Bump version to 5.0.5; Update ChangeLog.

[collectd.git] / src / collectd-perl.pod

=head1 NAME

collectd-perl - Documentation of collectd's C<perl plugin>

=head1 SYNOPSIS

  <LoadPlugin perl>
    Globals true
  </LoadPlugin>
  # ...
  <Plugin perl>
    IncludeDir "/path/to/perl/plugins"
    BaseName "Collectd::Plugins"
    EnableDebugger ""
    LoadPlugin "FooBar"

    <Plugin FooBar>
      Foo "Bar"
    </Plugin>
  </Plugin>

=head1 DESCRIPTION

The C<perl plugin> embeds a Perl-interpreter into collectd and provides an
interface to collectd's plugin system. This makes it possible to write plugins
for collectd in Perl. This is a lot more efficient than executing a
Perl-script every time you want to read a value with the C<exec plugin> (see
L<collectd-exec(5)>) and provides a lot more functionality, too.

When loading the C<perl plugin>, the B<Globals> option should be enabled.
Else, the perl plugin will fail to load any Perl modules implemented in C,
which includes, amongst many others, the B<threads> module used by the plugin
itself. See the documentation of the B<Globals> option in L<collectd.conf(5)>
for details.

=head1 CONFIGURATION

=over 4

=item B<LoadPlugin> I<Plugin>

Loads the Perl plugin I<Plugin>. This does basically the same as B<use> would
do in a Perl program. As a side effect, the first occurrence of this option
causes the Perl-interpreter to be initialized.

=item B<BaseName> I<Name>

Prepends I<Name>B<::> to all plugin names loaded after this option. This is
provided for convenience to keep plugin names short. All Perl-based plugins
provided with the I<collectd> distributions reside in the C<Collectd::Plugins>
namespace.

=item E<lt>B<Plugin> I<Name>E<gt> block

This block may be used to pass on configuration settings to a Perl plugin. The
configuration is converted into a config-item data type which is passed to the
registered configuration callback. See below for details about the config-item
data type and how to register callbacks.

The I<name> identifies the callback. It is used literally and independent of
the B<BaseName> setting.

=item B<EnableDebugger> I<Package>[=I<option>,...]

Run collectd under the control of the Perl source debugger. If I<Package> is
not the empty string, control is passed to the debugging, profiling, or
tracing module installed as Devel::I<Package>. A comma-separated list of
options may be specified after the "=" character. Please note that you may not
leave out the I<Package> option even if you specify B<"">. This is the same as
using the B<-d:Package> command line option.

See L<perldebug> for detailed documentation about debugging Perl.

This option does not prevent collectd from daemonizing, so you should start
collectd with the B<-f> command line option. Else you will not be able to use
the command line driven interface of the debugger.

=item B<IncludeDir> I<Dir>

Adds I<Dir> to the B<@INC> array. This is the same as using the B<-IDir>
command line option or B<use lib Dir> in the source code. Please note that it
only has effect on plugins loaded after this option.

=back

=head1 WRITING YOUR OWN PLUGINS

Writing your own plugins is quite simple. collectd manages plugins by means of
B<dispatch functions> which call the appropriate B<callback functions>
registered by the plugins. Any plugin basically consists of the implementation
of these callback functions and initializing code which registers the
functions with collectd. See the section "EXAMPLES" below for a really basic
example. The following types of B<callback functions> are known to collectd
(all of them are optional):

=over 4

=item configuration functions

This type of functions is called during configuration if an appropriate
B<Plugin> block has been encountered. It is called once for each B<Plugin>
block which matches the name of the callback as provided with the
B<plugin_register> method - see below.

=item init functions

This type of functions is called once after loading the module and before any
calls to the read and write functions. It should be used to initialize the
internal state of the plugin (e.E<nbsp>g. open sockets, ...). If the return
value evaluates to B<false>, the plugin will be disabled.

=item read functions

This type of function is used to collect the actual data. It is called once
per interval (see the B<Interval> configuration option of collectd). Usually
it will call B<plugin_dispatch_values> to dispatch the values to collectd
which will pass them on to all registered B<write functions>. If the return
value evaluates to B<false> the plugin will be skipped for an increasing
amount of time until it returns B<true> again.

=item write functions

This type of function is used to write the dispatched values. It is called
once for each call to B<plugin_dispatch_values>.

