snmp_config  -  describes  how  to  configure the ucd-snmp
       applications.


DESCRIPTION

       The ucd-snmp package uses various configuration  files  to
       configure  its  applications.   This  manual  page  merely
       describes the overall nature of them, so  that  the  other
       manual pages don't have to.


DIRECTORIES SEARCHED

       First  off,  there  are numerous places that configuration
       files can be found and read from.  By default, the  appli­
       cations  look  for  configuration files in the following 3
       directories,  in  order:  /etc/snmp,  /usr/lib/snmp,   and
       $HOME/.snmp.   In  each of these directories, it looks for
       files with the extension of both .conf and default  places
       a configuration file can exist for any given configuration
       file type.

       Additionally, the above default search path can  be  over­
       ridden by setting the environment variable SNMPCONFPATH to
       a ':' separated list of directories to search for.

       Finally, applications that store persistent data will also
       look  in  the  /var/snmp directory for configuration files
       there.


CONFIGURATION FILE TYPES

       Each application may  use  multiple  configuration  files,
       which  will  configure  various  different  aspects of the
       application.  For instance, the SNMP agent  (snmpd)  knows
       how  to  understand  configuration  directives in both the
       snmpd.conf and the snmp.conf files.  In fact, most  appli­
       cations  understand  how  to  read  the  contents  of  the
       snmp.conf files.  Note, however, that configuration direc­
       tives  understood  in  one  file  may not be understood in
       another file.  For further information, read  the  associ­
       ated manual page with each configuration file type.  Also,
       most of the applications support a '-H' switch on the com­
       mand  line  that will list the configuration files it will
       look for and the directives in each  one  that  it  under­
       stands.

       The  snmp.conf  configuration  file  is  intended  to be a
       application suite wide configuration  file  that  supports
       directives that are useful for controlling the fundamental
       nature of all of the snmp applications, such as  how  they
       all manipulate and parse the textual SNMP mib files.


SWITCHING CONFIGURATION TYPES IN MID-FILE

       It's possible to switch in mid-file the configuration type
       that the parser is supposed to  be  reading.   Since  that
       sentence  doesn't  make  much  sense,  lets  give  you  an

       output for the agent by default, but you didn't want to do
       that for the rest of the applications (ie, snmpget,  snmp­
       walk, you'd need to put a line like:

              dumpPacket true

       into  the  snmp.conf file.  But, this would turn it on for
       all of the applications.  So, instead,  you  can  put  the
       same  line  in the snmpd.conf file so that it only applies
       to the snmpd demon.  However, you need to tell the  parser
       to  expect  this  line.   You do this by putting a special
       type specification token inside a [] set.  In other words,
       inside  your  snmpd.conf  file  you  could  put  the above
       snmp.conf directive by adding a line like so:

              [snmp] dumpPacket true

       This tells the parser to parse the above  line  as  if  it
       were  inside  a  snmp.conf  file  instead of an snmpd.conf
       file.  If you want to parse a bunch of lines  rather  than
       just one then you can make the context switch apply to the
       remainder of the file or until  the  next  context  switch
       directive  by  putting  the  special  token  on  a line by
       itself:

              # make this file handle snmp.conf tokens:
              [snmp]
              dumpPacket true
              logTimestamp true
              # return to our original snmpd.conf tokens:
              [snmpd]
              rocommunity mypublic


COMMENTS

       Any lines beginning with the character '#' in the configu­
       ration  files are treated as a comment and are not parsed.


API INTERFACE

       Information about writing C code that makes  use  of  this
       system  in  either  the agent's mib modules or in applica­
       tions can be found in the read_config(3) manual page.


SEE ALSO

       read_config(3).


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