How do I get the current count of a metric from Graphite

Question

I am trying to get the value of a metric 'activelogins' from Graphite. I increment the value by 1 every time a user logs in and decrements it when he logs out. I need to show the current number of 'activelogins' in my dashboard. Querying using summarize(stats_counts.user.activelogins,"99years", "sum") as expected just gives me the sum and not the current which I actually want.

How do I get the current count of 'activelogins' from Graphite ?

Answer 1

I imagine you could use the absolute of the derivative of stats_counts.user.activelogins and than summarize this, as in absolute(derivative(stats_counts.user.activelogins)).