pmdatext(3) — Linux manual page

NAME | C SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | CAVEAT | DIAGNOSTICS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

PMDATEXT(3)              Library Functions Manual             PMDATEXT(3)

NAME         top

       pmdaText - extract metric help text for a PMDA

C SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <pcp/pmapi.h>
       #include <pcp/pmda.h>

       int pmdaText(int ident, int type, char **buffer, pmdaExt *pmda);

       cc ... -lpcp_pmda -lpcp

DESCRIPTION         top

       As  part  of  the Performance Metrics Domain Agent (PMDA) API (see
       PMDA(3)), pmdaText uses the standard PMDA(3)  data  structures  to
       return  the  help  text for metric ident in buffer.  The help text
       must be located in help text files created  with  newhelp(1),  and
       the associated files are automatically opened by pmdaInit(3).

       The  path  to  the (basename of the) help text files can be set in
       the calls to pmdaDSO(3) or pmdaDaemon(3) and overridden by the  -h
       command line option in pmdaGetOpt(3).

       The  encoding  of ident follows the internal scheme used below the
       routines pmLookupText(3) and  pmLookupInDomText(3),  namely  ident
       encodes either a metric identifier or an instance domain identifi‐
       er, according to the value of type.

       The type argument is a bit mask that encodes the interpretation of
       ident  and  the  requested  form  of help text, as follows: either
       PM_TEXT_PMID if ident is a metric identifier, or PM_TEXT_INDOM  if
       ident  is  an instance domain identifier, plus either PM_TEXT_ONE‐
       LINE for the one line help text or PM_TEXT_HELP for the full  help
       text.

       The  buffer  is  managed internally (usually it is cached), and it
       should not be released or freed by the caller of pmdaText.

CAVEAT         top

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

DIAGNOSTICS         top

       If  the  requested  help text could not be obtained, pmdaText will
       return PM_ERR_TEXT.

SEE ALSO         top

       newhelp(1),   malloc(3),   PMAPI(3),    PMDA(3),    pmdaDaemon(3),
       pmdaDSO(3), pmdaInit(3), pmLookupInDomText(3) and pmLookupText(3).

COLOPHON         top

       This  page is part of the PCP (Performance Co-Pilot) project.  In‐
       formation 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
       2025-08-11.   (At  that  time,  the date of the most recent commit
       that was found in the repository was 2025-08-11.)  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                        PMDATEXT(3)

Pages that refer to this page: pmda(3)pmdadaemon(3)pmdadso(3)pmdagetoptions(3)pmdahelp(3)pmdainit(3)pmdamain(3)