1PMVAL(1) General Commands Manual PMVAL(1)
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6 pmval, pmevent - arbitrary performance metrics value dumper
7
9 pmval [-dgLrvz] [-A align] [-a archive] [-f N] [-h host] [-i instances]
10 [-K spec] [-n pmnsfile] [-O offset] [-p port] [-S starttime] [-s sam‐
11 ples] [-T endtime] [-t interval] [-U archive] [-w width] [-x pattern]
12 [-Z timezone] metricname
13
15 pmval prints current or archived values for the nominated performance
16 metric. The metric of interest is named in the metricname argument,
17 subject to instance qualification with the -i flag as described below.
18 Unless directed to another host by the -h option, or to an archive by
20 the -a or -U options, pmval will contact the Performance Metrics Col‐
21 lector Daemon (PMCD) on the local host to obtain the required informa‐
22 tion.
23 The metricname argument may also be given in the metric specification
25 syntax, as described in PCPIntro(1), where the source, metric and
26 instance may all be included in the metricname, e.g. thathost:ker‐
27 nel.all.load["1 minute"]. When this format is used, none of the -h or
28 -a or -U options may be specified.
29 When using the metric specification syntax, the ``hostname'' @ is
31 treated specially and causes pmval to use a local context to collect
32 metrics from PMDAs on the local host without PMCD. Only some metrics
33 are available in this mode.
34 When processing an archive, pmval may relinquish its own timing con‐
36 trol, and operate as a ``slave'' of a pmtime(1) process that uses a GUI
37 dialog to provide timing control. In this case, either the -g option
38 should be used to start pmval as the sole slave of a new pmtime(1)
39 instance, or -p should be used to attach pmval to an existing pmtime(1)
40 instance via the IPC channel identified by the port argument.
41 The -S, -T, -O and -A options may be used to define a time window to
43 restrict the samples retrieved, set an initial origin within the time
44 window, or specify a ``natural'' alignment of the sample times; refer
45 to PCPIntro(1) for a complete description of these options.
46 The other options which control the source, timing and layout of the
48 information reported by pmval are as follows:
49 -a Performance metric values are retrieved from the Performance Co-
51 Pilot (PCP) archive log file identified by the base name archive.
52 -d When replaying from an archive, this option requests that the pre‐
54 vailing real-time delay be applied between samples (see -t) to
55 effect a pause, rather than the default behaviour of replaying at
56 full speed.
57 -f Numbers are reported in ``fixed point'' notation, rather than the
59 default scientific notation. Each number will be up to the column
60 width determined by the default heuristics, else the -w option if
61 specified, and include N digits after the decimal point. So, the
62 options -f 3 -w 8 would produce numbers of the form 9999.999. A
63 value of zero for N omits the decimal point and any fractional
64 digits.
65 -g Start pmval as the slave of a new pmtime(1) process for replay of
67 archived performance data using the pmtime(1) graphical user
68 interface.
69 -h Current performance metric values are retrieved from the nominated
71 host machine.
72 -i instances is a list of one or more instance names for the nomi‐
74 nated performance metric - just these instances will be retrieved
75 and reported (the default is to report all instances). The list
76 must be a single argument, with elements of the list separated by
77 commas and/or white space.
78 The instance name may be quoted with single (') or double (")
80 quotes for those cases where the instance name contains white
81 space or commas.
82 Multiple -i options are allowed as an alternative way of specify‐
84 ing more than one instance of interest.
85 As an example, the following are all equivalent:
87 $ pmval -i "'1 minute','5 minute'" kernel.all.load
89 $ pmval -i '"1 minute","5 minute"' kernel.all.load
90 $ pmval -i "'1 minute' '5 minute'" kernel.all.load
91 $ pmval -i "'1 minute'" -i "'5 minute'" kernel.all.load
92 $ pmval 'localhost:kernel.all.load["1 minute","5 minute"]'
93 -K When fetching metrics from a local context, the -K option may be
96 used to control the DSO PMDAs that should be made accessible. The
97 spec argument conforms to the syntax described in __pmSpecLocalP‐
98 MDA(3). More than one -K option may be used.
99 -n Normally pmval operates on the default Performance Metrics Name
101 Space (PMNS), however if the -n option is specified an alternative
102 namespace is loaded from the file pmnsfile.
103 -p Attach pmval to an existing pmtime(1) time control process
105 instance via the IPC channel identified by the port argument.
