HP Caliper User Guide Release 5.5 (5900-2351, August 2012)

Hierarchy for Processing an Option Value
HP Caliper uses this sequential order to process an option value:
1. Default value for an option
2. Option variable setting in the specified measurement configuration file
3. Option variable setting in the .caliperinit file, if the file exists
4. Option value from the command line
Thus:
• The command line overrides everything.
• The .caliperinit file overrides the measurement configuration file.
• The measurement configuration file overrides the default value.
-d or --database
-d database[,unique]
Saves measurement results to the named database in data collection runs.
Performance data is always saved to a database, whether one is explicitly specified or not. You
can use this option to save measurement results to a database that you name instead of to the
default database name. If you specify a relative or absolute pathname, the file will be saved there.
If you do not specify a pathname, the file is saved in the current directory.
This option is particularly useful is you want to preserve measurement runs of the same type.
If you use the unique qualifier, the process ID of the HP Caliper process is appended to the name
of the database it is writing to. There are two situations in which you might want to use this qualifier:
• When you are running HP Caliper many times and do not want to overwrite the database
contents with each run.
• When you are running simultaneous HP Caliper processes, which would (without this qualifier)
try to write to the same database and cause corruption.
If you do not use the -d option, the database file is saved in the databases directory.
Examples
-d foo.db,unique
--database bar.db,unique
These options would result in database names such as the following:
foo.db-14921
bar.db-288
For more information, see “How HP Caliper Saves Data in Databases” (p. 114).
-e or --duration
-e seconds
Elapsed time in real-time seconds before detaching from a running process. When you specify this
option, HP Caliper stops measuring the target processes after the specified duration and reports
the data. When HP Caliper stops measuring, the application continues to run normally.
NOTE: When HP Caliper stops its measurement, I/O processes may be affected. See “Restrictions
on Using HP Caliper” (page 29).
This option is not available for cgprof, fcount, and fcover measurements.
See “Attaching to a Running Process to Perform Measurements” (p. 100) for details.
48 HP Caliper Options