NAME
newhelp - generate a performance metrics help database
SYNOPSIS
$PCP_BINADM_DIR/newhelp [-V] [-n pmnsfile] [-o outputfile]
[-v version] [file ...]
DESCRIPTION
newhelp generates the Performance Co-Pilot help text files
used by Performance Metric Domain Agents (PMDAs).
Normally newhelp operates on the default Performance Met
rics Namespace (PMNS), however if the -n option is speci
fied an alternative namespace is loaded from the file
pmnsfile.
When there is only one input file, the base name of the
new database is derived from the name of the input file,
otherwise the -o flag must be given to explicitly name the
database. If no input files are supplied, newhelp reads
from the standard input stream, in which case the -o flag
must be given.
If the output file name is determined to be foo, newhelp
will create foo.dir and foo.pag.
Although historically there have been multiple help text
file formats, the only format currently supported using
the -v option is version 2, and this is the default if no
-v flag is provided.
The -V flag causes verbose messages to be printed while
newhelp is parsing its input.
The first line of each entry in a help source file con
sists of an ``@'' character beginning the line followed by
a space and then the performance metric name and a one
line description of the metric. Following lines (up to
the next line beginning with ``@'' or end of file) may
contain a verbose help description. E.g.
#
# This is an example of newhelp's input syntax
#
@ kernel.all.cpu.idle CPU idle time
A cumulative count of the number of milliseconds
of CPU idle time, summed over all processors.
Lines beginning with ``#'' are ignored, as are blank lines
in the file before the first ``@''. The verbose help text
is optional.
(for numeric NNN and MM) is interpreted as an instance
domain identification, and the text describes the instance
domain.
FILES
$PCP_VAR_DIR/pmns/*
default 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 ALSO
chkhelp(1), PMAPI(3), pmLookupInDomText(3), pmLookup
Text(3), pcp.conf(4) and pcp.env(4).
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