106 This option is normally only used by other tools, e.g.
107 pmchart(1), when they launch pmval with synchronized time control.
108 -r Print raw values for cumulative counter metrics. Normally cumula‐
110 tive counter metrics are converted to rates. For example, disk
111 transfers are reported as number of disk transfers per second dur‐
112 ing the preceding sample interval, rather than the raw value of
113 number of disk transfers since the machine was booted. If you
114 specify this option, the raw metric values are printed.
115 -s The argument samples defines the number of samples to be retrieved
117 and reported. If samples is 0 or -s is not specified, pmval will
118 sample and report continuously (in real time mode) or until the
119 end of the PCP archive (in archive mode).
120 -t The default update interval may be set to something other than the
122 default 1 second. The interval argument follows the syntax
123 described in PCPIntro(1), and in the simplest form may be an
124 unsigned integer (the implied units in this case are seconds).
125 -U Performance metric values are retrieved from the Performance Co-
127 Pilot (PCP) archive log file identified by the base name archive,
128 although unlike -a every recorded value in the archive for the
129 selected metric and instances is reported (so no interpolation
130 mode, and the sample interval (-t option) is ignored.
131 At most one of the options -a and -U may be specified.
133 -w Set the width of each column of output to be width columns. If
135 not specified columns are wide enough to accommodate the largest
136 value of the type being printed.
137 -x The given filter is sent to the performance metric domain agent
139 for the requested metricname before any values are requested.
140 This serves two purposes. Firstly, it provides a mechanism for
141 server-side event filtering that is customisable for individual
142 event streams. In addition, some performance metrics domain
143 agents also use the PMCD store mechanism to provide a basic secu‐
144 rity model (e.g. for sensitive log files, only a client host with
145 pmStore(3) access would be able to access the event stream).
146 -Z By default, pmval reports the time of day according to the local
148 timezone on the system where pmval is run. The -Z option changes
149 the timezone to timezone in the format of the environment variable
150 TZ as described in environ(7).
151 -z Change the reporting timezone to the local timezone at the host
153 that is the source of the performance metrics, as identified via
154 either the metricname or the -h or -a or -U options.
155 The following symbols may occasionally appear, in place of a metric
157 value, in pmval output: A question mark symbol (?) indicates that a
158 value is no longer available for that metric instance. An exclamation
159 mark (!) indicates that a 64-bit counter wrapped during the sample.
160 The output from pmval is directed to standard output.
162
164 $PCP_VAR_DIR/pmns/*
165 default PMNS specification files
166
168 Environment variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parameterize the
169 file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file
170 /etc/pcp.conf contains the local values for these variables. The
171 $PCP_CONF variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration
172 file, as described in pcp.conf(5).
173
175 PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmchart(1), pmdumplog(1), pmdumptext(1),
176 pminfo(1), pmlogger(1), pmrep(1), pmtime(1), PMAPI(3), pmStore(3),
177 __pmSpecLocalPMDA(3), pcp.conf(5) and pcp.env(5).
178
180 All are generated on standard error and are intended to be self-
181 explanatory.
182
184 By default, pmval attempts to display non-integer numeric values in a
185 way that does not distort the inherent precision (rarely more than 4
186 significant digits), and tries to maintain a tabular format in the out‐
187 put. These goals are sometimes in conflict.
188 In the absence of the -f option (described above), the following table
190 describes the formats used for different ranges of numeric values for
191 any metric that is of type PM_TYPE_FLOAT or PM_TYPE_DOUBLE, or any met‐
192 ric that has the semantics of a counter (for which pmval reports the
193 rate converted value):
194 ┌──────────┬──────────────────────┐
196 │ Format │ Value Range │
197 ├──────────┼──────────────────────┤
198 │ ! │ No values available │
199 │9.999E-99 │ < 0.1 │
200 │ 0.0 │ 0 │
201 │ 9.9999 │ > 0 and <= 0.9999 │
202 │ 9.999 │ > 0.9999 and < 9.999 │
203 │ 99.99 │ > 9.999 and < 99.99 │
204 │ 999.9 │ > 99.99 and < 999.9 │
205 │9999. │ > 999.9 and < 9999 │
206 │9.999E+99 │ > 9999 │
207 └──────────┴──────────────────────┘
208Performance Co-Pilot PCP PMVAL(1)