collectd-exec(5): Moved information about the `exec plugin' into an own manpage.

diff --git a/src/Makefile.am b/src/Makefile.am
index 9ee8668..75d95d2 100644 (file)
--- a/src/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/Makefile.am
@@ -549,7 +549,7 @@ collectd_LDADD += "-dlopen" wireless.la
 collectd_DEPENDENCIES += wireless.la
 endif
 
-dist_man_MANS = collectd.1 collectd-nagios.1 collectd.conf.5
+dist_man_MANS = collectd.1 collectd-nagios.1 collectd.conf.5 collectd-exec.5
 #collectd_1_SOURCES = collectd.pod
 
 EXTRA_DIST = types.db

diff --git a/src/collectd-exec.pod b/src/collectd-exec.pod
new file mode 100644 (file)
index 0000000..41825f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/collectd-exec.pod
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+=head1 NAME
+
+collectd-exec - Documentation of collectd's C<exec plugin>
+
+=head1 SYNOPSIS
+
+  # See collectd.conf(5)
+  LoadPlugin exec
+  # ...
+  <Plugin exec>
+    Exec myuser myprog
+    Exec otheruser /path/to/another/binary
+  </Plugin>
+
+=head1 DESCRIPTION
+
+The C<exec plugin> forks of an executable and reads back values that it writes
+to C<STDOUT>. The executable is forked in a fassion similar to L<init>: It is
+forked once and not again until it exits. If it exited, it will be forked again
+after at most I<Interval> seconds. It is perfectly legal for the executable to
+run for a long time and continuously write values to C<STDOUT>.
+
+=head1 DATA FORMAT
+
+The forked executable is expected to print values to C<STDOUT>. The expected
+format is as follows:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item
+
+Each line beginning with a C<#> (hash mark) is ignored.
+
+=item
+
+Any other line must be of the form C<I<type>,I<type-instance>,I<value>>, where
+I<type> is either B<counter> or B<gauge>, I<type-instance> may not contain
+C<,> (comma), C</> (slash) and C<\0> (null byte) and I<value> is either an
+integer (if I<type> is B<counter>) or a floating-point number (if I<type> is
+B<gauge>).
+
+=back
+
+The values are always considered to be "fresh", i.E<nbsp>e. the time is set to
+"now".
+
+When collectd exits it sends a B<SIGTERM> to all still running
+child-processes upon which they have to quit.
+
+=head1 CAVEATS
+
+=over 4
+
+=item
+
+If the executable only writes one value and then exits I will be executed every
+I<Interval> seconds. If I<Interval> is short (the default is 10 seconds) this
+may result in serious system load.
+
+=back
+
+=head1 SEE ALSO
+
+L<collectd(1)>, L<collectd.conf(5)>, L<fork(2)>, L<exec(3)>
+
+=head1 AUTHOR
+
+Florian Forster E<lt>octo@verplant.orgE<gt>
+
+=cut

diff --git a/src/collectd.pod b/src/collectd.pod
index 4a62ce6..5449d0e 100644 (file)
--- a/src/collectd.pod
+++ b/src/collectd.pod
@@ -80,6 +80,10 @@ C<logfile plugin> and the C<syslog plugin>. With these plugins collectd can
 provide information about issues and significant situations to the user.
 Several loglevels let you suppress uninteresting messages.
 
+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)>, ...
+
 =head1 SPECIAL PLUGINS
 
 =head2 apache
@@ -129,39 +133,6 @@ Successful spam checks (e.g. "BAYES_99", "SUBJECT_DRUG_GAP_C", ...):
 Each line is limited to 256 characters (including the newline character). 
 Longer lines will be ignored.
 
-=head2 exec
-
-The C<exec> plugin forks of an executable and reads back values that it writes
-to C<STDOUT>. The executable is forked kind of as L<init> does: It is forked
-once and not again until it exits. If it exited, it will be forked again after
-at most I<Interval> seconds. It is perfectly legal for the executable to run
-for a long time and continuously write values to C<STDOUT>.
-
-The forked executable is expected to print values to C<STDOUT>. The expected
-format is as follows:
-
-=over 4
-
-=item
-
-Each line beginning with a C<#> (hash mark) is ignored.
-
-=item
-
-Any other line must be of the form C<I<type>,I<type-instance>,I<value>>, where
-I<type> is either B<counter> or B<gauge>, I<type-instance> may not contain
-C<,> (comma), C</> (slash) and C<\0> (null byte) and I<value> is either an
-integer (if I<type> is B<counter>) or a floating-point number (if I<type> is
-B<gauge>).
-
-=back
-
-The values are always considered to be "fresh", i.E<nbsp>e. the time is set to
-"now".
-
-When collectd exits it sends a B<SIGTERM> to all still running
-child-processes upon which they have to quit.
-
 =head2 mysql
 
 Requires B<mysqlclient> to be installed. It connects to the database when
@@ -350,9 +321,13 @@ The B<VServer> homepage can be found at L<http://linux-vserver.org/>.
 
 =head1 SEE ALSO
 
-L<collectd.conf(5)>, L<rrdtool(1)>, L<sensors(1)>, L<hddtemp(8)>,
-L<mbmon(1)>,
+L<collectd.conf(5)>,
+L<collectd-exec(5)>,
+L<hddtemp(8)>,
 L<kstat(3KSTAT)>,
+L<mbmon(1)>,
+L<rrdtool(1)>,
+L<sensors(1)>,
 L<http://collectd.org/>
 
 =head1 AUTHOR