1PMCHART(1) General Commands Manual PMCHART(1)
2
6 pmchart - strip chart tool for Performance Co-Pilot
7
9 pmchart [-CVWz] [-A align] [-a archive] [-c configfile] [-f fontfamily]
10 [-F fontsize] [-g geometry] [-h host] [-o outfile] [-O offset] [-p
11 port] [-s samples] [-S starttime] [-T endtime] [-t interval] [-v visi‐
12 ble] [-Z timezone] [-geometry geometry] [sources...]
13
15 pmchart is a graphical utility that plots performance metrics values
16 available through the facilities of the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP).
17 Multiple charts can be displayed simultaneously, either aligned on the
18 unified time axis (X-axis), and through the use of multiple interface
19 Tabs.
20 Metric values can be sourced from one or more live hosts (simultane‐
22 ously). Alternatively, one or more sets of PCP archives can be used as
23 a source of historical data. See PCPIntro(1) for an in-depth discus‐
24 sion of the capabilities of the PCP framework, many of which are used
25 by pmchart.
26 Many aspects of the behaviour of pmchart can be customised through the
28 interface. In particular, the use of "views" (refer to the section
29 describing VIEWS later in this document) allows predefined sets of met‐
30 rics and charting parameters like colors, scaling, titles, legends, and
31 so on to be stored for later use, or use with different hosts and sets
32 of archives. In addition, the Preferences dialog allows customisations
33 to the rest of the pmchart user interface to be saved and restored
34 between different invocations of the tool. This allows the default
35 background color, highlight color, contents and location of the tool‐
36 bar, and many other aspects to be configured.
37 pmchart makes extensive use of the pmtime(1) utility for time control,
39 refer to the pmtime manual page for further details of its operation.
40 Options which control the default source, timing and layout of the
42 pmchart window are as follows:
43 -a Performance metric values are retrieved from the set of Perfor‐
45 mance Co-Pilot (PCP) archive logs identified by this option, by
46 default. The argument is a comma-separated list of names, each of
47 which may be the base name of an archive or the name of a direc‐
48 tory containing one or more archives. The resulting set of ar‐
49 chives will be the source of the performance metrics. The initial
50 Tab created will be an archive mode Tab. Multiple -a options can
51 be presented, and the resulting list of sets of archives is used
52 for sourcing metric values. Any sources listed on the command
53 line are assumed to be sets of archives if this option is used.
54 -c configfile specifies an initial view to load, using the default
56 source of metrics. Multiple -c views can be specified, and they
57 will all be opened in the default Tab with the default source of
58 metrics.
59 -C Used with -c, the view(s) are parsed, any errors are reported, and
61 the tool exits. This is primarily intended for testing purposes.
62 If a second -C option is presented, pmchart also connects to
63 pmcd(1) to check the semantics of metrics.
64 -f Specify the default font family to be used in several chart compo‐
66 nents, such as the chart title, legend, and Y-axis label. The
67 default value is "Sans Serif". This setting does not affect the
68 rest of the user interface, where the value is inherited from the
69 environment in which pmchart operates, and differs according to
70 the look-and-feel of each platform.
71 -F Specify the default font point size to be used in several chart
73 components, such as the chart title, legend, and Y-axis label.
74 The default is platform dependent, but is either 7, 8 or 9. This
75 setting does not affect the rest of the user interface.
76 -g Generate image with the specified geometry (width and height).
78 This option is only useful when used in conjunction with the -o
79 option for generating an output image. The geometry argument
80 takes the form "WxH" (e.g. 240x120). When NOT using the -o flag,
81 to specify the display window geometry, use -geometry geometry
82 where geometry specifies the desired window width, height and
83 optional placement.
84 -h Current performance metric values are retrieved from the nominated
86 host machine by default. Multiple -h options can be presented,
87 and the list of hosts is used for sourcing metric values. Any
88 sources listed on the command line are assumed to be hosts if this
89 option is used.
90 -o Generate an image file named outfile, and then exit. This is most
92 useful when run with a set of archives and one or more views. The
93 generated image will be in the format specified as the file exten‐
94 sion (automatically determined from outfile). If no extension can
95 be determined, then the GIF format is used and the generated file
96 is named with this extension. The supported image file formats
97 include: bmp, jpeg, jpg, png, ppm, tif, tiff, xbm, and xpm.