=item flush functions

This type of function is used to flush internal caches of plugins. It is
usually triggered by the user only. Any plugin which caches data before
writing it to disk should provide this kind of callback function.

=item log functions

This type of function is used to pass messages of plugins or the daemon itself
to the user.

=item notification function

This type of function is used to act upon notifications. In general, a
notification is a status message that may be associated with a data instance.
Usually, a notification is generated by the daemon if a configured threshold
has been exceeded (see the section "THRESHOLD CONFIGURATION" in
L<collectd.conf(5)> for more details), but any plugin may dispatch
notifications as well.

=item shutdown functions

This type of function is called once before the daemon shuts down. It should
be used to clean up the plugin (e.g. close sockets, ...).

=back

Any function (except log functions) may set the B<$@> variable to describe
errors in more detail. The message will be passed on to the user using
collectd's logging mechanism.

See the documentation of the B<plugin_register> method in the section
"METHODS" below for the number and types of arguments passed to each
B<callback function>. This section also explains how to register B<callback
functions> with collectd.

To enable a plugin, copy it to a place where Perl can find it (i.E<nbsp>e. a
directory listed in the B<@INC> array) just as any other Perl plugin and add
an appropriate B<LoadPlugin> option to the configuration file. After
restarting collectd you're done.

=head1 DATA TYPES

The following complex types are used to pass values between the Perl plugin
and collectd:

=over 4

=item Config-Item

A config-item is one structure which keeps the information provided in the
configuration file. The array of children keeps one entry for each
configuration option. Each such entry is another config-item structure, which
may nest further if nested blocks are used.

  {
    key      => key,
    values   => [ val1, val2, ... ],
    children => [ { ... }, { ... }, ... ]
  }

=item Data-Set

A data-set is a list of one or more data-sources. Each data-source defines a
name, type, min- and max-value and the data-set wraps them up into one
structure. The general layout looks like this:

  [{
    name => 'data_source_name',
    type => DS_TYPE_COUNTER || DS_TYPE_GAUGE || DS_TYPE_DERIVE || DS_TYPE_ABSOLUTE,
    min  => value || undef,
    max  => value || undef
  }, ...]

=item Value-List

A value-list is one structure which features an array of values and fields to
identify the values, i.E<nbsp>e. time and host, plugin name and
plugin-instance as well as a type and type-instance. Since the "type" is not
included in the value-list but is passed as an extra argument, the general
layout looks like this:

  {
    values => [123, 0.5],
    time   => time (),
    interval => $interval_g,
    host   => $hostname_g,
    plugin => 'myplugin',
    type   => 'myplugin',
    plugin_instance => '',
    type_instance   => ''
  }

=item Notification

A notification is one structure defining the severity, time and message of the
status message as well as an identification of a data instance. Also, it
includes an optional list of user-defined meta information represented as
(name, value) pairs:

  {
    severity => NOTIF_FAILURE || NOTIF_WARNING || NOTIF_OKAY,
    time     => time (),
    message  => 'status message',
    host     => $hostname_g,
    plugin   => 'myplugin',
    type     => 'mytype',
    plugin_instance => '',
    type_instance   => '',
    meta     => [ { name => <name>, value => <value> }, ... ]
  }

=item Match-Proc

A match-proc is one structure storing the callbacks of a "match" of the filter
chain infrastructure. The general layout looks like this:

  {
    create  => 'my_create',
    destroy => 'my_destroy',
    match   => 'my_match'
  }

=item Target-Proc

A target-proc is one structure storing the callbacks of a "target" of the
filter chain infrastructure. The general layout looks like this:

  {
    create  => 'my_create',
    destroy => 'my_destroy',
    invoke  => 'my_invoke'
  }

=back

=head1 METHODS

The following functions provide the C-interface to Perl-modules. They are
exported by the ":plugin" export tag (see the section "EXPORTS" below).

=over 4

=item B<plugin_register> (I<type>, I<name>, I<data>)

Registers a callback-function or data-set.

I<type> can be one of:

=over 4

=item TYPE_CONFIG

=item TYPE_INIT

=item TYPE_READ

=item TYPE_WRITE

=item TYPE_FLUSH

=item TYPE_LOG

=item TYPE_NOTIF

=item TYPE_SHUTDOWN

=item TYPE_DATASET

=back

I<name> is the name of the callback-function or the type of the data-set,
depending on the value of I<type>. (Please note that the type of the data-set
is the value passed as I<name> here and has nothing to do with the I<type>
argument which simply tells B<plugin_register> what is being registered.)

