Hi,
Debian currently tries to match the Linux perf tool to the version of the kernel that it is being run upon. Reaching out to Ben Hutchings, he explained to me that this was done back in 2010 due to kernel and Linux perf incompatibilities. This was likely the case, but it was a bug in the Linux perf tool that should have been fixed. It is the goal of the tool to be backward compatible. A problem with matching the tool to the kernel version is that users miss out on new features and fixes (this topic came up in a recent interview of the maintainer Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo [1]).
Ben Hutchings informs me that making it so that Debian ships the latest Linux perf tool requires updates both to the linux-base and linux source packages. The Linux perf tool also has many other often optional dependencies, like libunwind, libbpf, libpfm4, libtraceevent, etc. In general, having the dependency will unlock more features. Linux tools has its own copies of libbpf and libtraceevent, and so these may pose some versioning issues.
I think it'd be great to get Debian shipping the latest version of Linux perf for its users. Hopefully we can agree to change how Debian packages perf currently and then work out the best way to package and keep it up-to-date. I look forward to everyone's help and input.
Thanks in advance,
Ian Rogers