Agent is running before the start function is called.

Describe the bug I have a customised start function (example has been simplified)

'use strict';

const apm = require('elastic-apm-node');

const start = () => {

    if (process.env.ELASTIC_APM_ACTIVE !== 'false') {

        apm.start();

    }

    return apm;

};

module.exports = { start };

I use kubernetes and from what I understand all environment variables have to be strings and should be converted in the app if you want it in a different format (boolean etc).

To get around this I specifically check for process.env.ELASTIC_APM_ACTIVE !== 'false' and don’t call the start method.

The problem is even though the start method isn’t called, apm will still log an error to the server.

logging error 3a397735-9dde-4f45-9b5e-212e88197336 with Elastic APM

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Create a file that returns APM.
2. Require the file, but don’t call the start method.
3. Throw an error, it should be logged to the APM server.

Expected behavior The agent should not start and a log Elastic APM agent is inactive due to configuration should appear during start up.

Environment (please complete the following information)

• OS: Alpine 3.4
• Node.js version: v6.11.0
• APM Server version: 🤷‍♂️ current cloud version
• Agent version: 1.8.2

How are you starting the agent? (please tick one of the boxes)

• Calling agent.start() directly (e.g. require('elastic-apm-node').start(...))
• Requiring elastic-apm-node/start from within the source code
• Starting node with -r elastic-apm-node/start

Additional context Add any other context about the problem here.

• Agent config options

  Click to expand

  replace this line with your agent config options
  

• package.json dependencies:

  Click to expand

  "elastic-apm-node": "1.8.2",
  

[watson]

FYI: In the new version of the agent this was simplified/changed so that you now just have to set ELASTIC_APM_LOG_LEVEL=trace in order to log the debug output that we need.

[watson]

Closing for now due to lack of activity. If it should be reopened, just leave a comment 😃