Windows

Fluent Bit is distributed as fluent-bit package for Windows. Fluent Bit has two flavours of Windows installers: a ZIP archive (for quick testing) and an EXE installer (for system installation).
Configuration
Make sure to provide a valid Windows configuration with the installation, a sample one is shown below:
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[SERVICE]
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    # Flush
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    # =====
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    # set an interval of seconds before to flush records to a destination
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    flush        5
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​
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    # Daemon
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    # ======
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    # instruct Fluent Bit to run in foreground or background mode.
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    daemon       Off
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​
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    # Log_Level
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    # =========
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    # Set the verbosity level of the service, values can be:
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    #
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    # - error
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    # - warning
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    # - info
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    # - debug
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    # - trace
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    #
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    # by default 'info' is set, that means it includes 'error' and 'warning'.
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    log_level    info
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​
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    # Parsers File
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    # ============
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    # specify an optional 'Parsers' configuration file
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    parsers_file parsers.conf
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​
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    # Plugins File
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    # ============
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    # specify an optional 'Plugins' configuration file to load external plugins.
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    plugins_file plugins.conf
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​
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    # HTTP Server
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    # ===========
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    # Enable/Disable the built-in HTTP Server for metrics
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    http_server  Off
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    http_listen  0.0.0.0
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    http_port    2020
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​
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    # Storage
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    # =======
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    # Fluent Bit can use memory and filesystem buffering based mechanisms
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    #
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    # - https://docs.fluentbit.io/manual/administration/buffering-and-storage
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    #
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    # storage metrics
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    # ---------------
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    # publish storage pipeline metrics in '/api/v1/storage'. The metrics are
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    # exported only if the 'http_server' option is enabled.
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    #
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    storage.metrics on
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​
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[INPUT]
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    Name         winlog
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    Channels     Setup,Windows PowerShell
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    Interval_Sec 1
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​
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[OUTPUT]
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    name  stdout
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    match *
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Migration to Fluent Bit
From version 1.9.0, td-agent-bit is a deprecated package and will be removed in the future. The correct package name to use now is fluent-bit. Both are currently provided to allow migration.
Installation Packages
The latest stable version is 1.9.3, each version is available on the Github release as well as at https://fluentbit.io/releases/<Major Version>/Major>fluent-bit-<Full Version>-win[32|64].exe:
INSTALLERS
SHA256 CHECKSUMS
​fluent-bit-1.9.3-win32.exe​
​043a40d0ac0cabef8dc6c6d97b4da993f85fde174f613dff84d5e990aaa0c858​
​fluent-bit-1.9.3-win32.zip​
​016fe28a9d1edbfba38614dce2641f398bb8c2cff2377aa03439d954e18dc174​
​fluent-bit-1.9.3-win64.exe​
​89c3f3cfc08e090b68b8a8d09d8016c97b92d5f95b6cc4f77009c00d64382546​
​fluent-bit-1.9.3-win64.zip​
​8208f77a6870a80b5cfcd87e4d800637b968e2c205fcf6db630a32e59eae5297​
To check the integrity, use Get-FileHash cmdlet on PowerShell.
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PS> Get-FileHash fluent-bit-1.9.3-win32.exe
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Installing from ZIP archive
Download a ZIP archive from above. There are installers for 32-bit and 64-bit environments, so choose one suitable for your environment.
Then you need to expand the ZIP archive. You can do this by clicking "Extract All" on Explorer, or if you're using PowerShell, you can use Expand-Archive cmdlet.
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PS> Expand-Archive fluent-bit-1.9.3-win64.zip
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The ZIP package contains the following set of files.
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fluent-bit
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├── bin
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│   ├── fluent-bit.dll
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│   └── fluent-bit.exe
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│   └── fluent-bit.pdb
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├── conf
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│   ├── fluent-bit.conf
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│   ├── parsers.conf
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│   └── plugins.conf
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└── include
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    │   ├── flb_api.h
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    │   ├── ...
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    │   └── flb_worker.h
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    └── fluent-bit.h
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Now, launch cmd.exe or PowerShell on your machine, and execute fluent-bit.exe as follows.
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PS> .\bin\fluent-bit.exe -i dummy -o stdout
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If you see the following output, it's working fine!
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PS> .\bin\fluent-bit.exe  -i dummy -o stdout
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Fluent Bit v1.9.x
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* Copyright (C) 2019-2020 The Fluent Bit Authors
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* Copyright (C) 2015-2018 Treasure Data
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* Fluent Bit is a CNCF sub-project under the umbrella of Fluentd
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* https://fluentbit.io
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​
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[2019/06/28 10:13:04] [ info] [storage] initializing...
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[2019/06/28 10:13:04] [ info] [storage] in-memory
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[2019/06/28 10:13:04] [ info] [storage] normal synchronization mode, checksum disabled, max_chunks_up=128
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[2019/06/28 10:13:04] [ info] [engine] started (pid=10324)
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[2019/06/28 10:13:04] [ info] [sp] stream processor started
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[0] dummy.0: [1561684385.443823800, {"message"=>"dummy"}]
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[1] dummy.0: [1561684386.428399000, {"message"=>"dummy"}]
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[2] dummy.0: [1561684387.443641900, {"message"=>"dummy"}]
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[3] dummy.0: [1561684388.441405800, {"message"=>"dummy"}]
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To halt the process, press CTRL-C in the terminal.
