NAME

       pmpython - run a python script using a preferred python variant

SYNOPSIS

       pmpython [python-args-and-script]

DESCRIPTION

       pmpython  provides  a  way  to  run  python  scripts using a customisable python interpreter, rather than
       embedding the name of a particular version of python into each script.

       This can be useful as it allows version-independent python code to be run anywhere.  All  python  modules
       shipped  with  PCP  support  versions  2.6  and  later (in the python2 series), and 3.3 and later (in the
       python3 release series).

       Due to python monitoring and collecting scripts  being  relatively  simple  in  PCP  (not  requiring  new
       modules,  language  features,  etc), it has been possible to ensure they work for all of the above python
       versions.

       However, the name of the python interpreter is not always the same, thus, it is  common  for  PCP  python
       scripts to use a “shebang” line that launches the python interpreter indirectly as follows:

          #!/usr/bin/env pmpython

       env(1) is used to find the correct path for the pmpython executable from the user's $PATH.

       By  default  the  name of the python interpreter is found from the the value of $PCP_PYTHON_PROG from the
       environment (if set) else from /etc/pcp.conf.  The latter is the more typical case where  this  value  is
       based on some heuristics about the platform at the time the PCP packages were build and favour the use of
       python3 in all recent releases of PCP (for those platforms that support it).

       This allows an appropriate name to be used for the python interpreter  instead  of  a  hard-coded  python
       version name, while still allowing the user to override the python interpreter as follows:

          $ PCP_PYTHON_PROG=python3 pmpython --version
          Python 3.4.2
          $ PCP_PYTHON_PROG=python2 pmpython --version
          Python 2.7.9

       This is convenient for shipping identical scripts on multiple platforms, and for testing different python
       versions with the one script (e.g.  in  the  case  where  multiple  versions  of  python  are  installed,
       PCP_PYTHON_PROG can be set in the local environment to override the global setting).

       pmpython is a replacement for an earlier tool with similar function, namely pcp-python(1).

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

       env(1), pcp(1), pcp-python(1) and PCPIntro(1).