runtime,runtime/metrics: use explicit histogram boundaries

This change modifies the semantics of
runtime/metrics.Float64Histogram.Buckets to remove implicit buckets to
that extend to positive and negative infinity and instead defines all
bucket boundaries as explicitly listed.

Bucket boundaries remain the same as before except
/gc/heap/allocs-by-size:objects and /gc/heap/frees-by-size:objects no
longer have a bucket that extends to negative infinity.

This change simplifies the Float64Histogram API, making it both easier
to understand and easier to use.

Also, add a test for allocs-by-size and frees-by-size that checks them
against MemStats.

Fixes #43443.

Change-Id: I5620f15bd084562dadf288f733c4a8cace21910c
Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/go/+/281238
Run-TryBot: Michael Knyszek <mknyszek@google.com>
TryBot-Result: Go Bot <gobot@golang.org>
Reviewed-by: Austin Clements <austin@google.com>
Reviewed-by: Michael Pratt <mpratt@google.com>
Trust: Michael Knyszek <mknyszek@google.com>

src/runtime/histogram.go

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ package runtime
 import (
 	"runtime/internal/atomic"
 	"runtime/internal/sys"
+	"unsafe"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -69,7 +70,13 @@ const (
 // for concurrent use. It is also safe to read all the values
 // atomically.
 type timeHistogram struct {
-	counts    [timeHistNumSuperBuckets * timeHistNumSubBuckets]uint64
+	counts [timeHistNumSuperBuckets * timeHistNumSubBuckets]uint64
+
+	// underflow counts all the times we got a negative duration
+	// sample. Because of how time works on some platforms, it's
+	// possible to measure negative durations. We could ignore them,
+	// but we record them anyway because it's better to have some
+	// signal that it's happening than just missing samples.
 	underflow uint64
 }
 
@@ -107,14 +114,30 @@ func (h *timeHistogram) record(duration int64) {
 	atomic.Xadd64(&h.counts[superBucket*timeHistNumSubBuckets+subBucket], 1)
 }
 
+const (
+	fInf    = 0x7FF0000000000000
+	fNegInf = 0xFFF0000000000000
+)
+
+func float64Inf() float64 {
+	inf := uint64(fInf)
+	return *(*float64)(unsafe.Pointer(&inf))
+}
+
+func float64NegInf() float64 {
+	inf := uint64(fNegInf)
+	return *(*float64)(unsafe.Pointer(&inf))
+}
+
 // timeHistogramMetricsBuckets generates a slice of boundaries for
 // the timeHistogram. These boundaries are represented in seconds,
 // not nanoseconds like the timeHistogram represents durations.
 func timeHistogramMetricsBuckets() []float64 {
-	b := make([]float64, timeHistTotalBuckets-1)
+	b := make([]float64, timeHistTotalBuckets+1)
+	b[0] = float64NegInf()
 	for i := 0; i < timeHistNumSuperBuckets; i++ {
 		superBucketMin := uint64(0)
-		// The (inclusive) minimum for the first bucket is 0.
+		// The (inclusive) minimum for the first non-negative bucket is 0.
 		if i > 0 {
 			// The minimum for the second bucket will be
 			// 1 << timeHistSubBucketBits, indicating that all
@@ -141,8 +164,9 @@ func timeHistogramMetricsBuckets() []float64 {
 
 			// Convert the subBucketMin which is in nanoseconds to a float64 seconds value.
 			// These values will all be exactly representable by a float64.
-			b[i*timeHistNumSubBuckets+j] = float64(subBucketMin) / 1e9
+			b[i*timeHistNumSubBuckets+j+1] = float64(subBucketMin) / 1e9
 		}
 	}
+	b[len(b)-1] = float64Inf()
 	return b
 }

