+=item B<PUTVAL> I<Identifier> [I<OptionList>] I<Valuelist>
+
+Submits one or more values (identified by I<Identifier>, see below) to the
+daemon which will dispatch it to all it's write-plugins.
+
+An I<Identifier> is of the form
+C<I<host>B</>I<plugin>B<->I<instance>B</>I<type>B<->I<instance>> with both
+I<instance>-parts being optional. If they're omitted the hyphen must be
+omitted, too. I<plugin> and each I<instance>-part may be chosen freely as long
+as the tuple (plugin, plugin instance, type instance) uniquely identifies the
+plugin within collectd. I<type> identifies the type and number of values
+(i.E<nbsp>e. data-set) passed to collectd. A large list of predefined
+data-sets is available in the B<types.db> file. See L<types.db(5)> for a
+description of the format of this file.
+
+The I<OptionList> is an optional list of I<Options>, where each option is a
+key-value-pair. A list of currently understood options can be found below, all
+other options will be ignored. Values that contain spaces must be quoted with
+double quotes.
+
+I<Valuelist> is a colon-separated list of the time and the values, each either
+an integer if the data-source is a counter, or a double if the data-source is
+of type "gauge". You can submit an undefined gauge-value by using B<U>. When
+submitting B<U> to a counter the behavior is undefined. The time is given as
+epoch (i.E<nbsp>e. standard UNIX time).
+
+You can mix options and values, but the order is important: Options only
+effect following values, so specifying an option as last field is allowed, but
+useless. Also, an option applies to B<all> following values, so you don't need
+to re-set an option over and over again.
+
+The currently defined B<Options> are:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item B<interval=>I<seconds>
+
+Gives the interval in which the data identified by I<Identifier> is being
+collected.
+
+=back
+
+Please note that this is the same format as used in the B<unixsock plugin>, see
+L<collectd-unixsock(5)>. There's also a bit more information on identifiers in
+case you're confused.
+
+Since examples usually let one understand a lot better, here are some:
+
+ leeloo/cpu-0/cpu-idle N:2299366
+ alice/interface/if_octets-eth0 interval=10 1180647081:421465:479194
+
+Since this action was the only one supported with older versions of the C<exec
+plugin> all lines were treated as if they were prefixed with B<PUTVAL>. This is
+still the case to maintain backwards compatibility but deprecated.
+
+=item B<PUTNOTIF> [I<OptionList>] B<message=>I<Message>
+
+Submits a notification to the daemon which will then dispatch it to all plugins
+which have registered for receiving notifications.
+
+The B<PUTNOTIF> if followed by a list of options which further describe the
+notification. The B<message> option is special in that it will consume the rest
+of the line as its value. The B<message>, B<severity>, and B<time> options are
+mandatory.
+
+Valid options are:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item B<message=>I<Message> (B<REQUIRED>)
+
+Sets the message of the notification. This is the message that will be made
+accessible to the user, so it should contain some useful information. As with
+all options: If the message includes spaces, it must be quoted with double
+quotes. This option is mandatory.
+
+=item B<severity=failure>|B<warning>|B<okay> (B<REQUIRED>)
+
+Sets the severity of the notification. This option is mandatory.
+
+=item B<time=>I<Time> (B<REQUIRED>)
+
+Sets the time of the notification. The time is given as "epoch", i.E<nbsp>e. as
+seconds since January 1st, 1970, 00:00:00. This option is mandatory.