Provided by: rrdtool_1.7.0-1build1_amd64 
NAME
rrdgraph_rpn - About RPN Math in rrdtool graph
SYNOPSIS
RPN expression:=vname|operator|value[,RPN expression]
DESCRIPTION
If you have ever used a traditional HP calculator you already know RPN (Reverse Polish Notation). The
idea behind RPN is that you have a stack and push your data onto this stack. Whenever you execute an
operation, it takes as many elements from the stack as needed. Pushing is done implicitly, so whenever
you specify a number or a variable, it gets pushed onto the stack automatically.
At the end of the calculation there should be one and only one value left on the stack. This is the
outcome of the function and this is what is put into the vname. For CDEF instructions, the stack is
processed for each data point on the graph. VDEF instructions work on an entire data set in one run.
Note, that currently VDEF instructions only support a limited list of functions.
Example: "VDEF:maximum=mydata,MAXIMUM"
This will set variable "maximum" which you now can use in the rest of your RRD script.
Example: "CDEF:mydatabits=mydata,8,*"
This means: push variable mydata, push the number 8, execute the operator *. The operator needs two
elements and uses those to return one value. This value is then stored in mydatabits. As you may have
guessed, this instruction means nothing more than mydatabits = mydata * 8. The real power of RPN lies in
the fact that it is always clear in which order to process the input. For expressions like "a = b + 3 *
5" you need to multiply 3 with 5 first before you add b to get a. However, with parentheses you could
change this order: "a = (b + 3) * 5". In RPN, you would do "a = b, 3, +, 5, *" without the need for
parentheses.
OPERATORS
Boolean operators
LT, LE, GT, GE, EQ, NE
Less than, Less or equal, Greater than, Greater or equal, Equal, Not equal all pop two elements from
the stack, compare them for the selected condition and return 1 for true or 0 for false. Comparing an
unknown or an infinite value will result in unknown returned ... which will also be treated as false
by the IF call.
UN, ISINF
Pop one element from the stack, compare this to unknown respectively to positive or negative
infinity. Returns 1 for true or 0 for false.
then,else,condition,IF
Pops three elements from the stack. If the element popped last is 0 (false), the value popped first
is pushed back onto the stack, otherwise the value popped second is pushed back. This does, indeed,
mean that any value other than 0 is considered to be true.
Example: "A,B,C,IF" should be read as "if (A) then (B) else (C)"
Comparing values
MIN, MAX
Pops two elements from the stack and returns the smaller or larger, respectively. Note that infinite
is larger than anything else. If one of the input numbers is unknown then the result of the
operation will be unknown too.
MINNAN, MAXNAN
NAN-safe version of MIN and MAX. If one of the input numbers is unknown then the result of the
operation will be the other one. If both are unknown, then the result of the operation is unknown.
lower-limit,upper-limit,LIMIT
Pops two elements from the stack and uses them to define a range. Then it pops another element and
if it falls inside the range, it is pushed back. If not, an unknown is pushed.
The range defined includes the two boundaries (so: a number equal to one of the boundaries will be
pushed back). If any of the three numbers involved is either unknown or infinite this function will
always return an unknown
Example: "CDEF:a=alpha,0,100,LIMIT" will return unknown if alpha is lower than 0 or if it is higher
than 100.
Arithmetics
+, -, *, /, %
Add, subtract, multiply, divide, modulo
ADDNAN
NAN-safe addition. If one parameter is NAN/UNKNOWN it'll be treated as zero. If both parameters are
NAN/UNKNOWN, NAN/UNKNOWN will be returned.
value,power,POW
Raise value to the power of power.
SIN, COS, LOG, EXP, SQRT
Sine and cosine (input in radians), log and exp (natural logarithm), square root.
ATAN
Arctangent (output in radians).
ATAN2
Arctangent of y,x components (output in radians). This pops one element from the stack, the x
(cosine) component, and then a second, which is the y (sine) component. It then pushes the
arctangent of their ratio, resolving the ambiguity between quadrants.
