Host alias on retention data file

[Ricardo Maraschini]

Hello,

I'm facing a little problem here and maybe you could help me clarify my mind.
Let's suppose i've configured a host called 'linux0' with an 'alias' 'my linux server' and after a few days i resolve to change the alias for the same host for, let's say, 'my linux server 2'.

I've noticed that the macro $HOSTALIAS$ keeps pointing me to the old alias('my linux server') after Nagios restart, disregarding my change.
I take a look on the source code and i saw that the alias is stored to and restored from retention.dat file when I restart my Nagios daemon, thus overwriting my configuration file changed alias. Is that the desired behaviour?
When is the macro $HOSTALIAS$ will be set to 'my linux server 2' ?

I saw that we have a configuration variable called retained_host_attribute_mask, and according to documentation, i need to look at includes/common.h to be able to avoid a specific var to be stored at retention.dat. 
But in includes/common.h I only could find defines for status related variables, none related to alias.

I could prevent the overwrite of 'alias' variable editing the source code, more specificaly on xdata/xrddefault.c line 1204, but i think that i'm probably missing something here.

Any thoughts?

--
Ricardo José Maraschini
OpServices Tecnologia da Informação
Your IT under control

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