RRDGRAPH(1) rrdtool RRDGRAPH(1)
NNAAMMEE
rrdgraph - Round Robin Database tool grapher functions
SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS
rrrrddttooooll ggrraapphh||ggrraapphhvv _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e [_o_p_t_i_o_n ...] [_d_a_t_a _d_e_f_i_n_i_t_i_o_n ...]
[_d_a_t_a _c_a_l_c_u_l_a_t_i_o_n ...] [_v_a_r_i_a_b_l_e _d_e_f_i_n_i_t_i_o_n ...] [_g_r_a_p_h _e_l_e_m_e_n_t ...]
[_p_r_i_n_t _e_l_e_m_e_n_t ...]
DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN
The ggrraapphh function of RRRRDDttooooll is used to present the data from an RRRRDD
to a human viewer. Its main purpose is to create a nice graphical rep-
resentation, but it can also generate a numerical report.
OOVVEERRVVIIEEWW
rrrrddttooooll ggrraapphh needs data to work with, so you must use one or more ddaattaa
ddeeffiinniittiioonn statements to collect this data. You are not limited to one
database, it's perfectly legal to collect data from two or more
databases (one per statement, though).
If you want to display averages, maxima, percentiles, etcetera it is
best to collect them now using the vvaarriiaabbllee ddeeffiinniittiioonn statement. Cur-
rently this makes no difference, but in a future version of rrdtool you
may want to collect these values before consolidation.
The data fetched from the RRRRAA is then ccoonnssoolliiddaatteedd so that there is
exactly one datapoint per pixel in the graph. If you do not take care
yourself, RRRRDDttooooll will expand the range slightly if necessary. Note, in
that case the first and/or last pixel may very well become unknown!
Sometimes data is not exactly in the format you would like to display
it. For instance, you might be collecting bbyytteess per second, but want to
display bbiittss per second. This is what the ddaattaa ccaallccuullaattiioonn command is
designed for. After ccoonnssoolliiddaattiinngg the data, a copy is made and this
copy is modified using a rather powerful RRPPNN command set.
When you are done fetching and processing the data, it is time to graph
it (or print it). This ends the rrrrddttooooll ggrraapphh sequence.
Use ggrraapphhvv instead of ggrraapphh to get detailed information about the graph
geometry and data once it is drawn. See the bottom of the document for
more information.
OOPPTTIIOONNSS
_f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e
The name and path of the graph to generate. It is recommended to end
this in ".png", ".svg" or ".eps", but RRRRDDttooooll does not enforce this.
_f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e can be '"-"' to send the image to "stdout". In this case, no
other output is generated.
TTiimmee rraannggee
[--ss|----ssttaarrtt _t_i_m_e] [--ee|----eenndd _t_i_m_e] [--SS|----sstteepp _s_e_c_o_n_d_s]
The start and end of the time series you would like to display, and
which RRRRAA the data should come from. Defaults are: 1 day ago until
now, with the best possible resolution. SSttaarrtt and eenndd can be specified
in several formats, see AT-STYLE TIME SPECIFICATION and rrdgraph_exam-
ples. By default, rrrrddttooooll ggrraapphh calculates the width of one pixel in
the time domain and tries to get data from an RRRRAA with that resolution.
With the sstteepp option you can alter this behaviour. If you want rrrrddttooooll
ggrraapphh to get data at a one-hour resolution from the RRRRDD, set sstteepp to
3'600. Note: a step smaller than one pixel will silently be ignored.
LLaabbeellss
[--tt|----ttiittllee _s_t_r_i_n_g] [--vv|----vveerrttiiccaall--llaabbeell _s_t_r_i_n_g]
A horizontal string at the top of the graph and/or a vertically placed
string at the left hand side of the graph.
SSiizzee
[--ww|----wwiiddtthh _p_i_x_e_l_s] [--hh|----hheeiigghhtt _p_i_x_e_l_s] [--jj|----oonnllyy--ggrraapphh]
[--DD|----ffuullll--ssiizzee--mmooddee]
By default, the width and height of the ccaannvvaass (the part with the
actual data and such). This defaults to 400 pixels by 100 pixels.
If you specify the ----ffuullll--ssiizzee--mmooddee option, the width and height spec-
ify the final dimensions of the output image and the canvas is automat-
ically resized to fit.
