open-telemetry / open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification

Remove spec for in-memory exporters

Open
#2,425 7 comments 3 reactions 1 assignee View on GitHub

@carlosalberto is already working on this.

Since Mar 18, 2022.

area:sdk spec:metrics triage:deciding:community-feedback triage:followup
Dominant language
Makefile
Stars
4.3k
Forks
1k
Avg merge
2d 7h
Merged PRs (30d)
25

Description

Currently, the spec considers the in-memory exporter a push metric exporter:

In-memory Metrics Exporter is a Push Metric Exporter which accumulates metrics data in the local memory and allows to inspect it (useful for e.g. unit tests).

The original intent of #2415 was to define a default interval to push metrics from a periodic metric reader paired with the in-memory exporter. The interval I proposed was infinite - that is, by default, an explicit force flush would be required to collect metrics. This raised the question of whether the in-memory exporter is actually a pull metric exporter.

An argument was offered in favor of leaving it as a push exporter https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/2415#issuecomment-1068327497.

A number of folks felt that providing it as pull metric exporter offers better ergonomics for the primary use case which is unit tests. One suggestion (https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/2415#issuecomment-1069335024) is that both push and pull may be valuable.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Assessment

This issue has not been assessed yet.

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.