icinga2/CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Branches
3. Testing
4. Patches

Introduction

A roadmap of this project is located at https://github.com/Icinga/icinga2/milestones. Please consider this roadmap when you start contributing to the project.

Before starting your work on Icinga 2, you should fork the project to your GitHub account. This allows you to freely experiment with your changes. When your changes are complete, submit a pull request. All pull requests will be reviewed and merged if they suit some general guidelines:

• Changes are located in a topic branch
• For new functionality, proper tests are written
• Changes should not solve certain problems on special environments

Branches

Choosing a proper name for a branch helps us identify its purpose and possibly find an associated bug or feature. Generally a branch name should include a topic such as fix or feature followed by a description and an issue number if applicable. Branches should have only changes relevant to a specific issue.

git checkout -b fix/service-template-typo-1234
git checkout -b feature/config-handling-1235

Testing

Basic unit test coverage is provided by running make test during package builds. Read the INSTALL.md file for more information about development builds.

Snapshot packages from the laster development branch are available inside the package repository.

You can help test-drive the latest Icinga 2 snapshot packages inside the Icinga 2 Vagrant boxes.

Patches

Source Code

Icinga 2 is written in C++ and uses the Boost libraries. We are also using the C++11 standard where applicable (please note the minimum required compiler versions in the INSTALL.md file.

Icinga 2 can be built on Linux/Unix and Windows clients. In order to develop patches for Icinga 2, you should prepare your own local build environment and know how to work with C++.

More tips:

• Requirements and source code installation is explained inside the INSTALL.md file.
• Debug requirements and GDB instructions can be found in the documentation.
• If you are planning to debug a Windows client, setup a Windows environment with Visual Studio. An example can be found in this blogpost.

Update the Documentation

The documentation is written in GitHub flavored Markdown. It is located in the doc/ directory and can be edited with your preferred editor. You can also edit it online on GitHub.

vim doc/2-getting-started.md

In order to review and test changes, you can install the mkdocs Python library.

pip install mkdocs

This allows you to start a local mkdocs viewer instance on http://localhost:8000

mkdocs serve

Changes on the chapter layout can be done inside the mkdocs.yml file in the main tree.

There also is a script to ensure that relative URLs to other sections are updated. This script also checks for broken URLs.

./doc/update-links.py doc/*.md

Contribute CheckCommand Definitions

The Icinga Template Library (ITL) and its plugin check commands provide a variety of CheckCommand object definitions which can be included on-demand.

Advantages of sending them upstream:

• Everyone can use and update/fix them.
• One single place for configuration and documentation.
• Developers may suggest updates and help with best practices.
• You don't need to care about copying the command definitions to your satellites and clients.

Where do I start?

Get to know the check plugin and its options. Read the general documentation on how to integrate your check plugins and how to create a good CheckCommand definition.

A good command definition uses:

• Command arguments including value, description, optional: set_if, required, etc.
• Comments /* ... */ to describe difficult parts.
• Command name as prefix for the custom attributes referenced (e.g. disk_)
• Default values
  • If host.address is involved, set a custom attribute (e.g. ping_address) to the default $address$. This allows users to override the host's address later on by setting the custom attribute inside the service apply definitions.
  • If the plugin is also capable to use ipv6, import the ipv4-or-ipv6 template and use $check_address$ instead of $address$. This allows to fall back to ipv6 if only this address is set.
  • If set_if is involved, ensure to specify a sane default value if required.
• Templates if there are multiple plugins with the same basic behaviour (e.g. ping4 and ping6).
• Your love and enthusiasm in making it the perfect CheckCommand.

I have created a CheckCommand, what now?

Icinga 2 developers love documentation. This isn't just because we want to annoy anyone sending a patch, it's a matter of making your contribution visible to the community.

Your patch should consist of 2 parts:

• The CheckCommand definition.
• The documentation bits.

Fork the repository and ensure that the master branch is up-to-date.

Create a new fix or feature branch and start your work.

git checkout -b feature/itl-check-printer

Add CheckCommand Definition to Contrib Plugins

There already exists a defined structure for contributed plugins. Navigate to itl/plugins-contrib.d and verify where your command definitions fits into.

cd itl/plugins-contrib.d/
ls

If you want to add or modify an existing Monitoring Plugin please use itl/command-plugins.conf instead.

vim itl/command-plugins-conf

Existing Configuration File

Just edit it, and add your CheckCommand definition.

vim operating-system.conf

Proceed to the documentation.

New type for CheckCommand Definition

Create a new file with .conf suffix.

	$ vim printer.conf

Add the file to itl/CMakeLists.txt in the FILES line in alpha-numeric order. This ensures that the installation and packages properly include your newly created file.

vim CMakeLists.txt

-FILES ipmi.conf network-components.conf operating-system.conf virtualization.conf vmware.conf
+FILES ipmi.conf network-components.conf operating-system.conf printer.conf virtualization.conf vmware.conf

Add the newly created file to your git commit.

git add printer.conf

Do not commit it yet but finish with the documentation.

Create CheckCommand Documentation

Edit the documentation file in the doc/ directory. More details on documentation updates can be found here.

vim doc/7-icinga-template-library.md

The CheckCommand documentation should be located in the same chapter similar to the configuration file you have just added/modified.

Create a section for your plugin, add a description and a table of parameters. Each parameter should have at least:

• optional or required
• description of its purpose
• the default value, if any

Look at the existing documentation and "copy" the same style and layout.

Send a Patch

Commit your changes which includes a descriptive commit message.

git commit -av
Add printer CheckCommand definition

Explain its purpose and possible enhancements/shortcomings.

refs #existingticketnumberifany

Push the branch to the remote origin and create a pull request.

git push --set-upstream origin feature/itl-check-printer
hub pull-request

In case developers ask for changes during review, please add them to the branch and push those changes.