If you specify the ----oonnllyy--ggrraapphh option and set the height < 32 pixels
you will get a tiny graph image (thumbnail) to use as an icon for use
in an overview, for example. All labeling will be stripped off the
graph.
LLiimmiittss
[--uu|----uuppppeerr--lliimmiitt _v_a_l_u_e] [--ll|----lloowweerr--lliimmiitt _v_a_l_u_e] [--rr|----rriiggiidd]
By default the graph will be autoscaling so that it will adjust the
y-axis to the range of the data. You can change this behaviour by
explicitly setting the limits. The displayed y-axis will then range at
least from lloowweerr--lliimmiitt to uuppppeerr--lliimmiitt. Autoscaling will still permit
those boundaries to be stretched unless the rriiggiidd option is set.
[--AA|----aalltt--aauuttoossccaallee]
Sometimes the default algorithm for selecting the y-axis scale is not
satisfactory. Normally the scale is selected from a predefined set of
ranges and this fails miserably when you need to graph something like
"260 + 0.001 * sin(x)". This option calculates the minimum and maximum
y-axis from the actual minimum and maximum data values. Our example
would display slightly less than "260-0.001" to slightly more than
"260+0.001" (this feature was contributed by Sasha Mikheev).
[--JJ|----aalltt--aauuttoossccaallee--mmiinn]
Where "--alt-autoscale" will modify both the absolute maximum AND mini-
mum values, this option will only affect the minimum value. The maximum
value, if not defined on the command line, will be 0. This option can
be useful when graphing router traffic when the WAN line uses compres-
sion, and thus the throughput may be higher than the WAN line speed.
[--MM|----aalltt--aauuttoossccaallee--mmaaxx]
Where "--alt-autoscale" will modify both the absolute maximum AND mini-
mum values, this option will only affect the maximum value. The minimum
value, if not defined on the command line, will be 0. This option can
be useful when graphing router traffic when the WAN line uses compres-
sion, and thus the throughput may be higher than the WAN line speed.
[--NN|----nnoo--ggrriiddffiitt]
In order to avoid anti-aliasing blurring effects rrdtool snaps points
to device resolution pixels, this results in a crisper appearance. If
this is not to your liking, you can use this switch to turn this
behaviour off.
Gridfitting is turned off for PDF, EPS, SVG output by default.
XX--AAxxiiss
[--xx|----xx--ggrriidd _G_T_M::_G_S_T::_M_T_M::_M_S_T::_L_T_M::_L_S_T::_L_P_R::_L_F_M]
[--xx|----xx--ggrriidd nnoonnee]
The x-axis label is quite complex to configure. If you don't have very
special needs it is probably best to rely on the autoconfiguration to
get this right. You can specify the string "none" to suppress the grid
and labels altogether.
The grid is defined by specifying a certain amount of time in the _?_T_M
positions. You can choose from "SECOND", "MINUTE", "HOUR", "DAY",
"WEEK", "MONTH" or "YEAR". Then you define how many of these should
pass between each line or label. This pair (_?_T_M_:_?_S_T) needs to be spec-
ified for the base grid (_G_?_?), the major grid (_M_?_?) and the labels
(_L_?_?). For the labels you also must define a precision in _L_P_R and a
_s_t_r_f_t_i_m_e format string in _L_F_M. _L_P_R defines where each label will be
placed. If it is zero, the label will be placed right under the corre-
sponding line (useful for hours, dates etcetera). If you specify a
number of seconds here the label is centered on this interval (useful
for Monday, January etcetera).
--x-grid MINUTE:10:HOUR:1:HOUR:4:0:%X
This places grid lines every 10 minutes, major grid lines every hour,
and labels every 4 hours. The labels are placed under the major grid
lines as they specify exactly that time.
--x-grid HOUR:8:DAY:1:DAY:1:86400:%A
This places grid lines every 8 hours, major grid lines and labels each
day. The labels are placed exactly between two major grid lines as they
specify the complete day and not just midnight.
YY--AAxxiiss
[--yy|----yy--ggrriidd _g_r_i_d _s_t_e_p::_l_a_b_e_l _f_a_c_t_o_r]
[--yy|----yy--ggrriidd nnoonnee]
Y-axis grid lines appear at each _g_r_i_d _s_t_e_p interval. Labels are placed
every _l_a_b_e_l _f_a_c_t_o_r lines. You can specify "-y none" to suppress the
grid and labels altogether. The default for this option is to automat-
ically select sensible values.
