pmprobe(1)

NAME
     pmprobe - lightweight probe for performance metrics

SYNOPSIS
     pmprobe [-IiVv] [-a archive] [-h hostname] [-n pmnsfile] [metricname ...]

DESCRIPTION
     pmprobe determines the availability of performance metrics exported
     through the facilities of the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP).

     The metrics of interest are named in the metricname arguments.  If
     metricname is a non-leaf node in the Performance Metrics Name Space
     (pmns(4)), then pmprobe will recursively descend the PMNS and report on
     all leaf nodes.  If no metricname argument is given, the root of the
     namespace is used.

     The output format is spartan and intended for use in wrapper scripts
     creating configuration files for other PCP tools.  By default, there is
     one line of output per metric, with the metric name followed by a count
     of the number of available values.  Error conditions are encoded as a
     negative value count (as per the PMAPI(3) protocols, but may be decoded
     using pmerr(1)) and followed by a textual description of the error.

     Unless directed to another host by the -h option, pmprobe will contact
     the Performance Metrics Collector Daemon (PMCD) on the local host.

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

     Normally pmprobe operates on the default Performance Metrics Name Space
     (PMNS), however, if the -n option is specified an alternative namespace
     is loaded from the file pmnsfile.  Independent of the -n option, the
     namespace is always local to the machine on which pmprobe is run.

     Other options control the output of additional information when one or
     more values is available.

     -I   Report the external identifiers for each instance.  The literal
          string PM_IN_NULL is reported for singular metrics.

     -i   Report the internal identifiers for each instance.  The values are
          in decimal and prefixed by ``?''.  As a special case, the literal
          string PM_IN_NULL is reported for singular metrics.

     -v   Report the value for each instance, as per the formatting rules of
          pmPrintValue(3).

     The -I, -i and -v options are mutually exclusive.

     The -V option provides a cryptic summary of the number of messages sent
     and received across the PMAPI interface.
EXAMPLES
     $ pmprobe irix.disk.dev
     irix.disk.dev.read 2
     irix.disk.dev.write 2
     irix.disk.dev.total 2
     irix.disk.dev.blkread 2
     irix.disk.dev.blkwrite 2
     irix.disk.dev.blktotal 2
     irix.disk.dev.active 2
     irix.disk.dev.response 2

     $ pmprobe -I irix.disk.dev.read irix.disk.dev.write \
       irix.disk.all.total
     irix.disk.dev.read 2 "dks0d1" "dks0d2"
     irix.disk.dev.write 2 "dks0d1" "dks0d2"
     irix.disk.all.total 1 PM_IN_NULL

     $ pmprobe -v pmcd.numagents pmcd.version pmcd.control.timeout
     pmcd.numagents 1 9
     pmcd.version 1 "2.0 beta-1"
     pmcd.control.timeout 1 5

     $ pmprobe -v disk.dev.total irix.disk.all.total
     disk.dev.total -1012 Unknown metric name
     irix.disk.all.total 1 4992466

FILES
     /var/pcp/pmns/*         default PMNS specification files

SEE ALSO
     PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmchart(1), pmdumplog(1), pminfo(1), PMAPI(3),
     pmErrStr(3) and pmns(4).