# Exclude file from being processed

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-file-from-being-processed/150778>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** filebeat\
**Created:** [October 2, 2018, 10:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-file-from-being-processed/150778 "2018-10-02T22:29:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bdobsonca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bdobsonca](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bdobsonca)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2018, 10:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-file-from-being-processed/150778/1 "2018-10-02T22:29:18Z")

</div>

Hello, I have /var/log/elasticsearch/gc.log.0.current currently flooding my logs. I would like to know the best way to exclude this? I am running Filebeats 6.4.2.

I have tried: exclude\_files with the following:

`['\.current$']`

but they continue.

I would love to know how to properly submit the loglines as well as I've clearly missed something ☹

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kvch](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/kvch/32/72058_2.png) [@kvch](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kvch)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 7:37am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-file-from-being-processed/150778/2 "2018-10-03T07:37:55Z")

</div>

Could you please share your full config formatted using `</>`? The regex you've pasted here seems to be correct. So there must be other problems somewhere in your config.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bdobsonca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bdobsonca](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bdobsonca)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 5:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-file-from-being-processed/150778/3 "2018-10-03T17:02:02Z")

</div>

Config included below:

```
#=========================== Filebeat inputs =============================

filebeat.inputs:

# Each - is an input. Most options can be set at the input level, so
# you can use different inputs for various configurations.
# Below are the input specific configurations.

- type: log

  # Change to true to enable this input configuration.
  enabled: true

  # Paths that should be crawled and fetched. Glob based paths.
  paths:
    - /var/log/*.log

  #exclude_lines: ['^DBG']
  include_lines: ['^ERR', '^WARN']
  exclude_files: ['\.current']

  ### Multiline options

  multiline.pattern: ^\[
  multiline.negate: false
  multiline.match: after

#============================= Filebeat modules ===============================

filebeat.config.modules:
  # Glob pattern for configuration loading
  path: ${path.config}/modules.d/*.yml

  # Set to true to enable config reloading
  reload.enabled: false

  # Period on which files under path should be checked for changes
  #reload.period: 10s

#==================== Elasticsearch template setting ==========================

setup.template.settings:
  index.number_of_shards: 3
  #index.codec: best_compression
  #_source.enabled: false

#================================ General =====================================

# The name of the shipper that publishes the network data. It can be used to group
# all the transactions sent by a single shipper in the web interface.
#name:

# The tags of the shipper are included in their own field with each
# transaction published.
#tags: ["service-X", "web-tier"]

# Optional fields that you can specify to add additional information to the
# output.
#fields:
# env: staging

#============================== Dashboards =====================================
# These settings control loading the sample dashboards to the Kibana index. Loading
# the dashboards is disabled by default and can be enabled either by setting the
# options here, or by using the `-setup` CLI flag or the `setup` command.
# setup.dashboards.enabled: false

# The URL from where to download the dashboards archive. By default this URL
# has a value which is computed based on the Beat name and version. For released
# versions, this URL points to the dashboard archive on the artifacts.elastic.co
# website.
# setup.dashboards.url: http://kibana.apimsvc.xx.com

#============================== Kibana =====================================

# Starting with Beats version 6.0.0, the dashboards are loaded via the Kibana API.
# This requires a Kibana endpoint configuration.
setup.kibana:

  # Kibana Host
  # Scheme and port can be left out and will be set to the default (http and 5601)
  # In case you specify and additional path, the scheme is required: http://localhost:5601/path
  # IPv6 addresses should always be defined as: https://[2001:db8::1]:5601
  host: "kibana.apimsvc.xx.com:5601"

#============================= Elastic Cloud ==================================

# These settings simplify using filebeat with the Elastic Cloud (https://cloud.elastic.co/).

# The cloud.id setting overwrites the `output.elasticsearch.hosts` and
# `setup.kibana.host` options.
# You can find the `cloud.id` in the Elastic Cloud web UI.
#cloud.id:

# The cloud.auth setting overwrites the `output.elasticsearch.username` and
# `output.elasticsearch.password` settings. The format is `<user>:<pass>`.
#cloud.auth:

#================================ Outputs =====================================

# Configure what output to use when sending the data collected by the beat.

#-------------------------- Elasticsearch output ------------------------------
#output.elasticsearch:
  # Array of hosts to connect to.
  #hosts: ["kibana.apimsvc.xx.com:9200"]

  # Optional protocol and basic auth credentials.
  #protocol: "https"
  #username: "elastic"
  #password: "changeme"

#----------------------------- Logstash output --------------------------------
output.logstash:
  # The Logstash hosts
  hosts: ["kibana.apimsvc.ca.com:5044"]

  # Optional SSL. By default is off.
  # List of root certificates for HTTPS server verifications
  ssl.certificate_authorities: ["/etc/pki/tls/certs/logstash-forwarder.crt"]

  # Certificate for SSL client authentication
  #ssl.certificate: "/etc/pki/client/cert.pem"

  # Client Certificate Key
  #ssl.key: "/etc/pki/client/cert.key"

#================================ Logging =====================================

# Sets log level. The default log level is info.
# Available log levels are: error, warning, info, debug
#logging.level: debug

# At debug level, you can selectively enable logging only for some components.
# To enable all selectors use ["*"]. Examples of other selectors are "beat",
# "publish", "service".
#logging.selectors: ["*"]

#============================== Xpack Monitoring ===============================
# filebeat can export internal metrics to a central Elasticsearch monitoring
# cluster. This requires xpack monitoring to be enabled in Elasticsearch. The
# reporting is disabled by default.

# Set to true to enable the monitoring reporter.
#xpack.monitoring.enabled: true

# Uncomment to send the metrics to Elasticsearch. Most settings from the
# Elasticsearch output are accepted here as well. Any setting that is not set is
# automatically inherited from the Elasticsearch output configuration, so if you
# have the Elasticsearch output configured, you can simply uncomment the
# following line.
#xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch:
```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bdobsonca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bdobsonca](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bdobsonca)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 8:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-file-from-being-processed/150778/4 "2018-10-03T20:35:40Z")

