perf-list(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | EVENT MODIFIERS | RAW HARDWARE EVENT DESCRIPTOR | ARBITRARY PMUS | PER SOCKET PMUS | ACCESS RESTRICTIONS | TOOL/HWMON EVENTS | TRACING | PARAMETERIZED EVENTS | EVENT GROUPS | LEADER SAMPLING | OPTIONS | SEE ALSO | NOTES | COLOPHON

PERF-LIST(1)                   perf Manual                   PERF-LIST(1)

NAME         top

       perf-list - List all symbolic event types

SYNOPSIS         top

       perf list [<options>]
                   [hw|sw|cache|tracepoint|pmu|sdt|metric|metricgroup|event_glob]

DESCRIPTION         top

       This command displays the symbolic event types which can be
       selected in the various perf commands with the -e option.

OPTIONS         top

       -d, --desc
           Print extra event descriptions. (default)

       --no-desc
           Don’t print descriptions.

       -v, --long-desc
           Print longer event descriptions.

       --debug
           Enable debugging output.

       --details
           Print how named events are resolved internally into perf
           events, and also any extra expressions computed by perf stat.

       --deprecated
           Print deprecated events. By default the deprecated events are
           hidden.

       --unit
           Print PMU events and metrics limited to the specific PMU name.
           (e.g. --unit cpu, --unit msr, --unit cpu_core, --unit
           cpu_atom)

       -j, --json
           Output in JSON format.

       -o, --output=
           Output file name. By default output is written to stdout.

EVENT MODIFIERS         top

       Events can optionally have a modifier by appending a colon and one
       or more modifiers. Modifiers allow the user to restrict the events
       to be counted. The following modifiers exist:

           u - user-space counting
           k - kernel counting
           h - hypervisor counting
           I - non idle counting
           G - guest counting (in KVM guests)
           H - host counting (not in KVM guests)
           p - precise level
           P - use maximum detected precise level
           S - read sample value (PERF_SAMPLE_READ)
           D - pin the event to the PMU
           W - group is weak and will fallback to non-group if not schedulable,
           e - group or event are exclusive and do not share the PMU
           b - use BPF aggregration (see perf stat --bpf-counters)
           R - retire latency value of the event

       The p modifier can be used for specifying how precise the
       instruction address should be. The p modifier can be specified
       multiple times:

           0 - SAMPLE_IP can have arbitrary skid
           1 - SAMPLE_IP must have constant skid
           2 - SAMPLE_IP requested to have 0 skid
           3 - SAMPLE_IP must have 0 skid, or uses randomization to avoid
               sample shadowing effects.

       For Intel systems precise event sampling is implemented with PEBS
       which supports up to precise-level 2, and precise level 3 for some
       special cases

       On AMD systems it is implemented using IBS OP (up to precise-level
       2). Unlike Intel PEBS which provides levels of precision, AMD core
       pmu is inherently non-precise and IBS is inherently precise. (i.e.
       ibs_op//, ibs_op//p, ibs_op//pp and ibs_op//ppp are all same). The
       precise modifier works with event types 0x76 (cpu-cycles, CPU
       clocks not halted) and 0xC1 (micro-ops retired). Both events map
       to IBS execution sampling (IBS op) with the IBS Op Counter Control
       bit (IbsOpCntCtl) set respectively (see the Core Complex (CCX) →
       Processor x86 Core → Instruction Based Sampling (IBS) section of
       the [AMD Processor Programming Reference (PPR)] relevant to the
       family, model and stepping of the processor being used).

       Manual Volume 2: System Programming, 13.3 Instruction-Based
       Sampling). Examples to use IBS:

           perf record -a -e cpu-cycles:p ...    # use ibs op counting cycles
           perf record -a -e r076:p ...          # same as -e cpu-cycles:p
           perf record -a -e r0C1:p ...          # use ibs op counting micro-ops

RAW HARDWARE EVENT DESCRIPTOR         top

       Even when an event is not available in a symbolic form within perf
       right now, it can be encoded in a per processor specific way.

       For instance on x86 CPUs, N is a hexadecimal value that represents
       the raw register encoding with the layout of IA32_PERFEVTSELx MSRs
       (see [Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer’s
       Manual Volume 3B: System Programming Guide] Figure 30-1 Layout of
       IA32_PERFEVTSELx MSRs) or AMD’s PERF_CTL MSRs (see the Core
       Complex (CCX) → Processor x86 Core → MSR Registers section of the
       [AMD Processor Programming Reference (PPR)] relevant to the
       family, model and stepping of the processor being used).

       Note: Only the following bit fields can be set in x86 counter
       registers: event, umask, edge, inv, cmask. Esp. guest/host only
       and OS/user mode flags must be setup using EVENT MODIFIERS.

