--- name: "pmlogger_janitor" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "pcp" version: "7.2.2-2" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/pmlogger_janitor" --- # pmlogger\_janitor(1) management helper for Performance Co-Pilot archive files ## NAME **pmlogger\_janitor** - management helper for Performance Co-Pilot archive files ## SYNOPSIS **$PCP\_BINADM\_DIR/pmlogger\_janitor** \[**-NV?**\] \[**-c** *control*\] \[**-l** *logfile*\] \[**-X** *program*\] \[**-Y** *regex*\] ## DESCRIPTION Typically **pmlogger\_janitor** is not used directly, rather it is called from [**pmlogger\_check**(1)](/pmlogger_check/1.md) to clean up any residual processes and state files associated with moribund instances of [**pmlogger**(1)](/pmlogger/1.md). If **pmlogger\_janitor** is run directly, it needs to be run as the user **$PCP\_USER**; the only exception is when the **-N** option is used. ## OPTIONS - **-c** *control*, **--control**=*control* Like **pmlogger\_check (1)** and [**pmlogger\_daily**(1)](/pmlogger_daily/1.md), **pmlogger\_janitor** is controlled by PCP logger control file(s) that specify the **pmlogger** instances to be managed. The default *control* file is **$PCP\_PMLOGGERCONTROL\_PATH** but an alternate may be specified using the **-c** option. If the directory **$PCP\_PMLOGGERCONTROL\_PATH.d** (or *control***.d** from the **-c** option) exists, then the contents of any additional *control* files therein will be appended to the main control file (which must exist). - **-l** *file*, **--logfile**=*file* In order to ensure that mail is not unintentionally sent when this script is run from [**cron**(8)](/cron/8.md) or [**systemd**(1)](/systemd/1.md) diagnostics are always sent to log files. By default, this file is **$PCP\_LOG\_DIR/pmlogger/pmlogger\_janitor.log** but this can be changed using the **-l** option. If this log *file* already exists when the script starts, it will be renamed with a **.prev** suffix (overwriting any log file saved earlier) before diagnostics are generated to the log file. - **-N**, **--showme** This option enables a \`\`show me'' mode, where the actions are echoed, but not executed, in the style of \`\`make -n''. Using **-N** in conjunction with **-V** maximizes the diagnostic capabilities for debugging. - **-V**, **--verbose** The **-V** option enables verbose tracing. By default **pmlogger\_janitor** generates no output unless some error or warning condition is encountered. A second **-V** increases the verbosity. Using **-N** in conjunction with **-V** maximizes the diagnostic capabilities for debugging. - **-X** *program*, **--compressor**=*program* This option specifies the program to use for compression. Refer to [**pmlogger\_daily**(1)](/pmlogger_daily/1.md) for details. - **-Y** *regex*, **--regex**=*regex* This option allows a regular expression to be specified causing files in the set of files matched for compression to be omitted. Refer to [**pmlogger\_daily**(1)](/pmlogger_daily/1.md) for details. - **-?**, **--help** Display usage message and exit. ## OPERATION **pmlogger\_janitor** operates in a number of passes looking for things to cleanup. - *Pass 1* Scan the **pmlogger** port map files in the **$PCP\_TMP\_DIR/pmlogger** directory. Use the process id (PID) from the name of the port map file and [**ps**(1)](/ps/1.md) to check and if the process exists and it \`\`looks like'' an active **pmlogger**; if so append the PID and the directory where the archive is being written (extracted from the port map file) to a list of interest, otherwise the port map file is assumed to be associated with a **pmlogger** that has exited and the port map file is removed. - *Pass 2* Use [**ps**(1)](/ps/1.md) to scan all processes and identify any **pmlogger** instances that were started by **pmlogger\_check**(3) or **pmlogger\_daily**(3), these will have a signature **-m** option in their arguments. Append the PIDs and directories where the archive is being written (extracted from the command line arguments) to the list of interest. - *Pass 3* Parse all of the [**pmlogger.control**(5)](/pmlogger.control/5.md) files from either the standard places, or *control* if the **-c** option is used. For each **pmlogger** instance, it should be in the list of interest, and if so remove it from that list. If the list of interest is empty at the end of this Pass, we're done. - *Pass 4* Each process remaining in the list of interest is a **pmlogger** that is running, but should not be; probably as a result of a change to the [**pmlogger.control**(5)](/pmlogger.control/5.md) files. Send each process a SIGTERM. - *Pass 5* For each process remaining in the list of interest after *Pass 3* compress any archives in the directory **pmlogger** was writing into. This is the only step where the **-X** and **-Y** options might be used. - *Pass 6* For each **pmlogger** sent a SIGTERM in *Pass 4* check that it has exited and if not send it a SIGKILL. ## FILES - **$PCP\_LOG\_DIR/pmlogger/pmlogger\_janitor.log** if the previous execution of **pmlogger\_janitor** produced any output it is saved here. The normal case is no output in which case the file does not exist. - **$PCP\_ARCHIVE\_DIR/SaveLogs** if this directory exists, then the log file from the **-l** argument for **pmlogger\_janitor** will be saved in this directory with the name of the format \-**pmlogger\_janitor**.**log**.\ This allows the log file to be inspected at a later time, even if several **pmlogger\_janitor** executions have been launched in the interim. **$PCP\_ARCHIVE\_DIR/SaveLogs** needs to be owned by the user **$PCP\_USER**. - **$PCP\_TMP\_DIR/pmlogger** **pmlogger** maintains the files in this directory as the port map between the PID of the **pmlogger** instance, the IPC port that may be used to control each **pmlogger** instance (as used by [**pmlc**(1)](/pmlc/1.md)), the name of the host where [**pmcd**(1)](/pmcd/1.md) is providing the metrics for **pmlogger**, the remote connection string for the remote HTTP server that is receiving the logged data or the full path to the archive base name for a local logger and any annotation from the **-m** or **-x** options; all of this information is also available via the pmcd.pmlogger.\* metrics, e.g. $ pminfo -f pmcd.pmlogger ## PCP ENVIRONMENT 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)](/pcp.conf/5.md). ## SEE ALSO [**PCPIntro**(1)](/PCPIntro/1.md), [**pmcd**(1)](/pmcd/1.md), [**pmlc**(1)](/pmlc/1.md), [**pmlogctl**(1)](/pmlogctl/1.md), [**pmlogger**(1)](/pmlogger/1.md), [**pmlogger\_check**(1)](/pmlogger_check/1.md), [**pmlogger\_daily**(1)](/pmlogger_daily/1.md), [**ps**(1)](/ps/1.md), [**systemd**(1)](/systemd/1.md), [**pmlogger.control**(5)](/pmlogger.control/5.md) and [**cron**(8)](/cron/8.md).