98 -p port number for connection to an existing pmtime time control
100 process.
101 -s Specifies the number of samples that will be retained before dis‐
103 carding old data (replaced by new values at the current time posi‐
104 tion). This value can subsequently be modified through the Edit
105 Tab dialog.
106 -t Sets the inital update interval to something other than the
108 default 1 second. The interval argument follows the syntax
109 described in PCPIntro(1), and in the simplest form may be an
110 unsigned integer (the implied units in this case are seconds).
111 -v Sets the inital visible samples that will be displayed in all
113 charts in the default Tab. This value must be less than or equal
114 to the total number of samples retained (the -s value).
115 -V Display pmchart version number and exit
117 -W Export images using an opaque(white) background
119 -Z By default, pmtime reports the time of day according to the local
121 timezone on the system where pmchart is run. The -Z option
122 changes the timezone to timezone in the format of the environment
123 variable TZ as described in environ(7).
124 -z Change the reporting timezone to the local timezone at the host
126 that is the source of the performance metrics, as identified via
127 either the -h or -a options.
128 The -S, -T, -O and -A options may be used to define a time window to
130 restrict the samples retrieved, set an initial origin within the time
131 window, or specify a "natural" alignment of the sample times; refer
132 to PCPIntro(1) for a complete description of these options.
133
135 The primary pmchart configuration file is the "view", which allows the
136 metadata associated with one or more charts to be saved in the filesys‐
137 tem. This metadata describes all aspects of the charts, including
138 which PCP metrics and instances are to be used, which hosts, which col‐
139 ors, the chart titles, use of chart legends, and much more.
140 From a conceptual point of view, there are two classes of view. These
142 views share the same configuration file format - refer to a later sec‐
143 tion for a complete description of this format. The differences lie in
144 where they are installed and how they are manipulated.
145 The first class, the "system" view, is simply any view that is
147 installed as part of the pmchart package. These are stored in
148 $PCP_VAR_DIR/config/pmchart. When the File→Open View dialog is dis‐
149 played, it is these views that are initially listed. The system views
150 cannot be modified by a normal user, and should not be modified even by
151 a user with suitable privileges, as they will be overwritten during an
152 upgrade.
153 The second class of view is the "user" view. These views are created
155 on-the-fly using the File→Save View dialog. This is a mechanism for
156 individual users to save their commonly used views. Access to these
157 views is achieved through the File→Open View dialog, as with the system
158 views. Once the dialog is opened, the list of views can be toggled
159 between user and system views by clicking on the two toggle buttons in
160 the top right corner. User views are stored in $HOME/.pcp/pmchart.
161
163 pmchart provides the common user interface concept of the Tab, which is
164 most prevalent in modern web browsers. Tabs allow pmchart to update
165 many more charts than the available screen real estate allows, by pro‐
166 viding a user interface mechanism to stack (and switch between) differ‐
167 ent vertical sets of charts. Switching between Tabs is achieved by
168 clicking on the Tab labels, which are located along the top of the dis‐
169 play beneath the Menu and Tool bars).
170 Each Tab has a mode of operation (either live or archive - pmchart can
172 support both modes simultaneously), the total number of samples and
173 currently visible points, and a label describing the Tab which is dis‐
174 played at the top of the pmchart window. New Tabs can be created using
175 the File→Add Tab dialog.
176 In order to save on vertical screen real estate, note that the user
178 interface element for changing between different Tabs (and its label)
179 are only displayed when more than one Tab exists. A Tab can be dis‐
180 missed using the File→Close Tab menu, which removes the current Tab and
181 any charts it contained.
182
184 A static copy of the currently displayed vertical series of charts can
185 be captured in two ways.
186 When the intended display device is the screen, the File→Export menu
188 option should be used. This allows exporting the charts in a variety
189 of image formats, including PNG, JPEG, GIF, and BMP. The image size
190 can be scaled up or down in any dimension.
191 Alternatively, when the intended display device is paper, the
193 File→Print menu option can be used. This supports the usual set of
194 printing options (choice of printer, grayscale/color, landscape/por‐
195 trait, scaling to different paper sizes, etc), and in addition allows
196 printing to the intermediate printer formats of PostScript and Portable
197 Document Format (PDF).
198
200 It is possible to make a recording of a set of displayed charts, for
201 later playback through pmchart or any of the other Performance Co-Pilot
202 tools. The Record→Start functionality is simple to configure through
203 the user interface, and allows fine-tuning of the recording process
204 (including record frequencies that differ to the pmchart update inter‐
205 val, alternate file locations, etc).