       Example:

       If the Intel docs for a QM720 Core i7 describe an event as:

           Event  Umask  Event Mask
           Num.   Value  Mnemonic    Description                        Comment

           A8H      01H  LSD.UOPS    Counts the number of micro-ops     Use cmask=1 and
                                     delivered by loop stream detector  invert to count
                                                                        cycles

       raw encoding of 0x1A8 can be used:

           perf stat -e r1a8 -a sleep 1
           perf record -e r1a8 ...

       It’s also possible to use pmu syntax:

           perf record -e r1a8 -a sleep 1
           perf record -e cpu/r1a8/ ...
           perf record -e cpu/r0x1a8/ ...

       Some processors, like those from AMD, support event codes and unit
       masks larger than a byte. In such cases, the bits corresponding to
       the event configuration parameters can be seen with:

           cat /sys/bus/event_source/devices/<pmu>/format/<config>

       Example:

       If the AMD docs for an EPYC 7713 processor describe an event as:

           Event  Umask  Event Mask
           Num.   Value  Mnemonic                        Description

           28FH     03H  op_cache_hit_miss.op_cache_hit  Counts Op Cache micro-tag
                                                         hit events.

       raw encoding of 0x0328F cannot be used since the upper nibble of
       the EventSelect bits have to be specified via bits 32-35 as can be
       seen with:

           cat /sys/bus/event_source/devices/cpu/format/event

       raw encoding of 0x20000038F should be used instead:

           perf stat -e r20000038f -a sleep 1
           perf record -e r20000038f ...

       It’s also possible to use pmu syntax:

           perf record -e r20000038f -a sleep 1
           perf record -e cpu/r20000038f/ ...
           perf record -e cpu/r0x20000038f/ ...

       You should refer to the processor specific documentation for
       getting these details. Some of them are referenced in the SEE ALSO
       section below.

ARBITRARY PMUS         top

       perf also supports an extended syntax for specifying raw
       parameters to PMUs. Using this typically requires looking up the
       specific event in the CPU vendor specific documentation.

       The available PMUs and their raw parameters can be listed with

           ls /sys/devices/*/format

       For example the raw event "LSD.UOPS" core pmu event above could be
       specified as

           perf stat -e cpu/event=0xa8,umask=0x1,name=LSD.UOPS_CYCLES,cmask=0x1/ ...

           or using extended name syntax

           perf stat -e cpu/event=0xa8,umask=0x1,cmask=0x1,name=\'LSD.UOPS_CYCLES:cmask=0x1\'/ ...

PER SOCKET PMUS         top

       Some PMUs are not associated with a core, but with a whole CPU
       socket. Events on these PMUs generally cannot be sampled, but only
       counted globally with perf stat -a. They can be bound to one
       logical CPU, but will measure all the CPUs in the same socket.

       This example measures memory bandwidth every second on the first
       memory controller on socket 0 of a Intel Xeon system

           perf stat -C 0 -a uncore_imc_0/cas_count_read/,uncore_imc_0/cas_count_write/ -I 1000 ...

       Each memory controller has its own PMU. Measuring the complete
       system bandwidth would require specifying all imc PMUs (see perf
       list output), and adding the values together. To simplify creation
       of multiple events, prefix and glob matching is supported in the
       PMU name, and the prefix uncore_ is also ignored when performing
       the match. So the command above can be expanded to all memory
       controllers by using the syntaxes:

           perf stat -C 0 -a imc/cas_count_read/,imc/cas_count_write/ -I 1000 ...
           perf stat -C 0 -a *imc*/cas_count_read/,*imc*/cas_count_write/ -I 1000 ...

       This example measures the combined core power every second

           perf stat -I 1000 -e power/energy-cores/  -a

ACCESS RESTRICTIONS         top

       For non root users generally only context switched PMU events are
       available. This is normally only the events in the cpu PMU, the
       predefined events like cycles and instructions and some software
       events.

       Other PMUs and global measurements are normally root only. Some
       event qualifiers, such as "any", are also root only.

       This can be overridden by setting the kernel.perf_event_paranoid
       sysctl to -1, which allows non root to use these events.

       For accessing trace point events perf needs to have read access to
       /sys/kernel/tracing, even when perf_event_paranoid is in a relaxed
       setting.

TOOL/HWMON EVENTS         top

       Some events don’t have an associated PMU instead reading values
       available to software without perf_event_open. As these events
       don’t support sampling they can only really be read by tools like
       perf stat.

       Tool events provide times and certain system parameters. Examples
       include duration_time, user_time, system_time and num_cpus_online.

