tree cc9603eb8daffeb7ace521c42a6a44db164ac551
parent b5aa97e83bcc31a96374d18f5452d53909a16c90
author Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> 1228417949 +0100
committer Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> 1228747623 +0100

performance counters: core code

Implement the core kernel bits of Performance Counters subsystem.

The Linux Performance Counter subsystem provides an abstraction of
performance counter hardware capabilities. It provides per task and per
CPU counters, and it provides event capabilities on top of those.

Performance counters are accessed via special file descriptors.
There's one file descriptor per virtual counter used.

The special file descriptor is opened via the perf_counter_open()
system call:

 int
 perf_counter_open(u32 hw_event_type,
                   u32 hw_event_period,
                   u32 record_type,
                   pid_t pid,
                   int cpu);

The syscall returns the new fd. The fd can be used via the normal
VFS system calls: read() can be used to read the counter, fcntl()
can be used to set the blocking mode, etc.

Multiple counters can be kept open at a time, and the counters
can be poll()ed.

See more details in Documentation/perf-counters.txt.

Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>