1 CONFIG_RCU_TRACE debugfs Files and Formats
4 The rcutree and rcutiny implementations of RCU provide debugfs trace
5 output that summarizes counters and state. This information is useful for
6 debugging RCU itself, and can sometimes also help to debug abuses of RCU.
7 The following sections describe the debugfs files and formats, first
8 for rcutree and next for rcutiny.
11 CONFIG_TREE_RCU and CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU debugfs Files and Formats
13 These implementations of RCU provides five debugfs files under the
14 top-level directory RCU: rcu/rcudata (which displays fields in struct
15 rcu_data), rcu/rcudata.csv (which is a .csv spreadsheet version of
16 rcu/rcudata), rcu/rcugp (which displays grace-period counters),
17 rcu/rcuhier (which displays the struct rcu_node hierarchy), and
18 rcu/rcu_pending (which displays counts of the reasons that the
19 rcu_pending() function decided that there was core RCU work to do).
21 The output of "cat rcu/rcudata" looks as follows:
24 0 c=17829 g=17829 pq=1 pqc=17829 qp=0 dt=10951/1 dn=0 df=1101 of=0 ri=36 ql=0 b=10
25 1 c=17829 g=17829 pq=1 pqc=17829 qp=0 dt=16117/1 dn=0 df=1015 of=0 ri=0 ql=0 b=10
26 2 c=17829 g=17829 pq=1 pqc=17829 qp=0 dt=1445/1 dn=0 df=1839 of=0 ri=0 ql=0 b=10
27 3 c=17829 g=17829 pq=1 pqc=17829 qp=0 dt=6681/1 dn=0 df=1545 of=0 ri=0 ql=0 b=10
28 4 c=17829 g=17829 pq=1 pqc=17829 qp=0 dt=1003/1 dn=0 df=1992 of=0 ri=0 ql=0 b=10
29 5 c=17829 g=17830 pq=1 pqc=17829 qp=1 dt=3887/1 dn=0 df=3331 of=0 ri=4 ql=2 b=10
30 6 c=17829 g=17829 pq=1 pqc=17829 qp=0 dt=859/1 dn=0 df=3224 of=0 ri=0 ql=0 b=10
31 7 c=17829 g=17830 pq=0 pqc=17829 qp=1 dt=3761/1 dn=0 df=1818 of=0 ri=0 ql=2 b=10
33 0 c=-275 g=-275 pq=1 pqc=-275 qp=0 dt=10951/1 dn=0 df=0 of=0 ri=0 ql=0 b=10
34 1 c=-275 g=-275 pq=1 pqc=-275 qp=0 dt=16117/1 dn=0 df=13 of=0 ri=0 ql=0 b=10
35 2 c=-275 g=-275 pq=1 pqc=-275 qp=0 dt=1445/1 dn=0 df=15 of=0 ri=0 ql=0 b=10
36 3 c=-275 g=-275 pq=1 pqc=-275 qp=0 dt=6681/1 dn=0 df=9 of=0 ri=0 ql=0 b=10
37 4 c=-275 g=-275 pq=1 pqc=-275 qp=0 dt=1003/1 dn=0 df=15 of=0 ri=0 ql=0 b=10
38 5 c=-275 g=-275 pq=1 pqc=-275 qp=0 dt=3887/1 dn=0 df=15 of=0 ri=0 ql=0 b=10
39 6 c=-275 g=-275 pq=1 pqc=-275 qp=0 dt=859/1 dn=0 df=15 of=0 ri=0 ql=0 b=10
40 7 c=-275 g=-275 pq=1 pqc=-275 qp=0 dt=3761/1 dn=0 df=15 of=0 ri=0 ql=0 b=10
42 The first section lists the rcu_data structures for rcu_sched, the second
43 for rcu_bh. Note that CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU kernels will have an
44 additional section for rcu_preempt. Each section has one line per CPU,
45 or eight for this 8-CPU system. The fields are as follows:
47 o The number at the beginning of each line is the CPU number.
48 CPUs numbers followed by an exclamation mark are offline,
49 but have been online at least once since boot. There will be
50 no output for CPUs that have never been online, which can be
51 a good thing in the surprisingly common case where NR_CPUS is
52 substantially larger than the number of actual CPUs.
54 o "c" is the count of grace periods that this CPU believes have
55 completed. CPUs in dynticks idle mode may lag quite a ways
56 behind, for example, CPU 4 under "rcu_sched" above, which has
57 slept through the past 25 RCU grace periods. It is not unusual
58 to see CPUs lagging by thousands of grace periods.
60 o "g" is the count of grace periods that this CPU believes have
61 started. Again, CPUs in dynticks idle mode may lag behind.
