[PATCH v5] perf stat: Include PMU name and split uncore events per PMU in metric-only JSON output
COLD58d
From: Chun-Tse Shao <hidden>
Date: 2026-08-11 23:05:26
Also in:
lkml
Subsystem:
performance events subsystem, the rest · Maintainers:
Peter Zijlstra, Ingo Molnar, Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo, Namhyung Kim, Linus Torvalds
When running `perf stat` with `-A` (--no-aggr) and `--metric-only` in
JSON output mode (`-j`), `perf stat` evaluates metric expressions
across all matching PMUs (including uncore PMUs like `uncore_iio_0`,
`uncore_iio_1`, etc.).
However, `perf stat` previously formatted JSON output by printing only
"cpu" : "<id>" and grouping all metric values on a single line per CPU
without identifying which PMU instance evaluated each metric. As a
result, when an uncore event spans multiple PMU boxes, `perf stat`
printed repeated, ambiguous metric keys without PMU names.
Fix this by:
1. Including "pmu" : "<pmu_name>" in print_aggr_id_json when evsel->pmu
is a non-core or hybrid PMU in AGGR_NONE mode (-A).
2. Starting a new JSON metric line in AGGR_NONE mode (-A) whenever the
underlying hardware PMU instance changes across PMU events.
3. Bypassing line initialization for tool events (e.g. -e user_time) in
metric-only mode so that JSON lines are opened only by hardware PMUs,
preventing tool events from corrupting PMU name labels or creating
spurious empty {"pmu": "tool"} JSON objects.
4. Updating perf_json_output_lint.py to recognize the new "pmu" key in
the JSON test suite.
Before the fix:
$ perf stat -M iio_bandwidth_read -a -A --metric-only -j -I 1000
{"interval" : 1.001017947, "cpu" : "0", "MB/s iio_bandwidth_read" : "0.0", "MB/s iio_bandwidth_read" : "0.0", "MB/s iio_bandwidth_read" : "22.5", "MB/s iio_bandwidth_read" : "0.0", "MB/s iio_bandwidth_read" : "0.2", "MB/s iio_bandwidth_read" : "0.0", "MB/s iio_bandwidth_read" : "0.0", "MB/s iio_bandwidth_read" : "0.0", "MB/s iio_bandwidth_read" : "0.0", "MB/s iio_bandwidth_read" : "0.0"}
There is no way to determine which uncore device generated the metrics.
After:
$ perf stat -M iio_bandwidth_read -a -A --metric-only -j -I 1000
{"interval" : 1.000314908, "cpu" : "0", "pmu" : "uncore_iio_0", "MB/s iio_bandwidth_read" : "0.0"}
{"interval" : 1.000314908, "cpu" : "0", "pmu" : "uncore_iio_1", "MB/s iio_bandwidth_read" : "0.1"}
{"interval" : 1.000314908, "cpu" : "0", "pmu" : "uncore_iio_11", "MB/s iio_bandwidth_read" : "0.0"}
...
{"interval" : 1.000314908, "cpu" : "56", "pmu" : "uncore_iio_0", "MB/s iio_bandwidth_read" : "0.0"}
{"interval" : 1.000314908, "cpu" : "56", "pmu" : "uncore_iio_1", "MB/s iio_bandwidth_read" : "0.0"}
{"interval" : 1.000314908, "cpu" : "56", "pmu" : "uncore_iio_11", "MB/s iio_bandwidth_read" : "0.0"}
Signed-off-by: Chun-Tse Shao <redacted>
Assisted-by: Gemini:gemini-3.1-pro-preview
---
v5:
- Fix perf test "perf stat JSON output linter" failure.
v4: lore.kernel.org/20260804210659.112192-1-ctshao@google.com
- Fix the line splitting issue, causing spurious empty {"pmu": "tool"}
objects and order-dependent PMU mislabeling.
v3: lore.kernel.org/20260729170416.41904-1-ctshao@google.com
- Add before the fix output.
v2: lore.kernel.org/20260715203055.2981363-1-ctshao@google.com
- Fix print_metric_begin() initialization in print_no_aggr_metric()
to ensure tool events always open lines cleanly.
- Simplify and fix PMU line-split transition tracking when switching
between different PMU instances or transitioning from tool events.
- Add bounds check on aggr_map index in print_no_aggr_metric() to
prevent out-of-bounds array reads if sysfs CPU topology is incomplete.
