# File Naming

All files generated by collectl via the -f switch, both raw and plot, will always contain the name of the host from which they have been generated according to the following rules:

- If the specified name is a directory, the resultant file(s) will be created in that directory and begin with the hostname. If the name is not a directory, that name will be prepended to -hostname
- The name is then followed with -yyyymmdd
- If this is a raw data file or one generated using -P and -ou has been specified, it will also have -hhmmss appended as well to indicate the starting time of the sample. Note that the colons have been left off the time field to make it easy to move the file to a PC for further analysis if so desired.
- The appropriate extension is added and if a compressed file, .gz is then appended.

warning
Never ever try to rename a file and expect collectl to be able to process it in playback mode. When running in this mode, collectl ignores any files that do not look like they were generated by collectl. It also verifies what appears in the hostname portion of the filename to match that which is recorded in the header.

updated Feb 21, 2011