NAME

       pcp.conf - the Performance Co-Pilot configuration and environment file

SYNOPSIS

       /etc/pcp.conf

DESCRIPTION

       When  using  Performance  Co-Pilot  (PCP)  tools  and utilities and when calling PCP library functions, a
       standard set of environment variables are defined in /etc/pcp.conf.  These variables are  generally  used
       to  specify the location of various PCP pieces in the file system and may be loaded into shell scripts by
       sourcing the /etc/pcp.env(5) shell script and queried by C/C++ programs using the pmGetConfig(3)  library
       function.   If  a  variable is already defined in the environment, the values in pcp.conf do not override
       those values, i.e. the values in pcp.conf serve as installation defaults only.

       Both the pcp.env and pcp.conf files are expected to be found  in  /etc  by  default.   If  required,  the
       pcp.conf  file  may  be relocated and PCP_CONF set in the environment to specify the full path to the new
       location.  The pcp.env file can not be relocated (this is the only hard coded path required by PCP).

       The syntax rules for pcp.conf are as follows :

       1.  the general syntax is
                                      PCP_VARIABLE_NAME=variable value to end of line

       2.  lines that begin with # and all blank lines are ignored.

       3.  all variables must be prefixed with PCP_.  This is a security issue - variables that do not have this
           prefix will be silently ignored.

       4.  there  should  be no space between the variable name and the literal = and no space between the = and
           the variable value (unless the value actually starts with a space).  This  is  required  because  the
           pcp.conf  file  may be sourced directly by Makefiles as well as interpreted by the pcp.env script and
           the pmGetConfig function.

       5.  variable values may contain spaces and should not be quoted.  The pcp.env script automatically quotes
           all variable values from the character immediately following the = through to the end of the line.

       For further details and an explanation of the use of each variable, see the comments in the /etc/pcp.conf
       file itself.

ENVIRONMENT

       The PCP_CONF environment variable specifies an alternative path to the pcp.conf file.

SEE ALSO

       PCPIntro(1), PCPIntro(3), PMAPI(3), pmGetConfig(3) and pcp.env(5).