improved documentation about the volume parameter (#681)

docs/configuration.md

@@ -17,8 +17,7 @@ The following are common parameters which it is possible to specify in the confi
 |logging.useUTC| If set to true, logs will be reported in UTC time. Is set to false or missing, the timezone of the machine will be used. This parameter affects only the timestamp reported at the beginning of each log entry, it doesn't affect the time reported in the data/alerts which is always in UTC.  | A boolean | true | No |
 |checkForUpdatesAtBoot| Indicates if at each booth the application should check for updates. If an update is available, a notification will be sent to the default group. If you restart the process often (e.g., debugging, experimenting etc.) set this to false to avoid notifications. Anyway, BGPalerter checks for updates every 10 days.| A boolean | true | Yes |
 |processMonitors| A list of modules allowing various ways to check for the status of BGPalerter (e.g., API, heartbeat). See [here](process-monitors.md) for more information. | | | No | 
-|httpProxy| Defines the HTTP/HTTPS proxy server to be used by BGPalerter and its submodules (reporters/connectors/monitors). See [here](http-proxy.md) for more information. | A string | http://usr:psw@ prxy.org:8080 | No | 
-|volume| Defines a directory that will contain the data that needs persistence. For example, configuration files and logs will be created in such directory (default to "./"). | A string | /home/bgpalerter/ | No | 
+|httpProxy| Defines the HTTP/HTTPS proxy server to be used by BGPalerter and its submodules (reporters/connectors/monitors). See [here](http-proxy.md) for more information. | A string | http://usr:psw@ prxy.org:8080 | No |
 |persistStatus| If set to true, when BGPalerter is restarted the list of alerts already sent is recovered. This avoids duplicated alerts. The process must be able to write on disc inside `.cache/`. | A boolean | true | No |
 |generatePrefixListEveryDays| This parameter allows to automatically re-generate the prefix list after the specified amount of days. Set to 0 to disable it. It works only if you have one prefix list file and if you have used BGPalerter to automatically generate the file (and not if you edited prefixes.yml manually). | An integer | 0 | No |
 |rpki| A dictionary containing the RPKI configuration (see [here](rpki.md) for more details). |  |  | Yes |
@@ -38,6 +37,7 @@ The following are advanced parameters, please don't touch them if you are not do
 |multiProcess| If set to true, the processing of the BGP messages will be distributed on two processes. This may be useful for research measurements on the entire address space. It is discouraged to set this to true for normal production monitoring. | A boolean | false | No | 
 |fadeOffSeconds| If an alert is generated but cannot be yet squashed (e.g., not reached yet the `thresholdMinPeers`), it is inserted in a temporary list which is garbage collected after the amount of seconds expressed in `fadeOffSeconds`. Due to BGP propagation times, values below 5 minutes can result in false negatives.| An integer | 360 | No | 
 |checkFadeOffGroupsSeconds| Amount of seconds after which the process checks for fading off alerts. | An integer | 30 | No | 
+|volume| Defines a directory that will contain all the files used by BGPalerter. See [here](installation.md#volume) before modifying this. | A string | /home/bgpalerter/ | No | 
 
 
 

docs/http-proxy.md

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ This will enable the proxy globally on all HTTP/HTTPS/WebSocket traffic generate
 
 While the global configuration will send all requests to the proxy, you can specify which modules are able to bypass the proxy.
 This is useful for example if you want to not proxy requests to internal apps or networks. 
-This can be set per module (i.e reporter/connector/monitor) by adding the `noProxy: true` parameter to the desired module(s) in `config.yml`.
+This can be set per module (i.e., reporter/connector/monitor) by adding the `noProxy: true` parameter to the desired module(s) in `config.yml`.
 For instance, the configuration below allows you to bypass your proxy server for your traffic towards an Alerta dashboard.
 
 

docs/installation.md

@@ -128,7 +128,10 @@ The execution of BGPalerter supports some parameters
 | -v | Show version number |
 | -h | Show help |
 | -c | To specify the config file to load (default `./config.yml`) |
-| -d | To specify a directory where configuration and data is persisted (see [volume](configuration.md)). |
+| -d | To specify a directory that will contain all the files used by BGPalerter. See [here](installation.md#volume) before modifying this.|
 | -t | To test the configuration by generating fake BGP updates. This will start sending alerts on all the reports listening the `hijack` channel. |
 
 You can also use the same parameters with npm (if you are running the source code), in the following format `npm run serve -- --h` (replace `h` with the parameter you need).
+
+### Volume
+BGPalerter writes/reads some files on disk (e.g., logs). The positions of these files is set in `config.yml`, where both absolute and relative paths can be used. However, the `volume` parameter can be used to modify this behavior and confine BGPalerter to a specific directory. This is mostly useful in two occasions: (1) when you want to create "virtual environments", e.g., you want to have a single installation of BGPalerter running multiple instances each operating confined in a different directory; or (2) when you are using docker and you want to create a persistent volume (see above).