NAME
pmParseMetricSpec, pmFreeMetricSpec - uniform metric spec
ification parser
C SYNOPSIS
#include <pcp/pmapi.h>
int pmParseMetricSpec(const char *string, int isarch, char
*source, pmMetricSpec **rsltp, char **errmsg)
void pmFreeMetricSpec(pmMetricSpec *rslt)
cc ... -lpcp
DESCRIPTION
pmParseMetricSpec accepts a string specifying the name of
a PCP performance metric, and optionally the source
(either a hostname or a PCP archive log filename) and
instances for that metric. The syntax is described in
PCPIntro(1).
If neither host nor archive component of the metric speci
fication is provided, the isarch and source arguments are
used to fill in the returned pmMetricSpec structure.
The pmMetricSpec structure that is returned via rsltp rep
resents the parsed string and has the following declara
tion:
typedef struct {
int isarch; /* source type: 0 -> host, 1 -> archive */
char *source; /* name of source host or archive */
char *metric; /* name of metric */
int ninst; /* number of instances, 0 -> all */
char *inst[1]; /* array of instance names */
} pmMetricSpec;
pmParseMetricSpec returns 0 if the given string was suc
cessfully parsed. In this case all the storage allocated
by pmParseMetricSpec can be released by a single call to
free(3C) using the address returned from pmMetricSpec via
rsltp. The convenience macro pmFreeMetricSpec is a thinly
disguised wrapper for free(3C).
pmParseMetricSpec returns PM_ERR_GENERIC and a dynamically
allocated error message string in errmsg, if the given
string does not parse. Be sure to free(3C) the error mes
sage string in this situation.
In the case of an error, rsltp is undefined. In the case
of success, errmsg is undefined. If rsltp->ninst is 0,
then rsltp->inst[0] is undefined.
PMAPI(3) and pmLookupName(3).
Man(1) output converted with
man2html