[PATCH v3 3/3] usertools/telemetry: add help support

[Bruce Richardson]

On Tue, Jun 09, 2026 at 05:14:00PM +0100, Bruce Richardson wrote:
> While the telemetry infrastructure supported using "/help,/<cmd>" to get
> help on specific commands, with the addition of script-specific
> commands, we needed better help support to explain the use of FOREACH,
> and to allow e.g. "help /<cmd>" using space separation, which is more
> intuitive. This patch adds that help support.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Bruce Richardson <bruce.richardson at intel.com>
> ---
> v2: added "help aliases" to list defined aliases
>     updated docs for expanded help command
> ---
>  doc/guides/howto/telemetry.rst | 31 ++++++++++++---
>  usertools/dpdk-telemetry.py    | 69 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
>  2 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/doc/guides/howto/telemetry.rst b/doc/guides/howto/telemetry.rst
> index bdefbdc6a6..00cfc1a1e1 100644
> --- a/doc/guides/howto/telemetry.rst
> +++ b/doc/guides/howto/telemetry.rst
> @@ -81,12 +81,31 @@ and query information using the telemetry client python script.
>         ...
>         "tx_priority7_xon_to_xoff_packets": 0}}
>  
> -   * Get the help text for a command. This will indicate what parameters are
> -     required. Pass the command as a parameter::
> -
> -       --> /help,/ethdev/xstats
> -       {"/help": {"/ethdev/xstats": "Returns the extended stats for a port.
> -       Parameters: int port_id"}}
> +   * Get the help text for a command.
> +     This will indicate what parameters are required.
> +     Use the ``help`` keyword followed by the command or keyword of interest,
> +     for example::
> +
> +       --> help FOREACH
> +       FOREACH usage:
> +          FOREACH /<list_cmd> /<iter_cmd> .<field> [.<field> ...]
> +          FOREACH <var> /<list_cmd> /<iter_cmd_with_$var> .<field> [.<field> ...]
> +
> +       Examples:
> +          FOREACH /ethdev/list /ethdev/stats .opackets
> +          ...
> +
> +       --> help /ethdev/xstats
> +       {"/help": {"/ethdev/xstats": "Returns the extended stats for a port. Parameters: int port_id"}}
> +
> +   ..  Note::
> +         For commands starting with ``/`` that are telemetry enpoints,

Checkpatch in CI correctly points out the typo for "endpoints" here. Please
fix on apply if no v4 is otherwise necessary.

thanks,
/Bruce