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 a set of ar‐
20 chives by the -a or -U options, pmval will contact the Performance Met‐
21 rics Collector Daemon (PMCD) on the local host to obtain the required
22 information.
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 a set of archives, pmval may relinquish its own timing
36 control, and operate as a ``slave'' of a pmtime(1) process that uses a
37 GUI dialog to provide timing control. In this case, either the -g
38 option should be used to start pmval as the sole slave of a new
39 pmtime(1) instance, or -p should be used to attach pmval to an existing
40 pmtime(1) 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 set of Perfor‐
51 mance Co-Pilot (PCP) archive logs identified. The argument is a
52 comma-separated list of names, each of which may be the base name
53 of an archive or the name of a directory containing one or more
54 archives. See also -U.
55 -d When replaying from a set of archives, this option requests that
57 the prevailing real-time delay be applied between samples (see -t)
58 to effect a pause, rather than the default behaviour of replaying
59 at full speed.
60 -f Numbers are reported in ``fixed point'' notation, rather than the
62 default scientific notation. Each number will be up to the column
63 width determined by the default heuristics, else the -w option if
64 specified, and include N digits after the decimal point. So, the
65 options -f 3 -w 8 would produce numbers of the form 9999.999. A
66 value of zero for N omits the decimal point and any fractional
67 digits.
68 -g Start pmval as the slave of a new pmtime(1) process for replay of
70 archived performance data using the pmtime(1) graphical user
71 interface.
72 -h Current performance metric values are retrieved from the nominated
74 host machine.
75 -i instances is a list of one or more instance names for the nomi‐
77 nated performance metric - just these instances will be retrieved
78 and reported (the default is to report all instances). The list
79 must be a single argument, with elements of the list separated by
80 commas and/or white space.
81 The instance name may be quoted with single (') or double (")
83 quotes for those cases where the instance name contains white
84 space or commas.
85 Multiple -i options are allowed as an alternative way of specify‐
87 ing more than one instance of interest.
88 As an example, the following are all equivalent:
90 $ pmval -i "'1 minute','5 minute'" kernel.all.load
92 $ pmval -i '"1 minute","5 minute"' kernel.all.load
93 $ pmval -i "'1 minute' '5 minute'" kernel.all.load
94 $ pmval -i "'1 minute'" -i "'5 minute'" kernel.all.load
95 $ pmval 'localhost:kernel.all.load["1 minute","5 minute"]'
96 -K When fetching metrics from a local context, the -K option may be
99 used to control the DSO PMDAs that should be made accessible. The
100 spec argument conforms to the syntax described in pmSpecLocalP‐
101 MDA(3). More than one -K option may be used.
102 -n Normally pmval operates on the default Performance Metrics Name
104 Space (PMNS), however if the -n option is specified an alternative
105 namespace is loaded from the file pmnsfile.
106 -p Attach pmval to an existing pmtime(1) time control process
108 instance via the IPC channel identified by the port argument.
109 This option is normally only used by other tools, e.g.
110 pmchart(1), when they launch pmval with synchronized time control.
111 -r Print raw values for cumulative counter metrics. Normally cumula‐
113 tive counter metrics are converted to rates. For example, disk
114 transfers are reported as number of disk transfers per second dur‐
115 ing the preceding sample interval, rather than the raw value of
116 number of disk transfers since the machine was booted. If you
117 specify this option, the raw metric values are printed.
118 -s The argument samples defines the number of samples to be retrieved
120 and reported. If samples is 0 or -s is not specified, pmval will
121 sample and report continuously (in real time mode) or until the
122 end of the set of PCP archives (in archive mode).
123 -t The default update interval may be set to something other than the
125 default 1 second. The interval argument follows the syntax
126 described in PCPIntro(1), and in the simplest form may be an
127 unsigned integer (the implied units in this case are seconds).
128 -U Performance metric values are retrieved from the set of Perfor‐
130 mance Co-Pilot (PCP) archive logs identified. The argument is a
131 comma-separated list of names, each of which may be the base name
132 of an archive or the name of a directory containing one or more
133 archives. However, unlike -a every recorded value in the archive
134 for the selected metric and instances is reported (so no interpo‐
135 lation mode, and the sample interval (-t option) is ignored. See
136 also -a.
137 At most one of the options -a and -U may be specified.
139 -w Set the width of each column of output to be width columns. If
141 not specified columns are wide enough to accommodate the largest
142 value of the type being printed.
143 -x The given pattern is sent to the performance metric domain agent
145 for the requested metricname before any values are requested.
146 This serves two purposes. Firstly, it provides a mechanism for
147 server-side event filtering that is customisable for individual
148 event streams. In addition, some performance metrics domain
149 agents also use the PMCD store mechanism to provide a basic secu‐
150 rity model (e.g. for sensitive log files, only a client host with
151 pmStore(3) access would be able to access the event stream).
152 As pattern may be processed by regcomp(3) it should be a non-empty
154 string. Use . (dot) for a “match all” pattern.
155 -Z By default, pmval reports the time of day according to the local
157 timezone on the system where pmval is run. The -Z option changes
158 the timezone to timezone in the format of the environment variable
159 TZ as described in environ(7).
160 -z Change the reporting timezone to the local timezone at the host
162 that is the source of the performance metrics, as identified via
163 either the metricname or the -h or -a or -U options.
164 The following symbols may occasionally appear, in place of a metric
166 value, in pmval output: A question mark symbol (?) indicates that a
167 value is no longer available for that metric instance. An exclamation
168 mark (!) indicates that a 64-bit counter wrapped during the sample.
169 The output from pmval is directed to standard output.
171
173 $PCP_VAR_DIR/pmns/*
174 default PMNS specification files
175
177 Environment variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parameterize the
178 file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file
179 /etc/pcp.conf contains the local values for these variables. The
180 $PCP_CONF variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration
181 file, as described in pcp.conf(5).
182
184 PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmchart(1), pmdumplog(1), pmdumptext(1),
185 pminfo(1), pmlogger(1), pmrep(1), pmtime(1), PMAPI(3), pmStore(3),
186 pmSpecLocalPMDA(3), pcp.conf(5) and pcp.env(5).
187
189 All are generated on standard error and are intended to be self-
190 explanatory.
191
193 By default, pmval attempts to display non-integer numeric values in a
194 way that does not distort the inherent precision (rarely more than 4
195 significant digits), and tries to maintain a tabular format in the out‐
196 put. These goals are sometimes in conflict.
197 In the absence of the -f option (described above), the following table
199 describes the formats used for different ranges of numeric values for
200 any metric that is of type PM_TYPE_FLOAT or PM_TYPE_DOUBLE, or any met‐
201 ric that has the semantics of a counter (for which pmval reports the
202 rate converted value):
203 ┌──────────┬──────────────────────┐
205 │ Format │ Value Range │
206 ├──────────┼──────────────────────┤
207 │ ! │ No values available │
208 │9.999E-99 │ < 0.1 │
209 │ 0.0 │ 0 │
210 │ 9.9999 │ > 0 and <= 0.9999 │
211 │ 9.999 │ > 0.9999 and < 9.999 │
212 │ 99.99 │ > 9.999 and < 99.99 │
213 │ 999.9 │ > 99.99 and < 999.9 │
214 │9999. │ > 999.9 and < 9999 │
215 │9.999E+99 │ > 9999 │
216 └──────────┴──────────────────────┘
217Performance Co-Pilot PCP PMVAL(1)