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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | FILES | PCP ENVIRONMENT | DEBUGGING OPTIONS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
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PMCLIENT(1) General Commands Manual PMCLIENT(1)
pmclient, pmclient_fg - a simple performance metrics client
pmclient [-PVz?] [-a archive] [-A align] [-D debug] [-h host] [-n
pmnsfile] [-O origin] [-s samples] [-S starttime] [-t interval]
[-T endtime] [-Z timezone]
pmclient_fg ...
pmclient and pmclient_fg are simple clients that use the
Performance Metrics Application Programming Interface (PMAPI) to
report some high-level system performance metrics.
The real value of these tools is as sample clients using the
PMAPI(3), interfaces and to this end the source code is included
with the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) package (see PCPIntro(1)), and
is typically installed in /usr/share/pcp/demos/pmclient.
The pmclient_fg program differs to pmclient in that it uses the
fetchgroup API extension to the PMAPI, see pmFetchGroup(3).
Normally pmclient 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.
Unless directed to another host by the -h option, or to an archive
by the -a option, pmclient will contact the Performance Metrics
Collector Daemon (PMCD) on the local host to obtain the required
information. The argument to -a is a comma-separated list of
names, each of which may be the base name of an archive or the
name of a directory containing one or more archives. The -a and
-h options are mutually exclusive.
By default, pmclient reports the time of day according to the
local timezone on the system where pmclient is run. The -Z option
changes the timezone to timezone in the format of the environment
variable TZ as described in environ(7). The -z option changes the
timezone to the local timezone at the host that is the source of
the performance metrics, as identified via either the -h or -a
options.
The output from pmclient is directed to standard output, and lists
+ Aggregate CPU utilization, in the range 0 to 1.
+ If the system has more than 1 CPU, the ordinal number of the
busiest CPU, in the range 0 to ...
+ If the system has more than 1 CPU, the CPU utilization for the
busiest CPU.
+ Real free memory in Mbytes.
+ Aggregate physical disk I/O operations per second (IOPS).
+ Load average over the last 1 minute and over the last 15
minutes.
The available command line options are:
-a archive, --archive=archive
Performance metric values are retrieved from the set of
Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) archive files identified by the
archive argument, which is a comma-separated list of names,
each of which may be the base name of an archive or the name
of a directory containing one or more archives.
-A align, --align=align
Force the initial sample to be aligned on the boundary of a
natural time unit align. Refer to PCPIntro(1) for a complete
description of the syntax for align.
-h host, --host=host
Fetch performance metrics from pmcd(1) on host, rather than
from the default localhost.
-n pmnsfile, --namespace=pmnsfile
Load an alternative Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS(5))
from the file pmnsfile.
-O origin, --origin=origin
When reporting archived metrics, start reporting at origin
within the time window (see -S and -T). Refer to PCPIntro(1)
for a complete description of the syntax for origin.
-P, --pause
The default behavior for replaying a set of archives, is to
replay at full speed. The -P option may be used in
conjunction with a set of archives, to request that the
prevailing real-time delay be applied between samples (see
-t) to effect a pause.
-s samples, --samples=samples
The samples argument defines the number of samples to be
retrieved and reported. If samples is 0 or -s is not
specified, pmclient will sample and report continuously (in
real time mode) or until the end of the set of PCP archives
(in archive mode).
-S starttime, --start=starttime
The -S option may be used in conjunction with a set of
archives to request that display start at the starttime from
the start of the archive(s). Refer to PCPIntro(1) for a
complete description of the syntax for starttime.
-t interval, --interval=interval
Set the reporting interval to something other than the
default 5 seconds. The interval argument follows the syntax
described in PCPIntro(1), and in the simplest form may be an
unsigned integer (the implied units in this case are
seconds).
-T endtime, --finish=endtime
When reporting archived metrics, the report will be
restricted to those records logged before or at endtime.
Refer to PCPIntro(1) for a complete description of the syntax
for endtime.
-V, --version
Display version number and exit.
-z, --hostzone
Use the local timezone of the host that is the source of the
performance metrics, as identified by either the -h or the -a
options. The default is to use the timezone of the local
host.
-Z timezone, --timezone=timezone
Use timezone for the date and time. Timezone is in the
format of the environment variable TZ as described in
environ(7).
-?, --help
Display usage message and exit.
$PCP_DEMOS_DIR/pmclient
source code, documentation, configuration files and Makefile
when the PCP development package is installed
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).
The -D or --debug option enables the output of additional
diagnostics on stderr to help triage problems, although the
information is sometimes cryptic and primarily intended to provide
guidance for developers rather end-users. debug is a comma
separated list of debugging options; use pmdbg(1) with the -l
option to obtain a list of the available debugging options and
their meaning.
PCPIntro(1), pmcd(1), pmchart(1), pmdumptext(1), pmgenmap(1),
pminfo(1), pmrep(1), pmstat(1), pmval(1), PMAPI(3),
pmFetchGroup(3), pcp.conf(5), pcp.env(5) and PMNS(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 [email protected]. This page was obtained from the
project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/performancecopilot/pcp.git⟩ on 2025-08-11.
(At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found
in the repository was 2025-08-11.) 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
[email protected]
Performance Co-Pilot PCP PMCLIENT(1)
Pages that refer to this page: pmstat(1)
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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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