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NAME | DESCRIPTION | FILE FORMAT | EXAMPLES | FILES | PCP ENVIRONMENT | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
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PCP-DSTAT(5) File Formats Manual PCP-DSTAT(5)
pcp-dstat - pcp-dstat configuration file
pcp-dstat is a customizable performance metrics reporting tool.
It has a ``plugin'' architecture, where a set of pre-defined
plugins offer small sets of columnar metric reports, and pcp-
dstat command line options select which of these plugins are used
in the generated report.
Each plugin is defined in a section of a configuration file. A
typical installation will provide many configuration files, and
often multiple sections (plugins) within each file.
Configuration files are read from both a system directory and the
users home directory ($PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/dstat and
$HOME/.pcp/dstat).
The configuration files have an ini-style syntax consisting of
sections (plugins) and options within sections. A section begins
with the name of the plugin in square brackets and continues
until the next section begins. An example section with two
options follows:
[plugin]
option = value
metric.option = value2
A line comment starts with a hash sign (``#'') or a semicolon
(``;''). Inline comments are not supported.
There are some options which apply to the plugin as a whole, and
anything else is considered to be a column definition. Column
definitions map directly to individual PCP metrics.
The [plugin] options
label (string)
The overall title to be used for this plugin. In the special
case of metrics with instances being reported as a group (see
grouptype below) this string may contain the %I pattern,
which will be substituted with the name of the instance -
refer to the cpu, disk, net and int(errupts) plugins for
examples of this special syntax. Undefined by default, set
automatically to the section (plugin) name.
width (integer)
The column width used for metrics in this plugin. The
default is 5.
precision (integer)
The maximum precision to be used when reporting columns in
floating point for this plugin. Undefined by default, set
automatically based on width.
printtype (character)
Indicates the reporting style for metric values in this
plugin. Possible settings are d(ecimal), f(loat), p(ercent),
s(tring), b(its), t(ime). By default a setting will be used
based on the metric type and semantic - refer to PMAPI(3) for
further details of PCP metric metadata.
colorstep (integer)
Indicates a ``step'' at which the next color will be
transitioned to, when reporting metric values. As metric
values change on each sample, the colorstep is used to
determine the increments beyond which a new color is to be
selected. Defaults to 1000.
grouptype (integer)
For plugins with metrics sharing the same instance domain, it
is possible to request more complex grouping behaviour. The
default behaviour is to not use instance grouping, and to
report each instance of the metric in a separate column (the
load plugin is an example of this, using the kernel.all.load
metric).
The grouping can be set at three distinct levels - 1, 2, 3 or
4. Level 1 displays instances of metrics only (no totals) -
this is the equivalent of using the --cpu plugin on the pcp-
dstat command line with specific processors' utilization
displayed, e.g. displaying CPU numbers 4, 5 and 12 (-C
4,5,12). Level 2 displays the total column - the sum of all
instances for the specified metric(s) in this plugin. Level
3 is a combination of both modes, for example using the pcp-
dstat --cpu plugin with options -C 4,5,12,total. Level 4 is
a top-like mode, where a special "top" expression is used to
rank all instances - the top-most (largest) value will be
displayed.
instances (comma-separated-value string)
Defines the instances to be reported for the metric. The
default is to report all instances for set-values metrics.
cullinsts (regex pattern)
An optional regular expression that can be used to cull
metric instances from the aggregation ('total') in generated
reports. For example it is common to exclude loopback
devices from the network interface reports, this is achieved
using this option. Default is to report on all instances (no
culling).
The [plugin] metrics
Each plugin must have at least one metric associated with it.
Any key that is not one of the above global plugin options is
considered to be a metric specification or a metric option.
These keys define the metrics and their report formatting.
First and foremost, each column is typically represented by an
individual metric (if the metric is set-valued - i.e. it has
instances - this will result in multiple columns). This is
specified by a new key (column) being set to a metric
specification. The column (key) name is an arbitrary word using
alphabetic characters. The metric specification is any PCP
metric name or derived metric specification, allowing basic
arithmetic calculations to be used to form this individual
column. The derived metric syntax is described on the
pmRegisterDerived(3) manual page.
Some examples of both forms of metric specification are given
below in the ``EXAMPLES'' section. Once a column has been
associated with a metric, other options specific to that column
can be set using a dot-separated syntax.
Metric options
metric.label
The subtitle to be used for the reported values of this
metric. The default label is the column name from the
configuration file.
When set-valued PCP metrics (i.e. with instances) are being
used, it is often convenient to specify either the instance
number or instance name in the heading. This is achieved
using format specifiers - ``%d'' or ``%i'' for instance
numbers (e.g. replaced by ``6'' for the sixth processor), and
``%s'' or ``%I'' for instance names (e.g. replaced by
``eth0'' for the ethernet interface). Available instance
names for any metric can be discovered via the pminfo(1) or
pmprobe(1) commands.
metric.width
The column width to be used when reporting values for this
metric.
metric.unit (string)
Defines the unit/scale conversion for the metric. Needs to
be dimension-compatible and is used with non-string metrics.
For allowed values, see pmrep(1).
metric.type (string)
If set to raw rate conversion for the metric will be
disabled.
metric.precision (integer)
Defines precision for floating point values.
metric.limit (string)
Defines value limit filter for numeric metric values.
The following example defines a virtual filesystem plugin, with
two columns, defined using three PCP metrics - vfs.files.count,
vfs.inodes.count and vfs.inodes.free. The inodes metrics are
combined using the derived metric notation.
[vfs]
width = 6
label = filesystem
files = vfs.files.count
inode = vfs.inodes.count - vfs.inodes.free
inode.label = inodes
The system default pcp-dstat plugin files contain many more
examples.
$HOME/.pcp/dstat/
private per-user configuration files
$PCP_SYSCONF_DIR/dstat/
system-wide configuration files
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).
For environment variables affecting PCP tools, see
pmGetOptions(3).
PCPIntro(1), pcp-dstat(1), pminfo(1), pmprobe(1), pmrep(1),
PMAPI(3), pmGetOptions(3), pmRegisterDerived(3) and
pmrep.conf(5).
This page is part of the PCP (Performance Co-Pilot) project.
Information about the project can be found at
⟨http://www.pcp.io/⟩. If you have a bug report for this manual
page, send it to pcp@groups.io. This page was obtained from the
project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/performancecopilot/pcp.git⟩ on 2023-12-22.
(At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found
in the repository was 2023-12-16.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
Performance Co-Pilot PCP PCP-DSTAT(5)
Pages that refer to this page: pcp-dstat(1)
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HTML rendering created 2023-12-22 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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