NAME | C SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | EXAMPLE | METRIC LOOKUP | DIAGNOSTICS | CAVEAT | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

PMDAINIT(3)               Library Functions Manual               PMDAINIT(3)

NAME         top

       pmdaInit, pmdaRehash, pmdaSetFlags - initialize a PMDA

C SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <pcp/pmapi.h>
       #include <pcp/impl.h>
       #include <pcp/pmda.h>
       void pmdaInit(pmdaInterface *dispatch, pmdaIndom *indoms,
               int nindoms, pmdaMetric *metrics, int nmetrics);
       void pmdaRehash(pmdaExt *pmda, pmdaMetric *metrics, int nmetrics);
       void pmdaSetFlags(pmdaInterface *dispatch, int flags);
       cc ... -lpcp_pmda -lpcp

DESCRIPTION         top

       pmdaInit initializes a PMDA so that it is ready to receive PDUs from
       pmcd(1).  The function expects as arguments the instance domain table
       (indoms) and the metric description table (metrics) that are
       initialized by the PMDA. The arguments nindoms and nmetrics should be
       set to the number of instances and metrics in the tables,
       respectively.
       Much of the pmdaInterface structure can be automatically initialized
       with pmdaDaemon(3), pmdaGetOpt(3) and pmdaDSO(3).  pmdaInit completes
       the PMDA initialization phase with three operations.  The first
       operation adds the domain and instance numbers to the instance and
       metric tables.  Singular metrics (metrics without an instance domain)
       should have the instance domain PM_INDOM_NULL set in the indom field
       of the pmDesc structure (see pmLookupDesc(3)).  Metrics with an
       instance domain should set this field to be the serial number of the
       instance domain in the indoms table.
       The instance domain table may be made empty by setting indoms to NULL
       and nindoms to 0.  This allows the caller to provide custom Fetch and
       Instance callback functions.  The metric table may be made empty by
       setting metrics to NULL and nmetrics to 0.  This allows the caller to
       provide custom Fetch and Descriptor callback functions.

EXAMPLE         top

       For example, a PMDA has three metrics: A, B and C, and two instance
       domains X and Y, with two instances in each instance domain.  The
       instance domain and metrics description tables could be defined as:
            static pmdaInstid _X[] = {
                { 0, "X1" }, { 1, "X2" }
            };
            static pmdaInstid _Y[] = {
                { 0, "Y1" }, { 1, "Y2" }
            };
            static pmdaIndom indomtab[] = {
            #define X_INDOM 0
                { X_INDOM, 2, _X },
            #define Y_INDOM 3
                { Y_INDOM, 2, _Y }
            };
            static pmdaMetric metrictab[] = {
            /* A */
                { (void *)0,
                  { PMDA_PMID(0,0), PM_TYPE_U32, PM_INDOM_NULL, PM_SEM_INSTANT,
                    { 0,0,0,0,0,0} }, },
            /* B */
                { (void *)0,
                  { PMDA_PMID(0,1), PM_TYPE_U32, X_INDOM, PM_SEM_INSTANT,
                    { 0,0,0,0,0,0} }, },
            /* C */
                { (void *)0,
                  { PMDA_PMID(0,2), PM_TYPE_DOUBLE, Y_INDOM, PM_SEM_INSTANT,
                    { 0,1,0,0,PM_TIME_SEC,0} }, }
            };
       The metric description table defines metric A with no instance
       domain, metric B with instance domain X and metric C with instance
       domain Y.  Metric C has units of seconds, while the other metrics
       have no units (simple counters).  pmdaInit will take these structures
       and assign the PMDA(3) domain number to the it_indom field of each
       instance domain.  This identifier also replaces the indom field of
       all metrics which have that instance domain, so that they are
       correctly associated.
       The second stage opens the help text file, if one was specified with
       the -h command line option (see pmdaGetOpt(3)) or as a helptext
       argument to pmdaDSO(3) or pmdaDaemon(3).
       The final stage involves preparing the metric table lookup strategy.

