vectordotdev/vector

Only warn about small files when they are not empty

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#1065 opened on Oct 21, 2019

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 (9 comments) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)Rust (21,837 stars) (2,126 forks)batch import
domain: observabilitygood first issuemeta: feedbacksource: filetype: enhancement

Description

This is a follow up to https://github.com/timberio/vector/pull/863#issuecomment-544314174.

To recap, when the file source is configured to use the checksum fingerprinting strategy a warning log message is emitted letting the user know the file is too small to generate a fingerprint:

warn!(message = "Ignoring file smaller than fingerprint_bytes", file = ?path);

This is a very welcome feature for files that are actually too small. It helps to prevent confusion around why small files aren't being tailed. Unfortunately, it can produce a lot of noise in production environments where many empty files are present.

I'm unsure if we should ignore empty files, given that it could lead to the same confusion that we experienced previously with small files. Then again, I can see the reasoning behind ignoring empty files. I'm opening this up for discussion so we can come to a conclusion about what to do in this scenario.

Update:

New log line for too small files is:

Currently ignoring file too small to fingerprint

Contributor guide

Tech stack
rust
Domain
observabilitybackend
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
mostly clear
Prerequisites
basic Rust knowledgeunderstanding of file source fingerprinting
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
40
Research direction
Look at the `file` source implementation in `src/sources/file/` directory, particularly the fingerprinting logic and the warning message about small files. Review the discussion in the linked PR #863 and the subsequent comments. The goal is to decide whether to skip the warning for empty files or adjust the message. Implement a condition to check if the file is empty before emitting the warning, and ensure the behavior aligns with the maintainers' consensus from the issue.