If you have set --y-grid to 'none' not only the labels get suppressed,
also the space reserved for the labels is removed. You can still add
space manually if you use the --units-length command to explicitly
reserve space.
[--YY|----aalltt--yy--ggrriidd]
Place the Y grid dynamically based on the graph's Y range. The algo-
rithm ensures that you always have a grid, that there are enough but
not too many grid lines, and that the grid is metric. That is the grid
lines are placed every 1, 2, 5 or 10 units. This parameter will also
ensure that you get enough decimals displayed even if your graph goes
from 69.998 to 70.001. (contributed by Sasha Mikheev).
[--oo|----llooggaarriitthhmmiicc]
Logarithmic y-axis scaling.
[--XX|----uunniittss--eexxppoonneenntt _v_a_l_u_e]
This sets the 10**exponent scaling of the y-axis values. Normally, val-
ues will be scaled to the appropriate units (k, M, etc.). However, you
may wish to display units always in k (Kilo, 10e3) even if the data is
in the M (Mega, 10e6) range, for instance. Value should be an integer
which is a multiple of 3 between -18 and 18 inclusively. It is the
exponent on the units you wish to use. For example, use 3 to display
the y-axis values in k (Kilo, 10e3, thousands), use -6 to display the
y-axis values in u (Micro, 10e-6, millionths). Use a value of 0 to
prevent any scaling of the y-axis values.
This option is very effective at confusing the heck out of the default
rrdtool autoscaler and grid painter. If rrdtool detects that it is not
successful in labeling the graph under the given circumstances, it will
switch to the more robust ----aalltt--yy--ggrriidd mode.
[--LL|----uunniittss--lleennggtthh _v_a_l_u_e]
How many digits should rrdtool assume the y-axis labels to be? You may
have to use this option to make enough space once you start fiddling
with the y-axis labeling.
[----uunniittss==ssii]
With this option y-axis values on logarithmic graphs will be scaled to
the appropriate units (k, M, etc.) instead of using exponential nota-
tion. Note that for linear graphs, SI notation is used by default.
RRiigghhtt YY AAxxiiss
[----rriigghhtt--aaxxiiss _s_c_a_l_e::_s_h_i_f_t] [----rriigghhtt--aaxxiiss--llaabbeell _l_a_b_e_l]
A second axis will be drawn to the right of the graph. It is tied to
the left axis via the scale and shift parameters. You can also define a
label for the right axis.
[----rriigghhtt--aaxxiiss--ffoorrmmaatt _f_o_r_m_a_t_-_s_t_r_i_n_g]
By default the format of the axis lables gets determined automatically.
If you want todo this your self, use this option with the same %lf
arguments you know from the PRING and GPRINT commands.
LLeeggeenndd
[--gg|----nnoo--lleeggeenndd]
Suppress generation of the legend; only render the graph.
[--FF|----ffoorrccee--rruulleess--lleeggeenndd]
Force the generation of HRULE and VRULE legends even if those HRULE or
VRULE will not be drawn because out of graph boundaries (mimics
behaviour of pre 1.0.42 versions).
[----lleeggeenndd--ppoossiittiioonn=(north|south|west|east)]
Place the legend at the given side of the graph. The default is south.
In west or east position it is necessary to add line breaks manually.
[----lleeggeenndd--ddiirreeccttiioonn=(topdown|bottomup)]
Place the legend items in the given vertical order. The default is top-
down. Using bottomup the legend items appear in the same vertical
order as a stack of lines or areas.
MMiisscceellllaanneeoouuss
[--zz|----llaazzyy]
Only generate the graph if the current graph is out of date or not
existent. Note, that all the calculations will happen regardless so
that the output of PRINT and graphv will be complete regardless. Note
that the behaviour of lazy in this regard has seen several changes over
time. The only thing you can realy rely on before rrdtool 1.3.7 is that
lazy will not generate the graph when it is already there and up to
date, and also that it will output the size of the graph.
[----ddaaeemmoonn _a_d_d_r_e_s_s]
Address of the rrdcached daemon. If specified, a "flush" command is
sent to the server before reading the RRD files. This allows the graph
to contain fresh data even if the daemon is configured to cache values
for a long time. For a list of accepted formats, see the --ll option in
the rrdcached manual.
rrdtool graph [...] --daemon unix:/var/run/rrdcached.sock [...]
