exec

The out_exec TimeSliced Output plugin passes events to an external program. The program receives the path to a file containing the incoming events as its last argument. The file format is tab-separated values (TSV) by default.

It is included in Fluentd's core.

Example Configuration

<match pattern>
  @type exec
  command cmd arg arg
  <format>
    @type tsv
    keys k1,k2,k3
  </format>
  <inject>
    tag_key k1
    time_key k2
    time_format %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
  </inject>
</match>

Please see the Configuration File article for the basic structure and syntax of the configuration file.

Example: Running FizzBuzz Against Data Stream

This example illustrates how to run FizzBuzz with out_exec.

We assume that the input file is specified by the last argument in the command line (ARGV[-1]). The following script fizzbuzz.py runs FizzBuzz against the new-line delimited sequence of natural numbers (1, 2, 3...) and writes the output to foobar.out:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys
input = file(sys.argv[-1])
output = file("foobar.out", "a")
for line in input:
    fizzbuzz = int(line.split("\t")[0])
    s = ''
    if fizzbuzz%3 == 0:
        s += 'fizz'
    if fizzbuzz%5 == 0:
        s += 'buzz'
    if len(s) > 0:
        output.write(s+"\n")
    else:
        output.write(str(fizzbuzz)+"\n")
output.close

Note that this program is written in Python. For out_exec (as well as out_exec_filter and in_exec), the program can be written in any language, not just Ruby.

Then, configure Fluentd as follows:

<source>
  @type forward
</source>
<match fizzbuzz>
  @type exec
  command python /path/to/fizzbuzz.py
  <buffer>
    @type file
    path /path/to/buffer_path
    flush_interval 5s # for debugging/checking
  </buffer>
  <format>
    @type tsv
    keys fizzbuzz
  </format>
</match>

The @type tsv and keys fizzbuzz in <format> tells Fluentd to extract the fizzbuzz field and output it as TSV. This simple example has a single key, but you can of course extract multiple fields and use format json to output newline-delimited JSON.

The intermediate TSV is at /path/to/buffer_path, and the command python /path/to/fizzbuzz.py /path/to/buffer_path is run. This is why in fizzbuzz.py, it is reading the file at sys.argv[-1].

If you start Fluentd and run this command:

$ for i in `seq 15`; do echo "{\"fizzbuzz\":$i}" | fluent-cat fizzbuzz; done

Then, after 5 seconds, you get a file named foobar.out:

$ cat foobar.out
1
2
fizz
4
buzz
fizz
7
8
fizz
buzz
11
fizz
13
14
fizzbuzz

Supported Modes

• Asynchronous

See Output Plugin Overview for more details.

Plugin Helpers

• inject
• formatter
• compat_parameters
• child_process

Parameters

Common Parameters

@type

The value must be exec.

command

type	default	version
string	Nothing	0.14.0

The command (program) to execute. The exec plugin passes the path of flushed buffer chunk as the last argument.

If you set command parameter like this:

command cmd arg arg

The actual command execution is:

cmd arg arg /path/to/file

If cmd does not exist in PATH, you need to specify the absolute path, e.g. /path/to/cmd.

command_timeout

type	default	version
time	270	0.14.9

Command (program) execution timeout.

<format> Section

See Format Section for more details.

@type

type	default	version
string	tsv	0.14.9

The format used to map the incoming events to the program input.

Overwrites the default value in this plugin.

<inject> Section

See Inject Section for more details.

time_type

type	default	version
string	string	0.14.9

Overwrites the default value in this plugin.

localtime

type	default	version
bool	false	0.14.9

Overwrites the default value in this plugin.

<buffer> Section

See Buffer Section for more details.

delayed_commit_timeout

type	default	version
time	300	0.14.9

Overwrites the default value in this plugin.

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.