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Exec output plugin

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Exec output plugin

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Plugin version: v3.1.4
Released on: 2018-04-06
Changelog

For other versions, see the Versioned plugin docs.

Installation

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For plugins not bundled by default, it is easy to install by running bin/logstash-plugin install logstash-output-exec. See Working with plugins for more details.

Getting help

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For questions about the plugin, open a topic in the Discuss forums. For bugs or feature requests, open an issue in Github. For the list of Elastic supported plugins, please consult the Elastic Support Matrix.

Description

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The exec output will run a command for each event received. Ruby’s system() function will be used, i.e. the command string will be passed to a shell. You can use %{name} and other dynamic strings in the command to pass select fields from the event to the child process. Example:

    output {
      if [type] == "abuse" {
        exec {
          command => "iptables -A INPUT -s %{clientip} -j DROP"
        }
      }
    }

If you want it non-blocking you should use & or dtach or other such techniques. There is no timeout for the commands being run so misbehaving commands could otherwise stall the Logstash pipeline indefinitely.

Exercise great caution with %{name} field placeholders. The contents of the field will be included verbatim without any sanitization, i.e. any shell metacharacters from the field values will be passed straight to the shell.

Exec Output Configuration Options

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This plugin supports the following configuration options plus the Common options described later.

Setting	Input type	Required
`command`	string	Yes
`quiet`	boolean	No

Also see Common options for a list of options supported by all output plugins.

`command`

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This is a required setting.
Value type is string
There is no default value for this setting.

Command line to execute via subprocess. Use dtach or screen to make it non blocking. This value can include %{name} and other dynamic strings.

`quiet`

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Value type is boolean
Default value is false

display the result of the command to the terminal

Common options

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These configuration options are supported by all output plugins:

Setting	Input type	Required
`codec`	codec	No
`enable_metric`	boolean	No
`id`	string	No

`codec`

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Value type is codec
Default value is "plain"

The codec used for output data. Output codecs are a convenient method for encoding your data before it leaves the output without needing a separate filter in your Logstash pipeline.

`enable_metric`

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Value type is boolean
Default value is true

Disable or enable metric logging for this specific plugin instance. By default we record all the metrics we can, but you can disable metrics collection for a specific plugin.

`id`

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Value type is string
There is no default value for this setting.

Add a unique ID to the plugin configuration. If no ID is specified, Logstash will generate one. It is strongly recommended to set this ID in your configuration. This is particularly useful when you have two or more plugins of the same type. For example, if you have 2 exec outputs. Adding a named ID in this case will help in monitoring Logstash when using the monitoring APIs.

output {
  exec {
    id => "my_plugin_id"
  }
}

Variable substitution in the id field only supports environment variables and does not support the use of values from the secret store.

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