NAME

       pminfo - display information about performance metrics

SYNOPSIS

       pminfo  [-dfFLmMtTvxz]  [-a archive] [-b batchsize] [-c dmfile] [-h hostname] [-K spec] [-[n|N] pmnsfile]
       [-O time] [-Z timezone] [metricname ...]

DESCRIPTION

       pminfo displays various types of information about performance metrics available through  the  facilities
       of the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP).

       Normally  pminfo  operates  on  the  distributed Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS), however if the -n
       option is specified an alternative local PMNS is loaded from the file pmnsfile.  The -N  option  supports
       the  same  function as -n, except for the handling of duplicate Performance Metric Identifiers (PMIDs) in
       pmnsfile - duplicates are allowed with -N they are not allowed with -n.

       The metrics of interest are named in the metricname arguments.  If metricname is a non-leaf node  in  the
       PMNS,  then  pminfo  will  recursively  descend  the PMNS and report on all leaf nodes.  If no metricname
       argument is given, the root of the PMNS is used.

       Unless directed to another host by the -h option, by default pminfo will contact the Performance  Metrics
       Collector  Daemon (PMCD) on the local host.  The connection to a PMCD is only required if pminfo requires
       distributed PMNS information, and/or meta-data describing metrics,  and/or  metric  values,  and/or  help
       text.

       The  -a  option causes pminfo to use the specified archive rather than connecting to a PMCD.  The -a , -h
       and -L options are mutually exclusive.

       The -L option causes pminfo to use a local context to collect  metrics  from  PMDAs  on  the  local  host
       without  PMCD.   Only  some  metrics  are  available in this mode.  The -a,-h and -L options are mutually
       exclusive.

       The -b option may be used to define the maximum size of the group of metrics to be fetched  in  a  single
       request for the -f and -v options.  The default value for batchsize is 20.

       Other options control the specific information to be reported.

       -c   The  dmfile  argument  specifies  a  file  that  contains  derived  metric definitions in the format
            described for pmLoadDerivedConfig(3).   The  -c  option  provides  a  way  to  load  derived  metric
            definitions  that  is  an  alternative to the more generic use of the PCP_DERIVED_CONFIG environment
            variable as described in PCPIntro(1).  Using the -c option and  the  PCP_DERIVED_CONFIG  environment
            variable to specify the same configuration is a bad idea, so choose one or the other method.

       -d   Metric  descriptions  detailing  the  PMID,  data  type, data semantics, units, scale and associated
            instance domain.

       -f   Fetch and print values for all instances.  When fetching  from  an  archive,  only  those  instances
            present in the first archive record for a metric will be displayed; see also the -O option, else use
            pmdumplog(1) which may be a better tool for examining archives.

       -F   Same as -f but try harder to fetch instances for metrics which have non-enumerable instance  domains
            (e.g. metrics in the ``proc'' subtree of the default PMNS).

       -K   When using the -L option to fetch metrics from a local context, the -K option may be used to control
            the DSO PMDAs that should be made accessible.  The spec argument conforms to the syntax described in
            __pmSpecLocalPMDA(3).  More than one -K option may be used.

       -m   Print the PMID in terse mode.

       -M   Print the PMID in verbose mode.

       -O   When  used  in  conjunction  with  an  archive  source of metrics and the options -f or -F, the time
            argument defines a time origin at which the metrics should be fetched from the  archive.   Refer  to
            PCPIntro(1) for a complete description of this option, and the syntax for the time argument.

            When  the  ``ctime''  format  is  used for the time argument in a -O option, the timezone becomes an
            issue.  The default is to use the local timezone on the system where pminfo is run.  The  -Z  option
            changes  the  timezone  to  timezone  in  the  format of the environment variable TZ as described in
            environ(5).  The -z option changes the timezone to the local timezone at the host that is the source
            of the performance metrics, as identified via the -a option.

       -t   Print the ``one line'' help summary, if available.

       -T   Print the help text, if available.

       -v   Verify  mode in which descriptions and values are retrieved, but only error conditions are reported.
            This option silently disables any output from the options -f, -M, -m, -t and -T.

       -x   Like the -f option, but with the additional functionality that if a value is processed  that  is  of
            type  PM_TYPE_EVENT,  then  the  event records will be unpacked and the details of each event record
            reported.

FILES

       $PCP_VAR_DIR/pmns/*
                 default local 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

       PCPIntro(1),  pmcd(1),  pmchart(1),  pmdumplog(1),   pmdumptext(1),   pmprobe(1),   pmval(1),   PMAPI(3),
       pmLoadDerivedConfig(3), __pmSpecLocalPMDA(3), pcp.conf(5), pcp.env(5) and pmns(5).