Re: icmp failure, but no exec?

[Mike Jackson]

> > After 5 unsuccessful pings cycles, it did nothing. It never exec'ed  the 
> > listed command, nor did it give any indication why it didn't -  no errors 
> > or anything. Help?
>
> I think the problem may be with the exec command. You cannot use a  shell 
> script syntax here. If you want to write a shell-script you  must start a 
> shell and pass it the commands, like so:
>
> exec "/bin/bash -c '/usr/local/bin/monit unmonitor bigbrother-client;
> /usr/local/bin/monit unmonitor bigbrother-server;
> /usr/local/etc/rc.d/bigbrother.sh stop'" [1]
>
> The reason nothing apparently happened was that the exec command only 
> succeeded in unmonitoring since it takes the first part as the  command 
> and the rest as arguments to the command. (See man execv)

Thanks, wrapping it in a shell call worked. But, that raises another issue: 
It would be helpful if monit recorded exec'ing commands in the syslog.

> [1] Stuff like this would be much easier to write if we can call  other 
> service's action. That is, refer to other services in the  control file.

Yes, that would be very useful!

This arose because Big Brother runs from our office, which is on a cable 
modem connection. The power supply for the cable modem fell out of the wall 
one night, and BB generated over 4000 outgoing messages letting us know it 
couldn't connect to the outside world. When someone got into the office in 
the morning, they plugged in the modem, and my cell phone started going 
crazy with pages, since sendmail could now send them. I knew monit would be 
the ideal solution since it could disable monitorning the outside world if 
it couldn't ping out.