Chapter 3. The xmperf User Interface

This chapter provides information about the xmperf user interface.

The xmperf User Interface Overview

The xmperf program has one main window which is displayed when you start the program. The main window provides you with the interface to functions that are not related to active consoles. In addition to the main window, one or more consoles might be displayed when you start xmperf. This happens if you have defined one or more default consoles in your configuration file. If no default console is defined, initially only the main window is displayed. When default consoles are defined, they are opened in the same sequence as they appear in the configuration file. See Defining Default Consoles for further information.

The xmperf Command Line

The general format of the xmperf command line is:

xmperf [-v auxz] [-w width] [-o options_file] [-p weight] [-h localhostname]
[-r network_timeout]

All command line options are optional and all except -r and -h correspond to X Window System resources that can be used in place of the command line arguments. The options v, a, u, x, and z are true or false options. If one of those options is set through an X Window System resource, it can not be overridden by the corresponding command line argument. The options are described as follows:

v

Verbose. This option prints the configuration file lines to the xmperf log file $HOME/xmperf.log as they are processed. Any errors detected for a line will be printed immediately below the line. The option is intended as a help to find and correct errors in a configuration file. Use the option if you don't understand why a line in your configuration file does not have the expected effect.

Setting the X Window System resource BeVerbose to true has the same effect as this flag.

a

Adjust size of the value path name that is displayed in instruments to what is required for the longest path name in each instrument. The length can be less than the default fixed length (or the length specified by the -w option if used) but never longer. The use of this option can result in consoles where the time scales are not aligned from one instrument to the next.

Note: For pie chart graphs, adjustment is always done, regardless of this command line argument.

Setting the X Window System resource LegendAdjust to true has the same effect as this flag.

u

Use popup menus. As described in Console Windows , the overall menu structure can be based upon pulldown menus (which is the default) or popup menus as activated with this flag. Typically, pulldown menus are easier to understand for occasional users; while popup menus provide a faster, but less intuitive interface.

Setting the X Window System resource PopupMenus to true has the same effect as this flag.

x

Subscribe to exception packets from remote hosts. This option makes xmperf inform all the remote hosts it identifies that they should forward exception packets produced by the filtd daemon, if the daemon is running. If this flag is omitted, xmperf will not subscribe to exception packets.

Setting the X Window System resource GetExceptions to true has the same effect as this flag.

z

For monochrome displays and X stations, you might want to try the -z option, which causes xmperf to draw graphical output directly to the display rather than always redrawing from a pixmap. By default, xmperf first draws graphical output to a pixmap and then, when all changes are done, moves the pixmap to the display. Generally, with a locally-attached color display, performance is better when graphical output is redrawn from pixmaps. Also, a flaw in some levels of X Window System can be bypassed when this option is in effect.

Setting the X Window System resource DirectDraw to true has the same effect as this flag.

w

Must be followed by a number between 8 and 32 to define the number of characters from the value path name to display in instruments. The default number of characters is 12.

Alternatively, the legend width can be set through the X Window System resource LegendWidth .

o

Must be followed by a file name of a configuration file (environment) to be used in this execution of xmperf. If this option is omitted, the configuration file name is assumed to be $HOME/xmperf.cf. If this file is not found, the file is searched for as described in Overview of File Placement .

Alternatively, the configuration file name can be set through the X Window System resource ConfigFile .

p

If given, this flag must be followed by a number in the range 25-100. When specified, this flag turns on "averaging" or "weighting" of all observations for state graphs before they are plotted. The number is taken as the "weight percentage" to use when averaging the values plotted in state graphs. The formula used to calculate the average is:

val = new * weight/100 + old * (100-weight) / 100

where:

val

Is the value used to plot.

new

Is the latest observation value.

old

Is the val calculated for the previous observation.

weight

Is the weight specified by the -p flag. If a number outside the valid range is specified, a value of 50 is used. If this flag is omitted, averaging is not used.

Alternatively, the averaging weight can be set through the X Window System resource Averaging .

The weight also controls the calculation of weighted average in tabulating windows.

h

Must be followed by the host name of a remote host that is to be regarded as Localhost. The Localhost is used to qualify all value path names that do not have a host name specified. If not specified, Localhost defaults to the host where xmperf executes.

Note: With the Performance Toolbox Local feature, this flag always uses the local host name.

r

Specifies the timeout (in milliseconds) used when waiting for responses from remote hosts. The value specified must be between 5 and 10,000. If not specified, this value defaults to 100 milliseconds.

Note: On networks that extend over several routers, gateways, or bridges, the default value is likely to be too low.

One indication of a too low timeout value is when the list of hosts displayed by xmperf contains many host names that are followed by two asterisks. The two asterisks indicate that the host did not respond to xmperf broadcasts within the expected timeout period. The Host Selection List from xmperf shows how some hosts in a host selection list have asterisks. The list shown was generated in a network with multiple levels of routers where the default timeout is on the low side during busy hours.

The xmperf Main Window

The xmperf main window is shown in the following figure. At the top of the main window is a menu bar. The menu bar provides access to six pulldown menus. The remainder of the window displays messages from xmperf as necessary. Message lines in the main window can be scrolled horizontally if they are longer than the window is wide, and you can scroll vertically to see previous message lines. The messages you see could be:

Information messages

Messages from xmperf during startup and about commands executed from one of the menus described below, including the exact command line the system attempted to execute.

 

Error messages

Messages telling you about errors that could not be detected during startup.

 

Exception messages

Exceptions received from data suppliers.

The xmperf Main Window

The menu bar of the main window provides major ways to control xmperf. It has the following pulldown menus:

File

The CUA prescribed File menu.

 

Monitor

The menu from where you open and close consoles, instantiate skeleton consoles, and create new consoles.

 

Analysis

One of three "tools" menus from where commands can be executed. The menu is customizable and is intended to be used for analytical tools.

 

Controls

The second of three "tools" menus from where commands can be executed. This menu has a fixed menu item that creates a list of processes in the local system. The rest of the menu is fully customizable and is intended to be used for commands that influence, or control, the performance of your system.

 

Utilities

The last of three "tools" menus from where commands can be executed. This menu has a fixed menu item to create a list of processes on a remote host that you must select from a pulldown menu. The rest of the menu is fully customizable and is intended to be used for miscellaneous tools and commands.

 

Help

The Help menu.