62 If the "c" and "g" values are equal, this CPU has already
63 reported a quiescent state for the last RCU grace period that
64 it is aware of, otherwise, the CPU believes that it owes RCU a
67 o "pq" indicates that this CPU has passed through a quiescent state
68 for the current grace period. It is possible for "pq" to be
69 "1" and "c" different than "g", which indicates that although
70 the CPU has passed through a quiescent state, either (1) this
71 CPU has not yet reported that fact, (2) some other CPU has not
72 yet reported for this grace period, or (3) both.
74 o "pqc" indicates which grace period the last-observed quiescent
75 state for this CPU corresponds to. This is important for handling
76 the race between CPU 0 reporting an extended dynticks-idle
77 quiescent state for CPU 1 and CPU 1 suddenly waking up and
78 reporting its own quiescent state. If CPU 1 was the last CPU
79 for the current grace period, then the CPU that loses this race
80 will attempt to incorrectly mark CPU 1 as having checked in for
81 the next grace period!
83 o "qp" indicates that RCU still expects a quiescent state from
86 o "dt" is the current value of the dyntick counter that is incremented
87 when entering or leaving dynticks idle state, either by the
88 scheduler or by irq. The number after the "/" is the interrupt
89 nesting depth when in dyntick-idle state, or one greater than
90 the interrupt-nesting depth otherwise.
92 This field is displayed only for CONFIG_NO_HZ kernels.
94 o "dn" is the current value of the dyntick counter that is incremented
95 when entering or leaving dynticks idle state via NMI. If both
96 the "dt" and "dn" values are even, then this CPU is in dynticks
97 idle mode and may be ignored by RCU. If either of these two
98 counters is odd, then RCU must be alert to the possibility of
99 an RCU read-side critical section running on this CPU.
101 This field is displayed only for CONFIG_NO_HZ kernels.
103 o "df" is the number of times that some other CPU has forced a
104 quiescent state on behalf of this CPU due to this CPU being in
107 This field is displayed only for CONFIG_NO_HZ kernels.
109 o "of" is the number of times that some other CPU has forced a
110 quiescent state on behalf of this CPU due to this CPU being
111 offline. In a perfect world, this might neve happen, but it
112 turns out that offlining and onlining a CPU can take several grace
113 periods, and so there is likely to be an extended period of time
114 when RCU believes that the CPU is online when it really is not.
115 Please note that erring in the other direction (RCU believing a
116 CPU is offline when it is really alive and kicking) is a fatal
117 error, so it makes sense to err conservatively.
119 o "ri" is the number of times that RCU has seen fit to send a
120 reschedule IPI to this CPU in order to get it to report a
123 o "ql" is the number of RCU callbacks currently residing on
124 this CPU. This is the total number of callbacks, regardless
125 of what state they are in (new, waiting for grace period to
126 start, waiting for grace period to end, ready to invoke).
128 o "b" is the batch limit for this CPU. If more than this number
129 of RCU callbacks is ready to invoke, then the remainder will
132 o "ci" is the number of RCU callbacks that have been invoked for
133 this CPU. Note that ci+ql is the number of callbacks that have
134 been registered in absence of CPU-hotplug activity.
136 o "co" is the number of RCU callbacks that have been orphaned due to
137 this CPU going offline. These orphaned callbacks have been moved
138 to an arbitrarily chosen online CPU.
140 o "ca" is the number of RCU callbacks that have been adopted due to
141 other CPUs going offline. Note that ci+co-ca+ql is the number of
142 RCU callbacks registered on this CPU.
144 There is also an rcu/rcudata.csv file with the same information in
145 comma-separated-variable spreadsheet format.
148 The output of "cat rcu/rcugp" looks as follows:
150 rcu_sched: completed=33062 gpnum=33063
151 rcu_bh: completed=464 gpnum=464
153 Again, this output is for both "rcu_sched" and "rcu_bh". Note that
154 kernels built with CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU will have an additional
155 "rcu_preempt" line. The fields are taken from the rcu_state structure,
158 o "completed" is the number of grace periods that have completed.
159 It is comparable to the "c" field from rcu/rcudata in that a
160 CPU whose "c" field matches the value of "completed" is aware
161 that the corresponding RCU grace period has completed.
163 o "gpnum" is the number of grace periods that have started. It is
164 comparable to the "g" field from rcu/rcudata in that a CPU
165 whose "g" field matches the value of "gpnum" is aware that the
166 corresponding RCU grace period has started.
168 If these two fields are equal (as they are for "rcu_bh" above),
169 then there is no grace period in progress, in other words, RCU
170 is idle. On the other hand, if the two fields differ (as they
171 do for "rcu_sched" above), then an RCU grace period is in progress.