v1: lore.kernel.org/20260714174052.1826692-1-ctshao@google.com
.../tests/shell/lib/perf_json_output_lint.py | 5 +-
tools/perf/util/stat-display.c | 59 +++++++++++++++----
2 files changed, 51 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)
diff --git a/tools/perf/tests/shell/lib/perf_json_output_lint.py b/tools/perf/tests/shell/lib/perf_json_output_lint.py
index dafbde56cc76..645b76577abb 100644
--- a/tools/perf/tests/shell/lib/perf_json_output_lint.py
+++ b/tools/perf/tests/shell/lib/perf_json_output_lint.py@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ def check_json_output(expected_items): 'metric-threshold': lambda x: x in ['unknown', 'good', 'less good', 'nearly bad', 'bad'], 'metricgroup': lambda x: True, 'node': lambda x: True, + 'pmu': lambda x: True, 'pcnt-running': lambda x: isfloat(x), 'socket': lambda x: True, 'thread': lambda x: True,
@@ -99,8 +100,10 @@ def check_json_output(expected_items): try: if args.no_args or args.system_wide or args.event: expected_items = [5, 7] - elif args.interval or args.per_thread or args.system_wide_no_aggr: + elif args.interval or args.per_thread: expected_items = [6, 8] + elif args.system_wide_no_aggr: + expected_items = [6, 7, 8, 9] elif args.per_core or args.per_socket or args.per_node or args.per_die or args.per_cluster or args.per_cache: expected_items = [7, 9] elif args.metric_only:
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/stat-display.c b/tools/perf/util/stat-display.c
index b337cc23f413..fa5fdb33bba3 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/stat-display.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/stat-display.c@@ -397,6 +397,9 @@ static void print_aggr_id_json(struct perf_stat_config *config, struct outstate json_out(os, "\"cpu\" : \"%d\"", id.cpu.cpu); } + if (evsel && !evsel__is_tool(evsel) && evsel->pmu && + (!evsel->pmu->is_core || evsel__is_hybrid(evsel))) + json_out(os, "\"pmu\" : \"%s\"", evsel->pmu->name); break; case AGGR_THREAD: json_out(os, "\"thread\" : \"%s-%d\"",
@@ -1012,11 +1015,12 @@ static void print_counter_aggrdata(struct perf_stat_config *config, static void print_metric_begin(struct perf_stat_config *config, struct evlist *evlist, - struct outstate *os, int aggr_idx) + struct outstate *os, int aggr_idx, + struct evsel *counter) { struct perf_stat_aggr *aggr; struct aggr_cpu_id id; - struct evsel *evsel; + struct evsel *evsel = counter ?: evlist__first(evlist); os->first = true; if (!config->metric_only)
@@ -1031,7 +1035,6 @@ static void print_metric_begin(struct perf_stat_config *config, else fprintf(config->output, "%s", os->timestamp); } - evsel = evlist__first(evlist); id = config->aggr_map->map[aggr_idx]; aggr = &evsel->stats->aggr[aggr_idx]; aggr_printout(config, os, evsel, id, aggr->nr);
@@ -1069,7 +1072,7 @@ static void print_aggr(struct perf_stat_config *config, * Without each counter has its own line. */ cpu_aggr_map__for_each_idx(aggr_idx, config->aggr_map) { - print_metric_begin(config, evlist, os, aggr_idx); + print_metric_begin(config, evlist, os, aggr_idx, NULL); evlist__for_each_entry(evlist, counter) { print_counter_aggrdata(config, counter, aggr_idx, os);
@@ -1095,7 +1098,7 @@ static void print_aggr_cgroup(struct perf_stat_config *config, os->cgrp = evsel->cgrp; cpu_aggr_map__for_each_idx(aggr_idx, config->aggr_map) { - print_metric_begin(config, evlist, os, aggr_idx); + print_metric_begin(config, evlist, os, aggr_idx, NULL); evlist__for_each_entry(evlist, counter) { if (counter->cgrp != os->cgrp)
@@ -1131,7 +1134,9 @@ static void print_no_aggr_metric(struct perf_stat_config *config, perf_cpu_map__for_each_cpu(cpu, all_idx, evlist__core(evlist)->user_requested_cpus) { struct evsel *counter; - bool first = true; + struct evsel *last_evsel = NULL; + struct perf_pmu *last_pmu = NULL; + bool line_open = false; evlist__for_each_entry(evlist, counter) { u64 ena, run, val;
@@ -1146,12 +1151,42 @@ static void print_no_aggr_metric(struct perf_stat_config *config, if (config->aggr_map->map[aggr_idx].cpu.cpu == cpu.cpu) break; } + if (aggr_idx >= config->aggr_map->nr) + continue; os->evsel = counter; os->id = aggr_cpu_id__cpu(cpu, /*data=*/NULL); - if (first) { - print_metric_begin(config, evlist, os, aggr_idx); - first = false; + + if (config->metric_only) { + struct perf_pmu *pmu = counter->pmu; + bool is_tool = evsel__is_tool(counter); + + if (!is_tool && pmu) { + bool pmu_changed = false; + + if (line_open && last_pmu) { + bool non_core = !pmu->is_core || + evsel__is_hybrid(counter) || + !last_pmu->is_core || + evsel__is_hybrid(last_evsel); + + if (non_core && + strcmp(pmu->name, last_pmu->name) != 0) + pmu_changed = true; + } + + if (pmu_changed) { + print_metric_end(config, os); + line_open = false; + } + if (!line_open) { + print_metric_begin(config, evlist, os, + aggr_idx, counter); + line_open = true; + } + last_pmu = pmu; + last_evsel = counter; + } } val = ps->aggr[aggr_idx].counts.val; ena = ps->aggr[aggr_idx].counts.ena;
@@ -1160,7 +1195,7 @@ static void print_no_aggr_metric(struct perf_stat_config *config, uval = val * counter->scale; printout(config, os, uval, run, ena, 1.0, aggr_idx); } - if (!first) + if (line_open) print_metric_end(config, os); } }
@@ -1523,7 +1558,7 @@ static void print_cgroup_counter(struct perf_stat_config *config, struct evlist print_metric_end(config, os); os->cgrp = counter->cgrp; - print_metric_begin(config, evlist, os, /*aggr_idx=*/0); + print_metric_begin(config, evlist, os, /*aggr_idx=*/0, NULL); } print_counter(config, counter, os);
@@ -1573,7 +1608,7 @@ void evlist__print_counters(struct evlist *evlist, struct perf_stat_config *conf } else if (config->cgroup_list) { print_cgroup_counter(config, evlist, &os); } else { - print_metric_begin(config, evlist, &os, /*aggr_idx=*/0); + print_metric_begin(config, evlist, &os, /*aggr_idx=*/0, NULL); evlist__for_each_entry(evlist, counter) { print_counter(config, counter, &os); } --
2.55.0.679.g6767b8d81c-goog