---
name: "pmLookupText"
section: "3"
platform: "linux"
package: "pcp"
version: "7.2.2-2"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/pmLookupText"
---

# pmLookupText(3)

return text describing a performance metric

## NAME

**pmLookupText** - return text describing a performance metric

## C SYNOPSIS

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

**int pmLookupText(pmID** *pmid***, int** *level***, char \*\****buffer***);**

**cc ... -lpcp**

## DESCRIPTION

Retrieve descriptive text about the performance metric identified by *pmid*.

The argument *level* should be  either **PM\_TEXT\_ONELINE** for a one-line summary, else **PM\_TEXT\_HELP** for a more verbose description, suited to a help dialog.

The space pointed to by *buffer* will have been allocated in **pmLookupText** with [**malloc**(3)](/malloc/3.md), and it is the responsibility of the caller to [**free**(3)](/free/3.md) the space when it is no longer required.

**pmLookupText** returns zero on success.

## DIAGNOSTICS

- **PM\_ERR\_NOTHOST**

  For archives created with versions of PCP prior to 4.0, if the current PMAPI context is an archive (help and one-line text was previously not maintained in the archives)

## SEE ALSO

[**chkhelp**(1)](/chkhelp/1.md), [**newhelp**(1)](/newhelp/1.md), [**PMAPI**(3)](/PMAPI/3.md), [**pmGetConfig**(3)](/pmGetConfig/3.md), [**pmLookupDesc**(3)](/pmLookupDesc/3.md), **[pmLookupLabels(3)](/pmLookupLabels/3.md),** [**pmLookupInDomText**(3)](/pmLookupInDomText/3.md), [**pcp.conf**(5)](/pcp.conf/5.md) and [**pcp.env**(5)](/pcp.env/5.md).