> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.fluentd.org/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.fluentd.org/input.md).

# Input Plugins

Fluentd has nine (9) types of plugins:

* [Input](/input.md)
* [Parser](/parser.md)
* [Filter](/filter.md)
* [Output](/output.md)
* [Formatter](/formatter.md)
* [Storage](/storage.md)
* [Service Discovery](/service_discovery.md)
* [Buffer](/buffer.md)
* [Metrics](/metrics.md)

This article gives an overview of the Input Plugin.

## Overview

Input plugins extend Fluentd to retrieve and pull event logs from the external sources. An input plugin typically creates a thread, socket, and a listening socket. It can also be written to periodically pull data from the data sources.

## List of Input Plugins

* [`in_tail`](/input/tail.md)
* [`in_forward`](/input/forward.md)
* [`in_udp`](/input/udp.md)
* [`in_tcp`](/input/tcp.md)
* [`in_unix`](/input/unix.md)
* [`in_http`](/input/http.md)
* [`in_syslog`](/input/syslog.md)
* [`in_exec`](/input/exec.md)
* [`in_sample`](/input/sample.md)
* [`in_windows_eventlog`](/input/windows_eventlog.md)

## Other Input Plugins

Refer to this list of available plugins to find out about other Input plugins:

* [Fluentd plugins](http://fluentd.org/plugin/)

If this article is incorrect or outdated, or omits critical information, please [let us know](https://github.com/fluent/fluentd-docs-gitbook/issues?state=open). [Fluentd](http://www.fluentd.org/) is an open-source project under [Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)](https://cncf.io/). All components are available under the Apache 2 License.