</div>

So I turned on debug and it looks like it's still trying to exclude the default .gz instead of what I have:

```
|2018-10-03T16:19:40.970-0400|DEBUG|[input]|log/input.go:147|exclude_files: [(?-s:.)gz(?-m:$)]. Number of stats: 21|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|2018-10-03T16:19:40.977-0400|DEBUG|[input]|log/input.go:147|exclude_files: [(?-s:.)gz(?-m:$)]. Number of stats: 21|
|2018-10-03T16:19:40.983-0400|DEBUG|[input]|log/input.go:147|exclude_files: [(?-s:.)gz(?-m:$)]. Number of stats: 21|
```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bdobsonca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bdobsonca](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/bdobsonca)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 9:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-file-from-being-processed/150778/5 "2018-10-03T21:00:14Z")

</div>

Sorry for this I just wanted to add more information, I can see via debug now:

`exclude_files: [(?-s:.)current(?-m:$)]. Number of stats: 21`

This is after changing it to:

`exclude_files: ['.*.current$']`

However the logs still show up. Trying to exclude /var/log/elasticsearch/gc.log.0.current and all variations.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kvch](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/kvch/32/72058_2.png) [@kvch](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/kvch)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2018, 9:23am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-file-from-being-processed/150778/6 "2018-10-04T09:23:05Z")

</div>

Could you provide more logs?  
Are you sure this is the config which runs? According to the path configuration you provided:

```auto
paths:
  - /var/log/*.log

```

`/var/log/elasticsearch/gc.log.0.current` is not going to be opened, because it does not match the pattern.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2018, 9:23am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/exclude-file-from-being-processed/150778/7 "2018-11-01T09:23:07Z")

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