METRIC LOOKUP         top

       When fetch and descriptor requests are made of the PMDA, each
       requested PMID must be mapped to a metric table entry.  There are
       currently three strategies for performing this mapping - direct,
       linear and hashed.  Each has its own set of tradeoffs and an
       appropriate strategy should be selected for each PMDA.
       If all of the metric PMID item numbers correspond to the position in
       the metrics table, then direct mapping is used.  This is the most
       efficient of the lookup functions as it involves a direct array index
       (no additional memory is required nor any additional processing
       overhead).  If the PMID numbering requirement is met by the PMDA, it
       is ideal.  This strategy can be explicitly requested by calling
       pmdaSetFlags(pmda, PMDA_FLAG_EXT_DIRECT) before calling pmdaInit.  In
       this case, if the direct mapping is not possible (e.g. due to an
       oversight on the part of the PMDA developer), a warning is logged and
       the linear strategy is used instead.
       The second strategy (linear search) is the default, when a direct
       mapping cannot be established.  This provides greater flexibility in
       the PMID numbering scheme, as the PMDA item numbers do not have to be
       unique (hence, the PMID cluster numbers can be used more freely,
       which is often extremely convenient for the PMDA developer).
       However, lookup involves a linear walk from the start of the metric
       table until a matching PMID is found, for each requested PMID in a
       request.
       The third strategy (hash lookup) can be requested by calling
       pmdaSetFlags(pmda, PMDA_FLAG_EXT_HASHED) before calling pmdaInit.
       This strategy is most useful for PMDAs with large numbers of metrics
       (many hundreds, or thousands).  Such PMDAs will almost always use the
       cluster numbering scheme, so the direct lookup scheme becomes
       inappropriate.  They may also be prepared to sacrifice a small amount
       of additional memory for a hash table, mapping PMID to metric table
       offsets, to speed up lookups in their vast metric tables.
       This final strategy can also be used by PMDAs serving up dynamically
       numbered metrics.  For this case, the pmdaRehash function should be
       used to replace the metric table when new metrics become available,
       or existing metrics are removed.  The PMID hash mapping will be
       recomputed at the same time that the new metric table is installed.

DIAGNOSTICS         top

       pmdaInit will set dispatch->status to a value less than zero if there
       is an error that would prevent the PMDA(3) from successfully running.
       pmcd(1) will terminate the connection to the PMDA(3) if this occurs.
       pmdaInit may issue any of these messages:
       PMDA interface version interface not supported
                      The interface version is not supported by pmdaInit.
       Using pmdaFetch() but fetch call back not set
                      The fetch callback, pmdaFetch(3), requires an
                      additional callback to be provided using
                      pmdaSetFetchCallBack(3).
       Illegal instance domain inst for metric pmid
                      The instance domain inst that was specified for metric
                      pmid is not within the range of the instance domain
                      table.
       No help text path specified
                      The help text callback, pmdaText(3), requires a help
                      text file for the metrics to have been opened, however
                      no path to the help text was specified as a command
                      line option, or as an argument to pmdaDSO(3) or
                      pmdaDaemon(3).  This message is only a warning.
       Direct mapping for metrics disabled @ num
                      The unit numbers of the metrics did not correspond to
                      the index in the metric description table.  The direct
                      mapping failed for metric number num in the metrics
                      table.  This is less efficient but is not fatal and
                      the message is only a warning.
       Hashed mapping for metrics disabled @ num
                      A memory allocation failure occurred while building
                      the hash table to index the metric description table.
                      This is a non-fatal warning message - a fallback to
                      linear searching will be automatically performed
                      should this situation arise.

CAVEAT         top

       The PMDA must be using PMDA_INTERFACE_2 or later, as specified in the
       call to pmdaDSO(3) or pmdaDaemon(3).

SEE ALSO         top

       newhelp(1), pmcd(1), PMAPI(3), PMDA(3), pmdaDaemon(3), pmdaDSO(3),
       pmdaFetch(3), pmdaGetOpt(3), pmdaText(3) and pmLookupDesc(3).

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
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       COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail
       to man-pages@man7.org
Performance Co-Pilot                 PCP                         PMDAINIT(3)

Pages that refer to this page: pmda(3)pmdacache(3)pmdaconnect(3)pmdadso(3)pmdafetch(3)pmdahelp(3)pmdatext(3)