1728228 - Add profiler markers in the Timer thread to understand its activity

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: XPCOM, enhancement, P2)

Description

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

The total CPU time used by Timer threads is low, but these threads wake up often. It's currently impossible to understand the activity of Timer threads using the Firefox Profiler.

I think this deserves profiler markers.

Also, the thread is currently created as "Timer Thread" and then renamed to "Timer", which is confusing because it makes the thread name be different in the Firefox Profiler and in about:processes.

Example profile with new markers: https://share.firefox.dev/3tcQeOt

Comment 1

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

Attachment: Bug 1728228 - Add profiler markers in the Timer thread to understand its activity, r=smaug!,gerald.

Comment 2

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/c2af1233193b
Add profiler markers in the Timer thread to understand its activity, r=gerald,smaug,KrisWright.

Comment 3

[Jeff Muizelaar [:jrmuizel]]

FWIW, Chrome doesn't have a timer thread. Instead, their thread event loop supports queuing delayed events. That avoids having to wake up two threads when a timer fires.

Comment 4

[Cristina Cozmuta (:CrissCozmuta)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/c2af1233193b