1PMTRACE(1) General Commands Manual PMTRACE(1)
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6 pmtrace - command line performance instrumentation
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9 pmtrace [-q] [-c value | -e command | -v value] [-h host] [-S state]
10 tag
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13 pmtrace provides a simple command line interface to the trace Perfor‐
14 mance Metrics Domain Agent (PMDA) and the associated pcp_trace library.
15 The default pmtrace behavior is to provide point trace data to the
17 trace PMDA, using the tag argument as the identifying name associated
18 with each trace point. The tag then becomes an instance identifier
19 within the set of trace.point metrics.
20 The -e option allows an arbitrary command to be executed. This command
22 will be measured as a transaction since it has well defined start and
23 end points. The information is made available through the trace.trans‐
24 act metrics.
25 Trace data can be sent to the trace PMDA running on host, rather than
27 the localhost, using the -h option. This overrides use of the environ‐
28 ment variable PCP_TRACE_HOST.
29 The -q option suppresses messages from a successful trace, so that
31 pmtrace runs quietly.
32 The -c option allows an arbitrary counter value to be exported through
34 the trace.count metrics, while the -v option allows an arbitrary float‐
35 ing point value to be exported through the trace.observe metrics
36 The -S option enables internal debugging and tracing. The value of
38 state is a bit-wise combination of debug flags as defined in pmtraces‐
39 tate(3), and may be specified using the decimal or hexadecimal syntax
40 prescribed by strtol(3).
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43 Since pmtrace uses the libpcp_trace library routines, the environment
44 variables PCP_TRACE_HOST, PCP_TRACE_PORT, and PCP_TRACE_TIMEOUT are all
45 honored. Refer to pmdatrace(3) for a detailed description of the
46 semantics of each.
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49 $PCP_DEMOS_DIR/trace/pmtrace.c
50 source code for pmtrace
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53 Environment variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parameterize the
54 file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file
55 /etc/pcp.conf contains the local values for these variables. The
56 $PCP_CONF variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration
57 file, as described in pcp.conf(5).
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60 pmcd(1), pmdatrace(1), pmprobe(1), PMAPI(3), and pmdatrace(3).
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63 All are generated on standard error and are intended to be self-
64 explanatory.
65 The pmtrace exit status is always zero except when the -e option is in
67 use, in which case the exit status of command is returned.
68Performance Co-Pilot PCP PMTRACE(1)