1// Copyright The OpenTelemetry Authors
 2// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 3
 4package trace // import "go.opentelemetry.io/otel/trace"
 5
 6import "go.opentelemetry.io/otel/trace/embedded"
 7
 8// TracerProvider provides Tracers that are used by instrumentation code to
 9// trace computational workflows.
10//
11// A TracerProvider is the collection destination of all Spans from Tracers it
12// provides, it represents a unique telemetry collection pipeline. How that
13// pipeline is defined, meaning how those Spans are collected, processed, and
14// where they are exported, depends on its implementation. Instrumentation
15// authors do not need to define this implementation, rather just use the
16// provided Tracers to instrument code.
17//
18// Commonly, instrumentation code will accept a TracerProvider implementation
19// at runtime from its users or it can simply use the globally registered one
20// (see https://pkg.go.dev/go.opentelemetry.io/otel#GetTracerProvider).
21//
22// Warning: Methods may be added to this interface in minor releases. See
23// package documentation on API implementation for information on how to set
24// default behavior for unimplemented methods.
25type TracerProvider interface {
26	// Users of the interface can ignore this. This embedded type is only used
27	// by implementations of this interface. See the "API Implementations"
28	// section of the package documentation for more information.
29	embedded.TracerProvider
30
31	// Tracer returns a unique Tracer scoped to be used by instrumentation code
32	// to trace computational workflows. The scope and identity of that
33	// instrumentation code is uniquely defined by the name and options passed.
34	//
35	// The passed name needs to uniquely identify instrumentation code.
36	// Therefore, it is recommended that name is the Go package name of the
37	// library providing instrumentation (note: not the code being
38	// instrumented). Instrumentation libraries can have multiple versions,
39	// therefore, the WithInstrumentationVersion option should be used to
40	// distinguish these different codebases. Additionally, instrumentation
41	// libraries may sometimes use traces to communicate different domains of
42	// workflow data (i.e. using spans to communicate workflow events only). If
43	// this is the case, the WithScopeAttributes option should be used to
44	// uniquely identify Tracers that handle the different domains of workflow
45	// data.
46	//
47	// If the same name and options are passed multiple times, the same Tracer
48	// will be returned (it is up to the implementation if this will be the
49	// same underlying instance of that Tracer or not). It is not necessary to
50	// call this multiple times with the same name and options to get an
51	// up-to-date Tracer. All implementations will ensure any TracerProvider
52	// configuration changes are propagated to all provided Tracers.
53	//
54	// If name is empty, then an implementation defined default name will be
55	// used instead.
56	//
57	// This method is safe to call concurrently.
58	Tracer(name string, options ...TracerOption) Tracer
59}