Add documentation of output formats

Formats:
 * json
 * json_lines
 * json_stream
 * gelf
 * msgpack

Documentation suggested in #300

Author: artheus-sbab

pipeline/outputs/output_formats.md

@@ -0,0 +1,137 @@
+# Output Formats
+
+Some of the output plugin's has a config field called `formats`, with a limited
+amount of options are available (`json`, `json_stream`, `json_lines`, `msgpack`, `gelf`).
+
+The specifications, or reference to external documentation of the formats, is
+available in this page.
+
+## JSON Formats
+
+The most custom format options are the JSON types, these are three quite
+common variants of sending JSON encoded data over various API's.
+
+The example payloads below, are all "prettified" for readability.
+
+_Records shown in example payloads, are the three first commits of the fluent-bit repository_
+
+### json
+
+Queued records encoded as a single JSON array of JSON encoded fluent-bit records.
+
+#### Example payload
+
+```json
+[
+  {
+    "timestamp": 1398282091.000,
+    "log": "Core: initialization and 32 bit fixes.",
+    "commit": "b327996bfcbc0f1f47e62c862c6f303592dfacea",
+    "author": "Eduardo Silva"
+  },
+  {
+    "timestamp": 1422350608.000,
+    "log": "Initial import.",
+    "commit": "49269c5ec3c74411943e362cfef85052665ae97f",
+    "author": "Eduardo Silva"
+  },
+  {
+    "timestamp": 1422418113.000,
+    "log": "Doc: add reference to Apache License v2.0",
+    "commit": "6e09478733e8273ec216328dfc921e622740695d",
+    "author": "Eduardo Silva"
+  }
+]
+```
+
+### json_stream
+
+_a.k.a. Concatenated JSON_
+
+Queued JSON-encoded fluent-bit records, with no separator between records.
+
+#### Example payload
+
+```json
+{
+  "timestamp": 1398282091.000,
+  "log": "Core: initialization and 32 bit fixes.",
+  "commit": "b327996bfcbc0f1f47e62c862c6f303592dfacea",
+  "author": "Eduardo Silva"
+}{
+  "timestamp": 1422350608.000,
+  "log": "Initial import.",
+  "commit": "49269c5ec3c74411943e362cfef85052665ae97f",
+  "author": "Eduardo Silva"
+}{
+  "timestamp": 1422418113.000,
+  "log": "Doc: add reference to Apache License v2.0",
+  "commit": "6e09478733e8273ec216328dfc921e622740695d",
+  "author": "Eduardo Silva"
+}
+```
+
+### json_lines
+
+_a.k.a. Newline-Delimited JSON_
+
+Queued JSON-encoded fluent-bit records, separated by line-breaks (`\n`).
+
+#### Example payload
+
+```json
+{
+  "timestamp": 1398282091.000,
+  "log": "Core: initialization and 32 bit fixes.",
+  "commit": "b327996bfcbc0f1f47e62c862c6f303592dfacea",
+  "author": "Eduardo Silva"
+}
+{
+  "timestamp": 1422350608.000,
+  "log": "Initial import.",
+  "commit": "49269c5ec3c74411943e362cfef85052665ae97f",
+  "author": "Eduardo Silva"
+}
+{
+  "timestamp": 1422418113.000,
+  "log": "Doc: add reference to Apache License v2.0",
+  "commit": "6e09478733e8273ec216328dfc921e622740695d",
+  "author": "Eduardo Silva"
+}
+```
+
+## msgpack
+
+MessagePack is a binary format for serializing objects.
+
+Please refer to the official MessagePack format specification, found here:
+https://github.com/msgpack/msgpack/blob/master/spec.md
+
+## GELF
+
+**G**raylog **E**xtended **L**og **F**ormat is a JSON based log format which is
+designed to avoid the shortcomings of classic plain syslog.
+
+The official documentation for the GELF format can be found here:
+https://archivedocs.graylog.org/en/latest/pages/gelf.html
+
+It uses a fixed set of keys, with the addition of adding custom keys prefixed
+by one single underscore character.
+
+### Example payload
+
+Here is an example payload, copied directly from the official docs (linked above)
+
+```json
+{
+  "version": "1.1",
+  "host": "example.org",
+  "short_message": "A short message that helps you identify what is going on",
+  "full_message": "Backtrace here\n\nmore stuff",
+  "timestamp": 1385053862.3072,
+  "level": 1,
+  "_user_id": 9001,
+  "_some_info": "foo",
+  "_some_env_var": "bar"
+}
+```