otel (version 0.2.0)

Environment Variables: Environment variables to configure otel

Description

This manual page contains the environment variables you can use to configure the otel package.

See also the Environment Variables in the otelsdk package, which is charge of the data collection configuration.

You need set these environment variables when configuring the collection of telemetry data, unless noted otherwise.

Value

Not applicable.

Production or Development Environment

• OTEL_ENV

  By default otel runs in production mode. In production mode otel functions never error. Errors in the telemetry code will not stop the monitored application.

  This behavior is not ideal for development, where one would prefer to catch errors early. Set

  OTEL_ENV=dev
  

  to run otel in development mode, where otel functions fail on error, make it easier to fix errors.

Selecting Exporters

otel is responsible for selecting the providers to use for traces, logs and metrics. You can use the environment variables below to point the otel functions to the desired providers.

If none of these environment variables are set, then otel will not emit any telemetry data.

• OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER

  The name of the selected tracer provider. See get_default_tracer_provider() for the possible values.

• OTEL_R_TRACES_EXPORTER

  R specific version of OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER.

• OTEL_LOGS_EXPORTER

  The name of the selected logger provider. See get_default_logger_provider() for the possible values.

• OTEL_R_LOGS_EXPORTER

  R specific version of OTEL_LOGS_EXPORTER.

• OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER

  The name of the selected meter provider. See get_default_meter_provider() for the possible values.

• OTEL_R_METRICS_EXPORTER

  R specific version of OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER.

Suppressing Instrumentation Scopes (R Packages)

otel has two environment variables to fine tune which instrumentation scopes (i.e. R packages, typically) emit telemetry data. By default, i.e. if neither of these are set, all packages emit telemetry data.

• OTEL_R_EMIT_SCOPES

  Set this environment variable to a comma separated string of instrumentation scope names or R package names to restrict telemetry to these packages only. The name of the instrumentation scope is the same as the name of the tracer, logger or meter, see default_tracer_name().

  You can mix package names and instrumentation scope names and you can also use wildcards (globbing). For example the value

  OTEL_R_EMIT_SCOPES="org.r-lib.*,dplyr"

  selects all packages with an instrumentation scope that starts with org.r-lib. and also dplyr.

• OTEL_R_SUPPRESS_SCOPES

  Set this environment variable to a comma separated string of instrumentation scope names or R package names to suppress telemetry data from these packages. The name of the instrumentation scope is the same as the name of the tracer, logger or meter, see default_tracer_name().

  You can mix package names and instrumentation scope names and you can also use wildcards (globbing). For example the value

  OTEL_R_SUPPRESS_SCOPES="org.r-lib.*,dplyr"

  excludes packages with an instrumentation scope that starts with org.r-lib. and also dplyr.

Zero Code Instrumentation

otel can instrument R packages for OpenTelemetry data collection without changing their source code. This relies on changing the code of the R functions manually using base::trace() and can be configured using environment variables.

• OTEL_R_INSTRUMENT_PKGS

  Set OTEL_R_INSTRUMENT_PKGS to a comma separated list of packages to instrument. The automatic instrumentation happens when the otel package is loaded, so in general it is best to set this environment variable before loading R.

• OTEL_R_INSTRUMENT_PKGS_<pkg>_INCLUDE

  For an automatically instrumented package, set this environment variable to only instrument a subset of its functions. It is parsed as a comma separated string of function names, which may also include ? and * wildcards (globbing).

• OTEL_R_INSTRUMENT_PKGS_<pkg>_EXCLUDE

  For an automatically instrumented package, set this environment variable to exclude some functions from instrumentation. It has the same syntax as its *_INCLUDE pair. If both are set, then inclusion is applied and the exclusion.

Attribute Limits

• OTEL_ATTRIBUTE_COUNT_LIMIT

  Set this environment variable to limit the number of attributes for a single span, log record, metric measurement, etc. If unset, the default limit is 128 attributes. Note that only attributes specified with as_attributes() are subject to this environment variable.

• OTEL_ATTRIBUTE_VALUE_LENGTH_LIMIT

  Set this environment variable to limit the length of vectors in attributes for a single span, log record, metric measurement, etc. If unset, there is no limit on the lengths of vectors in attributes. Note that only attributes specified with as_attributes() are subject to this environment variable.

See Also

Environment Variables in otelsdk

Examples

# To start an R session using the OTLP exporter:
# OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER=http R -q -f script.R