GetTracerProvider returns NoopTracerProvider

[aaronjheng]

Per the comments from GetTracerProvider, if no global trace provider is registered, GetTracerProvider returns NoopTracerProvider. However, there is always a global trace provider registered. Am I missing something? If so, how can I get a NoopTracerProvider provider?

// GetTracerProvider returns the registered global trace provider.
// If none is registered then an instance of NoopTracerProvider is returned.
//
// Use the trace provider to create a named tracer. E.g.
//
//	tracer := otel.GetTracerProvider().Tracer("example.com/foo")
//
// or
//
//	tracer := otel.Tracer("example.com/foo")
func GetTracerProvider() trace.TracerProvider {
	return global.TracerProvider()
}

[MrAlias]

However, there is always a global trace provider registered.

That is not guaranteed. If you do not explicitly call SetTracerProvider no global tracer provider is registered, a noop will be returned in this case.

If you would explicitly like a NoopTracerProvider you can create one with NewNoopTracerProvider.

[aaronjheng]

If you do not explicitly call SetTracerProvider no global tracer provider is registered, a noop will be returned in this case.

You mean go.opentelemetry.io/otel/internal/global.tracerProvider is acting like a NoopTracerProvider but it's not a NoopTracerProvider in this case. Right?

[MrAlias]

Correct, it will delegate all functionality to a noop TracerProvider until a user registers a TracerProvider.

[aaronjheng]

Perhaps we could clarify more precisely in comments.