telegraf/plugins/inputs/file/README.md

File Input Plugin

The file plugin parses the complete contents of a file every interval using the selected input data format.

Note: If you wish to parse only newly appended lines use the tail input plugin instead.

Configuration

# Parse a complete file each interval
[[inputs.file]]
  ## Files to parse each interval.  Accept standard unix glob matching rules,
  ## as well as ** to match recursive files and directories.
  files = ["/tmp/metrics.out"]

  ## Character encoding to use when interpreting the file contents.  Invalid
  ## characters are replaced using the unicode replacement character.  When set
  ## to the empty string the data is not decoded to text.
  ##   ex: character_encoding = "utf-8"
  ##       character_encoding = "utf-16le"
  ##       character_encoding = "utf-16be"
  ##       character_encoding = ""
  # character_encoding = ""

  ## Data format to consume.
  ## Each data format has its own unique set of configuration options, read
  ## more about them here:
  ## https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/blob/master/docs/DATA_FORMATS_INPUT.md
  data_format = "influx"


  ## Name a tag containing the name of the file the data was parsed from.  Leave empty
  ## to disable. Cautious when file name variation is high, this can increase the cardinality
  ## significantly. Read more about cardinality here:
  ## https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/cloud/reference/glossary/#series-cardinality
  # file_tag = ""

Metrics

The format of metrics produced by this plugin depends on the content and data format of the file.