pmval(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | CAVEATS | PCP ENVIRONMENT | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

PMVAL(1)                 General Commands Manual                PMVAL(1)

NAME         top

       pmval, pmevent - arbitrary performance metrics value dumper

SYNOPSIS         top

       pmval [-dgLrvVXz?]  [-a archive] [-A align] [--container=name]
       [--derived=file] [-f N] [-h host] [-i instances] [-K spec] [-n
       pmnsfile] [-O offset] [-p port] [-s samples] [-S starttime] [-t
       interval] [-T endtime] [-U archive] [-w width] [-x pattern] [-Z
       timezone] metricname

       pmevent ...

DESCRIPTION         top

       pmval prints current or archived values for the nominated
       performance metric.  The metric of interest is named in the
       metricname argument, subject to instance qualification with the
       -i flag as described below.

       Unless directed to another host by the -h option, or to a set of
       archives by the -a or -U options, pmval will contact the
       Performance Metrics Collector Daemon (PMCD) on the local host to
       obtain the required information.

       The metricname argument may also be given in the metric
       specification syntax, as described in PCPIntro(1), where the
       source, metric and instance may all be included in the
       metricname, e.g. thathost:kernel.all.load["1 minute"].  When this
       format is used, none of the -h or -a or -U options may be
       specified.

       When using the metric specification syntax, the ``hostname'' @ is
       treated specially and causes pmval to use a local context to
       collect metrics from PMDAs on the local host without PMCD.  Only
       some metrics are available in this mode.

       When processing a set of archives, pmval may relinquish its own
       timing control, and operate under the control of a a pmtime(1)
       process that uses a GUI dialog to provide timing control.  In
       this case, either the -g option should be used to start pmval as
       the sole client of a new pmtime(1) instance, or -p should be used
       to attach pmval to an existing pmtime(1) instance via the IPC
       channel identified by the port argument.

       The -S, -T, -O and -A options may be used to define a time window
       to restrict the samples retrieved, set an initial origin within
       the time window, or specify a ``natural'' alignment of the sample
       times; refer to PCPIntro(1) for a complete description of these
       options.

       The output from pmval is directed to standard output.  The
       following symbols may occasionally appear, in place of a metric
       value, in pmval output:  A question mark symbol (?) indicates
       that a value is no longer available for that metric instance.  An
       exclamation mark (!)  indicates that a 64-bit counter wrapped
       during the sample.

       pmevent is an alias for pmval.

OPTIONS         top

       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.  See also
            -U.

       -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.

       --container=container
            Specify an individual container to be queried.

       -d, --delay
            When replaying from an archive, this option requests that
            the prevailing real-time delay be applied between samples
            (see -t) to effect a pause, rather than the default
            behaviour of replaying at full speed.

       --derived=file
            Load derived metric definitions from file.

       -f precision, --precision=precision
            Numbers are reported in ``fixed point'' notation, rather
            than the default scientific notation, using precision digits
            for precision.  Each number will be up to the column width
            determined by the default heuristics, else the -w option if
            specified, and include precision digits after the decimal
            point.  So, the options -f 3 -w 8 would produce numbers of
            the form 9999.999.  A value of zero for precision omits the
            decimal point and any fractional digits.

       -g, --guimode
            Start pmval as the sole client of a new pmtime(1) server
            process for replay of archived performance data using the
            pmtime(1) graphical user interface.

       -h host, --host=host
            Fetch performance metrics from pmcd(1) on host, rather than
            from the default localhost.

       -i instances, --instances=instances
            Specify a list of one or more names of instances for the
            nominated performance metric - just these instances will be
            retrieved and reported (the default is to report all
            instances).  The list must be a single argument, with
            elements of the list separated by commas and/or white space.

            The instance name may be quoted with single (') or double
            (") quotes for those cases where the instance name contains
            white space or commas.

            Multiple -i options are allowed as an alternative way of
            specifying more than one instance of interest.

            As an example, the following are all equivalent:

                 $ pmval -i "'1 minute','5 minute'" kernel.all.load
                 $ pmval -i '"1 minute","5 minute"' kernel.all.load
                 $ pmval -i "'1 minute' '5 minute'" kernel.all.load
                 $ pmval -i "'1 minute'" -i "'5 minute'" kernel.all.load
                 $ pmval 'localhost:kernel.all.load["1 minute","5 minute"]'

       -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.

       -n pmnsfile, --namespace=pmnsfile
            Load an alternative Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS(5))
            from the file pmnsfile.

       -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 port, --guiport=port
            Attach pmval to an existing pmtime(1) time control process
            instance via the IPC channel identified by the port
            argument.  This option is normally only used by other tools,
            e.g.  pmchart(1), when they launch pmval with synchronized
            time control.

