[Pkg-nagios-changes] [pkg-nagios-plugins] 176/413: explanation about predefined check commands

[Jan Wagner]

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waja pushed a commit to branch master
in repository pkg-nagios-plugins.

commit e405699f11c85ac4eab8f58e326862e43843ba8e
Author: Jan Wagner <waja at cyconet.org>
Date:   Thu May 14 21:42:36 2009 +0000

    explanation about predefined check commands
---
 debian/README.Debian       | 34 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 debian/changelog           |  2 ++
 debian/pluginconfig/nt.cfg |  4 ++++
 3 files changed, 39 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/debian/README.Debian b/debian/README.Debian
index 26fe2ab..5b68849 100644
--- a/debian/README.Debian
+++ b/debian/README.Debian
@@ -16,6 +16,38 @@ how to use plugins
   http://nagios.sourceforge.net/docs/3_0/plugins.html
 
 ================================================================================
+predefined / shipped check commands
+================================================================================
+
+we are shipping predefined checks, to make users life easier. at the first look,
+this seems really nice. providing checks for every special case (see check_http)
+may end up in a unsupportable state of our package.
+for example one check is testing a service on a special port, where we provide
+a check command. after some time, this service changes its port after some time,
+cause the developers of this software decided for any reason to do so. changing
+the port in the existing check will break installations, which are using the
+service with the old behavior. new users will getting confused of not using the
+correct port for their shiny service.
+cause of this conflict, we try to provide flexible checks, which may look
+complicated at first, but giving the user more power.
+
+a good example for using such a general approach is check_nt / check_nscp. some
+3rd party sources (guessing they can traced back to one) are suggesting using
+two args in some way like:
+
+define command {
+command_name	check_nt
+command_line	$USER1$/check_nt -H $HOSTADDRESS$ -p 12489 -v $ARG1$ $ARG2$
+}
+
+beside specifying not the port, we are not using "$ARG2$", cause all arguments
+of "$ARG2$" can just be used in "$ARG1$" without any problem.
+this gives you the possibility to use every check in your service definition,
+without the problem about changes in your environment. you can easily change
+your service definition as soon your environment changes without breaking the
+command definition.
+
+================================================================================
 different plugin packages and how to avoid installing massive dependencies
 ================================================================================
 
@@ -27,7 +59,7 @@ nagios-plugins-basic package.
 plugins needing root privilege
 ================================================================================
 
-the check_dhcp and check_icmp plugins require root privileges to
+the check_dhcp, check_icmp and maybe others plugins require root privileges to
 run, because of the low-level packet mangling that they perform.
 but, in the interest of the "safe default", these plugins will not
 be installed with the suid bit set.  there are two recommended ways
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 98bf673..4464e9b 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ nagios-plugins (1.4.12-6) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
   * add trailing $ to check_httpname, thanks Daniel Pocock (Closes: #524629)
   * add informations into README.Debian how to use plugins (Closes: #525168)
   * add check_nscp which uses the default port of NSClient++ (Closes: #528262)
+  * providing some explanation about predefined check commands in README.Debian
+  * pointing to README.Debian in nt.cfg
   * add 43_check_ntp_segfaults.dpatch to fix buffer overflow in check_ntp and
     check_ntp_peer, thanks to Andreas Olsson (Closes: #528686)
 
diff --git a/debian/pluginconfig/nt.cfg b/debian/pluginconfig/nt.cfg
index 433727a..89dcd34 100644
--- a/debian/pluginconfig/nt.cfg
+++ b/debian/pluginconfig/nt.cfg
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+# If you are confused about this command definition, cause you was
+# reading other suggestions, please have a look into
+# /usr/share/doc/nagios-plugins/README.Debian
+
 # 'check_nt' command definition
 define command {
 	command_name    check_nt

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