--- name: "pmview" section: "5" platform: "linux" package: "pcp" version: "7.2.2-2" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/pmview/5" --- # pmview(5) configuration file format for performance views ## NAME **pmview** - configuration file format for performance views ## DESCRIPTION This man page describes version 2.1 of the **pmview (1)** configuration file format. The configuration format supports metrics from multiple hosts or archives. A configuration file can specify metrics without a source, with different hosts and different archives. However, a configuration file that contains archives may only have one archive for any one host. When in \`\`replay'' mode, any metrics with host specific sources require an archive to be specified for that host on the command line or as a source to a previous metric. The archive must be the same archive (based on a string comparison of the archive names) of any archives specified in the configuration file for the same host. The time controls will list all hosts that are specified on the command line and the configuration file in the timezone listing (see [**pmtime**(1)](/pmtime/1.md)). The configuration file format is based on a two-dimensional grid which can contain a variety of bars, stacks, links, pipes, labels and other grids. The grids resize each column and row to match the size of the largest item in that column or row. A configuration file that contains only one object does not require a grid. The **pmview** configuration file starts with an identification header in the first non-comment line: ``` pmview Version 2.1 [command_line] ``` The optional *command\_line* should be the command line with which the tool was launched, if the configuration file has been generated by another tool. This is useful for applications that are to be restarted automatically on the next login, after the user has logged out while **pmview** was still running. Care should be taken to ensure that the command specified is either a full pathname or will be found on the PATH available at login. All lines which begin with \`\`#'' are treated as comments and ignored. Otherwise, all spaces, tabs and newlines are treated as white space so multiple commands may be on the same line. The syntax for specifying values in the configuration file is consistent for all commands, namely: - *color* A color must be either one of the 20-or so **Qt** color names (refer to the QColor class at https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qcolor.html#predefined-colors), or an **HTML** hexadecimal color value (enclosed in quotes, e.g. "#ff6347"), or three normalized *real* values representing the saturation of red, green and blue. For example, the following colors are identical: ``` red "#ff0000" 1.0 0.0 0.0 ``` - *int* An integer. - *metric* A metric consists of an optional source (host or archive), the metric name, an optional instance list immediately after name, followed by the maximum (or normalization value). A colon (\`\`:'') is used to separate a host name from the metric, and a forward slash (\`\`/'') to separate an archive name from the metric. Instances are enclosed in square brackets and comma separated. Each instance may be enclosed in quotes. - For example, some legal metrics are: ``` kernel.all.cpu.idle 4000 myhost:kernel.all.cpu.idle[cpu0,"cpu3"] 1000.0 /path/to/myarchive/kernel.all.cpu.idle[cpu1] 1000 ``` To assist the process of matching instance names, two further comparisons are made beyond a simple string comparison. If the instance name contains spaces, only the first word in the instance name is required to match the instance, assuming that the first word is unique. If the first word is not unique, only the first matching instance will be selected. The second comparison occurs if the first word is a number with leading zeros. Any leading zeros will be skipped before comparing the first word again. This permits process ids used in the *proc* metrics to be easily matched, without specifying the entire instance name. For example, to visualize the user and system time of *init* use the metric specification ``` proc.psusage.utime[1] 1000 proc.psusage.stime[1] 1000 ``` - *name* A name for an object which may be referred to later in the configuration file. Names must be a single word consisting of all alphanumeric characters, as well as underscores, dashes and colons. It is recommended that names do not begin with an underscore as this may be interpreted as a keyword. - *pos* This is the position of the