# FileBeat ignore\_older behavior

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-ignore-older-behavior/50226>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** filebeat\
**Created:** [May 17, 2016, 2:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-ignore-older-behavior/50226 "2016-05-17T14:02:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![logilouis](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/logilouis/32/5525_2.png) [@logilouis](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/logilouis)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 2:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-ignore-older-behavior/50226/1 "2016-05-17T14:02:35Z")

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Hi,

I am using FileBeat 1.2.2 and would like to confirm my understanding with the usage of ignore\_older.

**The Setup:**  
FileBeat is configured with ignore\_older of 1h, and it is harvesting /var/log/apache.log. FileBeat was shutdown at 05:00 while apache.log still being updated. Apache was shutdown at 05:10 so there are 10 minutes worth of new log events. FileBeat then start up again at 09:00.

**My understanding:**  
With reference to this [thread](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-sending-old-logs-on-restart/46189), is my understanding correct that when FileBeat is up at 09:00, it will process apache.log log events between 05:00 and 05:10?  
If I wanted FileBeat to ignore apache.log upon start up, I will need to manually modify the registry file to remove the apache.log registry entry. Is this correct?

Thank you!

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**Author:** ![ruflin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ruflin/32/3116_2.png) [@ruflin](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ruflin)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 3:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-ignore-older-behavior/50226/2 "2016-05-17T15:15:14Z")

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Currently yes. Here are some more discussions related to this topic: [https://github.com/elastic/beats/issues/1600](https://github.com/elastic/beats/issues/1600)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![logilouis](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/logilouis/32/5525_2.png) [@logilouis](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/logilouis)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 10:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-ignore-older-behavior/50226/3 "2016-05-17T22:24:54Z")

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Thanks for the link!

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 9:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-ignore-older-behavior/50226/4 "2017-07-05T21:51:49Z")

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