'\"macro stdmacro
.\"
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.TH PMIDSTR 3 "PCP" "Performance Co-Pilot"
.SH NAME
\f3pmIDStr\f1,
\f3pmIDStr_r\f1 \- convert a performance metric identifier into a string
.SH "C SYNOPSIS"
.ft 3
#include <pcp/pmapi.h>
.sp
const char *pmIDStr(pmID \fIpmid\fP);
.br
char *pmIDStr_r(pmID \fIpmid\fP, char *\fIbuf\fP, int \fIbuflen\fP);
.sp
cc ... \-lpcp
.ft 1
.SH DESCRIPTION
.de CW
.ie t \f(CW\\$1\f1\\$2
.el \fI\\$1\f1\\$2
..
For use in error and diagnostic messages,
.B pmIDStr
returns a `human readable' version of
the specified Performance Metric Identifier (PMID).
The
.B pmIDStr_r
function does the same, but stores the result in a user-supplied buffer
.I buf
of length
.IR buflen ,
which should have room for at least 20 bytes.
.PP
Internally, a PMID is
encoded with three fields: domain, cluster and item.
.B pmIDStr
returns a string with each of the fields
appearing as decimal numbers, separated by periods.
.PP
The string value result from
.B pmIDStr
is held in a single static buffer, so the returned value is
only valid until the next call to
.BR pmIDStr .
.SH NOTES
.B pmIDStr
returns a pointer to a static buffer and hence is not thread-safe.
Multi-threaded applications should use
.B pmIDStr_r
instead.
.SH "PCP ENVIRONMENT"
Environment variables with the prefix
.B PCP_
are used to parameterize the file and directory names
used by PCP.
On each installation, the file
.I /etc/pcp.conf
contains the local values for these variables.
The
.B $PCP_CONF
variable may be used to specify an alternative
configuration file,
as described in
.BR pcp.conf (5).
Values for these variables may be obtained programmatically
using the
.BR pmGetConfig (3)
function.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR PMAPI (3),
.BR pmGetConfig (3),
.BR pmInDomStr (3),
.BR pmTypeStr (3),
.BR pmSemStr (3),
.BR pmUnitsStr (3),
.BR pmLookupDesc (3),
.BR pcp.conf (5)
and
.BR pcp.env (5).