The File Menu

The xmperf File Menu

The xmperf File menu, as shown in the preceding figure, has the following items:

Save All Changes

When you you select this menu item, all changes to all consoles are written to the configuration file. The only exceptions are changes to instances of skeleton consoles. Changes to instantiated skeleton consoles are never written to the configuration file, because such consoles don't belong in the file.

After all changes are saved, the menu selection is inactivated and can not be selected until new changes are made to at least one console.

Playback

This menu selection starts the playback feature described in Recording and Playback with xmperf .

 

Refresh Host List

Normally, the remote interface makes sure you have an updated list of remote hosts to select from when you instantiate a remote skeleton console or create a list of processes on a remote host. This automatic refresh is done once every five minutes. The Refresh Host List menu item allows you to initiate a refresh whenever you like.

 

Exit xmperf

Selecting this item terminates the entire xmperf application, but not before a couple of checks are done:

1. The program checks whether any changes have been made to any console since the last saving to the configuration file. If so, a small dialog box is displayed, giving you the choice between discarding the changes or saving them to the configuration file.
2. The program checks if any consoles are still active. If this is the case, you are asked if you want to exit while consoles are active. This is just a precaution to prevent accidental exiting of the program when valuable historic data is accumulated in an active console. You can choose to exit or not.

   Note: An attempt to close the main window from the window manager has the same effect as selecting Exit xmperf from the File menu.

The Monitor Menu

The xmperf Monitor Menu

The Monitor menu, illustrated above, has four menu items, one of which is representing a submenu:

Instantiate Skeleton

Represents a submenu containing all the skeleton consoles defined in the configuration file. To instantiate a particular skeleton console, click on it with the left mouse button. Notice that the skeleton console names are preceded by the letter "S". For information on how skeleton consoles work, see Skeleton Consoles .

 

Add New Console

Choose this selection if you want to build a new console interactively from scratch. Details on this selection are provided in Creating a Console .

 

Ordinary Consoles

Consoles defined in the configuration file or created interactively are each represented by one menu selection. When a console is active, the name of the console is preceded by an asterisk. To activate (open) a console, click on one with no asterisk; to deactivate (close) a console, click on one with an asterisk. Observe that when you close a console, all historic data accumulated in any instrument of that console is lost and the recording of data is stopped.

 

Instantiated Skeleton Consoles

These consoles also appear in the Monitor menu. When a skeleton console is selected from the "Instantiate Skeleton" submenu, an instance of that skeleton is created and activated (opened). This causes it to appear in the Monitor menu with an asterisk. From this point, the instance works exactly as an ordinary console except that the changes you make to the instance are not saved to the configuration file.

The Tools Menus

The Tools menus are described in detail in The xmperf Command Menu Interface . Briefly, they allow you to execute commands from within the xmperf application with an easy way to fill-in command line arguments. Commands are defined in the configuration file.

The Help Menu

The xmperf Main Help Menu

This pulldown menu has four menu items:

Help on Main Window

Displays any help text supplied in the simple help file and identified by the name Main Window.

 

Help on Help

Displays any help text supplied in the simple help file and identified by the name Help on Help.

 

Help Index

Opens a Help Index window with a list of help topics. To display the help screen for a help topic, click on the corresponding line in the help index window.

 

On Version...

Displays an information window that states the xmperf version in use.

Console Windows

To give you full flexibility, consoles can be opened and closed from menus associated with each console as well as from the main window. Equally important, consoles can be configured interactively from the same menus. This necessitates a rather intricate system of menus, which within the CUA specifications can be created as either pulldown or popup menus.

By default, xmperf is configured with pulldown menus. If you want popup menus, use the command line argument -u or set the X Window System resource PopupMenus to true. Command line arguments are described in The xmperf Command Line and supported resources in The xmperf Resource File .

Console Pulldown Menus

When xmperf is configured with pulldown menus, each console has its own menu bar. As shown in the following figure, the menu bar has five pulldown menus:

File

The CUA prescribed File menu.

 

Edit Console

A menu used to customize the console and the instruments it contains but not individual values.

 

Edit Value

A menu for customizing individual values to be plotted by the console's instruments.

 

Recording

The menu used to start and stop recording from a console or one or more of its instruments.

 

Help

The Help menu for the console.

An xmperf Console with Pulldown Menu

Most of the choices from the Edit Console and Edit Value menus require that you specify which of the instruments in the console you want to work with. Because of this, those menu items are ghosted or "grayed out" (inactive) until you have selected an instrument.

When an instrument is selected, xmperf attempts to draw a dashed line around it. This is only possible if there is space between the instrument and neighboring instruments or the console border. In most cases, you can see at least some of the dashed line, but if you want to always be able to see it, just make sure that instruments never touch each other or the border of the containing console. An example of a selected instrument is shown in The xmperf Edit Console Menu figure.

Once an instrument is selected, the otherwise inactive menu items in the Edit Console and Edit Value pulldown menus become active and any selection you make applies to the instrument you selected.

The Console File Menu

The File menu of a console with pulldown menu is shown in the following figure. It contains functions that apply to the console or to the xmperf application as a whole. The menu items are:

The xmperf Console File Menu

Save Changes

When the console has not been modified by you, or when such modifications have already been saved previously, this menu selection is inactive so you can't select it. When you make a change to the console, this menu selection becomes active.

When you select this menu item, all changes to the console (but not to other consoles) are written to the configuration file. After the changes are saved, this menu selection is inactivated until new changes are made to the console.

Copy Console

When you select this option, a new console is made as an exact copy of the current console. First, a dialog box prompts you for a name for the new console. You enter the name of your choice as described in Choosing a Name . All the rest is done automatically.

 

New Console Path

This menu item gives you the possibility to "remount" all the instruments in the console on a different host. The name of the menu item means that you replace the hosts part of the path names of all values in the console with a new host name. For example, assume a console has two instruments, one monitoring statistics on host umbra and the other monitoring statistics on host bamse. By selecting a new host name, such as buzzer, you cause both instruments to be monitoring buzzer.

The new host name is selected from a popup list of host names containing all the currently available data-supplier hosts. From this list you pick the one you want by clicking on it and then clicking on the Done menu in the menu bar of the box. This produces a small pulldown menu. If you click on the Cancel menu item, the box goes away and no new path is selected. If you click on the Reselect menu item, the list of data-supplier hosts is refreshed. If you click on the Accept Selection menu item, the selected host is chosen as the remote host for all statistics in the console.

Note: With the Performance Toolbox Local feature, only the local host is available for selection.

