X-Git-Url: https://git.tokkee.org/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fdeveloper-guidelines.sgml;h=1ae419a21b2a714346ed94f1670c54bafabd546d;hb=bd2cc1811bdea7fe77acab43e281dd3915882b24;hp=a6b9a606e19eb6d4f25c8d2e6d15e3d3399b251e;hpb=c56c0516c17cd4132de3b542840c8a834305f425;p=nagiosplug.git diff --git a/doc/developer-guidelines.sgml b/doc/developer-guidelines.sgml index a6b9a60..1ae419a 100644 --- a/doc/developer-guidelines.sgml +++ b/doc/developer-guidelines.sgml @@ -5,68 +5,13 @@ - Karl - DeBisschop - -
karl@debisschop.net
- - - - - Ethan - Galstad - - Author of Nagios - - - -
netsaint@linuxbox.com
- - - - - Hugo - Gayosso - -
hgayosso@gnu.org
- - - - - - Subhendu - Ghosh - -
sghosh@sourceforge.net
- - - - - Stanley - Hopcroft - -
stanleyhopcroft@sourceforge.net
- - - - - Ton - Voon - -
tonvoon@users.sourceforge.net
- - - - - Jeremy T - Bouse - -
undrgrid@users.sourceforge.net
- + + Nagios Plugins Development Team + - 2002 + 2006 Nagios plug-in development guidelines @@ -77,7 +22,7 @@ - 2000 - 2004 + 2000 - 2006 Nagios Plugins Development Team @@ -89,8 +34,8 @@ the plug-in developers and encourage the standarization of the different kind of plug-ins: C, shell, perl, python, etc. - Nagios Plug-in Development Guidelines Copyright (C) 2000-2003 - (Karl DeBisschop, Ethan Galstad, Stanley Hopcroft, Subhendu Ghosh, Ton Voon, Jeremy T. Bouse) + Nagios Plug-in Development Guidelines Copyright (C) 2000-2006 + (Nagios Plugins Team) Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this @@ -110,9 +55,10 @@ gnu make 3.79 - automake 1.8.3 - autoconf 2.58 - gettext 0.11.5 + automake 1.9.2 + autoconf 2.59 + gnu m4 1.4.2 + gnu libtool 1.5 To compile from CVS, after you have checked out the code, run: @@ -123,6 +69,14 @@ make install + + Note: gettext is no longer a developer platform requirement. A lot of the files in lib/ and m4/ + are synced with the coreutils project and we use the same levels of gettext that they + distribute. + + 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. +
Plugin Output for Nagios @@ -133,15 +87,18 @@ the entire output to appear in a pager message, which will get chopped off after a certain length. + As Nagios does not capture stderr output, you should only output to + STDOUT and not print to STDERR. +
Print only one line of text 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. + 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. Output should be in the format: - METRIC STATUS: Information text + SERVICE STATUS: Information text However, note that this is not a requirement of the API, so you cannot depend on this being an accurate reflection of the status of the service - the status should always @@ -185,20 +142,13 @@
Screen Output 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. + Code and output should try to respect the 80x25 size of a crt (remember when fixing stuff in the server room!)
