Provided by: pcp_6.0.3-1_amd64 
NAME
pmrep - performance metrics reporter
SYNOPSIS
pmrep [-12357CdgGHIjkLmnprRuUvVxz?] [-4 action] [-6 sort-metric] [-8|-9 limit] [-a
archive] [-A align] [--archive-folio folio] [-b|-B space-scale] [-c config] [--container
container] [--daemonize] [-e derived] [-E lines] [-f format] [-F outfile] [-h host] [-i
instances] [--include-texts] [-J rank] [-K spec] [-l delimiter] [-N predicate]
[--no-inst-info] [-o output] [-O origin] [-P|-0 precision] [-q|-Q count-scale] [-s
samples] [-S starttime] [-t interval] [-T endtime] [-w|-W width] [-X label] [-y|-Y time-
scale] [-Z timezone] metricspec [...]
DESCRIPTION
pmrep is a customizable performance metrics reporting tool. Any available performance
metric, live or archived, system and/or application, can be selected for reporting using
one of the output alternatives listed below together with applicable formatting options.
pmrep collects selected metric values through the facilities of the Performance Co-Pilot
(PCP), see PCPIntro(1). The metrics to be reported are specified on the command line, in
configuration files, or both. Metrics can be automatically converted and scaled using the
PCP facilities, either by default or by per-metric scaling specifications. In addition to
the existing metrics, derived metrics can be defined using the arithmetic expressions
described in pmRegisterDerived(3).
A wide range of metricsets (see below) is included by default, providing reports on per-
process details, NUMA performance, mimicking other tools like sar(1) and more, see the
pmrep configuration files in $PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/pmrep (typically /etc/pcp/pmrep) for
details. Tab completion for options, metrics, and metricsets is available for bash and
zsh.
Unless directed to another host by the -h option, pmrep will contact the Performance
Metrics Collector Daemon (PMCD, see pmcd(1)) on the local host.
The -a option causes pmrep to use the specified set of archive logs rather than connecting
to a PMCD. The -a and -h options are mutually exclusive.
The -L option causes pmrep to use a local context to collect metrics from DSO PMDAs
(Performance Metrics Domain Agents, ``plugins'') on the local host without PMCD. Only
some metrics are available in this mode. The -a, -h, and -L options are mutually
exclusive.
The metrics of interest are named in the metricspec argument(s). If a metricspec
specifies a non-leaf node in the Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS), then pmrep will
recursively descend the PMNS and report on all leaf nodes (i.e., metrics) for that
metricspec. Use pminfo(1) to list all the metrics (PMNS lead nodes) and their
descriptions.
A metricspec has three different forms. First, on the command line it can start with a
colon (``:'') to indicate a metricset to be read from pmrep configuration files (see -c
and pmrep.conf(5)), which may then consist of any number of metrics. Second, a metricspec
starting with non-colon specifies a PMNS node as described above, optionally followed by
metric output formatting definitions. This so-called compact form of a metricspec is
defined as follows:
metric[,label[,instances[,unit/scale[,type[,width[,precision[,limit]]]]]]]
A valid PMNS node (metric) is mandatory. It may be followed by a text label used with
stdout output. The optional instances definition restricts csv and stdout reporting to
the specified instances of the metric so non-matching instances will be filtered out (see
-i). An optional unit/scale is applicable for dimension-compatible, non-string metrics.
See below for supported unit/scale specifications. By default, cumulative counter metrics
are converted to rates, an optional type can be set to raw to disable this rate
conversion. For stdout output a numeric width can be used to set the width of the output
column for this metric. Too wide strings in the output will be truncated to fit the
column. A metric-specific precision can be provided for numeric non-integer output
values. Lastly, a metric-specific limit can be set for filtering out numeric values per
the limit.
As a special case for metrics that are counters with time units (nanoseconds to hours),
the unit/scale can be used to change the default reporting (for example, milliseconds /
second) to normalize to the range zero to one by setting this to sec (see also -y and -Y).
The following metricspec requests the metric kernel.all.sysfork to be reported under the
text label forks, converting to the metric default rate count/s in an 8 wide column.
Although the definitions in this compact form are optional, they must always be provided
in the order specified above, thus the commas.
kernel.all.sysfork,forks,,,,8
The third form of a metricspec, verbose form, is described and valid only in
pmrep.conf(5).
