allocate kernel memory.
[ENOSYS] (On i386 and amd64 architectures) A PMC_OP_PMCX86GETMSR operation was requested for
hardware that does not support reading PMCs directly with the RDPMC instruction.
[ENXIO] A PMC_OP_GETPMCINFO operation was requested for an absent or disabled CPU.
[ENXIO] A PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE operation specified allocation of a system-wide PMC on an absent
or disabled CPU.
[ENXIO] A PMC_OP_PMCSTART or PMC_OP_PMCSTOP request was issued for a system-wide PMC that was
allocated on a CPU that is currently absent or disabled.
[EOPNOTSUPP] A PMC_OP_PMCALLOCATE request was issued for PMC capabilities not supported by the
specified PMC class.
[EOPNOTSUPP] (i386 architectures) A sampling mode PMC was requested on a CPU lacking an APIC.
[EPERM] A PMC_OP_PMCADMIN request was issued by a process without super-user privilege or by a
jailed super-user process.
[EPERM] A PMC_OP_PMCATTACH operation was issued for a target process that the current process
does not have permission to attach to.
[EPERM] (i386 and amd64 architectures) A PMC_OP_PMCATTACH operation was issued on a PMC whose
MSR has been retrieved using PMC_OP_PMCX86GETMSR.
[ESRCH] A process issued a PMC operation request without having allocated any PMCs.
[ESRCH] A process issued a PMC operation request after the PMC was detached from all of its
target processes.
[ESRCH] A PMC_OP_PMCATTACH or PMC_OP_PMCDETACH request specified a non-existent process ID.
[ESRCH] The target process for a PMC_OP_PMCDETACH operation is not being monitored by hwpmc.
SEE ALSO
kenv(1), pmc(3), pmclog(3), kgmon(8), kldload(8), pmccontrol(8), pmcstat(8), sysctl(8), kproc_create(9),
p_candebug(9)
HISTORY
The hwpmc driver first appeared in FreeBSD 6.0.
AUTHORS
The hwpmc driver was written by Joseph Koshy <jkoshy@FreeBSD.org>.
BUGS
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.
On the i386 architecture, the driver requires that the local APIC on the CPU be enabled for sampling mode
to be supported. Many single-processor motherboards keep the APIC disabled in BIOS; on such systems
hwpmc will not support sampling PMCs.
SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
PMCs may be used to monitor the actual behavior of the system on hardware. In situations where this
constitutes an undesirable information leak, the following options are available:
1. Set the sysctl(8) tunable security.bsd.unprivileged_syspmcs to 0. This ensures that unprivileged
processes cannot allocate system-wide PMCs and thus cannot observe the hardware behavior of the
system as a whole. This tunable may also be set at boot time using loader(8), or with kenv(1) prior
to loading the hwpmc driver into the kernel.
2. Set the sysctl(8) tunable security.bsd.unprivileged_proc_debug to 0. 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.
System administrators should note that on IA-32 platforms FreeBSD makes the content of the IA-32 TSC
counter available to all processes via the RDTSC instruction.
Debian November 2, 2012 HWPMC(4)