Example: "CDEF:angle=Y,X,ATAN2,RAD2DEG" will convert "X,Y" components into an angle in degrees.
FLOOR, CEIL
Round down or up to the nearest integer.
DEG2RAD, RAD2DEG
Convert angle in degrees to radians, or radians to degrees.
ABS
Take the absolute value.
Set Operations
count,SORT
Pop one element from the stack. This is the count of items to be sorted. The top count of the
remaining elements are then sorted from the smallest to the largest, in place on the stack.
4,3,22.1,1,4,SORT -> 1,3,4,22.1
count,REV
Reverse the number
Example: "CDEF:x=v1,v2,v3,v4,v5,v6,6,SORT,POP,5,REV,POP,+,+,+,4,/" will compute the average of the
values v1 to v6 after removing the smallest and largest.
count,AVG
Pop one element (count) from the stack. Now pop count elements and build the average, ignoring all
UNKNOWN values in the process.
Example: "CDEF:x=a,b,c,d,4,AVG"
count,SMIN and count,SMAX
Pop one element (count) from the stack. Now pop count elements and push the minimum/maximum back onto
the stack.
Example: "CDEF:x=a,b,c,d,4,AVG"
count,MEDIAN
pop one element (count) from the stack. Now pop count elements and find the median, ignoring all
UNKNOWN values in the process. If there are an even number of non-UNKNOWN values, the average of the
middle two will be pushed on the stack.
Example: "CDEF:x=a,b,c,d,4,MEDIAN"
count,STDEV
pop one element (count) from the stack. Now pop count elements and calculate the standard deviation
over these values (ignoring any NAN values). Push the result back on to the stack.
Example: "CDEF:x=a,b,c,d,4,STDEV"
percent,count,PERCENT
pop two elements (count,percent) from the stack. Now pop count element, order them by size (while the
smalles elements are -INF, the largest are INF and NaN is larger than -INF but smaller than anything
else. No pick the element from the ordered list where percent of the elements are equal then the one
picked. Push the result back on to the stack.
Example: "CDEF:x=a,b,c,d,95,4,PERCENT"
count,TREND, TRENDNAN
Create a "sliding window" average of another data series.
Usage: CDEF:smoothed=x,1800,TREND
This will create a half-hour (1800 second) sliding window average of x. The average is essentially
computed as shown here:
+---!---!---!---!---!---!---!---!--->
now
delay t0
<--------------->
delay t1
<--------------->
delay t2
<--------------->
Value at sample (t0) will be the average between (t0-delay) and (t0)
Value at sample (t1) will be the average between (t1-delay) and (t1)
Value at sample (t2) will be the average between (t2-delay) and (t2)
TRENDNAN is - in contrast to TREND - NAN-safe. If you use TREND and one source value is NAN the
complete sliding window is affected. The TRENDNAN operation ignores all NAN-values in a sliding
window and computes the average of the remaining values.
PREDICT, PREDICTSIGMA, PREDICTPERC
Create a "sliding window" average/sigma/percentil of another data series, that also shifts the data
series by given amounts of time as well
Usage - explicit stating shifts: "CDEF:predict=<shift n>,...,<shift 1>,n,<window>,x,PREDICT"
"CDEF:sigma=<shift n>,...,<shift 1>,n,<window>,x,PREDICTSIGMA" "CDEF:perc=<shift n>,...,<shift
1>,n,<window>,<percentil>,x,PREDICTPERC"
Usage - shifts defined as a base shift and a number of time this is applied "CDEF:predict=<shift
multiplier>,-n,<window>,x,PREDICT" "CDEF:sigma=<shift multiplier>,-n,<window>,x,PREDICTSIGMA"
"CDEF:sigma=<shift multiplier>,-n,<window>,<percentil>,x,PREDICTPERC"
Example: CDEF:predict=172800,86400,2,1800,x,PREDICT
This will create a half-hour (1800 second) sliding window average/sigma of x, that average is
essentially computed as shown here:
+---!---!---!---!---!---!---!---!---!---!---!---!---!---!---!---!---!--->
now
shift 1 t0
<----------------------->
window
<--------------->
shift 2
<----------------------------------------------->
window
<--------------->
shift 1 t1
<----------------------->
window
<--------------->
shift 2
<----------------------------------------------->
window
<--------------->
Value at sample (t0) will be the average between (t0-shift1-window) and (t0-shift1)
and between (t0-shift2-window) and (t0-shift2)
Value at sample (t1) will be the average between (t1-shift1-window) and (t1-shift1)
and between (t1-shift2-window) and (t1-shift2)
The function is by design NAN-safe. This also allows for extrapolation into the future (say a few
days) - you may need to define the data series whit the optional start= parameter, so that the source
data series has enough data to provide prediction also at the beginning of a graph...
