1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
//! Direct, unsafe bindings for Linux [`perf_event_open`][man] and friends.
//!
//! Linux's `perf_event_open` system call provides access to the processor's
//! performance measurement counters (things like instructions retired, cache
//! misses, and so on), kernel counters (context switches, page faults), and
//! many other sources of performance information.
//!
//! You can't get the `perf_event_open` function from the `libc` crate, as you
//! would any other system call. The Linux standard C library does not provide a
//! binding for this function or its associated types and constants.
//!
//! Rust analogs to the C types and constants from `<linux/perf_event.h>` and
//! `<linux/hw_breakpoint.h>`, generated with `bindgen`, are available in the
//! [`bindings`] module.
//!
//! There are several ioctls for use with `perf_event_open` file descriptors;
//! see the [`ioctls`] module for those.
//!
//! For a safe and convenient interface to this functionality, see the
//! [`perf_event`] crate.
//!
//! ## Using the raw API
//!
//! As the kernel interface evolves, the struct and union types from the
//! [`bindings`] module may acquire new fields. To ensure that your code will
//! continue to compile against newer versions of this crate, you should
//! construct values of these types by calling their `Default` implementations,
//! which return zero-filled values, and then assigning to the fields you care
//! about. For example:
//!
//! ```
//! use perf_event_open_sys as sys;
//!
//! // Construct a zero-filled `perf_event_attr`.
//! let mut attrs = sys::bindings::perf_event_attr::default();
//!
//! // Populate the fields we need.
//! attrs.size = std::mem::size_of::<sys::bindings::perf_event_attr>() as u32;
//! attrs.type_ = sys::bindings::PERF_TYPE_HARDWARE;
//! attrs.config = sys::bindings::PERF_COUNT_HW_INSTRUCTIONS as u64;
//! attrs.set_disabled(1);
//! attrs.set_exclude_kernel(1);
//! attrs.set_exclude_hv(1);
//!
//! // Make the system call.
//! let result = unsafe {
//!     sys::perf_event_open(&mut attrs, 0, -1, -1, 0)
//! };
//!
//! if result < 0 {
//!     // ... handle error
//! }
//!
//! // ... use `result` as a raw file descriptor
//! ```
//!
//! It is not necessary to adjust `size` to what the running kernel expects:
//! older kernels can accept newer `perf_event_attr` structs, and vice versa. As
//! long as the `size` field was properly initialized, an error result of
//! `E2BIG` indicates that the `attrs` structure has requested behavior the
//! kernel is too old to support.
//!
//! When `E2BIG` is returned, the kernel writes the size it expected back to the
//! `size` field of the `attrs` struct. Again, if you want to retry the call, it
//! is not necessary to adjust the size you pass to match what the kernel passed
//! back. The size from the kernel just indicates which version of the API the
//! kernel supports; see the documentation for the `PERF_EVENT_ATTR_SIZE_VER...`
//! constants for details.
//!
//! ## Kernel versions
//!
//! The bindings in this crate are generated from the Linux kernel headers
//! packaged by Fedora as:
//! - x86_64: `kernel-headers-5.19.4-200.fc36.x86_64` (`PERF_ATTR_SIZE_VER7`)
//! - aarch64: `kernel-headers-5.18.4-201.fc36.aarch64` (`PERF_ATTR_SIZE_VER7`)
//!
//! As explained above, bugs aside, it is not necessary to use the version of
//! these structures that matches the kernel you want to run under, so it should
//! always be acceptable to use the latest version of this crate, even if you
//! want to support older kernels.
//!
//! This crate's `README.md` file includes instructions on regenerating the
//! bindings from newer kernel headers. However, this can be a breaking change
//! for users that have not followed the advice above, so regeneration should
//! cause a major version increment.
//!
//! If you need features that are available only in a more recent version of the
//! types than this crate provides, please file an issue.
//!
//! ## Linux API Backward/Forward Compatibility Strategy
//!
//! (This is more detail than necessary if you just want to use the crate. I
//! want to write this down somewhere so that I have something to refer to when
//! I forget the details.)
//!
//! It is an important principle of Linux kernel development that new versions
//! of the kernel should not break userspace. If upgrading your kernel breaks a
//! user program, then that's a bug in the kernel. (This refers to the run-time
//! interface. I don't know what the stability rules are for the kernel headers:
//! can new headers cause old code to fail to compile? Anyway, run time is our
//! concern here.)
//!
//! But when you have an open-ended, complex system call like `perf_event_open`,