[--ff|----iimmggiinnffoo _p_r_i_n_t_f_s_t_r]
After the image has been created, the graph function uses printf
together with this format string to create output similar to the PRINT
function, only that the printf function is supplied with the parameters
_f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e, _x_s_i_z_e and _y_s_i_z_e. In order to generate an IIMMGG tag suitable for
including the graph into a web page, the command line would look like
this:
--imginfo ''
[--cc|----ccoolloorr _C_O_L_O_R_T_A_G#_r_r_g_g_b_b[_a_a]]
Override the default colors for the standard elements of the graph. The
_C_O_L_O_R_T_A_G is one of "BACK" background, "CANVAS" for the background of
the actual graph, "SHADEA" for the left and top border, "SHADEB" for
the right and bottom border, "GRID", "MGRID" for the major grid, "FONT"
for the color of the font, "AXIS" for the axis of the graph, "FRAME"
for the line around the color spots, and finally "ARROW" for the arrow
head pointing up and forward. Each color is composed out of three hex-
adecimal numbers specifying its rgb color component (00 is off, FF is
maximum) of red, green and blue. Optionally you may add another hex-
adecimal number specifying the transparency (FF is solid). You may set
this option several times to alter multiple defaults.
A green arrow is made by: "--color ARROW#00FF00"
[----zzoooomm _f_a_c_t_o_r]
Zoom the graphics by the given amount. The factor must be > 0
[--nn|----ffoonntt _F_O_N_T_T_A_G::_s_i_z_e::[_f_o_n_t]]
This lets you customize which font to use for the various text elements
on the RRD graphs. "DEFAULT" sets the default value for all elements,
"TITLE" for the title, "AXIS" for the axis labels, "UNIT" for the ver-
tical unit label, "LEGEND" for the graph legend, "WATERMARK" for the
watermark on the edge of the graph.
Use Times for the title: "--font TITLE:13:Times"
If you do not give a font string you can modify just the size of the
default font: "--font TITLE:13:".
If you specify the size 0 then you can modify just the font without
touching the size. This is especially useful for altering the default
font without resetting the default fontsizes: "--font
DEFAULT:0:Courier".
RRDtool comes with a preset default font. You can set the environment
variable "RRD_DEFAULT_FONT" if you want to change this.
RRDtool uses Pango for its font handling. This means you can to use the
full Pango syntax when selecting your font:
The font name has the form "[_F_A_M_I_L_Y_-_L_I_S_T] [_S_T_Y_L_E_-_O_P_T_I_O_N_S] [_S_I_Z_E]",
where _F_A_M_I_L_Y_-_L_I_S_T is a comma separated list of families optionally ter-
minated by a comma, _S_T_Y_L_E___O_P_T_I_O_N_S is a whitespace separated list of
words where each WORD describes one of style, variant, weight, stretch,
or gravity, and _S_I_Z_E is a decimal number (size in points) or optionally
followed by the unit modifier "px" for absolute size. Any one of the
options may be absent.
[--RR|----ffoonntt--rreennddeerr--mmooddee {nnoorrmmaall,lliigghhtt,mmoonnoo}]
There are 3 font render modes:
nnoorrmmaall: Full Hinting and Antialiasing (default)
lliigghhtt: Slight Hinting and Antialiasing
mmoonnoo: Full Hinting and NO Antialiasing
[--BB|----ffoonntt--ssmmooootthhiinngg--tthhrreesshhoolldd _s_i_z_e]
(this gets ignored in 1.3 for now!)
This specifies the largest font size which will be rendered bitmapped,
that is, without any font smoothing. By default, no text is rendered
bitmapped.
[--PP|----ppaannggoo--mmaarrkkuupp]
All text in rrdtool is rendered using Pango. With the ----ppaannggoo--mmaarrkkuupp
option, all text will be processed by pango markup. This allows to
embed some simple html like markup tags using
text
Apart from the verbose syntax, there are also the following short tags
available.
b Bold
big Makes font relatively larger, equivalent to
i Italic
s Strikethrough
sub Subscript
sup Superscript
small Makes font relatively smaller, equivalent to
tt Monospace font
u Underline
More details on .