       Hwmon events provide easy access to hwmon sysfs data typically in
       /sys/class/hwmon. This information includes temperatures, fan
       speeds and energy usage.

TRACING         top

       Some PMUs control advanced hardware tracing capabilities, such as
       Intel PT, that allows low overhead execution tracing. These are
       described in a separate intel-pt.txt document.

PARAMETERIZED EVENTS         top

       Some pmu events listed by perf-list will be displayed with ? in
       them. For example:

           hv_gpci/dtbp_ptitc,phys_processor_idx=?/

       This means that when provided as an event, a value for ? must also
       be supplied. For example:

           perf stat -C 0 -e 'hv_gpci/dtbp_ptitc,phys_processor_idx=0x2/' ...

       EVENT QUALIFIERS:

       It is also possible to add extra qualifiers to an event:

       percore:

       Sums up the event counts for all hardware threads in a core, e.g.:

           perf stat -e cpu/event=0,umask=0x3,percore=1/

EVENT GROUPS         top

       Perf supports time based multiplexing of events, when the number
       of events active exceeds the number of hardware performance
       counters. Multiplexing can cause measurement errors when the
       workload changes its execution profile.

       When metrics are computed using formulas from event counts, it is
       useful to ensure some events are always measured together as a
       group to minimize multiplexing errors. Event groups can be
       specified using { }.

           perf stat -e '{instructions,cycles}' ...

       The number of available performance counters depend on the CPU. A
       group cannot contain more events than available counters. For
       example Intel Core CPUs typically have four generic performance
       counters for the core, plus three fixed counters for instructions,
       cycles and ref-cycles. Some special events have restrictions on
       which counter they can schedule, and may not support multiple
       instances in a single group. When too many events are specified in
       the group some of them will not be measured.

       Globally pinned events can limit the number of counters available
       for other groups. On x86 systems, the NMI watchdog pins a counter
       by default. The nmi watchdog can be disabled as root with

           echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/nmi_watchdog

       Events from multiple different PMUs cannot be mixed in a group,
       with some exceptions for software events.

LEADER SAMPLING         top

       perf also supports group leader sampling using the :S specifier.

           perf record -e '{cycles,instructions}:S' ...
           perf report --group

       Normally all events in an event group sample, but with :S only the
       first event (the leader) samples, and it only reads the values of
       the other events in the group.

       However, in the case AUX area events (e.g. Intel PT or CoreSight),
       the AUX area event must be the leader, so then the second event
       samples, not the first.

OPTIONS         top

       Without options all known events will be listed.

       To limit the list use:

        1. hw or hardware to list hardware events such as cache-misses,
           etc.

        2. sw or software to list software events such as context
           switches, etc.

        3. cache or hwcache to list hardware cache events such as
           L1-dcache-loads, etc.

        4. tracepoint to list all tracepoint events, alternatively use
           subsys_glob:event_glob to filter by tracepoint subsystems such
           as sched, block, etc.

        5. pmu to print the kernel supplied PMU events.

        6. sdt to list all Statically Defined Tracepoint events.

        7. metric to list metrics

        8. metricgroup to list metricgroups with metrics.

        9. If none of the above is matched, it will apply the supplied
           glob to all events, printing the ones that match.

       10. As a last resort, it will do a substring search in all event
           names.

       One or more types can be used at the same time, listing the events
       for the types specified.

       Support raw format:

        1. --raw-dump, shows the raw-dump of all the events.

        2. --raw-dump [hw|sw|cache|tracepoint|pmu|event_glob], shows the
           raw-dump of a certain kind of events.

SEE ALSO         top

       perf-stat(1), perf-top(1), perf-record(1), Intel® 64 and IA-32
       Architectures Software Developer’s Manual Volume 3B: System
       Programming Guide[1], AMD Processor Programming Reference (PPR)[2]

NOTES         top

        1. Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer’s Manual
           Volume 3B: System Programming Guide
           http://www.intel.com/sdm/

        2. AMD Processor Programming Reference (PPR)
           https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=206537

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the perf (Performance analysis tools for
       Linux (in Linux source tree)) project.  Information about the
       project can be found at 
       ⟨https://perf.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page⟩.  If you have a
       bug report for this manual page, send it to
       linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org.  This page was obtained from the
       project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git⟩
       on 2025-02-02.  (At that time, the date of the most recent commit
       that was found in the repository was 2025-02-01.)  If you discover
       any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
       believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page,
       or you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
       COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page), send a
       mail to man-pages@man7.org

perf                            2024-11-09                   PERF-LIST(1)

Pages that refer to this page: perf(1)perf-evlist(1)perf-record(1)perf-stat(1)perf-top(1)