Feature Request: Add cURL to the Container Images

[SeamusGrafana]

Hello,

Would it be possible to add cURL to the Container Images by default?

This helps with troubleshooting connectivity from the Agent Container to an Endpoint and I often find myself having to install it manually when testing/troubleshooting issues and it aids me in resolving them.

Additionally, it also allows you to define a custom Healthcheck in a Docker Compose file to use the health endpoint.

Thanks

[tpaschalis]

Is this enabling any use case other than a shortcut for apt update && apt-install -y curl?

If it isn't, then I'd be a little wary of introducing a new dependency just for the sake of it.

[SeamusGrafana]

Personally, I would use it as a Health Check for the Docker Container when running Docker Compose, against the Ready or Health Endpoint

[andeki92]

I support the idea of incorporating curl to facilitate easier health checks. Our setup uses Podman, where health checks are performed within the container. Consequently, accessing the /-/ready endpoint directly is challenging.

For those encountering this issue, an alternative is to employ exec health checks. The following command can serve as a workaround:

/bin/bash -c 'echo -e "GET /-/ready HTTP/1.1\nHost: localhost\nConnection: close\n\n"> /dev/tcp/localhost/<application-port>'

This uses the /dev/tcp system utility to report the endpoint status!

[brpaz]

@tpaschalis I stumbled on this when trying to install Grafana Alloy for the first time, on my cluster.

I understand the reason, for not introducing a new dependency, but curl or wget are pretty standard to have and pretty much the common way to do health checks in containers.

Having the health endpoint is kind useless if I can´t call it :)

[lehuyv]

A health endpoint would also be useful in a non-containerized situation. For example, when Grafana Alloy is installed directly on Windows or Linux, it is used to receive traces, and there is a requirement for some sort of redundancy. Would be nice to take into consideration this use case when establishing the solution.