Head

The head input plugin, allows to read events from the head of file. It's behavior is similar to the head command.

Configuration Parameters

The plugin supports the following configuration parameters:

Key	Description
File	Absolute path to the target file, e.g: /proc/uptime
Buf_Size	Buffer size to read the file.
Interval_Sec	Polling interval (seconds).
Interval_NSec	Polling interval (nanosecond).
Add_Path	If enabled, filepath is appended to each records. Default value is false.
Key	Rename a key. Default: head.
Lines	Line number to read. If the number N is set, in_head reads first N lines like head(1) -n.
Split_line	If enabled, in_head generates key-value pair per line.

Split Line Mode

This mode is useful to get a specific line. This is an example to get CPU frequency from /proc/cpuinfo.

/proc/cpuinfo is a special file to get cpu information.

processor    : 0
vendor_id    : GenuineIntel
cpu family   : 6
model        : 42
model name   : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2640M CPU @ 2.80GHz
stepping     : 7
microcode    : 41
cpu MHz      : 2791.009
cache size   : 4096 KB
physical id  : 0
siblings     : 1

Cpu frequency is "cpu MHz : 2791.009". We can get the line with this configuration file.

fluent-bit.conf

[INPUT]
    Name           head
    Tag            head.cpu
    File           /proc/cpuinfo
    Lines          8
    Split_line     true
    # {"line0":"processor    : 0", "line1":"vendor_id    : GenuineIntel" ...}

[FILTER]
    Name           record_modifier
    Match          *
    Whitelist_key  line7

[OUTPUT]
    Name           stdout
    Match          *

fluent-bit.yaml

pipeline:
    inputs:
        - name: head
          tag: head.cpu
          file: /proc/cpuinfo
          lines: 8
          split_line: true
    filters:
        - name: record_modifier
          match: '*'
          whitelist_key: line7
    outputs:
        - name: stdout
          match: '*'

Output is

$ bin/fluent-bit -c head.conf 
Fluent Bit v1.x.x
* Copyright (C) 2019-2020 The Fluent Bit Authors
* Copyright (C) 2015-2018 Treasure Data
* Fluent Bit is a CNCF sub-project under the umbrella of Fluentd
* https://fluentbit.io

[2017/06/26 22:38:24] [ info] [engine] started
[0] head.cpu: [1498484305.000279805, {"line7"=>"cpu MHz        : 2791.009"}]
[1] head.cpu: [1498484306.011680137, {"line7"=>"cpu MHz        : 2791.009"}]
[2] head.cpu: [1498484307.010042482, {"line7"=>"cpu MHz        : 2791.009"}]
[3] head.cpu: [1498484308.008447978, {"line7"=>"cpu MHz        : 2791.009"}]

Getting Started

In order to read the head of a file, you can run the plugin from the command line or through the configuration file:

Command Line

The following example will read events from the /proc/uptime file, tag the records with the uptime name and flush them back to the stdout plugin:

$ fluent-bit -i head -t uptime -p File=/proc/uptime -o stdout -m '*'
Fluent Bit v1.x.x
* Copyright (C) 2019-2020 The Fluent Bit Authors
* Copyright (C) 2015-2018 Treasure Data
* Fluent Bit is a CNCF sub-project under the umbrella of Fluentd
* https://fluentbit.io

[2016/05/17 21:53:54] [ info] starting engine
[0] uptime: [1463543634, {"head"=>"133517.70 194870.97"}]
[1] uptime: [1463543635, {"head"=>"133518.70 194872.85"}]
[2] uptime: [1463543636, {"head"=>"133519.70 194876.63"}]
[3] uptime: [1463543637, {"head"=>"133520.70 194879.72"}]

Configuration File

In your main configuration file append the following Input & Output sections:

fluent-bit.conf

[INPUT]
    Name          head
    Tag           uptime
    File          /proc/uptime
    Buf_Size      256
    Interval_Sec  1
    Interval_NSec 0

[OUTPUT]
    Name   stdout
    Match  *

fluent-bit.yaml

pipeline:
    inputs:
        - name: head
          tag: uptime
          file: /proc/uptime
          buf_size: 256
          interval_sec: 1
          interval_nsec: 0
    outputs:
        - name: stdout
          match: '*'

Note: Total interval (sec) = Interval_Sec + (Interval_Nsec / 1000000000).

e.g. 1.5s = 1s + 500000000ns