[Nagiosplug-devel] Standard output from plugins

[Subhendu Ghosh]

my 2 centimes

Prefix all output with "STATE:"  preferably in uppercase.

I'd rather not append the plugin "type" (eg. HTTP/SNMP/etc) as a general 
rule. But it is useful for some.

"Plugin timed out after 10 seconds" << some of this is from Nagios
For the timeout within the plugins follow above.

On Mon, 10 Feb 2003, Jeremy T. Bouse wrote:

> 	I've been looking through the plugin documentation on the web
> site trying to determine the way responses should be as I find a lot of
> the plugins do not give a standardized reply back... I find some just
> give back the reply as the output from the error:
> 
> 	$ ./check_pop -H some.host.domain <- host isn't runnin POP
> 	Connection refused by host
> 
> 	$ ./check_dns www.yakoo.com <- Use any non-exist host
> 	CRITICAL - Plugin timed out after 10 seconds
> 
> 	I also find subtle differences like "ok" or "ok:" rather than
> "OK"... Using mixed capitals for OK or UNKNOWN but using lowercase for
> critical or warning... Also those that just list the state vs. others
> that identify the plugin then the state:
> 
> 	CRITICAL - Plugin timed out after 10 seconds
> 
> 		vs.
> 
> 	HTTP OK HTTP/1.1 200 OK -   0.268 second response time |time=0.268
> 
> 	I've been looking through and trying to work to make the
> plugins all give some standardized reply back but can't really find any
> clear cut verdict as to what should be standard... I've also found a few
> plugins which don't actually return the proper return code (check_ssh
> was one I've fixed) as they always returned STATE_OK no matter what the
> actual output from the plugin stated...
> 
> 	Although this is only cosmetic really I think it would be a
> good idea to get this cleaned up now rather than later if there isn't
> any valid reason to not do so... I'm even willing to spend my time doing
> so rather than task it out to someone else... 
> 
> 	Jeremy
> 
> 

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