1PMDUMPTEXT(1) General Commands Manual PMDUMPTEXT(1)
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6 pmdumptext - dump performance metrics to an ASCII table
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9 pmdumptext [-CFGHilmMNoruVXz?] [-a archive] [-A align] [-c config] [-d
10 delimiter] [-f format] [-h host] [-n pmnsfile] [-O offset] [-P preci‐
11 sion] [-R lines] [-s sample] [-S starttime] [-t interval] [-T endtime]
12 [-U string] [-w width] [-Z timezone] [metric ...]
13
15 pmdumptext outputs the values of performance metrics collected live or
16 from a set of Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) archives. By default, the
17 metric values are displayed in tab separated columns, prefixed by a
18 timestamp.
19 Unless directed to another host by the -h option, or to one or more
21 sets of archives by the -a option, or an explict host: or archive/ pre‐
22 fix in the metric (see below for more information), pmdumptext will
23 contact the Performance Metrics Collector Daemon (PMCD) on the local
24 host to obtain the required information.
25 pmdumptext may be run in interactive mode with the -i option which dis‐
27 plays the values in equal width columns. Without this option, no at‐
28 tempt is made to line up any values allowing the output to be easily
29 parsed by other applications.
30 The format of the output can be further controlled by changing the pre‐
32 cision of the values with -P, the width of the columns with -w, and the
33 format of the values with the -G and -F options for the shortest of
34 scientific or fixed digits, and a fixed width format, respectively.
35 The metrics to be dumped can be listed on the command line, in a config
37 file, or piped to pmdumptext on stdin. A metric consists of an op‐
38 tional source (host or archive), the metric name, and an optional in‐
39 stance list immediately after the name. A colon is used to separate a
40 host name from the metric, and a forward slash (``/'') to separate an
41 archive name from the metric. Instances are enclosed in square brack‐
42 ets and a comma is used between each instance if more than one is
43 stated. For example, some legal metrics are:
44 kernel.all.cpu.idle
46 myhost:kernel.all.cpu.idle[cpu0,cpu3]
47 /path/to/myarchive/kernel.all.cpu.idle[cpu1]
48 When a metric does not contain a host: or archive/ prefix, e.g. ker‐
50 nel.all.cpu.idle above, then the source of the metric is determined by
51 the following rules:
52 (a) PMCD on host from the -h option if any, else
53 (b) the archive from the first -a option if any, else
54 (c) the host from the first metric prior to this one with a host: pre‐
55 fix if any, else
56 (d) the archive from the first metric prior to this one with an ar‐
57 chive/ prefix if any, else
58 (e) PMCD on the local host, which is equivalent to local::metric.
59 The format of a metric is further described in PCPIntro(1) in the PER‐
61 FORMANCE METRIC SPECIFICATIONS section. A normalization value may op‐
62 tionally follow a metric name in a config file or on stdin. The metric
63 value will be scaled by this value. For example, if the file system
64 ``/dev/root'' has a capacity of 1965437 bytes, then the percentage of
65 the file system that is used could be dumped with this config:
66 filesys.used[/dev/root] 19654.37
68 A normalization value may not be used with metrics specified as command
70 line arguments.
71 A metric name is not required to be a leaf node in the Performance Met‐
73 rics Name Space (PMNS), except when one or more instances are speci‐
74 fied. For example, to dump all file system metrics, only filesys is
75 required to dump filesys.capacity, filesys.used, filesys.free etc.
76
78 The command line options -A, -O, -S and -T control the alignment, off‐
79 set, start and end time when visualizing metrics from archives. These
80 options are common to most Performance Co-Pilot tools and are fully de‐
81 scribed in PCPIntro(1).
82 The other available options are:
84 -a archive, --archive=archive
86 Specifies the historical archive from which metrics can be ob‐
87 tained for a particular host. archive is the full path to an in‐
88 dividual archive file, or the name of a directory containing ar‐
89 chives, or the basename of an archive - all previously created by
90 pmlogger(1). Multiple sets of archives (separated by commas or in
91 different -a options) from different hosts may be given, but only
92 one set of archives per host is permitted. Any metrics that are
93 not associated with a specific host or archive will use the first
94 archive as their source.