-
Return the proper status code - See below - for the numeric values of status codes and their - description. Remember to return an UNKNOWN state if bogus or - invalid command line arguments are supplied or it you are unable - to check the service. -
-
Plugin Return Codes The return codes below are based on the POSIX spec of returning a positive value. Netsaint prior to v0.0.7 supported non-POSIX @@ -245,8 +195,12 @@ 3 Unknown Invalid command line arguments were supplied to the - plugin or the plugin was unable to check the status of the given - hosts/service + plugin or low-level failures internal to the plugin (such as unable to fork, + or open a tcp socket) that prevent it from performing the specified + operation. Higher-level errors (such as name resolution errors, + socket timeouts, etc) are outside of the control of plugins and should + generally NOT be reported as UNKNOWN states. + @@ -255,12 +209,18 @@
-
Threshold range format - Thresholds ranges define the warning and critical levels for plugins to - alert on. The theory is that the plugin will do some sort of check which returns +
Threshold and ranges + A range is defined as a start and end point (inclusive) on a numeric scale (possibly + negative or positive infinity). + + A threshold is a range with an alert level (either warning or critical). Use the + set_thresholds(thresholds *, char *, char *) function to set the thresholds. + + The theory is that the plugin will do some sort of check which returns back a numerical value, or metric, which is then compared to the warning and - critical thresholds. - This is the generalised format for threshold ranges: + critical thresholds. Use the get_status(double, thresholds *) function to + compare the value against the thresholds. + This is the generalised format for ranges: [@]start:end @@ -268,7 +228,7 @@ Notes: - start > end + start ≤ end start and ":" is not required if start=0 @@ -285,10 +245,85 @@ - Note: Not all plugins are coded to expect ranges in this format. It is - planned for a future release to - provide standard libraries to parse and compare metrics against ranges. There - will also be some work in providing multiple metrics. + Note: Not all plugins are coded to expect ranges in this format yet. + There will be some work in providing multiple metrics. + + Example ranges + + + + Range definition + Generate an alert if x... + + + + + 10 + < 0 or > 10, (outside the range of {0 .. 10}) + + + 10: + < 10, (outside {10 .. ∞}) + + + ~:10 + > 10, (outside the range of {-∞ .. 10}) + + + 10:20 + < 10 or > 20, (outside the range of {10 .. 20}) + + + @10:20 + ≥ 10 and ≤ 20, (inside the range of {10 .. 20}) + + + 10 + < 0 or > 10, (outside the range of {0 .. 10}) + + + +
+ Command line examples + + + + Command line + Meaning + + + + + check_stuff -w10 -c20 + Critical if "stuff" is over 20, else warn if over 10 (will be critical if "stuff" is less than 0) + + + check_stuff -w~:10 -c~:20 + Same as above. Negative "stuff" is OK + + + check_stuff -w10: -c20 + Critical if "stuff" is over 20, else warn if "stuff" is below 10 (will be critical if "stuff" is less than 0) + + + check_stuff -c1: + Critical if "stuff" is less than 1 + + + check_stuff -w~:0 -c10 + Critical if "stuff" is above 10; Warn if "stuff" is above zero + + + check_stuff -c5:6 + The only noncritical range is 5:6 + + + check_stuff -c10:20 + Critical if "stuff" is 10 to 20 + + + +
Performance data @@ -348,15 +383,10 @@
Translations - If possible, use translation tools for all output. Currently, most of the core C plugins - use gettext for translation. General guidelines are: - - - short help is not translated - long help has options in English language, but text translated - "Copyright" kept in English - copyright holder names kept in original text - + If possible, use translation tools for all output to respect the user's language + settings. See for guidelines + for the core plugins. +
@@ -636,37 +666,125 @@
+
Test cases + +Tests are the best way of knowing if the plugins work as expected. Please +create and update test cases where possible. + + + +To run a test, from the top level directory, run "make test". This will run +all the current tests and report an overall success rate. + + + +See the Nagios Plugins Tinderbox server +for the daily test results. + + +
Test cases for plugins +These use perl's Test::More. To do a one time test, run "cd plugins && perl t/check_disk.t". + + +There will somtimes be failures seen in this output which are known failures that +need to be fixed. As long as the return code is 0, it will be reported as "test pass". +(If you have a fix so that the specific test passes, that will be gratefully received!) + + + +If you want a summary test, run: "cd plugins && prove t/check_disk.t". +This runs the test in a summary format. + + + +For a good and amusing tutorial on using Test::More, see this + +link + + +
+ +
Testing the C library functions + +We use the libtap library, which gives +perl's TAP +(Test Anything Protocol) output. This is used by the FreeBSD team for their regression testing. + + + +To run tests using the libtap library, download the latest tar ball and extract. +There is a problem with tap-1.01 where +pthread support doesn't appear to work +properly on non-FreeBSD systems. Install with 'CPPFLAGS="-UHAVE_LIBPTHREAD" ./configure && make && make check && make install'. + + + +When you run Nagios Plugins' configure, it will look for the tap library and will automatically +setup the tests. Run "make test" to run all the tests. + +
+ +
Coding guidelines See GNU Coding standards for general guidelines. -
Comments +
C coding + + Variables should be declared at the beginning of code blocks and + not inline because of portability with older compilers. + You should use /* */ for comments and not // as some compilers do not handle the latter form. - There should not be any named credits in the source code - contributors - should be added - into the AUTHORS file instead. The only exception to this is if a routine - has been copied from another source. + + 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.
