OTEP: Logger.Enabled

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -33,6 +33,9 @@ release.
 
 ### OTEPs
 
+- Create `Logger.Enabled` OTEP.
+  ([#4290](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/4290))
+
 ## v1.41.0 (2025-01-21)
 
 ### Logs

oteps/logs/4290-logger-enabled.md

@@ -0,0 +1,270 @@
+# Logger.Enabled
+
+## Motivation
+
+In applications requiring high performance,
+while optimizing the performance of enabled logging is important,
+it is often equally or more critical to minimize the overhead of logging
+for disabled or un-exported logs.
+
+The consumers of OpenTelemetry clients want to:
+
+1. **Correctly** and **efficiently** bridge features
+   like `LogLevelEnabled` in log bridge/appender implementations.
+2. Avoid allocating memory to store a log record,
+   avoid performing computationally expensive operations,
+   and avoid exporting
+   when emitting a log or event record is unnecessary.
+3. Configure a minimum log severity level on the SDK level.
+4. Filter out log and event records when they are inside a span
+   that has been sampled out (span is valid and has sampled flag of `false`).
+5. **Efficiently** support high-performance logging destination
+   like [Linux user_events](https://docs.kernel.org/trace/user_events.html)
+   and [ETW (Event Tracing for Windows)](https://learn.microsoft.com/windows/win32/etw/about-event-tracing).
+6. Allow **fine-grained** filtering control for logging pipelines
+   when using an OpenTelemetry Collector is not feasible
+   e.g., for mobile devices, serverless, or IoT.
+
+Without a `Logger.Enabled` check in the OpenTelemetry Logs API
+and corresponding implementations in the SDK,
+achieving this goal is not feasible.
+
+OpenTelemetry Logs SDK users require:
+
+- A declarative configuration to conveniently address
+  the most popular use cases.
+- A dynamic hook for advanced customization and flexibility.
+
+The main purpose of this OTEP is to have foundations for:
+
+- [#4364](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/issues/4364):
+  extending the SDK's `LoggerConfig` with `min_severity` field,
+
+- [#4363](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/issues/4363):
+  extending the SDK's `LogRecordProcessor` with an opt-in `Enabled` operation,
+
+and address [Specify how Logs SDK implements Enabled #4207](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/issues/4207).
+
+## Explanation
+
+For (1) (2), the user can use the Logs API `Logger.Enabled` function,
+which tells the user whether a `Logger` for given arguments
+is going to emit a log record.
+
+For (3), the user can declaratively configure the Logs SDK
+using `LoggerConfigurator` to set the `min_severity`
+of a `LoggerConfig` for given `Logger`.
+
+For (4), the user can use the Tracing API to check whether
+there is a sampled span in the current context before creating
+and emitting a log record.
+
+For (5) (6), the user can hook to `Logger.Enabled` Logs API calls
+by adding to the Logs SDK a `LogRecordProcessor` implementing `Enabled`
+(or alternatively other hook such as `LogRecordFilterer`;
+see [here](#separate-logrecordfilterer-abstraction)).
+
+## Internal details
+
+Regarding (1) (2), the Logs API specification has already introduced `Logger.Enabled`:
+
+- [Add Enabled method to Logger #4020](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/4020)
+- [Define Enabled parameters for Logger #4203](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/4203)
+
+The addition of `LoggerConfig.min_severity` is supposed
+to serve the (3) use case in an easy-to-setup and efficient way.
+
+Regarding (4) the application developers can decide whether to emit log records
+for spans that are not sampled. Example in Go:
+
+<!-- markdownlint-disable no-hard-tabs -->
+```go
+if trace.SpanContextFromContext(ctx).IsSampled() && logger.Enabled(ctx, params) {
+	logger.Emit(ctx, createLogRecord(payload))
+}
+```
+<!-- markdownlint-enable no-hard-tabs -->
+
+The addition of `LogRecordProcessor.Enabled` is necessary for
+use cases where filtering is dynamic and coupled to processing,
+such as (5) and (6).
+
+Both `LoggerConfig` and registered `LogRecordProcessors` take part
