pmdamain(3) — Linux manual page
PMDAMAIN(3) Library Functions Manual PMDAMAIN(3)
NAME
pmdaMain, pmdaGetContext, pmdaSetResultCallBack,
pmdaSetCheckCallBack, pmdaSetDoneCallBack,
pmdaSetEndContextCallBack - generic PDU processing for a PMDA
C SYNOPSIS
#include <pcp/pmapi.h>
#include <pcp/pmda.h>
cc ... -lpcp_pmda -lpcp
void pmdaMain(pmdaInterface *dispatch);
void pmdaSetCheckCallBack(pmdaInterface *dispatch,
pmdaCheckCallBack callback);
void pmdaSetDoneCallBack(pmdaInterface *dispatch,
pmdaDoneCallBack callback);
void pmdaSetResultCallBack(pmdaInterface *dispatch,
pmdaResultCallBack callback);
void pmdaSetEndContextCallBack(pmdaInterface *dispatch,
pmdaEndContextCallBack callback);
int pmdaGetContext(void);
DESCRIPTION
For Performance Metric Domain Agents (PMDA(3)) using the binary
PDU protocols to communicate with pmcd(1), the routine pmdaMain
provides a generic implementation of the PDU-driven main loop.
dispatch describes how to process each incoming PDU. It is a vec‐
tor of function pointers, one per request PDU type, as used in
the DSO interface for a PMDA, namely:
/*
* Interface Definitions for PMDA Methods
*/
typedef struct {
int domain; /* set/return performance metrics domain id here */
struct {
unsigned int pmda_interface: 8; /* PMDA DSO interface version */
unsigned int pmapi_version : 8; /* PMAPI version */
unsigned int flags : 16; /* optional feature flags */
} comm; /* set/return communication and version info */
int status; /* return initialization status here */
union {
struct { /* PMDA_INTERFACE_2 or _3 */
pmdaExt *ext;
int (*profile)(pmProfile *, pmdaExt *);
int (*fetch)(int, pmID *, pmResult **, pmdaExt *);
int (*desc)(pmID, pmDesc *, pmdaExt *);
int (*instance)(pmInDom, int, char *, pmInResult **, pmdaExt *);
int (*text)(int, int, char **, pmdaExt *);
int (*store)(pmResult *, pmdaExt *);
} two, three;
struct { /* PMDA_INTERFACE_4 or _5 */
pmdaExt *ext;
int (*profile)(pmProfile *, pmdaExt *);
int (*fetch)(int, pmID *, pmResult **, pmdaExt *);
int (*desc)(pmID, pmDesc *, pmdaExt *);
int (*instance)(pmInDom, int, char *, pmInResult **, pmdaExt *);
int (*text)(int, int, char **, pmdaExt *);
int (*store)(pmResult *, pmdaExt *);
int (*pmid)(char *, pmID *, pmdaExt *);
int (*name)(pmID, char ***, pmdaExt *);
int (*children)(char *, int, char ***, int **, pmdaExt *);
} four, five;
struct { /* PMDA_INTERFACE_6 */
pmdaExt *ext;
int (*profile)(pmProfile *, pmdaExt *);
int (*fetch)(int, pmID *, pmResult **, pmdaExt *);
int (*desc)(pmID, pmDesc *, pmdaExt *);
int (*instance)(pmInDom, int, char *, pmInResult **, pmdaExt *);
int (*text)(int, int, char **, pmdaExt *);
int (*store)(pmResult *, pmdaExt *);
int (*pmid)(char *, pmID *, pmdaExt *);
int (*name)(pmID, char ***, pmdaExt *);
int (*children)(char *, int, char ***, int **, pmdaExt *);
int (*attribute)(int, int, const char *, int, pmdaExt *);
} six;
} version;
} pmdaInterface;
This structure has been extended to incorporate the multiple in‐
terface versions that have evolved over time. For pmdaMain, dis‐
patch->domain and dispatch->status are ignored. The comm.pm‐
da_interface field is used to determine the interface used by the
PMDA. Setting this field to PMDA_INTERFACE_2 or PMDA_INTERFACE_3
will force pmdaMain to use the callbacks in the version.two or
version.three structure. A setting of PMDA_INTERFACE_4 or PM‐
DA_INTERFACE_5 will force pmdaMain to use the callbacks in the
version.four or version.five structure, and similarly a PMDA_IN‐
TERFACE_6 setting forces pmdaMain to use the callbacks in the
version.six structure. Any other value will result in an error
and termination of pmdaMain.
