NEWHELP(1)

💖 NEWHELP(1) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to newhelp(1) from the General Commands Manual — yes that's the section, we're in the big leagues now ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

newhelp — generate a performance metrics help database 💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

$PCP_BINADM_DIR/newhelp [-SvV?]  [-D debug] [-n pmnsfile] [-o
outputfile] [file ...]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So basically, newhelp generates the Performance Co-Pilot help text files that the Performance Metric Domain Agents (PMDAs) use. It's giving behind-the-scenes queen energy 👑

Normally newhelp 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. Switch it up, we love options 💁‍♀️

When there's only one input file, the base name of the new database is derived from the name of the input file. Otherwise — like, if you brought multiple files to the party — the -o flag must be given to explicitly name the database. And if you supply no input files at all? newhelp reads from the standard input stream, in which case the -o flag must be given. No -o, no database, no cap 🧢

In the normal mode of operation, if the output file name is determined to be foo, newhelp will create foo.dir and foo.pag. But when the -S (--search) option is given, no .dir or .pag files are created — instead the name given with the -o option directly names the SQLite FTS5 database file used by pmsearch(1). Different mode, different vibe fr fr 🗂️

The -V flag causes verbose messages to be printed while newhelp is parsing its input. Chatty and we're here for it 📢

Now, the input format — this is the part you need to memorize, bestie 📝

The first line of each entry in a help source file consists 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.

Three-part numeric metric identifiers (PMIDs) may be used in place of metric names — e.g. 60.0.23 rather than kernel.all.cpu.idle in the example above. But heads up: other than for dynamic metrics (where the existence of a metric is known to a PMDA, but not visible in the PMNS and hence has no name that could be known to newhelp), use of this syntactic variant is not encouraged. It's lowkey frowned upon, we don't do that here 🙈

Lines beginning with # are ignored, as are blank lines in the file before the first @. The verbose help text is optional — no pressure, it's giving minimalism 🎀

As a special case, a "metric" name of the form NNN.MM (for numeric NNN and MM) is interpreted as an instance domain identification, and the text describes the instance domain. Special case, special treatment, iconic behavior ⭐

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

The available command line options are:

• -o output, --output=outout — Specify base name for output files. (yes the manpage really says outout, we keep it exactly, no editing the queen's typo 💀)
• -n pmnsfile, --namespace=pmnsfile — Load an alternative Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS(5)) from the file pmnsfile.
• -S, --search — Build a search index rather than the usual help text database. In this mode the output file (which must be named with the -o option) is a SQLite FTS5 database used by pmsearch(1).
• -v version, --version=version — Set output version. This options is deprecated, the only supported value is 2. (it's deprecated bestie, only 2 works, don't fight it 😭)
• -V, --verbose — Print verbose output.
• -?, --help — Display usage message and exit.

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🍓 FILES 🍓

• $PCP_VAR_DIR/pmns/* — default PMNS specification files

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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). Config queens, we love a variable ✨

For environment variables affecting PCP tools, see pmGetOptions(3). Go read it, it's giving lore 📚

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🧚 DEBUGGING OPTIONS 🧚

The -D or --debug option enables the output of additional diagnostics on stderr to help triage problems — although the information is sometimes cryptic and primarily intended to provide guidance for developers rather than for end-users. Like, it's not for us, it's for the girlies who wrote it 💀

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.

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

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

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Performance Co-Pilot made this, it's tagged PCP, and it lives at NEWHELP(1) — that's the whole sign-off bestie, stay hydrated, read your manpages, and slay 💖✨🎀🦋🌸💅🫶