Provided by: libpcp3-dev_3.8.12ubuntu1_amd64 bug

NAME

       pmFetch - get performance metric values

C SYNOPSIS

       #include <pcp/pmapi.h>

       int pmFetch(int numpmid, pmID *pmidlist, pmResult **result);

       cc ... -lpcp

DESCRIPTION

       Given  a  list  of Performance Metric IDs (PMID)s, e.g. as constructed by pmLookupName(3),
       via pmidlist and numpmid, fetch the values for these performance metrics.

       The call to pmFetch is executed in the context of a source of  metrics,  instance  profile
       and  collection  time,  previously  established  by  calls  to the appropriate context and
       profile functions,  namely  some  of  pmNewContext(3),  pmDupContext(3),  pmUseContext(3),
       pmAddProfile(3), pmDelProfile(3) and pmSetMode(3).

       The  principal result from pmFetch is returned in the argument result as a tree, using the
       following component data structures;

            typedef struct {
                  unsigned int vtype : 8;        /* value type (same as pmDesc.type) */
                  unsigned int vlen : 24;        /* bytes for vtype/vlen + vbuf */
                  char         vbuf[1];          /* one or more values */
            } pmValueBlock;

            typedef struct {
                  int      inst;                 /* instance identifier */
                  union {
                        pmValueBlock *pval;      /* pointer to value-block */
                        int          lval;       /* integer value insitu */
                  } value;
            } pmValue;

            typedef struct {
                  pmID      pmid;                /* metric identifier */
                  int       numval;              /* number of values or error code */
                  int       valfmt;              /* value style, insitu or ptr */
                  pmValue   vlist[1];            /* set of instances/values */
            } pmValueSet;

            /* Result returned by pmFetch() */
            typedef struct {
                  struct timeval timestamp;      /* time stamped by collector */
                  int            numpmid;        /* number of PMIDs */
                  pmValueSet     *vset[1];       /* set of value sets */
            } pmResult;

       To accommodate metrics with multiple value instances, the numval field indicates how  many
       values are returned for each requested PMID.  The field valfmt in the pmValueSet structure
       indicates if the values for this metric are stored insitu in the lval field, i.e. a 32-bit
       integer  quantity  (either  int, unsigned int, long or unsigned long) or if the values are
       held in associated pmValueBlock structures.  The pmValueBlock structure is always used for
       floating  point values (float or double) and also accommodates arbitrary sized binary data
       such as `string-valued' metrics and metrics with aggregated or complex  data  types.   The
       maximum  length  of  a  pmValueBlock buffer is PM_VAL_VLEN_MAX bytes.  If the pmValueBlock
       format is used, the vtype field indicates the data type of the value.  This field has  the
       same interpretation as the type field in the pmDesc structure, see pmLookupDesc(3).

       Note  that the insitu value may be a signed or unsigned 32 bit integer, signed or unsigned
       32 bit long value (on 32 bit platforms), In the special cases described below, it may also
       be  a 32 bit floating point value.  If the application needs to know the type of an insitu
       value, which is almost always the case, it is necessary to fetch the  descriptor  for  the
       metric  and interpret the type field, as described in detail in pmLookupDesc(3).  When the
       pmResult is received from a PCP1.x pmcd, insitu values may also be 32 bit  floating  point
       values  (of type PM_TYPE_FLOAT).  In all cases, it is good practice to use pmLookupDesc(3)
       to fetch the descriptor for the metric and interpret the type field  therein.   Note  also
       that the PMAPI(3) will automatically translate from the PCP2.0 format to the PCP1.x format
       when a PCP1.x client requests 32 bit floating point values from a  PCP2.0  pmcd,  but  the
       reverse  translation  does  not  occur  (because  the  PCP2.0  pmcd  cannot  automatically
       distinguish between arbitrary 32 bit floating point values and 32 bit integers).

       If one value (i.e. associated with a  particular  instance)  for  a  requested  metric  is
       `unavailable'  (at  the  requested time), then there is no associated pmValue structure in
       the result.  If there are no available values for a metric, then numval will be  zero  and
       the   associated   pmValue[]  instance  will  be  empty  (valfmt  is  undefined  in  these
       circumstances, however pmid will be correctly set to  the  PMID  of  the  metric  with  no
       values).

       As  an  extension of this protocol, if the Performance Metrics Collection System (PMCS) is
       able to provide a reason why no values are available for  a  particular  metric,  this  is
       encoded  as  a standard error code in the corresponding numval.  Since the error codes are
       all negative, values for a requested metric are `unavailable' if numval is less  than,  or
       equal  to,  zero.   A  performance  metric's  value  may  be  `unavailable' for any of the
       following reasons;

       +  The metric is not supported  in  this  version  of  the  software  for  the  associated
          Performance Metric Domain

       +  Collection  is  not  currently activated in the software for the associated Performance
          Metric Domain

       +  The associated PMID is not known

       +  The current system configuration does not include  the  associated  hardware  component
          and/or  the  associated  software module, e.g. a disk is not installed, or off-line, or
          Oracle is not installed

       +  The metric is one for which an instance profile is  required,  and  none  was  provided
          (there  are a small number of metrics in this category, typically ones with very large,
          and/or very dynamic instance domains, and/or expensive metric instantiation methods).