The percentile can be between [-100:+100]. The positive percentiles interpolates between values
while the negative will take the closest.
Example: you run 7 shifts with a window of 1800seconds. Assuming that the rrd-file has a step size of
300 seconds this means we have to do the percentile calculation based on a max of 42 distinct values
(less if you got NAN). that means that in the best case you get a step rate between values of 2.4
percent. so if you ask for the 99th percentile, then you would need to look at the 41.59th value. As
we only have integers, either the 41st or the 42nd value.
With the positive percentile a linear interpolation between the 2 values is done to get the effective
value.
The negative returns the closest value distance wise - so in the above case 42nd value, which is
effectively returning the Percentile100 or the max of the previous 7 days in the window.
Here an example, that will create a 10 day graph that also shows the prediction 3 days into the
future with its uncertainty value (as defined by avg+-4*sigma) This also shows if the prediction is
exceeded at a certain point.
rrdtool graph image.png --imgformat=PNG \
--start=-7days --end=+3days --width=1000 --height=200 --alt-autoscale-max \
DEF:value=value.rrd:value:AVERAGE:start=-14days \
LINE1:value#ff0000:value \
CDEF:predict=86400,-7,1800,value,PREDICT \
CDEF:sigma=86400,-7,1800,value,PREDICTSIGMA \
CDEF:upper=predict,sigma,3,*,+ \
CDEF:lower=predict,sigma,3,*,- \
LINE1:predict#00ff00:prediction \
LINE1:upper#0000ff:upper\ certainty\ limit \
LINE1:lower#0000ff:lower\ certainty\ limit \
CDEF:exceeds=value,UN,0,value,lower,upper,LIMIT,UN,IF \
TICK:exceeds#aa000080:1 \
CDEF:perc95=86400,-7,1800,95,value,PREDICTPERC \
LINE1:perc95#ffff00:95th_percentile
Note: Experience has shown that a factor between 3 and 5 to scale sigma is a good discriminator to
detect abnormal behavior. This obviously depends also on the type of data and how "noisy" the data
series is.
Also Note the explicit use of start= in the CDEF - this is necessary to load all the necessary data
(even if it is not displayed)
This prediction can only be used for short term extrapolations - say a few days into the future.
Special values
UNKN
Pushes an unknown value on the stack
INF, NEGINF
Pushes a positive or negative infinite value on the stack. When such a value is graphed, it appears
at the top or bottom of the graph, no matter what the actual value on the y-axis is.
PREV
Pushes an unknown value if this is the first value of a data set or otherwise the result of this CDEF
at the previous time step. This allows you to do calculations across the data. This function cannot
be used in VDEF instructions.
PREV(vname)
Pushes an unknown value if this is the first value of a data set or otherwise the result of the vname
variable at the previous time step. This allows you to do calculations across the data. This function
cannot be used in VDEF instructions.
COUNT
Pushes the number 1 if this is the first value of the data set, the number 2 if it is the second, and
so on. This special value allows you to make calculations based on the position of the value within
the data set. This function cannot be used in VDEF instructions.
Time
Time inside RRDtool is measured in seconds since the epoch. The epoch is defined to be
"Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 UTC 1970".
NOW
Pushes the current time on the stack.
