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

# pmiPutValue(3)

add a value for a metric-instance pair

## NAME

**pmiPutValue** - add a value for a metric-instance pair

## C SYNOPSIS

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

**int pmiPutValue(const char \****name***,** **const char \****instance***,** **const char \****value***);**

**cc ... -lpcp\_import -lpcp**

## Perl SYNOPSIS

**use PCP::LogImport;**

**pmiPutValue($***name***, $***instance***, $***value***);**

## Python SYNOPSIS

**from pcp import pmi**

**log.pmiPutValue(***name***,** *instance***,** *value***)**

## DESCRIPTION

As part of the Performance Co-Pilot Log Import API (see [**LOGIMPORT**(3)](/LOGIMPORT/3.md)), **pmiPutValue** adds a single value to the current output record for a given metric and instance.

The metric's *name* should match one defined earlier in a call to [**pmiAddMetric**(3)](/pmiAddMetric/3.md).

For singular metrics (those defined with an instance domain of **PM\_INDOM\_NULL**), the *instance* should be NULL or an empty string, otherwise *instance* should match the name of an instance defined earlier in a call to [**pmiAddInstance**(3)](/pmiAddInstance/3.md) for the metric's instance domain.

The *value* should be in a format consistent with the metric's type as defined in the call to [**pmiAddMetric**(3)](/pmiAddMetric/3.md).

No data will be written until [**pmiWrite**(3)](/pmiWrite/3.md) is called, so multiple calls to **pmiPutValue** or [**pmiPutValueHandle**(3)](/pmiPutValueHandle/3.md) are typically used to accumulate data values for several metric-instance pairs before calling [**pmiWrite**(3)](/pmiWrite/3.md).

## DIAGNOSTICS

**pmiPutValue** returns zero on success else a negative value that can be turned into an error message by calling [**pmiErrStr**(3)](/pmiErrStr/3.md).

## SEE ALSO

[**LOGIMPORT**(3)](/LOGIMPORT/3.md), [**pmiAddInstance**(3)](/pmiAddInstance/3.md), [**pmiAddMetric**(3)](/pmiAddMetric/3.md), [**pmiErrStr**(3)](/pmiErrStr/3.md), [**pmiPutResult**(3)](/pmiPutResult/3.md), [**pmiPutValueHandle**(3)](/pmiPutValueHandle/3.md), [**pmiPutText**(3)](/pmiPutText/3.md), [**pmiPutLabel**(3)](/pmiPutLabel/3.md) and [**pmiWrite**(3)](/pmiWrite/3.md).