HP-UX Event ManagerProgrammer's Guide

Table 2-1 Standard Data Items (continued)
DescriptionData Item
Indicates the importance of the event to its subscribers. Does
not affect the order of event distribution.
Priority (Event Priority Data Item)
Specifies the name of the I18N catalog file for internationalized
events.
I18N catalog (I18N Catalog Name, Message Set ID,
and Message ID Data Items)
Identifies the message set within the I18N message catalog.I18N msgset ID (I18N Catalog Name, Message Set
ID, and Message ID Data Items)
Specifies the I18N message ID for the event format.I18N message ID (I18N Catalog Name, Message Set
ID, and Message ID Data Items)
Provides a reference to the event explanation text.Reference (Reference Data Item)
The following sections discuss the standard data items defined in Table 2-1.
Event Name Data Item
The event name data item is a character string that identifies an event, generally indicating the
origin and the reason for which the event was generated. An event name uniquely identifies a
particular type of event. Different instances of the same event have the same name.
EVM uses the event name to decide if a user is authorized to post or access a particular event,
and to find template information for the event. Client applications can use event names in
conjunction with an event filter to select the events that they want to receive, and to decide on
any action that they need to take when an event arrives. For more information about filters, see
“Using Event Filters” (page 35). The system administrator can use event names to search the
event logs for events that are of particular interest.
Following are the characteristics of an event name:
• A name is a series of one or more components, separated by dots.
• A component is made up of one or more letters, digits, and underscore characters, in any
order.
• There is no restriction on the number of components in a name.
• A name cannot begin or end with a dot.
An event cannot be posted unless it contains an event name with at least three components.
The components of an event name represent an event hierarchy, beginning with the first (left-most)
component. The first component is the most general and identifies at a global level, the entity
that is responsible for posting the event. The remaining components adds a further level of detail.
This detail includes the component that determine that an event must be posted, and information
about what happened. The last component provides the most specific information. For example,
in the event name sys.unix.fs.filesystem_full:
• sys.unix indicates that the event is a system event, posted by a component of the operating
system.
• fs indicates that the event is posted by the file system component.
• filesystem_full indicates that the incident being reported is that a file system is full.
A basic event name that indicates what happened can be extended when the event is posted, by
adding more components to give additional information. You can extend the preceding sample
event name with information about which file system is full by appending the name of the file
system as an extra component, for example, sys.unix.fs.filesystem_full.usr. Although
the name is extended, the event is still a sys.unix.fs.filesystem_full event because all
of the components of the shorter name match the extended name. A search for an event named
sys.unix.fs.filesystem_full still finds the event with the extended name.
The naming scheme provides an open-ended way to identify events, which enables you to provide
detail to any level. Careful naming helps subscribers to select specific events or event classes for
16 Event Manager Events