path: root/man/man1/pmval.1

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.TH PMVAL 1 "PCP" "Performance Co-Pilot"
.SH NAME
\f3pmval\f1 \- performance metrics value dumper
.\" literals use .B or \f3
.\" arguments use .I or \f2
.SH SYNOPSIS
\f3pmval\f1
[\f3\-dgrz\f1]
[\f3\-A\f1 \f2align\f1]
[\f3\-a\f1 \f2archive\f1]
[\f3\-f\f1 \f2N\f1]
[\f3\-h\f1 \f2host\f1]
[\f3\-i\f1 \f2instances\f1]
[\f3\-K\f1 \f2spec\f1]
[\f3\-n\f1 \f2pmnsfile\f1]
[\f3\-O\f1 \f2offset\f1]
[\f3\-p\f1 \f2port\f1]
[\f3\-S\f1 \f2starttime\f1]
[\f3\-s\f1 \f2samples\f1]
[\f3\-T\f1 \f2endtime\f1]
[\f3\-t\f1 \f2interval\f1]
[\f3\-U\f1 \f2archive\f1]
[\f3\-w\f1 \f2width\f1]
[\f3\-Z\f1 \f2timezone\f1]
\f2metricname\f1
.SH DESCRIPTION
.de EX
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.ie t .sp .5v
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.nf
..
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.in
..
.B pmval
prints current or archived values for the nominated performance metric.
The metric of interest is named in the
.I metricname
argument, subject to instance qualification with the
.B \-i
flag as described below.
.PP
Unless directed to another host by the
.B \-h
option,
or to an archive by the
.B \-a
or
.B \-U
options,
.B pmval
will contact the Performance Metrics Collector Daemon (PMCD)
on the local host to obtain the required information.
.PP
The
.I metricname
argument may also be given in the metric specification syntax, as
described in
.BR PCPIntro (1),
where the source, metric and instance may all be included in the
.IR metricname ,
e.g. thathost:kernel.all.load["1 minute"].
When this format is used, none of the
.B \-h
or
.B \-a
or
.B \-U
options may be specified.
.PP
When using the metric specification syntax, the ``hostname''
.B @
is treated specially and
causes
.B pmval
to use a local context to collect metrics from PMDAs on the local host
without PMCD.  Only some metrics are available in this mode.
.PP
When processing an archive,
.B pmval
may relinquish its own timing control, and operate as a ``slave'' of
a
.BR pmtime (1)
process that uses a GUI dialog to provide timing control.
In this case, either the
.B \-g
option should be used to start
.B pmval
as the sole slave of a new
.BR pmtime (1)
instance, or
.B \-p
should be used to attach
.B pmval
to an existing
.BR pmtime (1)
instance via the IPC channel identified by the
.I port
argument.
.PP
The
.BR \-S ,
.BR \-T ,
.BR \-O
and
.B \-A
options may be used to define a time window to restrict the
samples retrieved, set an initial origin within the time window,
or specify a ``natural'' alignment of the sample times; refer to
.BR PCPIntro (1)
for a complete description of these options.
.PP
The other options which control the source, timing and layout of the information
reported by
.B pmval
are as follows:
.TP 5
.B \-a
Performance metric values are retrieved from the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP)
archive log file identified by the base name
.IR archive .
.TP
.B \-d
When replaying from an archive,
this option requests that the prevailing real-time delay be applied between
samples (see
.BR \-t )
to effect a pause, rather than the default behaviour of replaying at full speed.
.TP
.B \-f
Numbers are reported in ``fixed point'' notation, rather than the default
scientific notation.  Each number will be up to the column width determined by
the default heuristics, else the
.B \-w
option if specified, and include
.I N
digits after the decimal point.  So, the options
.B "\-f 3 \-w 8"
would produce numbers of the form 9999.999.
A value of zero for
.I N
omits the decimal point and any fractional digits.
.TP
.B \-g
Start
.B pmval
as the slave of a new
.BR pmtime (1)
process for replay of archived performance data using the
.BR pmtime (1)
graphical user interface.
.TP
.B \-h
Current performance metric values are retrieved from the nominated
.I host
machine.
.TP
.B \-i
.I instances
is a list of one or more
instance names for the nominated performance metric \- just these
instances will be retrieved and reported
(the default is to report all instances).
The list must be a single argument, with
elements of the list separated by commas and/or white space.
.RS
.PP
The instance name may be quoted with single (') or double (") quotes
for those cases where
the instance name contains white space or commas.
.PP
Multiple
.B \-i
options are allowed as an alternative way of specifying more than
one instance of interest.
.PP
As an example, the following are all equivalent:
.EX
$ pmval \-i "'1 minute','5 minute'" kernel.all.load
$ pmval \-i '"1 minute","5 minute"' kernel.all.load
$ pmval \-i "'1 minute' '5 minute'" kernel.all.load
$ pmval \-i "'1 minute'" \-i "'5 minute'" kernel.all.load
$ pmval 'localhost:kernel.all.load["1 minute","5 minute"]'
.EE
.RE
.TP
.B \-K
When
fetching metrics from a local context, the
.B \-K
option may be used to control the DSO PMDAs that should be
made accessible.  The
.I spec
argument conforms to the syntax described in
.BR __pmSpecLocalPMDA (3).
