--- name: "pmprobe" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "pcp" version: "7.2.2-2" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/pmprobe" --- # pmprobe(1) lightweight probe for performance metrics ## NAME **pmprobe** - lightweight probe for performance metrics ## SYNOPSIS **pmprobe** \[**-dfFiILvVz?**\] \[**-a** *archive*\] \[**-b** *batchsize*\] \[**--container**=*name*\] \[**-D** *debug*\] \[**--derived**=*file*\] \[**-h** *hostname*\] \[**-K** *spec*\] \[**-n** *pmnsfile*\] \[**-O** *time*\] \[**-Z** *timezone*\] \[*metricname* ...\] ## DESCRIPTION **pmprobe** determines the availability of performance metrics exported through the facilities of the Performance Co-Pilot (PCP). The metrics of interest are named in the *metricname* arguments. If *metricname* is a non-leaf node in the Performance Metrics Name Space ([**PMNS**(5)](/PMNS/5.md)), then **pmprobe** will recursively descend the PMNS and report on all leaf nodes. If no *metricname* argument is given, the root of the namespace is used. This recursive expansion of the PMNS can be inhibited by the **-F** (go faster) option, which reduces the number of roundtrips to [**pmcd**(1)](/pmcd/1.md) when the *metricname* arguments are known to be leaf nodes ahead of time. The output format is spartan and intended for use in wrapper scripts creating configuration files for other PCP tools. By default, there is one line of output per metric, with the metric name followed by a count of the number of available values. Error conditions are encoded as a negative value count (as per the [**PMAPI**(3)](/PMAPI/3.md) protocols, but may be decoded using [**pmerr**(1)](/pmerr/1.md)) and followed by a textual description of the error. Unless directed to another host by the **-h** option, **pmprobe** will contact the Performance Metrics Collector Daemon (PMCD) on the local host. The **-a** option causes **pmprobe** to use the specified set of archives rather than connecting to a PMCD. The **-L** option causes **pmprobe** to use a local context to collect metrics from PMDAs on the local host without PMCD. Only some metrics are available in this mode. The **-a**, **-h** and **-L** options are mutually exclusive. ## OPTIONS 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. - **-b**, **--batch** This option may be used to define the maximum number of metrics to be fetched in a single request for the **-v** option and any [**pmLookupName**(3)](/pmLookupName/3.md) request that **pmprobe** calls with a list of leaf metric names. The default value for *batchsize* is 128. This option is useful to avoid limitations on PDU request sizes and also to stagger fetches, which may otherwise timeout if [**pmcd**(1)](/pmcd/1.md) or a PMDA is slow to respond, particularly if a large number of metrics are probed. - **--container**=*container* Specify an individual *container* to be queried. - **-d**, **--version** Display version number and exit. - **--derived**=*dmfile* The *dmfile* argument specifies a file that contains derived metric definitions in the format described for [**pmLoadDerivedConfig**(3)](/pmLoadDerivedConfig/3.md). This option provides a way to load derived metric definitions that is an alternative to the more generic use of the **PCP\_DERIVED\_CONFIG** environment variable as described in [**PCPIntro**(1)](/PCPIntro/1.md). Using the **--derived** option and the **PCP\_DERIVED\_CONFIG** environment variable to specify the **same** configuration is a bad idea, so choose one or the other method. - **-f**, **--force** When used with **-i** or **-I** the set of instances reported will be all of those known at the source of the performance data. By default the set of reported instances are those for which values are currently available, which may be smaller than the set reported with **-f**. - **-F**, **--faster** Assume given metric names are PMNS leaf nodes. - **-h** *host*, **--host**=*host* Connect to [**pmcd**(1)](/pmcd/1.md) on *host*, rather than on the default localhost. - **-i**, **--internal** Report the internal identifiers for each instance. The values are in decimal and prefixed by \`\`?''