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Command Line Options

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Command Line Options

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The following command line option is specific to Filebeat.

-once: When the -once flag is used, Filebeat starts all configured harvesters and prospectors, and runs each prospector until the harvesters are closed. If you set the -once flag, you should also set close_eof so the harvester is closed when the end of the file is reached. By default harvesters are closed after close_inactive is reached.

The following command line options from libbeat are also available for Filebeat. To use these options, you need to start Filebeat in the foreground.

To start Filebeat, you must use the -c config/path option to specify the path to the configuration file.

Run ./filebeat -h to see the full list of options from the command line.

-E <setting>=<value>

Override a specific configuration setting. For example:

sudo ./filebeat -c filebeat.yml -E name=mybeat

This setting is applied to the currently running Filebeat process. The Filebeat configuration file is not changed.

-N

Disable the publishing of events to the defined output. This option is useful only for testing the Beat.

-c <file>

Pass the location of a configuration file for the Beat.

-configtest

Test the configuration file and then exit. This option is useful for troubleshooting the configuration of a Beat.

-cpuprofile <output file>

Write CPU profile data to the specified file. This option is useful for troubleshooting the Beat.

-d <selectors>

Enable debugging for the specified selectors. For the selectors, you can specify a comma-separated list of components, or you can use -d "*" to enable debugging for all components. For example, -d "publish" displays all the "publish" related messages.

-e

Log to stderr and disable syslog/file output.

-httpprof [<host>]:<port>

Start http server for profiling. This option is useful for troubleshooting and profiling the Beat.

-memprofile <output file>

Write memory profile data to the specified output file. This option is useful for troubleshooting the Beat.

-path.config

Set the default location for configuration (e.g. the Elasticsearch template). See the Directory Layout section for details.

-path.data

Set the default location for data files. See the Directory Layout section for details.

-path.home

Set the default location for miscellaneous files. See the Directory Layout section for details.

-path.logs

Set the default location for log files. See the Directory Layout section for details.

-setup

Load the sample Kibana dashboards. By default, this downloads an archive file containing the Beats dashboards from the elastic.co website. See the Dashboards section for more details and more options.

-v

Enable verbose output to show INFO-level messages.

-version

Display the Beat version and exit.

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