[smokeping-users] inconsistencies in smokeping_config documentation ***Targets*** section

[mgd at interbaun.com]

Thank you, Greg

Yes, I ended up defining all my parent alerts in one line in the Targets file:

alerts =  
bigloss,someloss,startloss,rttdetect,anydelay,rttdetectbccable,rttdetectcube

Then, for each target, I defined alerts uniquely, such as:

++ SquarePE
menu = SquarePE
title = SquarePE
host = 1.2.3.4
alerts = bigloss

++ CubeCE
menu = CubeCE
title = CubeCE
host = 4.3.2.1
alerts = rttdetectcube

But, as you suggest, I could also have created a dummy or do nothing  
alert and assigned that to Targets for which I do not need email alerts.


Quoting Gregory Sloop <gregs at sloop.net>:

> See comments following...
>
> mic> At the beginning of the ***Targets***, just after the statement
> mic> beginning with "The following variables can be set in this section:",
> mic> the "alerts" are described as:
>
> mic> A comma separated list of alerts to check for this target. The alerts
> mic> have to be setup in the Alerts section. Alerts are inherited by child
> mic> nodes. Use an empty alerts definition to remove inherited alerts from
> mic> the current target and its children.
>
> mic> Then in the Level 1 section that follows a few sentences later, it is
> mic> written for alerts that:
>
> mic>      Comma separated list of alert names
>
> mic>      This variable inherits its value from the parent section if
> mic> nothing is specified here.
>
> mic> So, the first statement says that "use an empty alert definition to
> mic> remove inherited alerts from the current target and its children".
> mic> Then in the section for configured targets it says: "This variable
> mic> inherits its value from the parent section if nothing is specified
> mic> here". These two statements clash, only one can be true. So, what is
> mic> the true statement?
>
> [Provided I understand your question...]
> I think what it's saying is:
>
> If you leave a child section without any *explicitly* defined alerts, it
> will get the alerts from its parent.
>
> If you want to cancel/remove an alert for a child section, then define an
> "empty" alert with the same name in the child and you don't get that
> alert from the parent. If there are other alerts, you'll get those.
>
> [And I'm pretty sure it works that way. I don't have any currently
> configured child sections using this, but did one a while back and it
> functioned as specified here - at least IIRC it did. I was using
> 2.4.something - but I haven't heard of any different behavior in
> 2.6.x]
>
> -Greg
>
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