Installing from EXE installer
Download an EXE installer from the download page. It has both 32-bit and 64-bit builds. Choose one which is suitable for you.
Double-click the EXE installer you've downloaded. The installation wizard will automatically start.
Click Next and proceed. By default, Fluent Bit is installed into C:\Program Files\fluent-bit\, so you should be able to launch fluent-bit as follows after installation.
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PS> C:\Program Files\fluent-bit\bin\fluent-bit.exe -i dummy -o stdout
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Installer options
The Windows installer is built by [CPack using NSIS(https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/cpack_gen/nsis.html) and so supports the default options that all NSIS installers do for silent installation and the directory to install to.
To silently install to C:\fluent-bit directory here is an example:
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PS> <installer exe> /S /D=C:\fluent-bit
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The uninstaller automatically provided also supports a silent un-install using the same /S flag. This may be useful for provisioning with automation like Ansible, Puppet, etc.
Windows Service Support
Windows services are equivalent to "daemons" in UNIX (i.e. long-running background processes). Since v1.5.0, Fluent Bit has the native support for Windows Service.
Suppose you have the following installation layout:
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C:\fluent-bit\
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├── conf
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│   ├── fluent-bit.conf
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│   └── parsers.conf
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│   └── plugins.conf
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└── bin
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    ├── fluent-bit.dll
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    └── fluent-bit.exe
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    └── fluent-bit.pdb
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To register Fluent Bit as a Windows service, you need to execute the following command on Command Prompt. Please be careful that a single space is required after binpath=.
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% sc.exe create fluent-bit binpath= "\fluent-bit\bin\fluent-bit.exe -c \fluent-bit\conf\fluent-bit.conf"
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Now Fluent Bit can be started and managed as a normal Windows service.
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% sc.exe start fluent-bit
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% sc.exe query fluent-bit
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SERVICE_NAME: fluent-bit
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    TYPE               : 10  WIN32_OWN_PROCESS
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    STATE              : 4 Running
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    ...
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To halt the Fluent Bit service, just execute the "stop" command.
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% sc.exe stop fluent-bit
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To start Fluent Bit automatically on boot, execute the following:
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% sc.exe config fluent-bit start= auto
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[FAQ] Fluent Bit fails to start up when installed under C:\Program Files
Quotations are required if file paths contain spaces. Here is an example:
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% sc.exe create fluent-bit binpath= "\"C:\Program Files\fluent-bit\bin\fluent-bit.exe\" -c \"C:\Program Files\fluent-bit\conf\fluent-bit.conf\""
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[FAQ] How can I manage Fluent Bit service via PowerShell?
Instead of sc.exe, PowerShell can be used to manage Windows services.
Create a Fluent Bit service:
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PS> New-Service fluent-bit -BinaryPathName "C:\fluent-bit\bin\fluent-bit.exe -c C:\fluent-bit\conf\fluent-bit.conf" -StartupType Automatic
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Start the service:
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PS> Start-Service fluent-bit
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Query the service status:
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PS> get-Service fluent-bit | format-list
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Name                : fluent-bit
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DisplayName         : fluent-bit
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Status              : Running
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DependentServices   : {}
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ServicesDependedOn  : {}
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CanPauseAndContinue : False
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CanShutdown         : False
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CanStop             : True
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ServiceType         : Win32OwnProcess
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Stop the service:
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PS> Stop-Service fluent-bit
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Remove the service (requires PowerShell 6.0 or later)
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PS> Remove-Service fluent-bit
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Compile from Source
If you need to create a custom executable, you can use the following procedure to compile Fluent Bit by yourself.
Preparation
First, you need Microsoft Visual C++ to compile Fluent Bit. You can install the minimum toolkit by the following command:
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PS> wget -o vs.exe https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vs_buildtools.exe
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PS> start vs.exe
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When asked which packages to install, choose "C++ Build Tools" (make sure that "C++ CMake tools for Windows" is selected too) and wait until the process finishes.
Also you need to install flex and bison. One way to install them on Windows is to use winflexbison.
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PS> wget -o winflexbison.zip https://github.com/lexxmark/winflexbison/releases/download/v2.5.22/win_flex_bison-2.5.22.zip
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PS> Expand-Archive winflexbison.zip -Destination C:\WinFlexBison
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PS> cp -Path C:\WinFlexBison\win_bison.exe C:\WinFlexBison\bison.exe
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PS> cp -Path C:\WinFlexBison\win_flex.exe C:\WinFlexBison\flex.exe
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Add the path C:\WinFlexBison to your systems environment variable "Path". Here's how to do that.
Also you need to install git to pull the source code from the repository.
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PS> wget -o git.exe https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/releases/download/v2.28.0.windows.1/Git-2.28.0-64-bit.exe
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PS> start git.exe
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Compilation
Open the start menu on Windows and type "Developer Command Prompt".
Clone the source code of Fluent Bit.
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% git clone https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit
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% cd fluent-bit/build
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Compile the source code.
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% cmake .. -G "NMake Makefiles"
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% cmake --build .
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Now you should be able to run Fluent Bit:
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% .\bin\debug\fluent-bit.exe -i dummy -o stdout
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Packaging
To create a ZIP package, call cpack as follows:
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% cpack -G ZIP
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