## <a id="using-templates"></a> Using Templates

Templates may be used to apply a set of similar settings to more than one
object.

For example, rather than manually creating a `ping` service object for each of
your hosts you can use templates to avoid having to copy & paste parts of your
configuration:

    template Service "generic-service" {
      max_check_attempts = 3,
      check_interval = 5m,
      retry_interval = 1m,
      enable_perfdata = true
    }

    apply Service "ping4" {
      import "generic-service",
      check_command = "ping4",
      assign where host.macros.address
    }

    apply Service "ping6" {
      import "generic-service",
      check_command = "ping6",
      assign where host.macros.address6
    }

In this example both `ping4` and `ping6` services inherit properties from the
template `generic-service`.

Objects as well as templates themselves can import an arbitrary number of
templates. Attributes inherited from a template can be overridden in the
object if necessary.