.\" Automatically generated by Pod::Man 4.14 (Pod::Simple 3.40) .\" .\" Standard preamble: .\" ======================================================================== .de Sp \" Vertical space (when we can't use .PP) .if t .sp .5v .if n .sp .. .de Vb \" Begin verbatim text .ft CW .nf .ne \\$1 .. .de Ve \" End verbatim text .ft R .fi .. .\" Set up some character translations and predefined strings. \*(-- will .\" give an unbreakable dash, \*(PI will give pi, \*(L" will give a left .\" double quote, and \*(R" will give a right double quote. \*(C+ will .\" give a nicer C++. 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Always turn off hyphenation; it makes .\" way too many mistakes in technical documents. .if n .ad l .nh .SH "NAME" ps\-watcher \- monitors various processes based on ps\-like information. .SH "SYNOPSIS" .IX Header "SYNOPSIS" \&\fBps-watcher\fR [\fIoptions\fR...] [\f(CW\*(C`\-\-config\*(C'\fR] \fIconfig-file\fR .SH "DESCRIPTION" .IX Header "DESCRIPTION" Periodically a list of processes obtained via \f(CW\*(C`ps\*(C'\fR. More precisely each item in the list contains the process name (just what's listed in the \*(L"cmd\*(R" field, not the full command and arguments) and its process id (pid). A configuration file specifies a list of Perl regular-expression patterns to match the processes against. For each match, a Perl expression specified for that pattern is evaluated. The evaluated expression can refer to variables which are set by ps and pertain to the matched process(es), for example the amount memory consumed by the process, or the total elapsed time. Some other variables are set by the program, such as the number of times the process is running. If the Perl expression for a matched pattern evaluates true, then an action can be run such as killing the program, restarting it, or mailing an alert, or running some arbitrary Perl code. .PP Some things you might want to watch a daemon or process for: .IP "\(bu" 2 check that it is running (hasn't died) .IP "\(bu" 2 ensure it is not running too many times .IP "\(bu" 2 isn't consuming too much memory (perhaps a memory leak), or I/O .PP Some actions you might want to take: .IP "\(bu" 2 restart a process .IP "\(bu" 2 kill off rampant processes .IP "\(bu" 2 send an alert about any of the conditions listed above .PP Depending on options specfied, this program can be run as a daemon, run once (which is suitable as a \f(CW\*(C`cron\*(C'\fR job), or run not as a daemon but still continuously (which may be handy in testing the program or your configuration). .SS "\s-1OPTIONS\s0" .IX Subsection "OPTIONS" .IP "\-\-help" 4 .IX Item "--help" Print a usage message on standard error and exit with a return code of 100. .Sp .IP "\-\-doc" 4 .IX Item "--doc" Extact the full documentation that you are reading now, print it and exit with a return code of 101. .Sp .IP "\-\-version" 4 .IX Item "--version" Print the version release on standard output and exit with a return code of 10. .Sp .IP "\-\-debug \fInumber\fR" 4 .IX Item "--debug number" Give debugging output. The higher the number, the more the output. The default is 0 = none. 2 is the most debugging output. .IP "[\-\-config] \fIconfiguration file\fR" 4 .IX Item "[--config] configuration file" Specify configuration file. . .Sp See \*(L"\s-1CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT\*(R"\s0 below for information on the format of the configuration file and \*(L"\s-1EXAMPLE CONFIGURATION\*(R"\s0 for a complete example of a configuration file. .Sp .IP "\-\-log [\fIlog file\fR]" 4 .IX Item "--log [log file]" Send or don't send error and debugging output to a log file. If option is given but no logfile is specified, then use \s-1STDERR.