PCP2XML(1)

✨ NAME ✨

pcp2xml — the pcp-to-xml metrics exporter, bestie 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

pcp2xml [-5CGHIjLmnrRvVxXz?]  [-4 action] [-8|-9 limit] [-a archive] [-A
align] [--archive-folio folio] [-b|-B space-scale] [-c config]
[--container container] [-D debug] [--daemonize] [-e derived] [-f
format] [-F outfile] [-h host] [-i instances] [-J rank] [-K spec] [-N
predicate] [-O origin] [-P|-0 precision] [-q|-Q count-scale] [-s
samples] [-S starttime] [-t interval] [-T endtime] [-y|-Y time-scale]
[-Z timezone] metricspec [...]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so. pcp2xml is a customizable performance metrics exporter tool that takes PCP stuff and turns it into XML. so iconic. Any available performance metric — live or archived, system and/or application — can be picked for exporting, either with command line arguments or with a configuration file. your choice, no cap 💖

pcp2xml is a close relative of pmrep(1). (like, siblings fr fr 🫶) So go read pmrep(1) for the metricspec description that pcp2xml accepts on the command line. And peep pmrep.conf(5) for the description of the pcp2xml.conf configuration file syntax. This page right here describes the pcp2xml-specific options and the configuration file differences versus pmrep.conf(5). Also pmrep(1) lists some usage examples, and most of those are applicable with pcp2xml as well. slay ✨

Only the command line options listed on this page are supported — other options available for pmrep(1) are not supported. periodt.

Options via environment values (see pmGetOptions(3)) override the corresponding built-in default values (if any). Configuration file options override the corresponding environment variables (if any). Command line options override the corresponding configuration file options (if any). It's giving hierarchy 👑

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🎀 CONFIGURATION FILE 🎀

pcp2xml uses a configuration file with syntax described in pmrep.conf(5). The following options are common with pmrep.conf: version, source, speclocal, derived, header, globals, samples, interval, type, type_prefer, ignore_incompat, names_change, instances, live_filter, rank, limit_filter, limit_filter_force, invert_filter, predicate, omit_flat, include_labels, precision, precision_force, count_scale, count_scale_force, space_scale, space_scale_force, time_scale, time_scale_force. The rest of the pmrep.conf options are recognized but ignored for compatibility. (they're just there, vibing 🙈)

🌟 pcp2xml specific options 🌟

• extended (boolean) — Write extended information about metrics. Corresponding command line option is -x. Defaults to no.
• everything (boolean) — Write everything known about metrics, including PCP internal IDs. Labels are, however, omitted for backward compatibility. Enable include_labels to include them as well. Corresponding command line option is -X. Defaults to no.

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

The available command line options are:

• -0 precision, --precision-force=precision — Like -P but this option will override per-metric specifications.
• -4 action, --names-change=action — Specify which action to take on receiving a metric names change event during sampling. These events occur when a PMDA discovers new metrics sometime after starting up, and informs running client tools like pcp2xml. Valid values for action are update (refresh metrics being sampled), ignore (do nothing — the default behaviour) and abort (exit the program if such an event occurs).
• -5, --ignore-unknown — Silently ignore any metric name that cannot be resolved. At least one metric must be found for the tool to start. (we need something, bestie 😭)
• -8 limit, --limit-filter=limit — Limit results to instances with values above/below limit. A positive integer will include instances with values at or above the limit in reporting. A negative integer will include instances with values at or below the limit in reporting. A value of zero performs no limit filtering. This option will not override possible per-metric specifications. See also -J and -N.
• -9 limit, --limit-filter-force=limit — Like -8 but this option will override per-metric specifications.
• -a archive, --archive=archive — Performance metric values are retrieved from the set of Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) archive files identified by the archive argument, which is a comma-separated list of names, each of which may be the base name of an archive or the name of a directory containing one or more archives.
• -A align, --align=align — Force the initial sample to be aligned on the boundary of a natural time unit align. Refer to PCPIntro(1) for a complete description of the syntax for align.
• --archive-folio=folio — Read metric source archives from the PCP archive folio created by tools like pmchart(1) or, less often, manually with mkaf(1).
• -b scale, --space-scale=scale — Unit/scale for space (byte) metrics, possible values include bytes, Kbytes, KB, Mbytes, MB, and so forth. This option will not override possible per-metric specifications. See also pmParseUnitsStr(3).
• -B scale, --space-scale-force=scale — Like -b but this option will override per-metric specifications.
• -c config, --config=config — Specify the config file or directory to use. In case config is a directory all files in it ending .conf will be included. The default is the first found of: ./pcp2xml.conf, $HOME/.pcp2xml.conf, $HOME/pcp/pcp2xml.conf, and $PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/pcp2xml.conf. For details, see the above section and pmrep.conf(5).
• --container=container — Fetch performance metrics from the specified container, either local or remote (see -h).
• -C, --check — Exit before reporting any values, but after parsing the configuration and metrics and printing possible headers. (a lil sneak peek, then dip 👋)
• --daemonize — Daemonise on startup.
• -e derived, --derived=derived — Specify derived performance metrics. If derived starts with a slash (/) or with a dot (.) it will be interpreted as a PCP derived metrics configuration file, otherwise it will be interpreted as comma- or semicolon-separated derived metric expressions. For complete description of derived metrics and PCP derived metrics configuration files see pmLoadDerivedConfig(3) and pmRegisterDerived(3). Alternatively, using pmrep.conf(5) configuration syntax allows defining derived metrics as part of metricsets.

