Parser Plugins

Fluentd has 6 types of plugins: Input, Parser, Filter, Output, Formatter and Buffer. This article gives an overview of Parser Plugin.

Overview

Sometimes, the format parameter for input plugins (ex: in_tail, in_syslog, in_tcp and in_udp) cannot parse the user's custom data format (for example, a context-dependent grammar that can't be parsed with a regular expression). To address such cases. Fluentd has a pluggable system that enables the user to create their own parser formats.

How To Use

• Write a custom format plugin. See here for more information.

• From any input plugin that supports the "format" field, call the

  custom plugin by its name.

Here is a simple example to read Nginx access logs using in_tail and parser_nginx:

<source>
  @type tail
  path /path/to/input/file
  format nginx
  keep_time_key true
</source>

List of Built-in Parsers

• regexp
• apache2
• apache_error
• nginx
• syslog
• csv
• tsv
• ltsv
• json
• multiline
• none

3rd party Parsers

• grok

If you are familiar with grok patterns, grok-parser plugin is useful. Use < 1.0.0 versions for fluentd v0.12.

List of Core Input Plugins with Parser support

with format parameter.

• in_tail
• in_tcp
• in_udp
• in_syslog
• in_http

If this article is incorrect or outdated, or omits critical information, please let us know.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