As the instruments are changed to monitor the new host, some may reference statistics that are not available on the new host. Such statistics disappear from the changed instrument. Similarly, an instrument can contain referenced statistics that were not available on the previous host but exist on the new host. Such statistics are added to the instrument.

Open Console

This selection produces a popup menu containing all the consoles defined. The popup menu contains all the consoles in the Monitor menu of the main window and its submenu of skeleton consoles. It is placed here to allow you total control even without having the main window visible.

 

Close Console

When you select this item, the current console is closed and all historic data collected for its instruments is lost. If recording was active for the console or any of its instruments, recording stops and the recording file is closed. You can get the same effect by selecting the console from the Monitor menu of the main window or from the Open Console menu. Of course, since the console is active, its name is preceded by an asterisk in the menus, so selecting it deactivates (closes) the console. An alternative way of closing the console is to select the Close option from the Window Manager menu of the console window.

 

Erase Console

Selecting this item erases the console definition from the Monitor menu (and from the configuration file if and when the changes are saved). Before the console is erased the actions described for the Close Console selection are carried out. To make sure you don't do this accidentally, you are prompted to verify the selection before it is carried out.

 

Exit xmperf

This item works exactly like the Exit xmperf selection of the File menu in the main window. It is placed here to allow you total control even when the main window is minimized.

 

Help

This item contains three menu lines. The first menu line provides you with the intended use of the console and related other consoles and tools. Help for the console is shown if the simple help file (see Simple Help File Format ) is present and contains a help screen for the console. The second takes you to the help index, and the last is the prescribed On Version to display a short message informing you of the version of xmperf.

The Help menu item in the File menu is a duplicate of the Help menu item in the console menu bar.

The Edit Console Menu

The Edit Console pulldown menu has ten items, as shown in the figure below.

The xmperf Edit Console Menu

The first two are always active, the last one is active only when no instrument is selected, and the remaining seven items are active only when an instrument is selected. The menu items are:

Add Local Instrument

Selecting this menu item causes the console to be prepared for the addition of a new instrument. Space is acquired in the console as described in Adding an Instrument to a Console . Initially, the instrument is not created. Instead, you are presented with a list of values from which to select the first value of the instrument. The list allows you to select any value on Localhost (see The Meaning of Localhost in xmperf) . If your first action is to click on the End Selection button in the selection box, the instrument is not created.

Once you've selected a value for your instrument the instrument is created with that value as its first one. You then see a dialog box that allows you to select the way you want this value to be plotted. For details on this, see Changing the Properties of a Value rel="pagenum">. When you have set the options for the first value of the new instrument, you can select and set the options of additional values to be added to the instrument. When you're done, click on the End Selection button in the selection box.

Add Remote Instrument

Every instrument must show values from one single data-supplier host. If the instrument shows values from a remote data-supplier host, it's called a remote instrument. This menu selection allows you to add a remote instrument.

The first you'll see when you select Add Remote Instrument is a selection box with a list of all the currently available data-supplier hosts. From this list you pick the one you want by clicking on it and then clicking on the Done menu item in the menu bar of the box. This produces a small pulldown menu. If you click on the Cancel menu item, the box goes away and no instrument is created. If you click on the Reselect menu item, the list of data-supplier hosts is refreshed. If you click on the Accept Selection menu item, things proceed as described for Add Local Instrument above, except that you are presented with a list of values on the data-supplier host you selected.

Note: With the Performance Toolbox Local feature of Version 2.2 or later, only the local host is available for selection.

Tabulating Window

Select this menu item to display a tabulating window for the selected instrument. If a tabulating window is already displayed when you select this item, that window is closed. Tabulating windows are special forms of windows that tabulate the values of the instrument as data is received and will also display a line with a weighted average for each value. Tabulating windows are described in more detail in Tabulating Windows .

 

Copy Instrument

Causes a new instrument to be added to the console. The new instrument is an exact copy of the currently selected instrument and is added as described in Adding an Instrument to a Console .

 

Delete Instrument

As a precaution against unintended deletion, a dialog box pops open when you ask to delete an instrument. You then have to accept the deletion or cancel it.

 

Modify Instrument

This selection causes a cascade menu to appear. An example is shown in the figure The xmperf Modify Instrument Menu . The cascade menu has ten items, all of which are concerned with the status and properties (as described in Instruments ) of the instrument rather than the properties of individual values in the instrument. The menu items are:

• Resynchronize
• Autoscale
• Interval
• History
• Shift
• Space
• Style & Stacking
• Foreground
• Background
• Change Path

All these are described in The Modify Instrument Submenu .

Resize Instrument

Allows you to resize the selected instrument as described in Resizing Instruments in a Console .

 

Move Instrument

Allows you to move the selected instrument as described in Moving Instruments in a Console .

 

Unselect Instrument

Deselects the selected instrument and removes the dashed line around it.

 

Select Instrument

Serves as a reminder of how you select instruments. When you select this item an information window pops open and gives you a brief description of the selection principles.

The Modify Instrument Submenu

The xmperf Modify Instrument Menu

This submenu appears when you select the Modify Instrument menu item from the Edit Console menu. It contains menu items to modify all of the properties that apply to an instrument. The items are:

Resynchronize

Allows you to ask for the instrument's network connection to the data-supplier host to be resynchronized (renegotiated). Make this selection when you notice that the instrument is no longer receiving input, which indicates that the remote supplier host is no longer on the network or that its xmservd daemon has aborted or was killed. If you select this menu item and the instrument is still not receiving input from the data-supplier host, most likely the remote host is not up. Wait until you can get a response to a ping, before trying again.

If, after having resynchronized one instrument, xmperf estimates the total resynchronizing to take more than 12 seconds, a dialog box pops open. From the window you can choose to terminate the resynchronizing or continue it. If you terminate it, none or only some of the instruments defined for the remote host will be active. Under normal circumstances, at least one instrument should be active.

If, during any one resynchronizing operation, the estimated total elapsed time to complete the operation increases above 120% of what you previously approved of, the dialog box appears again showing you the new estimated time to completion of the operation.

Note: While this dialog box is displayed, no other window can be used. You must click on either Continue Resync or Stop Resync to remove the dialog box before other X events are processed.

Autoscale

Sometimes an instrument receives data values that are way above the high range of the instrument. Since recording type instruments can show no more than 105 percent of the high range (scale), readings above 105 percent are truncated at approximately 105 percent.

