---
name: "pmFetchHighResArchive"
section: "3"
platform: "linux"
package: "libpcp3-dev"
version: "6.3.8-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/pmFetchArchive"
---

# pmFetchHighResArchive(3)

get performance metric values directly from archives

Part of [pmFetchArchive(3)](/pmFetchArchive/3.md).

## NAME

**pmFetchArchive**, **pmFetchHighResArchive** - get performance metric values directly from archives

## C SYNOPSIS

**#include \<pcp/pmapi.h\>**

**int pmFetchArchive(pmResult \*\****result***);**\
 **int pmFetchHighResArchive(pmHighResResult \*\****result***);**

**cc ... -lpcp**

## DESCRIPTION

The **pmFetchArchive** and **pmFetchHighResArchive** APIs are variants of the [**pmFetch**(3)](/pmFetch/3.md) and [**pmFetchHighRes**(3)](/pmFetchHighRes/3.md) interfaces that may only be used when the current Performance Metrics Application Programming Interface (PMAPI) context is associated with a set of archives.

The *result* is instantiated with all of the metrics (and instances) from the next archive record, consequently there is no notion of a list of desired metrics, and the instance profile of the PMAPI context is ignored.

**pmFetchArchive** and **pmFetchHighResArchive** may return a *result* in which *numpmid* is zero. This is a *\<mark\>* record that indicates a temporal discontinuity in the time series of performance metrics. This can happen at the boundary between archives in a set or if the archive associated with the current PMAPI context was created using [**pmlogextract**(1)](/pmlogextract/1.md) to concatenate two or more PCP archives, and the *\<mark\>* record marks a point in time between the end of one input archive and the start of the next input archive.

It is expected that **pmFetchArchive** and **pmFetchHighResArchive** will be used to create utilities that scan sets of archives, while the more common access to the archives would be via the **pmFetch** and **pmFetchHighRes** interfaces.

To skip records within the set of archives, use [**pmSetMode**(3)](/pmSetMode/3.md) or [**pmSetModeHighRes**(3)](/pmSetModeHighRes/3.md) to change the collection time within the current PMAPI context, then call either **pmFetchArchive** or **pmFetchHighResArchive**.

Note that the *result* returned by both **pmFetchArchive** and **pmFetchHighResArchive** is dynamically allocated, and must be released using either [**pmFreeResult**(3)](/pmFreeResult/3.md) or [**pmFreeHighResResult**(3)](/pmFreeHighResResult/3.md), but not [**free**(3)](/free/3.md). See [**pmFetch**(3)](/pmFetch/3.md), [**pmFetchHighRes**(3)](/pmFetchHighRes/3.md), [**pmFreeResult**(3)](/pmFreeResult/3.md) and [**pmFreeHighResResult**(3)](/pmFreeHighResResult/3.md) for further details.

Both **pmFetchArchive** and **pmFetchHighResArchive** returns zero on success.

## DIAGNOSTICS

- **PM\_ERR\_NOTARCHIVE**

  the current PMAPI context is not associated with a set of archives

## SEE ALSO

[**PMAPI**(3)](/PMAPI/3.md), [**pmFetchHighRes**(3)](/pmFetchHighRes/3.md), [**pmSetModeHighRes**(3)](/pmSetModeHighRes/3.md), [**pmFreeHighResResult**(3)](/pmFreeHighResResult/3.md), [**pmFetch**(3)](/pmFetch/3.md), [**pmFreeResult**(3)](/pmFreeResult/3.md), [**pmNewContext**(3)](/pmNewContext/3.md), [**pmSetMode**(3)](/pmSetMode/3.md) and [**pmTrimNameSpace**(3)](/pmTrimNameSpace/3.md).