Currently, when running tests in verbose mode (-v), if a test case
fails, the entire raw standard error buffer is dumped to stderr via
fprintf(stderr, "%s", child->err_output.buf). For tests that generate
massive amounts of debugging or logging output before dying, this
results in multi-page terminal dumps where highly critical diagnostic
keywords (error, fail, segv) are easily lost.

Implement a smart, bounded snippet string processor to improve
failure triaging:
1. Introduce a configurable quota limit static unsigned int
   failure_snippet_lines = 10; accessible via a new command-line option
   --failure-snippet-lines <N>.
2. Parse the raw error buffer dynamically into lines and run a
   three-pass extraction algorithm:
   - Pass 0: Always select the very first line of the log as an initial
     outline marker.
   - Pass 1: Scan forward from the top of the log to pick up to N lines
     that contain case-insensitive failure keywords (error, fail,
     segv, abort) to isolate the root cause. Automatically pull in
     the immediate subsequent line as highly-prioritized context.
     Allow adjacent matching lines to overlap without dropping context
     by evaluating keywords for all lines (e.g. when "Failed to
     report" is followed by "Error:").
   - Pass 2: If quota remains, scan backward from the absolute tail of
     the log to capture trailing crash or abort context.
3. Output the selected lines in their original chronological order,
   inserting a clear ... separator between non-contiguous line jumps.
4. Wrap matched failure keywords dynamically in bold red
   (PERF_COLOR_RED) to immediately draw the eye to failures.
5. Invoke the smart processor purely when verbose == 1 && ret ==
   TEST_FAIL in both finish_test and finish_tests_parallel, leaving
   raw full-output dumping completely untouched when running highly
   verbose (-vv).

Assisted-by: Gemini-CLI:Google Gemini 3
Signed-off-by: Ian Rogers <irogers@google.com>
---
 tools/perf/tests/builtin-test.c | 203 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 200 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/perf/tests/builtin-test.c b/tools/perf/tests/builtin-test.c
index 0b33bc74826c..7480cec6cda6 100644
--- a/tools/perf/tests/builtin-test.c
+++ b/tools/perf/tests/builtin-test.c
@@ -48,6 +48,8 @@ static bool dont_fork;
 static bool sequential;
 /* Number of times each test is run. */
 static unsigned int runs_per_test = 1;
+/* Number of lines to include in failure snippet. */
+static unsigned int failure_snippet_lines = 10;
 const char *dso_to_test;
 const char *test_objdump_path = "objdump";
 
@@ -344,7 +346,7 @@ static int run_test_child(struct child_process *process)
 	for (size_t i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(signals); i++)
 		signal(signals[i], child_test_sig_handler);
 
-	pr_debug("--- start ---\n");
+	pr_debug("---- start ----\n");
 	pr_debug("test child forked, pid %d\n", getpid());
 	err = test_function(child->test, child->test_case_num)(child->test, child->test_case_num);
 	pr_debug("---- end(%d) ----\n", err);
@@ -400,6 +402,195 @@ static int print_test_result(struct test_suite *t, int curr_suite, int curr_test
 	return 0;
 }
 