object within the grid. The syntax of a position is: - \[ \[*x* *z*\] \[ \[*width* *depth*\] \[*alignment*\] \] \] - *x* The horizontal coordinate (left to right) of the object, starting at 0. The default *x* is 0. - *z* The vertical coordinate (top to bottom) of the object, starting at 0. The default *z* is 0. - *width* The number of columns occupied by the object. The default *width* is 1. - *depth* The number of rows occupied by the object. The default *depth* is 1. - *alignment* The edge or corner that the object is aligned with. Possible alignments include: *north*, *south*, *east*, *west*, *northeast*, *northwest*, *southeast*, *southwest* and *center*. Abbreviations like *se* and *SE* are also accepted. The default alignment is *center*. - The size of an object may not be known as the number of instances for some metrics will vary between hosts and PMDA configurations. Therefore, the position of the object can be used to specify the likely size of the object, so that the position of the surrounding objects is appropriately adjusted. - The following are legal positions: - ` 0 5` The object is centered at grid position 0,5 occupying 1 grid square. - ` 1 2 north` The object is aligned with the north edge of position 1,2 occupying 1 grid square. - ` 2 2 2 1 east` The object is aligned to the eastern edge of position 3,2 and occupies 2 grid squares (2,2 and 3,2). - *string* A string is a series of characters enclosed in double quotes. A string may not contain newlines or escaped double quotes. There are several parameters that may affect the size, shape and color of objects when they are displayed. These parameters are scoped so that they only alter objects defined later in the same scope. Therefore, parameter settings at the top of a configuration file affect the entire scene, unless they are changed later in the file. Most of these parameters are also resources. - **\_barLength** *int* The side length of the **\_bar** and **\_stack** blocks. Default is 28. - **\_barHeight** *int* The maximum height of a **\_bar** and **\_stack** blocks. Default is 80. - **\_baseColor** *color* The color of **\_bar**, **\_grid** and **\_stack** base planes. Default is "#262626" (i.e. gray15). - **\_baseHeight** *int* The height of **\_bar**, **\_grid** and **\_stack** base planes. Default is 2. - **\_gapWidth** *int* The gap between blocks in a **\_bar** object in the X-axis. The default is 8. - **\_gapDepth** *int* The gap between blocks in a **\_bar** object in the Z-axis. The default is 8. - **\_gapLabel** *int* The gap between the base of a **\_bar** object, and any metric or instance labels. The default is 6. - **\_gridWidth** *int* The minimum width of a **\_grid** column. The default is 20. - **\_gridDepth** *int* The minimum depth of a **\_grid** row. The default is 20. - **\_labelMargin** *int* The margin around a **\_label** object. The default is 5. - **\_labelColor** *color* The color of **\_label** and **\_bar** labels. The default is white. - **\_marginWidth** *int* The extra width of a **\_bar**, **\_grid** and **\_stack** base plane beyond the objects on the plane. The default is 8. - **\_marginDepth** *int* The extra depth of a **\_bar**, **\_grid** and **\_stack** base plane beyond the objects on the plane. The default is 8. - **\_pipeLength** *int* Total length of a **\_pipe.** The default is the value of **\_barHeight.** - **\_scale** *real* The scale applied to the entire scene. This parameter may not be used within any objects, only at the top of the configuration file. The default is 1.0. To simplify the specification of colors, a **\_colorList** and a **\_colorScale** may be used to define colors for an object which has metrics associated with it, i.e. **\_bar**, **\_stack** or **\_pipe**. A color list may be defined within an object, or named and defined at the top of a configuration file. A named color list may then be referenced within multiple objects: - **\_colorList** *name* **(** *color* \[*color*...\] **)** Associate the *color*s with the color list *name*. The assignment of colors to blocks depends on the type of an object. For example, the color list called *foo* has the same color three times: ``` _colorList foo ( red "#ff0000" 1.0 0.0 0.0 ) ``` - **\_colorScale** *name* *color* **(** *color* *real* \[*color* *real*...