PMDATRIVIAL(1)

💖 pmdatrivial — the trivially iconic performance metrics domain agent 💖

okay bestie, welcome to pmdatrivial(1), a page from the General Commands Manual, and honestly? she's small, she's cute, she's the blueprint. let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

pmdatrivial — a trivial performance metrics domain agent, aka a PMDA. that's it. that's the whole name. she's simple and she knows it 💅

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

$PCP_PMDAS_DIR/trivial/pmdatrivial [-D debug] [-d domain] [-l logfile]
[-U username]

like look at her. four options. no notes. 🌸

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👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

so pmdatrivial is literally the simplest possible Performance Metrics Domain Agent, and she exports exactly one performance metric: the time in seconds since the 1st of January, 1970. that's her whole thing. one metric. main character energy, minimal effort, ate 💅

the trivial PMDA ships as source code and she was designed to be an aid for PMDA developers — so if you're building your own agent, she's your study buddy, not your competition 🧚

here's a lil rundown of the pmdatrivial command line options, bestie:

• -d — this one is absolutely crucial, no cap. the performance metrics domain number you put here has to be unique and consistent. meaning: domain should be different for every PMDA on the one host, and the same domain number should be used for the same PMDA on all hosts. get this wrong and it's giving chaos 😭
• -l — where the log file lives. by default, a log file named trivial.log gets written in the current directory of pmcd(1) when pmdatrivial is started, i.e. $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd. and if the log file cannot be created or is not writable? output goes to the standard error instead. she improvises 💖
• -U — the user account to run the agent under. the default is the unprivileged "pcp" account in current versions of PCP, but in older versions the superuser account ("root") was used by default. glow-up era vs. old era, iykyk ✨

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🎀 INSTALLATION 🎀

if you want access to the names, help text and values for the trivial performance metrics, do the following as root:

# cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/trivial
# ./Install

and if you want to undo the installation (we've all been there, no shame), do this as root:

# cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/trivial
# ./Remove

heads up bestie: pmdatrivial is launched by pmcd(1) and should never be executed directly. like, ever. the Install and Remove scripts notify pmcd(1) when the agent is installed or removed — they handle the whole situationship for you 🫶

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🌈 FILES 🌈

• $PCP_PMCDCONF_PATH — command line options used to launch pmdatrivial
• $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/trivial/help — default help text file for the trivial metrics
• $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/trivial/Install — installation script for the pmdatrivial agent
• $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/trivial/Remove — undo installation script for the pmdatrivial agent
• $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd/trivial.log — default log file for error messages and other information from pmdatrivial

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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. and the $PCP_CONF variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration file, as described in pcp.conf(5). very configurable, very demure 🌸

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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. it's giving "for the girlies who write the code" 💀

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 your list, bestie 📋✨

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💅 SEE ALSO 💅

PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmdasample(1), pmdasimple(1), pmdatxmon(1) and PMDA(3). the whole friend group, obsessed with them 🫶

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and that's the page, babe! this one came to you from Performance Co-Pilot, the PCP girlies, under the title PMDATRIVIAL(1). stay trivial, stay iconic, and always check your domain numbers 💖🎀✨