//! it's really important for the interface to be able to evolve. Certainly, old
//! programs must run properly on new kernels, but ideally, it should work the
//! other way, too: a program built against a newer version of the kernel
//! headers should run on an older kernel, as long as it only requests features
//! the old kernel actually supports. That is, simply compiling against newer
//! headers should not be disqualifying - only using those new headers to
//! request new features the running kernel can't provide should cause an error.
//!
//! Consider the specific case of passing a struct like `perf_event_attr` to a
//! system call like `perf_event_open`. In general, there are two versions of
//! the struct in play: the version the user program was compiled against, and
//! the version the running kernel was compiled against. How can we let old
//! programs call `perf_event_open` on new kernels, and vice versa?
//!
//! Linux has a neat strategy for making this work. There are four rules:
//!
//! -   Every system call that passes a struct to the kernel includes some
//!     indication of how large userspace thinks that struct is. For
//!     `perf_event_open`, it's the `size` field of the `perf_event_attr`
//!     struct. For `ioctl`s that pass a struct, it's a bitfield of the
//!     `request` value.
//!
//! -   Fields are never deleted from structs. At most, newer kernel headers may
//!     rename them to `__reserved_foo` or something like that, but once a field
//!     has been placed, its layout in the struct never changes.
//!
//! -   New fields are added to the end of structs.
//!
//! -   New fields' semantics are chosen such that filling them with zeros
//!     preserves the old behavior. That is, turning an old struct into a new
//!     struct by extending it with zero bytes should always give you a new
//!     struct with the same meaning as the old struct.
//!
//! Then, the kernel's strategy for receiving structs from userspace is as
//! follows (according to the comments for `copy_struct_from_user` in
//! the kernel source `include/linux/uaccess.h`):
//!
//! -   If the kernel's struct is larger than the one passed from userspace,
//!     then that means the kernel is newer than the userspace program. The
//!     kernel copies the userspace data into the initial bytes of its own
//!     struct, and zeros the remaining bytes. Since zeroed fields have no
//!     effect, the resulting struct properly reflects the user's intent.
//!
//! -   If the kernel's struct is smaller than the one passed from userspace,
//!     then that means that a userspace program compiled against newer kernel
//!     headers is running on an older kernel. The kernel checks that the excess
//!     bytes in the userspace struct are all zero; if they are not, the system
//!     call returns `E2BIG`, indicating that userspace has requested a feature
//!     the kernel doesn't support. If they are all zero, then the kernel
//!     initializes its own struct with the bytes from the start of the
//!     userspace struct, and drops the rest. Since the dropped bytes were all
//!     zero, they did not affect the requested behavior, and the resulting
//!     struct reflects the user's intent.
//!
//! -   In either case, the kernel verifies that any `__reserved_foo` fields in
//!     its own version of the struct are zero.
//!
//! This covers both the old-on-new and new-on-old cases, and returns an error
//! only when the call requests functionality the kernel doesn't support.
//!
//! You can find one example of using `perf_event_open` in the [`perf_event`]
//! crate, which provides a safe interface to a subset of `perf_event_open`'s
//! functionality.
//!
//! ## Using perf types on other platforms
//!
//! Although the functions in this crate are only available on Linux
//! and Android, the crate itself should build on Windows and Mac as
//! well. On those platforms, only the `bindings` module is available:
//! the types are useful to code that needs to parse perf data
//! produced on Linux.
//!
//! [`bindings`]: bindings/index.html
//! [`ioctls`]: ioctls/index.html
//! [man]: http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/perf_event_open.2.html
//! [`perf_event`]: https://crates.io/crates/perf_event

#[cfg(target_arch = "aarch64")]
#[path = "bindings_aarch64.rs"]
pub mod bindings;

#[cfg(any(target_arch = "x86", target_arch = "x86_64"))]
#[path = "bindings_x86_64.rs"]
pub mod bindings;

// Provide actual callable code only on Linux/Android. See "Using perf
// types on other platforms", in the top-level crate docs.
#[cfg(any(target_os = "linux", target_os = "android"))]
mod functions;

#[cfg(any(target_os = "linux", target_os = "android"))]
pub use functions::*;