NAME

       pmiGetHandle - define a handle for a metric-instance pair

C SYNOPSIS

       #include <pcp/pmapi.h>
       #include <pcp/import.h>

       int pmiGetHandle(const char *name, const char *instance);

       cc ... -lpcp_import -lpcp

Perl SYNOPSIS

       use PCP::LogImport;

       $handle = pmiGetHandle($name, $instance);

DESCRIPTION

       As  part of the Performance Co-Pilot Log Import API (see LOGIMPORT(3)), pmiGetHandle creates a handle for
       a given metric and instance.  The handle is returned as the value from the pmiGetHandle call and  can  be
       used in subsequent calls to pmiPutValueHandle(3).

       The metric's name should match one defined earlier in a call to pmiAddMetric(3).

       For  singular  metrics  (those  defined with an instance domain of PM_INDOM_NULL), the instance should be
       NULL or an empty string, otherwise instance should match the name of an instance  defined  earlier  in  a
       call to pmiAddInstance(3) for the metric's instance domain.

       When  combined  with  pmiPutValueHandle(3), the use of handles provide a performance improvement over the
       alternative lookup for a metric name and an instance name for  each  data  value  that  is  required  for
       pmiPutValue(3).

DIAGNOSTICS

       On  failure  pmiGetHandle  returns  a  negative value that can be turned into an error message by calling
       pmiErrStr(3).

SEE ALSO

       LOGIMPORT(3), pmiAddInstance(3), pmiAddMetric(3), pmiErrStr(3) and pmiPutValueHandle(3).

                                              Performance Co-Pilot                                PMIGETHANDLE()