Kernel-2.6.32-573.12.1.el6_lockstat

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. 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
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

From these number various other statistics can be derived, such as:

hold time average = hold time total / acquisitions

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.

  • USAGE

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 0.3
02 ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
03 class name con-bounces contentions waittime-min waittime-max waittime-total acq-bounces acquisitions holdtime-min holdtime-max holdtime-total
04 ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
05
06 &mm->mmap_sem-W: 233 538 18446744073708 22924.27 607243.51 1342 45806 1.71 8595.89 1180582.34
07 &mm->mmap_sem-R: 205 587 18446744073708 28403.36 731975.00 1940 412426 0.58 187825.45 6307502.88
08 —————
09 &mm->mmap_sem 487 [] do_page_fault+0x466/0x928
10 &mm->mmap_sem 179 [] sys_mprotect+0xcd/0x21d
11 &mm->mmap_sem 279 [] sys_mmap+0x75/0xce
12 &mm->mmap_sem 76 [] sys_munmap+0x32/0x59
13 —————
14 &mm->mmap_sem 270 [] sys_mmap+0x75/0xce
15 &mm->mmap_sem 431 [] do_page_fault+0x466/0x928
16 &mm->mmap_sem 138 [] sys_munmap+0x32/0x59
17 &mm->mmap_sem 145 [] sys_mprotect+0xcd/0x21d
18
19 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
20
21 dcache_lock: 621 623 0.52 118.26 1053.02 6745 91930 0.29 316.29 118423.41
22 ———–
23 dcache_lock 179 [] _atomic_dec_and_lock+0x34/0x54
24 dcache_lock 113 [] d_alloc+0x19a/0x1eb
25 dcache_lock 99 [] d_rehash+0x1b/0x44
26 dcache_lock 104 [] d_instantiate+0x36/0x8a
27 ———–
28 dcache_lock 192 [] _atomic_dec_and_lock+0x34/0x54
29 dcache_lock 98 [] d_rehash+0x1b/0x44
30 dcache_lock 72 [] d_alloc+0x19a/0x1eb
31 dcache_lock 112 [] d_instantiate+0x36/0x8a

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 [] symbol. The second set of contention
points are the points we’re contending with.

The integer part of the time values is in us.

View the top contending locks:

grep : /proc/lock_stat | head

          &inode->i_data.tree_lock-W:            15          21657           0.18     1093295.30 11547131054.85             58          10415           0.16          87.51        6387.60
          &inode->i_data.tree_lock-R:             0              0           0.00           0.00           0.00          23302         231198           0.25           8.45       98023.38
                         dcache_lock:          1037           1161           0.38          45.32         774.51           6611         243371           0.15         306.48       77387.24
                     &inode->i_mutex:           161            286 18446744073709       62882.54     1244614.55           3653          20598 18446744073709       62318.60     1693822.74
                     &zone->lru_lock:            94             94           0.53           7.33          92.10           4366          32690           0.29          59.81       16350.06
          &inode->i_data.i_mmap_lock:            79             79           0.40           3.77          53.03          11779          87755           0.28         116.93       29898.44
                    &q->__queue_lock:            48             50           0.52          31.62          86.31            774          13131           0.17         113.08       12277.52
                    &rq->rq_lock_key:            43             47           0.74          68.50         170.63           3706          33929           0.22         107.99       17460.62
                  &rq->rq_lock_key#2:            39             46           0.75           6.68          49.03           2979          32292           0.17         125.17       17137.63
                     tasklist_lock-W:            15             15           1.45          10.87          32.70           1201           7390           0.58          62.55       13648.47

Clear the statistics:

echo 0 > /proc/lock_stat