I identified an issue with the ActivateTracingSpan SMT (with the Debezium versions we've been using – 2.6, 2.7, 3.0).

Contrary to what the docs state, the tracing.with.context.field.only setting currently has no effect and when no context is passed through a SQL table cell, no traces are emitted, no matter what.

The bug comes down to how the if/else statement is written:

current pseudo code is:

IF no trace_context
    IF require_context_field
        THEN: return untraced record
ELSE: return traced record 

when it should be:

IF no trace_context
    IF require_context_field
        THEN: return untraced record
    ELSE: return traced record
ELSE: return traced record 

Or better yet:

IF no trace_context AND require_context_field
    THEN: return untraced record
ELSE: return traced record 

 
 
We already have a fix for it that I will offer as a GitHub PR