NAME

       newhelp - generate a performance metrics help database

SYNOPSIS

       $PCP_BINADM_DIR/newhelp [-V] [-n pmnsfile] [-o outputfile] [-v version] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION

       newhelp  generates  the  Performance  Co-Pilot  help text files used by Performance Metric
       Domain Agents (PMDAs).

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

       When  there  is only one input file, the base name of the new database is derived from the
       name of the input file, otherwise the -o  flag  must  be  given  to  explicitly  name  the
       database.   If  no input files are supplied, newhelp reads from the standard input stream,
       in which case the -o flag must be given.

       If the output file name is determined to be foo, newhelp will create foo.dir and foo.pag.

       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.

       The -V flag causes verbose messages to be printed while newhelp is parsing its input.

       The first line of each entry in  a  help  source  file  consists  of  an  ``@''  character
       beginning the line followed by a space and then the performance metric name and a one line
       description of the metric.  Following lines (up to the next line beginning with  ``@''  or
       end of file) may contain a verbose help description.  E.g.

            #
            # This is an example of newhelp's input syntax
            #
            @ kernel.all.cpu.idle CPU idle time
            A cumulative count of the number of milliseconds
            of CPU idle time, summed over all processors.

       Three-part  numeric  metric identifiers (PMIDs) may be used in place of metric names, e.g.
       60.0.23 rather than kernel.all.cpu.idle in the example  above.   Other  than  for  dynamic
       metrics  (where  the existence of a metric is known to a PMDA, but not visible in the PMNS
       and hence has no name that could be known to newhelp) use of this syntactic variant is not
       encouraged.

       Lines  beginning  with  ``#'' are ignored, as are blank lines in the file before the first
       ``@''.  The verbose help text is optional.

       As a special case, a ``metric'' name of the form  NNN.MM  (for  numeric  NNN  and  MM)  is
       interpreted  as  an  instance  domain  identification, and the text describes the instance
       domain.

FILES

       $PCP_VAR_DIR/pmns/*
                 default PMNS specification files

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

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