To find the right scale in such situations, use this menu selection. When you select it, xmperf scans all values in the instrument to determine if any one exceeds 105 percent of the high scale. The scan uses all data values collected in the history of the instrument. Any value that does exceed 105 percent of the high scale at any point in the recorded history has its high scale adjusted so that the highest peak is shown somewhere between the 50% and the 100% mark in the graph.

If stacking is in effect for the instrument, the peak is determined as the sum of all values using the primary style of the graph at any one point in history.

The changed scales are recorded with the instrument as if you had made the change manually. Therefore, when you leave xmperf, you'll be asked whether you want to save the changes to the configuration file.

Interval

Pops open a dialog box and displays a sliding scale with the current value of the interval property of the instrument. The sliding scale adjusts to the current value so that you can change small values with a granularity of 0.1 second and larger values with a granularity of one minute. By using the slider, you can set the sampling interval in the range 0.2 second to 30 minutes. To change the interval between observations, select the slider with the mouse and move it to the value you want. Then release the slider and click on the Proceed button. The xmservd daemon on the remote Data-Supplier host is sent a change_feeding message every time you click on Proceed.

Even though the sampling interval can be requested as any value in the above range, it may be rounded by the xmservd daemon on the remote system that supplies the statistics. For example, if you request a sampling interval of 0.2 second but the remote host's daemon is configured to send data no faster than every 500 milliseconds, then the remote host determines the speed.

When the interval is changed, the instrument is redrawn with the new properties including a new pixmap (image) of the instrument if it's a recording instrument. Note that until a time corresponding to the size of the history property has elapsed, the history of the instrument is a mixture of observations taken with the old interval and the new one you chose.

If you choose the Save Buffer option from one of the recording menus, the data saved to the recording file will have time stamps that assume the interval has been unchanged (and identical to the value of the interval property at the time the buffer is saved). It is suggested that you don't save buffers of instruments that have had their sampling interval changed if exact timing of historic events is important.

History

Pops open a dialog box and displays a sliding scale, with the current value of the history property of the instrument. The scale ranges from 50 to 5,000 observations. To change the number of observations, select the slider with the mouse and move it to the value you want. Then release the slider and click on the Proceed button.

When the history is changed, the instrument is redrawn with the new properties including a new pixmap (image) of the instrument if it's a recording instrument.

Note: If the history property value is reduced, any excess data the instrument collects is discarded; similarly, when the value is increased more memory is allocated to keep the extra history as observations are collected.

Shift

Pops open a dialog box, and displays a sliding scale with the current value of the shift property of the instrument. The scale ranges from one more than the current value of the space property to 20 pixels. To change the number of pixels to shift, select the slider with the mouse and move it to the value you want. Then release the slider and click on the Proceed button.

When the shift property is changed, the instrument is redrawn with the new properties including a new pixmap (image) of the instrument if it's a recording instrument. If you want to reduce the value of this property to a value smaller than the current value of the space property, you must first reduce the value of the space property, then repeat the operation for the shift property.

Space

Pops open a dialog box, and displays a sliding scale with the current value of the space property of the instrument. The scale ranges from zero to one less than the current value of the shift property. To change the number of pixels spacing between bars, select the slider with the mouse and move it to the value you want. Then release the slider and click on the Proceed button.

When the space property is changed, the instrument is redrawn with the new properties including a new pixmap (image) of the instrument if it's a recording instrument. If you want to increase the value of this property to a value that is larger than the current shift value, you must first increase the value of the shift property to one more than what you want the space property to be, then repeat the operation for the space property.

Style & Stacking

Causes the dialog box shown in the following figure to pop open.

Dialog Box to Change Style and Stacking

Foreground

Pops open a dialog box with one button for each of the colors:

• Black, white, and grey10, grey20, ... grey90.
• The colors defined in the X resource file with the resources ValueColor1 through ValueColor24 .
• Any additional colors referenced in the xmperf configuration file.

  Below the color buttons, eleven buttons show how the current selection of foreground and background colors look when each of the eleven tiles is chosen. The eleven tile buttons are numbered for easy reference but in the configuration file, tiles are referred to with symbolic names as described in Explaining the xmperf Configuration Files . The color box is shown in the following figure.

Dialog Box to Change Color in xmperf

Background

Works exactly as foreground color , only it changes the background color of the instrument.

 

Change Path

This menu item gives you the possibility to "remount" the instrument on a different host. The name of the menu item means that you exchange the hosts part of the path names of all values in the instrument with a new host name. For example, assume the instrument is monitoring statistics on host pjank. By selecting a new host name, such as alvor, you cause the instrument to be monitoring alvor.

The new host name is selected from a popup list of host names containing all the currently available data-supplier hosts. From this list you pick the one you want by clicking on it and then clicking on the Done menu in the menu bar of the box. This produces a small pulldown menu. If you click on the Cancel menu item, the box goes away and no new path is selected. If you click on the Reselect menu item, the list of data-supplier hosts is refreshed. If you click on the Accept Selection menu item, the selected host is chosen as the remote host for all statistics in the instrument.

Note: With the Performance Toolbox Local feature, only the local host is available for selection.

As the instrument is changed to monitor the new host, it is possible that it references statistics that are not available on the new host. Such statistics do not appear in the changed instrument. Similarly, the instrument may reference statistics that were not available on the previous host, but exist on the new host. Such statistics are added to the instrument.

If recording is active for the instrument at the time you change one of the following properties of the instrument, the change has no effect on the recording. The instrument definition is saved when the recording starts, and subsequent changes do not affect the recording file. The properties influenced are:

• History
• Shift
• Space
• Style
• Stacking
• Foreground
• Background

All this means is that the initial properties of the playback console are as recorded in the recording file. As described in Playback Console Windows , all the above properties can be changed before or during playback.

The Edit Value Menu

The xmperf Edit Value Menu

The Edit Value pulldown menu has five items as shown in the preceding figure. The first four items are active only when an instrument is selected. The last one is active only when no instrument is selected. The menu items are:

Add Value

This menu item is used to add a value to an instrument. It is done by selection from a hierarchy of value selection windows as described in Value Selection .

 

Change Value

When you make this menu selection, you must tell xmperf which value you want to change. If the instrument has more than one value, you'll see a dialog box with a set of "radio buttons," one for each of the values currently defined in the instrument. To continue, click on the value you want to change and then on Proceed.

Once a value is selected, or directly if the instrument has only one value, you are presented with another dialog box from where you can change any or all of the properties for the value. This dialog box is described in Changing the Properties of a Value .

