perf tools: Add branch counter knob

Add a new branch filter, "counter", for the branch counter option. It is
used to mark the events which should be logged in the branch. If it is
applied with the -j option, the counters of all the events should be
logged in the branch. If the legacy kernel doesn't support the new
branch sample type, switching off the branch counter filter.

The stored counter values in each branch are displayed right after the
regular branch stack information via perf report -D.

Usage examples:

  # perf record -e "{branch-instructions,branch-misses}:S" -j any,counter

Only the first event, branch-instructions, collect the LBR. Both
branch-instructions and branch-misses are marked as logged events.  The
occurrences information of them can be found in the branch stack
extension space of each branch.

  # perf record -e "{cpu/branch-instructions,branch_type=any/,cpu/branch-misses,branch_type=counter/}"

Only the first event, branch-instructions, collect the LBR. Only the
branch-misses event is marked as a logged event.

Committer notes:

I noticed 'perf test "Sample parsing"' failing, reported to the list and
Kan provided a patch that checks if the evsel has a leader and that
evsel->evlist is set, the comment in the source code further explains
it.

Reviewed-by: Ian Rogers <irogers@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Kan Liang <kan.liang@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Adrian Hunter <adrian.hunter@intel.com>
Cc: Alexander Shishkin <alexander.shishkin@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Alexey Bayduraev <alexey.v.bayduraev@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Andi Kleen <ak@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>
Cc: Jiri Olsa <jolsa@kernel.org>
Cc: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>
Cc: Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Stephane Eranian <eranian@google.com>
Cc: Tinghao Zhang <tinghao.zhang@intel.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20231025201626.3000228-8-kan.liang@linux.intel.com
Signed-off-by: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@redhat.com>

1 files changed, 4 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-record.txt b/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-record.txt
index 1889f66addf2..6015fdd08fb6 100644
--- a/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-record.txt
+++ b/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-record.txt
@@ -445,6 +445,10 @@ following filters are defined:
 		     4th-Gen Xeon+ server), the save branch type is unconditionally enabled
 		     when the taken branch stack sampling is enabled.
 	- priv: save privilege state during sampling in case binary is not available later
+	- counter: save occurrences of the event since the last branch entry. Currently, the
+		   feature is only supported by a newer CPU, e.g., Intel Sierra Forest and
+		   later platforms. An error out is expected if it's used on the unsupported
+		   kernel or CPUs.
 
 +
 The option requires at least one branch type among any, any_call, any_ret, ind_call, cond.