Derived metrics are specified like regular PMNS leaf node metrics.
Options via environment values (see pmGetOptions(3)) override the corresponding built-in
default values (if any). Configuration file options override the corresponding
environment variables (if any). Command line options override the corresponding
configuration file options (if any).
OPTIONS
The available command line options are:
-0 precision, --precision-force=precision
Like -P but this option will override per-metric specifications.
-1, --dynamic-header
Print a new dynamically adjusted header every time changes in the availability of
metric and instance values occur. By default a static header that never changes is
printed once. See also -4, -7, and -E.
-2, --overall-rank
Perform overall ranking of instances in archive. By default ranking (see -J) and
reporting happens on each interval. With this option all instances and values are
ranked before a summary is reported. See pmlogsummary(1) for further archive summary
reporting alternatives, including averages and peak times for values.
-3, --overall-rank-alt
Like -2 but print metric instances in pmrep metricspec format, to allow easily
selecting the instances for further investigation.
-4 action, --names-change=action
Specify which action to take on receiving a metric names change event during
sampling. These events occur when a PMDA discovers new metrics sometime after
starting up, and informs running client tools like pmrep. Valid values for action
are update (refresh metrics being sampled), ignore (do nothing - the default
behaviour) and abort (exit the program if such an event occurs). update implies
--dynamic-header.
-5, --ignore-unknown
Silently ignore any metric name that cannot be resolved. At least one metric must be
found for the tool to start.
-6, --sort-metric=sort-metric
Specify a sort reference metric to sort output by values with -X. By default sorting
order is descending, prepending the metric name with the minus sign (``-'') will
change the order to be ascending. See also -J and -N.
-7, --fixed-header
With -X print a fixed header once (unless using -E) including all metrics being
reported. Unlike with the default (static) header, only instances with values
available are reported. Unlike with the dynamic header, the header is not updated
even if values for some metrics later become (un)available. See also -1 and -E.
-8 limit, --limit-filter=limit
Limit results to instances with values above/below limit. A positive integer will
include instances with values at or above the limit in reporting. A negative integer
will include instances with values at or below the limit in reporting. A value of
zero performs no limit filtering. This option will not override possible per-metric
specifications. See also -J and -N.
-9 limit, --limit-filter-force=limit
Like -8 but this option will override per-metric specifications.
-a archive, --archive=archive
Performance metric values are retrieved from the set of Performance Co-Pilot (PCP)
archive log 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.
--archive-folio=folio
Read metric source archives from the PCP archive folio created by tools like
pmchart(1) or, less often, manually with mkaf(1).
-b scale, --space-scale=scale
Unit/scale for space (byte) metrics, possible values include bytes, Kbytes, KB,
Mbytes, MB, and so forth. This option will not override possible per-metric
specifications. See also pmParseUnitsStr(3).
-B scale, --space-scale-force=scale
Like -b but this option will override per-metric specifications.
-c config, --config=config
Specify the config file or directory to use. In case config is a directory all files
in it ending .conf will be included. The default is the first found of:
./pmrep.conf, $HOME/.pmrep.conf, $HOME/pcp/pmrep.conf,
$PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/pmrep/pmrep.conf, and $PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/pmrep. See pmrep.conf(5).
--container=container
Fetch performance metrics from the specified container, either local or remote (see
-h).
-C, --check
Exit before reporting any values, but after parsing the configuration and metrics and
printing possible headers.
-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.
--daemonize
Daemonize on startup.
-e derived, --derived=derived
Specify derived performance metrics. If derived starts with a slash (``/'') or with
a dot (``.'') it will be interpreted as a PCP derived metrics configuration file,
otherwise it will be interpreted as comma- or semicolon-separated derived metric
expressions. For complete description of derived metrics and PCP derived metrics
configuration files see pmLoadDerivedConfig(3) and pmRegisterDerived(3).
Alternatively, using pmrep.conf(5) configuration syntax allows defining derived
metrics as part of metricsets.
-E lines, --repeat-header=lines
Repeat the header every lines of output. When not using -1 or -7 use auto to repeat
the header based on terminal height. See also -1 and -7.
