1CONFIG_RCU_TRACE debugfs Files and Formats
2
3
4The rcutree and rcutiny implementations of RCU provide debugfs trace
5output that summarizes counters and state.  This information is useful for
6debugging RCU itself, and can sometimes also help to debug abuses of RCU.
7The following sections describe the debugfs files and formats, first
8for rcutree and next for rcutiny.
9
10
11CONFIG_TREE_RCU and CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU debugfs Files and Formats
12
13These implementations of RCU provides five debugfs files under the
14top-level directory RCU: rcu/rcudata (which displays fields in struct
15rcu_data), rcu/rcudata.csv (which is a .csv spreadsheet version of
16rcu/rcudata), rcu/rcugp (which displays grace-period counters),
17rcu/rcuhier (which displays the struct rcu_node hierarchy), and
18rcu/rcu_pending (which displays counts of the reasons that the
19rcu_pending() function decided that there was core RCU work to do).
20
21The output of "cat rcu/rcudata" looks as follows:
22
23rcu_sched:
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
32rcu_bh:
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
41
42The first section lists the rcu_data structures for rcu_sched, the second
43for rcu_bh.  Note that CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU kernels will have an
44additional section for rcu_preempt.  Each section has one line per CPU,
45or eight for this 8-CPU system.  The fields are as follows:
46
47o	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.
53
54o	"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.
59
60o	"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
65	quiescent state.
66
67o	"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.
73
74o	"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!
82
83o	"qp" indicates that RCU still expects a quiescent state from
84	this CPU.
85
86o	"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.
91
92	This field is displayed only for CONFIG_NO_HZ kernels.
93
94o	"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.
100
101	This field is displayed only for CONFIG_NO_HZ kernels.
102
103o	"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
105	dynticks-idle state.
106
107	This field is displayed only for CONFIG_NO_HZ kernels.
108
109o	"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.
118
119o	"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
121	quiescent state.
122
123o	"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).
127
128o	"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
130	be deferred.
131
132o	"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.
135
136o	"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.
139
140o	"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.
143
144There is also an rcu/rcudata.csv file with the same information in
145comma-separated-variable spreadsheet format.
146
147
148The output of "cat rcu/rcugp" looks as follows:
149
150rcu_sched: completed=33062  gpnum=33063
151rcu_bh: completed=464  gpnum=464
152
153Again, this output is for both "rcu_sched" and "rcu_bh".  Note that
154kernels built with CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU will have an additional
155"rcu_preempt" line.  The fields are taken from the rcu_state structure,
156and are as follows:
157
158o	"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.
162
163o	"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.
167
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.
172
173
174The output of "cat rcu/rcuhier" looks as follows, with very long lines:
175
176c=6902 g=6903 s=2 jfq=3 j=72c7 nfqs=13142/nfqsng=0(13142) fqlh=6
1771/1 .>. 0:127 ^0
1783/3 .>. 0:35 ^0    0/0 .>. 36:71 ^1    0/0 .>. 72:107 ^2    0/0 .>. 108:127 ^3
1793/3f .>. 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
180rcu_bh:
181c=-226 g=-226 s=1 jfq=-5701 j=72c7 nfqs=88/nfqsng=0(88) fqlh=0
1820/1 .>. 0:127 ^0
1830/3 .>. 0:35 ^0    0/0 .>. 36:71 ^1    0/0 .>. 72:107 ^2    0/0 .>. 108:127 ^3
1840/3f .>. 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
185
186This is once again split into "rcu_sched" and "rcu_bh" portions,
187and CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU kernels will again have an additional
188"rcu_preempt" section.  The fields are as follows:
189
190o	"c" is exactly the same as "completed" under rcu/rcugp.
191
192o	"g" is exactly the same as "gpnum" under rcu/rcugp.
193
194o	"s" is the "signaled" state that drives force_quiescent_state()'s
195	state machine.
196
197o	"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().
202
203o	"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?
