Debugging¶

Xe Asserts

While Xe driver aims to be simpler than legacy i915 driver it is still complex enough that some changes introduced while adding new functionality could break the existing code.

Adding drm_WARN or drm_err to catch unwanted programming usage could lead to undesired increased driver footprint and may impact production driver performance as this additional code will be always present.

To allow annotate functions with additional detailed debug checks to assert that all prerequisites are satisfied, without worrying about footprint or performance penalty on production builds where all potential misuses introduced during code integration were already fixed, we introduce family of Xe assert macros that try to follow classic assert() utility:

xe_assert()

xe_tile_assert()

xe_gt_assert()

These macros are implemented on top of drm_WARN, but unlikely to the origin, warning is triggered when provided condition is false. Additionally all above assert macros cannot be used in expressions or as a condition, since underlying code will be compiled out on non-debug builds.

Note that these macros are not intended for use to cover known gaps in the implementation; for such cases use regular drm_WARN or drm_err and provide valid safe fallback.

Also in cases where performance or footprint is not an issue, developers should continue to use the regular drm_WARN or drm_err to ensure that bug reports from production builds will contain meaningful diagnostics data.

Below code shows how asserts could help in debug to catch unplanned use:

static void one_igfx(struct xe_device *xe)
{
        xe_assert(xe, xe->info.is_dgfx == false);
        xe_assert(xe, xe->info.tile_count == 1);
}

static void two_dgfx(struct xe_device *xe)
{
        xe_assert(xe, xe->info.is_dgfx);
        xe_assert(xe, xe->info.tile_count == 2);
}

void foo(struct xe_device *xe)
{
        if (xe->info.dgfx)
                return two_dgfx(xe);
        return one_igfx(xe);
}

void bar(struct xe_device *xe)
{
        if (drm_WARN_ON(xe->drm, xe->info.tile_count > 2))
                return;

        if (xe->info.tile_count == 2)
                return two_dgfx(xe);
        return one_igfx(xe);
}

xe_assert¶

xe_assert (xe, condition)

warn if condition is false when debugging.

Parameters

xe: the struct xe_device pointer to which condition applies
condition: condition to check

Description

xe_assert() uses drm_WARN to emit a warning and print additional information that could be read from the xe pointer if provided condition is false.

Contrary to drm_WARN, xe_assert() is effective only on debug builds (CONFIG_DRM_XE_DEBUG must be enabled) and cannot be used in expressions or as a condition.

See Xe Asserts for general usage guidelines.

xe_tile_assert¶

xe_tile_assert (tile, condition)

warn if condition is false when debugging.

Parameters

tile: the struct xe_tile pointer to which condition applies
condition: condition to check

Description

xe_tile_assert() uses drm_WARN to emit a warning and print additional information that could be read from the tile pointer if provided condition is false.

Contrary to drm_WARN, xe_tile_assert() is effective only on debug builds (CONFIG_DRM_XE_DEBUG must be enabled) and cannot be used in expressions or as a condition.

See Xe Asserts for general usage guidelines.

xe_gt_assert¶

xe_gt_assert (gt, condition)

warn if condition is false when debugging.

Parameters

gt: the struct xe_gt pointer to which condition applies
condition: condition to check

Description

xe_gt_assert() uses drm_WARN to emit a warning and print additional information that could be safetely read from the gt pointer if provided condition is false.

Contrary to drm_WARN, xe_gt_assert() is effective only on debug builds (CONFIG_DRM_XE_DEBUG must be enabled) and cannot be used in expressions or as a condition.

See Xe Asserts for general usage guidelines.