-f format, --timestamp-format=format
Use the format string for formatting the timestamp. The format will be used with
Python's datetime.strftime method which is mostly the same as that described in
strftime(3). An empty format string (i.e., "") will remove the timestamps from the
output. Defaults to %H:%M:%S when using the stdout output target. Defaults to
%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S when using the csv output target.
-F outfile, --output-file=outfile
Specify the output file outfile. See -o.
-g, --separate-header
Output the column number and complete metric information, one-per-line, before
printing the metric values.
-G, --no-globals
Do not include global metrics in reporting (see pmrep.conf(5)).
-h host, --host=host
Fetch performance metrics from pmcd(1) on host, rather than from the default
localhost.
-H, --no-header
Do not print any headers.
-i instances, --instances=instances
Retrieve and report only the specified metric instances. By default all initially
present instances are reported, except when writing an archive (see -o), where also
all future instances will be reported.
The specified instances are filtered from the initially present instances when the
tool is starting up. Thus instances which would match the filter appearing after the
tool has started up will not be reported, use -j to change this.
This is a global option that is used for all set-valued metrics unless a metric-
specific instance filter is provided as part of a metricspec. By default single-
valued ``flat'' metrics without instances are still reported as usual, use -v to
change this.
instances is a comma-separated list of one or more instance filter specifications.
Filters containing commas or whitespace must be quoted with single (') or double (")
quotes. Note that as part of a metricspec on command line a list with more than one
filter both the list and each filter must be quoted as shown below. It is also
possible to define a single filter with bars (|) as instance separating regex in
order to make quoting easier, see below.
Multiple -i options are allowed as an alternative way of specifying more than one
non-metric-specific instance filters.
An individual instance filter can be one of the following:
name Full instance name. For example, sda for disk.dev instances or eth0 for
network.interface instances.
PID Process ID for proc instances.
command Base name of a process for proc instances. For example, pmcd would match
all pmcd(1) processes regardless of their path or PID.
regex Regular expression. For example, .*python.* would match all instances
having the string python as part of their instance name, meaning that this
would match all Python processes regardless of their path, PID, or version.
As an example, the following would report the same instances:
$ pmrep -i '. minute' kernel.all.load
$ pmrep -i '1 minute','5 minute' kernel.all.load
$ pmrep -i "'1 minute','5 minute'" kernel.all.load
$ pmrep -i '1 minute' -i '5 minute' kernel.all.load
$ pmrep kernel.all.load,,"'1 minute','5 minute'"
$ pmrep kernel.all.load,,'1 minute|5 minute'
However, this would report only the 1-minute instance:
$ pmrep -i '1 minute','5 minute' kernel.all.load,,'1 minute'
And this would report all instances (due to per-metric regex):
$ pmrep -i '1 minute','5 minute' 'kernel.all.load,,.*'
-I, --ignore-incompat
Ignore incompatible metrics. By default incompatible metrics (that is, their type is
unsupported or they cannot be scaled as requested) will cause pmrep to terminate with
an error message. With this option all incompatible metrics are silently omitted
from reporting. This may be especially useful when requesting non-leaf nodes of the
PMNS tree for reporting.
--include-texts
When writing a PCP archive, include PCP metric help texts in the created archive.
-j, --live-filter
Perform instance live filtering. This allows capturing all named instances even if
processes are restarted at some point (unlike without live filtering). Performing
live filtering over a huge number of instances will add some internal overhead so a
bit of user caution is advised. See also -1 and -n.
-J rank, --rank=rank
Limit results to highest/lowest ranked instances of set-valued metrics. A positive
integer will include highest valued instances in reporting. A negative integer will
include lowest valued instances in reporting. A value of zero performs no ranking.
Ranking does not imply sorting, see -6. See also -2 and -8.
-k, --extended-csv
Write extended CSV output, similar to sadf(1).
-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 delimiter, --delimiter=delimiter
Specify the delimiter that separates each column of csv or stdout output. The
default for stdout is two spaces (`` '') and comma (``,'') for csv. When using a
non-whitespace delimiter, all instances of the delimiter in string values will be
replaced by the underscore (``_'') character.
-L, --local-PMDA
Use a local context to collect metrics from DSO PMDAs on the local host without PMCD.
See also -K.
-m, --include-labels
Include PCP metric labels in the output.
