NAME | C SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | EXAMPLES | LARGE DELTA VALUES | SEE ALSO | DIAGNOSTICS | COLOPHON

PMSETMODE(3)              Library Functions Manual              PMSETMODE(3)

NAME         top

       pmSetMode - set collection time parameters for the current PMAPI con‐
       text

C SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <pcp/pmapi.h>
       int pmSetMode(int mode, const struct timeval *when, int delta);
       cc ... -lpcp

DESCRIPTION         top

       pmSetMode is used to define the collection time and/or mode for
       accessing performance metrics and meta-data in the current
       Performance Metrics Application Programming Interface (PMAPI)
       context.  This mode affects the semantics of subsequent calls to the
       following PMAPI routines: pmFetch(3), pmFetchArchive(3),
       pmLookupDesc(3), pmGetInDom(3), pmLookupInDom(3) and pmNameInDom(3).
       If mode is PM_MODE_LIVE then all information is returned from the
       active pool of performance metrics as of the time that the PMAPI call
       is made, and the other two parameters to pmSetMode are ignored.
       PM_MODE_LIVE is the default mode when a new PMAPI context of type
       PM_CONTEXT_HOST is created.
       If the mode is not PM_MODE_LIVE, then the when parameter defines a
       time origin, and all requests for meta-data (metric descriptions and
       instance identifiers from the instance domains) will be processed to
       reflect the state of the meta-data as of the time origin, i.e. we use
       the last state of this information at, or before, the time origin.
       If the mode is PM_MODE_INTERP then, in the case of pmFetch(3), the
       underlying code will use an interpolation scheme to compute the
       values of the metrics from the values recorded for times in the
       proximity of the time origin.  A mode of PM_MODE_INTERP may only be
       used with an archive context.
       If the mode is PM_MODE_FORW then, in the case of pmFetch(3), the
       collection of recorded metric values will be scanned in a forwards
       direction in time, until values for at least one of the requested
       metrics is located after the time origin, and then all requested
       metrics stored in the set of archives at that time will be returned
       with the corresponding timestamp.  A mode of PM_MODE_FORW may only be
       used with an archive context.
       If the mode is PM_MODE_BACK then, the situation is the same as for
       PM_MODE_FORW, except a pmFetch(3) will be serviced by scanning the
       collection of recorded metrics in a backwards direction in time for
       metrics before the time origin.  A mode of PM_MODE_BACK may only be
       used with an archive context.
       If the mode is PM_MODE_FORW or PM_MODE_BACK, and no qualifying
       metrics can be found in the requested direction of searching before
       the end or start of the set of archive logs is found, then pmFetch(3)
       returns the special error indicator, PM_ERR_EOL.
       For modes other than PM_MODE_LIVE, after each successful pmFetch(3),
       the time origin is reset to the timestamp returned via the pmResult
       structure from pmFetch(3).
       The pmSetMode parameter delta defines an additional number of time
       units that should be used to adjust the time origin (forwards or
       backwards), after the new time origin from the pmResult has been
       determined.  This automatic adjustment of the time origin only occurs
       when the mode is PM_MODE_INTERP, and the adjustment is applied, even
       if the pmFetch(3) fails because the time origin is outside the range
       defined by the records in a set of archive logs, i.e. returns
       PM_ERR_EOL.
       By default delta is interpreted as milliseconds (but see the LARGE
       DELTA VALUES section below).
       Using these mode options, an application can implement replay,
       playback, fast forward, reverse, etc. for performance metric values
       held in the set of archive logs by alternating calls to pmSetMode and
       pmFetch(3).
       As a special case, if when is NULL then the mode and delta arguments
       are used as described above, but the current time in the archive is
       not altered.

EXAMPLES         top

       The following code fragment may be used to dump just those values
       recorded in an archive in correct temporal sequence, for a selected
       set of performance metrics; this uses the default collection time
       mechanisms.
            pmNewContext(PM_CONTEXT_ARCHIVE, "myarchive");
            while (pmFetch(npmid, pmidlist, &result) != PM_ERR_EOL) {
                /*
                 * process real metric values as of result->timestamp
                 */
                . . .
                pmFreeResult(result);
            }
       Alternatively, to replay interpolated metrics from the log in reverse
       chronological order, at 10 second intervals (of recorded time), the
       following code fragment could be used.
            struct timeval mytime;
            mytime.tv_sec = 0x7fffffff; /* or use pmGetArchiveEnd(&mtime) */
            pmSetMode(PM_MODE_BACK, &mytime, 0);
            pmFetchArchive(&result);
            mytime = result->timestamp;
            pmFreeResult(result);
            pmSetMode(PM_MODE_INTERP | PM_XTB_SET(PM_TIME_SEC), &mytime, -10);
            while (pmFetch(numpmid, pmidlist, &result) != PM_ERR_EOL) {
                /*
                 * process interpolated metric values as of
                 * result->timestamp
                 */
                . . .
                pmFreeResult(result);
            }

LARGE DELTA VALUES         top

       Because delta is an int and treated as milliseconds by default there
       is a limit on the maximum absolute value of delta that can be
       specified with this default interpretation, namely about 24 days if a
       signed int has 31 bits of precision.  To accommodate longer values of
       delta the high-order bits of the mode parameter is also used to
       optionally set the units of time for the delta parameter. To specify
       the units of time use the PM_XTB_SET macro with one of the values
       PM_TIME_NSEC, PM_TIME_MSEC, PM_TIME_SEC, etc.  to set the mode as
       follows:
            PM_MODE_INTERP | PM_XTB_SET(PM_TIME_XXXX)
       The following code shows how this could be done if the desired delta
       is initially encoded in interval (a struct timeval).
            struct timeval interval;
            int mode;
            mode = ...
            if (abs(interval.tv_sec / (3600*24)) <= 24) {
                /* default encoding of milliseconds is fine */
                mode = PM_MODE_INTERP;
                delta = interval.tv_sec * 1000 + (interval.tv_usec + 500)/ 1000;
            }
            else {
                /* encode delta in units of seconds */
                mode = PM_MODE_INTERP | PM_XTB_SET(PM_TIME_SEC);
                delta = interval.tv_sec + (interval.tv_usec + 500000)/ 1000000;
            }
       For millisecond encoding of delta, using PM_XTB_SET(PM_TIME_MSEC) is
       functionally equivalent to not using PM_XTB_SET at all.

SEE ALSO         top

       PMAPI(3), pmFetch(3), pmFetchArchive(3), pmGetInDom(3),
       pmLookupDesc(3), pmLookupInDom(3) and pmNameInDom(3).

DIAGNOSTICS         top

       PM_ERR_MODE
              The mode parameter is invalid

COLOPHON         top

       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@oss.sgi.com.  This page was obtained from the project's upstream
       Git repository ⟨git://git.pcp.io/pcp⟩ on 2017-07-05.  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                        PMSETMODE(3)

Pages that refer to this page: pcpintro(3)pmapi(3)pmfetch(3)pmfetcharchive(3)pmfetchgroup(3)pmgetarchiveend(3)pmnewcontext(3)pmstore(3)pmtime(3)QmcGroup(3)