In case of issues with derived metrics, review the aforementioned manual pages in detail and ensure all the required metrics are available, especially when using archives. Use -Dderive to see additional debug information about parsing derived metrics. 🔍

• -G, --no-globals — Do not include global metrics in reporting (see pmrep.conf(5)).
• -f format, --timestamp-format=format — Use the format string for formatting the timestamp. The format will be used with Python's datetime.strftime method which is mostly the same as that described in strftime(3). The default is %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.
• -F outfile, --output-file=outfile — Specify the output file outfile.
• -h host, --host=host — Fetch performance metrics from pmcd(1) on host, rather than from the default localhost. (go touch some remote grass 🌱)
• -H, --no-header — Do not print any headers.
• -i instances, --instances=instances — Retrieve and report only the specified metric instances. By default all instances, present and future, are reported.

Refer to pmrep(1) for complete description of this option.

• -I, --ignore-incompat — Ignore incompatible metrics. By default incompatible metrics (that is, their type is unsupported or they cannot be scaled as requested) will cause pcp2xml to terminate with an error message. With this option all incompatible metrics are silently omitted from reporting. This may be especially useful when requesting non-leaf nodes of the PMNS tree for reporting.
• -j, --live-filter — Perform instance live filtering. This allows capturing all named instances even if processes are restarted at some point (unlike without live filtering). Performing live filtering over a huge number of instances will add some internal overhead so a bit of user caution is advised. See also -n.
• -J rank, --rank=rank — Limit results to highest/lowest ranked instances of set-valued metrics. A positive integer will include highest valued instances in reporting. A negative integer will include lowest valued instances in reporting. A value of zero performs no ranking. Ranking does not imply sorting, see -6. See also -8.
• -K spec, --spec-local=spec — When fetching metrics from a local context (see -L), the -K option may be used to control the DSO PMDAs that should be made accessible. The spec argument conforms to the syntax described in pmSpecLocalPMDA(3). More than one -K option may be used.
• -L, --local-PMDA — Use a local context to collect metrics from DSO PMDAs on the local host without PMCD. See also -K.
• -m, --include-labels — Include PCP metric labels in the output. 🏷️
• -n, --invert-filter — Perform ranking before live filtering. By default instance live filtering (when requested, see -j) happens before instance ranking (when requested, see -J). With this option the logic is inverted and ranking happens before live filtering.
• -N predicate, --predicate=predicate — Specify a comma-separated list of predicate filter reference metrics. By default ranking (see -J) happens for each metric individually. With predicates, ranking is done only for the specified predicate metrics. When reporting, rest of the metrics sharing the same instance domain (see PCPIntro(1)) as the predicate will include only the highest/lowest ranking instances of the corresponding predicate. Ranking does not imply sorting, see -6.

So for example, using proc.memory.rss (resident memory size of process) as the predicate metric together with proc.io.total_bytes and mem.util.used as metrics to be reported, only the processes using most/least (as per -J) memory will be included when reporting total bytes written by processes. Since mem.util.used is a single-valued metric (thus not sharing the same instance domain as the process related metrics), it will be reported as usual.