-n, --invert-filter
Perform ranking before live filtering. By default instance live filtering (when
requested, see -j) happens before instance ranking (when requested, see -J). With
this option the logic is inverted and ranking happens before live filtering.
-N predicate, --predicate=predicate
Specify a comma-separated list of predicate filter reference metrics. By default
ranking (see -J) happens for each metric individually. With predicates, ranking is
done only for the specified predicate metrics. When reporting, rest of the metrics
sharing the same instance domain (see PCPIntro(1)) as the predicate will include only
the highest/lowest ranking instances of the corresponding predicate. Ranking does
not imply sorting, see -6.
So for example, using proc.memory.rss (resident memory size of process) as the
predicate metric together with proc.io.total_bytes and mem.util.used as metrics to be
reported, only the processes using most/least (as per -J) memory will be included
when reporting total bytes written by processes. Since mem.util.used is a single-
valued metric (thus not sharing the same instance domain as the process related
metrics), it will be reported as usual.
--no-inst-info
Omit instance information from headers. Not applicable with separate header (see
-g).
-o output, --output=output
Use output target for reporting. The default target is stdout. The available output
target alternatives are:
archive
Record metrics into a PCP archive which can later be replayed with PCP tools,
including pmrep itself. See LOGARCHIVE(5) and PCPIntro(1) for details about PCP
archive files. Requires -F.
csv
Print metrics in CSV format (subject to formatting options).
stdout
Print metrics to stdout (format subject to formatting options).
-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, --timestamps
Print timestamps. By default no timestamps are printed.
-P precision, --precision=precision
Use precision for numeric non-integer output values. If the value is too wide for
its column width, precision is reduced one by one until the value fits, or not
printed at all if it does not. The default is to use 3 decimal places (when
applicable). This option will not override possible per-metric specifications.
-q scale, --count-scale=scale
Unit/scale for count metrics, possible values include count x 10^-1, count, count x
10, count x 10^2, and so forth from 10^-8 to 10^7. (These values are currently
space-sensitive.) This option will not override possible per-metric specifications.
See also pmParseUnitsStr(3).
-Q scale, --count-scale-force=scale
Like -q but this option will override per-metric specifications.
-r, --raw
Output raw metric values, do not convert cumulative counters to rates. When writing
archives, raw values are always used. This option will override possible per-metric
specifications.
-R, --raw-prefer
Like -r but this option will not override per-metric specifications.
-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, pmrep will sample and report continuously (in
real time mode) or until the end of the set of PCP archives (in archive mode). See
also -T.
-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). See
also the -T and -u options.
-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.
When used to define the runtime before pmrep will exit, if no samples is given (see
-s) then the number of reported samples depends on interval (see -t). If samples is
given then interval will be adjusted to allow reporting of samples during runtime.
In case all of -T, -s, and -t are given, endtime determines the actual time pmrep
will run.
-u, --no-interpol
When reporting archived metrics, by default values are reported according to the
selected sample interval (-t option), not according to the actual record interval in
an archive. To this effect PCP interpolates the values to be reported based on the
records in the archive. With the -u option uninterpolated reporting is enabled,
every recorded value for the selected metrics is reported and the requested sample
interval (-t) is ignored.
So for example, if a PCP archive contains recorded values for every 10 seconds and
the requested sample interval is 1 hour, by default pmrep will use an interpolation
scheme to compute the values of the requested metrics from the values recorded in the
proximity of these requested metrics and values for every 1 hour are reported. With
-u every record every 10 seconds are reported as such (the reported values are still
subject to rate conversion, use -r or -R to disable).
-U, --no-unit-info
Omit unit information from headers.
-v, --omit-flat
Report only set-valued metrics with instances (e.g. disk.dev.read) and omit single-
valued ``flat'' metrics without instances (e.g. kernel.all.sysfork). See -i and -I.
-V, --version
Display version number and exit.
-w width, --width=width
Set the stdout output column width. Strings will be truncated to this width. The
default width is the shortest that can fit the metric text label, the forced minimum
is 3. This option will not override possible per-metric specifications.
-W width, --width-force=width
Like -w but this option will override per-metric specifications.
-x, --extended-header
Print extended header.
