PMINFO(1)PMINFO(1)NAMEpminfo - display information about performance metrics
SYNOPSISpminfo [-dfFLmMtTvxz] [-a archive] [-b batchsize] [-c dmfile] [-h host‐
name] [-K spec] [-[n|N] pmnsfile] [-O time] [-Z timezone] [metricname
...]
DESCRIPTIONpminfo displays various types of information about performance metrics
available through the facilities of the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP).
Normally pminfo operates on the distributed Performance Metrics Name
Space (PMNS), however if the -n option is specified an alternative
local PMNS is loaded from the file pmnsfile. The -N option supports
the same function as -n, except for the handling of duplicate Perfor‐
mance Metric Identifiers (PMIDs) in pmnsfile - duplicates are allowed
with -N they are not allowed with -n.
The metrics of interest are named in the metricname arguments. If met‐
ricname is a non-leaf node in the PMNS, then pminfo will recursively
descend the PMNS and report on all leaf nodes. If no metricname argu‐
ment is given, the root of the PMNS is used.
Unless directed to another host by the -h option, by default pminfo
will contact the Performance Metrics Collector Daemon (PMCD) on the
local host. The connection to a PMCD is only required if pminfo
requires distributed PMNS information, and/or meta-data describing met‐
rics, and/or metric values, and/or help text.
The -a option causes pminfo to use the specified archive rather than
connecting to a PMCD. The -a , -h and -L options are mutually exclu‐
sive.
The -L option causes pminfo to use a local context to collect metrics
from PMDAs on the local host without PMCD. Only some metrics are
available in this mode. The -a,-h and -L options are mutually exclu‐
sive.
The -b option may be used to define the maximum size of the group of
metrics to be fetched in a single request for the -f and -v options.
The default value for batchsize is 20.
Other options control the specific information to be reported.
-c The dmfile argument specifies a file that contains derived metric
definitions in the format described for pmLoadDerivedConfig(3).
The -c option provides a way to load derived metric definitions
that is an alternative to the more generic use of the
PCP_DERIVED_CONFIG environment variable as described in PCPIn‐
tro(1). Using the -c option and the PCP_DERIVED_CONFIG environ‐
ment variable to specify the same configuration is a bad idea, so
choose one or the other method.
-d Metric descriptions detailing the PMID, data type, data semantics,
units, scale and associated instance domain.
-f Fetch and print values for all instances. When fetching from an
archive, only those instances present in the first archive record
for a metric will be displayed; see also the -O option, else use
pmdumplog(1) which may be a better tool for examining archives.
-F Same as -f but try harder to fetch instances for metrics which
have non-enumerable instance domains (e.g. metrics in the ``proc''
subtree of the default PMNS).
-K When using the -L option to fetch metrics from a local context,
the -K option may be used to control the DSO PMDAs that should be
made accessible. The spec argument conforms to the syntax
described in __pmSpecLocalPMDA(3). More than one -K option may be
used.
-m Print the PMID in terse mode.
-M Print the PMID in verbose mode.
-O When used in conjunction with an archive source of metrics and the
options -f or -F, the time argument defines a time origin at which
the metrics should be fetched from the archive. Refer to PCPIn‐
tro(1) for a complete description of this option, and the syntax
for the time argument.
When the ``ctime'' format is used for the time argument in a -O
option, the timezone becomes an issue. The default is to use the
local timezone on the system where pminfo is run. The -Z option
changes the timezone to timezone in the format of the environment
variable TZ as described in environ(5). The -z option changes the
timezone to the local timezone at the host that is the source of
the performance metrics, as identified via the -a option.
-t Print the ``one line'' help summary, if available.
-T Print the help text, if available.
-v Verify mode in which descriptions and values are retrieved, but
only error conditions are reported. This option silently disables
any output from the options -f, -M, -m, -t and -T.
-x Like the -f option, but with the additional functionality that if
a value is processed that is of type PM_TYPE_EVENT, then the event
records will be unpacked and the details of each event record
reported.
FILES
$PCP_VAR_DIR/pmns/*
default local PMNS specification files
PCP ENVIRONMENT
Environment variables with the prefix PCP_ are used to parameterize the
file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file
/etc/pcp.conf contains the local values for these variables. The
$PCP_CONF variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration
file, as described in pcp.conf(4).
SEE ALSOPCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmchart(1), pmdumplog(1), pmdumptext(1),
pmprobe(1), pmval(1), PMAPI(3), pmLoadDerivedConfig(3), __pmSpecLocalP‐
MDA(3), pcp.conf(4), pcp.env(4) and pmns(4).
Performance Co-Pilot SGI PMINFO(1)