. As a special case, the literal string **PM\_IN\_NULL** is reported for singular metrics. - **-I**, **--external** Report the external identifiers for each instance. The literal string **PM\_IN\_NULL** is reported for singular metrics. - **-K** *spec*, **--spec-local**=*spec* When using the **-L/** option to fetch metrics from a local context, this option controls the DSO PMDAs that should be made accessible. The *spec* argument conforms to the syntax described in [**pmSpecLocalPMDA**(3)](/pmSpecLocalPMDA/3.md). More than one **-K** option may be used. - **-L**, **--local-PMDA** Use a local context to collect metrics from DSO PMDAs on the local host without PMCD. See also **-K**. - **-n** *pmnsfile*, **--namespace**=*pmnsfile* Normally **pmprobe** operates on the distributed Performance Metrics Name Space (PMNS), however, if the **-n** option is specified an alternative local PMNS file is loaded from the file *pmnsfile*. - **-O** *time*, **--origin**=*time* When used in conjunction with an archive source of metrics and the options **-f/**, the *time* argument defines a time origin at which the metrics should be fetched from the set of archives. Refer to [**PCPIntro**(1)](/PCPIntro/1.md) for a complete description of this option, and the syntax for the *time* argument. - **-v**, **--values** Report the value for each instance, as per the formatting rules of [**pmPrintValue**(3)](/pmPrintValue/3.md). When fetching from a set of archives, only those instances present in the first archive record for a metric will be displayed; see also the **-O** option. The **-v** option is mutually exclusive with either the **-I** or **-i** options. - **-V**, **--verbose** This option provides a cryptic summary of the number of messages sent and received across the PMAPI interface. - **-z**, **--hostzone** Change the reporting 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. - **-Z** *timezone*, **--timezone**=*timezone* By default, **pmprobe** reports the time of day according to the local timezone on the system where **pmprobe** is run. The **-Z** option changes the timezone to *timezone* in the format of the environment variable TZ as described in [**environ**(7)](/environ/7.md). - **-?**, **--help** Display usage message and exit. ## EXAMPLES ``` $ pmprobe disk.dev disk.dev.read 2 disk.dev.write 2 disk.dev.total 2 disk.dev.blkread 2 disk.dev.blkwrite 2 disk.dev.blktotal 2 disk.dev.active 2 disk.dev.response 2 $ pmprobe -I disk.dev.read disk.dev.write disk.all.total disk.dev.read 2 "sda" "sdb" disk.dev.write 2 "sda" "sdb" disk.all.total 1 PM_IN_NULL $ pmprobe -v pmcd.numagents pmcd.version pmcd.control.timeout pmcd.numagents 1 9 pmcd.version 1 "5.0.0" pmcd.control.timeout 1 5 $ pmprobe -v disk.dev.total disk.all.total disk.dev.total -1012 Unknown metric name disk.all.total 1 4992466 ``` ## FILES - *$PCP\_VAR\_DIR/pmns/\** default PMNS specification files ## PCP ENVIRONMENT Environment variables with the prefix **PCP\_** are used to parameterize the file and directory names used by PCP. On each installation, the file */etc/pcp.conf* contains the local values for these variables. The **$PCP\_CONF** variable may be used to specify an alternative configuration file, as described in [**pcp.conf**(5)](/pcp.conf/5.md). For environment variables affecting PCP tools, see [**pmGetOptions**(3)](/pmGetOptions/3.md). ## DEBUGGING OPTIONS 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 than for end-users. *debug* is a comma separated list of debugging options; use [**pmdbg**(1)](/pmdbg/1.md) with the **-l** option to obtain a list of the available debugging options and their meaning. Debugging options specific to **pmprobe** are as follows: | | | | --- | --- | | Option | Description | | appl0 | batch information when **-b** used | ## SEE ALSO [**PCPIntro**(1)](/PCPIntro/1.md), [**pmcd**(1)](/pmcd/1.md), [**pminfo**(1)](/pminfo/1.md), [**pmlogdump**(1)](/pmlogdump/1.md), [**PMAPI**(3)](/PMAPI/3.md), [**pmErrStr**(3)](/pmErrStr/3.md), [**pmGetOptions**(3)](/pmGetOptions/3.md), [**pmSpecLocalPMDA**(3)](/pmSpecLocalPMDA/3.md), [**pcp.conf**(5)](/pcp.conf/5.md), [**pcp.env**(5)](/pcp.env/5.md) and [**PMNS**(5)](/PMNS/5.md).