Delete Value

When you make this menu selection, you must tell the program which value you want to delete from the instrument. To allow this, xmperf pops open a dialog box with a set of "radio buttons," one for each of the values currently defined in the instrument. Click on the value you want to delete and then on Proceed.

When a value is selected, you are asked if you really want to delete the value from the instrument. Click on OK if you do; otherwise on Cancel.

Unselect Instrument

Deselects the selected instrument and removes the dashed line around it.

 

Select Instrument

Serves as a reminder of how you select instruments. When you select this item an information window pops open and gives you a brief description of the selection principles.

The Recording Menu

The xmperf Recording Menu

The menu item yields a pulldown menu with two items. Both items represent cascading submenys, one of which is shown in the figure above. The first item is always active; the second one is active only when an instrument is selected. The menu items are:

Console Recording

Pops open the recording submenu that allows you to start or stop recording from the entire console. For details, see Recording Methods .

 

Instrument Recording

Pops up the recording submenu that allows you to start or stop recording from the selected instrument. For details, see Recording Methods .

The Help Menu

This item contains two menu lines. The first line provides help on understanding the intended use of the console. Help for the console is shown if a simple help file (see Simple Help File Format is present and contains a help screen for the console.

The second line is the prescribed On Version that displays a short message informing you of the version of xmperf.

Console Popup Menus

When xmperf is configured with popup menus, a popup menu appears whenever you move the mouse pointer into a console and click the left or middle mouse button. If the mouse pointer is within the outline of an instrument, that instrument is selected and the full set of popup menu choices are active. If the mouse pointer is positioned so it is not within any instrument, the menu still appears but some of the menu items that require an instrument to be selected are inactive or ghosted. You select from the menu by clicking the right mouse button on the menu item you want.

The menu that pops open contains the items listed below. Some menu items produce a cascade menu when selected; they are marked with the word "submenu" in parentheses and described in separate sections after the direct menu items:

Value Editing (submenu) Modify Instrument (submenu) Add Instrument (submenu) Tabulating Window Copy Instrument Resize Instrument Move Instrument Delete Instrument Console Recording (submenu) Instrument Recording (submenu) Copy Console New Console Path Open Console Close Console Erase Console Save Changes Exit xmperf Help

The xmperf Console Popup Menu

An example of the xmperf popup menu is shown in the preceding figure. The menu items that take you directly to a function are the following:

Tabulating Window

Select this menu item to display a tabulating window for the selected instrument. If a tabulating window is already displayed when you select this item, that window is closed. Tabulating windows are special forms of windows that will tabulate the values of the instrument as data is received and will also calculate a line with a weighted average for each value. Tabulating windows are described in more detail in Tabulating Windows .

 

Copy Instrument

Causes a new instrument to be added to the console. The new instrument is an exact copy of the currently selected instrument and is added as described in Adding an Instrument to a Console .

 

Resize Instrument

Allows you to resize the selected instrument as described in Resizing Instruments in a Console .

 

Move Instrument

Allows you to move the selected instrument as described in Moving Instruments in a Console .

 

Delete Instrument

A dialog box pops open when you ask to delete an instrument. You then accept the deletion or cancel it. This safeguards you against unintended deletion of instruments.

 

Copy Console

When you select this option, a new console is made as an exact copy of the selected console. The first you'll see is a dialog box that prompts you for a name for the new console. You enter the name of your choice as described in Choosing a Name . All the rest is done automatically.

 

New Console Path

This menu item gives you the possibility to "remount" all the instruments in the console on a different host. The name of the menu item means that you replace the hosts part of the path names of all values in the console with a new host name. For example, assume a console has two instruments, one monitoring statistics on host pjotr and the other monitoring statistics on host basse. By selecting a new host name, say mango, you cause both instruments to be monitoring mango.

The new host name is selected from a popup list of host names containing all the currently available data-supplier hosts. From this list you pick the one you want by clicking on it and then clicking on the Done menu in the menu bar of the box. This produces a small pulldown menu. If you click on the Cancel menu item, the box goes away and no new path is selected. If you click on the Reselect menu item, the list of data-supplier hosts is refreshed. If you click on the Accept Selection menu item, the selected host is chosen as the remote host for all statistics in the console. Note that with the Performance Toolbox Local feature, only the local host is available for selection.

As the instruments are changed to monitor the new host, some may reference statistics that are not available on the new host. Such statistics do not appear in the changed instrument. Similarly, the instrument can contain referenced statistics that were not available on the previous host but exist on the new host. Such statistics are added to the instrument.

Open Console

This selection produces a popup menu containing all the consoles defined in the Monitor menu of the main window and its submenu of skeleton consoles. For convenience, this selection is placed here to allow you total control even without having the main window visible.

 

Close Console

When you select this item the current console is closed and all historic data collected for its instruments is lost. If recording is active for the console or any instrument in the console, recording stops and the recording file is closed. You can get the same effect by selecting the console from the Monitor menu of the main window or from the Open Console menu. Of course, since the console is active, its name is preceded by an asterisk in the menus, so selecting it deactivates (or closes) the console. An alternative way of closing the console is to select the Close option from the Window Manager menu.

 

Erase Console

Selecting this item erases the console definition from the Monitor menu (and from the configuration file if and when changes are saved). Before the console is erased, the actions described for the Close Console menu item are carried out. To make sure you don't delete a console accidentally, you are prompted to verify the selection before it is carried out.

 

Save Changes

When the console has not been modified by you, or when such modifications have already been saved previously, this menu selection is inactive: you can't select it. When you make a change to the console, this menu selection becomes active.

When you select this menu item, all changes to the console (but not to other consoles) are written to the configuration file. After the changes are saved, the menu selection is inactivated until new changes are made to the console.

Exit xmperf

This item works exactly like the Exit xmperf selection of the File menu in the main window. It is placed here to allow you total control even when the main window is minimized.

 

Help

This item is intended to provide help to understand the intended use of the console and related other consoles and tools. Help for the console is shown if a simple help file (see Simple Help File Format) is present and contains a help screen for the console.

Value Editing Submenu

The Value Editing submenu has three items:

Add Value

A menu item used to add a value to an instrument. This is done by selection from a hierarchy of value selection windows as described in Value Selection .

 

Change Value

When you make this menu selection, you need to indicate which value you want to change. If the instrument only has one value, the choice is obvious; otherwise you'll see a dialog box with a set of radio buttons, one for each of the values currently defined in the instrument. To continue, click on the value you want to change and then on Proceed.

Once a value is selected, you are presented with another dialog box from where you can change any or all of the properties for the value. This dialog box is described in Changing the Properties of a Value .

