# Common config for file input plugins
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/common-config-for-file-input-plugins/75190
**Category:** Logstash
**Created:** [February 15, 2017, 12:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/common-config-for-file-input-plugins/75190 "2017-02-15T12:24:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mayank\_Agrawal](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mayank_Agrawal)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2017, 12:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/common-config-for-file-input-plugins/75190/1 "2017-02-15T12:24:18Z")
Hi,
Can I have common config for all the file input plugins in logstash configuration file ?
Example:
```
input{
file {
type => "abc"
path => "C:/user/logs/*abc.log*"
sincedb_path => "C:/user/logs/abc.sincedb"
}
file {
type => "xyz"
path => "C:/user/logs/*xyz.log*"
sincedb_path => "C:/user/logs/xyz.sincedb"
}
codec => multiline {
pattern => "^%{TIMESTAMP_ISO8601}"
negate => true
what => previous
}
start_position => beginning
ignore_older => 0
```
Here, I want to have _codec plugin_ and settings _start-position_ , _ignore-older_ common for all the file inputs.
If above mentioned config is wrong, then can there be any other way of doing so?
---
### Author:  [@guyboertje](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/guyboertje)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2017, 12:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/common-config-for-file-input-plugins/75190/2 "2017-02-15T12:57:34Z")
This is not possible. All sections in the `input {}` are parsed independently and handed to a new instance of each plugin (file in this case) for validation. There is no way to merge a common block into a specialised block.
You could look into using something like [Mustache](https://mustache.github.io/) to "inject" your common sections into the final LS config file. The common sections could be a JSON or YAML file loaded before the Mustache file is rendered.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2017, 12:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/common-config-for-file-input-plugins/75190/3 "2017-03-15T12:57:50Z")
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