Span Exporter - Standard output

Status: Stable

“Standard output” Span Exporter is a Span Exporter which outputs the spans to stdout/console.

The exporter’s output format is unspecified and can vary between implementations. Documentation SHOULD warn users about this. The following wording is recommended (modify as needed):

This exporter is intended for debugging and learning purposes. It is not recommended for production use. The output format is not standardized and can change at any time.

If a standardized format for exporting traces to stdout is desired, consider using the File Exporter, if available. However, please review the status of the File Exporter and verify if it is stable and production-ready.

OpenTelemetry SDK authors MAY choose the best idiomatic name for their language. For example, ConsoleExporter, StdoutExporter, StreamExporter, LoggingExporter etc.

If a language provides a mechanism to automatically configure a Span processor to pair with the associated exporter (e.g., using the OTEL_TRACES_EXPORTER environment variable), by default the standard output exporter SHOULD be paired with a simple processor.