The last argument, I<data>, is either a function name or an array-reference.
If I<type> is B<TYPE_DATASET>, then the I<data> argument must be an
array-reference which points to an array of hashes. Each hash describes one
data-set. For the exact layout see B<Data-Set> above. Please note that
there is a large number of predefined data-sets available in the B<types.db>
file which are automatically registered with collectd - see L<types.db(5)> for
a description of the format of this file.

B<Note>: Using B<plugin_register> to register a data-set is deprecated. Add
the new type to a custom L<types.db(5)> file instead. This functionality might
be removed in a future version of collectd.

If the I<type> argument is any of the other types (B<TYPE_INIT>, B<TYPE_READ>,
...) then I<data> is expected to be a function name. If the name is not
prefixed with the plugin's package name collectd will add it automatically.
The interface slightly differs from the C interface (which expects a function
pointer instead) because Perl does not support to share references to
subroutines between threads.

These functions are called in the various stages of the daemon (see the
section "WRITING YOUR OWN PLUGINS" above) and are passed the following
arguments:

=over 4

=item TYPE_CONFIG

The only argument passed is I<config-item>. See above for the layout of this
data type.

=item TYPE_INIT

=item TYPE_READ

=item TYPE_SHUTDOWN

No arguments are passed.

=item TYPE_WRITE

The arguments passed are I<type>, I<data-set>, and I<value-list>. I<type> is a
string. For the layout of I<data-set> and I<value-list> see above.

=item TYPE_FLUSH

The arguments passed are I<timeout> and I<identifier>. I<timeout> indicates
that only data older than I<timeout> seconds is to be flushed. I<identifier>
specifies which values are to be flushed.

=item TYPE_LOG

The arguments are I<log-level> and I<message>. The log level is small for
important messages and high for less important messages. The least important
level is B<LOG_DEBUG>, the most important level is B<LOG_ERR>. In between there
are (from least to most important): B<LOG_INFO>, B<LOG_NOTICE>, and
B<LOG_WARNING>. I<message> is simply a string B<without> a newline at the end.

=item TYPE_NOTIF

The only argument passed is I<notification>. See above for the layout of this
data type.

=back

=item B<plugin_unregister> (I<type>, I<plugin>)

Removes a callback or data-set from collectd's internal list of
functionsE<nbsp>/ datasets.

=item B<plugin_dispatch_values> (I<value-list>)

Submits a I<value-list> to the daemon. If the data-set identified by
I<value-list>->{I<type>}
is found (and the number of values matches the number of data-sources) then the
type, data-set and value-list is passed to all write-callbacks that are
registered with the daemon.

=item B<plugin_write> ([B<plugins> => I<...>][, B<datasets> => I<...>],
B<valuelists> => I<...>)

Calls the write function of the given I<plugins> with the provided I<data
sets> and I<value lists>. In contrast to B<plugin_dispatch_values>, it does
not update collectd's internal cache and bypasses the filter mechanism (see
L<collectd.conf(5)> for details). If the B<plugins> argument has been omitted,
the values will be dispatched to all registered write plugins. If the
B<datasets> argument has been omitted, the required data sets are looked up
according to the C<type> member in the appropriate value list. The value of
all three arguments may either be a single scalar or a reference to an array.
If the B<datasets> argument has been specified, the number of data sets has to
equal the number of specified value lists.

=item B<plugin_flush> ([B<timeout> => I<timeout>][, B<plugins> => I<...>][,
B<identifiers> => I<...>])

Flush one or more plugins. I<timeout> and the specified I<identifiers> are
passed on to the registered flush-callbacks. If omitted, the timeout defaults
to C<-1>. The identifier defaults to the undefined value. If the B<plugins>
argument has been specified, only named plugins will be flushed. The value of
the B<plugins> and B<identifiers> arguments may either be a string or a
reference to an array of strings.

=item B<plugin_dispatch_notification> (I<notification>)

Submits a I<notification> to the daemon which will then pass it to all
notification-callbacks that are registered.

=item B<plugin_log> (I<log-level>, I<message>)

Submits a I<message> of level I<log-level> to collectd's logging mechanism.
The message is passed to all log-callbacks that are registered with collectd.

