# Conditional statement in output
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/conditional-statement-in-output/74672
**Category:** Logstash
**Created:** [February 10, 2017, 2:41pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/conditional-statement-in-output/74672 "2017-02-10T14:41:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@andrew-waters](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/andrew-waters)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2017, 2:41pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/conditional-statement-in-output/74672/1 "2017-02-10T14:41:10Z")
I have a logstash configuration file (5.2:alpine) and want to use the same file for development and production environments.
I have loaded in environment variables and confirmed they exist.
However, when trying to change the output based on the environment variable (in this example [environment] is configured in the filter), the elasticsearch configuration combines both declarations and does not see them as unique settings, causing development to fail:
```auto
output {
if [environment] == "development" {
elasticsearch {
hosts => ["${ELS_HOSTNAME}:${ELS_PORT}"]
index => "%{els_index}"
action => "%{els_action}"
document_type => "%{type}"
document_id => "%{id}"
}
stdout {
codec => rubydebug
}
} else {
elasticsearch {
hosts => ["${ELS_HOSTNAME}:${ELS_PORT}"]
ssl => "${ELS_SSL:false}"
ssl_certificate_verification => "${ELS_SSL_VERIFY:false}"
healthcheck_path => "https://${ELS_USERNAME:guest}:${ELS_PASSWORD:guest}@${ELS_HOSTNAME}:${ELS_PORT}/"
absolute_healthcheck_path => "true"
user => "${ELS_USERNAME:guest}"
password => "${ELS_PASSWORD:guest}"
index => "%{els_index}"
action => "%{els_action}"
document_type => "%{type}"
document_id => "%{id}"
}
}
}
```
Is my approach to this incorrect or is this a potential bug?
---
### Author:  [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2017, 6:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/conditional-statement-in-output/74672/2 "2017-02-12T18:34:02Z")
You mean both elasticsearch outputs are used as if the `if` and `else` lines had just been commented out?
---
### Author:  [@andrew-waters](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/andrew-waters)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2017, 7:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/conditional-statement-in-output/74672/3 "2017-02-12T19:26:02Z")
Hi @magnusbaeck, yes - the output is analogous to the following declaration:
```auto
output {
elasticsearch {
hosts => ["${ELS_HOSTNAME}:${ELS_PORT}"]
index => "%{els_index}"
ssl => "${ELS_SSL:false}"
ssl_certificate_verification => "${ELS_SSL_VERIFY:false}"
healthcheck_path => "https://${ELS_USERNAME:guest}:${ELS_PASSWORD:guest}@${ELS_HOSTNAME}:${ELS_PORT}/"
absolute_healthcheck_path => "true"
user => "${ELS_USERNAME:guest}"
password => "${ELS_PASSWORD:guest}"
action => "%{els_action}"
document_type => "%{type}"
document_id => "%{id}"
}
stdout {
codec => rubydebug
}
}
```
It's as if the conditional statement is all interpreted and the last variable through wins...
---
### Author:  [@joniba](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/joniba)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2017, 8:59am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/conditional-statement-in-output/74672/4 "2017-02-18T08:59:00Z")
Just wondering if you found a way to resolve this? I'm running into the same issue. It seems like the conditionals are completely ignored in this case.
---
### Author:  [@joniba](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/joniba)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2017, 9:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/conditional-statement-in-output/74672/5 "2017-02-18T09:07:26Z")
Apparently there is [an issue open on this, and also a workaround](https://github.com/elastic/logstash/issues/5115) (though I personally cannot get it to work).
E.g.,
mutate {
add\_field =\> { "[@metadata][LS\_ENDP\_JDBC]" =\> "${LS\_ENDP\_JDBC:a}" }
}
if [@metadata][LS\_ENDP\_JDBC] == "a" {
...
}
---
### Author:  [@andrew-waters](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/andrew-waters)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2017, 9:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/conditional-statement-in-output/74672/6 "2017-02-18T09:46:55Z")
Thanks @joniba , my workaround is to use two logstash configuration files - and use the ENV var in a Dockerfile to copy the correct one across depending on the build pipeline.
I don't mind maintaining that for a little while but it's obviously a lot of superfluous code and prone to mistakes when a larger team maintains it. I'll keep an eye on that issue, thanks for the link - good to know I'm not going crazy over here...
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2017, 9:47am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/conditional-statement-in-output/74672/7 "2017-03-18T09:47:05Z")
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