path: root/Documentation/lockstat.txt

LOCK STATISTICS

- WHAT

As the name suggests, it provides statistics on locks.

- WHY

Because things like lock contention can severely impact performance.

- HOW

Lockdep already has hooks in the lock functions and maps lock instances to
lock classes. We build on that (see Documentation/lockdep-design.txt).
The graph below shows the relation between the lock functions and the various
hooks therein.

        __acquire
            |
           lock _____
            |        \
            |    __contended
            |         |
            |       <wait>
            | _______/
            |/
            |
       __acquired
            |
            .
          <hold>
            .
            |
       __release
            |
         unlock

lock, unlock	- the regular lock functions
__*		- the hooks
<> 		- states

With these hooks we provide the following statistics:

 con-bounces       - number of lock contention that involved x-cpu data
 contentions       - number of lock acquisitions that had to wait
 wait time min     - shortest (non-0) time we ever had to wait for a lock
           max     - longest time we ever had to wait for a lock
	   total   - total time we spend waiting on this lock
	   avg     - average time spent waiting on this lock
 acq-bounces       - number of lock acquisitions that involved x-cpu data
 acquisitions      - number of times we took the lock
 hold time min     - shortest (non-0) time we ever held the lock
	   max     - longest time we ever held the lock
	   total   - total time this lock was held
	   avg     - average time this lock was held

These numbers are gathered per lock class, per read/write state (when
applicable).

It also tracks 4 contention points per class. A contention point is a call site
that had to wait on lock acquisition.

 - CONFIGURATION

Lock statistics are enabled via CONFIG_LOCK_STAT.

 - USAGE

Enable collection of statistics:

# echo 1 >/proc/sys/kernel/lock_stat

Disable collection of statistics:

# echo 0 >/proc/sys/kernel/lock_stat

Look at the current lock statistics:

( line numbers not part of actual output, done for clarity in the explanation
  below )

# less /proc/lock_stat

01 lock_stat version 0.4
02-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
03                              class name    con-bounces    contentions   waittime-min   waittime-max waittime-total   waittime-avg    acq-bounces   acquisitions   holdtime-min   holdtime-max holdtime-total   holdtime-avg
04-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
05
06                         &mm->mmap_sem-W:            46             84           0.26         939.10       16371.53         194.90          47291        2922365           0.16     2220301.69 17464026916.32        5975.99
07                         &mm->mmap_sem-R:            37            100           1.31      299502.61      325629.52        3256.30         212344       34316685           0.10        7744.91    95016910.20           2.77
08                         ---------------
09                           &mm->mmap_sem              1          [<ffffffff811502a7>] khugepaged_scan_mm_slot+0x57/0x280
19                           &mm->mmap_sem             96          [<ffffffff815351c4>] __do_page_fault+0x1d4/0x510
11                           &mm->mmap_sem             34          [<ffffffff81113d77>] vm_mmap_pgoff+0x87/0xd0
12                           &mm->mmap_sem             17          [<ffffffff81127e71>] vm_munmap+0x41/0x80
13                         ---------------
14                           &mm->mmap_sem              1          [<ffffffff81046fda>] dup_mmap+0x2a/0x3f0
15                           &mm->mmap_sem             60          [<ffffffff81129e29>] SyS_mprotect+0xe9/0x250
16                           &mm->mmap_sem             41          [<ffffffff815351c4>] __do_page_fault+0x1d4/0x510
17                           &mm->mmap_sem             68          [<ffffffff81113d77>] vm_mmap_pgoff+0x87/0xd0
18
19.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................
20
21                         unix_table_lock:           110            112           0.21          49.24         163.91           1.46          21094          66312           0.12         624.42       31589.81           0.48
22                         ---------------
23                         unix_table_lock             45          [<ffffffff8150ad8e>] unix_create1+0x16e/0x1b0
24                         unix_table_lock             47          [<ffffffff8150b111>] unix_release_sock+0x31/0x250
25                         unix_table_lock             15          [<ffffffff8150ca37>] unix_find_other+0x117/0x230
26                         unix_table_lock              5          [<ffffffff8150a09f>] unix_autobind+0x11f/0x1b0
27                         ---------------
28                         unix_table_lock             39          [<ffffffff8150b111>] unix_release_sock+0x31/0x250
29                         unix_table_lock             49          [<ffffffff8150ad8e>] unix_create1+0x16e/0x1b0
30                         unix_table_lock             20          [<ffffffff8150ca37>] unix_find_other+0x117/0x230
31                         unix_table_lock              4          [<ffffffff8150a09f>] unix_autobind+0x11f/0x1b0


This excerpt shows the first two lock class statistics. Line 01 shows the
output version - each time the format changes this will be updated. Line 02-04
show the header with column descriptions. Lines 05-18 and 20-31 show the actual
statistics. These statistics come in two parts; the actual stats separated by a
short separator (line 08, 13) from the contention points.

