[ltt-dev] net isntrumentation: duplicated receive

[Benjamin Poirier]

On 22/10/10 04:26 PM, Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
> Hi Benjamin,
>
> Can you explain why you need two receive tracepoints in the recv path ?

One tracepoint is in netif_rx() and is fired by drivers that use the 
pre-NAPI receive path. The other tracepoint is in netif_receive_skb() 
and is fired by drivers that use the NAPI receive path.

>
> "The receive tracepoint is moved earlier in the netif_receive_skb() function.
> The tracepoint is also duplicated in the netif_rx() function. This enables
> more precise measurements for pre-NAPI drivers."
>
> @@ -2518,9 +2520,13 @@ int netif_rx(struct sk_buff *skb)
>          if (netpoll_rx(skb))
>                  return NET_RX_DROP;
>
> +       trace_net_dev_receive(skb);
> +
>          if (netdev_tstamp_prequeue)
>                  net_timestamp_check(skb);
>
> +       trace_net_dev_receive(skb);
>
> The side-effect is that two events will be generated for each packet, no ?

No. Depending on the receive path, only one of the two tracepoints is 
hit. netif_rx() is specific to pre-NAPI drivers. It eventually leads to 
__netif_receive_skb() and therefore avoids the tracepoint in 
netif_receive_skb(). NAPI drivers just don't call netif_rx() and 
therefore avoid the tracepoint in there.

It would be possible to have only one tracepoint in 
__netif_receive_skb() but that would make the event be generated later 
on the receive path (in all cases). One of the goals when tracing packet 
reception is to get a timestamp as close as possible to the packet arrival.

Hope this clears things up,
-Ben

>
> Thanks,
>
> Mathieu
>
>