Code

Removing CVS/SVN tags and replacing with git-based versioning
[nagiosplug.git] / doc / developer-guidelines.sgml
index 3c3eea44b76c7a0b3fba76d5758332a7d8673abf..ed7e422692f7c821063be0e372c3ef42b8583db7 100644 (file)
@@ -16,8 +16,8 @@
        
     <revhistory>
        <revision>
-          <revnumber>$Revision$</revnumber>
-          <date>$Date$</date>
+          <revnumber>1796</revnumber>
+          <date>2007-09-24 14:51:07 -0400 (Mon, 24 Sep 2007)</date>
        </revision>
     </revhistory>
 
 
        <literallayout>
        gnu make 3.79
-       automake 1.8
-       autoconf 2.58
-       gnu libtool 1.5.6
+       automake 1.9.2
+       autoconf 2.59
+       gnu m4 1.4.2
+       gnu libtool 1.5
        </literallayout>
 
        To compile from CVS, after you have checked out the code, run:
@@ -73,6 +74,9 @@
        are synced with the coreutils project and we use the same levels of gettext that they
        distribute.
        </para>
+       <para>Note: gnu libtool, which must be at version 1.5.22 or above, has files installed into CVS, so is not 
+       a development platform requirement.
+       </para>
 </section>
 
 <section id="PlugOutput"><title>Plugin Output for Nagios</title>
                the entire output to appear in a pager message, which will get chopped
                off after a certain length.</para>
 
+               <para>As Nagios does not capture stderr output, you should only output to 
+               STDOUT and not print to STDERR.</para>
+
                <section><title>Print only one line of text</title>
                <para>Nagios will only grab the first line of text from STDOUT
                when it notifies contacts about potential problems. If you print
-               multiple lines, you're out of luck. Remember, keep it short and
-               to the point.</para>
+               multiple lines, you're out of luck (though this will be a feature of 
+               Nagios 3). Remember, keep your output short and to the point.</para>
 
                <para>Output should be in the format:</para>
                <literallayout>
 
                <section><title>Screen Output</title>
                <para>The plug-in should print the diagnostic and just the
-               synopsis part of the help message.  A well written plugin would
+               usage part of the help message.  A well written plugin would
                then have --help as a way to get the verbose help.</para>
+
                <para>Code and output should try to respect the 80x25 size of a
                crt (remember when fixing stuff in the server room!)</para>
                </section>
                
                <para>Note: Not all plugins are coded to expect ranges in this format yet.
                There will be some work in providing multiple metrics.</para>
+
+               <table id="ExampleRanges"><title>Example ranges</title>
+                       <tgroup cols="2">
+                               <thead>
+                                       <row>
+                                               <entry><para>Range definition</para></entry>
+                                               <entry><para>Generate an alert if x...</para></entry>
+                                       </row>
+                               </thead>
+                               <tbody>
+                                       <row>
+                                               <entry>10</entry>
+                                               <entry>&lt; 0 or &gt; 10, (outside the range of {0 .. 10})</entry>
+                                       </row>
+                                       <row>
+                                               <entry>10:</entry>
+                                               <entry>&lt; 10, (outside {10 .. &infin;})</entry>
+                                       </row>
+                                       <row>
+                                               <entry>~:10</entry>
+                                               <entry>&gt; 10, (outside the range of {-&infin; .. 10})</entry>
+                                       </row>
+                                       <row>
+                                               <entry>10:20</entry>
+                                               <entry>&lt; 10 or &gt; 20, (outside the range of {10 .. 20})</entry>
+                                       </row>
+                                       <row>
+                                               <entry>@10:20</entry>
+                                               <entry>&ge; 10 and &le; 20, (inside the range of {10 .. 20})</entry>
+                                       </row>
+                                       <row>
+                                               <entry>10</entry>
+                                               <entry>&lt; 0 or &gt; 10, (outside the range of {0 .. 10})</entry>
+                                       </row>
+                               </tbody>
+                       </tgroup>
+               </table>
+               <table id="CommandLineExamples"><title>Command line examples</title>
+                       <tgroup cols="2">
+                               <thead>
+                                       <row>
+                                               <entry><para>Command line</para></entry>
+                                               <entry><para>Meaning</para></entry>
+                                       </row>
+                               </thead>
+                               <tbody>
+                                       <row>
+                                               <entry>check_stuff -w10 -c20</entry>
+                                               <entry>Critical if "stuff" is over 20, else warn if over 10 (will be critical if "stuff" is less than 0)</entry>
+                                       </row>
+                                       <row>
+                                               <entry>check_stuff -w~:10 -c~:20</entry>
+                                               <entry>Same as above. Negative "stuff" is OK</entry>
+                                       </row>
+                                       <row>
+                                               <entry>check_stuff -w10: -c20</entry>
+                                               <entry>Critical if "stuff" is over 20, else warn if "stuff" is below 10 (will be critical if "stuff" is less than 0)</entry>
+                                       </row>
+                                       <row>
+                                               <entry>check_stuff -c1:</entry>
+                                               <entry>Critical if "stuff" is less than 1</entry>
+                                       </row>
+                                       <row>
+                                               <entry>check_stuff -w~:0 -c10</entry>
+                                               <entry>Critical if "stuff" is above 10; Warn if "stuff" is above zero</entry>
+                                       </row>
+                                       <row>
+                                               <entry>check_stuff -c5:6</entry>
+                                               <entry>The only noncritical range is 5:6</entry>
+                                       </row>
+                                       <row>
+                                               <entry>check_stuff -c10:20</entry>
+                                               <entry>Critical if "stuff" is 10 to 20</entry>
+                                       </row>
+                               </tbody>
+                       </tgroup>
+               </table>
                </section>
 
