NAME
chkhelp - check performance metrics help text files
SYNOPSIS
$PCP_BINADM_DIR/chkhelp [-HiOp] [-n pmnsfile] [-v version] helpfile
[metricname ...]
DESCRIPTION
chkhelp checks the consistency of Performance Co-Pilot help text files
generated by newhelp(1) and used by Performance Metric Domain Agents
(PMDAs). The checking involves scanning the files, and optionally
displaying selected entries.
The files helpfile.dir and helpfile.pag are created by newhelp(1), and
are assumed to already exist.
Without any options or metricname arguments, chkhelp silently verifies
the structural integrity of the help files.
If any metricname arguments are specified, then the help entries for
only the corresponding metrics will be processed.
If no metricname arguments are specified, then at least one of the
options -i or -p must be given. The -i option causes entries for all
instance domains to be processed (ignoring entries for performance
metrics). The -p option causes entries for all metrics to be displayed
(ignoring entries for instance domains).
When metric entries are to be processed (via either the metricname
arguments or the -p option or the -i option), the -O and -H options
request the display of the one-line and verbose help text respectively.
The default is -O.
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.
Normally chkhelp operates on the default Performance Metrics Namespace
(PMNS), however if the -n option is specified an alternative namespace
is loaded from the file pmnsfile.
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(4).
SEE ALSO
newhelp(1), PMAPI(3), pmLookupInDomText(3), pmLookupText(3),
pcp.conf(4) and pcp.env(4).
DIAGNOSTICS
There are all sorts of reasons a help database may be inconsistent, the
most likely is that a performance metric in the database is not defined
in the loaded PMNS.