# Filebeat exclude\_files is not working as expected for windows
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-exclude-files-is-not-working-as-expected-for-windows/336829
**Category:** Beats
**Tags:** filebeat
**Created:** [June 25, 2023, 6:42am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-exclude-files-is-not-working-as-expected-for-windows/336829 "2023-06-25T06:42:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@junly](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/junly)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2023, 6:42am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-exclude-files-is-not-working-as-expected-for-windows/336829/1 "2023-06-25T06:42:05Z")
Elastic Filebeat 8.7.0
file path "d:\log\LuceneSOA\排序搜索结果\2023-06-21.txt", Exclude txt files dated under the file but not working
the regexp was verified with `regex101.com `
filebeat.yml input
```auto
filebeat.inputs:
- type: filestream
paths:
- d:\log\*.txt
- d:\log\*\*.txt
- d:\log\*\*\*.txt
tail_lines: true
tags: ["app", "hb"]
exclude_lines: ["^-"]
exclude_files:
- '\w+\:\\\\\w+\\\\\w+\\\\排序搜索结果\\.*txt'
- 'd:\log\LuceneSOA\排序搜索结果\*.txt'
- '^d:\log\LuceneSOA'
- '^d:\\log\\LuceneSOA'
- '.*排序搜索结果.*'
- '.*[\u6392][\u5e8f][\u641c][\u7d22][\u7ed3][\u679c]/.*txt'
- '.*排序搜索结果.*.txt$'
- '.*[\u6392][\u5e8f][\u641c][\u7d22][\u7ed3][\u679c].*.txt$'
- '^\w+\:\\\w+\\\w+\\排序搜索结果\\\d{4}\-\d{2}\-\d{2}\.\w+'
- '\w+\:\\\w+\\LuceneSOA'
- '\w+\:\\\w+\\LuceneSOA\\.*'
- '\w+\:\\\\\w+\\\\LuceneSOA\\.*'
- '\w+\:\\\\\w+\\\\\w+\\\\[\u6392][\u5e8f][\u641c][\u7d22][\u7ed3][\u679c]'
- '\w+\:\\\\\w+\\\\\w+\\\\[\u6392][\u5e8f][\u641c][\u7d22][\u7ed3][\u679c]\\\\.*txt'
- '\w+\:\\\w+\\\w+\\[\u6392][\u5e8f][\u641c][\u7d22][\u7ed3][\u679c]\\.*txt'
encoding: utf8
ignore_older: 2h
fields_under_root: true
multiline.type: pattern
multiline.pattern: '^\[\d{4}-\d{1,2}-\d{1,2}|^\d{4}/\d{1,2}/\d{1,2}|^\d{4}-\d{1,2}-\d{1,2}'
multiline.negate: true
multiline.match: after
```
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
---
### Author:  [@Rios](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Rios)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2023, 5:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-exclude-files-is-not-working-as-expected-for-windows/336829/2 "2023-06-25T17:19:28Z")
Welcome to the community junly.
Maybe this is an issue: ` ignore_older: 2h` - do not read files older than 2h
Also simplify, just for test purpose.
`multiline.pattern: '^\[\d{4}-*'`
Latter, you can add more from the line your full pattern.
I think you have too many `exlude_files`. Paths are only `d:\log\*`, don't see any point of `\w+\:\\\w+\\LuceneSOA'`
When things are not working in the current logic, make the simplest yml then go step by step, make more and more complex.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2023, 7:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-exclude-files-is-not-working-as-expected-for-windows/336829/3 "2023-07-23T19:20:17Z")
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