-
CVS comments - When adding CVS comments at commit time, you can use the following prefixes: - - - comment - - for a comment that can be removed from the Changelog - - - * comment - - for an important amendment to be included into a features list - - - +
Crediting sources + 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. + For contributed code, do not add any named credits in the source code + - contributors should be added into the THANKS.in file instead. +
+ +
CVS comments 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 AUTHORS file. +update the THANKS.in file. + If you have a change that is useful for noting in the next release, please + update the NEWS file. + All CVS commit comments will be written to a ChangeLog at release time. +
+ +
Translations for developers + To make the job easier for translators, please follow these guidelines: + + + Before creating new strings, check the po/nagios-plugins.pot file to + see if a similar string + already exists + + + For help texts, break into individual options so that these can be reused + between plugins + + Try to avoid linefeeds unless you are working on a block of text + Short help is not translated + Long help has options in English language, but text translated + "Copyright" kept in English + Copyright holder names kept in original text + Debugging output does not need to be translated + +
+ +
Translations for translators + To create an up to date list of translatable strings, run: tools/gen_locale.sh +
+
Submission of new plugins and patches @@ -689,17 +807,37 @@ update the AUTHORS file. Credit will always be given for any patches through a THANKS file in the distribution.
+ +
Contributed plugins + 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 NagiosExchange. + + 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. + + The aim is to distribute only code that the Nagios Plugin team are responsible for. + +
+
New plugins - If you would like others to use your plugins and have it included in - the standard distribution, please include patches for the relevant - configuration files, in particular "configure.in". Otherwise submitted - plugins will be included in the contrib directory. - - Plugins in the contrib directory are going to be migrated to the - standard plugins/plugin-scripts directory as time permits and per user - requests. The minimum requirements are: + If you would like others to use your plugins, please add it to + the official 3rd party plugin repository, + NagiosExchange. + + + We are not accepting requests for inclusion of plugins into + our distribution at the moment, but when we do, these are the minimum + requirements: + + + Include copyright and license information in all files. Copyright must be solely + granted to the Nagios Plugin Development Team + The standard command options are supported (--help, --version, --timeout, --warning, --critical) @@ -716,75 +854,21 @@ update the AUTHORS file. It should also follow code format guidelines, and use functions from -utils (perl or c or sh) rather than cooking it's own +utils (perl or c or sh) rather than using its own + + + Includes patches to configure.in if required (via the EXTRAS list if + it will only work on some platforms) + + + If possible, please submit a test harness. Documentation on sample + tests coming soon - New plugins should be submitted via - SourceForge's - tracker system for Nagiosplug new plugins - and be announced to the nagiosplug-devel mailing list. - - For new plugins, provide a diff to add to the EXTRAS list (configure.in) - unless you are fairly sure that the plugin will work for all platforms with - no non-standard software added. - - If possible please submit a test harness. Documentation on sample - tests coming soon.
- -
Using Sourceforge -Project Member Access - - - - Member type - CVS Access - Shell Access - Release Tech - Tracker Manager - Task Manager - Forums - Doc Manager - News - Screenshots - Notes - - - - - Translator - Yes - Yes - No - - - - - - - - - - - - - Add developer to CVSROOT/avail for translation files - - - Developer - Yes - Yes - No - - - A&T - Moderator - Editor - - - - - Need to set tracker access individually. Add developer to CVSROOT/avail for all files - - - -
-Add all members to the nagiosplug-team mailing list -