General SDK Configuration

[willie]

Apparently, environmental variables are optional, but the SDK documentation does not indicate this.

For example, the C++ SDK does not implement OTEL_SERVICE_NAME. open-telemetry/opentelemetry-cpp#2559

[cijothomas]

Good point! We may need to do an audit and make sure the docs page is not promising something not implemented by the language sdks!

[cartermp]

Huh, TIL. I would have figured at least OTEL_SERVICE_NAME would be required for all SDKs.

[cijothomas]

Huh, TIL. I would have figured at least OTEL_SERVICE_NAME would be required for all SDKs.

Maybe its worth exploring is spec is willing to make some env variables mandatory? I am not sure what was the reason it was optional in the spec. (That'll, unfortunately, open up other heated discussion about priority - code or env-var who wins! From my own experience, languages vary in this regard)

[svrnm]

From a docs perspective the first thing to do is indeed adding a disclaimer that says what is state of the spec right now, but from an overall perspective I agree that providing some more consistency here would be very end-user friendly.

[svrnm]

@willie would you be willing to provide a PR with such a disclaimer?

[willie]

Resolved by #4099