\] **)** Associate the *color*s and *real*s with the color list *name*. The initial *color* is the default color of the object. The object will change color to the other colors when the normalized value of the object is equal to or greater than each *real*. Therefore, each *real* must be larger than the previous *real*, and should be in the range 0.0 to 1.0. This scale gradually changes from blue to red: ``` _colorScale coldToHot blue ( "#7f00ff" 0.3 purple 0.6 "#ff007f" 0.8 red 0.95) ``` There are several different object types which could be found in a **pmview** scene: **\_bar**, **\_stack**, **\_pipe**, **\_grid**, **\_link**, and **\_label**. There is also **\_xing** which is a special type of the **\_link**. The **\_bar**, **\_stack** and **\_pipe** objects are modulated by metric values, a **\_label** is fixed text, **\_link** and **\_xing** are interconnects and a **\_grid** is a container of objects, including other **\_grid** objects, which controls the layout of the scene. A **\_grid** object is only required if there are two or more objects in the scene. **\_bar**, **\_grid** and **\_stack** objects may have base planes which provide a point of reference for the blocks as they change height. A label can be applied to the base plane **\_grid** object if it is **\_shown** with: ``` _baseLabel name|string ``` **\_baseLabel** should be used within the scope of the relevant **\_bar**, **\_grid** or **\_stack** object. The first \`\`\\n'' characters in the string will be replaced by a new line. Subsequent \`\`\\n'' characters will be ignored. For a scene to be valid it must contain at least one modulated object. The objects are defined as: - **\_bar** \[*options*\] **(** \[*metric-list*\] \[*color-list*\] \[*label-list*\] **)** A **\_bar** object represents a collection of blocks. The number of blocks depends on the number of metrics and metric instances assigned to the object. By default, the blocks are modulated by changing the height of each block. Alternatively, blocks may be modulated by changing color, or both height and color. Each color in the *color-list* is assigned to each metric. Therefore, multiple instances of the one metric will have the same color. The *options* that may be passed to a **\_bar** object are: - *pos* The position of the **\_bar** object within the current **\_grid** object. - **\_col**\|**\_row** Position the blocks so that each instance is in a column (**\_col**) or a row (**\_row**). This implies that each different metric is in a separate row or column, respectively. The default is **\_col**. - **\_show**\|**\_hide** Is the base plane visible? Default is **\_show**. - **\_ymod**\|**\_colormod**\|**\_colorymod** Modulate the blocks by adjusting their height (**\_ymod**), color (**\_colormod**) or both height and color (**\_colorymod**). - **\_cube**\|**\_cylinder** Set the shape of the blocks. The default is **\_cube**. - **\_groupbymetric**\|**\_groupbyinst**\|**\_groupbyrow\|**\|**groupbycol** Set the grouping of blocks when launching other tools. For tools like [**pmchart**(1)](/pmchart/1.md) some views may generate many small charts which cannot be drawn entirely within the screen. Another problem is it may be more appropriate to generate charts with the same instance in each chart, rather then the same metric. The group specifiers control the algorithm used so that a separate chart will be drawn for each **\_metrics** specification (**\_groupbymetric**), for the first, second etc. instance of each **\_metric** (**\_groupbyinst**), or by the rows and columns of the **\_bar** object depending on **\_row** or **\_col**. The default is **\_groupbymetric**. The options must be specified in this order, although preceding options are not required. Therefore, this is legal: ``` _bar _hide _cylinder ( ... ) ``` The metrics, colors and labels are specified within the brackets in any order. Only the *metric-list* is mandatory. - *metric-list* A **\_bar** metric list contains a list of metric names, normalization values and an optional label for the metric: ``` _metrics ( metric real [string] [metric real [string]...] ) ``` - *color-list* A **\_bar** color list may be a named color list that was defined earlier, or an unnamed color list. A **\_colorScale** list should be used when using **\_colormod** or **\_colorymod** modulation. Therefore, the syntax for color lists within a **\_bar** object are any of: ``` _colorList name _colorList ( color [color...] ) _colorScale name _colorScale color ( color real [color real...] ) ``` - *label-list* In addition to labels for each metric in the *metric-list*, metric and instance labels may be defined using **\_metriclabels** and **\_instlabels** statements. The position of the