95 -c config, --config=config
97 If no metrics are listed on the command line, a config file can be
98 used to specify the metrics to be dumped. Unlike the command line
99 metrics, each metric may be followed by a normalization value.
100 Empty lines and lines that begin with ``#'' are ignored.
101 -C, --check
103 Exit before dumping any values, but after parsing the metrics.
104 Metrics, instances, normals and units are listed if -m, -l, -N
105 and/or -u are specified.
106 -d delimiter, --delimiter=delimiter
108 Specify the delimiter that separates each column of output. The
109 delimiter may only be a single character.
110 -f format, --time-format=format
112 Use the format string for formatting the timestamp with each set
113 of values. The syntax of this string is the same as that de‐
114 scribed in strftime(3). An empty format string (eg. '') will re‐
115 move the timestamps from the output.
116 -F, --fixed
118 Output the values in a fixed width format of 6 characters. Posi‐
119 tive numbers are represented as dd.ddu and negative numbers as
120 [-]d.ddu. The postfix multiplier may have the values K(10^3),
121 M(10^6), G(10^9) and T(10^12). For example, 4567 would be dis‐
122 played as 4.57K, even if the units of the metric are bytes.
123 -G, --scientific
125 Output the values using the shortest of a scientific format or a
126 decimal notation.
127 -h host, --host=host
129 Fetch performance metrics from pmcd(1) on host, rather than the
130 default localhost.
131 -H, --headers
133 Show all headers before dumping any metric values. This is equiv‐
134 alent to -lmNu.
135 -i, --interactive
137 Output the data in fixed width columns using fixed width values
138 (see -F) so that it is human-readable. This option may not be
139 used with -P as fixed point values are not fixed width. This op‐
140 tion will also affect the output of -m and -u options as the met‐
141 ric, instance and unit names will be truncated.
142 -l, --source
144 Show the source of the metrics. In interactive mode, the host of
145 the metrics is shown. In non-interactive mode, this option shows
146 the source of the metrics with the metric name even if -m is not
147 specified.
148 -m, --metrics
150 Output the metric names before the metric values. The source and
151 units of the metrics may also be dumped with the -l and -u options
152 respectively. If in interactive mode, the metrics names may be
153 truncated, and the instance names, where relevant, are also trun‐
154 cated on the follow line.
155 -M Output the column number and complete metric names before dumping
157 any values. If the -l flag is also specified, the source of the
158 metrics is also shown.
159 -n pmnsfile, --namespace=pmnsfile
161 Load an alternative local PMNS from the file pmnsfile.
162 -o, --offset
164 When a timestamp is being reported (ie. unless an empty format
165 string is given with the -f option), the timestamp is prefixed
166 with the offset in seconds from the start of the set of archives
167 or the beginning of the execution of pmdumptext.
168 -N Output the normalization factors before the metric values.
170 -p precision, --precision=precision
172 Set the precision of the values. This option may not be used with
173 -F as the precision is constant. The default precision is 3.
174 -r, --raw
176 Output the raw metric values, do not convert counters to rates.
177 This option also causes pmdumptext to ignore the normalization
178 values for each metric.
179 -R lines, --repeat=lines
181 Repeat the header every lines of output. This option is useful in
182 interactive mode when using a graphical window to avoid the header
183 scrolling beyond the window's buffer, and to realign the header if
184 the window is resized.
185 -s samples, --samples=samples
187 pmdumptext will terminate after this many samples.
188 -t interval, --interval=interval
190 The interval option follows the syntax described in PCPIntro(1),
191 and in the simplest form may be an unsigned integer (the implied
192 units in this case are seconds). The default interval is 1 sec‐
193 ond.