206 pmchart produces recordings that are compatible with the PCP pmafm(1)
208 replay mechanism, for later playback via a new instance of pmchart. In
209 addition, when recording through pmchart one can also replay the
210 recording immediately, as on termination of the recording (through the
211 Record→Stop menu item), an archive mode Tab will be created with the
212 captured view.
213 Once recording is active in a Live Tab, the Time Control status button
215 in the bottom left corner of the pmchart window is displayed with a
216 distinctive red dot. At any time during a pmchart recording session,
217 the amount of space used in the filesystem by that recording can be
218 displayed using the Record→Query menu item.
219 Finally, the Record→Detach menu option provides a mechanism whereby the
221 recording process can be completely divorced from the running pmchart
222 process, and allowed to continue on when pmchart exits. A dialog dis‐
223 playing the current size and estimated rate of growth for the recording
224 is presented. On the other hand, if pmchart is terminated while
225 recording is in process, then the recording process will prompt the
226 user to choose immediate cessation of recording or for it to continue
227 on independently.
228 All of the record mode services available from pmchart are implemented
230 with the assistance of the base Performance Co-Pilot logging services -
231 refer to pmlogger(1) and pmafm(1) for an extensive description of the
232 capabilities of these tools.
233
235 pmchart loads predefined chart configurations (or "views") from exter‐
236 nal files that conform to the following rules. In the descriptions
237 below keywords (shown in bold) may appear in upper, lower or mixed
238 case, elements shown in [stuff] are optional, and user-supplied ele‐
239 ments are shown as <other stuff>. A vertical bar (|) is used where
240 syntactic elements are alternatives. Quotes (") may be used to enclose
241 lexical elements that may contain white space, such as titles, labels
242 and instance names.
243 1. The first line defines the configuration file type and should be
245 #kmchart
246 although pmchart provides backwards compatibility for the older
247 pmchart view formats with an initial line of
248 #pmchart
249 2. After the first line, lines beginning with "#" as the first non-
251 white space character are treated as comments and skipped. Simi‐
252 larly blank lines are skipped.
253 3. The next line should be
255 version <n> <host-clause>
256 where <n> depends on the configuration file type, and is 1 for
257 pmchart else 1.1, 1.2 or 2.0 for pmchart.
258 The <host-clause> part is optional (and ignored) for pmchart config‐
259 uration files, but required for the pmchart configuration files, and
260 is of the form
261 host literal
262 or
263 host dynamic
264 4. A configuration contains one or more charts defined as follows:
266 chart [title <title>] style <style> <options>
267 If specified, the title will appear centred and above the graph area
268 of the chart. The <title> is usually enclosed in quotes (") and if
269 it contains the sequence "%h" this will be replaced by the short
270 form of the hostname for the default source of metrics at the time
271 this chart was loaded. Alternatively, "%H" can be used to insert
272 the full host name. If the hostname appears to be an inet or IPv6
273 address, no shortening will be attempted; it will be used as-is in
274 both replacement cases. After the view is loaded, the title visi‐
275 bility and setting can be manipulated using the Chart Title text box
276 in the Edit→Chart dialog.
277 The <style> controls the initial plotting style of the chart, and
279 should be one of the keywords plot (line graph), bar, stacking
280 (stacked bar), area or utilization. After the view is loaded, the
281 plotting style can be changed using the Edit→Chart Style dropdown
282 list.
283 The <options> are zero or more of the optional elements:
285 [scale [from] <ymin> [to] <ymax>] [legend <onoff>]
286 If scale is specified, the vertical scaling is set for all plots in
287 the chart to a y-range defined by <ymin> and <ymax>. Otherwise the
288 vertical axis will be autoscaled based on the values currently being
289 plotted.
290 <onoff> is one of the keywords on or off and the legend clause con‐
292 trols the presence or absence of the plot legend below the graph
293 area. The default is for the legend to be shown. After the view is
294 loaded, the legend visibility can be toggled using the Show Legend
295 button in the Edit→Chart dialog.
