Existing sampling decision ignored when creating new segments with no http.Request (SQS -> ECS tracing)

[okonos]

To implement tracing on an ECS worker processing SQS messages, we use the NewSegmentFromHeader function:

aws-xray-sdk-go/xray/segment.go

Line 315 in 3b7709c

func NewSegmentFromHeader(ctx context.Context, name string, r *http.Request, h *header.Header) (context.Context, *Segment) {

Since there's no http.Request available in a SQS processing context, a nil is passed instead. This causes the existing sampling decision to be ignored and a new one requested instead:

aws-xray-sdk-go/xray/segment.go

Lines 101 to 103 in 3b7709c

	if r == nil || traceHeader == nil {
	// No header or request information provided so we can only evaluate sampling based on the serviceName
	sd := seg.ParentSegment.GetConfiguration().SamplingStrategy.ShouldTrace(&sampling.Request{ServiceName: name})

This results in some segments missing and possibly in depleting the sampling reservoir, which could be used by other traces.

Looking through the docs and code there doesn't seem to be any alternative way of creating a segment from an existing tracing header. A workaround we've come up with is to pass an empty request (&http.Request{URL: &url.URL{}}) to the NewSegmentFromHeader function.
This could preferably be solved on the SDK level, though. A relatively simple solution would seem to be to remove the r == nil condition from:

aws-xray-sdk-go/xray/segment.go

Line 101 in 3b7709c

if r == nil || traceHeader == nil {

and instead fill the sampling.Request with HTTP request related data in both if branches only when it's available. After all, the HTTP request is only used when requesting the sampling decision.

Any insight into the issue and proposed fix would be much appreciated.

Possibly related issue: #234

[bhautikpip]

Yes, I agree with the temporary fix you suggested and suggestion you provided for permanent fix as well. I will mark this as an enhancement. Yeah, we can probably remove the r == nil check to include use cases like yours.