Python-script every time you want to read a value with the C<exec plugin> (see
L<collectd-exec(5)>) and provides a lot more functionality, too.
-The minimum required Python version is I<2.3>.
+The minimum required Python version is I<2.6>.
=head1 CONFIGURATION
=over 4
-=item
+=item *
B<1.> collectd will try to import the B<readline> module to give you a decent
way of entering your commands. The daemonized collectd won't do that.
-=item
+=item *
-B<2.> collectd will block I<SIGINT>. Pressing I<Ctrl+C> will usually cause
+B<2.> Python will be handling I<SIGINT>. Pressing I<Ctrl+C> will usually cause
collectd to shut down. This would be problematic in an interactive session,
-therefore this signal will be blocked. You can still use it to interrupt
-syscalls like sleep and pause but it won't generate a I<KeyboardInterrupt>
-exception either.
+therefore Python will be handling it in interactive sessions. This allows you
+to use I<Ctrl+C> to interrupt Python code without killing collectd. This also
+means you can catch I<KeyboardInterrupt> exceptions which does not work during
+normal operation.
To quit collectd send I<EOF> (press I<Ctrl+D> at the beginning of a new line).
-=item
+=item *
B<3.> collectd handles I<SIGCHLD>. This means that Python won't be able to
determine the return code of spawned processes with system(), popen() and
=over 4
-=item
+=item *
I<callback> is a callable object that will be called every time the event is
triggered.
-=item
+=item *
I<data> is an optional object that will be passed back to the callback function
every time it is called. If you omit this parameter no object is passed back to
your callback, not even None.
-=item
+=item *
I<name> is an optional identifier for this callback. The default name is
B<python>.I<module>. I<module> is taken from the B<__module__> attribute of
want to register the same callback multiple times in the same module you need to
specify a name here. Otherwise it's safe to ignore this parameter.
-=item
+=item *
I<identifier> is the full identifier assigned to this callback.
=back
-=item B<flush>(I<plugin>[, I<timeout>][, I<identifier>]) -> None
+=item B<flush>(I<plugin[, timeout][, identifier]) -> None
Flush one or all plugins. I<timeout> and the specified I<identifiers> are
passed on to the registered flush-callbacks. If omitted, the timeout defaults
A very simple read function might look like:
+ import random
+
def read(data=None):
vl = collectd.Values(type='gauge')
vl.plugin='python.spam'
To register those functions with collectd:
- collectd.register_read(read);
- collectd.register_write(write);
+ collectd.register_read(read)
+ collectd.register_write(write)
See the section L<"CLASSES"> above for a complete documentation of the data
types used by the read, write and match functions.
-=head1 NOTES
-
-=over 4
-
-=item
-
-Please feel free to send in new plugins to collectd's mailing list at
-E<lt>collectdE<nbsp>atE<nbsp>collectd.orgE<gt> for review and, possibly,
-inclusion in the main distribution. In the latter case, we will take care of
-keeping the plugin up to date and adapting it to new versions of collectd.
-
-Before submitting your plugin, please take a look at
-L<http://collectd.org/dev-info.shtml>.
-
-=back
-
=head1 CAVEATS
=over 4
-=item
+=item *
collectd is heavily multi-threaded. Each collectd thread accessing the Python
plugin will be mapped to a Python interpreter thread. Any such thread will be
from collectd (i.E<nbsp>e. if it registers more than one callback or if a
registered callback may be called more than once in parallel).
-=item
+=item *
The Python thread module is initialized just before calling the init callbacks.
This means you must not use Python's threading module prior to this point. This
includes all config and possibly other callback as well.
-=item
+=item *
The python plugin exports the internal API of collectd which is considered
unstable and subject to change at any time. We try hard to not break backwards
=over 4
-=item
+=item *
Not all aspects of the collectd API are accessible from Python. This includes
-but is not limited to filters and data sets.
+but is not limited to filters.
=back