perf/core: Skip empty AUX records with only format flags

perf_aux_output_end() emits a PERF_RECORD_AUX when the recorded size is
nonzero or when any flag other than PERF_AUX_FLAG_OVERWRITE is set.

PMU format flags describe how an AUX payload is encoded. TRBE driver
sets PERF_AUX_FLAG_CORESIGHT_FORMAT_RAW for raw trace buffers, causing
an AUX record to be emitted even when no trace data.

This is noticeable when tracing a task with strace. Ptrace stops
repeatedly end empty AUX transactions, producing many zero-sized
PERF_RECORD_AUX records. For example:

  perf record -e cs_etm//u -m,128M -- strace ls

  perf script -D 2>&1 |
     awk '/PERF_RECORD_AUX offset/ {
        for (i = 1; i <= NF; i++)
                if ($i == "size:" && $(i + 1) == "0")
                        count++
     }
     END { print count }'
  165

This recording contains 165 zero-sized AUX records which provide no
useful information to userspace.

Ignore PERF_AUX_FLAG_PMU_FORMAT_TYPE_MASK, together with
PERF_AUX_FLAG_OVERWRITE, when deciding whether an empty AUX record is
useful. Zero-sized records carrying TRUNCATED, PARTIAL or COLLISION
are still emitted.

Fixes: 547b60988e63 ("perf: aux: Add flags for the buffer format")
Reported-by: Tamas Petz <tamas.petz@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Leo Yan <leo.yan@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260825-perf_core_fix_zero_aux_records-v1-1-23b95e8d5df3@arm.com

0 files changed, 0 insertions, 0 deletions