More than one
.B \-K
option may be used.
.TP
.B \-n
Normally
.B pmval
operates on the default Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS), however
if the
.B \-n
option is specified an alternative namespace is loaded
from the file
.IR pmnsfile.
.TP
.B \-p
Attach
.B pmval
to an existing
.BR pmtime (1)
time control process instance via the IPC channel identified by the
\f2port\f1 argument.
This option is normally only used by other tools, e.g.
.BR pmchart (1),
when they launch
.B pmval
with synchronized time control.
.TP
.B \-r
Print raw values for cumulative counter metrics.  Normally cumulative counter
metrics are converted to rates.  For example, disk transfers are reported
as number of disk transfers per second during the preceding sample interval,
rather than the raw value of number of disk transfers since the machine was
booted.  If you specify this option, the raw metric values are printed.
.TP
.B \-s
The argument
.I samples
defines the number of samples to be retrieved and reported.
If
.I samples
is 0 or
.B \-s
is not specified, 
.B pmval
will sample and report continuously (in real time mode) or until the end
of the PCP archive (in archive mode).
.TP
.B \-t
The default update \f2interval\f1 may be set to something other than the
default 1 second.
The
.I interval
argument follows the syntax described in
.BR PCPIntro (1),
and in the simplest form may be an unsigned integer (the implied
units in this case are seconds).
.TP
.B \-U
Performance metric values are retrieved from the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP)
archive log file identified by the base name
.IR archive ,
although unlike
.B \-a
every recorded value in the archive for the selected metric
and instances is reported (so no interpolation mode, and the sample
interval (\c
.B \-t
option) is ignored.
.RS +5n
.PP
At most one of the options
.B \-a
and
.B \-U
may be specified.
.RE
.TP
.B \-w
Set the width of each column of output to be
.I width
columns.
If not specified columns are wide
enough to accommodate the largest value of the type being printed.
.TP
.B \-Z
By default,
.B pmval
reports the time of day according to the local timezone on the
system where
.B pmval
is run.
The
.B \-Z
option changes the timezone to
.I timezone
in the format of the environment variable
.B TZ
as described in
.BR environ (5).
.TP
.B \-z
Change the reporting timezone to the local timezone at the host that is
the source of the performance metrics, as identified via either the
.I metricname
or the
.B \-h
or
.B \-a
or
.B \-U
options.
.PP
The following symbols may occasionally appear, in place of a metric value, in
.B pmval
output:  A question mark symbol (?) indicates that a value is no
longer available for that metric instance.  An exclamation mark (!)
indicates that a 64-bit counter wrapped during the sample.
.PP
The output from
.B pmval
is directed to standard output.
.SH FILES
.PD 0
.TP 10
.BI $PCP_VAR_DIR/pmns/ *
default PMNS specification files
.PD
.SH "PCP ENVIRONMENT"
Environment variables with the prefix
.B PCP_
are used to parameterize the file and directory names
used by PCP.
On each installation, the file
.I /etc/pcp.conf
contains the local values for these variables.
The
.B $PCP_CONF
variable may be used to specify an alternative
configuration file,
as described in
.BR pcp.conf (5).
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR PCPIntro (1),
.BR pmcd (1),
.BR pmchart (1),
.BR pmdumplog (1),
.BR pminfo (1),
.BR pmlogger (1),
.BR pmtime (1),
.BR PMAPI (3),
.BR __pmSpecLocalPMDA (3),
.BR pcp.conf (5)
and
.BR pcp.env (5).
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
All are generated on standard error and are intended to be self-explanatory.
.SH CAVEATS
By default,
.B pmval
attempts to display non-integer numeric values in a way that does not distort the
inherent precision (rarely more than 4 significant
digits), and tries to maintain a tabular format in
the output.  These goals are sometimes in conflict.
.PP
In the absence of the
.B \-f
option (described above),
the following table describes the formats used for different
ranges of numeric values for any metric that is of type
.B PM_TYPE_FLOAT
or
.BR PM_TYPE_DOUBLE ,
or any metric that has the semantics of a counter (for
which
.B pmval
reports the rate converted value):
.TS
box,center;
cf(R) | cf(R)
rf(CW) | lf(R).
Format	Value Range
_
!	No values available
9.999E-99	< 0.1
0.0\0\0\0	0
9.9999	> 0 and <= 0.9999
9.999\0	> 0.9999 and < 9.999
99.99\0\0	> 9.999 and < 99.99
999.9\0\0\0	> 99.99 and < 999.9
9999.\0\0\0\0	> 999.9 and < 9999
9.999E+99	> 9999
.TE