\s0 The default is no error log file. See also \-\-syslog below. .Sp .IP "\-\-syslog | \-\-nosyslog" 4 .IX Item "--syslog | --nosyslog" Send or don't send error and debugging output to syslog. The default is to syslog error and debug output. .Sp .IP "\-\-daemon | \-\-nodaemon" 4 .IX Item "--daemon | --nodaemon" Run or don't as a daemon. .Sp .IP "\-\-path \fIsearch-path\fR" 4 .IX Item "--path search-path" Specify the executable search path used in running commands. .IP "\-\-ps\-prog \fIprogram\fR" 4 .IX Item "--ps-prog program" One can specify the command that gives ps information. By default, the command is \fIno\fR. .Sp .IP "\-\-run | \-\-norun" 4 .IX Item "--run | --norun" do/don't run actions go through the motions as though we were going to. This may be useful in debugging. .Sp .IP "\-\-sleep \fIinterval in seconds\fR" 4 .IX Item "--sleep interval in seconds" It is expected that one might want to run ps-watcher over and over again. In such instances one can specify the amount of time between iterations with this option. .Sp If a negative number is specified the program is run only once. .Sp .SS "\s-1CONFIGURATION FILE MODIFICATION AND SIGNAL HANDLING\s0" .IX Subsection "CONFIGURATION FILE MODIFICATION AND SIGNAL HANDLING" Periodically ps-watcher checks to see if the configuration file that it was run against has changed. If so, the program rereads the configuration file. .PP More precisely, the checks are done after waking up from a slumber. If the sleep interval is long (or if you are impatient), you can probably force the program to wake up using a \s-1HUP\s0 signal. .PP At any time you can increase the level of debug output by sending a \&\s-1USR1\s0 signal to the ps-watcher process. Similarly you can decrease the level of debug output by sending the process a \s-1USR2\s0 signal. .PP It is recommended that you terminate ps-watcher via an \s-1INT, TERM,\s0 or \s-1QUIT\s0 signal. .SH "CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT" .IX Header "CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT" The format of a configuration file is a series of fully qualified filenames enclosed in square brackets followed by a number of parameter lines. Each parameter line has a parameter name followed by an \*(L"equal\*(R" sign and finally value. That is: .PP .Vb 5 \& # This is a comment line \& ; So is this. \& [process\-pattern1] \& parameter1 = value1 \& parameter2 = value2 \& \& [process\-pattern2] \& parameter1 = value3 \& parameter2 = value4 .Ve .PP Comments start with # or ; and take effect to the end of the line. .PP This should be familiar to those who have worked with text-readible Microsoft \f(CW\*(C`.INI\*(C'\fR files. .PP Note process patterns, (\fIprocess\-pattern1\fR and \fIprocess\-pattern2\fR above) must be unique. If there are times when you may want to refer to the same process, one can be creative to make these unique. e.g. \fIcron\fR and \fI[c]ron\fR which refer to the same process even though they \fIappear\fR to be different. .PP As quoted directly from the Config::IniFiles documentation: .PP Multiline or multivalued fields may also be defined ala \s-1UNIX\s0 \&\*(L"here document\*(R" syntax: .PP .Vb 4 \& Parameter=< 1000 \& occurs = every \& action = echo "Large program $command matches $ps_pat: $vsz KB" \& \& # Fire if /usr/sbin/syslogd is not running. \& # Since the program matches against the command names, not commands and \& # arguments, something like: \& # ps \-ef | grep /usr/sbin/syslogd \& # won\*(Aqt match the below. \& [(/usr/sbin/)?syslogd] \& occurs = none \& action = /etc/init.d/syslogd start .Ve .IP "action" 4 .IX Item "action" This specifies the action, a command that gets run by the system shell, when the trigger condition is evaluated to be true. .Sp Example: .Sp .Vb 1 \& action = /etc/init.d/market_loader.init