1PMINFO(1) General Commands Manual PMINFO(1)
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6 pminfo - display information about performance metrics
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9 pminfo [-dfFLmMtTvxz] [-a archive] [-b batchsize] [-c dmfile] [-h host‐
10 name] [-K spec] [-[n|N] pmnsfile] [-O time] [-Z timezone] [metricname
11 ...]
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14 pminfo displays various types of information about performance metrics
15 available through the facilities of the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP).
16 Normally pminfo operates on the distributed Performance Metrics Name
18 Space (PMNS), however if the -n option is specified an alternative
19 local PMNS is loaded from the file pmnsfile. The -N option supports
20 the same function as -n, except for the handling of duplicate names for
21 the same Performance Metric Identifier (PMID) in pmnsfile - duplicate
22 names are allowed with -n they are not allowed with -N.
23 The metrics of interest are named in the metricname arguments. If met‐
25 ricname is a non-leaf node in the PMNS, then pminfo will recursively
26 descend the PMNS and report on all leaf nodes. If no metricname argu‐
27 ment is given, the root of the PMNS is used.
28 Unless directed to another host by the -h option, by default pminfo
30 will contact the Performance Metrics Collector Daemon (PMCD) on the
31 local host. The connection to a PMCD is only required if pminfo
32 requires distributed PMNS information, and/or meta-data describing met‐
33 rics, and/or metric values, and/or help text.
34 The -a option causes pminfo to use the specified archive rather than
36 connecting to a PMCD. The -a , -h and -L options are mutually exclu‐
37 sive.
38 The -L option causes pminfo to use a local context to collect metrics
40 from PMDAs on the local host without PMCD. Only some metrics are
41 available in this mode. The -a,-h and -L options are mutually exclu‐
42 sive.
43 The -b option may be used to define the maximum size of the group of
45 metrics to be fetched in a single request for the -f and -v options.
46 The default value for batchsize is 20.
47 Other options control the specific information to be reported.
49 -c The dmfile argument specifies a file that contains derived metric
51 definitions in the format described for pmLoadDerivedConfig(3).
52 The -c option provides a way to load derived metric definitions
53 that is an alternative to the more generic use of the
54 PCP_DERIVED_CONFIG environment variable as described in PCPIn‐
55 tro(1). Using the -c option and the PCP_DERIVED_CONFIG environ‐
56 ment variable to specify the same configuration is a bad idea, so
57 choose one or the other method.
58 -d Metric descriptions detailing the PMID, data type, data semantics,
60 units, scale and associated instance domain.
61 -f Fetch and print values for all instances. When fetching from an
63 archive, only those instances present in the first archive record
64 for a metric will be displayed; see also the -O option, else use
65 pmdumplog(1) which may be a better tool for examining archives.
66 -F Same as -f but try harder to fetch instances for metrics which
68 have non-enumerable instance domains (e.g. metrics in the ``proc''
69 subtree of the default PMNS).
70 -K When using the -L option to fetch metrics from a local context,
72 the -K option may be used to control the DSO PMDAs that should be
73 made accessible. The spec argument conforms to the syntax
74 described in __pmSpecLocalPMDA(3). More than one -K option may be
75 used.
76 -m Print the PMID in terse mode.
78 -M Print the PMID in verbose mode.
80 -O When used in conjunction with an archive source of metrics and the
82 options -f or -F, the time argument defines a time origin at which
83 the metrics should be fetched from the archive. Refer to PCPIn‐
84 tro(1) for a complete description of this option, and the syntax
85 for the time argument.
86 When the ``ctime'' format is used for the time argument in a -O
88 option, the timezone becomes an issue. The default is to use the
89 local timezone on the system where pminfo is run. The -Z option
90 changes the timezone to timezone in the format of the environment
91 variable TZ as described in environ(7). The -z option changes the
92 timezone to the local timezone at the host that is the source of
93 the performance metrics, as identified via the -a option.
94 -t Print the ``one line'' help summary, if available.
96 -T Print the help text, if available.
98 -v Verify mode in which descriptions and values are retrieved, but
100 only error conditions are reported. This option silently disables
101 any output from the options -f, -M, -m, -t and -T.
102 -x Like the -f option, but with the additional functionality that if
104 a value is processed that is of type PM_TYPE_EVENT, then the event
105 records will be unpacked and the details of each event record
106 reported.
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109 $PCP_VAR_DIR/pmns/*
110 default local PMNS specification files
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113 Environment variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parameterize the
114 file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file
115 /etc/pcp.conf contains the local values for these variables. The
116 $PCP_CONF variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration
117 file, as described in pcp.conf(5).
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120 PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmchart(1), pmdumplog(1), pmdumptext(1),
121 pmprobe(1), pmrep(1), pmval(1), PMAPI(3), pmLoadDerivedConfig(3),
122 __pmSpecLocalPMDA(3), pcp.conf(5), pcp.env(5) and pmns(5).
123Performance Co-Pilot PCP PMINFO(1)