NAME
pminfo - display information about performance metrics
SYNOPSIS
pminfo [-dfFMmtTvz] [-a archive] [-b batchsize] [-h host
name] [-n pmnsfile] [-O time] [-Z timezone] [metricname
...]
DESCRIPTION
pminfo displays various types of information about perfor
mance metrics available through the facilities of the Per
formance 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 metrics of interest are named in the metricname argu
ments. If metricname is a non-leaf node in the PMNS, then
pminfo will recursively descend the PMNS and report on all
leaf nodes. If no metricname argument is given, the root
of the PMNS is used.
Unless directed to another host by the -h option, 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 informa
tion, and/or meta-data describing metrics, 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 and -h options
are mutually exclusive.
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.
-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 pre
sent 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
-F Same as -f but try harder to fetch instances for met
rics which have non-enumerable instance domains (e.g.
metrics in the ``proc'' subtree of the default PMNS).
-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 PCPIntro(1) for a
complete description of this option, and the syntax
for the time argument.
When the ``ctime'' format is used for the time argu
ment in a -O option, the timezone becomes an issue.
The default is to use the local timezone on the sys
tem 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 met
rics, 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.
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 ALSO
PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmchart(1), pmdumplog(1), pmdump
text(1), pmprobe(1), pmval(1), pcp.conf(4), pcp.env(4) and
pmns(4).
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