restart .Ve .IP "perl-action" 4 .IX Item "perl-action" This specifies Perl statements to be eval'd. This can be especially useful in conjunction with \f(CW$PROLOG\fR and \f(CW$EPILOG\fR sections to make tests across collections of process and do things which ps-watcher would otherwise not be able to do. .Sp Example: .Sp .Vb 5 \& # A Perl variable initialization. \& # Since ps\-watcher runs as a daemon it\*(Aqs a good idea \& # to (re)initialize variables before each run. \& [$PROLOG] \& perl\-action = $root_procs=0; \& \& # Keep track of how many root processes we are running \& [.*] \& perl\-action = $root_procs++ if $uid == 0 \& occurs = every \& \& # Show this count. \& [$EPILOG] \& action = echo "I counted $root_procs root processes" .Ve .SS "\s-1EXPANDED VARIABLES IN TRIGGER/ACTION CLAUSES\s0" .IX Subsection "EXPANDED VARIABLES IN TRIGGER/ACTION CLAUSES" Any variables defined in the program can be used in pattern or action parameters. For example, \f(CW$program\fR can be used to refer to the name of this program ps-watcher. .PP The following variables can be used in either the pattern or action fields. .ie n .IP "$action" 4 .el .IP "\f(CW$action\fR" 4 .IX Item "$action" A string containing the text of the action to run. .Sp .ie n .IP "$perl_action" 4 .el .IP "\f(CW$perl_action\fR" 4 .IX Item "$perl_action" A string containing the text of the perl_action to run. .Sp .ie n .IP "$ps_pat" 4 .el .IP "\f(CW$ps_pat\fR" 4 .IX Item "$ps_pat" The Perl regular expression specified in the beginning of the section. .Sp .ie n .IP "$command" 4 .el .IP "\f(CW$command\fR" 4 .IX Item "$command" The command that matched \f(CW$ps_pat\fR. .Sp The Perl regular expression specified in the beginning of the section. Normally processes will not have funny characters in them. Just in case, backticks in \f(CW$command\fR are escaped. .Sp Example: .Sp .Vb 2 \& # List processes other than emacs (which is a known pig) that use lots \& # of virtual memory \& \& [.*] \& trigger = $command !~ /emacs$/ && $vsz > 10 \& action = echo \e"Looks like you have a big \e$command program: \e$vsz KB\e" .Ve .Sp .ie n .IP "$count" 4 .el .IP "\f(CW$count\fR" 4 .IX Item "$count" The number of times the pattern matched. Presumably the number of processes of this class running. .Sp .ie n .IP "$trigger" 4 .el .IP "\f(CW$trigger\fR" 4 .IX Item "$trigger" A string containing the text of the trigger. .PP A list of variables specific to this program or fields commonly found in \&\f(CW\*(C`ps\*(C'\fR output is listed below followed by a description of the more common ones. See also \f(CW\*(C`ps\*(C'\fR for a more complete description of the meaning of the field. .PP .Vb 11 \& uid euid ruid gid egid rgid alarm blocked bsdtime c caught \&cputime drs dsiz egroup eip esp etime euser f fgid \&fgroup flag flags fname fsgid fsgroup fsuid fsuser fuid fuser \&group ignored intpri lim longtname m_drs m_trs maj_flt majflt \&min_flt minflt ni nice nwchan opri pagein pcpu pending pgid pgrp \&pmem ppid pri rgroup rss rssize rsz ruser s sess session \&sgi_p sgi_rss sgid sgroup sid sig sig_block sig_catch sig_ignore \&sig_pend sigcatch sigignore sigmask stackp start start_stack start_time \&stat state stime suid suser svgid svgroup svuid svuser sz time timeout \&tmout tname tpgid trs trss tsiz tt tty tty4 tty8 uid_hack uname \&user vsize vsz wchan .Ve .PP Beware though, in some situations ps can return multiple lines for a single process and we will use just one of these in the trigger. In particular, Solaris's \f(CW\*(C`ps\*(C'\fR will return a line for each \s-1LWP\s0 (light-weight process). So on Solaris, if a trigger uses variable lwp, it may or may not match depending on which single line of the multiple \f(CW\*(C`ps\*(C'\fR lines is used. .PP .ie n .IP "$args" 4 .el .IP "\f(CW$args\fR" 4 .IX Item "$args" The command along with its command arguments. It is possible that this is might get truncated at certain length (if ps does likewise as is the case on Solaris). .Sp .ie n .IP "$ppid" 4 .el .IP "\f(CW$ppid\fR" 4 .IX Item "$ppid" The parent process id. .Sp .ie n .IP "$stime" 4 .el .IP "\f(CW$stime\fR" 4 .IX Item "$stime" The start time of the process. .Sp .ie n .IP "$etime" 4 .el .IP "\f(CW$etime\fR" 4 .IX Item "$etime" The end time of the process. .Sp .ie n .IP "$pmem" 4 .el .IP "\f(CW$pmem\fR" 4 .IX Item "$pmem" The process memory. .Sp .ie n .IP "$pcpu" 4 .el .IP "\f(CW$pcpu\fR" 4 .IX Item "$pcpu" The percent \s-1CPU\s0 utilization. .Sp .ie n .IP "$tty" 4 .el .IP "\f(CW$tty\fR" 4 .IX Item "$tty" The controlling tty. .Sp .ie n .IP "$vsz" 4 .el .IP "\f(CW$vsz\fR" 4 .IX Item "$vsz" Virtual memory size of the process .SS "\s-1OTHER THINGS IN TRIGGER CLAUSES\s0" .IX Subsection "OTHER THINGS IN TRIGGER CLAUSES" To make testing against elapsed time easier, a function \f(CW\*(C`elapse2sec()\*(C'\fR has been written to parse and convert elapsed time strings in the format \f(CW\*(C`dd\-hh:mm:ss\*(C'\fR and a number of seconds. .PP Some constants for the number of seconds in a minute, hour, or day have also been defined. These are referred to as \f(CW\*(C`MINS\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`HOURS\*(C'\fR, and \f(CW\*(C`DAYS\*(C'\fR respectively and they have the expected definitions: .PP .Vb 3 \& use constant MINS => 60; \& use constant HOURS => 60*60; \& use constant DAYS => HOURS * 24; .Ve .PP Here is an example of the use of \f(CW\*(C`elapsed2sec()\*(C'\fR: .PP .Vb 7 \& # Which processes have been running for more than 3 hours? \& # Also note use of builtin\-function elapsed2secs, variable $etime \& # and builtin\-function HOURS \& [.] \& trigger = elapsed2secs(\*(Aq$etime\*(Aq) > 1*DAYS \& action = echo "$command has been running more than 1 day ($etime)" \& occurs = every .Ve .PP Please note the quotes around '$etime'. .SH "EXAMPLE CONFIGURATION" .IX Header "EXAMPLE CONFIGURATION" .Vb 1 \& # Comments start with # or ; and go to the end of the line. \& \& # The format for each entry is in Microsoft .INI form: \& # [process\-pattern] \& # trigger = perl\-expression \& # action = program\-and\-arguments\-to\-run \& \& [httpd$] \& trigger = $count < 4 \& action = echo "$trigger fired \-\- You have $count httpd sessions." \& \& [.] \& trigger = $vsz > 10 \& action = echo "Looks like you have a big $command program: $vsz KB" \& \& # Unfortunately we have use a different pattern below. (Here we use \& # ".?" instead of ".".) In effect the the two patterns mean \& # test every process. \& [.?] \& trigger = elapsed2secs(\*(Aq$etime\*(Aq) > 2*MINS && $pcpu > 40 \& occurs = every \& action = </dev/null 2>&1\`; \e$? >> 8 } \& action = < and it download via .SH "AUTHOR" .IX Header "AUTHOR" Rocky Bernstein (rocky@gnu.org) .SH "COPYRIGHT" .IX Header "COPYRIGHT" .Vb 6 \& Copyright (C) 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 \& Rocky Bernstein, email: rocky@gnu.org. \& This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify \& it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by \& the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or \& (at your option) any later version. \& \& This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, \& but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of \& MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the \& GNU General Public License for more details. \& \& You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License \& along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software \& Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. .Ve