[PATCH v1 2/5] perf trace-event: Reuse an already parsed tracepoint format

From: Ian Rogers

Date: Fri Sep 18 2026 - 02:34:34 EST


tp_format() read and parsed the format file on every call. Each parse
registers another tep_event with the global tep handle, and
libtraceevent has no way to free an individual event, only the whole
handle, so a repeated lookup of the same tracepoint both redoes the
work of reading and parsing the file and leaves a duplicate behind for
the rest of the session.

Ask the handle for the event first with tep_find_event_by_name() and
only fall back to reading the format file when it has not been parsed
yet. The handle holds formats for the running kernel alone, so a name
that is found is the same format that would have been read.

Assisted-by: Antigravity:gemini-3.1-pro
Signed-off-by: Ian Rogers <irogers@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/perf/util/trace-event.c | 16 ++++++++++++++--
1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/perf/util/trace-event.c b/tools/perf/util/trace-event.c
index 10a7652f0305..826f75464171 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/trace-event.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/trace-event.c
@@ -81,14 +81,25 @@ void trace_event__cleanup(struct trace_event *t)
static struct tep_event*
tp_format(const char *sys, const char *name)
{
- char *tp_dir = get_events_file(sys);
struct tep_handle *pevent = tevent.pevent;
- struct tep_event *event = NULL;
+ struct tep_event *event;
+ char *tp_dir;
char path[PATH_MAX];
size_t size;
char *data;
int err;

+ /*
+ * Each parse adds an event to the tep handle that can only be freed
+ * by freeing the whole handle, so re-reading a format file both
+ * repeats the work and grows the handle with a duplicate. Reuse the
+ * event if it was already parsed.
+ */
+ event = tep_find_event_by_name(pevent, sys, name);
+ if (event)
+ return event;
+
+ tp_dir = get_events_file(sys);
if (!tp_dir) {
errno = ENOMEM;
return NULL;
@@ -103,6 +114,7 @@ tp_format(const char *sys, const char *name)
return NULL;
}

+ event = NULL;
err = tep_parse_format(pevent, &event, data, size, sys);

free(data);
--
2.55.0.1082.g2b9226bbc0-goog