Directory layout

The directory layout of an installation is as follows:

Archive installation has a different layout. See zip, tar.gz, or tgz.

Type	Description	Default Location	Config Option
home	Home of the Packetbeat installation.		`path.home`
bin	The location for the binary files.	`{path.home}/bin`
config	The location for configuration files.	`{path.home}`	`path.config`
data	The location for persistent data files.	`{path.home}/data`	`path.data`
logs	The location for the logs created by Packetbeat.	`{path.home}/logs`	`path.logs`

You can change these settings by using CLI flags or setting path options in the configuration file.

Default paths

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Packetbeat uses the following default paths unless you explicitly change them.

deb and rpm

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Type	Description	Location
home	Home of the Packetbeat installation.	`/usr/share/packetbeat`
bin	The location for the binary files.	`/usr/share/packetbeat/bin`
config	The location for configuration files.	`/etc/packetbeat`
data	The location for persistent data files.	`/var/lib/packetbeat`
logs	The location for the logs created by Packetbeat.	`/var/log/packetbeat`

For the deb and rpm distributions, these paths are set in the init script or in the systemd unit file. Make sure that you start the Packetbeat service by using the preferred operating system method (init scripts or systemctl). Otherwise the paths might be set incorrectly.

docker

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Type	Description	Location
home	Home of the Packetbeat installation.	`/usr/share/packetbeat`
bin	The location for the binary files.	`/usr/share/packetbeat`
config	The location for configuration files.	`/usr/share/packetbeat`
data	The location for persistent data files.	`/usr/share/packetbeat/data`
logs	The location for the logs created by Packetbeat.	`/usr/share/packetbeat/logs`

zip, tar.gz, or tgz

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Type	Description	Location
home	Home of the Packetbeat installation.	`{extract.path}`
bin	The location for the binary files.	`{extract.path}`
config	The location for configuration files.	`{extract.path}`
data	The location for persistent data files.	`{extract.path}/data`
logs	The location for the logs created by Packetbeat.	`{extract.path}/logs`

For the zip, tar.gz, or tgz distributions, these paths are based on the location of the extracted binary file. This means that if you start Packetbeat with the following simple command, all paths are set correctly:

./packetbeat

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