NAME

       chkhelp - check performance metrics help text files

SYNOPSIS

       $PCP_BINADM_DIR/chkhelp [-eHiOp] [-n pmnsfile] [-v version] helpfile [metricname ...]

DESCRIPTION

       chkhelp  checks  the consistency of Performance Co-Pilot help text files generated by newhelp(1) and used
       by Performance Metric Domain Agents (PMDAs).  The checking involves scanning the  files,  and  optionally
       displaying selected entries.

       The files helpfile.dir and helpfile.pag are created by newhelp(1), and are assumed to already exist.

       Without  any  options  or metricname arguments, chkhelp silently verifies the structural integrity of the
       help files.

       If any metricname arguments are specified, then the help entries for only the corresponding metrics  will
       be processed.

       If  no  metricname arguments are specified, then at least one of the options -i or -p must be given.  The
       -i option causes entries for all instance domains to  be  processed  (ignoring  entries  for  performance
       metrics).   The  -p  option causes entries for all metrics to be displayed (ignoring entries for instance
       domains).

       When metric entries are to be processed (via either the metricname arguments or the -p option or  the  -i
       option),  the  -O  and -H options request the display of the one-line and verbose help text respectively.
       The default is -O.

       Although historically there have been  multiple  help  text  file  formats,  the  only  format  currently
       supported using the -v option is version 2, and this is the default if no -v flag is provided.

       Normally  chkhelp  operates on the default Performance Metrics Namespace (PMNS), however if the -n option
       is specified an alternative namespace is loaded from the file pmnsfile.

       The -e option provides an existence check where all of the specified metrics from  the  PMNS  (note,  not
       from helpfile) are scanned, and only the names of the metrics for which no help text exists are reported.
       The -e option is mutually exclusive with the -i and/or -p options.

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

       newhelp(1), PMAPI(3), pmLookupInDomText(3), pmLookupText(3), pcp.conf(5) and pcp.env(5).

DIAGNOSTICS

       There are all sorts of reasons a help database may be inconsistent, the most likely is that a performance
       metric in the database is not defined in the loaded PMNS.