[Xymon] Xymon PROC check fails on un-aligned ps(1) output

[Christoph Schug]

On Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:32:10 +0200, Christoph Schug <cs at schug.net> wrote:
> If have got a question regarding Xymon 4.3.3 (running on CentOS
> 5.6/x86_64). In order to monitor the existence of certain processes like
> rsyslogd(8) I have following process rule defined in analysis.cfg:
> 
> CLASS=linux
>     PROC     "%^/sbin/rsyslogd -m 0$"
[...]

I was asked off the list (thanks, but honestly I hope the benefit for all
of us is higher of discussion keeps on the list):

"Why not just dispense with the '^'? That way the RE will match regardless
of where it starts. "

I'd like to have most exact matching on all my processes. rsyslogd(8) is
just an example, same applies for example to shell scripts which run for a
very long time or as daemon. So I prefer rather

     PROC     "%^/foo/bar$"

instead of just

     PROC     "/foo/bar"

or a somehow relaxed regex, because otherwise a local use might have a look
at the script using more(1), but I don't want to have the process
monitoring matching such thinks like "more /foo/bar". This is reporting
wrong numbers, or might even report the check as GREEN while the instance
which is intended to run doesn't so anymore.

-cs