How to decrement a micrometer counter

Question

I can increment the micrometer counter by doing like this:

meterRegistry.counter("SOME_COUNTER").increment();

But, when I do the below:

meterRegistry.counter("SOME_COUNTER").increment(-1);

It is not decrementing the value. How can I decrement the counter value by 1?

Answer 1

A micrometer counter can only ever go up. From the Javadoc (emphasis mine):

Counters monitor monotonically increasing values. Counters may never be reset to a lesser value.

You might have to switch to a Gauge if your value can go down as well as up.