- Add '%{+%s}' to event sprintf so you can get the unix epoch.

  (Joda's DateTime doesn't support it otherwise from date formatting)
- Add graphite output. Still needs fault tolerance added, though.
  https://logstash.jira.com/browse/LOGSTASH-126

lib/logstash/event.rb

@@ -147,11 +147,16 @@ def sprintf(format)
       # Take the inside of the %{ ... }
       key = tok[2 ... -1]
 
-      if key[0,1] == "+"
-        # Parse event.timestamp with  
+      if key == "+%s"
+        # Got %{+%s}, support for unix epoch time
+        datetime = @@date_parser.parseDateTime(self.timestamp)
+        (datetime.getMillis / 1000).to_i
+      elsif key[0,1] == "+"
+        # We got a %{+TIMEFORMAT} so use joda to format it.
         datetime = @@date_parser.parseDateTime(self.timestamp)
         format = key[1 .. -1]
         datetime.toString(format) # return requested time format
+        p :datetime => datetime.class
       else 
         # Use an event field.
         value = self[key]

lib/logstash/outputs/graphite.rb

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+require "logstash/outputs/base"
+require "logstash/namespace"
+require "socket"
+
+# This output allows you to pull metrics from your logs and ship them to
+# graphite. Graphite is an open source tool for storing and graphing metrics.
+#
+# An example use case: At loggly, some of our applications emit aggregated
+# stats in the logs every 10 seconds. Using the grok filter and this output,
+# I can capture the metric values from the logs and emit them to graphite.
+#
+# TODO(sissel): Figure out how to manage multiple metrics coming from the same
+# event.
+class LogStash::Outputs::Graphite < LogStash::Outputs::Base
+  config_name "graphite"
+
+  # The address of the graphite server.
+  config :host, :validate => :string, :default => "localhost"
+
+  # The port to connect on your graphite server.
+  config :port, :validate => :number, :default => 2003
+
+  # The metric to use. This supports dynamic strings like %{@source_host}
+  # TODO(sissel): This should probably be an array.
+  config :metric, :validate => :string, :required => true
+
+  # The value to use. This supports dynamic strings like %{bytes}
+  # It will be coerced to a floating point value. Values which cannot be
+  # coerced will zero (0)
+  config :value, :validate => :string, :required => true
+
+  def register
+    # TODO(sissel): Retry on failure.
+    @socket = connect
+  end # def register
+
+  def connect
+    # TODO(sissel): Test error cases. Catch exceptions. Find fortune and glory.
+    socket = TCPSocket.new(@host, @port)
+  end # def connect
+
+  public
+  def receive(event)
+    # Graphite message format: metric value timestamp\n
+    message = [event.sprintf(@metric), event.sprintf(@value).to_f,
+               event.sprintf("%{+%s}")].join(" ")
+    # TODO(sissel): Test error cases. Catch exceptions. Find fortune and glory.
+    @socket.puts(message)
+
+    # TODO(sissel): retry on failure TODO(sissel): Make 'retry on failure'
+    # tunable; sometimes it's OK to drop metrics.
+  end # def receive
+end # class LogStash::Outputs::Statsd