GENPLOTFILES(1) 						      colplot							   GENPLOTFILES(1)

NAME

       genplotfiles - utility to help automate creation of collectl plot file from raw ones

SYNOPSIS

       /opt/hp/colplot/genplotfiles.pl -outdir [-switches]

DESCRIPTIONS

       This  utility  is  not  intended to meet all plot file creation needs, but quite frankly should meet most.  Features not provided with this
       utility are best realized by running collectl directly in playback mode (see collectl -p).  It is therefore important  to  understand  what
       this utility will and will not do for you before building an automation strategy around it.

       The algorithm used is fairly simple - genplotfiles examines each collectl raw file to see it it falls within the data ranges (if specified)
       and contains a matching hostname (if specified).  If a plot file already exists, the timestamps are compared and the raw  file  skipped	if
       its newer than the plotfile.

       Any  raw files that pass all these tests are then passed to collectl with their timestamp wildcarded.  The result is all raw files for that
       host/date will be processed.  This means if you copy over collectl raw files multiple times over the course of the day using rsync, you can
       immediately  genererate	up-to-date  plots  for them using genplotfiles.  Furthermore, you won`t even need any date parameters if the older
       plot files are alreay up to date.

       For an example of what a cron job that aggregates multiple collectl logs onto a single system for plotting purposes, see crontab.sh in  the
       same directory as this script.

SWITCHES

       All switches are optional with the exception of -outdir:

       -colbin path-to-collectl
	      This  points  to collectl and is only necessary if /usr/sbin is not in your path or you`ve chosen to install collectl in a non-stan-
	      dard directory.

       -debug number
	      Primarily for development, will provide intermediate processing information based on its value.  See souce for details.

       -force
	      Always generate plot files even in there is an existing one that is newer than the latest raw file.  This will be necessary  if  you
	      want to rerun this script and just change the value of -subsys.

       -help
	      Print a summary of available switches.

       -host string
	      Only process files that contain this string in their hostname portion of the filename.

       -indir directory
	      Directory  where	to look for collectl logs.  The default is /var/log/collectl and is therefore only necessary if your logs are in a
	      non-standard location.

       -outdir directory
	      Directory into which to write the plottable files.  This field is required.

       -fromdate date
	      Ignore files with a datestamp in their name less that this value.  The default is 20050101 and so defaults to all files.	The  value
	      of `yesterday` is also recognized to simplify scripts that call this.

       -thrudate date
	      Ignore  files  with  a datestamp in their name with a datestamp greater than this value.	The default is the current day and one can
	      also specify a value of `yesterday`.

       -subsys string
	      Instead of using the default subsystems for which data was collected, generate output files based on this set.  There are  basically
	      two  reasons  for doing this.  The first is that you may want to reduce the size of the plot files, though with compression there is
	      rarely much point in this.   The second is if you`ve asked collectl to collect summary data but want to plot detail data.

	      See the colplot FAQ for more information.

AUTHOR

       This program was written by Mark Seger (mjseger@gmail.com).
       Copyright 2005 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

SEE ALSO

LOCAL
								   OCTOBER 2005 						   GENPLOTFILES(1)