feat: add support for `OTEL_SDK_DISABLED` environment variable by iamsauravsharma · Pull Request #3088 · open-telemetry/opentelemetry-rust

iamsauravsharma · 2025-07-28T12:14:53Z

Fixes #1936

Changes

Add support for OTEL_SDK_DISABLED environment variable using no-op SDK implementation as explained Opentelemetry SDK environment variable docs. When set to true, the SDK will provide no-op implementations for all API components (Tracer, Logger, and Meter).

Implemented no-op provider classes that mimic the shutdown no-op providers for logger and tracer with only difference is shutdown variable which is set to false for disabled no op. Where as for metrics existing noop is re used

Merge requirement checklist

CONTRIBUTING guidelines followed
Unit tests added/updated (if applicable)
Appropriate CHANGELOG.md files updated for non-trivial, user-facing changes
Changes in public API reviewed (if applicable)

linux-foundation-easycla · 2025-07-28T12:14:57Z

The committers listed above are authorized under a signed CLA.

✅ login: iamsauravsharma / name: Saurav Sharma (9f2f400)

codecov · 2025-07-28T12:18:48Z

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 42.94118% with 97 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 82.7%. Comparing base (74cb6f3) to head (4e437db).

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
opentelemetry-sdk/src/logs/logger_provider.rs	18.7%	39 Missing ⚠️
opentelemetry-sdk/src/trace/provider.rs	40.0%	36 Missing ⚠️
opentelemetry-sdk/src/metrics/meter_provider.rs	29.1%	17 Missing ⚠️
opentelemetry-sdk/src/logs/logger.rs	50.0%	3 Missing ⚠️
opentelemetry-sdk/src/trace/span.rs	96.1%	1 Missing ⚠️
opentelemetry-sdk/src/trace/tracer.rs	83.3%	1 Missing ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@           Coverage Diff           @@
##            main   #3088     +/-   ##
=======================================
- Coverage   83.0%   82.7%   -0.3%     
=======================================
  Files        130     130             
  Lines      27993   28121    +128     
=======================================
+ Hits       23250   23275     +25     
- Misses      4743    4846    +103

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iamsauravsharma · 2025-07-28T14:47:24Z

Since overwriting OTEL_SDK_DISABLED environment variable would effects other test when running parallel test. 3 new test are ignored by default and scripts/test.sh is updated so 3 test run themselves in last step

Copilot

Pull Request Overview

This PR implements support for the OTEL_SDK_DISABLED environment variable, which allows disabling the OpenTelemetry SDK at runtime. When set to "true", the SDK provides no-op implementations for all telemetry components (Tracer, Logger, and Meter) as specified in the OpenTelemetry specification.

Key changes:

Adds environment variable checking in all provider types to return no-op implementations when disabled
Implements separate disabled no-op providers distinct from shutdown no-op providers
Adds comprehensive test coverage for the new functionality

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
scripts/test.sh	Adds test command for the new environment variable functionality
opentelemetry-sdk/src/trace/provider.rs	Implements disabled tracer provider and environment variable checking
opentelemetry-sdk/src/metrics/meter_provider.rs	Adds environment variable checking to meter provider
opentelemetry-sdk/src/logs/logger_provider.rs	Implements disabled logger provider and environment variable checking
opentelemetry-sdk/CHANGELOG.md	Documents the new feature addition

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (2)

opentelemetry-sdk/src/trace/provider.rs:782

[nitpick] Variable name 'noop_tracer' is misleading since this tests both disabled and enabled scenarios. Consider renaming to 'tracer' or 'test_tracer' for clarity.

            let noop_tracer = tracer_provider.tracer("noop");

opentelemetry-sdk/src/trace/provider.rs:804

[nitpick] Variable name 'noop_tracer' is misleading in this context where OTEL_SDK_DISABLED is set to 'false', meaning the tracer should be functional. Consider renaming to 'tracer' or 'functional_tracer'.

            let noop_tracer = tracer_provider.tracer("noop");

lalitb · 2025-07-28T16:31:49Z

+// a no op logger provider used as placeholder when sdk is disabled with
+// help of environment variable `OTEL_SDK_DISABLED`
+// TODO - replace it with LazyLock once it is stable
+static DISABLED_LOGGER_PROVIDER: OnceLock<SdkLoggerProvider> = OnceLock::new();


