System Files Disappear

In this example, we report if important system files disappear, or their file sizes shrink to zero.

The SystemFileNotExist script might send an alert message like the following:

                                PIKT ALERT
                         Mon Feb 25 12:06:05 2002
                                  milan

EMERGENCY:
    SystemFileNotExist
        Report if system files have disappeared, or been zeroed out

        /etc/group not found!

SystemFileNotExist makes reference to the =files_system_obj macro, which resolves to the name of the FilesSystem.obj file.  The script follows.

SystemFileNotExist

        init
                status =piktstatus
                level =piktlevel
                task "Report if system files have disappeared, or been zeroed out
                input file "=files_system_obj"
                filter "=egrep -iv 'pikt'"      // check PIKT files elsewhere
                dat $name 1
                keys $name

        rule
                if -e $name     // file exists
                        if -z $name     // file is zero length
                                set $state = "0"
                                if $state ne %state
                                        =daily(output mail "$name zero bytes!", )
                                endif
                        else
                                set $state = "+"
                        endif
                else            // file does not exist
                        set $state = "-"
                        if $state ne %state
                                =daily(output mail "$name not found!", )
                        endif
                endif

This is just one program example.  You could add rules, or write new scripts, for example to:  report system files that you don't want (such as startup files), report changes in modification times or link counts, report outdated files that should be updating regularly, report and possibly also rm core files, etc.

For more examples, see Samples.