[Bug]: Runing netdata plugin from nested directory uses wrong config dir

[rhoriguchi]

Bug description

When running netdata plugin from /nix/store/65d3bnd96b0s5jynnxbrj5py3f44k4b3-netdata-1.45.0/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/go.d.plugin it causes the config location to be wrong.

> sudo -u netdata /nix/store/65d3bnd96b0s5jynnxbrj5py3f44k4b3-netdata-1.45.0/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/go.d.plugin -d -m windows
DBG godplugin/main.go:145 plugin: name=go.d, version=1.45.0.0 component=agent
DBG godplugin/main.go:147 current user: name=netdata, uid=991 component=agent
INF godplugin/main.go:151 env HTTP_PROXY '', HTTPS_PROXY '' component=agent
INF agent/agent.go:145 instance is started component=agent
INF agent/setup.go:23 loading config file component=agent
DBG agent/setup.go:31 looking for 'go.d.conf' in [/nix/store/etc/netdata /nix/store/usr/lib/netdata/conf.d] component=agent
WRN agent/setup.go:35 couldn't find config, will use defaults component=agent
INF agent/agent.go:149 using config: enabled 'true', default_run 'true', max_procs '0' component=agent
INF agent/setup.go:50 loading modules component=agent
INF agent/setup.go:73 enabled/registered modules: 1/77 component=agent
INF agent/setup.go:79 building discovery config component=agent
DBG agent/setup.go:114 looking for 'wmi.conf' in [/nix/store/etc/netdata/go.d /nix/store/usr/lib/netdata/conf.d/go.d] component=agent
DBG agent/setup.go:126 looking for 'windows.conf' in [/nix/store/etc/netdata/go.d /nix/store/usr/lib/netdata/conf.d/go.d] component=agent
INF agent/setup.go:139 couldn't find 'windows' module config, will use default config component=agent
INF agent/setup.go:147 dummy/read/watch paths: 1/0/0 component=agent
INF discovery/manager.go:116 registered discoverers: [dummy discovery service discovery] component="discovery manager"
DBG agent/setup.go:165 looking for 'vnodes/' in [/nix/store/etc/netdata /nix/store/usr/lib/netdata/conf.d] component=agent
INF discovery/manager.go:61 instance is started component="discovery manager"
INF sd/sd.go:66 instance is started component="service discovery"
INF functions/manager.go:50 instance is started component="functions manager"
INF jobmgr/manager.go:87 instance is started component="job manager"
INF dummy/discovery.go:45 instance is started component=discovery discoverer=dummy
DBG functions/ext.go:15 registering function 'config' component="functions manager"
INF dummy/discovery.go:46 instance is stopped component=discovery discoverer=dummy
CONFIG go.d:collector:windows create accepted template /collectors/jobs internal 'internal' 'add schema enable disable test' 0x0000 0x0000

DBG jobmgr/manager.go:122 received configs: 1/+1/-0 ('internal') component="job manager"
CONFIG go.d:collector:windows:windows create accepted job /collectors/jobs stock 'internal' 'schema get enable disable update restart test' 0x0000 0x0000

DBG jobmgr/manager.go:293 creating windows[windows] job, config: map[__provider__:dummy __source__:internal __source_type__:stock autodetection_retry:0 module:windows name:windows priority:70000 update_every:5] component="job manager"
ERR windows/windows.go:123 config validation: 'url' is not set collector=windows job=windows
ERR module/job.go:231 init failed collector=windows job=windows
CONFIG go.d:collector:windows:windows delete

^CINF agent/agent.go:113 received interrupt signal (2). Terminating... component=agent
INF functions/manager.go:51 instance is stopped component="functions manager"
INF discovery/manager.go:62 instance is stopped component="discovery manager"
INF jobmgr/manager.go:88 instance is stopped component="job manager"
INF agent/agent.go:146 instance is stopped component=agent

Expected behavior

Also search /etc/netdata.

