PMINFO(1)

💖 PMINFO(1) 💖

okay bestie, this is the pminfo(1) page, straight out of the General Commands Manual — and no cap, it's actually lowkey iconic once you know what it's saying. sit down, grab a snack, we're doing this 💅

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🌸 NAME 🌸

pminfo — display information about performance metrics

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

pminfo [-defFIlLmMstTvVxz1?]  [-a archive] [-b batchsize] [-c dmfile]
[--container name] [-D debug] [-h hostname] [-K spec] [-[n|N] pmnsfile]
[-O time] [-r dmname=expr] [-Z timezone] [metricname | pmid | indom]...

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

pminfo displays various types of information about performance metrics available through the facilities of the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP).

The metrics of interest are named in the metricname arguments. If metricname is a non-leaf node in the PMNS, then pminfo will recursively descend the PMNS and report on all leaf nodes. If no metricname argument is given, the root of the PMNS is used.

If the metricname argument is in numeric dotted notation, it is interpreted as either a 3-dotted pmid (metric identifier — domain, cluster, item numbers) or a 2-dotted indom (instance domain identifier — domain, serial number). In the pmid case, a reverse PMID-to-name lookup is performed, and in the indom case, the instance domain is reported directly. This latter mode can be used to report the instance domain ``one line'' and long form help text summaries.

Unless directed to another host by the -h option, by default pminfo will contact the Performance Metrics Collector Daemon (PMCD) on the local host. The connection to a PMCD is only required if pminfo requires distributed PMNS information, and/or meta-data describing metrics, and/or metric values, and/or help text.

The -a option causes pminfo to use the specified set of archives rather than connecting to a PMCD.

The -L option causes pminfo to use a local context to collect metrics from PMDAs on the local host without PMCD. Only some metrics are available in this mode.

bestie listen. The -a, -h and -L options are mutually exclusive. pick ONE. not two. one. 🫶

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

The available command line options are:

• -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.
• -b, --batch — This option may be used to define the maximum number of metrics to be fetched in a single request for the -f and -v options. The default value for batchsize is 128.
• -c dmfile, --derived=dmfile — The dmfile argument specifies a file that contains derived metric definitions in the format described for pmLoadDerivedConfig(3). The -c option provides a way to load global derived metric definitions that is an alternative to the more generic use of the PCP_DERIVED_CONFIG environment variable as described in PCPIntro(1). Using the -c option and the PCP_DERIVED_CONFIG environment variable to specify the same configuration is a bad idea, so choose one or the other method. See also the -r option below.
• --container=container — Specify an individual container to be queried.
• -d, --desc — Metric descriptions detailing the PMID, data type, data semantics, units, scale and associated instance domain.
• -1, --desc-oneline — Same as -d except the metric descriptions are formatted one line per metric with tab (\t) separated fields (without field name text). This format is suitable for scripts consuming the output from pminfo.
• -e, --metadata-errors — Same as -v but do not report metrics that return no values, so any metrics reported are ones that have either persistent errors or inconsistent metadata.
• -f, --fetch — Fetch and print values for all instances. When fetching from a set of archives, only those instances present in the first archive record for a metric will be displayed; see also the -O option, else use pmlogdump(1) which may be a better tool for examining archives.
• -F, --fetchall — Same as -f but try harder to fetch instances for metrics which have non-enumerable instance domains (e.g. metrics in the ``proc'' subtree of the default PMNS on some platforms).
• -h host, --host=host — Fetch performance metrics from pmcd(1) on host, rather than from the default localhost.
• -I, --fullindom — Print the InDom in verbose mode.
• -K spec, --spec-local=spec — When using the -L option to fetch metrics from a local context, this option controls 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, --labels — Print label sets associated with metrics and instances. Labels are optional metric metadata described in detail in pmLookupLabels(3).
• -L, --local-PMDA — Use a local context to collect metrics from DSO PMDAs on the local host without PMCD. See also -K.
• -m, --pmid — Print the PMID in terse mode.
• -M, --fullpmid — Print the PMID in verbose mode.
• -n pmnsfile, --namespace=pmnsfile — Normally pminfo operates on the distributed Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS), however if the -n option is specified an alternative local PMNS is loaded from the file pmnsfile.
• -N pmnsfile, --uniqnames=pmnsfile — The -N option supports the same function as -n, except for the handling of duplicate names for the same Performance Metric Identifier (PMID) in pmnsfile — duplicate names are allowed with -n but they are not allowed with -N.
• -O time, --origin=time — When used in conjunction with an archive source of metrics and the options -f/, the time argument defines a time origin at which the metrics should be fetched from the set of archives. Refer to PCPIntro(1) for a complete description of this option, and the syntax for the time argument.
• -r dmname=expr, --register=dmname=expr — Register a per-context derived metric using pmAddDerivedMetric(3). dmname is the name of the new derived metric, and expr is the expression for the derived metric, following the syntax described in pmRegisterDerived(3). Multiple -r options are allowed. See also the -c option above.
• -s, --series — Print time series identifiers associated with metrics, instances and sources. These unique identifiers are calculated from intrinsic (non-optional) labels and other metric metadata associated with each PMAPI context (sources), metrics and instances. Archive, local context or pmcd(1) connections for the same host all produce the same source identifier. See also pmLookupLabels(3) and the -l option.
• -t, --oneline — Print the ``one line'' help summary, if available.
• -T, --helptext — Print the help text, if available.
• -v, --verify — Verify mode in which descriptions and values are retrieved, but only error conditions are reported. This option silently disables any output from the options -f/--fetch, -l/--labels, -I/--fullindom, -M/--fullpmid, -m/--pmid, -t/--oneline and -T/--helptext.
• -V, --version — Display version number and exit.
• -x, --events — Like the -f/--fetch option, but with the additional functionality that if a value is processed that is of type PM_TYPE_EVENT or PM_TYPE_HIGHRES_EVENT, then the event records will be unpacked and the details of each event record reported.
• -z, --hostzone — Change the reporting timezone to the local timezone at the host that is the source of the performance metrics, as identified via either the -h or -a options.
• -Z timezone, --timezone=timezone — By default, pminfo reports the time of day according to the local timezone on the system where pminfo is run. The -Z option changes the timezone to timezone in the format of the environment variable TZ as described in environ(7).
• -?, --help — Display usage message and exit.

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📁 FILES 📁

• $PCP_VAR_DIR/pmns/* — default local 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).

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 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.

Debugging options specific to pminfo are as follows:

• appl4 — report batch downsizing if batchsize would exceed maximum PDU size
• appl5 — dump PDU stats at end if context is a host

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmchart(1), pmlogdump(1), pmprobe(1), pmrep(1), pmval(1), PMAPI(3), pmAddDerivedMetric(3), pmGetOptions(3), pmLoadDerivedConfig(3), pmLookupLabels(3), pmRegisterDerived(3), pmSpecLocalPMDA(3), PMNS(5), pcp.conf(5) and pcp.env(5).

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and that's the whole page, bestie 💖

this lil beauty comes to you from Performance Co-Pilot, version PCP, and it IS the PMINFO(1) page — go forth and info some metrics, you absolute main character 🫶✨