Can we reuse the existing NOOP_LOGGER_PROVIDER for both shutdown and disable ?

setting is_shutdown as true also for disabled one have no effect currently but to me true value looks wrong since logger provider is not in shutdown state but disabled by user so i have created new logger provider

cijothomas · 2025-07-28T17:16:10Z

-            return SdkTracer::new(scope, noop_tracer_provider().clone());
+            return SdkTracer::new(scope, shutdown_tracer_provider().clone());
+        }
+        if std::env::var("OTEL_SDK_DISABLED").is_ok_and(|var| var.to_lowercase() == "true") {


what is the intended use case of "OTEL_SDK_DISABLED" env variable? Are we expected to re-read the env variable each time a tracer/logger/meter is requested? Or we read the env variable once at startup and not again?

It looks like the current PR is re-reading it each time. This can cause inconsistencies- tracers from before will continue to work vs new ones won't.. That is not the intended behavior in my opinion.

My suggestion:
Read the env variable once, at provider construction time, and store the value inside.
Any time tracer/logger/meter is requested, return NoOp if disabled. The log message should indicate NoOp is being returned due to the env-variable setting.

Happy to discuss other ideas.

implemented similar to python implementation open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python#3648 after reading discussion at open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification#4332

cijothomas

Requesting changes to discuss and address comment: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-rust/pull/3088/files#r2237333415

iamsauravsharma · 2025-08-05T03:38:06Z

Implemented some changes as requested

iamsauravsharma · 2025-10-28T02:45:02Z

@cijothomas @lalitb just a reminder about this PR. I’ve pushed the requested changes or replied with my reasoning. could you please take another look?

cijothomas · 2025-10-31T18:42:39Z

            return Meter::new(Arc::new(NoopMeter::new()));
        }
+        if self.inner.is_disabled {
+            otel_warn!(name: "MeterProvider.NoOpMeterReturned", message = "Returned NoOpMeter. SDK is disabled");


Suggested change

otel_warn!(name: "MeterProvider.NoOpMeterReturned", message = "Returned NoOpMeter. SDK is disabled");

otel_debug!(name: "MeterProvider.NoOpMeterReturned", message = "Returned NoOpMeter. SDK is disabled");

cijothomas · 2025-10-31T18:45:06Z

+        }
+        // If the provider is disabled, new logger will refer a disabled no-op logger provider.
+        if self.inner.is_disabled {
+            otel_warn!(name: "LoggerProvider.NoOpLoggerReturned", message = "Returned NoOpLogger. SDK is disabled");


lets use consistent logging as shutdown case.

iamsauravsharma

@cijothomas I have implemented changes suggested with some comment below

iamsauravsharma · 2025-11-01T02:49:36Z

        if self.inner.is_shutdown.load(Ordering::Relaxed) {
            otel_debug!(
-                name: "LoggerProvider.NoOpLoggerReturned",
+                name: "LoggerProvider.ShutdownNoOpLoggerReturned",


I have renamed old NoOpLoggerReturned to ShutdownNoOpLoggerReturned should i change it back to original name. Renamed so we can distinguish between shutdown and disabled case

we can keep the original name for this and for the env_variable disabled scenario both. Just add another attribute "reason", with value being "already_shutdown" and "disabled_via_env_variable".

I have used original name and added reason attribute

iamsauravsharma · 2025-11-01T02:50:14Z

+            std::env::var("OTEL_SDK_DISABLED").is_ok_and(|var| var.to_lowercase() == "true");
+
+        if is_disabled {
+            otel_warn!(name: "LoggerProvider.Disabled", message = "SDK is disabled through environment variable");


Using warn! here since reference python implementation also used warn

iamsauravsharma · 2026-02-20T04:48:40Z

@cijothomas can you review PR again? Implemented requested changes

github-actions · 2026-05-16T04:22:01Z

Thank you for your contribution! This PR has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had activity in the last 14 days. This may be due to a delay in review on our side or awaiting a response from you; either is fine, and we appreciate your patience.

