Subject: Re: [PATCH V5 1/2] powerpc tools perf: Initialize error code in auxtrace_record_init function

From: Namhyung Kim <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 6 May 2026 23:13:43 -0700

On Mon, May 04, 2026 at 08:43:20PM +0530, Athira Rajeev wrote:
> perf trace record fails some cases in powerpc
> 
>  # ./perf test "perf trace record and replay"
>  128: perf trace record and replay                                    : FAILED!
> 
>  # ./perf trace record sleep 1
>  # echo $?
>    32
> 
> This is happening because of non-zero err value from
> auxtrace_record__init() function.
> 
>  static int record__auxtrace_init(struct record *rec)
>  {
>         int err;
> 
>         if ((rec->opts.auxtrace_snapshot_opts || rec->opts.auxtrace_sample_opts)
>             && record__threads_enabled(rec)) {
>                 pr_err("AUX area tracing options are not available in parallel streaming mode.\n");
>                 return -EINVAL;
>         }
> 
>         if (!rec->itr) {
>                 rec->itr = auxtrace_record__init(rec->evlist, &err);
>                 if (err)
>                         return err;
>         }
> 
> Here "int err" is not initialised. The code expects "err" to be set
> from auxtrace_record__init() function.
> 
> Update auxtrace_record__init() in arch/powerpc/util/auxtrace.c to clear
> err value in the beginning.
> 
> - Clear err value in beginning of function. Any fail later will
> set appropriate return code to err.
> - Even if we haven't found any event for auxtrace, perf record
> should continue for other events. NULL return
> will indicate that there is no auxtrace record initialized.
> - Not having "err" set here will affect monitoring of other events
> also because perf record will fail seeing random value in err.
> 
> Set err to -EINVAL before invoking auxtrace_record__init() in
> builtin-record.c
> 
> With the fix,
> 
>  # ./perf trace record sleep 1
>  [ perf record: Woken up 2 times to write data ]
>  [ perf record: Captured and wrote 0.033 MB perf.data (228 samples) ]
> 
> Fixes: 1dbfaf94cf66 ("perf powerpc: Add basic CONFIG_AUXTRACE support for VPA pmu on powerpc")
> Reviewed-by: Adrian Hunter <[email-masked]>
> Signed-off-by: Athira Rajeev <[email-masked]>

For both patches,

Acked-by: Namhyung Kim <[email-masked]>

Thanks,
Namhyung

> ---
> Changelog:
> v4:
> Added Reviewed-by from Adrian
> 
> v1 -> v2
> Addressed review comment from Adrian:
> - Set err to -EINVAL before invoking auxtrace_record__init() in
>   builtin-record.c
> - Added kernel-doc to auxtrace_record__init() in tools/perf/util/auxtrace.c
> Addressed review comment from Namhyung:
> - Added fixes tag
> 
>  tools/perf/arch/powerpc/util/auxtrace.c | 6 ++++++
>  tools/perf/builtin-record.c             | 1 +
>  2 files changed, 7 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/tools/perf/arch/powerpc/util/auxtrace.c b/tools/perf/arch/powerpc/util/auxtrace.c
> index e39deff6c857..4600a1661b4f 100644
> --- a/tools/perf/arch/powerpc/util/auxtrace.c
> +++ b/tools/perf/arch/powerpc/util/auxtrace.c
> @@ -71,6 +71,12 @@ struct auxtrace_record *auxtrace_record__init(struct evlist *evlist,
>  	struct evsel *pos;
>  	int found = 0;
>  
> +	/*
> +	 * Set err value to zero here. Any fail later
> +	 * will set appropriate return code to err.
> +	 */
> +	*err = 0;
> +
>  	evlist__for_each_entry(evlist, pos) {
>  		if (strstarts(pos->name, "vpa_dtl")) {
>  			found = 1;
> diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-record.c b/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
> index 4a5eba498c02..708825747af5 100644
> --- a/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
> +++ b/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
> @@ -865,6 +865,7 @@ static int record__auxtrace_init(struct record *rec)
>  	}
>  
>  	if (!rec->itr) {
> +		err = -EINVAL;
>  		rec->itr = auxtrace_record__init(rec->evlist, &err);
>  		if (err)
>  			return err;
> -- 
> 2.47.3
>