perfmonctl(2) System Calls Manual perfmonctl(2)
NAME
perfmonctl - interface to IA-64 performance monitoring unit
SYNOPSIS
#include <syscall.h>
#include <perfmon.h>
long perfmonctl(int fd, int cmd, void arg[.narg], int narg);
Note: There is no glibc wrapper for this system call; see HISTORY.
DESCRIPTION
The IA-64-specific perfmonctl() system call provides an interface to the
PMU (performance monitoring unit). The PMU consists of PMD (performance
monitoring data) registers and PMC (performance monitoring control) reg-
isters, which gather hardware statistics.
perfmonctl() applies the operation cmd to the input arguments specified
by arg. The number of arguments is defined by narg. The fd argument
specifies the perfmon context to operate on.
Supported values for cmd are:
PFM_CREATE_CONTEXT
perfmonctl(int fd, PFM_CREATE_CONTEXT, pfarg_context_t *ctxt, 1);
Set up a context.
The fd parameter is ignored. A new perfmon context is created as
specified in ctxt and its file descriptor is returned in
ctxt->ctx_fd.
The file descriptor can be used in subsequent calls to perf-
monctl() and can be used to read event notifications (type
pfm_msg_t) using read(2). The file descriptor is pollable using
select(2), poll(2), and epoll(7).
The context can be destroyed by calling close(2) on the file de-
scriptor.
PFM_WRITE_PMCS
perfmonctl(int fd, PFM_WRITE_PMCS, pfarg_reg_t *pmcs, n);
Set PMC registers.
PFM_WRITE_PMDS
perfmonctl(int fd, PFM_WRITE_PMDS, pfarg_reg_t *pmds, n);
Set PMD registers.
PFM_READ_PMDS
perfmonctl(int fd, PFM_READ_PMDS, pfarg_reg_t *pmds, n);
Read PMD registers.
PFM_START
perfmonctl(int fd, PFM_START, NULL, 0);
Start monitoring.
PFM_STOP
perfmonctl(int fd, PFM_STOP, NULL, 0);
Stop monitoring.
PFM_LOAD_CONTEXT
perfmonctl(int fd, PFM_LOAD_CONTEXT, pfarg_load_t *largs, 1);
Attach the context to a thread.
PFM_UNLOAD_CONTEXT
perfmonctl(int fd, PFM_UNLOAD_CONTEXT, NULL, 0);
Detach the context from a thread.
PFM_RESTART
perfmonctl(int fd, PFM_RESTART, NULL, 0);
Restart monitoring after receiving an overflow notification.
PFM_GET_FEATURES
perfmonctl(int fd, PFM_GET_FEATURES, pfarg_features_t *arg, 1);
PFM_DEBUG
perfmonctl(int fd, PFM_DEBUG, val, 0);
If val is nonzero, enable debugging mode, otherwise disable.
PFM_GET_PMC_RESET_VAL
perfmonctl(int fd, PFM_GET_PMC_RESET_VAL, pfarg_reg_t *req, n);
Reset PMC registers to default values.
RETURN VALUE
perfmonctl() returns zero when the operation is successful. On error,
-1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.
STANDARDS
Linux on IA-64.
HISTORY
Added in Linux 2.4; removed in Linux 5.10.
This system call was broken for many years, and ultimately removed in
Linux 5.10.
glibc does not provide a wrapper for this system call; on kernels where
it exists, call it using syscall(2).
SEE ALSO
gprof(1)
The perfmon2 interface specification
Linux man-pages 6.9.1 2024-05-02 perfmonctl(2)
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