NAME

       pmGetChildrenStatus - return the descendent nodes of a PMNS node and their respective status

C SYNOPSIS

       #include <pcp/pmapi.h>

       int pmGetChildrenStatus(const char *name, char ***offspring, int **status);

       cc ... -lpcp

DESCRIPTION

       Given  a  fully  qualified  pathname  to  a node in the current Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS), as
       identified by name, pmGetChildrenStatus returns via offspring a list of the relative names of all of  the
       immediate descendent nodes of name in the current PMNS.

       As a special case, if name is an empty string (i.e.""), the immediate descendants of the root node in the
       PMNS will be returned.

       If status is not NULL, then pmGetChildrenStatus will also return the status of  each  child  via  status.
       The status will refer to either a leaf node (with value PMNS_LEAF_STATUS ) or a non-leaf node (with value
       PMNS_NONLEAF_STATUS ).

       Normally, pmGetChildrenStatus will return the number of descendent names discovered, else  a  value  less
       than  zero  for  an error.  The value zero indicates that name is a valid metric name, i.e. is associated
       with a leaf node in the PMNS.

       The resulting list of pointers offspring and the values (the relative names) that the pointers  reference
       will  have  been  allocated  by  pmGetChildrenStatus  with  a  single  call  to  malloc(3), and it is the
       responsibility of the pmGetChildrenStatus caller to free(offspring) to release the space when  it  is  no
       longer required.  The same holds true for the status array.

       When  an  error occurs, or name is a leaf node (i.e. the result of pmGetChildrenStatus is less than one),
       both offspring and status are undefined (no space will have been allocated, and so calling free(3)  is  a
       singularly bad idea).

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).
       Values for these variables may be obtained programmatically using the pmGetConfig(3) function.

SEE ALSO

       PMAPI(3), pmGetChildren(3), pmGetConfig(3), pmLoadASCIINameSpace(3), pmLoadNameSpace(3), pmLookupName(3),
       pmNameID(3), pcp.conf(5), pcp.env(5) and PMNS(5).

DIAGNOSTICS

       PM_ERR_NOPMNS
              Failed  to  access  a  PMNS  for  operation.   Note that if the application hasn't a priori called
              pmLoadNameSpace(3) and wants to use the distributed PMNS, then a call to pmGetChildrenStatus  must
              be made inside a current context.

       PM_ERR_NAME
              The pathname name is not valid in the current PMNS

       PM_ERR_*
              Other diagnostics are for protocol failures when accessing the distributed PMNS.