       In general, we may not be  able  to  differentiate  between  the  various  cases,  and  if
       differentiation is not possible, numval will simply be zero.

       The argument definition and the result specifications have been constructed to ensure that
       for each PMID in the requested pmidlist there is exactly one pmValueSet in the result, and
       further  the  PMIDs appear in exactly the same sequence in both pmidlist and result.  This
       makes the number and order of entries in  result  completely  deterministic,  and  greatly
       simplifies the application programming logic after the call to pmFetch.

       The  result  structure returned by pmFetch is dynamically allocated using a combination of
       malloc(3C) calls and specialized allocation strategies, and should  be  released  when  no
       longer  required  by  calling  pmFreeResult(3) - under no circumstances should free(3C) be
       called directly to release this space.

       As common error conditions are encoded in the result  data  structure,  we'd  expect  only
       cataclysmic  events  to  cause an error value to be returned.  One example would be if the
       metrics source context was a remote host, and that host or the PMCS on  that  host  became
       unreachable.  Otherwise the value returned by the pmFetch function will be non-negative.

       If  the  current  context  involves  fetching metrics from a Performance Metrics Collector
       Daemon (PMCD), then the return value may be used to  encode  out-of-band  changes  in  the
       state  of the PMCD and the associated Performance Metrics Daemon Agents (PMDAs), as a bit-
       wise ``or'' of the following values:

       PMCD_RESTART_AGENT  An attempt has been made to restart at least one failed PMDA.

       PMCD_ADD_AGENT      At least one PMDA has been started.

       PMCD_DROP_AGENT     PMCD has noticed the termination of at least one PMDA.

       The default is to return zero to  indicate  no  change  in  state,  however  the  pmResult
       returned by pmFetch has the same interpretation independent of the return value being zero
       or greater than zero.

SEE ALSO

       pmcd(1), pmAddProfile(3), PMAPI(3), pmDelProfile(3),  pmDupContext(3),  pmExtractValue(3),
       pmFetchArchive(3),   pmFreeResult(3),   pmGetInDom(3),  pmLookupDesc(3),  pmLookupName(3),
       pmNewContext(3), pmSetMode(3), pmUseContext(3) and pmWhichContext(3).

       Note that pmFetch is the most primitive method of fetching metric values  from  the  PMCS.
       More  user  friendly interfaces to the PMCS are available or currently under development -
       these higher level fetch methods  insulate  the  user  from  the  intricacies  of  context
       creation,  setting  up  instance  profiles, pmResult traversal, and splitting fetches into
       batches to minimize PDU traffic or according to other optimization criteria.

DIAGNOSTICS

       As mentioned above, pmFetch returns error codes insitu in  the  argument  result.   If  no
       result  is  returned,  e.g.  due to IPC failure using the current PMAPI context, or end of
       file on an archive log, then pmFetch will return  a  negative  error  code  which  may  be
       examined using pmErrStr(3).

       PM_ERR_EOL
              When  fetching  records  from  an  archive  log, pmFetch returns this error code to
              indicate the end of the log has been passed (or the  start  of  the  log  has  been
              passed,  if  the direction of traversal is backwards in time).  If the ``mode'' for
              the current PMAPI context (see pmSetMode(3)) is PM_MODE_INTERP then the time origin
              is  advanced, even when this error code is returned.  In this way applications that
              position the time outside the range defined by the records in the archive, and then
              commence  to  pmFetch  will eventually see valid results once the time origin moves
              inside the temporal span of the archive.

ENVIRONMENT

       Many of the performance metrics exported from PCP agents have  the  semantics  of  counter
       meaning  they  are expected to be monotonically increasing.  Under some circumstances, one
       value of these metrics may be smaller than the previously fetched value.  This can  happen
       when  a  counter  of  finite  precision overflows, or when the PCP agent has been reset or
       restarted, or when the PCP agent is exporting values from some underlying  instrumentation
       that is subject to some asynchronous discontinuity.
       The  environment variable PCP_COUNTER_WRAP may be set to indicate that all such cases of a
       decreasing ``counter'' should be treated as a counter overflow, and hence the  values  are
       assumed  to  have  wrapped  once  in  the  interval  between  consecutive  samples.   This
       ``wrapping'' behavior was the default in earlier PCP versions, but  by  default  has  been
       disabled in PCP version 1.3 and later.