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:

Label	Description
file_path	File absolute path

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
filecheck.file_existence_status	exist, not_exist	status
filecheck.file_modification_time_ago	mtime_ago	seconds
filecheck.file_size_bytes	size	bytes

Per directory

These metrics refer to the Directory.

Labels:

Label	Description
dir_path	Directory absolute path

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
filecheck.dir_existence_status	exist, not_exist	status
filecheck.dir_modification_time_ago	mtime_ago	seconds
filecheck.dir_size_bytes	size	bytes
filecheck.dir_files count	files	files

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

Name	Description	Default	Required
update_every	Data collection frequency.	10	no
autodetection_retry	Recheck interval in seconds. Zero means no recheck will be scheduled.	0	no
files	List of files to monitor.		yes
dirs	List of directories to monitor.		yes
discovery_every	Files and directories discovery interval.	60	no

files

Files matching the selector will be monitored.

• Logic: (pattern1 OR pattern2) AND !(pattern3 or pattern4)
• Pattern syntax: shell file name pattern
• Syntax:

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

dirs

Directories matching the selector will be monitored.

• Logic: (pattern1 OR pattern2) AND !(pattern3 or pattern4)
• Pattern syntax: shell file name pattern
• Syntax:

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