=head1 PLUGINS
-As noted above, the real power of collectd lies within it's plugins. There are
-two big groups of plugins, B<input> and B<output> plugins:
+As noted above, the real power of collectd lies within it's plugins. A
+(hopefully complete) list of plugins and short descriptions can be found in the
+F<README> file that is distributed with the sourcecode. If you're using a
+package it's a good bet to search somewhere near F</usr/share/doc/collectd>.
+
+There are two big groups of plugins, B<input> and B<output> plugins:
=over 4
Please note that some plugins, that provide other means of communicating with
the daemon, have manpages of their own to describe their functionality in more
-detail. In particular those are L<collectd-exec(5)>, L<collectd-unixsock(5)>,
-...
-
-=head1 SPECIAL PLUGINS
-
-=head2 email
-
-This plugin collects data indirectly by providing a UNIX socket that external
-programs can connect to. A simple line based protocol is used to communicate
-with the plugin:
-
-E-Mail type (e.g. "ham", "spam", "virus", ...) and size (bytes):
-
- e:<type>:<size>
-
-If C<size> is less than or equal to zero, C<size> is ignored.
-
-Spam score:
-
- s:<value>
-
-Successful spam checks (e.g. "BAYES_99", "SUBJECT_DRUG_GAP_C", ...):
-
- c:<type1>[,<type2>,...]
-
-Each line is limited to 256 characters (including the newline character).
-Longer lines will be ignored.
-
-=head2 perl
-
-The C<perl plugin> includes a Perl-interpreter in collectd and provides
-Perl-equivalents of the plugin-functions. This makes it possible to write
-plugins in Perl.
-
-There are two more complex types you need to know about:
-
-=over 4
-
-=item Data-Set
-
-A data-set is a list of one or more data-sources. Each data-source defines a
-name, type, min- and max-value and the data-set wraps them up into one
-structure. The general layout looks like this:
-
- [{
- name => 'data_source_name',
- type => DS_TYPE_COUNTER || DS_TYPE_GAUGE
- min => value || undef,
- max => value || undef
- }, ...]
-
-=item Value-List
-
-A value-list is one structure which features an array of values and fields to
-identify the values, i. e. time and host, plugin name and plugin-instance as
-well as a type and type-instance. Since the "type" is not included in the
-value-list but is passed as an extra argument, the general layout looks like
-this:
-
- {
- values => [123, 0.5],
- time => time (),
- host => 'localhost',
- plugin => 'myplugin',
- plugin_instance => '',
- type_instance => ''
- }
-
-=back
-
-The following functions provide the C-interface to Perl-modules:
-
-=over 4
-
-=item B<plugin_register> (I<type>, I<name>, I<data>)
-
-Registers a callback-function or data-set.
-
-I<type> can be one of:
-
-=over 4
-
-=item TYPE_INIT
-
-=item TYPE_READ
-
-=item TYPE_WRITE
-
-=item TYPE_LOG
-
-=item TYPE_SHUTDOWN
-
-=item TYPE_DATASET
-
-=back
-
-I<name> is the name of the callback-function or the type of the data-set,
-depending on the value of I<type>. (Please note that the type of the data-set
-is the value passed as I<name> here and has nothing to do with the I<type>
-argument which simply tells B<plugin_register> what is being registered.)
-
-The last argument, I<data>, is either a function- or an array-reference. If
-I<type> is B<TYPE_DATASET>, then the I<data> argument must be an
-array-reference which points to an array of hashes. Each hash describes one
-data-source. For the exact layout see B<Data-Set> above.
-
-If the I<type> argument is any of the other types (B<TYPE_INIT>, B<TYPE_READ>,
-...) then I<data> is expected to be a function reference. These functions are
-called in the various stages of the daemon and are passed the following
-arguments:
-
-=over 4
-
-=item TYPE_INIT
-
-=item TYPE_READ
-
-=item TYPE_SHUTDOWN
-
-No arguments are passed
-
-=item TYPE_WRITE
-
-The arguments passed are I<type>, I<data-set>, and I<value-list>. I<type> is a
-string. For the layout of I<data-set> and I<value-list> see above.
-
-=item TYPE_LOG
-
-The arguments are I<log-level> and I<message>. The log level is small for
-important messages and high for less important messages. The least important
-level is B<LOG_DEBUG>, the most important level is B<LOG_ERR>. In between there
-are (from least to most important): B<LOG_INFO>, B<LOG_NOTICE>, and
-B<LOG_WARNING>. I<message> is simply a string B<without> a newline at the end.
-
-=back
-
-=item B<plugin_unregister> (I<type>, I<plugin>)
-
-Removes a callback or data-set from collectd's internal list of
-functionsE<nbsp>/ datasets.
-
-=item B<plugin_dispatch_values> (I<type>, I<value-list>)
-
-Submits a I<value-list> of type I<type> to the daemon. If the data-set I<type>
-is found (and the number of values matches the number of data-sources) then the
-type, data-set and value-list is passed to all write-callbacks that are
-registered with the daemon.
-
-=item B<plugin_log> (I<log-level>, I<message>)
-
-Submits a I<message> of level I<log-level> to collectd's logging mechanism.
-The message is passed to all log-callbacks that are registered with collectd.
-
-=back
+detail. In particular those are L<collectd-email(5)>, L<collectd-exec(5)>,
+L<collectd-perl(5)>, and L<collectd-unixsock(5)>
=head1 SEE ALSO
L<collectd.conf(5)>,
+L<collectd-email(5)>,
L<collectd-exec(5)>,
+L<collectd-perl(5)>,
L<collectd-unixsock(5)>,
L<http://collectd.org/>
projects / collectd.git / blobdiff