# phpman > man > librrd(3)

[librrd(3)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/librrd/3/markdown)                                      rrdtool                                     [librrd(3)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/librrd/3/markdown)



## NAME
       librrd - RRD library functions

## DESCRIPTION
       **librrd** contains most of the functionality in **RRDtool**.  The command line utilities and
       language bindings are often just wrappers around the code contained in **librrd**.

       This manual page documents the **librrd** API.

       **NOTE:** This document is a work in progress, and should be considered incomplete as long as
       this warning persists.  For more information about the **librrd** functions, always consult the
       source code.

## CORE FUNCTIONS
       **rrd**___**dump**___**cb**___**r(char** ***filename,** **int** **opt**___**header,** **rrd**___**output**___**callback**___**t** **cb,** **void** ***user)**
           In some situations it is necessary to get the output of "rrd_dump" without writing it to
           a file or the standard output. In such cases an application can ask **rrd**___**dump**___**cb**___**r** to call
           a user-defined function each time there is output to be stored somewhere. This can be
           used, to e.g. directly feed an XML parser with the dumped output or transfer the
           resulting string in memory.

           The arguments for **rrd**___**dump**___**cb**___**r** are the same as for **rrd**___**dump**___**opt**___**r** except that the output
           filename parameter is replaced by the user-defined callback function and an additional
           parameter for the callback function that is passed untouched, i.e. to store information
           about the callback state needed for the user-defined callback to function properly.

           Recent versions of **rrd**___**dump**___**opt**___**r** internally use this callback mechanism to write their
           output to the file provided by the user.

               size_t rrd_dump_opt_cb_fileout(
                   const void *data,
                   size_t len,
                   void *user)
               {
                   return fwrite(data, 1, len, (FILE *)user);
               }

           The associated call for **rrd**___**dump**___**cb**___**r** looks like

               res = rrd_dump_cb_r(filename, opt_header,
                   rrd_dump_opt_cb_fileout, (void *)out_file);

           where the last parameter specifies the file handle **rrd**___**dump**___**opt**___**cb**___**fileout** should write
           to. There's no specific condition for the callback to detect when it is called for the
           first time, nor for the last time. If you require this for initialization and cleanup you
           should do those tasks before and after calling **rrd**___**dump**___**cb**___**r** respectively.

       **rrd**___**fetch**___**cb**___**register(rrd**___**fetch**___**cb**___**t** **c)**
           If your data does not reside in rrd files, but you would like to draw charts using the
           rrd_graph functionality, you can supply your own rrd_fetch function and register it using
           the **rrd**___**fetch**___**cb**___**register** function.

           The argument signature and api must be the same of the callback function and must be
           equivalent to the one of **rrd**___**fetch**___**fn** in _rrd_fetch.c_.

           To activate the callback function you can use the pseudo filename _cb//free_form_text_.

           Note that rrdtool graph will not ask the same rrd for data twice. It determines this by
           building a key out of the values supplied to the fetch function. If the values are the
           same, the previous answer will be used.

## UTILITY FUNCTIONS
       **rrd**___**random()**
           Generates random numbers just like **random()**.  This further ensures that the random number
           generator is seeded exactly once per process.

       **rrd**___**strtodbl**
           an rrd aware string to double converter which sets rrd_error in if there is a problem and
           uses the return code exclusively for conversion status reporting.

       **rrd**___**strtod**
           works like normal strtod, but it is locale independent (and thread safe)

       **rrd**___**snprintf**
           works  like normal snprintf but it is locale independent (and thread safe)

       **rrd**___**add**___**ptr(void** *****dest,** **size**___**t** ***dest**___**size,** **void** ***src)**
           Dynamically resize the array pointed to by "dest".  "dest_size" is a pointer to the
           current size of "dest".  Upon successful **realloc()**, the "dest_size" is incremented by 1
           and the "src" pointer is stored at the end of the new "dest".  Returns 1 on success, 0 on
           failure.

               type **arr = NULL;
               type *elem = "whatever";
               size_t arr_size = 0;
               if (!rrd_add_ptr(&arr, &arr_size, elem))
                   handle_failure();

       **rrd**___**add**___**ptr**___**chunk(void** *****dest,** **size**___**t** ***dest**___**size,** **void** ***src,** **size**___**t** ***alloc,** **size**___**t** **chunk)**
           Like "rrd_add_ptr", except the destination is allocated in chunks of "chunk".  "alloc"
           points to the number of entries allocated, whereas "dest_size" points to the number of
           valid pointers.  If more pointers are needed, "chunk" pointers are allocated and "alloc"
           is increased accordingly.  "alloc" must be >= "dest_size".

           This method improves performance on hosts with expensive "realloc()".

