# Lookup Tables

Lookup tables are a powerful construct to obtain class information based on message content. It works on top of a data-file which maps key (to be looked up) to value (the result of lookup).

The idea is to use a message properties (or derivatives of it) as an index into a table which then returns another value. For example, $fromhost-ip could be used as an index, with the table value representing the type of server or the department or remote office it is located in.

This can be emulated using if and else-if stack, but implementing it as a dedicated component allows `lookup` to be made fast.

The lookup tables itself exists in a separate data file (one per table). This file is loaded on Rsyslog startup and when a reload is requested.

There are different types of lookup tables (identified by “type” field in json data-file).

## Types

### string

The key to be looked up is an arbitrary string.

Match criterion: The key must be exactly equal to index from one of the entries.

### array

The value to be looked up is an integer number from a consecutive set. The set does not need to start at zero or one, but there must be no number missing. So, for example `5,6,7,8,9` would be a valid set of index values, while `1,2,4,5` would not be (due to missing `3`).

Match criterion: Looked-up number(key) must be exactly equal to index from one of the entries.

### sparseArray

The value to be looked up is an integer value, but there may be gaps inside the set of values (usually there are large gaps). A typical use case would be the matching of IPv4 address information.

Match criterion: A match happens on the first index that is less than or equal to the looked-up key.

Note that index integer numbers are represented by unsigned 32 bits.

## Lookup Table File Format

Lookup table files contain a single JSON object. This object consists of a header and a table part.

Header

The header is the top-level json. It has parameters “version”, “nomatch”, and “type”.

Parameters:

  version <number, default: 1> : Version of table-definition format (so improvements in the future can be managed in a backward compatible way).

  nomatch <string literal, default: “”> : Value to be returned for a lookup when match fails.

  type <string, array or sparseArray, default: string> : Type of lookup-table (controls how matches are performed).

Table

This must be an array of elements, even if only a single value exists (for obvious reasons, we do not expect this to occur often). Each array element must contain two fields “index” and “value”.

This is a sample of how an ip-to-office mapping may look like:

    { "version" : 1,
      "nomatch" : "unk",
      "type" : "string",
      "table" : [
        {"index" : "10.0.1.1", "value" : "A" },
        {"index" : "10.0.1.2", "value" : "A" },
        {"index" : "10.0.1.3", "value" : "A" },
        {"index" : "10.0.2.1", "value" : "B" },
        {"index" : "10.0.2.2", "value" : "B" },
        {"index" : "10.0.2.3", "value" : "B" }]}

Note: In the example above, if a different IP comes in, the value “unk” is returned thanks to the nomatch parameter in the first line.

Lookup tables can be accessed via the `lookup()` built-in function. A common usage pattern is to set a local variable to the lookup result and later use that variable in templates.

## Lookup-table configuration

Lookup-table configuration involves a two part setup (definition and usage(lookup)), with an optional third part, which allows reloading table using internal trigger.

### lookup_table(name=”<table>” file=”</path/to/file>”…) (object)

Defines the table(identified by the table-name) and allows user to set some properties that control behavior of the table.

    lookup_table(name="msg_per_host")

Parameters:

  name <string literal, mandatory> : Name of the table.

  file <string literal, file path, mandatory> : Path to external json database file.

  reloadOnHUP <on|off, default: on> : Whether or not table should be reloaded when process receives HUP signal.

A definition setting all the parameters looks like:

    lookup_table(name="host_bu" file="/var/lib/host_billing_unit_mapping.json" reloadOnHUP="on")

### lookup(“<table>”, <expr>) (function)

Looks up and returns the value that is associated with the given key (passed as <variable>) in lookup table identified by table-name. If no match is found (according to table-type matching-criteria specified above), the “nomatch” string is returned (or an empty string if it is not defined).

Parameters:

  name <string literal, mandatory> : Name of the table.

  expr <expression resulting in string or number according to lookup-table type, mandatory> : Key to be looked up.

A `lookup` call looks like:

    set $.bu = lookup("host_bu", $hostname);

    if ($.bu == "unknown") then {
        ....
    }

Some examples of different match/no-match scenarios:

string table:

    { "nomatch" : "none",
      "type" : "string",
      "table":[
        {"index" : "foo", "value" : "bar" },
        {"index" : "baz", "value" : "quux" }]}

Match/no-Match behaviour:

key | return
--- | ---
foo | bar
baz | quux
corge | none

array table:

    { "nomatch" : "nothing",
      "type" : "array",
      "table":[
        {"index" : 9, "value" : "foo" },
        {"index" : 10, "value" : "bar" },
        {"index" : 11, "value" : "baz" }]}

Match/no-Match behaviour:

key | return
--- | ---
9 | foo
11 | baz
15 | nothing
0 | nothing

sparseArray table:

    { "nomatch" : "no_num",
      "type" : "sparseArray",
      "table":[
        {"index" : "9", "value" : "foo" },
        {"index" : "11", "value" : "baz" }]}

Match/no-Match behaviour:

key | return
--- | ---
8 | no_num
9 | foo
10 | foo
11 | baz
12 | baz
100 | baz

### reload_lookup_table(“<table>”, “<stub value>”) (statement)

Reloads lookup table identified by given table name asynchronously (by internal trigger, as opposed to HUP).

This statement isn’t always useful. It needs to be used only when lookup-table-reload needs to be triggered in response to a message.

Messages will continue to be processed while table is asynchronously reloaded.

Note: For performance reasons, message that triggers reload should be accepted only from a trusted source.

Parameters:

  name <string literal, mandatory> : Name of the table.

  stub value <string literal, optional> : Value to stub the table in-case reload-attempt fails.

A `reload_lookup_table` invocation looks like:

    if ($.do_reload == "y") then {
        reload_lookup_table("host_bu", "unknown")
    }

## Implementation Details

The lookup table functionality is implemented via efficient algorithms.

The string and sparseArray lookup have O(log(n)) time complexity, while array lookup is O(1).

To preserve space and, more important, increase cache hit performance, equal data values are only stored once, no matter how often a lookup index points to them.

See also

Help with configuring/using `Rsyslog`:

- Mailing list - best route for general questions

- GitHub: rsyslog source project - detailed questions, reporting issues that are believed to be bugs with `Rsyslog`

- Stack Exchange (View, Ask) - experimental support from rsyslog community

See also

Contributing to `Rsyslog`:

- Source project: rsyslog project README.

- Documentation: rsyslog-doc project README

Copyright 2008-2020 Rainer Gerhards (Großrinderfeld), and Others.