296 5. pmchart supports a global clause to specify the dimensions of the
298 top-level window (using the width and height keywords), the number
299 of visible points (points keyword) and the starting X and Y axis
300 positions on the screen (xpos and ypos keywords). Each of these
301 global attributes takes an integer value as the sole qualifier.
302 6. Each chart has one or more plots associated with it, as defined by
304 one of the following specifications:
305 plot
306 [legend <title>] [color <colorspec>] [host <hostspec>]
307 metric <metricname>
308 [ instance <inst> | matching <pat> | not-matching <pat> ]
309 The keyword plot may be replaced with the keyword optional-plot, in
311 which case if the source of performance data does not include the
312 specified performance metric and/or instance, then this plot is
313 silently dropped from the chart.
314 If specified, the title will appear in the chart legend. The
316 <title> is usually enclosed in quotes (") and it may contain one or
317 more wildcard characters which will be expanded using metric name,
318 instance name, and host name for the plot. The wildcards are "%i"
319 (short unique instance name, up to the first whitespace), "%I" (full
320 instance name), "%h" (short host name, up to the first dot), %H
321 (full host name), "%m" (metric name shortened to the final two PMNS
322 components), and "%M" (full metric name).
323 For older pmchart configuration files, the keyword title must be
325 used instead of legend. Nowadays pmchart supports either keyword.
326 The color clause is optional for newer pmchart configuration files,
328 but it was mandatory in the original pmchart configuration file for‐
329 mat. <colorspec> may be one of the following:
330 #-cycle
331 rgbi:rr:gg:bb
332 #rgb
333 #rrggbb
334 #rrrgggbbb
335 #rrrrggggbbbb
336 <Xcolor>
337 where each of r, g and b are hexadecimal digits (0-9 and A-F) repre‐
338 senting respectively the red, green and blue color components.
339 <Xcolor> is one of the color names from the X color database, e.g.
340 red or steelblue, see also the output from showrgb(1).
341 The "color" #-cycle specifies that pmchart should use the next in a
343 pallet of colors that it uses cyclically for each chart. This is
344 the default if the color clause is omitted.
345 The <hostspec> in the host clause may be a hostname, an IP address
347 or an asterisk (*); the latter is used to mean the default source of
348 performance metrics. For older pmchart configuration files, the
349 host clause must be present, for new pmchart configuration files it
350 is optional, and if missing the default source of performance met‐
351 rics will be used.
352 The optional instance specification,
354 (a)
356 is omitted in which case one plot will be created for every
357 instance of the <metricname> metric
358 (b)
360 starts with instance, in which case only the instance named
361 <inst> will be plotted
362 (c)
364 starts with matching, in which case all instances whose names
365 match the pattern <pat> will be plotted; the pattern uses
366 extended regular expression notation in the style of egrep(1)
367 (refer to the PMCD view for an example)
368 (d)
370 starts with not-matching, in which case all instances whose names
371 do not match the pattern <pat> will be plotted; the pattern
372 uses extended regular expression notation in the style of
373 egrep(1) (refer to the Netbytes view for an example)
374 pmchart uses a bizarre syntactic notation where <inst> and <pat>
376 extend from the first non-white space character to the end of the
377 input line. For pmchart configuration files these elements are
378 either delimited by white space, or enclosed in quotes (").
379 7. The optional tab directive can be used to create views with multiple
381 charts which span multiple Tabs. The syntax is as follows:
382 tab <label> [host <host>] [points <points> [samples <samples>]]
383 All chart specifications following this keyword will be created
385 on the new Tab, until the end of the configuration file or until
386 another tab keyword is encountered.
387
389 Environment variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parameterize the
390 file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file
391 /etc/pcp.conf contains the local values for these variables. The
392 $PCP_CONF variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration
393 file, as described in pcp.conf(5).
394 Of particular note, the $PCP_XCONFIRM_PROG setting is explicitly and
396 unconditionally overridden by pmchart. This is set to the pmcon‐
397 firm(1), utility, in order that some popup dialogs (particularly in the
398 area of Recording) maintain a consistent look-and-feel with the rest of
399 the pmchart application.
400
402 pmtime(1), pmconfirm(1), pmdumptext(1), PCPIntro(1), pmafm(1),
403 pmrep(1), pmval(1), pmcd(1), pminfo(1), pcp.conf(5), pcp.env(5) and
404 pmns(5).
405Performance Co-Pilot PMCHART(1)