Note that the use of dispatch as the interface between the
pmcd(1) and the methods of the PMDA allows each PMDA to be imple‐
mented as though it were a DSO, with pmdaMain providing a conve‐
nient wrapper that may be used to convert from the DSO interface
to the binary PDU (daemon PMDA) interface.
pmdaMain executes as a continuous loop, returning only when an
end of file is encountered on the PDU input file descriptor.
CALLBACKS
In addition to the individual PDU processing callbacks -
pmdaProfile(3), pmdaFetch(3), pmdaDesc(3), pmdaInstance(3),
pmdaText(3), pmdaStore(3), pmdaPMID(3), pmdaName(3),
pmdaChildren(3), and pmdaAttribute(3) there are other callbacks
that can affect or inform all PDU processing within a PMDA, name‐
ly check, done and end. These callbacks should be set with pm‐
daSetCheckCallBack, pmdaSetDoneCallBack and pmdaSetEndCon‐
textCallBack.
If not null, check is called after each PDU is received (but be‐
fore it was processed), and done is called after each PDU is
sent. If check returns a value less than zero (typically
PM_ERR_AGAIN), the PDU processing is skipped and in most cases
the function value is returned as an error PDU to pmcd(1) - this
may be used for PMDAs that require some sort of deferred connec‐
tion or reconnect protocols for the underlying sources of perfor‐
mance metrics, e.g. a DBMS. The error indication from check is
not passed back to pmcd(1) in the cases where no acknowledgment
is expected, e.g. for a PDU_PROFILE.
The end callback allows a PMDA to keep track of state for indi‐
vidual clients that are requesting it to perform actions (PDU
processing). Using pmdaGetContext a PMDA can determine, at any
point, an integer identifier that uniquely identifies the client
tools at the remote end of PMCD (for local context modes, this
identifier is always zero). This becomes very important for han‐
dling event metrics, where each event must be propagated once on‐
ly to each interested client. It also underlies the mechanism
whereby connection information is passed to the PMDA, such as the
the credentials (user and group identifiers) for the client tool.
One final callback mechanism is provided for handling the pmRe‐
sult built for a PDU_RESULT in response to a PDU_FETCH request.
By default, pmdaMain will free the pmResult once the result has
been sent to the pmcd(1). For some PMDAs this is inappropriate,
e.g. the pmResult is statically allocated, or contains a hybrid
of pinned PDU buffer information and dynamically allocated infor‐
mation. pmdaSetResultCallBack may be used to define an alterna‐
tive callback from pmdaMain.
DIAGNOSTICS
These messages may be appended to the PMDA's log file:
PMDA interface version interface not supported
The interface version is not supported by pmdaMain.
Unrecognized pdu type
The PMDA received a PDU from pmcd that it does not recog‐
nize. This may indicate that the pmcd process is using a
more advanced interface than pmdaMain.
If the PMAPI(3) debugging control options have the ``libpmda''
option set then each PDU that is received is reported in the PM‐
DA's log file.
SEE ALSO
pmcd(1), PMAPI(3), PMDA(3), pmdaProfile(3), pmdaFetch(3),
pmdaDesc(3), pmdaInstance(3), pmdaText(3), pmdaStore(3),
pmdaPMID(3), pmdaName(3), pmdaChildren(3), and pmdaAttribute(3).
COLOPHON
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 2024-06-14.
(At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found
in the repository was 2024-06-14.) If you discover any rendering
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(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
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Performance Co-Pilot PCP PMDAMAIN(3)
Pages that refer to this page: pmda(3), pmdaattribute(3), pmdachildren(3), pmdaeventclient(3), pmdaname(3), pmdapmid(3)