The --config flag accepts either a file path or values in the form of a config URI "<scheme>:<opaque_data>". Currently, the OpenTelemetry Collector supports the following providers scheme:

• file - Reads configuration from a file. E.g. file:path/to/config.yaml.
• env - Reads configuration from an environment variable. E.g. env:MY_CONFIG_IN_AN_ENVVAR.
• yaml - Reads configuration from yaml bytes. E.g. yaml:exporters::logging::loglevel: debug.

For more technical details about how configuration is resolved you can read the configuration resolving design.

1. Simple local file:

   ./otelcorecol --config=examples/local/otel-config.yaml

2. Simple local file using the new URI format:

   ./otelcorecol --config=file:examples/local/otel-config.yaml

3. Config provided via an environment variable:

   ./otelcorecol --config=env:MY_CONFIG_IN_AN_ENVVAR

1. Merge a otel-config.yaml file with the content of an environment variable MY_OTHER_CONFIG and use the merged result as the config:

   ./otelcorecol --config=file:examples/local/otel-config.yaml --config=env:MY_OTHER_CONFIG

2. Merge a config.yaml file with the content of a yaml bytes configuration (overwrites the exporters::logging::loglevel config) and use the content as the config:

   ./otelcorecol --config=file:examples/local/otel-config.yaml --config="yaml:exporters::logging::loglevel: info"