src/runtime/metrics.go

@@ -41,8 +41,13 @@ func initMetrics() {
 	if metricsInit {
 		return
 	}
-	sizeClassBuckets = make([]float64, _NumSizeClasses)
+
-	for i := range sizeClassBuckets {
+	sizeClassBuckets = make([]float64, _NumSizeClasses, _NumSizeClasses+1)
+	// Skip size class 0 which is a stand-in for large objects, but large
+	// objects are tracked separately (and they actually get placed in
+	// the last bucket, not the first).
+	sizeClassBuckets[0] = 1 // The smallest allocation is 1 byte in size.
+	for i := 1; i < _NumSizeClasses; i++ {
 		// Size classes have an inclusive upper-bound
 		// and exclusive lower bound (e.g. 48-byte size class is
 		// (32, 48]) whereas we want and inclusive lower-bound
@@ -56,6 +61,8 @@ func initMetrics() {
 		// boundaries.
 		sizeClassBuckets[i] = float64(class_to_size[i] + 1)
 	}
+	sizeClassBuckets = append(sizeClassBuckets, float64Inf())
+
 	timeHistBuckets = timeHistogramMetricsBuckets()
 	metrics = map[string]metricData{
 		"/gc/cycles/automatic:gc-cycles": {
@@ -84,8 +91,10 @@ func initMetrics() {
 			compute: func(in *statAggregate, out *metricValue) {
 				hist := out.float64HistOrInit(sizeClassBuckets)
 				hist.counts[len(hist.counts)-1] = uint64(in.heapStats.largeAllocCount)
-				for i := range hist.buckets {
+				// Cut off the first index which is ostensibly for size class 0,
-					hist.counts[i] = uint64(in.heapStats.smallAllocCount[i])
+				// but large objects are tracked separately so it's actually unused.
+				for i, count := range in.heapStats.smallAllocCount[1:] {
+					hist.counts[i] = uint64(count)
 				}
 			},
 		},
@@ -94,8 +103,10 @@ func initMetrics() {
 			compute: func(in *statAggregate, out *metricValue) {
 				hist := out.float64HistOrInit(sizeClassBuckets)
 				hist.counts[len(hist.counts)-1] = uint64(in.heapStats.largeFreeCount)
-				for i := range hist.buckets {
+				// Cut off the first index which is ostensibly for size class 0,
-					hist.counts[i] = uint64(in.heapStats.smallFreeCount[i])
+				// but large objects are tracked separately so it's actually unused.
+				for i, count := range in.heapStats.smallFreeCount[1:] {
+					hist.counts[i] = uint64(count)
 				}
 			},
 		},
@@ -116,8 +127,11 @@ func initMetrics() {
 		"/gc/pauses:seconds": {
 			compute: func(_ *statAggregate, out *metricValue) {
 				hist := out.float64HistOrInit(timeHistBuckets)
+				// The bottom-most bucket, containing negative values, is tracked
+				// as a separately as underflow, so fill that in manually and then
+				// iterate over the rest.
 				hist.counts[0] = atomic.Load64(&memstats.gcPauseDist.underflow)
-				for i := range hist.buckets {
+				for i := range memstats.gcPauseDist.counts {
 					hist.counts[i+1] = atomic.Load64(&memstats.gcPauseDist.counts[i])
 				}
 			},
@@ -437,8 +451,8 @@ func (v *metricValue) float64HistOrInit(buckets []float64) *metricFloat64Histogr
 		v.pointer = unsafe.Pointer(hist)
 	}
 	hist.buckets = buckets
-	if len(hist.counts) != len(hist.buckets)+1 {
+	if len(hist.counts) != len(hist.buckets)-1 {
-		hist.counts = make([]uint64, len(buckets)+1)
+		hist.counts = make([]uint64, len(buckets)-1)
 	}
 	return hist
 }

src/runtime/metrics/histogram.go

@@ -6,25 +6,28 @@ package metrics
 
 // Float64Histogram represents a distribution of float64 values.
 type Float64Histogram struct {
-	// Counts contains the weights for each histogram bucket. The length of
+	// Counts contains the weights for each histogram bucket.
-	// Counts is equal to the length of Buckets (in the metric description)
-	// plus one to account for the implicit minimum bucket.
 	//
-	// Given N buckets, the following is the mathematical relationship between
+	// Given N buckets, Count[n] is the weight of the range
-	// Counts and Buckets.
+	// [bucket[n], bucket[n+1]), for 0 <= n < N.
-	// count[0] is the weight of the range (-inf, bucket[0])
-	// count[n] is the weight of the range [bucket[n], bucket[n+1]), for 0 < n < N-1
-	// count[N-1] is the weight of the range [bucket[N-1], inf)
 	Counts []uint64
 