       **rrd**___**add**___**strdup(char** *****dest,** **size**___**t** ***dest**___**size,** **char** ***src)**
           Like "rrd_add_ptr", except adds a "strdup" of the source string.

               char **arr = NULL;
               size_t arr_size = NULL;
               char *str  = "example text";
               if (!rrd_add_strdup(&arr, &arr_size, str))
                   handle_failure();

       **rrd**___**add**___**strdup**___**chunk(char** *****dest,** **size**___**t** ***dest**___**size,** **char** ***src,** **size**___**t** ***alloc,** **size**___**t** **chunk)**
           Like "rrd_add_strdup", except the destination is allocated in chunks of "chunk".  "alloc"
           points to the number of entries allocated, whereas "dest_size" points to the number of
           valid pointers.  If more pointers are needed, "chunk" pointers are allocated and "alloc"
           is increased accordingly.  "alloc" must be >= "dest_size".

       **rrd**___**free**___**ptrs(void** *****src,** **size**___**t** ***cnt)**
           Free an array of pointers allocated by "rrd_add_ptr" or "rrd_add_strdup".  Also frees the
           array pointer itself.  On return, the source pointer will be NULL and the count will be
           zero.

               /* created as above */
               rrd_free_ptrs(&arr, &arr_size);
               /* here, arr == NULL && arr_size == 0 */

       **rrd**___**mkdir**___**p(const** **char** ***pathname,** **mode**___**t** **mode)**
           Create the directory named "pathname" including all of its parent directories (similar to
           "mkdir -p" on the command line - see [**mkdir**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mkdir/1/markdown) for more information). The argument "mode"
           specifies the permissions to use. It is modified by the process's "umask". See [**mkdir**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mkdir/2/markdown)
           for more details.

           The function returns 0 on success, a negative value else. In case of an error, "errno" is
           set accordingly. Aside from the errors documented in [**mkdir**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mkdir/2/markdown), the function may fail with
           the following errors:

           **EINVAL**
               "pathname" is "NULL" or the empty string.

           **ENOMEM**
               Insufficient memory was available.

           **any** **error** **returned** **by** [**stat(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/stat/2/markdown)**

           In contrast to [**mkdir**(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mkdir/2/markdown), the function does **not** fail if "pathname" already exists and is a
           directory.

       **rrd**___**scaled**___**duration** **(const** **char** ***** **token,** **unsigned** **long** **divisor,** **unsigned** **long** ***** **valuep)**
           Parse a token in a context where it contains a count (of seconds or PDP instances), or a
           duration that can be converted to a count by representing the duration in seconds and
           dividing by some scaling factor.  For example, if a user would natively express a 3 day
           archive of samples collected every 2 minutes, the sample interval can be represented by
           "2m" instead of 120, and the archive duration by "3d" (to be divided by 120) instead of
           2160 (3*24*60*60 / 120).  See more examples in "STEP, HEARTBEAT, and Rows As Durations"
           in rrdcreate.

           "token" must be a number with an optional single-character suffix encoding the scaling
           factor:

           "s" indicates seconds

           "m" indicates minutes.  The value is multiplied by 60.

           "h" indicates hours.  The value is multiplied by 3600 (or "60m").

           "d" indicates days.  The value is multiplied by 86400 (or "24h").

           "w" indicates weeks.  The value is multiplied by 604800 (or "7d").

           "M" indicates months.  The value is multiplied by 2678400 (or "31d").  (Note this factor
               accommodates the maximum number of days in a month.)

           "y" indicates years.  The value is multiplied by 31622400 (or "366d").  (Note this factor
               accommodates leap years.)

           "divisor" is a positive value representing the duration in seconds of an interval that
           the desired result counts.

           "valuep" is a pointer to where the decoded value will be stored if the conversion is
           successful.

           The initial characters of "token" must be the base-10 representation of a positive
           integer, or the conversion fails.

           If the remainder "token" is empty (no suffix), it is a count and no scaling is performed.

           If "token" has one of the suffixes above, the count is multiplied to convert it to a
           duration in seconds.  The resulting number of seconds is divided by "divisor" to produce
           a count of intervals each of duration "divisor" seconds.  If division would produce a
           remainder (e.g., "5m" (300 seconds) divided by "90s"), the conversion is invalid.

           If "token" has unrecognized trailing characters the conversion fails.

           The function returns a null pointer if the conversion was successful and "valuep" has
           been updated to the scaled value.  On failure, it returns a text diagnostic suitable for
           use in user error messages.

## CLIENT FUNCTIONS
       The following functions are used to connected to an rrdcached instance, either via a unix or
       inet address, and create, update, or gather statistics about a specified RRD database file.

       There are two different interfaces: The **rrd**___**client**___ family of functions operate on a user-
       provided client object (**rrd**___**client**___**t**) and support multiple concurrent connections to rrdcache
       instances. The simpler **rrdc**___ family of functions handles connections transparently but can
       only be used for one connection at a time.