-X label, --colxrow=label
Swap columns and rows in stdout output, reporting one instance per line, using label
as the text label for the instance column. Use an empty string ("") to enable
swapping without a specific column label. This change in output allows using grep(1)
to filter results or to more closely mimic other tools. See also -i and -6.
-y scale, --time-scale=scale
Unit/scale for time metrics, possible values include nanosec, ns, microsec, us,
millisec, ms, and so forth up to hour, hr. This option will not override possible
per-metric specifications. See also pmParseUnitsStr(3).
-Y scale, --time-scale-force=scale
Like -y but this option will override per-metric specifications.
-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 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). Note that when including a timezone string
in output, ISO 8601 -style UTC offsets are used (so something like -Z EST+5 will
become UTC-5).
-?, --help
Display usage message and exit.
EXAMPLES
The following examples use the standard PCP facilities for collecting the metric values,
no external utilities are needed. The referenced colon-starting metricsets are part of
the default pmrep configuration. With bash and zsh tab completes available options,
metrics, and after a colon metricsets.
Display network interface metrics on the local host:
$ pmrep network.interface.total.bytes
Display all outgoing network metrics for the wlan0 interface:
$ pmrep -i wlan0 -v network.interface.out
Display the slab total usage (in MB) of two specific slab instances:
$ pmrep mem.slabinfo.slabs.total_size,,'kmalloc-4k|xfs_inode',MB
Display timestamped vmstat(8) like information using megabytes instead of kilobytes and
also include the number of inodes used:
$ pmrep -p -B MB :vmstat vfs.inodes.count
Display per-device disk reads and writes from the host server1 using two seconds interval
and sadf(1) like CSV output format:
$ pmrep -h server1 -t 2s -o csv -k disk.dev.read disk.dev.write
Display processes using at least 100MB of memory using dynamic headers, additionally use
-g to display instance (process) names in full:
$ pmrep -b MB --limit-filter 100 --dynamic-header proc.memory.rss
Display the predefined set of metrics from the default pmrep.conf(5) containing details
about I/O requests by current pmlogger process(es):
$ pmrep -gp -i pmlogger :proc-io
Display the three most CPU-using processes:
$ pmrep -1gUJ 3 proc.hog.cpu
Display sar -w and sar -W like information at the same time from the PCP archive
./20150921.09.13 showing values recorded between 3 - 5 PM:
$ pmrep -a ./20150921.09.13 -S @15:00 -T @17:00 :sar-w :sar-W
Record most relevant CPU, memory, and I/O related information about every Java process on
the system, present and future, to an archive ./a on one minute interval at every full
minute in a background process:
$ pmrep --daemonize -A 1m -t 1m -i '.*java.*' -j -o archive -F ./a \
:proc-info :proc-cpu :proc-mem :proc-io
Record all 389 Directory Server, XFS file system, and CPU/memory/disk metrics every five
seconds for five minutes to a PCP archive ./a:
$ pmrep -t 5s -T 5m -o archive -F ./a ds389 xfs kernel.all.cpu mem disk
Record process memory and I/O information for those processes which are the three most
memory-consuming processes:
$ pmrep -o archive -F ./a -J 3 -N proc.memory.rss proc.memory proc.io
FILES
pmrep.conf
pmrep configuration file (see -c)
$PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/pmrep/*.conf
system provided default pmrep configuration files
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).
For environment variables affecting PCP tools, see pmGetOptions(3).
SEE ALSO
PCPIntro(1), mkaf(1), pcp(1), pcp-atop(1), pcp2elasticsearch(1), pcp2graphite(1),
pcp2influxdb(1), pcp2json(1), pcp2spark(1), pcp2xlsx(1), pcp2xml(1), pcp2zabbix(1),
pmcd(1), pmchart(1), pmdiff(1), pmdumplog(1), pmdumptext(1), pminfo(1), pmiostat(1),
pmlogextract(1), pmlogsummary(1), pmprobe(1), pmstat(1), pmval(1), sadf(1), sar(1),
pmGetOptions(3), pmLoadDerivedConfig(3), pmParseUnitsStr(3), pmRegisterDerived(3),
pmSpecLocalPMDA(3), strftime(3), LOGARCHIVE(5), pcp.conf(5), pmrep.conf(5), PMNS(5),
environ(7) and vmstat(8).