labels around the **\_bar** object depends on the **\_row** or **\_col** orientation of metrics and instances, and whether the label is read **\_towards** the **\_bar** object, or **\_away**. The default is **\_towards**. ``` _metriclabels [_away|_towards] ( name|string [name|string...] ) _instlabels [_away|_towards] ( name|string [name|string...] ) ``` - **\_grid** \[*pos*\] \[**\_show**\|**\_hide**\] **(** *objects* **)** A **\_grid** object is a container for objects, including other **\_grid** objects. The rows and columns of a **\_grid** object are resized to the largest object in the row or column. If an object spans multiple rows and/or columns, those rows and columns may be partly resized to contain the object. However, the resizing of rows and columns for objects occupying multiple rows and columns occurs after resizing for objects occupying only one grid square. A collision between objects occupying the same squares will be reported as an error message and the later object will be ignored. The options to a **\_grid** object control the position (*pos*) of the **\_grid** object in the parent **\_grid**, and indicate whether to **\_show** or **\_hide** the **\_grid** base plane. By default, the base plane is hidden. The parameters described above may be specified within the brackets of a **\_grid** object, however they only apply to the objects within the **\_grid**, not the **\_grid** itself. For a parameter to be applied to a **\_grid** object, it must be specified before the **\_grid** object declaration. - ***\_label** \[options\] string* A **\_label** object draws the contexts of *string* at the location, orientation and size specified in the *options*: - *pos* The position of the **\_label** object in the current **\_grid** object. - **\_left**\|**\_right**\|**\_up**\|**\_down** The orientation of the *string*. The direction indicates the direction the label is read. Therefore, **\_right** is the default since the string is read from left to right. - **\_small**\|**\_medium**\|**\_large** The font size. The default is **\_medium**. - **\_link** *pos* \[*string*\] A **\_link** object draws a straight or L-shaped horizontal round \`\`pipe'' with diameter equal to 80% of the *\_baseHeight* of an enclosing **\_grid**. The properties of the object are defined by the options: - *pos* sets both the position of the **\_link** on the grid and its shape. **\_link** starts in the column and row on the **\_grid** specified by first two numbers in the *pos* and spans the number of columns and rows set by the second two numbers. The *alignment* value is used to decide the orientation of the link (links are always aligned at the center): *east* and *west* links are straight and going from left to right, *north* and *south* links are straight and going from far end of the grid to near end, *northeast,* *northwest,* *southeast* and *southwest* links are L-shaped and connect the corresponding points of the compass, i.e. a *northeast* link takes on the general shape of the Latin letter \`\`L''. - *string* sets the \`\`tag'' for the **\_link** which will be displayed in the text window when the pointer is over the link. - **\_pipe** *pos* **(** \[*metric-list*\] \[*color-list*\] \[*tag*\] **)** A **\_pipe** object represent a set of cylinders, placed on top of each other and oriented parallel to the base plane. The diameter of a **\_pipe** is equal to 80% of *\_baseHeight*. The number of blocks is dependent on the number of metric instances in the *metric-list*. The colors in the *color-list* are assigned in turn to each cylinder in the **\_pipe**. The length of the **\_pipe** is defined by the *\_pipeLength*. - *pos* defines the position of the **\_pipe** on the enclosing **\_grid** and its orientation with *alignment* field used to define at which end of the pipe to stack the colored cylinders. The cylinders are stacked at the corresponding point of the compass and the pipe's direction is from the point of the compass towards the center of the compass. Only *east*, *west*, *north*, and *south* are valid values for the pipe's alignment. The metrics, colors and label may be specified within the brackets in any order. Only the *metric-list* is mandatory. - *metric-list* A **\_pipe** metric list contains a list of metric names and normalization values: ``` _metrics ( metric real [metric real...] ) ``` - *color-list* A **\_pipe** color list may be named color list that was defined earlier, or an unnamed color list: ``` _colorList name _colorList ( color [color...] ) ``` - *tag* A **\_pipe** may have a \`\`tag'' for the filler block (unanimated block on the \`\`other'' end of the pipe) which will be displayed in the text window when the pointer is over that end of the pipe. ``` _pipeTag name|string ``` - **\_stack** \[*options*\] **(** \[*metric-list*\] \[*color-list*\] \[*label*\] **)** A **\_stack** object represents a set of blocks placed vertically on top of each other. The number of blocks is dependent on the number of metric instances in the *metric-list*. The colors in the *color-list* are assigned to each block in the **\_stack**. By default, the height of the **\_stack** will be the sum of the height of each block. The *options* that may be passed to a **\_stack** object are: - *pos* The position of the **\_stack** object within the current **\_grid** object. - **\_show**\|**\_hide** Is the base plane visible? Default is **\_show**. - **\_utilmod**\|**\_fillmod** Force the height of the stack to always be the maximum height. This is achieved by normalizing the height of each block (**\_utilmod**), or by adding a grey block to the top of the stack (**\_fillmod**). - **\_cube**\|**\_cylinder** Set the shape of the blocks. The default is **\_cube**. The options must be specified in this order, although preceding options are not required. Therefore, this is legal: ``` _stack 1 1 _north _utilmod ( ... ) ``` The metrics, colors and label may be specified within the brackets in any order. Only the *metric-list* is mandatory. - *metric-list* A **\_stack** metric list contains a list of metric names and normalization values: ``` _metrics ( metric real [metric real...] ) ``` - *color-list* A **\_stack** color list may be named color list that was defined earlier, or an unnamed color list: ``` _colorList name _colorList ( color [color...] ) ``` - *label* A **\_fillmod** type **\_stack** may have a label for the filler block: ``` _stackLabel name|string ``` - **\_xing** *col* *row* *columns* *rows* *dir1* ... *dir4* A **\_xing** is a special kind of link which is used to draw a pair of links which cross each other. To convey the visual impression that the links do not join, one of the links is drawn as a \`\`broken'' cylinder. *col* and *row* define the position on the enclosing grid. *columns* and *rows* define the size of the bounding box. The end points of the crossing cylinders are placed exactly in the center of the corner cells of the bounding box and four small cylinders or stubs are used to join the perimeter of the bounding box with the end points on the crossing cylinders. Four *dir* values define the orientation of the stubs, starting at the upper left corner of the **\_xing** and proceeding clockwise, such that respective stubs are used to join the point of the compass with the center on the cell (see example). ## EXAMPLE This simple example illustrates the use of parameters and different object types: ``` pmview Version 2.1 # Use a lighter grey for the base planes _baseColor "#7f7f7f" # Define colors for CPU object _colorList cpu ( blue2 red2 yellow2 cyan2 green2 ) # The top grid object, but hide it from view _grid _hide ( # Show the current load in a bar object _bar 0 0 ( _baseLabel "Load averages over a\n1, 5 and 15 minute interval" _metrics ( kernel.all.load[1] 1 "1" kernel.all.load[5] 1 "5" kernel.all.load[15] 1 "15" ) _colorList ( blue blue blue ) ) # Add a label below the load bars _label 0 1 "Load" # Change the color of the base plane for later objects _baseColor "#fba2f5" # pink # Show the CPU usage over all CPUs in a utilization stack _stack 2 0 _south _utilmod ( _baseLabel "CPU Utilization over all CPUs" _metrics ( kernel.all.cpu.user 1000 kernel.all.cpu.sys 1000 kernel.all.cpu.intr 1000 kernel.all.cpu.wait.total 1000 kernel.all.cpu.idle 1000 ) _colorList cpu ) # Add a label below the CPU stack _label 2 1 "CPU" # Create a separate grid for links and pipes _marginWidth 1 _marginDepth 1 _gridSpace 12 _grid 0 3 5 4 _hide ( _pipeLength 12 _baseHeight 12 # Add a pipe and a link with western orientation _pipe 0 0 west ( _pipeTag "West pipe" _metrics ( kernel.all.cpu.user 1000 kernel.all.cpu.sys 1000 kernel.all.cpu.idle 1000 ) _colorList cpu ) _link 0 2 west "West link" # Add xing _xing 1 0 3 3 west east east west # Add a link and a pipe with eastern orientation _pipe 4 0 east ( _pipeTag "East Pipe" _metrics ( kernel.all.cpu.user 1000 kernel.all.cpu.sys 1000 kernel.all.cpu.idle 1000 ) _colorList cpu ) _link 4 2 east "East link" ) ) ``` ## SEE ALSO [**pmview**(1)](/pmview/1.md).