Controlling Activities (vtl)

This information applies to the command-line interface (vtl) only.

Use the ActivityController tool to manage the Activity while it is running.

The ActivityController has two user-interface modes: interactive and non-interactive. In the interactive mode, you can see a list of actions you can perform on the currently running Activity and select the required action. In the non-interactive mode, you specify the action in the command line.

To invoke the ActivityController, type ActivityController  at the shell prompt. You may have to start another shell to do this.

Interactive Mode

This is the default mode activated when you invoke the ActivityController executable without any command line options.

To invoke the ActivityController in the interactive mode for the currently running Activity:

1. At the shell prompt, enter:

>ActivityController

The output is the following:

You are controlling the following Activity:
[Activity name goes here]
Please select one of the following actions to use with the Activity:
1. Stop Activity
2. Cancel Activity
3. Pause Activity
4. Resume Activity
5. Activity Status
6. Activity Information
7. Quit

2. Type in the number corresponding to the action you wish the ActivityController to perform.

When the ActivityController performs the specified action, it displays status messages for the first four actions. When the stop or cancel action is performed, the ActivityController exits since the Activity is no longer running and thus cannot be controlled.

The Activity Status action shows the current state of the Activity: running or paused.

Note

You can track the status of the Activity by viewing the ActivityController return code:

0 - No Activity is currently running;

1 - The Activity is running;

2 - The Activity is paused.

The Activity Information action displays information about the contents of the Activity: data collectors. The following output is displayed:

The following data collectors are in the Activity ([Activity name goes here]):
[1st data collector name goes here]
[2nd data collector name goes here]
...
[nth data collector name goes here]

Non-Interactive Mode

The non-interactive mode supports the same commands as the interactive mode supports. But after the action is performed, the ActivityController exits, returning you to the command line prompt.

To invoke the non-interactive mode, launch the ActivityController executable with the required command line option: -stop, -cancel, -pause, -resume, -status, or -info.

Command-line example:

>ActivityController -cancel

Note

• Only the first 35 characters of the Activity name are displayed.

• You can only control the Activity you are currently running. This allows multiple users to run the ActivityController independently of other users controlling their own Activities.

• You cannot use several instances of the ActivityController to manage the same Activity at the same time.

• The Pause/Resume actions are not supported for sampling.

• Use the pause/resume functionality of the ActivityController for the Activities that consist of a single run only. To pause/resume the Activity with multiple runs, use the VTuneAPI calls.

• View the manual page for the brief reference on ActivityController options:

>man ActivityController

Tip

To review the precise command line arguments that can be used in the non-interactive mode, type in: ActivityController  -help.