The Lua filter allows you to modify the incoming records (even split one record into multiple records) using custom Lua scripts.
Due to the necessity to have a flexible filtering mechanism, it is now possible to extend Fluent Bit capabilities by writing custom filters using Lua programming language. A Lua-based filter takes two steps:
- Configure the Filter in the main configuration
- Prepare a Lua script that will be used by the Filter
The plugin supports the following configuration parameters:
| Key | Description |
|---|---|
| script | Path to the Lua script that will be used. This can be a relative path against the main configuration file. |
| call | Lua function name that will be triggered to do filtering. It's assumed that the function is declared inside the script parameter defined above. |
| type_int_key | If these keys are matched, the fields are converted to integer. If more than one key, delimit by space. Note that starting from Fluent Bit v1.6 integer data types are preserved and not converted to double as in previous versions. |
| type_array_key | If these keys are matched, the fields are handled as array. If more than one key, delimit by space. It is useful the array can be empty. |
| protected_mode | If enabled, Lua script will be executed in protected mode. It prevents Fluent Bit from crashing when invalid Lua script is executed or the triggered Lua function throws exceptions. Default is true. |
| time_as_table | By default when the Lua script is invoked, the record timestamp is passed as a floating number which might lead to precision loss when it is converted back. If you desire timestamp precision, enabling this option will pass the timestamp as a Lua table with keys sec for seconds since epoch and nsec for nanoseconds. |
| code | Inline LUA code instead of loading from a path via script. |
In order to test the filter, you can run the plugin from the command line or through the configuration file. The following examples use the dummy input plugin for data ingestion, invoke Lua filter using the test.lua script and call the cb_print() function which only prints the same information to the standard output:
From the command line you can use the following options:
$ fluent-bit -i dummy -F lua -p script=test.lua -p call=cb_print -m '*' -o nullIn your main configuration file append the following Input, Filter & Output sections:
[INPUT]
Name dummy
[FILTER]
Name lua
Match *
script test.lua
call cb_print
[OUTPUT]
Name null
Match *The life cycle of a filter have the following steps:
- Upon Tag matching by this filter, it may process or bypass the record.
- If tag matched, it will accept the record and invoke the function defined in the
callproperty which basically is the name of a function defined in the Luascript. - Invoke Lua function and pass each record in JSON format.
- Upon return, validate return value and continue the pipeline.
The Lua script can have one or multiple callbacks that can be used by this filter. The function prototype is as follows:
function cb_print(tag, timestamp, record)
...
return code, timestamp, record
end| name | description |
|---|---|
| tag | Name of the tag associated with the incoming record. |
| timestamp | Unix timestamp with nanoseconds associated with the incoming record. The original format is a double (seconds.nanoseconds) |
| record | Lua table with the record content |
Each callback must return three values:
| name | data type | description |
|---|---|---|
| code | integer | The code return value represents the result and further action that may follows. If code equals -1, means that the record will be dropped. If code equals 0, the record will not be modified, otherwise if code equals 1, means the original timestamp and record have been modified so it must be replaced by the returned values from timestamp (second return value) and record (third return value). If code equals 2, means the original timestamp is not modified and the record has been modified so it must be replaced by the returned values from record (third return value). The code 2 is supported from v1.4.3. |
| timestamp | double | If code equals 1, the original record timestamp will be replaced with this new value. |
| record | table | If code equals 1, the original record information will be replaced with this new value. Note that the record value must be a valid Lua table. This value can be an array of tables (i.e., array of objects in JSON format), and in that case the input record is effectively split into multiple records. (see below for more details) |
For functional examples of this interface, please refer to the code samples provided in the source code of the project located here:
https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/tree/master/scripts
The Fluent Bit smoke tests include examples to verify during CI.