+in the evalaution of the `Logger.Enabled` operation.
+If `LoggerConfig.disabled` is `false`, meaning the logger is enabled,
+then the `LogRecordProcessors` are evaluated.
+In such cases, `false` is returned only if all registered
+`LogRecordProcessors` return `false` in their `Enabled` calls,
+as this means no processor will process the log record.
+Pseudo-code:
+
+<!-- markdownlint-disable no-hard-tabs -->
+```go
+func (l *logger) Enabled(ctx context.Context, param EnabledParameters) bool {
+	config := l.config()
+	if config.Disabled {
+		// The logger is disabled.
+		return false
+	}
+	if params.Severity > config.MinSeverity {
+		// The severity is less severe than the logger minimum level.
+		return false
+	}
+
+	// If there are more Processors than FilterProcessors we cannot be sure
+	// that all Processors will drop the record. Therefore, return true.
+	//
+	// If all Processors are FilterProcessors, check if any is enabled.
+	return len(l.provider.processors) > len(l.provider.fltrs) || anyEnabled(ctx, param, l.provider.fltrs))
+}
+
+func anyEnabled(ctx context.Context, param EnabledParameters, fltrs []FilterProcessor) bool {
+	for _, f := range fltrs {
+		if f.Enabled(ctx, param) {
+			// At least one Processor will process the Record.
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	// No Processor will process the record
+	return false
+}
+```
+<!-- markdownlint-enable no-hard-tabs -->
+
+The implementation of `LogRecordProcessor.Enabled` is optional
+so that we can optimize (and not loop though processors)
+when the processor does not implement it.
+
+There is nothing preventing having both `LoggerConfig.min_severity`
+and something like a `MinimumSeverityLevelProcessor`.
+
+`LoggerConfig.min_severity` is a configuration for concrete loggers.
+For instance, it would be a easy to use feature when one would like to change
+the minimum severity level for all loggers with names matching
+`MyCompany.NoisyModule.*` wildcard pattern.
+With `LoggerConfigurator` the user is not able to change/apply a processor.
+
+`MinimumSeverityLevelProcessor` is for configuring log processing pipelines.
+It is the only choice when one would like to set the minimum severity level
+for a certain exporting pipeline.
+For example, one batching processor would be exporting logs only above info level
+via OTLP and a second simple processor would be exporting all logs to stdout.
+
+## Trade-offs and mitigations
+
+For some langagues extending the `LogRecordProcessor` may be seen as breaking.
+For these languages implementing `LogRecordProcessor.Enabled` must be optional.
+The SDK `LogRecordProcessor` must return `true` if `Enabled` is not implemented.
+This approach is currently taken by OpenTelemetry Go.
+
+## Prior art
+
+`Logger.Enabled` is already defined by:
+
+- [OpenTelemetry C++](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-cpp/blob/main/api/include/opentelemetry/logs/logger.h)
+- [OpenTelemetry Go](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/blob/main/log/logger.go)
+- [OpenTelemetry PHP](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-php/blob/main/src/API/Logs/LoggerInterface.php)
+- [OpenTelemetry Rust](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-rust/blob/main/opentelemetry/src/logs/logger.rs)
+
+`LoggerConfig` (with only `disabled`) is already defined by:
+
+- [OpenTelemetry Java](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java/blob/main/sdk/logs/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/sdk/logs/internal/LoggerConfig.java)
+- [OpenTelemetry PHP](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-php/blob/main/src/SDK/Logs/LoggerConfig.php)
+
+`LogRecordProcessor.Enabled` is already defined by:
+
+- [OpenTelemetry Go](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/tree/main/sdk/log/internal/x)
+- [OpenTelemetry Rust](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-rust/blob/main/opentelemetry-sdk/src/logs/log_processor.rs)
+
+Regarding the (5) use case,
+OpenTelemetry Rust provides
+[OpenTelemetry Log Exporter for Linux user_events](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-rust-contrib/blob/1cb39edbb6467375f71f5dab25ccbc49ac9bf1d5/opentelemetry-user-events-logs/src/logs/exporter.rs)