Steps to reproduce

1. Copy netdata binary directory to some none default location e. g.

dir="$(mktemp -d)/some/random/directory"
mkdir -p "$dir"
echo "$dir"

2. Run any plugin that requires config files

Installation method

other

System info

> uname -a; grep -HvE "^#|URL" /etc/*release
/etc/lsb-release:DISTRIB_CODENAME=uakari
/etc/lsb-release:DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="NixOS 24.05 (Uakari)"
/etc/lsb-release:DISTRIB_ID=nixos
/etc/lsb-release:DISTRIB_RELEASE="24.05"
/etc/lsb-release:LSB_VERSION="24.05 (Uakari)"
/etc/os-release:ANSI_COLOR="1;34"
/etc/os-release:BUILD_ID="24.05.20240509.f1010e0"
/etc/os-release:ID=nixos
/etc/os-release:IMAGE_ID=""
/etc/os-release:IMAGE_VERSION=""
/etc/os-release:LOGO="nix-snowflake"
/etc/os-release:NAME=NixOS
/etc/os-release:PRETTY_NAME="NixOS 24.05 (Uakari)"
/etc/os-release:VERSION="24.05 (Uakari)"
/etc/os-release:VERSION_CODENAME=uakari
/etc/os-release:VERSION_ID="24.05"

Netdata build info

> /nix/store/65d3bnd96b0s5jynnxbrj5py3f44k4b3-netdata-1.45.0/bin/netdata -W buildinfo
Packaging:
    Netdata Version ____________________________________________ : v1.45.0
    Installation Type __________________________________________ : unknown
    Package Architecture _______________________________________ : unknown
    Package Distro _____________________________________________ : unknown
    Configure Options __________________________________________ : dummy-configure-command
Default Directories:
    User Configurations ________________________________________ : /etc/netdata
    Stock Configurations _______________________________________ : /nix/store/65d3bnd96b0s5jynnxbrj5py3f44k4b3-netdata-1.45.0/share/netdata/conf.d
    Ephemeral Databases (metrics data, metadata) _______________ : /var/cache/netdata
    Permanent Databases ________________________________________ : /var/lib/netdata
    Plugins ____________________________________________________ : /nix/store/65d3bnd96b0s5jynnxbrj5py3f44k4b3-netdata-1.45.0/libexec/netdata/plugins.d
    Static Web Files ___________________________________________ : /nix/store/65d3bnd96b0s5jynnxbrj5py3f44k4b3-netdata-1.45.0/share/netdata/web
    Log Files __________________________________________________ : /var/log/netdata
    Lock Files _________________________________________________ : /var/lib/netdata/lock
    Home _______________________________________________________ : /var/lib/netdata
Operating System:
    Kernel _____________________________________________________ : Linux
    Kernel Version _____________________________________________ : 6.8.9
    Operating System ___________________________________________ : NixOS
    Operating System ID ________________________________________ : nixos
    Operating System ID Like ___________________________________ : unknown
    Operating System Version ___________________________________ : 24.05 (Uakari)
    Operating System Version ID ________________________________ : none
    Detection __________________________________________________ : /etc/os-release
Hardware:
    CPU Cores __________________________________________________ : 16
    CPU Frequency ______________________________________________ : 4463000000
    RAM Bytes __________________________________________________ : 32984788992
    Disk Capacity ______________________________________________ : 1024209543168
    CPU Architecture ___________________________________________ : x86_64
    Virtualization Technology __________________________________ : none
    Virtualization Detection ___________________________________ : systemd-detect-virt
Container:
    Container __________________________________________________ : none
    Container Detection ________________________________________ : systemd-detect-virt
    Container Orchestrator _____________________________________ : none
    Container Operating System _________________________________ : none
    Container Operating System ID ______________________________ : none
    Container Operating System ID Like _________________________ : none
    Container Operating System Version _________________________ : none
    Container Operating System Version ID ______________________ : none
    Container Operating System Detection _______________________ : none
Features:
    Built For __________________________________________________ : Linux
    Netdata Cloud ______________________________________________ : NO (unavailable)
    Health (trigger alerts and send notifications) _____________ : YES
    Streaming (stream metrics to parent Netdata servers) _______ : YES
    Back-filling (of higher database tiers) ____________________ : YES
    Replication (fill the gaps of parent Netdata servers) ______ : YES
    Streaming and Replication Compression ______________________ : YES (zstd lz4 gzip brotli)
    Contexts (index all active and archived metrics) ___________ : YES
    Tiering (multiple dbs with different metrics resolution) ___ : YES (5)
    Machine Learning ___________________________________________ : YES
Database Engines:
    dbengine ___________________________________________________ : YES