• -O origin, --origin=origin — When reporting archived metrics, start reporting at origin within the time window (see -S and -T). Refer to PCPIntro(1) for a complete description of the syntax for origin.
• -P precision, --precision=precision — this is your glow-up for numbers that aren't whole 💅 it sets the precision used for numeric non-integer output values. Default vibe is 3 decimal places (when applicable, bestie). Heads up tho: this will not override any per-metric specifications that are already doing their thing.
• -q scale, --count-scale=scale — the unit/scale for count metrics, and the possible values are: count x 10^-1, count, count x 10, count x 10^2, and so on and so forth, all the way from 10^-8 to 10^7. (These values are currently space-sensitive.) Like -P, this will not override possible per-metric specifications. Also see pmParseUnitsStr(3) for the lore ✨
• -Q scale, --count-scale-force=scale — literally -q but it will override per-metric specifications. Forceful queen energy 👑
• -r, --raw — output raw metric values, do not convert cumulative counters to rates. This one will override possible per-metric specifications. No conversion, just vibes.
• -R, --raw-prefer — like -r but it will not override per-metric specifications. Softer, gentler, still raw 🌸
• -s samples, --samples=samples — the samples argument defines how many samples get retrieved and reported. If samples is 0, or if -s isn't specified at all, pcp2xml will sample and report continuously (that's real time mode, babe) or until the end of the set of PCP archives (that's archive mode). See also -T.
• -S starttime, --start=starttime — when you're reporting archived metrics, the report gets restricted to only those records logged at or after starttime. Go check PCPIntro(1) for the complete description of the syntax for starttime, bestie.
• -t interval, --interval=interval — sets the reporting interval to something other than the default 1 second. The interval argument follows the syntax described in PCPIntro(1), and in the simplest form it may just be an unsigned integer (in which case the implied units are seconds). See also the -T option.
• -T endtime, --finish=endtime — when reporting archived metrics, the report gets restricted to those records logged before or at endtime. Refer to PCPIntro(1) for a complete description of the syntax for endtime.

When this is used to define the runtime before pcp2xml will exit: if no samples is given (peep -s) then the number of reported samples depends on interval (peep -t). If samples is given then interval will be adjusted to allow reporting of samples during runtime. And in case all of -T, -s, and -t are given, endtime determines the actual time pcp2xml will run. It's giving main character decision-maker 😤

• -v, --omit-flat — report only set-valued metrics with instances (like disk.dev.read) and omit single-valued ``flat'' metrics without instances (like kernel.all.sysfork). See -i and -I.
• -V, --version — display the version number and exit. Short and sweet, iconic.
• -x, --with-extended — write extended information. That's it, that's the option ✨
• -X, --with-everything — write everything known about metrics, including PCP internal IDs. Labels are, however, omitted for backward compatibility — so use -m to include them as well. Go big or go home 🎀
• -y scale, --time-scale=scale — unit/scale for time metrics, possible values include nanosec, ns, microsec, us, millisec, ms, and so forth up to hour, hr. This option will not override possible per-metric specifications. See also pmParseUnitsStr(3).
• -Y scale, --time-scale-force=scale — like -y but this option will override per-metric specifications. Again: forceful. Again: queen.
• -z, --hostzone — use the local timezone of the host that is the source of the performance metrics, as identified by either the -h or the -a options. The default is to use the timezone of the local host. Timezone tourism fr fr 🌍
• -Z timezone, --timezone=timezone — use timezone for the date and time. Timezone is in the format of the environment variable TZ as described in environ(7). Note that when including a timezone string in output, ISO 8601-style UTC offsets are used (so something like -Z EST+5 will become UTC-5). Math is mathing 😌
• -?, --help — display the usage message and exit. Your little rescue ladder 🪜

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🗂️ FILES 🗂️

• pcp2xml.conf — the pcp2xml configuration file (see -c)
• $PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/pmrep/*.conf — system provided default pmrep configuration 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).

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

Of particular note, PCP_DISCRETE_ONCE can be set to ensure that discrete metric values are reported only once, unless they change at some point. One and done, bestie 💅

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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.

Heads up: cryptic dev-mode output ahead. It's not always cute, but it is helpful for triage.

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

PCPIntro(1), mkaf(1), pcp(1), pcp2elasticsearch(1), pcp2graphite(1), pcp2influxdb(1), pcp2json(1), pcp2spark(1), pcp2xlsx(1), pcp2zabbix(1), pmcd(1), pminfo(1), pmrep(1), pmGetOptions(3), pmLoadDerivedConfig(3), pmParseUnitsStr(3), pmRegisterDerived(3), pmSpecLocalPMDA(3), LOGARCHIVE(5), pcp.conf(5), pmrep.conf(5), PMNS(5) and environ(7).

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and that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 this one's from Performance Co-Pilot, filed under PCP, and it lives at PCP2XML(1) in section 1. go read it, use it, slay with it. periodt ✨💖