174 The output of "cat rcu/rcuhier" looks as follows, with very long lines:
176 c=6902 g=6903 s=2 jfq=3 j=72c7 nfqs=13142/nfqsng=0(13142) fqlh=6
178 3/3 .>. 0:35 ^0 0/0 .>. 36:71 ^1 0/0 .>. 72:107 ^2 0/0 .>. 108:127 ^3
179 3/3f .>. 0:5 ^0 2/3 .>. 6:11 ^1 0/0 .>. 12:17 ^2 0/0 .>. 18:23 ^3 0/0 .>. 24:29 ^4 0/0 .>. 30:35 ^5 0/0 .>. 36:41 ^0 0/0 .>. 42:47 ^1 0/0 .>. 48:53 ^2 0/0 .>. 54:59 ^3 0/0 .>. 60:65 ^4 0/0 .>. 66:71 ^5 0/0 .>. 72:77 ^0 0/0 .>. 78:83 ^1 0/0 .>. 84:89 ^2 0/0 .>. 90:95 ^3 0/0 .>. 96:101 ^4 0/0 .>. 102:107 ^5 0/0 .>. 108:113 ^0 0/0 .>. 114:119 ^1 0/0 .>. 120:125 ^2 0/0 .>. 126:127 ^3
181 c=-226 g=-226 s=1 jfq=-5701 j=72c7 nfqs=88/nfqsng=0(88) fqlh=0
183 0/3 .>. 0:35 ^0 0/0 .>. 36:71 ^1 0/0 .>. 72:107 ^2 0/0 .>. 108:127 ^3
184 0/3f .>. 0:5 ^0 0/3 .>. 6:11 ^1 0/0 .>. 12:17 ^2 0/0 .>. 18:23 ^3 0/0 .>. 24:29 ^4 0/0 .>. 30:35 ^5 0/0 .>. 36:41 ^0 0/0 .>. 42:47 ^1 0/0 .>. 48:53 ^2 0/0 .>. 54:59 ^3 0/0 .>. 60:65 ^4 0/0 .>. 66:71 ^5 0/0 .>. 72:77 ^0 0/0 .>. 78:83 ^1 0/0 .>. 84:89 ^2 0/0 .>. 90:95 ^3 0/0 .>. 96:101 ^4 0/0 .>. 102:107 ^5 0/0 .>. 108:113 ^0 0/0 .>. 114:119 ^1 0/0 .>. 120:125 ^2 0/0 .>. 126:127 ^3
186 This is once again split into "rcu_sched" and "rcu_bh" portions,
187 and CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU kernels will again have an additional
188 "rcu_preempt" section. The fields are as follows:
190 o "c" is exactly the same as "completed" under rcu/rcugp.
192 o "g" is exactly the same as "gpnum" under rcu/rcugp.
194 o "s" is the "signaled" state that drives force_quiescent_state()'s
197 o "jfq" is the number of jiffies remaining for this grace period
198 before force_quiescent_state() is invoked to help push things
199 along. Note that CPUs in dyntick-idle mode throughout the grace
200 period will not report on their own, but rather must be check by
201 some other CPU via force_quiescent_state().
203 o "j" is the low-order four hex digits of the jiffies counter.
204 Yes, Paul did run into a number of problems that turned out to
205 be due to the jiffies counter no longer counting. Why do you ask?
207 o "nfqs" is the number of calls to force_quiescent_state() since
210 o "nfqsng" is the number of useless calls to force_quiescent_state(),
211 where there wasn't actually a grace period active. This can
212 happen due to races. The number in parentheses is the difference
213 between "nfqs" and "nfqsng", or the number of times that
214 force_quiescent_state() actually did some real work.
216 o "fqlh" is the number of calls to force_quiescent_state() that
217 exited immediately (without even being counted in nfqs above)
218 due to contention on ->fqslock.
220 o Each element of the form "1/1 0:127 ^0" represents one struct
221 rcu_node. Each line represents one level of the hierarchy, from
222 root to leaves. It is best to think of the rcu_data structures
223 as forming yet another level after the leaves. Note that there
224 might be either one, two, or three levels of rcu_node structures,
225 depending on the relationship between CONFIG_RCU_FANOUT and
228 o The numbers separated by the "/" are the qsmask followed
229 by the qsmaskinit. The qsmask will have one bit
230 set for each entity in the next lower level that
231 has not yet checked in for the current grace period.
232 The qsmaskinit will have one bit for each entity that is
233 currently expected to check in during each grace period.
