PurpleDome/doc/source/extending/sensor_plugins.rst

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Sensor plugins
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To experiment with different senors installed on the targets there is the sensor plugin. It contains a plugin class that **MUST** be based on the *SensorPlugin* class.

Usage
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To create a new plugin, start a sub-folder in plugins. The python file in there must contain a class that inherits from *SensorPlugin*.

If the plugin is activated for a specific machine specific methods will be called to interact with the target:

* prime: Easrly installation steps, can trigger a reboot of the machine by returning True
* install: Normal, simple installation. No reboot
* start: Start the sensor
* stop: Stop the sensor
* collect: Collect results

Boilerplate
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The boilerplate contains some basics:

* name: a unique name, also used in the config yaml file to reference this plugin
* description. A human readable description for this plugin.
* required_files: A list. If you ship files with your plugin, listing them here will cause them to be installed on plugin init by creating a copy in the share.

Additionally you can set *self.debugit* to True. This will run the sensor on execution in gdb and make the call blocking. So you can debug your sensor.



The plugin class
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.. autoclass:: plugins.base.sensor.SensorPlugin
   :members: