Performance Co Pilot (PCP) && Nix

randomizedcoder · February 28, 2026, 3:42am

G’day,

I’ve been working on the flake.nix for the Performance Co Pilot ( GitHub - performancecopilot/pcp: Performance Co-Pilot ). Setup some cute automated testing using microvms.

Performance Co Pilot && Nix

https://youtu.be/u3iUcqkcpNY

Hopefully this will get merged into pcp soon, via:

github.com/performancecopilot/pcp

Nix refactor

main ← randomizedcoder:nix_refactor

opened 03:46AM - 25 Feb 26 UTC

randomizedcoder

+9376 -368

@kmcdonell I've been working away on the nix. Here's the draft. I'm workin…g on a video to demonstrate all this. I'm pretty happy with the microvms and the automated verification. ``` nix run .#pcp-lifecycle-test-all ... --- Phase 6: Wait for Exit (timeout: 60s) --- PASS: VM exited cleanly (4316ms) Timing Summary ───────────────────────────────────── Phase Time (ms) ───────────────────────────────────── build 10337 start 119 serial 7 virtio 7 services 19841 metrics 2056 shutdown 408 exit 4316 ───────────────────────────────────── TOTAL 37178 ───────────────────────────────────── ======================================== Result: ALL PHASES PASSED Total time: 37.1s ======================================== ======================================== Test Suite Summary ======================================== Variant Result Duration ─────── ────── ──────── base PASSED 6m9s eval PASSED 40.9s grafana PASSED 41.1s bpf PASSED 39.6s grafana-tap PASSED 39.2s ──────────────────────────────────────── Total: 5 passed, 0 failed, 0 skipped Total time: 8m50s ──────────────────────────────────────── [das@l:~/Downloads/pcp]$ ```

Thanks,

Dave

randomizedcoder · March 1, 2026, 6:27pm

Merged!

github.com/performancecopilot/pcp

Nix refactor

main ← randomizedcoder:nix_refactor

opened 03:46AM - 25 Feb 26 UTC

randomizedcoder

+11190 -368

@kmcdonell I've been working away on the nix. Here's the draft. I'm workin…g on a video to demonstrate all this. I'm pretty happy with the microvms and the automated verification. ``` nix run .#pcp-lifecycle-test-all ... --- Phase 6: Wait for Exit (timeout: 60s) --- PASS: VM exited cleanly (4316ms) Timing Summary ───────────────────────────────────── Phase Time (ms) ───────────────────────────────────── build 10337 start 119 serial 7 virtio 7 services 19841 metrics 2056 shutdown 408 exit 4316 ───────────────────────────────────── TOTAL 37178 ───────────────────────────────────── ======================================== Result: ALL PHASES PASSED Total time: 37.1s ======================================== ======================================== Test Suite Summary ======================================== Variant Result Duration ─────── ────── ──────── base PASSED 6m9s eval PASSED 40.9s grafana PASSED 41.1s bpf PASSED 39.6s grafana-tap PASSED 39.2s ──────────────────────────────────────── Total: 5 passed, 0 failed, 0 skipped Total time: 8m50s ──────────────────────────────────────── [das@l:~/Downloads/pcp]$ ```

randomizedcoder · March 1, 2026, 11:35pm

Nixpkgs pull request for the same

github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs

pcp: init at 7.1.1-unstable-2026-03-01, nixos/pcp: init module, nixos…

master ← randomizedcoder:pcp

opened 11:31PM - 01 Mar 26 UTC

randomizedcoder

+1181 -1

pcp: init at 7.1.1-unstable-2026-03-01, nixos/pcp: init module, nixosTests.pcp: …init Adds [Performance Co-Pilot (PCP)](https://pcp.io), a system performance monitoring toolkit from the Linux Foundation. PCP provides a framework for collecting, archiving, and analyzing system-level performance metrics. To create this pull request, flake.nix and extensive ./nix/ has been added via https://github.com/performancecopilot/pcp/pull/2501 YouTube video: https://youtu.be/u3iUcqkcpNY This is the nixpkgs version, to allow people on NixOS to easily use Performance Co Pilot (pcp) **Package** (`pkgs/by-name/pc/pcp/package.nix`): - Builds from upstream main branch (pinned commit); upstream does not tag releases consistently - Feature flags: `withSystemd`, `withPfm`, `withBpf` (default off to avoid LLVM closure), `withSnmp` - Three outputs: `out`, `man`, `doc` - Five patches for Nix/NixOS compatibility (GNUmakefile ownership flags, Perl install paths, Python ctypes library discovery, shell pwd portability, pmapi reconnect fix) - Replaces a previously removed/archived `pcp` alias (different project) **NixOS module** (`nixos/modules/services/monitoring/pcp.nix`): - `services.pcp.enable` with presets: `standalone` (full suite), `minimal` (pmcd only), `custom` - Four services: pmcd (collector daemon), pmlogger (archive logger), pmie (inference engine), pmproxy (REST API gateway) - Daily maintenance timers for pmlogger and pmie - Configurable PMDA registration, firewall rules, IP filtering, and systemd hardening - BCC PMDA support with appropriate capability grants **NixOS test** (`nixos/tests/pcp.nix`): - Starts pmcd and pmproxy, verifies ports 44321/44322, queries kernel metrics via `pminfo` ## Things done - Built on platform: - [x] x86_64-linux - [ ] aarch64-linux - [ ] x86_64-darwin - [ ] aarch64-darwin - Tested, as applicable: - [x] [NixOS tests] in [nixos/tests]. - [x] [Package tests] at `passthru.tests`. - [ ] Tests in [lib/tests] or [pkgs/test] for functions and "core" functionality. - [ ] Ran `nixpkgs-review` on this PR. See [nixpkgs-review usage]. - [x] Tested basic functionality of all binary files, usually in `./result/bin/`. - Nixpkgs Release Notes - [ ] Package update: when the change is major or breaking. - NixOS Release Notes - [x] Module addition: when adding a new NixOS module. - [ ] Module update: when the change is significant. - [x] Fits [CONTRIBUTING.md], [pkgs/README.md], [maintainers/README.md] and other READMEs. [NixOS tests]: https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/unstable/index.html#sec-nixos-tests [Package tests]: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/README.md#package-tests [nixpkgs-review usage]: https://github.com/Mic92/nixpkgs-review#usage [CONTRIBUTING.md]: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md [lib/tests]: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/lib/tests [maintainers/README.md]: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/maintainers/README.md [nixos/tests]: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/nixos/tests [pkgs/README.md]: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/README.md [pkgs/test]: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/test