234 The value of qsmaskinit is assigned to that of qsmask
235 at the beginning of each grace period.
237 For example, for "rcu_sched", the qsmask of the first
238 entry of the lowest level is 0x14, meaning that we
239 are still waiting for CPUs 2 and 4 to check in for the
240 current grace period.
242 o The characters separated by the ">" indicate the state
243 of the blocked-tasks lists. A "T" preceding the ">"
244 indicates that at least one task blocked in an RCU
245 read-side critical section blocks the current grace
246 period, while a "." preceding the ">" indicates otherwise.
247 The character following the ">" indicates similarly for
248 the next grace period. A "T" should appear in this
249 field only for rcu-preempt.
251 o The numbers separated by the ":" are the range of CPUs
252 served by this struct rcu_node. This can be helpful
253 in working out how the hierarchy is wired together.
255 For example, the first entry at the lowest level shows
256 "0:5", indicating that it covers CPUs 0 through 5.
258 o The number after the "^" indicates the bit in the
259 next higher level rcu_node structure that this
260 rcu_node structure corresponds to.
262 For example, the first entry at the lowest level shows
263 "^0", indicating that it corresponds to bit zero in
264 the first entry at the middle level.
267 The output of "cat rcu/rcu_pending" looks as follows:
270 0 np=255892 qsp=53936 rpq=85 cbr=0 cng=14417 gpc=10033 gps=24320 nf=6445 nn=146741
271 1 np=261224 qsp=54638 rpq=33 cbr=0 cng=25723 gpc=16310 gps=2849 nf=5912 nn=155792
272 2 np=237496 qsp=49664 rpq=23 cbr=0 cng=2762 gpc=45478 gps=1762 nf=1201 nn=136629
273 3 np=236249 qsp=48766 rpq=98 cbr=0 cng=286 gpc=48049 gps=1218 nf=207 nn=137723
274 4 np=221310 qsp=46850 rpq=7 cbr=0 cng=26 gpc=43161 gps=4634 nf=3529 nn=123110
275 5 np=237332 qsp=48449 rpq=9 cbr=0 cng=54 gpc=47920 gps=3252 nf=201 nn=137456
276 6 np=219995 qsp=46718 rpq=12 cbr=0 cng=50 gpc=42098 gps=6093 nf=4202 nn=120834
277 7 np=249893 qsp=49390 rpq=42 cbr=0 cng=72 gpc=38400 gps=17102 nf=41 nn=144888
279 0 np=146741 qsp=1419 rpq=6 cbr=0 cng=6 gpc=0 gps=0 nf=2 nn=145314
280 1 np=155792 qsp=12597 rpq=3 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=4 gps=8 nf=3 nn=143180
281 2 np=136629 qsp=18680 rpq=1 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=7 gps=6 nf=0 nn=117936
282 3 np=137723 qsp=2843 rpq=0 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=10 gps=7 nf=0 nn=134863
283 4 np=123110 qsp=12433 rpq=0 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=4 gps=2 nf=0 nn=110671
284 5 np=137456 qsp=4210 rpq=1 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=6 gps=5 nf=0 nn=133235
285 6 np=120834 qsp=9902 rpq=2 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=6 gps=3 nf=2 nn=110921
286 7 np=144888 qsp=26336 rpq=0 cbr=0 cng=0 gpc=8 gps=2 nf=0 nn=118542
288 As always, this is once again split into "rcu_sched" and "rcu_bh"
289 portions, with CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU kernels having an additional
290 "rcu_preempt" section. The fields are as follows:
292 o "np" is the number of times that __rcu_pending() has been invoked
293 for the corresponding flavor of RCU.
295 o "qsp" is the number of times that the RCU was waiting for a
296 quiescent state from this CPU.
298 o "rpq" is the number of times that the CPU had passed through
299 a quiescent state, but not yet reported it to RCU.
301 o "cbr" is the number of times that this CPU had RCU callbacks
302 that had passed through a grace period, and were thus ready
305 o "cng" is the number of times that this CPU needed another
306 grace period while RCU was idle.
308 o "gpc" is the number of times that an old grace period had
309 completed, but this CPU was not yet aware of it.
311 o "gps" is the number of times that a new grace period had started,
312 but this CPU was not yet aware of it.
314 o "nf" is the number of times that this CPU suspected that the
315 current grace period had run for too long, and thus needed to
318 Please note that "forcing" consists of sending resched IPIs
319 to holdout CPUs. If that CPU really still is in an old RCU
320 read-side critical section, then we really do have to wait for it.
321 The assumption behing "forcing" is that the CPU is not still in
322 an old RCU read-side critical section, but has not yet responded
323 for some other reason.
