Python class for interacting with the statsd admin interface. List stats, counters, timers, and gauges. Delete counters, timers, and gauges.

statsd_admin_client.py

import socket
import simplejson as json

# Copyright (c) EnergyHub, Inc 2013
# Released under MIT license.

class StatsdAdminClient(object):
    """
    A client for statsd admin interface.
    Example commands: stats, counters, timers, gauges, delcounters, deltimers, delgauges, quit


    Usage:
       statsd_admin = StatsdAdminClient('mystatshost')
       gauges = statsd_admin.list('gauges')
       for gauge, value in gauges.items():
           print "%s = %r" % (gauge, value)

       statsd_admin.del_gauges(['foo.bar.baz', 'foo.bar.qux'])
    """

    def __init__(self, host='localhost', port=8126):
        """Create a new client."""
        self.rbufsize = -1
        self._addr = (socket.gethostbyname(host), port)

    def list(self, stat_type='stats'):
        """
        Returns a dictionary of stat:value pairs for all stats that statsd
        is tracking.
        stat_type could be one of:  stats, counters, timers, gauges
        """
        sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET)
        sock.connect(self._addr)
        sock.send(stat_type + "\n")
        # Open a file-like object for this socket and read it to 'txt'
        rfile = sock.makefile('r', self.rbufsize)
        txt = ""
        for line in rfile:
            if line == "END\n":
                break
            if line:
                txt += line.replace("'", "\"")
        sock.close()

        if txt[0] == '{':
            data = json.loads(txt)
        else:
            data = {}
            for line in txt.split("\n"):
                if ":" in line:
                    key, val = line.split(":")
                    key = key.strip()
                    val = val.strip()
                    data[key] = val # Not converting to numbers
        return data

    def del_gauges(self, gauges):
        """
        Delete the given gauges from statsd.
        gauges is a list of gauge keys.
        If statsd receives more data for a deleted gauge, it will be recreated.
        """
        sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET)
        sock.connect(self._addr)
        msg = "delgauges " + " ".join(gauges)
        sock.send(msg + "\n")
        sock.close()

    def del_timers(self, timers):
        """
        Delete the given timers from statsd.
        If statsd receives more data for a deleted timer, it will be recreated.
        """
        sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET)
        sock.connect(self._addr)
        msg = "deltimers " + " ".join(timers)
        sock.send(msg + "\n")
        sock.close()

    def del_counters(self, counters):
        """
        Delete the given counters from statsd.
        If statsd receives more data for a deleted counter, it will be recreated.
        """
        sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET)
        sock.connect(self._addr)
        msg = "delcounters " + " ".join(counters)
        sock.send(msg + "\n")
        sock.close()

I think that makes sense, graphite has its own storage layer, each statsd metric becomes a whisper file on disk. I haven't used statsd or graphite in a very long time, but a) I recall having to delete whisper files and b) this SO answer suggests that statsd could be writing 'idle' stats and you can turn that off? Best of luck!

Bummer. That's what I found in my research too. I was hoping you may have some additional insight since you've developed against it. Thanks for the help and reply!