ptxrlog Command

A program to create ASCII or binary recording files.

Syntax

ptxrlog {-f infile|-m|-mfinfile} [-h hostname] [-i seconds] [-o outfile [-c|-s|-t]|-r binoutfile] [-l pagelen] [-b hhmm] [-e hh.mm]

Flags

f

Name of a control file that contains a list of statistics to record. In the control file, each statistic must be given on a line on its own and with its full path name, excluding the host part, which is supplied by ptxrlog either from the -h argument or by using the local host name. If the -f argument is not given, the user is prompted for a list of statistics. If both the -f and the -m arguments are given, ptxrlog first selects the statistics given in the control file, then prompts the user to specify additional statistics.

m

Manual input of statistic names. The user is prompted for a list of statistic names to be entered as full path names without the host part. The host part is supplied by ptxrlog either from the -h argument or by using the local host name. If both the -f and the -m arguments are given, ptxrlog first selects the statistics given in the control file, then prompts the user to specify additional statistics.

h

Hostname of the host to monitor. This argument is used to identify the host to be monitored and, thus, to create the hosts part of the path names for the statistics to monitor. If this argument is not supplied, the host name of the local host is used.

i

Sampling interval. Specifies the number of seconds between sampling of the specified statistics. If this argument is not supplied, the sampling interval defaults to 2 seconds.

o

Output file name. Specify the name of the output file you want. If this argument is omitted, output goes to standard output and neither of the format flags -c, -s, or -t is permitted. If -o is given but neither of the three format flags is, the output looks the same as the output from ptxtab shown in the "Example of ptxtab Default Output Format" . The -o flag and the -r flag are mutually exclusive.

c

The flag -c causes ptxrlog to format the output file as comma separated ASCII. The flag is only valid if -o is given. Each line in the output file contains one time stamp and one observation. Both fields are preceded by a label that describes the fields. The output looks the same as the ptxtab output shown in the "Example of ptxtab Comma Separated Output Format" . The flags -c, -s, and -t are mutually exclusive.

s

The flag -s causes ptxrlog to format the output file in a format suitable for input to spreadsheet programs. The flag is only valid if -o is given. The output looks the same as the output from ptxtab output shown in the "Example of ptxtab Spreadsheet Output Format" . The flags -c, -s, and -t are mutually exclusive.

t

Tab separated format. This flag is identical to the -s flag except that individual fields on the lines of the output file are separated by tabs rather than blanks. The flag is only valid if -o is given. The flags -c, -s, and -t are mutually exclusive.

r

The -r flag specifies that the output from ptxrlog goes to a binary recording file in standard recording file format. The name of the output file must be specified after the flag. The -o flag and the -r flag are mutually exclusive.

l

(Lowercase L) Specifies the number of lines per page when neither the -o nor the -r flag is specified or when the -o flag is specified but neither of the -c, -s, or -t flags is specified. If this flag is omitted, the output is formatted with 23 lines per page if the -o flag is omitted; otherwise with 65 lines per page. When the -o flag is given, a page eject is inserted at the beginning of each page.

b

Begin recording. If this argument is omitted, ptxrlog begins recording immediately. The flag and arguments are used to start the recording at a specified later time. The flag must be followed by the start time in the format hhmm, where:

hh = Hour in 24 hour time (midnight is 00).

mm = Minutes.

e

End recording. Specifies the number of hours and minutes recording must be active. The flag must be followed by the number of hours and minutes in the format hh.mm, where:

hh = Number of hours to record.

mm = Number of minutes to record.

If this argument is omitted, the recording continues for 12 hours. A maximum of 24 hours can be specified. When the time specified by this argument has elapsed, ptxrlog terminates.

Binary Recording Files

When the -r flag is used, output is written to the file name specified after the flag. If the file exists when recording starts, it is opened for append. After opening the binary output file, whether for creation or append, ptxrlog writes the control records to the file. For existing files, this causes the file to contain more than one set of control records and may require you to process the file with ptxmerge or ptxsplit before you can process the file with xmperf or azizo.

Resynchronizing by ptxrlog

The ptxrlog program initiates a resynchronizing with the data-supplier host if the data-supplier host sends an i_am_back packet. This usually happens if the data-supplier host's xmservd daemon has died and is restarted.

The ptxrlog initiates a resynchronizing with the data-supplier host if no data_feed packets have been received for ten times the specified sampling interval.