194 -u, --units
196 Output the units of the metrics before the first values, but after
197 the metric names if -m is also specified.
198 -U string, --unavailable=string
200 Change the output when values are unavailable to string. The de‐
201 fault string is ``?''.
202 -V, --version
204 Display version number and exit.
205 -w width, --widthfR=width
207 Set the column width of the output. Strings will be truncated to
208 this width, and maybe postfixed by ``...'' if the width is greater
209 than 5.
210 -X, --extended
212 Output the column number and complete metric names, one-per-line,
213 both before dumping the first set of values and again each time
214 the header is repeated. -z, --hostzone Use the local timezone of
215 the host that is the source of the performance metrics, as identi‐
216 fied by either the -h or the first -a options. The default is to
217 use the timezone of the local host.
218 -Z timezone, --timezone=timezone
220 Use timezone for the date and time. Timezone is in the format of
221 the environment variable TZ as described in environ(7).
222 -?, --help
224 Display usage message and exit.
225
227 pmdumptext supports the dumping of metrics from multiple hosts or set
228 of archives. The metrics listed on the command line or in the config
229 file may have no specific source or come from different sources.
230 However, restrictions apply when archives are specified on the command
232 line (-a) and/or in the configuration file. Firstly, there may be only
233 one set of archives for any one host. Secondly, the hosts of any met‐
234 rics with host sources must correspond to the host of a set of ar‐
235 chives, either on the command line or previously as the source of an‐
236 other metric.
237 The options -a and -h may not be used together.
239
241 All metrics that have the semantics of counters are automatically con‐
242 verted to rates over the sample time interval. In interactive mode,
243 pmdumptext will also change the units of some metrics so that they are
244 easier to comprehend:
245 o All metrics with space units (bytes to terabytes) are scaled to
247 bytes. Note that 1024 bytes with be represented as 1.02K, not
248 1.00K.
249 o Metrics that are counters with time units (nanoseconds to hours)
251 represent time utilization over the sample interval. The unit
252 strings of such metrics is changed to ``Time Utilization'' or
253 abbreviated to ``util'' and the values are normalized to the
254 range zero to one.
255
257 o To examine the load on two hosts foo and bar, simultaneously:
258 $ pmdumptext -il 'foo:kernel.all.load[1]' 'bar:kernel.all.load[1]'
260 Source foo bar
261 Wed Jul 30 11:37:53 0.309 0.409
262 Wed Jul 30 11:37:54 0.309 0.409
263 Wed Jul 30 11:37:55 0.309 0.409
264 o To output the memory utilization on a remote host called bong with a
266 simpler timestamp:
267 $ pmdumptext -imu -h bong -f '%H:%M:%S' mem.util
269 Metric kernel fs_ctl _dirty _clean free user
270 Units b b b b b b
271 09:32:28 8.98M 0.97M 0.00 3.90M 7.13M 46.13M
272 09:32:29 8.99M 0.98M 0.00 5.71M 5.39M 46.03M
273 09:32:30 8.99M 1.07M 0.00 5.81M 4.55M 46.69M
274 09:32:31 9.03M 1.16M 0.00 6.45M 3.48M 47.00M
275 09:32:32 9.09M 1.18M 20.48K 6.23M 3.29M 47.30M
276 o To dump all metrics collected in an archive at a 30 second interval
278 to a file for processing by another tool:
279 $ pminfo -a archive | pmdumptext -t 30s -m -a archive > outfile
281
283 $PCP_VAR_DIR/pmns/*
284 default PMNS specification files
285
287 Environment variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parameterize the
288 file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file
289 /etc/pcp.conf contains the local values for these variables. The
290 $PCP_CONF variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration
291 file, as described in pcp.conf(5).
292 For environment variables affecting PCP tools, see pmGetOptions(3).
294
296 PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmchart(1), pmlogger(1), pmrep(1), PMAPI(3),
297 strftime(3) and environ(7).
298Performance Co-Pilot SGI PMDUMPTEXT(1)