service:
flush: 1
daemon: off
log_level: info
pipeline:
inputs:
- random:
tag: test
samples: 10
filters:
- lua:
match: "*"
call: append_tag
code: |
function append_tag(tag, timestamp, record)
new_record = record
new_record["tag"] = tag
return 1, timestamp, new_record
end
outputs:
- stdout:
match: "*"In classic mode:
[SERVICE]
flush 1
daemon off
log_level debug
[INPUT]
Name random
Tag test
Samples 10
[FILTER]
Name Lua
Match *
call append_tag
code function append_tag(tag, timestamp, record) new_record = record new_record["tag"] = tag return 1, timestamp, new_record end
[OUTPUT]
Name stdout
Match *
As an example that combines a bit of LUA processing with the Kubernetes filter that demonstrates using environment variables with LUA regex and substitutions.
Kubernetes pods generally have various environment variables set by the infrastructure automatically which may contain useful information.
In this example, we want to extract part of the Kubernetes cluster API name.
The environment variable is set like so:
KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST: api.sandboxbsh-a.project.domain.com
We want to extract the sandboxbsh name and add it to our record as a special key.
[FILTER]
Name lua
Alias filter-iots-lua
Match iots_thread.*
Script filters.lua
Call set_landscape_deployment
filters.lua: |
-- Use a Lua function to create some additional entries based
-- on substrings from the kubernetes properties.
function set_landscape_deployment(tag, timestamp, record)
local landscape = os.getenv("KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST")
if landscape then
-- Strip the landscape name from this field, KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST
-- Should be of this format
-- api.sandboxbsh-a.project.domain.com
-- Take off the leading "api."
-- sandboxbsh-a.project.domain.com
--print("landscape1:" .. landscape)
landscape = landscape:gsub("^[^.]+.", "")
--print("landscape2:" .. landscape)
-- Take off everything including and after the - in the cluster name
-- sandboxbsh
landscape = landscape:gsub("-.*$", "")
-- print("landscape3:" .. landscape)
record["iot_landscape"] = landscape
end
-- 2 - replace existing record with this update
return 2, timestamp, record
end
+Lua treats number as double. It means an integer field (e.g. IDs, log levels) will be converted double. To avoid type conversion, The type_int_key property is available.
Fluent Bit supports protected mode to prevent crash when executes invalid Lua script. See also Error Handling in Application Code.
The Lua callback function can return an array of tables (i.e., array of records) in its third record return value. With this feature, the Lua filter can split one input record into multiple records according to custom logic.
For example:
function cb_split(tag, timestamp, record)
if record["x"] ~= nil then
return 2, timestamp, record["x"]
else
return 2, timestamp, record
end
end[Input]
Name stdin
[Filter]
Name lua
Match *
script test.lua
call cb_split
[Output]
Name stdout
Match *{"x": [ {"a1":"aa", "z1":"zz"}, {"b1":"bb", "x1":"xx"}, {"c1":"cc"} ]}
{"x": [ {"a2":"aa", "z2":"zz"}, {"b2":"bb", "x2":"xx"}, {"c2":"cc"} ]}
{"a3":"aa", "z3":"zz", "b3":"bb", "x3":"xx", "c3":"cc"}
[0] stdin.0: [1538435928.310583591, {"a1"=>"aa", "z1"=>"zz"}]
[1] stdin.0: [1538435928.310583591, {"x1"=>"xx", "b1"=>"bb"}]
[2] stdin.0: [1538435928.310583591, {"c1"=>"cc"}]
[3] stdin.0: [1538435928.310588359, {"z2"=>"zz", "a2"=>"aa"}]
[4] stdin.0: [1538435928.310588359, {"b2"=>"bb", "x2"=>"xx"}]
[5] stdin.0: [1538435928.310588359, {"c2"=>"cc"}]
[6] stdin.0: [1538435928.310589790, {"z3"=>"zz", "x3"=>"xx", "c3"=>"cc", "a3"=>"aa", "b3"=>"bb"}]
See also Fluent Bit: PR 811.