       -r, --raw
            Print raw values for cumulative counter metrics.  Normally
            cumulative counter metrics are converted to rates.  For
            example, disk transfers are reported as number of disk
            transfers per second during the preceding sample interval,
            rather than the raw value of number of disk transfers since
            the machine was booted.  If you specify this option, the raw
            metric values are printed.

       -s samples, --samples=samples
            The samples argument defines the number of samples to be
            retrieved and reported.  If samples is 0 or -s is not
            specified, pmval will sample and report continuously (in
            real time mode) or until the end of the set of PCP archives
            (in archive mode).

       -S starttime, --start=starttime
            When reporting archived metrics, the report will be
            restricted to those records logged at or after starttime.
            Refer to PCPIntro(1) for a complete description of the
            syntax for starttime.

       -t interval, --interval=interval
            Set 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 may be an
            unsigned integer (the implied units in this case are
            seconds).

       -T endtime, --finish=endtime
            When reporting archived metrics, the report will be
            restricted to those records logged before or at endtime.
            Refer to PCPIntro(1) for a complete description of the
            syntax for endtime.

       -U archive, --nointerp=archive
            Performance metric values are retrieved from the Performance
            Co-Pilot (PCP) archive.  The argument 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.  However, unlike -a every recorded value in the
            archive for the selected metric and instances is reported
            (so no interpolation mode, and the sample interval (-t
            option) is ignored.  See also -a.

            At most one of the options -a and -U may be specified.

       -v, --verbose
            Enable verbose mode.

       -V, --version
            Display version number and exit.

       -w width, --width=width
            Set the width of each column of output to be width columns.
            If not specified columns are wide enough to accommodate the
            largest value of the type being printed.

       -x pattern, --filter=pattern
            The given pattern is sent to the performance metric domain
            agent for the requested metricname before any values are
            requested.  This serves two purposes.  Firstly, it provides
            a mechanism for server-side event filtering that is
            customisable for individual event streams.  In addition,
            some performance metrics domain agents also use the PMCD
            store mechanism to provide a basic security model (e.g. for
            sensitive log files, only a client host with pmStore(3)
            access would be able to access the event stream).

            As pattern may be processed by regcomp(3) it should be a
            non-empty string.  Use . (dot) for a “match all” pattern.

       -X, --timestamp
            When replaying from an archive, this option requests that
            the timestamp be reported with additional date information
            and increased precision (microseconds with a single -X,
            nanoseconds with an additional -X), for example
            Sat May 22 20:32:20.971633 2021 instead of the default
            format, for example 20:32:20.971.

       -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 or the -U options.  The default is to use the timezone of
            the local host.

       -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).

       -?, --help
            Display usage message and exit.

CAVEATS         top

       By default, pmval attempts to display non-integer numeric values
       in a way that does not distort the inherent precision (rarely
       more than 4 significant digits), and tries to maintain a tabular
       format in the output.  These goals are sometimes in conflict.

       In the absence of the -f option (described above), the following
       table describes the formats used for different ranges of numeric
       values for any metric that is of type PM_TYPE_FLOAT or
       PM_TYPE_DOUBLE, or any metric that has the semantics of a counter
       (for which pmval reports the rate converted value):
                     ┌───────────┬──────────────────────┐
                     │  Format   │     Value Range      │
                     ├───────────┼──────────────────────┤
                     │         ! │ No values available  │
                     │ 9.999E-99 │ < 0.1                │
                     │    0.0    │ 0                    │
                     │    9.9999 │ > 0 and <= 0.9999    │
                     │    9.999  │ > 0.9999 and < 9.999 │
                     │   99.99   │ > 9.999 and < 99.99  │
                     │  999.9    │ > 99.99 and < 999.9  │
                     │ 9999.     │ > 999.9 and < 9999   │
                     │ 9.999E+99 │ > 9999               │
                     └───────────┴──────────────────────┘

PCP ENVIRONMENT         top

       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).

SEE ALSO         top

       PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmchart(1), pmdumptext(1), pminfo(1),
       pmlogdump(1), pmlogger(1), pmrep(1), pmtime(1), PMAPI(3),
       pmSpecLocalPMDA(3), pmStore(3), pcp.conf(5), pcp.env(5) and
       PMNS(5).

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the PCP (Performance Co-Pilot) project.
       Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://www.pcp.io/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this manual
       page, send it to pcp@groups.io.  This page was obtained from the
       project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/performancecopilot/pcp.git⟩ on 2024-06-14.
       (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found
       in the repository was 2024-06-14.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

Performance Co-Pilot               PCP                          PMVAL(1)

Pages that refer to this page: pcpintro(1)pmafm(1)pmcd(1)pmchart(1)pmclient(1)pmdabash(1)pmdalogger(1)pmdapipe(1)pmdasystemd(1)pmie(1)pminfo(1)pmlogsummary(1)pmrep(1)pmstore(1)pmtime(1)pmregisterderived(3)