NAME

       pmdaproc - process performance metrics domain agent (PMDA)

SYNOPSIS

       $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/proc/pmdaproc [-AL] [-d domain] [-l logfile] [-r cgroup] [-U username]

DESCRIPTION

       pmdaproc  is  a Performance Metrics Domain Agent (PMDA) which extracts performance metrics
       describing the state of the individual processes running on a Linux system.

       The proc PMDA exports metrics that measure the memory, processor and other resource use of
       each process, as well as summary information collated across all of the running processes.
       The PMDA uses credentials passed from the PMAPI(3) monitoring tool  identifying  the  user
       requesting  the  information, to ensure that only values the user is allowed to access are
       returned by the PMDA.  This involves the PMDA temporarily changing its effective user  and
       group  identifiers for the duration of requests for instances and values.  In other words,
       system calls to extract information are performed as the user originating the request  and
       not  as  a privileged user.  The mechanisms available for transfer of user credentials are
       described further in the PCPIntro(1) page.

       A brief description of the pmdaproc command line options follows:

       -A   Disables use of the credentials provided by  PMAPI  client  tools,  and  simply  runs
            everything under the "root" account.

       -L   Changes  the  per-process  instance  domain  used by most procproc metrics to include
            threads as well.

       -d   It is absolutely crucial that the performance metrics domain number specified here is
            unique and consistent.  That is, domain should be different for every PMDA on the one
            host, and the same domain number should be used for the same PMDA on all hosts.

       -l   Location of the log file.  By default, a log file named proc.log is  written  in  the
            current  directory  of pmcd(1) when pmdaproc is started, i.e.  $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd.  If
            the log file cannot be created or is not writable, output is written to the  standard
            error instead.

       -r   Restrict  the  set  of  processes exported in the per-process instance domain to only
            those processes that are contained by the specified cgroup resource container.   This
            option provides an optional finer granularity to the monitoring, and can also be used
            to reduce the resources consumed  by  pmdaproc  during  requests  for  instances  and
            values.

       -U   User  account  under  which  to  run the agent.  The default is the privileged "root"
            account, with seteuid (2) and setegid (2) switching for accessing most information.

INSTALLATION

       The proc  PMDA  is  installed  and  available  by  default.   If  you  want  to  undo  the
       installation, do the following as root:

            # cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/proc
            # ./Remove

       If  you  want  to  establish  access  to  the  names,  help  text  and values for the proc
       performance metrics once more, after removal, do the following as root:

            # cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/proc
            # ./Install

       pmdaproc is launched by pmcd(1) and should never be executed directly.   The  Install  and
       Remove scripts notify pmcd(1) when the agent is installed or removed.

FILES

       $PCP_PMCDCONF_PATH
                 command line options used to launch pmdaproc
       $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/proc/help
                 default help text file for the proc metrics
       $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/proc/Install
                 installation script for the pmdaproc agent
       $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/proc/Remove
                 undo installation script for the pmdaproc agent
       $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd/proc.log
                 default log file for error messages and other information from pmdaproc

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

       PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), seteuid(2), setegid(2), PMAPI(3), pcp.conf(5) and pcp.env(5).