to

Consumes events by combining a connector and a format.

Synopsis

to <uri> [write <format>]
to <path> [write <format>]
to <connector> [write <format>]

Description

The to operator consumes events at the end of a pipeline by bringing together a connector and a format.

If given something that looks like a path to a file, the connector can pick out a format automatically based on the file extension or the file name. This enables a shorter syntax, e.g., to ./file.csv uses the csv format. All connectors also have a default format, which will be used if the format can't be determined by the path. For most connectors, this default format is json. So, for example, to stdin uses the json format.

Additionally, if a file extension indicating compression can be found, compress is automatically used. For example, to myfile.json.gz is automatically gzip-compressed and formatted as json, i.e., write json | compress gzip | save myfile.json.gz.

The to operator is a pipeline under the hood. For most cases, it is equal to write <format> | save <connector>. However, for some combinations of connectors and formats the underlying pipeline is a bit more complex. We recommend always using to ... write ... over the write and save operators.

<connector>

The connector used to save bytes.

Some connectors have connector-specific options. Please refer to the documentation of the individual connectors for more information.

<format>

The format used to print events to bytes.

Some formats have format-specific options. Please refer to the documentation of the individual formats for more information.

Examples

Write events to stdout formatted as CSV.

to stdout write csv

Write events to the file path/to/eve.json formatted as JSON.

to path/to/eve.json write json
to file path/to/eve.json write json