#1127416 pcp: pmlogger_daily service fails with "compression program not found"

Package:
pcp
Source:
pcp
Description:
System level performance monitoring and performance management
Submitter:
Bert Melis
Date:
2026-02-08 21:17:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
#1127416#5
Date:
2026-02-08 11:33:36 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

pmlogger_daily.service fails with "compression program not found"

relevant compression programs are available (zstd, xz).
#1127416#10
Date:
2026-02-08 20:59:30 UTC
From:
To:
G'day Bert.
1. it needs to be $PCP_COMPRESS=xz ($PCP_ prefix is missing) ... I think this matches the pmlogger.control(5) man page, and
2. it needs to be *before* the LOCALHOSTNAME line ... the file is processed serially, and that is *not* explained in the pmlogger.control(5) man page, so I'll fix that

BUT, that does not explain the problem ... since COMPRESS=xz is having no effect, you're in the default scenario where $PCP_COMPRESS defaults (in your version of PCP, it changes in PCP 7.0) to xz.

So, can you please add to the bug with the *exact* message from pmlogger_daily?  I'm curious that you report "compression program not found", I'd have expected something like:
Error: xz: compression program not found
(is xz not there in your case?)

Which leads me to ... where is xz installed?  The output from the following commands would be helpful:
$ which xz
$ xz --version

I have a new qa/1651 based on your bug, and it is passing (and running xz with and without the fixed control file) on my x86_64 Debian 13.3 QA system (vm23), so something's different between your system and mine.
#1127416#15
Date:
2026-02-08 20:59:30 UTC
From:
To:
G'day Bert.
1. it needs to be $PCP_COMPRESS=xz ($PCP_ prefix is missing) ... I think this matches the pmlogger.control(5) man page, and
2. it needs to be *before* the LOCALHOSTNAME line ... the file is processed serially, and that is *not* explained in the pmlogger.control(5) man page, so I'll fix that

BUT, that does not explain the problem ... since COMPRESS=xz is having no effect, you're in the default scenario where $PCP_COMPRESS defaults (in your version of PCP, it changes in PCP 7.0) to xz.

So, can you please add to the bug with the *exact* message from pmlogger_daily?  I'm curious that you report "compression program not found", I'd have expected something like:
Error: xz: compression program not found
(is xz not there in your case?)

Which leads me to ... where is xz installed?  The output from the following commands would be helpful:
$ which xz
$ xz --version

I have a new qa/1651 based on your bug, and it is passing (and running xz with and without the fixed control file) on my x86_64 Debian 13.3 QA system (vm23), so something's different between your system and mine.