The first lock (05-18) is a read/write lock, and shows two lines above the
short separator. The contention points don't match the column descriptors,
they have two: contentions and [<IP>] symbol. The second set of contention
points are the points we're contending with.

The integer part of the time values is in us.

Dealing with nested locks, subclasses may appear:

32...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................
33
34                               &rq->lock:       13128          13128           0.43         190.53      103881.26           7.91          97454        3453404           0.00         401.11    13224683.11           3.82
35                               ---------
36                               &rq->lock          645          [<ffffffff8103bfc4>] task_rq_lock+0x43/0x75
37                               &rq->lock          297          [<ffffffff8104ba65>] try_to_wake_up+0x127/0x25a
38                               &rq->lock          360          [<ffffffff8103c4c5>] select_task_rq_fair+0x1f0/0x74a
39                               &rq->lock          428          [<ffffffff81045f98>] scheduler_tick+0x46/0x1fb
40                               ---------
41                               &rq->lock           77          [<ffffffff8103bfc4>] task_rq_lock+0x43/0x75
42                               &rq->lock          174          [<ffffffff8104ba65>] try_to_wake_up+0x127/0x25a
43                               &rq->lock         4715          [<ffffffff8103ed4b>] double_rq_lock+0x42/0x54
44                               &rq->lock          893          [<ffffffff81340524>] schedule+0x157/0x7b8
45
46...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................
47
48                             &rq->lock/1:        1526          11488           0.33         388.73      136294.31          11.86          21461          38404           0.00          37.93      109388.53           2.84
49                             -----------
50                             &rq->lock/1        11526          [<ffffffff8103ed58>] double_rq_lock+0x4f/0x54
51                             -----------
52                             &rq->lock/1         5645          [<ffffffff8103ed4b>] double_rq_lock+0x42/0x54
53                             &rq->lock/1         1224          [<ffffffff81340524>] schedule+0x157/0x7b8
54                             &rq->lock/1         4336          [<ffffffff8103ed58>] double_rq_lock+0x4f/0x54
55                             &rq->lock/1          181          [<ffffffff8104ba65>] try_to_wake_up+0x127/0x25a

Line 48 shows statistics for the second subclass (/1) of &rq->lock class
(subclass starts from 0), since in this case, as line 50 suggests,
double_rq_lock actually acquires a nested lock of two spinlocks.

View the top contending locks:

# grep : /proc/lock_stat | head
			clockevents_lock:       2926159        2947636           0.15       46882.81  1784540466.34         605.41        3381345        3879161           0.00        2260.97    53178395.68          13.71
		     tick_broadcast_lock:        346460         346717           0.18        2257.43    39364622.71         113.54        3642919        4242696           0.00        2263.79    49173646.60          11.59
		  &mapping->i_mmap_mutex:        203896         203899           3.36      645530.05 31767507988.39      155800.21        3361776        8893984           0.17        2254.15    14110121.02           1.59
			       &rq->lock:        135014         136909           0.18         606.09      842160.68           6.15        1540728       10436146           0.00         728.72    17606683.41           1.69
	       &(&zone->lru_lock)->rlock:         93000          94934           0.16          59.18      188253.78           1.98        1199912        3809894           0.15         391.40     3559518.81           0.93
			 tasklist_lock-W:         40667          41130           0.23        1189.42      428980.51          10.43         270278         510106           0.16         653.51     3939674.91           7.72
			 tasklist_lock-R:         21298          21305           0.20        1310.05      215511.12          10.12         186204         241258           0.14        1162.33     1179779.23           4.89
			      rcu_node_1:         47656          49022           0.16         635.41      193616.41           3.95         844888        1865423           0.00         764.26     1656226.96           0.89
       &(&dentry->d_lockref.lock)->rlock:         39791          40179           0.15        1302.08       88851.96           2.21        2790851       12527025           0.10        1910.75     3379714.27           0.27
			      rcu_node_0:         29203          30064           0.16         786.55     1555573.00          51.74          88963         244254           0.00         398.87      428872.51           1.76

Clear the statistics:

# echo 0 > /proc/lock_stat