It will be closed in 14 days if no further activity occurs. Pushing a new commit or leaving a comment will remove the stale label and keep the PR open.

github-actions · 2026-06-11T04:46:40Z

Thank you for your contribution! This PR has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had activity in the last 14 days. This may be due to a delay in review on our side or awaiting a response from you; either is fine, and we appreciate your patience.

It will be closed in 14 days if no further activity occurs. Pushing a new commit or leaving a comment will remove the stale label and keep the PR open.

cijothomas · 2026-06-26T02:01:28Z

@iamsauravsharma

Thanks for continuing to work on this. Given this feature is supposed to disable entire SDK, I'd like to see a benchmark added which indeed proves that the perf cost when this env var is set is comparable to the API only perf. This will allow us to confirm that we are short-circuiting early enough.

iamsauravsharma · 2026-06-26T06:31:57Z

@cijothomas I have added benchmark and below are result when running in my machine

Test	api-only	sdk-disabled	sdk-shutdown	sdk-enabled
trace	20.4 ns	38.9 ns	38.5 ns	178 ns
log	0.32 ns	2.09 ns	2.09 ns	37 ns
metrics	6.11 ns	6.11 ns	6.10 ns	66 ns

cijothomas · 2026-06-26T16:13:53Z

@cijothomas I have added benchmark and below are result when running in my machine

Test api-only sdk-disabled sdk-shutdown sdk-enabled
trace 20.4 ns 38.9 ns 38.5 ns 178 ns
log 0.32 ns 2.09 ns 2.09 ns 37 ns
metrics 6.11 ns 6.11 ns 6.10 ns 66 ns

Thanks! Could you include the benchmark as part of this PR ? It definitely looks like there is room for improvement in traces and logs - are we running samplers/generating-trace-id etc when SDK-DISABLED? That might explain why its double the api-only...
Please see if you can optimize it more.

iamsauravsharma · 2026-06-26T16:40:01Z

@cijothomas benchmark code is already included in PR.

Regarding the performance since sdk-disabled and sdk-shutdown yielded almost identical result. And, sdk-shutdown was already implemented I thought performance was acceptable. Anyway I would look if I can optimize further.

Signed-off-by: Saurav Sharma <appdroiddeveloper@gmail.com>

iamsauravsharma · 2026-07-01T10:46:22Z

@cijothomas Performance of trace and logs were improved further
https://github.com/iamsauravsharma/opentelemetry-rust/blob/4e437db2c682b4bab38107b4f7698d3725b2e306/opentelemetry-sdk/benches/sdk_disabled.rs Latest benchmark result and code performing benchmark

Test	api-only	sdk-disabled	sdk-shutdown	sdk-enabled
trace	20.3 ns	31.9 ns	31.4 ns	185 ns
log	0.32 ns	1.28 ns	1.27 ns	38 ns
metrics	6.11 ns	6.11 ns	6.10 ns	66 ns

iamsauravsharma requested a review from a team as a code owner July 28, 2025 12:14

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Comment thread opentelemetry-sdk/src/metrics/meter_provider.rs Outdated

Comment thread opentelemetry-sdk/src/logs/logger_provider.rs Outdated

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helio-frota mentioned this pull request Oct 23, 2025

Disable OpenTelemetry via env var guacsec/trustify#2061

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bryantbiggs mentioned this pull request Feb 20, 2026

Tracking: spec-required environment variables not yet supported #3374

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feat: add support for OTEL_SDK_DISABLED environment variable

6dffee7

Signed-off-by: Saurav Sharma <appdroiddeveloper@gmail.com>

iamsauravsharma force-pushed the add-env-otel-sdk-disabled branch from 6559382 to 6dffee7 Compare July 1, 2026 10:02

refactor: simplify span creation

4e437db

Signed-off-by: Saurav Sharma <appdroiddeveloper@gmail.com>

	otel_warn!(name: "MeterProvider.NoOpMeterReturned", message = "Returned NoOpMeter. SDK is disabled");
	otel_debug!(name: "MeterProvider.NoOpMeterReturned", message = "Returned NoOpMeter. SDK is disabled");

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