=head1 DESCRIPTION
-The C<exec plugin> forks of an executable either to receive values or to
+The C<exec plugin> forks off an executable either to receive values or to
dispatch notifications to the outside world. The syntax of the configuration is
explained in L<collectd.conf(5)> but summarized in the above synopsis.
See L<EXEC DATA FORMAT> below for a description of the output format expected
from these programs.
-B<Warning:> If the executable only writes one value and then exits I will be
+B<Warning:> If the executable only writes one value and then exits it will be
executed every I<Interval> seconds. If I<Interval> is short (the default is 10
seconds) this may result in serious system load.
=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.
+daemon which will dispatch it to all its 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
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).
+epoch (i.E<nbsp>e. standard UNIX time) or B<N> to use the current 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
or B<type_instance> without B<type> doesn't make much sense and should be
avoided.
+=item B<type:key=>I<value>
+
+Sets user defined meta information. The B<type> key is a single character
+defining the type of the meta information.
+
+The current supported types are:
+
+=over 8
+
+=item B<s> A string passed as-is.
+
+=back
+
=back
=back
HTTP: At first there is a "header" with one line per field. Every line consists
of a field name, ended by a colon, and the associated value until end-of-line.
The "header" is ended by two newlines immediately following another,
-i.E<nbsp>e. an empty line. The rest, basically the "body", is the message of
-the notification.
+i.e. an empty line. The rest, basically the "body", is the message of the
+notification.
The following is an example notification passed to a program:
Severity: FAILURE
- Time: 1200928930
+ Time: 1200928930.515
Host: myhost.mydomain.org
\n
This is a test notification to demonstrate the format
=item B<Time>
-The time in epoch, i.E<nbsp>e. as seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC.
+The time in epoch, i.e. as seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC. The value
+currently has millisecond precision (i.e. three decimal places), but scripts
+should accept arbitrary numbers of decimal places, including no decimal places.
=item B<Host>
=over 4
-=item
+=item *
The user, the binary is executed as, may not have root privileges, i.E<nbsp>e.
must have an UID that is non-zero. This is for your own good.
-=item
+=item *
Early versions of the plugin did not use a command but treated all lines as if
they were arguments to the I<PUTVAL> command. When the I<PUTNOTIF> command was
=head1 AUTHOR
-Florian Forster E<lt>octo@verplant.orgE<gt>
+Florian Forster E<lt>octo@collectd.orgE<gt>
=cut