STEPWIDTH
The with of the current step in seconds. You can use this to go back from rate based presentations to
absolute numbers
CDEF:abs=rate,STEPWIDTH,*,PREV,ADDNAN
NEWDAY,NEWWEEK,NEWMONTH,NEWYEAR
These three operators will return 1.0 whenever a step is the first of the given period. The periods
are determined according to the local timezone AND the "LC_TIME" settings.
CDEF:mtotal=rate,STEPWIDTH,*,NEWMONTH,0,PREV,IF,ADDNAN
TIME
Pushes the time the currently processed value was taken at onto the stack.
LTIME
Takes the time as defined by TIME, applies the time zone offset valid at that time including daylight
saving time if your OS supports it, and pushes the result on the stack. There is an elaborate
example in the examples section below on how to use this.
Processing the stack directly
DUP, POP, EXC
Duplicate the top element, remove the top element, exchange the two top elements.
DEPTH
pushes the current depth of the stack onto the stack
a,b,DEPTH -> a,b,2
n,COPY
push a copy of the top n elements onto the stack
a,b,c,d,2,COPY => a,b,c,d,c,d
n,INDEX
push the nth element onto the stack.
a,b,c,d,3,INDEX -> a,b,c,d,b
n,m,ROLL
rotate the top n elements of the stack by m
a,b,c,d,3,1,ROLL => a,d,b,c
a,b,c,d,3,-1,ROLL => a,c,d,b
VARIABLES
These operators work only on VDEF statements. Note that currently ONLY these work for VDEF.
MAXIMUM, MINIMUM, AVERAGE
Return the corresponding value, MAXIMUM and MINIMUM also return the first occurrence of that value in
the time component.
Example: "VDEF:avg=mydata,AVERAGE"
STDEV
Returns the standard deviation of the values.
Example: "VDEF:stdev=mydata,STDEV"
LAST, FIRST
Return the last/first non-nan or infinite value for the selected data stream, including its
timestamp.
Example: "VDEF:first=mydata,FIRST"
TOTAL
Returns the rate from each defined time slot multiplied with the step size. This can, for instance,
return total bytes transferred when you have logged bytes per second. The time component returns the
number of seconds.
Example: "VDEF:total=mydata,TOTAL"
PERCENT, PERCENTNAN
This should follow a DEF or CDEF vname. The vname is popped, another number is popped which is a
certain percentage (0..100). The data set is then sorted and the value returned is chosen such that
percentage percent of the values is lower or equal than the result. For PERCENTNAN Unknown values
are ignored, but for PERCENT Unknown values are considered lower than any finite number for this
purpose so if this operator returns an unknown you have quite a lot of them in your data. Infinite
numbers are lesser, or more, than the finite numbers and are always more than the Unknown numbers.
(NaN < -INF < finite values < INF)
Example: "VDEF:perc95=mydata,95,PERCENT"
"VDEF:percnan95=mydata,95,PERCENTNAN"
LSLSLOPE, LSLINT, LSLCORREL
Return the parameters for a Least Squares Line (y = mx +b) which approximate the provided dataset.
LSLSLOPE is the slope (m) of the line related to the COUNT position of the data. LSLINT is the
y-intercept (b), which happens also to be the first data point on the graph. LSLCORREL is the
Correlation Coefficient (also know as Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient). It will
range from 0 to +/-1 and represents the quality of fit for the approximation.
Example: "VDEF:slope=mydata,LSLSLOPE"
SEE ALSO
rrdgraph gives an overview of how rrdtool graph works. rrdgraph_data describes DEF,CDEF and VDEF in
detail. rrdgraph_rpn describes the RPN language used in the ?DEF statements. rrdgraph_graph page
describes all of the graph and print functions.
Make sure to read rrdgraph_examples for tips&tricks.
AUTHOR
Program by Tobias Oetiker <tobi@oetiker.ch> This manual page by Alex van den Bogaerdt <alex@vandenbogaerdt.nl> with corrections and/or additions by several people