OTEP: Recording exceptions as log based events

[lmolkova]

Related to open-telemetry/semantic-conventions#1536

Changes

Recording exceptions as span events is problematic since it

• ties recording exceptions to tracing/sampling
• duplicates exceptions recorded by instrumented libraries on logs
• does not leverage log features such as typical log filtering based on severity

This OTEP provides guidance on how to record exceptions using OpenTelemetry logs focusing on minimizing duplication and providing context to reduce the noise.

If accepted, the follow-up spec changes are expected to replace existing (stable) documents:

• https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/main/specification/trace/exceptions.md
• https://github.com/open-telemetry/semantic-conventions/blob/main/docs/exceptions/exceptions-spans.md

---

• Related issues Document generic approach for span status (code + description) and exception event when instrumented code throws semantic-conventions#1536
• Related OTEP(s) #
• Links to the prototypes (when adding or changing features)
• CHANGELOG.md file updated for non-trivial changes
• spec-compliance-matrix.md updated if necessary

[pellared]

I think this is a related issue:

• Define whether instrumentations can emit non-event log records #4234