-	// Buckets contains the boundaries between histogram buckets, in increasing order.
+	// Buckets contains the boundaries of the histogram buckets, in increasing order.
 	//
-	// Because this slice contains boundaries, there are len(Buckets)+1 counts:
+	// Buckets[0] is the inclusive lower bound of the minimum bucket while
-	// a count for all values less than the first boundary, a count covering each
+	// Buckets[len(Buckets)-1] is the exclusive upper bound of the maximum bucket.
-	// [slice[i], slice[i+1]) interval, and a count for all values greater than or
+	// Hence, there are len(Buckets)-1 counts. Furthermore, len(Buckets) != 1, always,
-	// equal to the last boundary.
+	// since at least two boundaries are required to describe one bucket (and 0
+	// boundaries are used to describe 0 buckets).
+	//
+	// Buckets[0] is permitted to have value -Inf and Buckets[len(Buckets)-1] is
+	// permitted to have value Inf.
 	//
 	// For a given metric name, the value of Buckets is guaranteed not to change
 	// between calls until program exit.
+	//
+	// This slice value is permitted to alias with other Float64Histograms' Buckets
+	// fields, so the values within should only ever be read. If they need to be
+	// modified, the user must make a copy.
 	Buckets []float64
 }

src/runtime/metrics_test.go

@@ -70,6 +70,34 @@ func TestReadMetrics(t *testing.T) {
 			checkUint64(t, name, samples[i].Value.Uint64(), mstats.BuckHashSys)
 		case "/memory/classes/total:bytes":
 			checkUint64(t, name, samples[i].Value.Uint64(), mstats.Sys)
+		case "/gc/heap/allocs-by-size:objects":
+			hist := samples[i].Value.Float64Histogram()
+			// Skip size class 0 in BySize, because it's always empty and not represented
+			// in the histogram.
+			for i, sc := range mstats.BySize[1:] {
+				if b, s := hist.Buckets[i+1], float64(sc.Size+1); b != s {
+					t.Errorf("bucket does not match size class: got %f, want %f", b, s)
+					// The rest of the checks aren't expected to work anyway.
+					continue
+				}
+				if c, m := hist.Counts[i], sc.Mallocs; c != m {
+					t.Errorf("histogram counts do not much BySize for class %d: got %d, want %d", i, c, m)
+				}
+			}
+		case "/gc/heap/frees-by-size:objects":
+			hist := samples[i].Value.Float64Histogram()
+			// Skip size class 0 in BySize, because it's always empty and not represented
+			// in the histogram.
+			for i, sc := range mstats.BySize[1:] {
+				if b, s := hist.Buckets[i+1], float64(sc.Size+1); b != s {
+					t.Errorf("bucket does not match size class: got %f, want %f", b, s)
+					// The rest of the checks aren't expected to work anyway.
+					continue
+				}
+				if c, f := hist.Counts[i], sc.Frees; c != f {
+					t.Errorf("histogram counts do not much BySize for class %d: got %d, want %d", i, c, f)
+				}
+			}
 		case "/gc/heap/objects:objects":
 			checkUint64(t, name, samples[i].Value.Uint64(), mstats.HeapObjects)
 		case "/gc/heap/goal:bytes":
@@ -154,11 +182,11 @@ func TestReadMetricsConsistency(t *testing.T) {
 	if totalVirtual.got != totalVirtual.want {
 		t.Errorf(`"/memory/classes/total:bytes" does not match sum of /memory/classes/**: got %d, want %d`, totalVirtual.got, totalVirtual.want)
 	}
-	if objects.alloc.Counts[0] > 0 {
+	if b, c := len(objects.alloc.Buckets), len(objects.alloc.Counts); b != c+1 {
-		t.Error("found counts for objects of non-positive size in allocs-by-size")
+		t.Errorf("allocs-by-size has wrong bucket or counts length: %d buckets, %d counts", b, c)
 	}
-	if objects.free.Counts[0] > 0 {
+	if b, c := len(objects.free.Buckets), len(objects.free.Counts); b != c+1 {
-		t.Error("found counts for objects of non-positive size in frees-by-size")
+		t.Errorf("frees-by-size has wrong bucket or counts length: %d buckets, %d counts", b, c)
 	}
 	if len(objects.alloc.Buckets) != len(objects.free.Buckets) {
 		t.Error("allocs-by-size and frees-by-size buckets don't match in length")