+enabling efficient log emission to user_events.
+
+Regarding the (6) use case,
+OpenTelemetry Go Contrib provides
+[`minsev` processor](https://pkg.go.dev/go.opentelemetry.io/contrib/processors/minsev)
+allowing distinict minimum severity levels
+for different log destinations.
+
+## Alternatives
+
+Below are some alternatives that would be further explored
+during the Development phase.
+
+### Separate LogRecordFilterer Abstraction
+
+There is a [proposal](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/issues/4207#issuecomment-2354859647)
+to add a distinct `LogRecordFilterer` abstraction.
+Here is [a dicsussion](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/4290#discussion_r1887795096).
+
+However, this approach is less suited for use case (5)
+and offers limited flexibility for use case (6).
+The initial feedback after [an experiment](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/pull/5825)
+with `LogRecordFilterer` was that it can make composing
+processing pipelines harder and more bug-prone.
+
+Adding `Enabled` to `LogRecordProcessor` should be:
+
+- Simpler. There is no need for separate code for
+  global filterers and processor filterers.
+- More composable. Filtering could be applied at any place,
+  even after some pre-processing.
+- More cohesive: Filtering can be coupled to processing,
+  e.g. making a rate limiting processor should be more
+  straighforward.
+
+## Open questions
+
+### Need of LogRecordExporter.Enabled
+
+There is a [proposal](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/4290#discussion_r1878379347)
+to additionally extend `LogRecordExporter` with `Enabled` operation.
+However, at this point of time, this extension seems unnecessary.
+The `LogRecordExporter` abstraction is primarily designed
+for batching exporters, whereas the (5) use cases is focused
+on synchronous exporters, which can be implemented as a `LogRecordProcessor`.
+Skipping this additional level of abstraction would also reduce overhead.
+It is worth noticing that, `LogRecordExporter.Enabled`
+can always be added in future.
+
+## Future possibilities
+
+### Extending LoggerConfig
+
+In future, more fields can be added to `LoggerConfig`
+in order to conveniently address the most popular use cases.
+
+One example could be the addition of `LoggerConfig.trace_based`.
+This configuration can be used only capture the log records that are
+within sampled spans. It could serve the (4) use case in a declarative way
+configured on the SDK level. This configuration was discussed
+e.g. [here](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/4290#discussion_r1898672657)
+and is beyond the scope of this OTEP.
+
+### Dynamic Evaluation in LoggerConfig
+
+There is a [proposal](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/issues/4207#issuecomment-2501688210)
+suggested dynamic evaluation in `LoggerConfig` instead of static configuration
+to make the `LoggerConfig` to support dynamic evaluation.
+
+Additionally, nothing prevents adding some other way of configuring Loggers similar to
+[Metrics View](../../specification/metrics/sdk.md#view).
+This was proposed [here](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/pull/4290#discussion_r1908897211).
+
+It is worth mentioning that the purpose of `LoggerConfig` is `Logger` configuration.
+It won't solve use cases (5) and (6) that are tied to log processing pipelines.
+This mechanism could not be used to setup different filters for each registered
+processor.
+
+### Extending Logger.Enabled
+
+The `Enabled` API could be extended in the future
+to include additional parameters, such as `Event Name`,
+for processing event records.
+This would fit well a simple design where `LogRecordProcessor`
+is used for both log records and event records.
+References:
+
+- [Add EventName parameter to Logger.Enabled #4220](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/issues/4220).
+- OpenTelemetry Go: [[Prototype] log: Events support with minimal non-breaking changes #6018](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-go/pull/6018)