That’s right! It’s “on fire” folks! Hotter than the sun! Burning its way into the thoughts and minds and data centers across the world.

Unfortunately, what I wanted to talk about today is not related to how hot Splunk is, but rather a very special and sometimes misunderstood character called “the pipe”. For most of us tech geek types, the pipe is our friend. We use it all the time at the command-line to make efficient use of our tools and our time. For non-techie folks, it may be more mysterious or intimidating concept, so I felt it might be a good topic to discuss and demonstrate just what it is and how to use it in the Splunk search box.

Also known as the vertical bar character, the pipe (|) allows you to create simple yet powerful ad-hoc Splunk searches. You might think of it as if it were an actual pipe where things flow into one end and then flow back out the opposite end. Within the context of Splunk searches, the “things” that flow in and out of the pipe are your IT events.