       All of the following functions and data types are specified in the "rrd_client.h" header
       file.

       **rrd**___**client**___**new(const** **char** ***daemon**___**addr)**
           Create a new client connection object. If specified, connect to the daemon at
           "daemon_addr". The connection can later be changed by calling **rrd**___**client**___**connect**.

       **rrd**___**client**___**destroy(rrd**___**client**___**t** ***client)**
           Close a client connection and destroy the object by freeing all dynamically allocated
           memory. After calling this function, "client" can no longer be used.

       **rrd**___**client**___**connect(rrd**___**client**___**t** ***client,** **const** **char** ***daemon**___**addr)**
       **rrdc**___**connect(const** **char** ***daemon**___**addr)**
           Connect to a running rrdcached instance, specified via "daemon_addr". Any previous
           connection will be closed. If "daemon_addr" is "NULL", it defaults to the value of the
           "ENV_RRDCACHED_ADDRESS" environment address.

       **rrd**___**client**___**is**___**connected(rrd**___**client**___**t** ***client)**
           Return a boolean int if the client is connected to the server.

       **rrd**___**client**___**address(rrd**___**client**___**t** ***client)**
           Returns the server address belonging to the current connection.

       **rrdc**___**is**___**connected(const** **char** ***daemon**___**addr)**
           Return a boolean int to determine if the client is connected to the rrdcache daemon
           specified by the "daemon_addr" parameter.

       **rrd**___**client**___**ping(rrd**___**client**___**t** ***client)**
       **rrdc**___**ping**
           Check the client connection by pinging the remote side.

       **rrdc**___**is**___**any**___**connected**
           Return a boolean int if any daemon connections are connected.

       **rrd**___**client**___**disconnect(rrd**___**client**___**t** ***client)**
       **rrdc**___**disconnect**
           Disconnect gracefully from the present daemon connection.

       **rrd**___**client**___**update(rrd**___**client**___**t** ***client,** **const** **char** ***filename,** **int** **values**___**num,** **const** **char** *****
       **const** ***values)**
       **rrdc**___**update(const** **char** ***filename,** **int** **values**___**num,** **const** **char** ***** **const** ***values)**
           Update the RRD "filename" via the rrdcached. Where "values_num" is the number of values
           to update and "values" are the new values to add.

       **rrd**___**client**___**info(rrd**___**client**___**t** ***client,** **const** **char** ***filename)**
       **rrdc**___**info(const** **char** ***filename)**
           Grab rrd info of the RRD "filename" from the connected cache daemon.  This function
           returns an rrd_info_t structure of the following format:

               typedef struct rrd_blob_t {
                   unsigned long size; /* size of the blob */
                   unsigned char *ptr; /* pointer */
               } rrd_blob_t;

               typedef enum rrd_info_type { RD_I_VAL = 0,
                   RD_I_CNT,
                   RD_I_STR,
                   RD_I_INT,
                   RD_I_BLO
               } rrd_info_type_t;

               typedef union rrd_infoval {
                   unsigned long u_cnt;
                   rrd_value_t u_val;
                   char     *u_str;
                   int       u_int;
                   rrd_blob_t u_blo;
               } rrd_infoval_t;

               typedef struct rrd_info_t {
                   char     *key;
                   rrd_info_type_t type;
                   rrd_infoval_t value;
                   struct rrd_info_t *next;
               } rrd_info_t;

       **rrd**___**client**___**last(rrd**___**client**___**t** ***client,** **const** **char** ***filename)**
       **rrdc**___**last(const** **char** ***filename)**
           Grab the unix epoch of the last time RRD "filename" was updated.

       **rrd**___**client**___**first(rrd**___**client**___**t** ***client,** **const** **char** ***filename,** **int** **rraindex)**
       **rrdc**___**first(const** **char** ***filename,** **int** **rraindex)**
           Get the first value of the first sample of the RRD "filename", of the "rraindex" RRA
           (Round Robin Archive) index number.  The RRA index number can be determined by pulling
           the rrd_info_t off the RRD.

       **rrd**___**client**___**create(rrd**___**client**___**t** ***client,** **const** **char** ***filename,** **unsigned** **long** **pdp**___**step,** **time**___**t**
       **last**___**up,** **int** **no**___**overwrite,** **int** **argc,** **const** **char** ****argv)**
       **rrdc**___**create(const** **char** ***filename,** **unsigned** **long** **pdp**___**step,** **time**___**t** **last**___**up,** **int** **no**___**overwrite,**
       **int** **argc,** **const** **char** ****argv)**
           Create RRD database of path "filename".  The RRD will have a step size of "pfp_step", the
           unix epoch timestamp to start collecting data from. The number of data sources and RRAs
           "argc" and the definitions of the data sources and RRAs "argv". Lastly whether or not to
           overwrite an existing RRD if one is found with the same filename; "no_overwrite".

