Systemd Receiver not included in recent otelcol-contrib distribution builds

[josepcorrea]

Component(s)
receiver/systemd

I am using the official pre-built release of the OpenTelemetry Contrib Collector (otelcol-contrib_0.141.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz) for Linux.

I need to use the systemdreceiver component for collecting logs, but after downloading the latest artifact, I confirmed that the systemdreceiver is not present in the distributed binary.

Steps to Verify:

Download and unpack otelcol-contrib_0.141.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz.

Run the command to list components:

Bash

./otelcol-contrib components | grep -i systemd

Expected Result: The systemdreceiver module should be listed, as the component has been promoted to alpha stability and is marked for inclusion in the contrib distribution (as per receiver/systemdreceiver/README.md).

Actual Result: The systemdreceiver is missing from the output, preventing its use.

Since this receiver is crucial for log collection on Linux hosts using systemd, we kindly request this component be integrated and included in the upcoming otelcol-contrib release.

[dosubot]

The systemdreceiver is not included in the official otelcol-contrib_0.141.0 release. This is because it depends on the journalctl binary, which is not packaged in the contrib image due to compatibility and maintainability concerns. Maintainers have stated there are no current plans to include journalctl in the contrib image, and recommend building a custom collector or image if you need this receiver. There is ongoing work on a pure Go journald reader, but it is not yet available for production use. For now, you can use the OpenTelemetry Collector builder (ocb) to create a custom collector that includes systemdreceiver, or mount the necessary binaries from the host as a workaround. More details and discussion can be found here and the official manifest for 0.141.0 confirms its exclusion here.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[atoulme]

@SquidDev please review

[SquidDev]

This is because it depends on the journalctl binary, which is not packaged in the contrib image due to compatibility and maintainability concerns.

Oh, please don't make me spend energy fighting AI misinformation in my free time too. I'm fairly sure this is untrue on all counts:

• The systemd receiver does not depend on journalctl.
• The journald reciever (which does depend on journalctl), is shipped as part of the collector already, so I don't know where it's got that from.

The only reason it's not in the collector yet is I was waiting for there to be a tagged release with the collector present. Now that v0.141.0 is out, I was planning to get a PR up to the releases repository when I have some free time.

[SquidDev]

Looks like @haudren-woven has beaten me to it in #1293. Thanks!

[haudren-woven]

@SquidDev : I was waiting for the alpha announcement, so I jumped on it, but unfortunately this is a corporate account, and so I can't sign the CLA without my company approving it, which will take it. If you could somehow take over my changes while I try to jump through the legal hurdles, that would greatly speed up the process. Sorry about causing confusion here 🙇