vfs.file.timedelta - File age as an item

[rts]

Hi,

I know that I can use vfs.file.time and then put .fuzzytime in a trigger if I want to be alerted to a file being modifier / not being modified.

However, if I then view the item's data, I just get a straight line since 1970. What I want is for the individual item to record the age of the file on disk, as a number of seconds ago.

Currently, to do this, we use a small shell script as a UserParameter, but this feels like something that perhaps many Zabbix users would like to have.

The patch necessary to libs/zbxsysinfo/common/file.c is very small, and I'm happy to supply this if someone can suggest a suitable function name or syntax. Should it be vfs.file.timedelta, whose syntax is identical to vfs.file.time, or would it be preferable to have an additional parameter to the existing vfs.file.time item to control whether to return absolute file age in epoch seconds, or the delta between now and file time?

Of course, if this functionality already exists, I'd be really grateful if someone can point it out.

[rts]

Sorry to bump this, but I'm keen to implement something and would like some feedback as to which is the most 'zabbixy' way to do this.

[richlv]

i haven't tried, by maybe you can implement it as a calculated item ?
something like now()-vfs.file.time()

[ghoz]

the problem with calculated items is the synchronization .
AFAIHT (AFAI have tested), the calculated item has it's own schedule,
so depending on the source item frequency , you may get stange results..


I would vote for a .timedelta , seems more consistent...

[richlv]

might be worth filing as a feature request then

[rts]

As I said, I'm happy to implement a patch for this functionality, but would just appreciate direction as to which of the two proposed strategies would be most likely to be accepted by Zabbix.

[rts]

It's been a year since my offer to patch zabbix was made, and no-one accepted it. So, here's a proposed fileage script to use with a custom monitor:

#!/bin/bash

# Usage instructions:
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
echo "Usage: "
echo " $0 filename"
echo "will tell you the age of the file in seconds, or -1 if the file does not exist"
exit
fi

# Test if the file exists:
if [ ! -f "$1" ]; then
echo -1
exit
fi

# Output the age, but note that the same command cannot be used on Mac and Linux:
# Note: On Mac, stat -s filename sts environment variables based on the file's properties.
if [ `uname` == 'Darwin' ]; then
NOW=`date +%s`
eval $(stat -s $1)
(( DIFF = (NOW - $st_ctime) ))
echo $DIFF;
exit
fi
if [ `uname` == 'Linux' ]; then
OLD=`stat -c %Z $1`
NOW=`date +%s`
(( DIFF = (NOW - OLD) ))
echo $DIFF;
exit
fi

echo "Unsupported operating system"