Better init.d script, more flexible

[Kai-Kai]

Hello,

as I think Zabbix is really a wonderfull soft, I want to contribute to its developpment.
I have compiled my own zabbix from sources and installed it in a custom directory. Then I would like to use init.d scripts which are given with sources... but for a custom installation, it doesn't work...

So I've modified the script :

Replacing :

NAME=zabbix_agentd
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/home/zabbix/bin
DAEMON=/home/zabbix/bin/${NAME}
DESC="Zabbix agent daemon"
PID=/var/tmp/$NAME.pid

By :

NAME=zabbix_agentd
CONFIGFILE=zabbix_agentd.conf
ZABPATH=/usr/local/zabbix

CONFPATH="${ZABPATH}/etc/${CONFIGFILE}"
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:${ZABPATH}/sbin

DAEMON="${ZABPATH}/sbin/${NAME}"
OPTIONS="-c ${CONFPATH}"
DESC="Zabbix agent daemon"
PID="${ZABPATH}/var/tmp/${NAME}.pid"

And replacing :

  start)
        echo "Starting $DESC: $NAME"
        start-stop-daemon --oknodo --start --pidfile $PID \
                --exec $DAEMON
        ;;

By :

  start)
        echo "Starting $DESC: $NAME"
        start-stop-daemon --oknodo --start --pidfile $PID \
                --exec ${DAEMON} -- ${OPTIONS}
        ;;

In this way, the daemon use my own config file, with my user, in my path...

But as it's my first init script, I would like to have feedbacks about this. And if you think this idea is good, I think it could be modified in the next release of zabbix.

What do you think about it ?

[Kai-Kai]

On my machin, the "restart" command doesn't works properly... I think the start is a bit too quick...
I've also replaced :

        $0 stop
        $0 start

with :

        $0 stop
        sleep 2
        $0 start

And now it works fine.

[Calimero]

To make it even more "Debianish" you could set reasonable default values (paths) in the script itself and try and source /etc/default/zabbix - if present - which would override variables when necessary.

[Kai-Kai]

Yes, values I've choosen in the example script are my real values.
I've put all what is relative to zabbix in /usr/local/zabbix instead of using /etc, /bin etc...

Why ? I think because I've discovered Zabbix on Solaris, and Solaris runs this way (and I prefere this way to do, because I think it's more cleared to group all the files of an application).

But the default script, given with the sources should naturally use default values, more "debianish" in the variables. And the user customize then the values...

Is it what you mean ?

[Calimero]

I mean that the Debian way of overriding startup variables is to source a file named /etc/default/<app_name>

But on the other hand we're talking about custom manual installs (and not .deb packages) so it's no big deal: if you install manually you can spend an extra 5 seconds to set the right path in your startup script.

On the other hand, if you create .deb packages for redistribution, the /etc/default/zabbix approach seems a bit better.

[Kai-Kai]

Yes, I agree with you.
But I think that as sources are here to allow people making custom install instead of using deb package for example, it could be interesting if the scripts given in the sources were ready to be customized.

As I haven't use start-stop-daemon before, I had to make some searches before managing to do what I want (because -c is also an option of start-stop-daemon and was interpreted so at the beginning). That's why I made this suggestion, to help other people wanting to do a custom install in the future...

But pehaps this is just a useless idea interesting only me... ^^ if it's effectively that, my script is okay for me...

[Kai-Kai]

I come back on this topic because there's something I don't understand.
If you try to launch zabbix as root user, with :
/path/zabbix_agentd -c /path2/zabbix_agentd.conf
it fails. You have to be logged as zabbix user.

But when you use the init.d script, the daemon starts, with the user zabbix, whereas it's not specified in the script, and not in the config file...

Where does it find the right user ?...

I have added --chuid ${USER} on the start line, --user ${USER} on the stop line of start-stop-daemon and USER='zabbix' at the beginning of the script... but before I've added that, it seems to work and in the script given with in the sources, the user is not specified...

Can anybody explain it to me ?

[Calimero]

if you start zabbix (agent or server) as root, it will drop privileges by switching to 'zabbix' (this is hardcoded in src/libs/zbxnix/daemon.c).

if you start zabbix as non-root (any user with uid/gid != 0), it won't complain and won't try to switch user.

[Kai-Kai]

Ok, it's hardcoded in the soft.
That answers my question.

So the chuid I've added in my script allows people to use another username than zabbix if neeeded. Useless as far as I'm concerned, but can be usefull to anybody else I think.

Thanks.