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NAME | DESCRIPTION | FILE FORMAT | EXAMPLES | FILES | PCP ENVIRONMENT | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
PCP-DSTAT(5) File Formats Manual PCP-DSTAT(5)
pcp-dstat - pcp-dstat configuration file
pcp-dstat is a customizable performance metrics reporting tool. It
has a ``plugin'' architecture, where a set of pre-defined plugins
offer small sets of columnar metric reports, and pcp-dstat command
line options select which of these plugins are used in the generated
report.
Each plugin is defined in a section of a configuration file. A
typical installation will provide many configuration files, and often
multiple sections (plugins) within each file.
Configuration files are read from both a system directory and the
users home directory ($PCP_ETC_DIR/pcp/dstat and $HOME/.pcp/dstat).
The configuration files have an ini-style syntax consisting of
sections (plugins) and options within sections. A section begins
with the name of the plugin in square brackets and continues until
the next section begins. An example section with two options
follows:
[plugin]
option = value
metric.option = value2
A line comment starts with a hash sign (``#'') or a semicolon
(``;''). Inline comments are not supported.
There are some options which apply to the plugin as a whole, and
anything else is considered to be a column definition. Column
definitions map directly to individual PCP metrics.
The [plugin] options
label (string)
The overall title to be used for this plugin. In the special
case of metrics with instances being reported as a group (see
grouptype below) this string may contain the %I pattern, which
will be substituted with the name of the instance - refer to the
cpu, disk, net and int(errupts) plugins for examples of this
special syntax. Undefined by default, set automatically to the
section (plugin) name.
width (integer)
The column width used for metrics in this plugin. The default is
5.
precision (integer)
The maximum precision to be used when reporting columns in
floating point for this plugin. Undefined by default, set
automatically based on width.
printtype (character)
Indicates the reporting style for metric values in this plugin.
Possible settings are d(ecimal), f(loat), p(ercent), s(tring),
b(its), t(ime). By default a setting will be used based on the
metric type and semantic - refer to PMAPI(3) for further details
of PCP metric metadata.
colorstep (integer)
Indicates a ``step'' at which the next color will be transitioned
to, when reporting metric values. As metric values change on
each sample, the colorstep is used to determine the increments
beyond which a new color is to be selected. Defaults to 1000.
grouptype (integer)
For plugins with metrics sharing the same instance domain, it is
possible to request more complex grouping behaviour. The default
behaviour is to not use instance grouping, and to report each
instance of the metric in a separate column (the load plugin is
an example of this, using the kernel.all.load metric).
The grouping can be set at three distinct levels - 1, 2 or 3.
Level 1 displays instances of metrics only (no totals) - this is
the equivalent of using the --cpu plugin on the pcp-dstat command
line with specific processors' utilization displayed, e.g.
displaying CPU numbers 4, 5 and 12 (-C 4,5,12). Level 2 displays
the total column - the sum of all instances for the specified
metric(s) in this plugin. Level 3 is a combination of both
modes, for example using the pcp-dstat --cpu plugin with options
-C 4,5,12,total.
instances (comma-separated-value string)
Defines the instances to be reported for the metric. The default
is to report all instances for set-values metrics.
cullinsts (regex pattern)
An optional regular expression that can be used to cull metric
instances from the generated reports. For example it is common
to exclude loopback devices from the network interface reports,
this is achieved using this option. Default is to report on all
instances (no culling).
The [plugin] metrics
Each plugin must have at least one metric associated with it. Any
key that is not one of the above global plugin options is considered
to be a metric specification or a metric option. These keys define
the metrics and their report formatting.
First and foremost, each column is typically represented by an
individual metric (if the metric is set-valued - i.e. it has
instances - this will result in multiple columns). This is specified
by a new key (column) being set to a metric specification. The
column (key) name is an arbitrary word using alphabetic characters.
The metric specification is any PCP metric name or derived metric
specification, allowing basic arithmetic calculations to be used to
form this individual column. The derived metric syntax is described
on the pmRegisterDerived(3) manual page.
Some examples of both forms of metric specification are given below
in the ``EXAMPLES'' section. Once a column has been associated with
a metric, other options specific to that column can be set using a
dot-separated syntax.
Metric options
metric.label
The subtitle to be used for the reported values of this metric.
The default label is the column name from the configuration file.
When set-valued PCP metrics (i.e. with instances) are being used,
it is often convenient to specify either the instance number or
instance name in the heading. This is achieved using format
specifiers - ``%d'' or ``%i'' for instance numbers (e.g. replaced
by ``6'' for the sixth processor), and ``%s'' or ``%I'' for
instance names (e.g. replaced by ``eth0'' for the ethernet
interface). Available instance names for any metric can be
discovered via the pminfo(1) or pmprobe(1) commands.
metric.width
The column width to be used when reporting values for this
metric.
metric.unit (string)
Defines the unit/scale conversion for the metric. Needs to be
dimension-compatible and is used with non-string metrics. For
allowed values, see pmrep(1).
metric.type (string)
If set to raw rate conversion for the metric will be disabled.
metric.precision (integer)
Defines precision for floating point values.
metric.limit (string)
Defines value limit filter for numeric metric values.
The following example defines a virtual filesystem plugin, with two
columns, defined using three PCP metrics - vfs.files.count,
vfs.inodes.count and vfs.inodes.free. The inodes metrics are
combined using the derived metric notation.
[vfs]
width = 6
label = filesystem
files = vfs.files.count
inode = vfs.inodes.count - vfs.inodes.free
inode.label = inodes
The system default pcp-dstat plugin files contain many more examples.
$HOME/.pcp/dstat/
private per-user configuration files
$PCP_ETC_DIR/pcp/dstat/
system-wide configuration files
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).
For environment variables affecting PCP tools, see pmGetOptions(3).
PCPIntro(1), pcp-dstat(1), pminfo(1), pmprobe(1), pmrep(1), PMAPI(3),
pmGetOptions(3), pmRegisterDerived(3) and pmrep.conf(5).
This page is part of the PCP (Performance Co-Pilot) project.
Information about the project can be found at ⟨http://www.pcp.io/⟩.
If you have a bug report for this manual page, send it to
pcp@groups.io. This page was obtained from the project's upstream
Git repository ⟨https://github.com/performancecopilot/pcp.git⟩ on
2020-08-13. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that
was found in the repository was 2020-08-11.) If you discover any
rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe
there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
Performance Co-Pilot PCP PCP-DSTAT(5)