nagios-plugins/check_pkgkit/README.md

About

This Nagios plugin checks for available updates using PackageKit http://packagekit.org/ on Linux systems

Draft

The implementation isn't finished yet.

Why a new plugin?

There are already plugins out there like check_yum and check_apt which do check for updates but they are distribution specific. The main drivers are:

• Can run unprivileged, for instance the nrpe user
• No sudo/selinux problems
• Non distribution specific, works on debian, ubuntu, fedora, centos, rhel...

Usage

Critical on all security type updates

$ check_pkgkit --no-longoutput --th "metric=security,critical=1..inf"
Critical - Total: 67, Security: 15, Bug fix: 48, Enhancement: 0, Normal: 4. Critical on security | 'total'=67;;;; 'security'=15;;1..inf;; 'bug fix'=48;;;; 'normal'=4;;;;

Critical on all security type updates and warning on many total updates

$ python check_pkgkit --no-longoutput --th "metric=security,critical=1..inf" --th "metric=total,warning=40..inf"
Critical - Total: 67, Security: 15, Bug fix: 48, Enhancement: 0, Normal: 4. Critical on security. Warning on total | 'total'=67;40..inf;;; 'security'=15;;1..inf;; 'bug fix'=48;;;; 'normal'=4;;;;

Caveats

• PackageKit does draw in quite a few packages with it.
• Does not work on older distros, like centos/rhel 5.

Dependencies

• pynag-0.4.7+
• Known to work with PackageKit 0.7.6 or later

Install

• Install pynag (available through your favorite package manager)
• Install PackageKit (packagekit in Debian)

wget https://raw.github.com/opinkerfi/nagios-plugins/master/check_pkgkit/check_pkgkit

Room for improvement

The plugin executes pkcon instead of using the API directly. I actually gave the API a whirl via "from gi.repository import PackageKitGlib as packagekit" but the documentation was very lacking so I ended up with pkcon.

License

GPLv3 or newer, see LICENSE-GPL3 in the root of the project