How deeply does Apache Kafka in Action cover plugin.path?

Defines filesystem lookup and comma-separated paths, then demonstrates installation and restart without detailing class-loading internals.

Plugin.path

As explained in Apache Kafka in Action

plugin.path is a Kafka Connect setting that specifies filesystem paths where connector, converter, and transformation plugins are located.

plugin.path configures Kafka Connect to locate connector, converter, and transformation plugins on the filesystem. Multiple locations can be supplied as comma-separated paths. section 11.4

bootstrap.servers=localhost:9092
group.id=connect
config.storage.topic=connect-config
offset.storage.topic=connect-offset
status.storage.topic=connect-status
key.converter=org.apache.kafka.connect.storage.StringConverter
value.converter=org.apache.kafka.connect.storage.StringConverter
plugin.path=<PATH-TO-YOUR-USER-DIRECTORY>/kafka/libs/

Place plugin directories in the configured path alongside the other Kafka Connect worker settings. section 11.4

Installing a JDBC connector

Download the JDBC connector, place it in a directory included by plugin.path, and restart the Kafka Connect cluster so the connector becomes available. section 11.8.1

Apply plugin.path with these operational points:

Separate multiple filesystem locations with commas. section 11.4
Verify that each downloaded connector is placed in a configured plugin.path directory before restarting the cluster. section 11.8.1

How Apache Kafka in Action covers it

liveBook manning.com

Read Apache Kafka in Action on liveBook Get the book at manning.com

Related concepts

Kafka Connectconfigures · Kafka Connect is a framework for reliably transferring data between Apache Kafka and external systems through configurable source and sink connectors.
JDBC source pluginused by · A JDBC source connector is a Kafka Connect connector that reads records from relational databases through JDBC and publishes them to Kafka.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Apache Kafka in Action. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.