325 o "nn" is the number of times that this CPU needed nothing. Alert
326 readers will note that the rcu "nn" number for a given CPU very
327 closely matches the rcu_bh "np" number for that same CPU. This
328 is due to short-circuit evaluation in rcu_pending().
331 CONFIG_TINY_RCU and CONFIG_TINY_PREEMPT_RCU debugfs Files and Formats
333 These implementations of RCU provides a single debugfs file under the
334 top-level directory RCU, namely rcu/rcudata, which displays fields in
335 rcu_bh_ctrlblk, rcu_sched_ctrlblk and, for CONFIG_TINY_PREEMPT_RCU,
338 The output of "cat rcu/rcudata" is as follows:
340 rcu_preempt: qlen=24 gp=1097669 g197/p197/c197 tasks=...
341 ttb=. btg=no ntb=184 neb=0 nnb=183 j=01f7 bt=0274
342 normal balk: nt=1097669 gt=0 bt=371 b=0 ny=25073378 nos=0
347 This is split into rcu_preempt, rcu_sched, and rcu_bh sections, with the
348 rcu_preempt section appearing only in CONFIG_TINY_PREEMPT_RCU builds.
349 The last three lines of the rcu_preempt section appear only in
350 CONFIG_RCU_BOOST kernel builds. The fields are as follows:
352 o "qlen" is the number of RCU callbacks currently waiting either
353 for an RCU grace period or waiting to be invoked. This is the
354 only field present for rcu_sched and rcu_bh, due to the
355 short-circuiting of grace period in those two cases.
357 o "gp" is the number of grace periods that have completed.
359 o "g197/p197/c197" displays the grace-period state, with the
360 "g" number being the number of grace periods that have started
361 (mod 256), the "p" number being the number of grace periods
362 that the CPU has responded to (also mod 256), and the "c"
363 number being the number of grace periods that have completed
364 (once again mode 256).
366 Why have both "gp" and "g"? Because the data flowing into
367 "gp" is only present in a CONFIG_RCU_TRACE kernel.
369 o "tasks" is a set of bits. The first bit is "T" if there are
370 currently tasks that have recently blocked within an RCU
371 read-side critical section, the second bit is "N" if any of the
372 aforementioned tasks are blocking the current RCU grace period,
373 and the third bit is "E" if any of the aforementioned tasks are
374 blocking the current expedited grace period. Each bit is "."
375 if the corresponding condition does not hold.
377 o "ttb" is a single bit. It is "B" if any of the blocked tasks
378 need to be priority boosted and "." otherwise.
380 o "btg" indicates whether boosting has been carried out during
381 the current grace period, with "exp" indicating that boosting
382 is in progress for an expedited grace period, "no" indicating
383 that boosting has not yet started for a normal grace period,
384 "begun" indicating that boosting has bebug for a normal grace
385 period, and "done" indicating that boosting has completed for
386 a normal grace period.
388 o "ntb" is the total number of tasks subjected to RCU priority boosting
391 o "neb" is the number of expedited grace periods that have had
392 to resort to RCU priority boosting since boot.
394 o "nnb" is the number of normal grace periods that have had
395 to resort to RCU priority boosting since boot.
397 o "j" is the low-order 12 bits of the jiffies counter in hexadecimal.
399 o "bt" is the low-order 12 bits of the value that the jiffies counter
400 will have at the next time that boosting is scheduled to begin.
402 o In the line beginning with "normal balk", the fields are as follows:
404 o "nt" is the number of times that the system balked from
405 boosting because there were no blocked tasks to boost.
406 Note that the system will balk from boosting even if the
407 grace period is overdue when the currently running task
408 is looping within an RCU read-side critical section.
409 There is no point in boosting in this case, because
410 boosting a running task won't make it run any faster.
412 o "gt" is the number of times that the system balked
413 from boosting because, although there were blocked tasks,
414 none of them were preventing the current grace period
417 o "bt" is the number of times that the system balked
418 from boosting because boosting was already in progress.
420 o "b" is the number of times that the system balked from
421 boosting because boosting had already completed for
422 the grace period in question.
424 o "ny" is the number of times that the system balked from
425 boosting because it was not yet time to start boosting
426 the grace period in question.
428 o "nos" is the number of times that the system balked from
429 boosting for inexplicable ("not otherwise specified")
430 reasons. This can actually happen due to races involving
431 increments of the jiffies counter.
433 o In the line beginning with "exp balk", the fields are as follows:
435 o "bt" is the number of times that the system balked from
436 boosting because there were no blocked tasks to boost.
438 o "nos" is the number of times that the system balked from
439 boosting for inexplicable ("not otherwise specified")