Here is a hack if you want to use xymon-client to monitor the number of files in a directory

["SebA" <spa (at) syntec.co.uk>]

Although there has been discussion in the past
(http://www.xymon.com/archive/2007/02/msg00047.html) about a way to track
numbers of files in a directory through the xymon client, no working
solution was posted (and the only one I found
(http://www.xymon.com/archive/2007/02/msg00079.html), the author claimed it
would work, but (a) it does not - variable should not have a $ before it
when you set it, and (b) the author gives no indication of how it should be
used).  I had a use for this facility, and didn't need the normal dir count
that returns a size in KB (or whatever du returns on your server), and did
not want to write an ext script as that seemed to create unnecessary load,
so after several false starts, and finally having to read the source code, I
found a working solution, which was to write a script that output the
information in the same format as the du command and then redefine the du
command in xymonclient.cfg as per the two listings below.
 
Create filecount.sh in the client/bin folder, chmod +x it, and replace the
du command by setting the DU environment variable in
client/etc/xymonclient.cfg...
 
[xymon (at) myServer client]$ cat bin/filecount.sh
#!/bin/sh
# Written by SebA 11/01/11
#filecount=`ls $1 | wc -l`
# The following is more efficient, at least on CentOS 5: 'it will show files
immediately and it has no memory limitations.'
#filecount=`ls -1 -U $1 | wc -l`
# Must be >=1, or Xymon will interpret the result as a failure, so include .
and .. (and 'hidden') files.
filecount=`ls -a -1 -U $1 | wc -l`
# Ensure we have a tab between the number and the pathname...
echo "$filecount        $1"
 
That last line may have been converted from a tab character, so replace the
consecutive space characters when you use it!
 
[xymon (at) myServer client]$ grep filecount etc/xymonclient.cfg
DU="$XYMONHOME/bin/filecount.sh" # Replace with my filecount script. /Seb

You can then use dir as normal on the server in client-local.cfg and
hobbit-clients.cfg (sorry - my client is running newest xymon, while the
server is running hobbit).  So you can use SIZE on the file-count where it
would normally work on the dir-size (du).
 
----------------------------
 
Of course, proper client/server support, instead of overriding du would be
better, but maybe this will help someone until that happens, or maybe this
will be the trigger for that to happen. ;)
 
In the course of my debugging, I was somewhat frustrated by the length of
time changes took to progagate from the server to the client (but I can live
with this).  What would be routinely useful though is that even if the
result is a green in the files column, that it displayed what the criteria
are (like it does if the result is non-green)?  Because it
(hobbit-clients.cfg) is clearly cached by the server and not checked when
the client reports.  (I believe hobbit-alerts.cfg (or whatever it is called
now) is checked when the client reports, no?  So they do not behave the
same.)  Anyway, this caching means one does not know which criteria were
used to determine a green result.  Plus, displaying it in the page would be
more convenient as most people don't have the file open in another window!
 
Kind regards, 

SebA

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