# Telemetry
[](https://codecov.io/gh/beam-telemetry/telemetry/branch/master/graphs/badge.svg)
[Documentation](https://hexdocs.pm/telemetry/)
Telemetry is a lightweight library for dynamic dispatching of events, with a focus on
metrics and instrumentation. Any Erlang or Elixir library can use `telemetry` to emit
events. Application code and other libraries can then hook into those events and run
custom handlers.
> Note: this library is agnostic to tooling and therefore is not directly related to
> OpenTelemetry. For OpenTelemetry in the Erlang VM, see
> [opentelemetry-erlang](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-erlang), and check
> [opentelemetry_telemetry](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-erlang-contrib/tree/main/utilities/opentelemetry_telemetry)
> to connect both libraries.
## Usage
In a nutshell, you register a custom module and function to be invoked for certain events,
which are executed whenever there is such an event. The event name is a list of atoms. Each event is
composed of a numeric value and can have metadata attached to it. Let's look at an example.
Imagine that you have a web application and you'd like to log latency and response status for each
incoming request. With Telemetry, you can build a module which does exactly that whenever a response
is sent. The first step is to execute a measurement.
In Elixir:
```elixir
:telemetry.execute(
[:web, :request, :done],
%{latency: latency},
%{request_path: path, status_code: status}
)
```
In Erlang:
```erlang
telemetry:execute(
[web, request, done],
#{latency => Latency},
#{request_path => Path, status_code => Status}
)
```
Then you can create a module to be invoked whenever the event happens.
In Elixir:
```elixir
defmodule LogResponseHandler do
require Logger
def handle_event([:web, :request, :done], measurements, metadata, _config) do
Logger.info(
"[#{metadata.request_path}] #{metadata.status_code} sent in #{measurements.latency}"
)
end
end
```
In Erlang:
```erlang
-module(log_response_handler).
-include_lib("kernel/include/logger.hrl").
handle_event([web, request, done], #{latency := Latency}, #{request_path := Path,
status_code := Status}, _Config) ->
?LOG_INFO("[~s] ~p sent in ~p", [Path, Status, Latency]).
```
**Important note:**
The `handle_event` callback of each handler is invoked synchronously on each `telemetry:execute` call.
Therefore, it is extremely important to avoid blocking operations. If you need to perform any action
that is not immediate, consider offloading the work to a separate process (or a pool of processes)
by sending a message.
Finally, all you need to do is to attach the module to the executed event.
In Elixir:
```elixir
:ok =
:telemetry.attach(
# unique handler id
"log-response-handler",
[:web, :request, :done],
&LogResponseHandler.handle_event/4,
nil
)
```
In Erlang:
```erlang
ok = telemetry:attach(
%% unique handler id
<<"log-response-handler">>,
[web, request, done],
fun log_response_handler:handle_event/4,
[]
)
```
You might think that it isn't very useful, because you could just as well write a log statement
instead of calling `telemetry:execute/3` – and you would be right! But now imagine that each Elixir library
would publish its own set of events with information useful for introspection. Currently each library
rolls their own instrumentation layer – Telemetry aims to provide a single interface for these use
cases across the whole ecosystem.
### Spans
In order to provide uniform events that capture the start and end of discrete events, it is recommended
that you use the `telemetry:span/3` call. This function will generate a start event and a stop or exception
event depending on whether the provided function executed successfully or raised an error. Under the hood,
the `telemetry:span/3` function leverages the `telemetry:execute/3` function, so all the same usage patterns
apply. If an exception does occur, an `EventPrefix ++ [exception]` event will be emitted and the caught error
will be re-raised.
The measurements for the `EventPrefix ++ [start]` event will contain a key called `system_time` which is
derived by calling `erlang:system_time/0`. For `EventPrefix ++ [stop]` and `EventPrefix ++ [exception]`
events, the measurements will contain a key called `duration` and its value is derived by calling
`erlang:monotonic_time() - StartMonotonicTime`. All events include a `monotonic_time` measurement too.
All of them represent time as native units.
To convert the duration from native units you can use:
```elixir
milliseconds = System.convert_time_unit(duration, :native, :millisecond)
```
To create span events you would do something like this:
In Elixir:
```elixir
def process_message(message) do
start_metadata = %{message: message}
result =
:telemetry.span(
[:worker, :processing],
start_metadata,
fn ->
result = ... # Process the message
{result, %{metadata: "Information related to the processing of the message"}}
end
)
end
```
In Erlang:
```erlang
process_message(Message) ->
StartMetadata = #{message => Message},
Result = telemetry:span(
[worker, processing],
StartMetadata,
fun() ->
Result = % Process the message
{Result, #{metadata => "Information related to the processing of the message"}}
end
).
```
To then attach to the events that `telemetry:span/3` emits you would do the following:
In Elixir:
```elixir
:ok =
:telemetry.attach_many(
"log-response-handler",
[
[:worker, :processing, :start],
[:worker, :processing, :stop],
[:worker, :processing, :exception]
],
&LogResponseHandler.handle_event/4,
nil
)
```
In Erlang:
```erlang
ok = telemetry:attach_many(
<<"log-response-handler">>,
[
[worker, processing, start],
[worker, processing, stop],
[worker, processing, exception]
],
fun log_response_handler:handle_event/4,
[]
)
```
With the following event handler module defined:
In Elixir:
```elixir
defmodule LogResponseHandler do
require Logger
def handle_event(event, measurements, metadata, _config) do
Logger.info("Event: #{inspect(event)}")
Logger.info("Measurements: #{inspect(measurements)}")
Logger.info("Metadata: #{inspect(metadata)}")
end
end
```
In Erlang:
```erlang
-module(log_response_handler).
-include_lib("kernel/include/logger.hrl").
handle_event(Event, Measurements, Metadata, _Config) ->
?LOG_INFO("Event: ~p", [Event]),
?LOG_INFO("Measurements: ~p", [Measurements]),
?LOG_INFO("Metadata: ~p", [Metadata]).
```
## Installation
Telemetry is available on [Hex](https://hex.pm/packages/telemetry). To install, just add it to
your dependencies in `mix.exs`:
```elixir
defp deps() do
[
{:telemetry, "~> 1.0"}
]
end
```
or `rebar.config`:
```erlang
{deps, [{telemetry, "~> 1.0"}]}.
```
## Copyright and License
Copyright (c) 2019 Erlang Ecosystem Foundation and Erlang Solutions.
Telemetry's source code is released under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
See the [LICENSE](LICENSE) and [NOTICE](NOTICE) files for more information.