Delete Value

When you make this menu selection, you must indicate which value you want to delete from the instrument. To simplify doing this, a dialog box with a set of "radio buttons," one for each of the values currently defined in the instrument, pops open. To continue, click on the value you want to delete and then on Proceed.

When a value is selected you are asked if you really want to delete the value from the instrument. Click on OK if you do; otherwise on Cancel.

Modify Instrument Submenu

The Modify Instrument submenu is identical whether you have configured xmperf for pulldown or popup menus. It is described in The Modify Instrument Submenu .

Add Instrument Submenu

The Add Instrument submenu has two items:

Local Instrument

Selecting this menu item causes the console to be prepared for the addition of a new instrument. Space is acquired in the console as described in Adding an Instrument to a Console . Initially, the instrument is not created. Instead, you are presented with a list of values from which to select the first value of the instrument. The list allows you to select any value on Localhost (see The Meaning of Localhost in xmperf ). If your first action is to click on the End Selection button in the selection box, the instrument is not created.

Once you've selected a value for your instrument, the instrument is created with that value as its first one. You will then see a dialog box that allows you to select the way you want this value to be plotted. For details of this, see Changing the Properties of a Value . When you have set the options for the first value of the new instrument, you can select and set the options of additional values to be added to the instrument. When you're done, click on the End Selection button in the selection box.

Remote Host Instrument

Every instrument must show values from either the host where xmperf is executing or from one single data-supplier host. If the instrument shows values from a data-supplier host, it's called a remote instrument. This menu selection allows you to add a remote instrument.

A selection box with a list of all the currently available data-supplier hosts appears. From this list, pick the one you want by clicking on it and then clicking on the Done menu in the box. This produces a small pulldown menu. If you click on the Cancel menu item, the box goes away and no instrument is created. If you click on the Refresh Host List menu item, the list of data-supplier hosts is refreshed. If you click on the Accept Selection menu item, things proceed as described in Local Instrument , except that you are presented with a list of values on the data-supplier host you selected.

Note: With the Performance Toolbox Local feature of Version 2.2 or later, only the local host is available for selection.

Recording Submenus

The Recording Submenus Console Recording and Instrument Recording are identical whether you have configured xmperf for pulldown or popup menus. They are described in The Recording Menu .

Playback Console Windows

The Recording and Playback with xmperf chapter describes the use of the playback facility of xmperf. This section describes how you modify the appearance of a playback console.

Regardless of whether xmperf is configured for popup or pulldown menus, the menu you use to change the appearance of a playback instrument is always a popup menu. It is activated by placing the mouse pointer within an instrument and then clicking the left or middle mouse button. The popup menu you get is a subset of the submenu described in The Modify Instrument Submenu plus some special items. The menu items are:

Tabulating Window Autoscale Maxiscale History Shift Space Style and Stacking Foreground Background Change Value Delete Value Move Instrument Resize Instrument Erase Instrument Annotation Notes Write Current View

The xmperf Playback Popup Menu

The things you can do are all related to how the recorded data is presented. You can change any or all of the above properties of the instrument that was clicked on to bring up the menu. This can be done before or after you start playback. All changes, except deletions and the effect of the selections Autoscale and Maxiscale, can be changed as many times as you like, allowing you to re-play a particular recording with many different appearances.

The following is a brief description of how to use the menu items:

Tabulating Window

Select this menu item to display a tabulating window for the selected instrument. If a tabulating window is already displayed when you select this item, that window is closed. Tabulating windows are special forms of windows that tabulate the values of the instrument as data is received and also calculate a line with a weighted average for each value. Tabulating windows are described in more detail in Tabulating Windows .

 

Autoscale

When selected, this menu item causes a scan of all data values collected in the history of the instrument. Note that for this scan, only values that have actually been played back since the last Seek or Rewind are part of the history. Any value that does exceed 105 percent of the high scale at any point in the recorded history has its high scale adjusted so that the highest peak is shown somewhere between the 50% and the 100% mark in the graph.

If stacking is in effect for the instrument, the peak is determined as the sum of all values using the primary style of the graph at any one point in history.

Maxiscale

When selected, this menu item causes a scan of all data values collected in the history of the instrument. Note that for this scan, only values that have actually been played back since the last Seek or Rewind are part of the history. All values are adjusted so that the highest peak at any point in the recorded history is shown somewhere between the 50% and the 100% mark in the graph.

If stacking is in effect for the instrument, the peak is determined as the sum of all values using the primary style of the graph at any one point in history.

History

When the history property is changed for a recording instrument, the instrument is redrawn with the new properties including a new pixmap (image) of the instrument. Note that for playback, the purpose of the history property is to define the size of the pixmap (image) kept in memory. This is only useful for recording type instruments and in playback is only used to determine whether you can scroll the displayed graph and by how much.

 

Shift

When the shift property is changed for a recording instrument, the instrument is redrawn with the new properties including a new pixmap (image) of the instrument. If you want to reduce the value of this property to a value smaller than the current value of the space property, you must first reduce the value of the space property, then repeat the operation for the shift property.

 

Space

When the space property is changed, the instrument is redrawn with the new properties including a new pixmap (image) of the instrument if it's a recording instrument. If you want to increase the value of this property to a value that is larger than the current shift value, you first increase the value of the shift property to one more than what you want the space property to be, then repeat the operation for the space property.

 

Style & Stacking

This selection causes a dialog box to pop open. The window has a set of "radio buttons," one for each possible instrument type, and a single button that allows you to activate or deactivate the stacking facility.

You change the primary style of the instrument by clicking on the instrument type you want it to be. You select or deselect stacking by clicking on the stacking button. When you've made your selections, click on the Proceed button to implement the changes. After the changes are applied to the instrument, it is redrawn from the beginning.

Foreground

Allows you to change the foreground color and tile of the instrument.

 

Background

Allows you to change the background color and tile of the instrument.

 

Change Value

When you make this menu selection, you must tell xmperf which value you want to change. If the instrument has more than one value, you will see a dialog box with a set of "radio buttons," one for each of the values currently defined in the instrument. To continue, click on the value you want to change and then on Proceed.

Once a value is selected, or directly if the instrument has only one value, you are presented with another dialog box from where you can change any or all of the properties for the value. This dialog box is described in Changing the Properties of a Value . Because no new data values can be added to a recording, the data path can not be changed from the dialog box.