                <section><title>Performance data</title>
@@ -593,7 +678,7 @@ all the current tests and report an overall success rate.
 </para>
 
 <para>
-See the <ulink url="http://tinderbox.altinity.org">Nagios Plugins Tinderbox server</ulink>
+See the <ulink url="http://tinderbox.opsera.com">Nagios Plugins Tinderbox server</ulink>
 for the daily test results.
 </para>
 
@@ -643,9 +728,20 @@ setup the tests. Run "make test" to run all the tests.
 <section id="CodingGuidelines"><title>Coding guidelines</title>
        <para>See <ulink url="http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards_toc.html">GNU
        Coding standards</ulink> for general guidelines.</para>
-       <section><title>Comments</title>
+       <section><title>C coding</title>
+       
+       <para>Variables should be declared at the beginning of code blocks and 
+       not inline because of portability with older compilers.</para>
+
        <para>You should use /* */ for comments and not // as some compilers
        do not handle the latter form.</para>
+
+       <para>You should also avoid using the type "bool" and its values
+       "true" and "false". Instead use the "int" type and the plugins' own
+       "TRUE"/"FALSE" values to keep the code uniformly.</para>
+       </section>
+
+       <section><title>Crediting sources</title>
        <para>If you have copied a routine from another source, make sure the licence
        from your source allows this. Add a comment referencing the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
        file, where you can put more detail about the source.</para>
@@ -655,23 +751,13 @@ setup the tests. Run "make test" to run all the tests.
        </section>
 
        <section><title>CVS comments</title>
-       <para>When adding CVS comments at commit time, you can use the following prefixes:
-       <variablelist>
-         <varlistentry><term>- comment</term>
-         <listitem>
-           <para>for a comment that can be removed from the Changelog</para>
-         </listitem>
-         </varlistentry>
-         <varlistentry><term>* comment</term>
-         <listitem>
-           <para>for an important amendment to be included into a features list</para>
-         </listitem>
-         </varlistentry>
-       </variablelist>
-       </para>
        <para>If the change is due to a contribution, please quote the contributor's name 
        and, if applicable, add the SourceForge Tracker number. Don't forget to 
 update the THANKS.in file.</para>
+        <para>If you have a change that is useful for noting in the next release, please
+       update the NEWS file.</para>
+       <para>All CVS commit comments will be written to a ChangeLog at release time.
+       </para>
        </section>
 
        <section id="translationsdevelopers"><title>Translations for developers</title>
@@ -721,8 +807,22 @@ update the THANKS.in file.</para>
        Credit will always be given for any patches through a THANKS file in the distribution.</para>
        </section>
 
-       <section id="Newplugins"><title>New plugins</title>
 
+       <section id="Contributedplugins"><title>Contributed plugins</title>
+       <para>Plugins that have been contributed to the project and 
+       distributed with the Nagios Plugin files are held in the contrib/ directory and are not installed
+       by default. These plugins are not officially supported by the team. 
+       The current policy is that these plugins should be owned and maintained by the original 
+       contributor, preferably hosted on <ulink url="http://www.nagiosexchange.org">NagiosExchange</ulink>.
+       </para>
+       <para>If patches or bugs are raised to an contributed plugin, we will start communications with the
+       original contributor, but seek to remove the plugin from our distribution.
+       </para>
+       <para>The aim is to distribute only code that the Nagios Plugin team are responsible for.
+       </para>
+       </section>
+
+       <section id="Newplugins"><title>New plugins</title>
        <para>If you would like others to use your plugins, please add it to
        the official 3rd party plugin repository, 
        <ulink url="http://www.nagiosexchange.org">NagiosExchange</ulink>.
@@ -735,7 +835,8 @@ update the THANKS.in file.</para>
 
       <orderedlist>
        <listitem>
-         <para>Include copyright and license information in all files</para>
+         <para>Include copyright and license information in all files. Copyright must be solely
+               granted to the Nagios Plugin Development Team</para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para>The standard command options are supported (--help, --version,