=item B<ERROR>, B<WARNING>, B<NOTICE>, B<INFO>, B<DEBUG> (I<message>)

Wrappers around B<plugin_log>, using B<LOG_ERR>, B<LOG_WARNING>,
B<LOG_NOTICE>, B<LOG_INFO> and B<LOG_DEBUG> respectively as I<log-level>.

=back

The following function provides the filter chain C-interface to Perl-modules.
It is exported by the ":filter_chain" export tag (see the section "EXPORTS"
below).

=over 4

=item B<fc_register> (I<type>, I<name>, I<proc>)

Registers filter chain callbacks with collectd.

I<type> may be any of:

=over 4

=item FC_MATCH

=item FC_TARGET

=back

I<name> is the name of the match or target. By this name, the callbacks are
identified in the configuration file when specifying a B<Match> or B<Target>
block (see L<collectd.conf(5)> for details).

I<proc> is a hash reference. The hash includes up to three callbacks: an
optional constructor (B<create>) and destructor (B<destroy>) and a mandatory
B<match> or B<invoke> callback. B<match> is called whenever processing an
appropriate match, while B<invoke> is called whenever processing an
appropriate target (see the section "FILTER CONFIGURATION" in
L<collectd.conf(5)> for details). Just like any other callbacks, filter chain
callbacks are identified by the function name rather than a function pointer
because Perl does not support to share references to subroutines between
threads. The following arguments are passed to the callbacks:

=over 4

=item create

The arguments passed are I<config-item> and I<user-data>. See above for the
layout of the config-item data-type. I<user-data> is a reference to a scalar
value that may be used to store any information specific to this particular
instance. The daemon does not care about this information at all. It's for the
plugin's use only.

=item destroy

The only argument passed is I<user-data> which is a reference to the user data
initialized in the B<create> callback. This callback may be used to cleanup
instance-specific information and settings.

=item match, invoke

The arguments passed are I<data-set>, I<value-list>, I<meta> and I<user-data>.
See above for the layout of the data-set and value-list data-types. I<meta> is
a pointer to an array of meta information, just like the B<meta> member of the
notification data-type (see above). I<user-data> is a reference to the user
data initialized in the B<create> callback.

=back

=back

=head1 GLOBAL VARIABLES

=over 4

=item B<$hostname_g>

As the name suggests this variable keeps the hostname of the system collectd
is running on. The value might be influenced by the B<Hostname> or
B<FQDNLookup> configuration options (see L<collectd.conf(5)> for details).

=item B<$interval_g>

This variable keeps the interval in seconds in which the read functions are
queried (see the B<Interval> configuration option).

=back

Any changes to these variables will be globally visible in collectd.

=head1 EXPORTS

By default no symbols are exported. However, the following export tags are
available (B<:all> will export all of them):

=over 4

=item B<:plugin>

=over 4

=item B<plugin_register> ()

=item B<plugin_unregister> ()

=item B<plugin_dispatch_values> ()

=item B<plugin_flush> ()

=item B<plugin_flush_one> ()

=item B<plugin_flush_all> ()

=item B<plugin_dispatch_notification> ()

=item B<plugin_log> ()

=back

=item B<:types>

=over 4

=item B<TYPE_CONFIG>

=item B<TYPE_INIT>

=item B<TYPE_READ>

=item B<TYPE_WRITE>

=item B<TYPE_FLUSH>

=item B<TYPE_SHUTDOWN>

=item B<TYPE_LOG>

=item B<TYPE_DATASET>

=back

=item B<:ds_types>

=over 4

=item B<DS_TYPE_COUNTER>

=item B<DS_TYPE_GAUGE>

=item B<DS_TYPE_DERIVE>

=item B<DS_TYPE_ABSOLUTE>

=back

=item B<:log>

=over 4

=item B<ERROR> ()

=item B<WARNING> ()

=item B<NOTICE> ()

=item B<INFO> ()

=item B<DEBUG> ()

=item B<LOG_ERR>

=item B<LOG_WARNING>

=item B<LOG_NOTICE>

=item B<LOG_INFO>

=item B<LOG_DEBUG>

=back

=item B<:filter_chain>

=over 4

=item B<fc_register>

=item B<FC_MATCH_NO_MATCH>

=item B<FC_MATCH_MATCHES>

=item B<FC_TARGET_CONTINUE>

=item B<FC_TARGET_STOP>

=item B<FC_TARGET_RETURN>

=back

=item B<:fc_types>

=over 4

=item B<FC_MATCH>

=item B<FC_TARGET>

=back

=item B<:notif>

=over 4

=item B<NOTIF_FAILURE>

=item B<NOTIF_WARNING>

=item B<NOTIF_OKAY>

=back

=item B<:globals>

=over 4

=item B<$hostname_g>

=item B<$interval_g>

=back

=back

=head1 EXAMPLES

Any Perl plugin will start similar to:

  package Collectd::Plugins::FooBar;

  use strict;
  use warnings;

  use Collectd qw( :all );

