Availability of performance monitoring in user mode

[Ux]

Hi folks,

I want to do some performance monitoring using the processor's built-in counters, but when I tried using the RDPMC instruction, I got a segmentation fault on Mac OS/X, both when using sudo and when not.

Update:
Apparently the kernel needs to need the CR4 bit enabling that feature in user mode. In Mac OS/X this is unlikely but Linux remains a possibility.

Thanks.

[Frank Kotler]

Never tried RDPMC... so I did. Sure enough, it segfaults in Linux too. I think you're right that you'd have to be a kernel module to modify cr4. I don't know why the OS would want to keep us away from that instruction, but apparently it does. I don't know much about it, period! Good luck!

Best,
Frank

[Keith Kanios]

I don't know why the OS would want to keep us away from that instruction, but apparently it does.

Security, stability, etc.

Will something like Shark suffice, or are you trying to specifically learn about RDPMC and the like?

[Ux]

Will something like Shark suffice, or are you trying to specifically learn about RDPMC and the like?

My goal is to determine how efficiently the caches are being used, like total L1 cache misses. RDPMC lets you get access to that kind of fine-grained data.

[Keith Kanios]

RDPMC lets you get access to that kind of fine-grained data.

Check out Valgrind/Cachegrind.