WARNING: Version 1.3 of Filebeat has passed its EOL date.

This documentation is no longer being maintained and may be removed. If you are running this version, we strongly advise you to upgrade. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.

Elastic Docs ›Filebeat Reference [1.3] ›Getting Started With Filebeat
« Step 6: Loading the Kibana Index Pattern Configuring Filebeat »

Command Line Optionsedit

Filebeat does not have any Filebeat-specific command line options. Instead, you configure the behaviour of Filebeat by specifying options in the configuration file.

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.

$ ./filebeat -h
Usage of ./filebeat:
  -N  Disable actual publishing for testing
  -c string
      Configuration file (default "/etc/filebeat/filebeat.yml")
  -configtest
      Test configuration and exit.
  -cpuprofile string
      Write cpu profile to file
  -d string
      Enable certain debug selectors
  -e  Log to stderr and disable syslog/file output
  -memprofile string
      Write memory profile to this file
  -v  Log at INFO level
  -version
      Print version and exit
-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.
-v
Enable verbose output to show INFO-level messages.
-version
Display the Beat version and exit.
« Step 6: Loading the Kibana Index Pattern Configuring Filebeat »