CHKHELP(1)

💖 chkhelp(1) — check performance metrics help text files 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the General Commands Manual for chkhelp, and no this is not a drill, this little icon is about to become your fave 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

chkhelp — check performance metrics help text files 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

$PCP_BINADM_DIR/chkhelp [-eHiOp?]  [-D debug] [-n pmnsfile] helpfile
[metricname ...]

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so chkhelp is the vibe-checker for help text files, fr fr. it checks the consistency of Performance Co-Pilot help text files that were generated by newhelp(1) and are used by Performance Metric Domain Agents (PMDAs). the checking is literally just scanning the files, and optionally showing you selected entries. no cap. 🔥

the files helpfile.dir and helpfile.pag are created by newhelp(1), and they are assumed to already exist. so like, don't come to this party empty-handed 🙈

if you run it with no options and no metricname arguments, chkhelp silently verifies the structural integrity of the help files. silently! it's giving stealth mode. 💀

if any metricname arguments are specified, then only the help entries for the corresponding metrics get processed. periodt. 👑

if no metricname arguments are specified, then at least one of the options -i or -p must be given:

• the -i option causes entries for all instance domains to be processed (and it ignores entries for performance metrics)
• the -p option causes entries for all metrics to be displayed (and it ignores entries for instance domains)

when metric entries are about to be processed (via either the metricname arguments, the -p option, or the -i option), the -O and -H options request the display of the one-line help text and the verbose help text respectively. and the default? the default is -O. iykyk ✨

normally chkhelp operates on the default Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS), but if you pass the -n option, an alternative namespace gets loaded from the file pmnsfile. main character energy for your custom namespace 🌈

the -e option provides an existence check where all of the specified metrics from the PMNS (note: from the PMNS, not from helpfile) are scanned, and only the names of the metrics for which no help text exists are reported. and listen — the -e option is mutually exclusive with the -i and/or -p options. pick a lane bestie 😭

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

the available command line options are:

• -e — Report metrics with no help text. 🔍
• -H — Display verbose help text and exit. 🗣️
• -i — Process all the instance domains. 🧚
• -n pmnsfile — Load an alternative Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS(5)) from the file pmnsfile. 📂
• -O — Display the one line help summary. ✏️
• -p — Process all the metrics (PMIDs). 🔢
• -? — Display usage message and exit. 🫶

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😭 DIAGNOSTICS 😭

there are all sorts of reasons a help database may be inconsistent, bestie. the most likely one? a performance metric in the database is not defined in the loaded PMNS. it's giving mystery-novel plot twist 🕵️♀️

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🌈 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(5). slay, configurable 💅

for environment variables affecting PCP tools, see pmGetOptions(3).

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💀 DEBUGGING OPTIONS 💀

the -D or --debug option enables the output of additional diagnostics on stderr to help triage problems, although ngl the information is sometimes cryptic and primarily intended to provide guidance for developers rather than for end-users. 🙈

debug is a comma separated list of debugging options; use pmdbg(1) with the -l option to obtain a list of the available debugging options and their meaning. go get that list, you got this 🍓

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

newhelp(1), PMAPI(3), pmLookupInDomText(3), pmLookupText(3), pcp.conf(5), pcp.env(5) and PMNS(5).

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okay and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this came to you from Performance Co-Pilot under the PCP banner, and yeah it's literally titled CHKHELP(1) — go check those help files, you absolute icon 👑✨