206
207o	"nfqs" is the number of calls to force_quiescent_state() since
208	boot.
209
210o	"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.
215
216o	"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.
219
220o	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
226	CONFIG_NR_CPUS.
227
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.
236
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.
241
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.
250
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.
254
255		For example, the first entry at the lowest level shows
256		"0:5", indicating that it covers CPUs 0 through 5.
257
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.
261
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.
265
266
267The output of "cat rcu/rcu_pending" looks as follows:
268
269rcu_sched:
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
278rcu_bh:
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
287
288As always, this is once again split into "rcu_sched" and "rcu_bh"
289portions, with CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU kernels having an additional
290"rcu_preempt" section.  The fields are as follows:
291
292o	"np" is the number of times that __rcu_pending() has been invoked
293	for the corresponding flavor of RCU.
294
295o	"qsp" is the number of times that the RCU was waiting for a
296	quiescent state from this CPU.
297
298o	"rpq" is the number of times that the CPU had passed through
299	a quiescent state, but not yet reported it to RCU.
300
301o	"cbr" is the number of times that this CPU had RCU callbacks
302	that had passed through a grace period, and were thus ready
303	to be invoked.
304
305o	"cng" is the number of times that this CPU needed another
306	grace period while RCU was idle.
307
308o	"gpc" is the number of times that an old grace period had
309	completed, but this CPU was not yet aware of it.
310
311o	"gps" is the number of times that a new grace period had started,
312	but this CPU was not yet aware of it.
313
314o	"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
316	be forced.
317
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.
324
325o	"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().
329
330
331CONFIG_TINY_RCU and CONFIG_TINY_PREEMPT_RCU debugfs Files and Formats
332
333These implementations of RCU provides a single debugfs file under the
334top-level directory RCU, namely rcu/rcudata, which displays fields in
335rcu_bh_ctrlblk, rcu_sched_ctrlblk and, for CONFIG_TINY_PREEMPT_RCU,
336rcu_preempt_ctrlblk.
337
338The output of "cat rcu/rcudata" is as follows:
339
340rcu_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
343             exp balk: bt=0 nos=0
344rcu_sched: qlen: 0
345rcu_bh: qlen: 0
346
347This is split into rcu_preempt, rcu_sched, and rcu_bh sections, with the
348rcu_preempt section appearing only in CONFIG_TINY_PREEMPT_RCU builds.
349The last three lines of the rcu_preempt section appear only in
350CONFIG_RCU_BOOST kernel builds.  The fields are as follows:
351
352o	"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.
356
357o	"gp" is the number of grace periods that have completed.
358
359o	"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).
365
366	Why have both "gp" and "g"?  Because the data flowing into
367	"gp" is only present in a CONFIG_RCU_TRACE kernel.
368
369o	"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.
376
377o	"ttb" is a single bit.  It is "B" if any of the blocked tasks
378	need to be priority boosted and "." otherwise.
379
380o	"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.
387
388o	"ntb" is the total number of tasks subjected to RCU priority boosting
389	periods since boot.
390
391o	"neb" is the number of expedited grace periods that have had
392	to resort to RCU priority boosting since boot.
393
394o	"nnb" is the number of normal grace periods that have had
395	to resort to RCU priority boosting since boot.
396
397o	"j" is the low-order 12 bits of the jiffies counter in hexadecimal.
398
399o	"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.
401
402o	In the line beginning with "normal balk", the fields are as follows:
403
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.
411
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
415		from completing.
416
417	o	"bt" is the number of times that the system balked
418		from boosting because boosting was already in progress.
419
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.
423
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.
427
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.
432
433o	In the line beginning with "exp balk", the fields are as follows:
434
435	o	"bt" is the number of times that the system balked from
436		boosting because there were no blocked tasks to boost.
437
438	o	"nos" is the number of times that the system balked from
439		 boosting for inexplicable ("not otherwise specified")
440		 reasons.
441