Re: [PATCH v1 00/13] perf timechart/list/treport: Interactive Textual TUIs and perf python session improvements

[Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@kernel.org>]

On Fri, Oct 02, 2026 at 11:26:09AM -0700, Ian Rogers wrote:
> This series adds interactive terminal user interfaces (TUIs) built with
> Python's textual framework for 'perf timechart' (--tui and --live) and
> 'perf list' (--tui), updates 'treport' to progressively display profiles
> while loading in the background, adds headless shell tests for all three
> TUIs, and improves the 'perf' Python extension module to support
> responsive background and live pipe event processing:
> 
> 1. Session and Python extension improvements (patches 1-5):
>    - Skip flushing remaining deferred samples and auxtrace events once
>      session_done() is set so stopping event processing is immediate.
>    - Quietly stop processing events when a Python session callback raises
>      an exception (e.g., to cancel a background load on quit) without
>      corrupting TUI output with reader error messages.
>    - Lazily copy perf_event and perf_sample in process_events() only when
>      a Python callback retains a reference beyond its return, shrinking
>      struct pyrf_event to fit in CPython's small-object allocator.
>    - Lazily unwind and resolve sample callchains only when
>      event.callchain is accessed.
>    - Release the Python GIL around perf_session__new() and
>      perf_session__process_events() (reacquiring it in callbacks and
>      guarding concurrent thread/comm/symbol access) so blocking pipe
>      reads do not freeze TUI threads.

Nice optimizations, applied and tested by running some of the live
python scripts (twatch, ilist, etc)

> 2. 'perf list --tui' and ilist test (patches 6-7):
>    - Add 'perf list --tui' to launch the interactive ilist script via
>      'perf script', and add a shell test driving ilist headlessly.

Applied and tested
 
> 3. Progressive loading in treport and test (patches 8-9):
>    - Load profiles in a background thread in treport.py so the report
>      tree and flame graph are interactive while loading, with lazy tree
>      node creation and a headless shell test.

Ditto
 
> 4. 'perf timechart --tui' and '--live' and tests (patches 10-13):
>    - Add ttimechart.py and 'perf timechart --tui' to interactively view,
>      zoom, and pan per-CPU (busy, frequency, idle), per-task (running,
>      runnable, blocked, wakeups), and I/O timelines along with a summary
>      table.
>    - Add 'perf timechart --live' to stream live scheduler, power, or I/O
>      events from a 'perf record' subprocess over a pipe with a rolling
>      time window, pause/resume via the control pipe, and optional output
>      recording (-o).
>    - Add headless shell tests covering both '--tui' and '--live' modes.

Applied up to patch 11, 12 has an issue, you can resubmit once
addressing the issue.

Thanks,

- Arnaldo
 
> Alice Rogers (6):
>   perf treport: Show the profile while it loads
>   perf test: Add a test for the treport script
>   perf timechart: Add an interactive --tui mode
>   perf test: Add a test for perf timechart --tui
>   perf timechart: Add a --live mode to the TUI
>   perf test: Test perf timechart --live
> 
> Ian Rogers (7):
>   perf session: Don't flush remaining events once processing is done
>   perf python: Quietly stop processing events when a callback raises
>   perf python: Lazily copy events and samples from process_events
>   perf python: Lazily resolve sample callchains
>   perf python: Release the GIL while processing session events
>   perf list: Add a --tui option to launch ilist
>   perf test: Add a test for the ilist script
> 
>  tools/perf/Documentation/perf-list.txt        |   10 +
>  tools/perf/Documentation/perf-timechart.txt   |   24 +
>  tools/perf/builtin-list.c                     |   34 +
>  tools/perf/builtin-timechart.c                |  114 +-
>  tools/perf/python/treport.py                  |  458 ++-
>  tools/perf/python/ttimechart.py               | 2467 +++++++++++++++++
>  tools/perf/tests/shell/test_ilist_python.sh   |  181 ++
>  tools/perf/tests/shell/test_treport_python.sh |  247 ++
>  .../tests/shell/test_ttimechart_python.sh     |  537 ++++
>  tools/perf/util/auxtrace.c                    |    7 +
>  tools/perf/util/python.c                      | 1191 +++++---
>  tools/perf/util/session.c                     |    8 +
>  12 files changed, 4754 insertions(+), 524 deletions(-)
>  create mode 100755 tools/perf/python/ttimechart.py
>  create mode 100755 tools/perf/tests/shell/test_ilist_python.sh
>  create mode 100755 tools/perf/tests/shell/test_treport_python.sh
>  create mode 100755 tools/perf/tests/shell/test_ttimechart_python.sh
> 
> -- 
> 2.56.0.rc1.315.gc6ed9934b7-goog