newhelp(1)

NAME

   newhelp - generate a performance metrics help database

SYNOPSIS

   $PCP_BINADM_DIR/newhelp [-V] [-n pmnsfile] [-o outputfile] [-v version]
   [file ...]

DESCRIPTION

   newhelp generates the Performance Co-Pilot  help  text  files  used  by
   Performance Metric Domain Agents (PMDAs).

   Normally newhelp operates on the default Performance Metrics Name Space
   (PMNS), however if the -n option is specified an alternative  namespace
   is loaded from the file pmnsfile.

   When there is only one input file, the base name of the new database is
   derived from the name of the input file, otherwise the -o flag must  be
   given to explicitly name the database.  If no input files are supplied,
   newhelp reads from the standard input stream, in which case the -o flag
   must be given.

   If  the  output  file name is determined to be foo, newhelp will create
   foo.dir and foo.pag.

   Although historically there have been multiple help text file  formats,
   the  only  format currently supported using the -v option is version 2,
   and this is the default if no -v flag is provided.

   The -V flag causes verbose messages to  be  printed  while  newhelp  is
   parsing its input.

   The first line of each entry in a help source file consists of an ``@''
   character  beginning  the  line  followed  by  a  space  and  then  the
   performance  metric  name  and  a  one  line description of the metric.
   Following lines (up to the next line beginning with  ``@''  or  end  of
   file) may contain a verbose help description.  E.g.

        #
        # This is an example of newhelp's input syntax
        #
        @ kernel.all.cpu.idle CPU idle time
        A cumulative count of the number of milliseconds
        of CPU idle time, summed over all processors.

   Three-part  numeric  metric identifiers (PMIDs) may be used in place of
   metric names, e.g.  60.0.23  rather  than  kernel.all.cpu.idle  in  the
   example  above.  Other than for dynamic metrics (where the existence of
   a metric is known to a PMDA, but not visible in the PMNS and hence  has
   no  name  that could be known to newhelp) use of this syntactic variant
   is not encouraged.

   Lines beginning with ``#'' are ignored, as are blank lines in the  file
   before the first ``@''.  The verbose help text is optional.

   As  a  special  case, a ``metric'' name of the form NNN.MM (for numeric
   NNN and MM) is interpreted as an instance  domain  identification,  and
   the text describes the instance domain.

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).

SEE ALSO

   chkhelp(1),     PMAPI(3),     pmLookupInDomText(3),    pmLookupText(3),
   pcp.conf(5) and pcp.env(5).

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