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Files and directories

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: filecheck

Overview

This collector monitors the existence, last modification time, and size of arbitrary files and directories on the system.

This collector is supported on all platforms.

This collector supports collecting metrics from multiple instances of this integration, including remote instances.

This collector requires the DAC_READ_SEARCH capability when monitoring files not normally accessible to the Netdata user, but it is set automatically during installation, so no manual configuration is needed.

Default Behavior

Auto-Detection

This integration doesn't support auto-detection.

Limits

The default configuration for this integration does not impose any limits on data collection.

Performance Impact

The default configuration for this integration is not expected to impose a significant performance impact on the system.

Metrics

Metrics grouped by scope.

The scope defines the instance that the metric belongs to. An instance is uniquely identified by a set of labels.

Per file

These metrics refer to the File.

Labels:

LabelDescription
file_pathFile absolute path

Metrics:

MetricDimensionsUnit
filecheck.file_existence_statusexist, not_existstatus
filecheck.file_modification_time_agomtime_agoseconds
filecheck.file_size_bytessizebytes

Per directory

These metrics refer to the Directory.

Labels:

LabelDescription
dir_pathDirectory absolute path

Metrics:

MetricDimensionsUnit
filecheck.dir_existence_statusexist, not_existstatus
filecheck.dir_modification_time_agomtime_agoseconds
filecheck.dir_size_bytessizebytes
filecheck.dir_files countfilesfiles

Alerts

There are no alerts configured by default for this integration.

Setup

Prerequisites

No action required.

Configuration

File

The configuration file name for this integration is go.d/filecheck.conf.

You can edit the configuration file using the edit-config script from the Netdata config directory.

cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config go.d/filecheck.conf

Options

The following options can be defined globally: update_every, autodetection_retry.

Config options
NameDescriptionDefaultRequired
update_everyData collection frequency.10no
autodetection_retryRecheck interval in seconds. Zero means no recheck will be scheduled.0no
filesList of files to monitor.yes
dirsList of directories to monitor.yes
discovery_everyFiles and directories discovery interval.60no
files

Files matching the selector will be monitored.

files:
includes:
- pattern1
- pattern2
excludes:
- pattern3
- pattern4
dirs

Directories matching the selector will be monitored.

dirs:
includes:
- pattern1
- pattern2
excludes:
- pattern3
- pattern4

Examples

Files

Files monitoring example configuration.

Config
jobs:
- name: files_example
files:
include:
- '/path/to/file1'
- '/path/to/file2'
- '/path/to/*.log'

Directories

Directories monitoring example configuration.

Config
jobs:
- name: files_example
dirs:
collect_dir_size: no
include:
- '/path/to/dir1'
- '/path/to/dir2'
- '/path/to/dir3*'

Troubleshooting

Debug Mode

Important: Debug mode is not supported for data collection jobs created via the UI using the Dyncfg feature.

To troubleshoot issues with the filecheck collector, run the go.d.plugin with the debug option enabled. The output should give you clues as to why the collector isn't working.

  • Navigate to the plugins.d directory, usually at /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/. If that's not the case on your system, open netdata.conf and look for the plugins setting under [directories].

    cd /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/
  • Switch to the netdata user.

    sudo -u netdata -s
  • Run the go.d.plugin to debug the collector:

    ./go.d.plugin -d -m filecheck

Getting Logs

If you're encountering problems with the filecheck collector, follow these steps to retrieve logs and identify potential issues:

  • Run the command specific to your system (systemd, non-systemd, or Docker container).
  • Examine the output for any warnings or error messages that might indicate issues. These messages should provide clues about the root cause of the problem.

System with systemd

Use the following command to view logs generated since the last Netdata service restart:

journalctl _SYSTEMD_INVOCATION_ID="$(systemctl show --value --property=InvocationID netdata)" --namespace=netdata --grep filecheck

System without systemd

Locate the collector log file, typically at /var/log/netdata/collector.log, and use grep to filter for collector's name:

grep filecheck /var/log/netdata/collector.log

Note: This method shows logs from all restarts. Focus on the latest entries for troubleshooting current issues.

Docker Container

If your Netdata runs in a Docker container named "netdata" (replace if different), use this command:

docker logs netdata 2>&1 | grep filecheck

Do you have any feedback for this page? If so, you can open a new issue on our netdata/learn repository.