A very simple read function might look like:

  sub foobar_read
  {
    my $vl = { plugin => 'foobar', type => 'gauge' };
    $vl->{'values'} = [ rand(42) ];
    plugin_dispatch_values ($vl);
    return 1;
  }

A very simple write function might look like:

  sub foobar_write
  {
    my ($type, $ds, $vl) = @_;
    for (my $i = 0; $i < scalar (@$ds); ++$i) {
      print "$vl->{'plugin'} ($vl->{'type'}): $vl->{'values'}->[$i]\n";
    }
    return 1;
  }

A very simple match callback might look like:

  sub foobar_match
  {
    my ($ds, $vl, $meta, $user_data) = @_;
    if (matches($ds, $vl)) {
      return FC_MATCH_MATCHES;
    } else {
      return FC_MATCH_NO_MATCH;
    }
  }

To register those functions with collectd:

  plugin_register (TYPE_READ, "foobar", "foobar_read");
  plugin_register (TYPE_WRITE, "foobar", "foobar_write");

  fc_register (FC_MATCH, "foobar", "foobar_match");

See the section "DATA TYPES" above for a complete documentation of the data
types used by the read, write and match functions.

=head1 NOTES

=over 4

=item

Please feel free to send in new plugins to collectd's mailing list at
E<lt>collectdE<nbsp>atE<nbsp>verplant.orgE<gt> for review and, possibly,
inclusion in the main distribution. In the latter case, we will take care of
keeping the plugin up to date and adapting it to new versions of collectd.

Before submitting your plugin, please take a look at
L<http://collectd.org/dev-info.shtml>.

=back

=head1 CAVEATS

=over 4

=item

collectd is heavily multi-threaded. Each collectd thread accessing the perl
plugin will be mapped to a Perl interpreter thread (see L<threads(3perl)>).
Any such thread will be created and destroyed transparently and on-the-fly.

Hence, any plugin has to be thread-safe if it provides several entry points
from collectd (i.E<nbsp>e. if it registers more than one callback or if a
registered callback may be called more than once in parallel). Please note
that no data is shared between threads by default. You have to use the
B<threads::shared> module to do so.

=item

Each function name registered with collectd has to be available before the
first thread has been created (i.E<nbsp>e. basically at compile time). This
basically means that hacks (yes, I really consider this to be a hack) like
C<*foo = \&bar; plugin_register (TYPE_READ, "plugin", "foo");> most likely
will not work. This is due to the fact that the symbol table is not shared
across different threads.

=item

Each plugin is usually only loaded once and kept in memory for performance
reasons. Therefore, END blocks are only executed once when collectd shuts
down. You should not rely on END blocks anyway - use B<shutdown functions>
instead.

=item

The perl plugin exports the internal API of collectd which is considered
unstable and subject to change at any time. We try hard to not break backwards
compatibility in the Perl API during the life cycle of one major release.
However, this cannot be guaranteed at all times. Watch out for warnings
dispatched by the perl plugin after upgrades.

=back

=head1 KNOWN BUGS

=over 4

=item

Currently, it is not possible to flush a single Perl plugin only. You can
either flush all Perl plugins or none at all and you have to use C<perl> as
plugin name when doing so.

=back

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<collectd(1)>,
L<collectd.conf(5)>,
L<collectd-exec(5)>,
L<types.db(5)>,
L<perl(1)>,
L<threads(3perl)>,
L<threads::shared(3perl)>,
L<perldebug(1)>

=head1 AUTHOR

The C<perl plugin> has been written by Sebastian Harl
E<lt>shE<nbsp>atE<nbsp>tokkee.orgE<gt>.

This manpage has been written by Florian Forster
E<lt>octoE<nbsp>atE<nbsp>verplant.orgE<gt> and Sebastian Harl
E<lt>shE<nbsp>atE<nbsp>tokkee.orgE<gt>.

=cut