Promote or deprecate pkg.translator.prometheus.PermissiveLabelSanitization

[dashpole]

Component(s)

pkg/translator/prometheus

Describe the issue you're reporting

The featuregate was added in v0.45.0, in #7112, and is still alpha. We should re-evaluate if it is still needed, and either graduate or deprecate it.

cc @ywwg I think this is something we discussed as a difference between our translation and the new translation library.

@open-telemetry/prometheus-interoperability

[github-actions]

Pinging code owners:

• pkg/translator/prometheus: @dashpole @bertysentry @ArthurSens

See Adding Labels via Comments if you do not have permissions to add labels yourself.

[ArthurSens]

Yeah, well... I don't understand exactly why this feature was ever needed. Prometheus accepts metrics starting with single underscores; it works for UTF-8 and Legacy validation modes.

It does not accept metrics that start with digits, though (in legacy mode). For metrics that begin with digits, we probably want to keep adding something as a prefix.

[ywwg]

I agree with Arthur. I never knew the reasoning behind the key_ prefix so it's great to see the history here. it does feel superfluous to me, I do not see a need for it.

[github-actions]

This issue has been inactive for 60 days. It will be closed in 60 days if there is no activity. To ping code owners by adding a component label, see Adding Labels via Comments, or if you are unsure of which component this issue relates to, please ping @open-telemetry/collector-contrib-triagers. If this issue is still relevant, please ping the code owners or leave a comment explaining why it is still relevant. Otherwise, please close it.

Pinging code owners:

• pkg/translator/prometheus: @dashpole @bertysentry @ArthurSens

See Adding Labels via Comments if you do not have permissions to add labels yourself.

[bertysentry]

Yeah, I think we're all on the same page: let's drop this feature/option.

Let's make sure, however, that labels that we export will work with Prometheus (i.e. don't start with a digit), just like any regular function or variable name.