Nagios Support Forum

Posted: **Tue Aug 06, 2019 6:25 am**

Can someone please help explain the %b portion of the printf command in the default notification command definitions? Is it just to allow \n to produce new lines in the construction of an email? I want to build an additional notification command that is simplified for SMS messaging (so will all be on a single line) and wondering if I need to keep the %b, replace it with something else or just drop it?

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define command{
        command_name    notify-host-by-sms
        command_line    /usr/bin/printf "%b" "$NOTIFICATIONTYPE$ ALERT: $HOSTALIAS$ is $HOSTSTATE$ ($SHORTDATETIME$)" | /usr/bin/sendemail -f $USER9$ -t $CONTACTEMAIL$ -s "mail.server.com:587" -o tls=yes -xu $USER9$ -xp $USER10$ -l /var/log/sendemail.log
        }

Posted: **Tue Aug 06, 2019 7:42 am**

From the man page for printf:

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       %b     ARGUMENT as a string with '\' escapes interpreted, except that octal escapes are of the form \0 or \0NNN

One could argue that this is so you can pass in arbitrary "blobs" (hence, "b") of data that don't get interpreted as further \-codes. So, basically, you're half right. This is so the macros that Nagios passes in, which may have weird stuff in them, get printed out properly instead of interpreted by the printf itself.

Posted: **Tue Aug 06, 2019 7:48 am**

Okay, brilliant; thanks for your help

Posted: **Tue Aug 06, 2019 9:49 am**

Glad to hear it's working! Also, thanks, Eric!

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printf "%b" in notification command definition

printf "%b" in notification command definition

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Re: printf "%b" in notification command definition

Re: printf "%b" in notification command definition