NAME

       chkhelp - check performance metrics help text files

SYNOPSIS

       $PCP_BINADM_DIR/chkhelp [-eHiOp] [-n pmnsfile] [-v version] helpfile [metricname ...]

DESCRIPTION

       chkhelp  checks  the  consistency  of  Performance  Co-Pilot  help text files generated by
       newhelp(1) and used by Performance Metric Domain Agents (PMDAs).   The  checking  involves
       scanning the files, and optionally displaying selected entries.

       The  files  helpfile.dir  and  helpfile.pag  are created by newhelp(1), and are assumed to
       already exist.

       Without any options or metricname arguments,  chkhelp  silently  verifies  the  structural
       integrity of the help files.

       If   any  metricname  arguments  are  specified,  then  the  help  entries  for  only  the
       corresponding metrics will be processed.

       If no metricname arguments are specified, then at least one of the options -i or  -p  must
       be given.  The -i option causes entries for all instance domains to be processed (ignoring
       entries for performance metrics).  The -p option causes entries  for  all  metrics  to  be
       displayed (ignoring entries for instance domains).

       When  metric  entries  are  to be processed (via either the metricname arguments or the -p
       option or the -i option), the -O and -H options request the display of  the  one-line  and
       verbose help text respectively.  The default is -O.

       Although  historically  there  have  been multiple help text file formats, the only format
       currently supported using the -v option is version 2, and this is the  default  if  no  -v
       flag is provided.

       Normally chkhelp operates on the default Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS), however if
       the -n option is specified an alternative namespace is loaded from the file pmnsfile.

       The -e option provides an existence check where all of the specified metrics from the PMNS
       (note, not from helpfile) are scanned, and only the names of the metrics for which no help
       text exists are reported.  The -e option is mutually  exclusive  with  the  -i  and/or  -p
       options.

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).

SEE ALSO

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

DIAGNOSTICS

       There are all sorts of reasons a help database may be inconsistent,  the  most  likely  is
       that a performance metric in the database is not defined in the loaded PMNS.