[Nut-upsdev] Usage of 'alarm_(init|set|commit)'

[Kjell Claesson]

Hi Arjen,
Den Friday 10 August 2007 09.26.05 skrev Arjen de Korte:
> Replying to myself... :-)
>
> > I think the alarm_* functions are an excellent way to convey informative
> > messages about UPS status/problems to an operator (a human, if we
> > disregard the trained monkeys some people may use). Therefor, I want to
> > propose that we use a free format here and not a list of predefined
> > status words for the following reasons:
> >
> > 1) Situations that need to be dealt with immediately (in a matter of
> > seconds) are dealt with through 'ups.status'. This requires automatic
> > parsing and therefor we are restricted here to a fixed set of status
> > words.
> >
> > 2) Alarms typically can't be solved without intervention of an operator
> > and don't require *immediate* action. This means they don't need to be
> > parsed automatically, hence we're not restricted by a fixed set of status
> > words.
> >
> > 3) We don't want to loose information by grouping similar, but not
> > entirely identical situations under one alarm report. Instead, we want to
> > be as precise as possible, in order to help the operator resolve the
> > problem.
>
> The above also formalises the existing implementation in the 'bcmxcp' and
> 'gamatronic' drivers. As can be seen there, both have a wide variety of
> alarms, which supports the idea that we should keep this a free format
> (there probably aren't that many common alarms between drivers anyway).
>
> Again, any thoughts?

I agree to all the above points.
Regarding the bcmxcp driver, the alarms is taken from the protocoll so the 
naming is the same that powerware use.
By running the driver in debug 2 mode (-DD) you are presented with a list of
the supported alarms depending on type.
The small PW3105 have only BATTERY_LOW, UTILITY_FAIL and  UPS_ON_BATTERY,
so it is only usable on larger ups'se with temperature sensors, fan control, 
etc...  

The reason I enabled it was the temperatur alarm. I hade some requests about
that.

Regards
Kjell