BUILDING.md

Building the components in this repository

There are several options for building the components in this repository. This is a Golang code base, so users familiar with building and installing Golang will find this easy to do using Golang tools. Docker build instructions are also provided.

The recommended practice for building the OpenTelemetry Collector uses a builder tool. The builder synthesizes a Golang go.mod file and main package with a specific set of components. If you are trying to modify and build code in this repository, see CONTRIBUTING.md, otherwise the instructions here will help you simply build the code in order to try it out.

Building a collector from local sources using an installed Golang toolchain

The ./cmd/otelarrowcol directory contains a pre-generated collector build with a set of demonstration components detailed in ./cmd/otelarrowcol/build-config.yaml.

Users who have a recent Golang toolchain installed and wish to build a collector for the host operating system can simply run make otelarrowcol at the top level of this repository. The executable is placed in ./bin/otelarrowcol. You will be able to run the examples using the resulting artifact.

make otelarrowcol
./bin/otelarrowcol_darwin_arm64 --config collector/examples/bridge/saas-collector.yaml

You can also build and run directly from the directory containing the main file, e.g.,

go run ./collector/cmd/otelarrowcol --config collector/examples/bridge/edge-collector.yaml

Note that the go.work file in the top-level of this repository enables running otelarrowcol from the top-level directory.

Installing a collector using remote sources with an installed Golang toolchain

The go install command can build and install a collector by downloading the sources to the latest release itself.

go install github.com/open-telemetry/otel-arrow/collector/cmd/otelarrowcol

This installs otelarrowcol, which can be run with, e.g.,

otelarrowcol --config <path-to-config.yaml>

Building a collector from local sources using Docker

Some vendors and platform providers offer pre-built OpenTelemetry collector "distros" including compoments they recommend for use. When your vendor or platform provider adds support for OpenTelemetry Protocol with Apache Arrow, you may wish to use the artifacts provided by them.

The top-level Dockerfile in this repository demonstrates how to build otelarrowcol as a container image, and it can easily be modified for integration into a custom build and release pipeline.

With Docker installed, simply run:

make docker-otelarrowcol

You will now be able to run the examples using the resulting otelarrowcol image.