snmpacc: SNMP accounting data collection package

6.2. Configuration Files

6.2.1. Configuration File Format

6.2.1.1. Syntax

The configuration file consists of a series of statements, with each statement keyword followed by parameters separated by whitespace, and the statement terminated by either the end of the line or a '#' comment marker. Comments continue from the '#' to the end of the line.

Blank lines are permitted.

Parameters containing spaces may be quoted with double quotes. A parameter starting with '$' is translated through a symbol name. Note that only parameters starting with '$' will be recognised and the entire parameter replaced; to embed a symbol value in a parameter, use a set statement to construct a symbol first.

6.2.1.2. Symbols

$file	Current configuration file name
$masterfile	Configuration file name as specified on command line (or default)
$collector	Host name as specified in -h option, default system host name

Symbols can be created using the set statement. This takes the form:

set <name> <data> ...

Note that each data element is appended together, thus set x a b c assigns ``abc'' to the symbol x.

6.2.1.3. Include Files

Each non-blank line read from an include file is appended to the line preceding the '@'. For example, if the configuration file contains:

device ns1
	object @ns1-objects
end device

and the file ns1-objects contains

# Objects for ns1
ns1.eth0.in  interfaces.ifTable.ifEntry.ifInOctets.1
ns1.eth0.out interfaces.ifTable.ifEntry.ifOutOctets.1

what is processed is:

device ns1
	object ns1.eth0.in  interfaces.ifTable.ifEntry.ifInOctets.1
	object ns1.eth0.out interfaces.ifTable.ifEntry.ifOutOctets.1
end device

6.2.1.4. Lexical Control: if / elseif / else / end if

The if statement is in the form if <cond>, with <cond> defined as <parameter> <relop> <parameter> [<logop> <cond> ...]. <relop> can be one of:

=	Equal to
!=	Not equal to
<	Less than
>	Greater than
<=	Less than or equal to
>=	Greater than or equal to

Note that all comparisons are strings, thus ``9'' is greater than ``10''; the comparison should be between ``09'' and ``10''.

<logop> can be one of and or or.

6.2.1.5. Interval Specifications

snmpmerge extends this model further for the -e (end time) option and aggregate intervals, in that when the interval is an exact multiple of a day, the interval is treated as days aligned at midnight local time rather than seconds, as seconds truncated to a multiple of 24 hours would result in days aligned at midnight GMT, not midnight local time. Note that this means that when daylight saving starts and ends, a "day" can be 23 or 25 hours (assuming a one hour daylight saving offset). The days number calculation is arranged so that if 7 days is requested, the week starts oat midnight Monday morning.

Additionally, if a multiple of 30 days is requested, it is treated as actual calendar months, not intervals of 30 days. That is, an interval of 90 days would indicate periods starting on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October.

6.2.1.6. Quantity Specifications

6.2.1.7. Time-based file names

For example, to output files in the form out-YYYYMMDD-HHMM.dat, one could use out-%Y%m%d-%H%M.dat.

Common time substitution strings include:

%d	Day of month, zero filled, e.g. 01, 31
%H	Hour of day, zero-filled, e.g. 01, 23.
%m	Month of year, zero filled, e.g. 01, 12.
%M	Minute of hour, zero-filled, e.g. 00, 59.
%y	Two digit, zero-filled year, e.g. 00, 01, 99.
%Y	Four digit year, e.g. 1999, 2000.
%%	Insert a percent sign.

For more information, see the Unix manual pages for strftime(3).

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