[[truncate-fields]]
=== Truncate fields

++++
<titleabbrev>truncate_fields</titleabbrev>
++++

The `truncate_fields` processor truncates a field to a given size. If the size of the field is smaller than
the limit, the field is left as is.

`fields`:: List of fields to truncate.
`max_bytes`:: Maximum number of bytes in a field. Mutually exclusive with `max_characters`.
`max_characters`:: Maximum number of characters in a field. Mutually exclusive with `max_bytes`.
`fail_on_error`:: (Optional) If set to true, in case of an error the changes to
the event are reverted, and the original event is returned. If set to `false`,
processing continues also if an error happens. Default is `true`.
`ignore_missing`:: (Optional) Whether to ignore events that lack the source
                   field. The default is `false`, which will fail processing of
                   an event if a field is missing.

For example, this configuration truncates the field named `message` to 5 characters:

[source,yaml]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
processors:
  - truncate_fields:
    fields:
    - message
    max_characters: 5
    fail_on_error: false
    ignore_missing: true
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