       **rrdc**___**create**___**r2(rrd**___**client**___**t** ***client,** **const** **char** ***filename,** **unsigned** **long** **pdp**___**step,** **time**___**t**
       **last**___**up,** **int** **no**___**overwrite,** **const** **char** ****sources,** **const** **char** ***template,** **int** **argc,** **const** **char**
       ****argv)**
       **rrdc**___**create**___**r2(const** **char** ***filename,** **unsigned** **long** **pdp**___**step,** **time**___**t** **last**___**up,** **int**
       **no**___**overwrite,** **const** **char** ****sources,** **const** **char** ***template,** **int** **argc,** **const** **char** ****argv)**
           Create an RRD database in the daemon. **rrdc**___**create**___**r2** has the same parameters as
           **rrdc**___**create** with two added parameters of; "sources" and "template".

           where "template" is the file path to a RRD file template, with, the form defined in
           [**rrdcreate**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/rrdcreate/1/markdown),

           The "sources" parameter defines series of file paths with data defined, to prefill the
           RRD with. See [**rrdcreate**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/rrdcreate/1/markdown) for more details.

       **rrd**___**client**___**flush(rrd**___**client**___**t** ***client,** **const** **char** ***filename)**
       **rrdc**___**flush(const** **char** ***filename)**
           flush the currently RRD cached in the daemon specified via "filename".

       **rrd**___**client**___**forget(rrd**___**client**___**t** ***client,** **const** **char** ***filename)**
       **rrdc**___**forget(const** **char** ***filename)**
           Drop the cached data for the RRD file specified via "filename".

       **rrdc**___**flush**___**if**___**daemon(const** **char** ***daemon**___**addr,** **const** **char** ***filename)**
           Flush the specified RRD given by "filename" only if the daemon "daemon_addr" is up and
           connected.

       **rrd**___**client**___**fetch(rrd**___**client**___**t** ***client,** **const** **char** ***filename,** **const** **char** ***cf,** **time**___**t**
       ***ret**___**start,** **time**___**t** ***ret**___**end,** **unsigned** **long** ***ret**___**step,** **unsigned** **long** ***ret**___**ds**___**num,** **char**
       *****ret**___**ds**___**names,** **rrd**___**value**___**t** ****ret**___**data)**
       **rrdc**___**fetch(const** **char** ***filename,** **const** **char** ***cf,** **time**___**t** ***ret**___**start,** **time**___**t** ***ret**___**end,** **unsigned**
       **long** ***ret**___**step,** **unsigned** **long** ***ret**___**ds**___**num,** **char** *****ret**___**ds**___**names,** **rrd**___**value**___**t** ****ret**___**data)**
           Perform a fetch operation on the specified RRD Database given be "filename", where "cf"
           is the consolidation function, "ret_start" is the start time given by unix epoch,
           "ret_end" is the endtime. "ret_step" is the step size in seconds, "ret_ds_num" the number
           of data sources in the RRD, "ret_ds_names" the names of the data sources, and a pointer
           to an rrd_value_t object to shlep the data.

       **rrdc**___**stats**___**get(rrd**___**client**___**t** ***client,** **rrdc**___**stats**___**t** ****ret**___**stats)**
       **rrdc**___**stats**___**get(rrdc**___**stats**___**t** ****ret**___**stats)**
           Get stats from the connected daemon, via a linked list of the following structure:

               struct rrdc_stats_s {
                   const char *name;
                   uint16_t type;
                   #define RRDC_STATS_TYPE_GAUGE   0x0001
                   #define RRDC_STATS_TYPE_COUNTER 0x0002
                   uint16_t flags;
                   union {
                       uint64_t counter;
                       double   gauge;
                   } value;
                   struct rrdc_stats_s *next;
               };
               typedef struct rrdc_stats_s rrdc_stats_t;

       **rrdc**___**stats**___**free(rrdc**___**stats**___**t** ***ret**___**stats)**
           Free the stats struct allocated via **rrdc**___**stats**___**get**.

   **SEE** **ALSO**
       [**rrcached**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/rrcached/1/markdown) [**rrdfetch**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/rrdfetch/1/markdown) [**rrdinfo**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/rrdinfo/1/markdown) [**rrdlast**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/rrdlast/1/markdown) [**rrdcreate**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/rrdcreate/1/markdown) [**rrdupdate**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/rrdupdate/1/markdown) [**rrdlast**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/rrdlast/1/markdown)

## AUTHOR
       RRD Contributors <<rrd-developers@lists.oetiker.ch>>



1.7.2                                        2022-03-17                                    [librrd(3)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/librrd/3/markdown)