Delete Value

When you make this menu selection, you must tell the program which value you want to delete from the instrument. To allow this, xmperf pops open a dialog box with a set of "radio buttons," one for each of the values currently defined in the instrument. Click on the value you want to delete and then on Proceed.

When a value is selected, you are asked if you really want to delete the value from the instrument. Click on OK if you do; otherwise Cancel.

Move Instrument

Allows you to move the selected instrument as described in Moving Instruments in a Console .

 

Resize Instrument

Allows you to resize the selected instrument as described in Resizing Instruments in a Console .

 

Erase Instrument

As a precaution against unintended deletion, a dialog box pops open when you ask to delete an instrument. You then have to accept the deletion or cancel it.

 

Annotation Notes

Opens the annotation list window in which any existing annotations are listed and from where new annotations can be added and existing ones modified or deleted. An example of the annotation list window is shown in the Annotation List Window figure .

 

Write Current View

Modifies the control information in the recording file to reflect the current layout and contents of the instrument. The original control information is not saved. If annotations exist in the recording file, they are reorganized to remove any annotations marked for deletion and inserting the remaining ones in an optimal place in the file.

Important xmperf Dialogs

This section covers some of the important dialog boxes, or value selection windows, you use to customize xmperf.

Value Selection

Value selection can be invoked from the Add Value menu, implicitly from one of the Add Instrument menus, or from the dialog box used to change the properties of a value as described in Changing the Properties of a Value . Value selection is done from cascading lists that work as follows:

A dialog box (which we call the value selection window) listing the top layer of values you can select from appears. In this list, lines ending in a slash and three dots signify that the line itself represents a list at the next hierarchical level. These lines are context lines. The remaining lines in the list are called statistics lines, each of which represents a value.

An example of a value selection window is shown in the following figure. It shows four statistic lines and six context lines.

Value Selection Dialog Box for xmperf

If you click on a context line, you're shown the next level of statistics in another dialog box that's placed just below the top frame of the first dialog box. This new box contains a list that can include context lines as well as statistics lines. You can repeat the process until the last list you get contains only statistics lines. Note that as you move through the hierarchy, the names displayed in the list become longer as the preceding hierarchical levels are prefixed to the names, separated by slashes.

The title bar of each dialog box shows the context path for the lines in that dialog box. This is another way of showing the hierarchical levels of the values. The title bar of the window shown in the "Value Selection Dialog Box, xmperf" shows that this value selection window is at the third hierarchical level because the title bar shows two context levels after the host name.

If you click on a statistics line, the result depends on how you invoked this function:

1. If you invoked the function from the Add Value menu or one of the Add Instrument menus, the line you selected immediately is added to the instrument. The value is added at the first empty value slot in the instrument and inherits the color of that slot, whatever that color is. All other properties are initially set to their default values as described in the data structures behind the list you chose from.

   Then you see another dialog box (described in Changing the Properties of a Value ) that allows you to modify the new value's properties. If you want to add the selected value to the instrument, regardless of whether you changed any of its properties, you need to click on the Apply button in the dialog box. If you click on Cancel, all the changes you made are discarded and the value is removed from the instrument.

   When the property change window disappears, you return to the Value Selection window. You can then select another value to be added to the instrument. This can be repeated until the maximum number of values allowed in an instrument is reached. When you have finished adding values, you close the value selection windows by clicking End Selection.

2. If you invoked the function from the dialog box used to change the properties of a value (see Changing the Properties of a Value ) then the value you selected replaces the value you are modifying. You can repeat the operation (selecting another value), and each time the selected value replaces the instrument value. When you are sure you have the value you want, click on End Selection in the selection dialog box to return to the property change Window. Now click on Apply for the change to remain in effect. Select Cancel if you want to return to the original instrument definition.

   When you have more than one value selection window displayed you can jump backwards in the stack of windows. There are two ways:

   One Level Back

   This is one of the buttons in the value selection windows. When you click it, the window disappears and the immediately lower window becomes active. This way, you can go one level back before selecting another value.

    

   Closing the Window

   Each Value Selection window has window manager decorations, including the window menu that allows you to close the window. If you close a window this way, you also close all windows on top of that window. If the window you closed is not the lowest window, one or more Value Selection windows remains displayed. This gives you a way of skipping more than one level back before selecting another value. The context path displayed in the window frame helps you determine which window to close.

Creating a Console

Creating a new console requires two steps:

1. Select a name for the new console and create an empty console.
2. Once an empty console is created, add the instruments you want in the new console.

Choosing a Name

When you select Add New Console from the Monitor menu of the main window, a small dialog box appears. The box has an input field where you can type the name you want the new console to have. Initially, the input field has a name constructed from the date and time. You can change the name to anything, as long as you don't use names of existing consoles.

If the name you enter contains periods (full stops), slashes, or colons, xmperf converts these characters to commas, underscores, and semicolons, respectively. This is done to prevent characters in a console name from clashing with the characters used for delimiters in the configuration file or with file names of recording files.

After you have entered the name you want, press the Enter key or click on Proceed to create the empty new console. The creation of the console causes it to be added to the Monitor menu (with its name preceded by an asterisk because it is active). As long as the console is empty (has no instruments), it won't be saved to the configuration file, even if you ask to save all changes. However, once the new console contains an instrument it's added to the configuration file when you ask to save it or to save all changes.

Adding Instruments to the Console

When initially created, the new console is empty. You'll need to add at least one instrument to the console before you can use it for anything. If xmperf is configured with pulldown menus, use the Edit Console pulldown menu and select one of the "add instrument" menu items. If you use popup menus, click on the empty console and select Add Instrument from the menu.

Changing the Properties of a Value

The dialog box used to change the properties of a value appears when:

• You select the Change Value menu item.
• You select the Add Value menu item.
• You add a new instrument.

The window is a true dialog box in the sense that whatever you change from the window has an immediate effect on the instrument and value with which you are working. If the instrument is large or complicated or if your host is heavily loaded, "immediate" may mean within a few seconds. The dialog box is shown in the following figure.

Change Value Dialog Box

Because the effect of your changes are seen as you make them, be sure to start by moving the dialog box so that it doesn't obscure the instrument you work with. Once you've made all the changes click on Apply to make the dialog box go away and the changes made permanent. Click on Cancel to restore the original instrument properties.