+static const char * const fail_keywords[] = {
+	"error", "fail", "segv", "abort",
+	"signal", "fatal", "panic", "corrupt", NULL
+};
+
+static const char *find_next_keyword(const char *str, size_t max_len, size_t *kw_len)
+{
+	const char *best = NULL;
+	size_t best_len = 0;
+	int k;
+
+	for (k = 0; fail_keywords[k]; k++) {
+		const char *s = str;
+		size_t len = strlen(fail_keywords[k]);
+
+		while ((size_t)(s - str) + len <= max_len) {
+			size_t i;
+
+			if (best && s >= best)
+				break;
+
+			for (i = 0; i < len; i++) {
+				if (tolower(s[i]) != fail_keywords[k][i])
+					break;
+			}
+			if (i == len) {
+				if (!best || s < best) {
+					best = s;
+					best_len = len;
+				}
+				break;
+			}
+			s++;
+		}
+	}
+	if (best) {
+		*kw_len = best_len;
+		return best;
+	}
+	return NULL;
+}
+
+static void print_line_highlighted(FILE *fp, const char *line, size_t len)
+{
+	const char *s = line;
+
+	while (len > 0) {
+		size_t kw_len = 0;
+		const char *match = find_next_keyword(s, len, &kw_len);
+
+		if (!match) {
+			fwrite(s, 1, len, fp);
+			break;
+		}
+		if (match > s)
+			fwrite(s, 1, match - s, fp);
+		if (perf_use_color_default)
+			fprintf(fp, "%s", PERF_COLOR_RED);
+		fwrite(match, 1, kw_len, fp);
+		if (perf_use_color_default)
+			fprintf(fp, "%s", PERF_COLOR_RESET);
+
+		len -= (match + kw_len) - s;
+		s = match + kw_len;
+	}
+}
+
+
+static void print_test_failure_snippet(FILE *fp, const char *buf)
+{
+	size_t num_lines = 0;
+	size_t max_lines = 128;
+	const char **lines = calloc(max_lines, sizeof(const char *));
+	size_t *line_lens = calloc(max_lines, sizeof(size_t));
+	const char *s = buf;
+	size_t i;
+	unsigned int picked_count = 0;
+	bool *pick;
+	int last_printed = -1;
+
+	if (!lines || !line_lens) {
+		free(lines); free(line_lens);
+		fprintf(fp, "%s", buf);
+		return;
+	}
+
+	while (*s) {
+		const char *eol = strchr(s, '\n');
+		size_t len;
+
+		if (eol)
+			len = eol - s + 1;
+		else
+			len = strlen(s);
+
+		if (num_lines == max_lines) {
+			const char **new_lines;
+			size_t *new_lens;
+
+			max_lines *= 2;
+			new_lines = realloc(lines, max_lines * sizeof(const char *));
+			if (!new_lines) {
+				free(lines); free(line_lens);
+				fprintf(fp, "%s", buf);
+				return;
+			}
+			lines = new_lines;
+
+			new_lens = realloc(line_lens, max_lines * sizeof(size_t));
+			if (!new_lens) {
+				free(lines); free(line_lens);
+				fprintf(fp, "%s", buf);
+				return;
+			}
+			line_lens = new_lens;
+		}
+		lines[num_lines] = s;
+		line_lens[num_lines] = len;
+		num_lines++;
+		s += len;
+	}
+
+	if (num_lines <= failure_snippet_lines) {
+		for (i = 0; i < num_lines; i++)
+			print_line_highlighted(fp, lines[i], line_lens[i]);
+		free(lines); free(line_lens);
+		return;
+	}
+
+	pick = calloc(num_lines, sizeof(bool));
+	if (!pick) {
+		for (i = 0; i < num_lines; i++)
+			print_line_highlighted(fp, lines[i], line_lens[i]);
+		free(lines); free(line_lens);
+		return;
+	}
+
+	/* Pass 0: Always pick the very first line */
+	if (num_lines > 0 && picked_count < failure_snippet_lines) {
+		pick[0] = true;
+		picked_count++;
+	}
+
+	/* Pass 1: Pick lines with failure keywords from start (Highest Priority) */
+	for (i = 0; i < num_lines && picked_count < failure_snippet_lines; i++) {
+		size_t dummy;
+
+		if (find_next_keyword(lines[i], line_lens[i], &dummy)) {
+			if (!pick[i]) {
+				pick[i] = true;
+				picked_count++;
+			}
+			/* Prioritize getting the immediate next line for context */
+			if (i + 1 < num_lines && !pick[i + 1] &&
+			    picked_count < failure_snippet_lines) {
+				pick[i + 1] = true;
+				picked_count++;
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
+	/* Pass 2: Fill remaining quota from the end backwards */
+	i = num_lines;
+	while (i > 0 && picked_count < failure_snippet_lines) {
+		i--;
+		if (!pick[i]) {
+			pick[i] = true;
+			picked_count++;
+		}
+	}
+
+	for (i = 0; i < num_lines; i++) {
+		if (!pick[i])
+			continue;
+		if (last_printed != -1 && (int)i > last_printed + 1) {
+			if (perf_use_color_default)
+				fprintf(fp, "%s...%s\n", PERF_COLOR_BLUE, PERF_COLOR_RESET);
+			else
+				fprintf(fp, "...\n");
+		}
+		print_line_highlighted(fp, lines[i], line_lens[i]);
+		last_printed = i;
+	}
+
+	free(pick);
+	free(lines);
+	free(line_lens);
+}
+
 static void finish_test(struct child_test **child_tests, int running_test, int child_test_num,
 		int width)
 {
@@ -518,8 +709,10 @@ static void finish_test(struct child_test **child_tests, int running_test, int c
 		strbuf_release(&err_output);
 		err_output = merged;
 	}
-	if (verbose > 1 || (verbose == 1 && ret == TEST_FAIL))
+	if (verbose > 1)
 		fprintf(stderr, "%s", err_output.buf);
+	else if (verbose == 1 && ret == TEST_FAIL)
+		print_test_failure_snippet(stderr, err_output.buf);
 
 	strbuf_release(&err_output);
 	strbuf_release(&child_test->err_output);
@@ -723,8 +916,10 @@ static int finish_tests_parallel(struct child_test **child_tests, size_t num_tes
 				}
 			}
 
-			if (verbose > 1 || (verbose == 1 && child->result == TEST_FAIL))
+			if (verbose > 1)
 				fprintf(stderr, "%s", child->err_output.buf);
+			else if (verbose == 1 && child->result == TEST_FAIL)
+				print_test_failure_snippet(stderr, child->err_output.buf);
 
 			print_test_result(child->test, child->suite_num, child->test_case_num,
 					  child->result, width, 0);
@@ -1060,6 +1255,8 @@ int cmd_test(int argc, const char **argv)
 	OPT_STRING(0, "dso", &dso_to_test, "dso", "dso to test"),
 	OPT_STRING(0, "objdump", &test_objdump_path, "path",
 		   "objdump binary to use for disassembly and annotations"),
+	OPT_UINTEGER(0, "failure-snippet-lines", &failure_snippet_lines,
+		     "Number of lines to include in failure snippet, default 10"),
 	OPT_END()
 	};
 	const char * const test_subcommands[] = { "list", NULL };
-- 
2.54.0.929.g9b7fa37559-goog