PROTOCOLS.CFG(5)

💖 PROTOCOLS.CFG(5) 💖

okay bestie, so this is a File Formats Manual page for protocols.cfg, and it's genuinely one of my faves, no cap.

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✨ NAME ✨

protocols.cfg — the configuration file for TCP network services, like the little instruction booklet for how we test stuff over the network 💅

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

$XYMONHOME/etc/protocols.cfg

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so protocols.cfg is where you keep all the definitions of how xymonnet(1) should test a TCP-based network service — and by "all common network services" we mean literally everything except HTTP and DNS, those two have their own thing going on 🙈

for each service you can write out a cute little dialogue to check that it's actually functioning normally, and then there are optional flags that decide stuff like: does this service have a banner? does it need SSL handshaking? telnet-style handshaking? the vibe check of it all ✨

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🎀 FILE FORMAT 🎀

it's a text file, bestie. a simple service definition for the SMTP service looks like this:

[smtp]
   send "mail\r\nquit\r\n"
   expect "220"
   options banner

so this defines a service called "smtp". the moment the connection is first established, xymonnet sends the string "mail\r\nquit\r\n" to the service. then it expects a response that begins with "220". and any data the service sends back — the so-called "banner" — gets recorded and included in the status message. obsessed 🫶

the full set of commands you can use in the protocols.cfg file is:

• [NAME] — defines the name of the TCP service, and lowkey that name becomes the column-name in the display on the test status too. if multiple tests share a common definition (like ssh, ssh1 and ssh2 are all tested identically), you can list them all in one "[ssh|ssh1|ssh2]" definition, separating each service-name with a pipe-sign. periodt.
• send STRING — yes bestie this one comes as a pair with the next one 👇
• expect STRING — these two define the strings to send to the service after a connection is established, and the response that's expected. either of them can be omitted, and if you do that, xymonnet(1) will simply not send any data, or it'll match a response against literally anything. the send- and expect-strings use standard escaping for non-printable characters, so:
  • "\r" represents a carriage-return (ASCII 13)
  • "\n" represents a line-feed (ASCII 10)
  • "\t" represents a TAB (ASCII 8)
  • binary data is input as "\xNN" with NN being the hexadecimal value of the byte 💀
• port NUMBER — defines the default TCP port-number for this service. if no portnumber is defined, xymonnet(1) will attempt to look the portnumber up in the standard /etc/services file. she's resourceful like that 💅
• options option1[,option2][,option3] — defines test options. the possible options are:
  • banner — include received data in the status message
  • ssl — service uses SSL so perform an SSL handshake
  • telnet — service is telnet, so exchange telnet options

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🧚 FILES 🧚

• $XYMONHOME/etc/protocols.cfg

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

• xymonnet(1)

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and that's the whole page, bestie 🌈 this was Xymon, Version 4.3.30: 4 Sep 2019 — go forth and define your protocols, main character energy only 👑✨