[--GG|----ggrraapphh--rreennddeerr--mmooddee {nnoorrmmaall,mmoonnoo}]
There are 2 render modes:
nnoorrmmaall: Graphs are fully Antialiased (default)
mmoonnoo: No Antialiasing
[--EE|----ssllooppee--mmooddee]
RRDtool graphs are composed of stair case curves by default. This is in
line with the way RRDtool calculates its data. Some people favor a more
'organic' look for their graphs even though it is not all that true.
[--aa|----iimmggffoorrmmaatt PPNNGG|SSVVGG|EEPPSS|PPDDFF]
Image format for the generated graph. For the vector formats you can
choose among the standard Postscript fonts Courier-Bold,
Courier-BoldOblique, Courier-Oblique, Courier, Helvetica-Bold, Hel-
vetica-BoldOblique, Helvetica-Oblique, Helvetica, Symbol, Times-Bold,
Times-BoldItalic, Times-Italic, Times-Roman, and ZapfDingbats.
[--ii|----iinntteerrllaacceedd]
(this gets ignored in 1.3 for now!)
If images are interlaced they become visible on browsers more quickly.
[--TT|----ttaabbwwiiddtthh _v_a_l_u_e]
By default the tab-width is 40 pixels, use this option to change it.
[--bb|----bbaassee _v_a_l_u_e]
If you are graphing memory (and NOT network traffic) this switch should
be set to 1024 so that one Kb is 1024 byte. For traffic measurement, 1
kb/s is 1000 b/s.
[--WW|----wwaatteerrmmaarrkk _s_t_r_i_n_g]
Adds the given string as a watermark, horizontally centered, at the
bottom of the graph.
DDaattaa aanndd vvaarriiaabblleess
DDEEFF::_v_n_a_m_e==_r_r_d_f_i_l_e::_d_s_-_n_a_m_e::_C_F[::sstteepp==_s_t_e_p][::ssttaarrtt==_t_i_m_e][::eenndd==_t_i_m_e]
CCDDEEFF::_v_n_a_m_e==_R_P_N _e_x_p_r_e_s_s_i_o_n
VVDDEEFF::_v_n_a_m_e==_R_P_N _e_x_p_r_e_s_s_i_o_n
You need at least one DDEEFF statement to generate anything. The other
statements are useful but optional. See rrdgraph_data and rrdgraph_rpn
for the exact format.
NOTE: GGrraapphh aanndd pprriinntt eelleemmeennttss
You need at least one graph element to generate an image and/or at
least one print statement to generate a report. See rrdgraph_graph for
the exact format.
ggrraapphhvv
Calling rrdtool with the graphv option will return information in the
rrdtool info format. On the command line this means that all output
will be in key=value format. When used from the Perl and Ruby bindings
a hash pointer will be returned from the call.
When the filename '-' is given, the contents of the graph itself will
also be returned through this interface (hash key 'image'). On the com-
mand line the output will look like this:
print[0] = "0.020833"
print[1] = "0.0440833"
graph_left = 51
graph_top = 22
graph_width = 400
graph_height = 100
graph_start = 1232908800
graph_end = 1232914200
image_width = 481
image_height = 154
value_min = 0.0000000000e+00
value_max = 4.0000000000e-02
image = BLOB_SIZE:8196
[... 8196 bytes of image data ...]
There is more information returned than in the standard interface.
Especially the 'graph_*' keys are new. They help applications that want
to know what is where on the graph.
EENNVVIIRROONNMMEENNTT VVAARRIIAABBLLEESS
The following environment variables may be used to change the behavior
of "rrdtool graph":
RRRRDDCCAACCHHEEDD__AADDDDRREESSSS
If this environment variable is set it will have the same effect as
specifying the "--daemon" option on the command line. If both are
present, the command line argument takes precedence.
SSEEEE AALLSSOO
rrdgraph gives an overview of how rrrrddttooooll ggrraapphh works. rrdgraph_data
describes DDEEFF,CCDDEEFF and VVDDEEFF in detail. rrdgraph_rpn describes the RRPPNN
language used in the ??DDEEFF statements. rrdgraph_graph page describes
all of the graph and print functions.
Make sure to read rrdgraph_examples for tips&tricks.
AAUUTTHHOORR
Program by Tobias Oetiker
This manual page by Alex van den Bogaerdt with
corrections and/or additions by several people
1.3.99909060808 2009-05-21 RRDGRAPH(1)