    alloc ______________________________________________________ : YES
    ram ________________________________________________________ : YES
    none _______________________________________________________ : YES
Connectivity Capabilities:
    ACLK (Agent-Cloud Link: MQTT over WebSockets over TLS) _____ : NO
    static (Netdata internal web server) _______________________ : YES
    h2o (web server) ___________________________________________ : YES
    WebRTC (experimental) ______________________________________ : NO
    Native HTTPS (TLS Support) _________________________________ : YES
    TLS Host Verification ______________________________________ : YES
Libraries:
    LZ4 (extremely fast lossless compression algorithm) ________ : YES
    ZSTD (fast, lossless compression algorithm) ________________ : YES
    zlib (lossless data-compression library) ___________________ : YES
    Brotli (generic-purpose lossless compression algorithm) ____ : YES
    protobuf (platform-neutral data serialization protocol) ____ : NO
    OpenSSL (cryptography) _____________________________________ : YES
    libdatachannel (stand-alone WebRTC data channels) __________ : NO
    JSON-C (lightweight JSON manipulation) _____________________ : YES
    libcap (Linux capabilities system operations) ______________ : YES
    libcrypto (cryptographic functions) ________________________ : YES
    libyaml (library for parsing and emitting YAML) ____________ : YES
Plugins:
    apps (monitor processes) ___________________________________ : YES
    cgroups (monitor containers and VMs) _______________________ : YES
    cgroup-network (associate interfaces to CGROUPS) ___________ : YES
    proc (monitor Linux systems) _______________________________ : YES
    tc (monitor Linux network QoS) _____________________________ : YES
    diskspace (monitor Linux mount points) _____________________ : YES
    freebsd (monitor FreeBSD systems) __________________________ : NO
    macos (monitor MacOS systems) ______________________________ : NO
    statsd (collect custom application metrics) ________________ : YES
    timex (check system clock synchronization) _________________ : YES
    idlejitter (check system latency and jitter) _______________ : YES
    bash (support shell data collection jobs - charts.d) _______ : YES
    debugfs (kernel debugging metrics) _________________________ : YES
    cups (monitor printers and print jobs) _____________________ : NO
    ebpf (monitor system calls) ________________________________ : NO
    freeipmi (monitor enterprise server H/W) ___________________ : YES
    nfacct (gather netfilter accounting) _______________________ : YES
    perf (collect kernel performance events) ___________________ : YES
    slabinfo (monitor kernel object caching) ___________________ : YES
    Xen ________________________________________________________ : NO
    Xen VBD Error Tracking _____________________________________ : NO
    Logs Management ____________________________________________ : YES
Exporters:
    AWS Kinesis ________________________________________________ : NO
    GCP PubSub _________________________________________________ : NO
    MongoDB ____________________________________________________ : NO
    Prometheus (OpenMetrics) Exporter __________________________ : YES
    Prometheus Remote Write ____________________________________ : NO
    Graphite ___________________________________________________ : YES
    Graphite HTTP / HTTPS ______________________________________ : YES
    JSON _______________________________________________________ : YES
    JSON HTTP / HTTPS __________________________________________ : YES
    OpenTSDB ___________________________________________________ : YES
    OpenTSDB HTTP / HTTPS ______________________________________ : YES
    All Metrics API ____________________________________________ : YES
    Shell (use metrics in shell scripts) _______________________ : YES
Debug/Developer Features:
    Trace All Netdata Allocations (with charts) ________________ : NO
    Developer Mode (more runtime checks, slower) _______________ : NO

Additional info

netdata/src/go/collectors/go.d.plugin/cmd/godplugin/main.go

Lines 48 to 56 in d42b9c6

	if executable.Directory != "" {
	return multipath.New(
	filepath.Join(executable.Directory, "/../../../../etc/netdata"),
	filepath.Join(executable.Directory, "/../../../../usr/lib/netdata/conf.d"),
	)
	}
	return multipath.New(
	filepath.Join(cd, "/../../../../etc/netdata"),
	filepath.Join(cd, "/../../../../usr/lib/netdata/conf.d"),

netdata/src/go/collectors/go.d.plugin/cmd/godplugin/main.go

Lines 73 to 81 in d42b9c6

	if executable.Directory != "" {
	return multipath.New(
	filepath.Join(executable.Directory, "/../../../../etc/netdata", name),
	filepath.Join(executable.Directory, "/../../../../usr/lib/netdata/conf.d", name),
	)
	}
	return multipath.New(
	filepath.Join(cd, "/../../../../etc/netdata", name),
	filepath.Join(cd, "/../../../../usr/lib/netdata/conf.d", name),

[ilyam8]

@rhoriguchi hey. This is expected behavior, so it's more of a feature request than a bug. Implemented in #17661.