From c30c860724be7dbf7edaba08ae1273afa54ec3d5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Hector <dev@hsmith.org>
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2021 21:22:18 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] update readme

---
 README.md | 21 +++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8c0c592..c3d06c8 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -240,3 +240,24 @@ fail2ban_errors{type="db"} 0
 # TYPE fail2ban_up gauge
 fail2ban_up 1
 ```
+
+### 4.3. Textfile Metrics
+
+For more flexibility the exporter also allows exporting metrics collected from a text file.
+
+To enable textfile metrics:
+1. Enable the collector with `-collector.textfile=true`
+2. Provide the directory to read files from with the `-collector.textfile.directory` flag
+
+Metrics collected from these files will be exposed directly alongside the other metrics without any additional processing.
+This means that it is the responsibility of the file creator to ensure the format is correct.
+
+By exporting textfile metrics, an extra metric is also exported with an error count for each file:
+
+```
+# HELP textfile_error Checks for errors while reading text files
+# TYPE textfile_error gauge
+textfile_error{path="file.prom"} 0
+```
+
+**NOTE:** Only files ending with `.prom` will be considered.