Three of the properties are represented in the dialog box by a sliding scale. Scales enable you to change a numerical value by using the mouse instead of the keyboard. However, it can sometimes be difficult to hit exactly the value you want. To cope with this problem, the sliders in the dialog box adjust to the value they are displaying. This is done by rounding by 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000, or 100,000. When rounding is done, a multiplication factor is displayed as part of the slider text. One other way we cope with the precision is by limiting the high value to five times the current value. This means that if the current value is 100 and you want to increase it to 100,000, then you must do it in steps. For example:

1. With current value = 100, change to 500.
2. With current value = 500, change to 2,500.
3. With current value = 2,500, change to 10,000.
4. With current value = 10,000, change to 50,000.
5. With current value = 50,000, change to 100,000.

The major advantage is that of not having to accept values such as 99,973 or 100,744 when you want 100,000.

The actual changing of values is done by moving the mouse pointer to the slider and then pressing the left mouse button; while holding the button down, move the mouse pointer left or right to decrease or increase the value. As you move the pointer, the value corresponding to the slider position is displayed. When you have reached the desired value, release the mouse button.

The dialog box always looks the same and contains the following sections:

Value path and description

Initially, holds the path name and description of the value you are changing. If you click on the button you are presented with the first of a series of value selection windows as described in Value Selection .

As you pick another value for the instrument by selecting from the lists of values, the text displayed here changes to the path name and the description of the new value.

As you change the value, the property values for ranges and threshold also change because the default values corresponding to the new value are taken. Therefore, before changing any other properties, make sure you are working with the value you want.

Color

The name of the current color for drawing the value is displayed in a label field next to a button. The label field is painted in the current color and tile of the value.

To change the color and the tile of the value, click on the button. This causes the color selection dialog box to appear. You select a new color or tile from the dialog box by clicking on one of the color selection or tile buttons. Try however many color and tile combinations you want and click on Proceed in the color selection window when you find what suits you.

Secondary style

If the primary style of the instrument you are working with is one of the state graphs, only one radio button is displayed for secondary style. That's because you can not have a secondary style different from the primary style with state graphs. The single radio button and its text are merely for your information and no action is taken if you click on it.

For recording style graphs, however, you always are presented with a radio button for each of the recording graph styles. The one that's used as secondary style for the value you are changing appears to be pressed in (selected). You can change the secondary style to any of the styles shown by clicking on the radio button of your choice.

Your label for the value

Allows you to specify your own label to be displayed in the instrument for this value. By default, this field is empty, and the path name of the statistic is used in the instrument. By entering a text string of up to 32 characters, you can override the default.

In case of values for processes, you can use two keywords to specify which part of the constructed value name you want displayed as the value name. Processes are identified by a name constructed by concatenating the process ID (PID) with the name of the executing command, separated by a ~(tilde). If you do not enter your own label, this constructed name is used to identify process values. By entering the keyword cmd, you can change this to be only the name of the executing command; by entering the keyword pid, you change it to be only the PID of the process. The distributed configuration file has an example of the use of the two keywords in the skeleton console named "Local Processes."

Lower range

The sliding scale (slider) can move from value zero to one less than the current upper range property value. If you want a non-zero lower scale make sure you have the upper scale set correctly first.

 

Upper range

The sliding scale (slider) can move from 1 to 1,000,000,000; but, as described earlier, you may have to do this in steps.

 

Threshold

The sliding scale (slider) can move from value 0 to 1,000,000,000; but, as described earlier, you may have to do this in steps. The threshold value only has a meaning for state light type instruments. The threshold type (described below) determines how to interpret the threshold value.

 

Threshold type

This section has two radio buttons. One, and only one, must be active. The section describes the threshold type used for state light type instruments as either ascending or descending.

Tabulating Windows

Whenever an instrument is active, it updates a graphical display of the values it contains. Each time a new set of values is received, the graphical window is updated. In addition to the graphical display, an instrument can simultaneously tabulate the data values as they are received. This is done by opening a tabulating window.

A tabulating window is opened for an instrument when you select the menu item Tabulating Window. If you do it one more time, the tabulating window is closed. You can also close a tabulating window from its window manager menu.

A tabulating window is shown in the figure below. It has three components:

• Header lines
• Weighted average line
• Detail lines

Example of a Tabulating Window

Tabulating Window Header Lines

The header lines are constructed using either user-supplied labels for the values (if available) or path names. The path name with most levels determines the number of header lines. The first value in the Example of a Tabulating Window figure, has a path name of:

hosts/nchris/CPU/cpu0/kern

That gives five levels but in order to keep the number of header lines down, all tabulating windows show the host name in the upper left corner of the window. Since all values of any instrument have the first two levels of the path name in common, they are not shown for each value.

Tabulating Window Weighted Average Line

The first data line is the "weighted average line" showing an approximation to an average for each value. The formula used to calculate the average is:

new_avg = observation x weight + old_avg (1 - weight)

The weight in the formula is specified by the command line argument -p or the X resource Averaging. The default weight is 50%, which is used in the formula above as the value .5.

To make the weighted average line stand out from detail lines, it is shown in reverse video.

Tabulating Window Detail Lines

The detail lines show actual data values as they are received. At the far left of each line is a time stamp showing the time at which the data values were captured, using the time of day of the host that generated the data values. As new observations are received, previous data lines move down and, eventually, disappear off the bottom of the list of detail lines.

The default number of detail lines sent to a tabulating window is 20. However, when the window initially appears, it typically shows only the top four detail lines including the weighted average line. Use the window manager to resize the window if you want to see more detail lines.

The number of detail lines in tabulating windows can be changed with the X resource TabWindowLines. You can specify from 2 to 100 lines. The number of lines you specify should include the weighted average line. If you specify more than 25 lines, the tabulating window provides a vertical scroll bar that allows you to scroll down to see the last of the detail lines.

Column Width in Tabulating Windows

The width of each column in tabulating windows defaults to 9 characters. Data values are always cut to fit the active column width. If this would cause digits to be removed from the value, it is divided by either 1,000 or 1,000,000 as required and suffixed with a K or M, respectively. Where applicable, column headings are truncated so that at least one space separates two headings.

The default column width can be changed through the X resource TabColumnWidth . A value from 5 through 15 can be specified.

Decimal Places in Tabulating Windows

Some values may be tabulated with one decimal place. This is done if the value's High Scale property is less than or equal to a global threshold that defaults to 10. This is done to allow extra granularity for values that never have very high readings.

The global threshold can be changed with the X resource DecimalPlaceLimit .

Tabulating Window Title Bar

The title bar of tabulating windows shows the name of the host where xmperf is executing followed by (TAB): and the identification of the instrument. The instrument is identified by the console name and the sequence number of the instrument within the console.