Config: Format Section

Some of the Fluentd plugins support the <format> section to specify how to format the record.

Format Section Overview

The format section can be under <match> or <filter> section.

<match tag.*>
  @type file
  # ...
  <format>
    # ...
  </format>
</match>

Formatter Plugin Type

The @type parameter of <format> section specifies the type of the formatter plugin. Fluentd core bundles some useful formatter plugins.

<format>
  @type json
</format>

Here's the list of built-in formatter plugins:

• out_file

• json

• ltsv

• csv

• msgpack

• hash

• single_value

Third-party plugins may also be installed and configured.

For more details, see plugins documentation.

Parameters

@type

The @type parameter specifies the type of the formatter plugin.

<format>
  @type csv
  # ...
</format>

Time Parameters

• time_type (enum) (optional): parses/formats value according to this

  type

  • Default: float

  • Available values: float, unixtime, string

    • float: seconds from Epoch + nano seconds (e.g.

      1510544836.154709804)

    • unixtime: seconds from Epoch (e.g. 1510544815)

    • string: use format specified by time_format, local time or time

      zone

• time_format (string) (optional): processes value according to the

  specified format. This is available only when time_type is string.

  • Default: nil

  • Available time format:

    • For more details about formatting, see

      Time#strftime.
    • For more details about parsing, see

      Time.strptime.
    • %iso8601 (only for parsing)

    • Use %N to parse/format with sub-second precision, because

      strptime does not support

      %3N, %6N, %9N, and %L.

• localtime (bool) (optional): if true, uses local time. Otherwise,

  UTC is used. This is exclusive with utc.

  • Default: true

• utc (bool) (optional): if true, uses UTC. Otherwise, local time is

  used. This is exclusive with localtime.

  • Default: false

• timezone (string) (optional): uses the specified timezone. One can

  parse/format the time value in the specified timezone format.

  • Default: nil

  • Available time zone format:

    1. [+-]HH:MM (e.g. "+09:00") (recommended)

    2. [+-]HHMM (e.g. "+0900")

    3. [+-]HH (e.g. "+09")

    4. Region/Zone (e.g. Asia/Tokyo)

    5. Region/Zone/Zone (e.g. America/Argentina/Buenos_Aires)

If this article is incorrect or outdated, or omits critical information, please let us know. Fluentd is an open-source project under Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). All components are available under the Apache 2 License.