3 collectd-exec - Documentation of collectd's C<exec plugin>
12 Exec otheruser /path/to/another/binary
17 The C<exec plugin> forks of an executable and reads back values that it writes
18 to C<STDOUT>. The executable is forked in a fassion similar to L<init>: It is
19 forked once and not again until it exits. If it exited, it will be forked again
20 after at most I<Interval> seconds. It is perfectly legal for the executable to
21 run for a long time and continuously write values to C<STDOUT>.
25 The forked executable is expected to print values to C<STDOUT>. The expected
32 Each line beginning with a C<#> (hash mark) is ignored.
36 Any other line must be of the form C<I<type>,I<type-instance>,I<value>>, where
37 I<type> is either B<counter> or B<gauge>, I<type-instance> may not contain
38 C<,> (comma), C</> (slash) and C<\0> (null byte) and I<value> is either an
39 integer (if I<type> is B<counter>) or a floating-point number (if I<type> is
44 The values are always considered to be "fresh", i.E<nbsp>e. the time is set to
47 When collectd exits it sends a B<SIGTERM> to all still running
48 child-processes upon which they have to quit.
56 If the executable only writes one value and then exits I will be executed every
57 I<Interval> seconds. If I<Interval> is short (the default is 10 seconds) this
58 may result in serious system load.
64 L<collectd(1)>, L<collectd.conf(5)>, L<fork(2)>, L<exec(3)>
68 Florian Forster E<lt>octo@verplant.orgE<gt>