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).