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Add float histograms and gauge histograms to proto spec
Note that this is only an extension of the proto spec. Both generators and consumers of the protobuf still need changes to make use of these changes. Gauge histograms measure current distributions. For one, they are inspired by the GaugeHistogram type introducted by OpenMetrics, see https://github.com/OpenObservability/OpenMetrics/blob/main/specification/OpenMetrics.md#gaugehistogram They are also handled in the same way as OpenMetrics does it, by using a new MetricType enum field GAUGE_HISTOGRAM, but not changing anything else, i.e. for both regular and gauge histograms, the same Histogram message type is used. The other reason why we need gauge histograms comes from PromQL: If you `rate` a histogram (which is possible with the new sparse histograms as 1st class data type), the result is a gauge histogram. A rate'd histogram can be created by a recording rule and then stored in the TSDB. From there, it can be exposed by federation, so we need to be able to represent it in the exposition format. Float histograms are histograms where all counts (count of observations, counts in each bucket, zero bucket count) are floating point numbers rather than integer numbers. They are rarely needed for direct instrumentation. Use cases are weighted histograms or timing histograms, see kubernetes/kubernetes#109277 for a real-world example. However, float histograms happen all the time as results of PromQL expressions. Following the same line of argument as above, those float histograms can end up in the TSDB via recording rules, which means they can be exposed via federation. Note that float histograms are implicitly supported by the original Prometheus text format, as this format simply uses floating point numbers for all sample values. OpenMetrics has avoided this ambiguity and has specified integers for bucket counts and the count of observations in a histogram, which means it needs to be extended to support float histograms, similar to how this commit extends the original Prometheus protobuf format. Signed-off-by: beorn7 <[email protected]>
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