# Filebeat subdirectories scan doubt

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-subdirectories-scan-doubt/85609>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** filebeat\
**Created:** [May 12, 2017, 6:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-subdirectories-scan-doubt/85609 "2017-05-12T18:17:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Kernel\_Panic](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/kernel_panic/32/12294_2.png) [@Kernel\_Panic](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Kernel_Panic)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 6:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-subdirectories-scan-doubt/85609/1 "2017-05-12T18:17:25Z")

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Hi everyone  
I've got a doubt about how subdirectories are handled, suppose I have the following directory structure;

/var/log/  
/var/log/dir1  
/var/log/dir2

The if I say in filebeat.yml that the path is - /var/log/\* will that scan for subdirectories dir1 and dir2? or should I explicity say /var/log/dir1/\* /var/log/dir2/\*

Thanks  
Regards

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**Author:** ![andrewkroh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/andrewkroh/32/3784_2.png) [@andrewkroh](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/andrewkroh)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 6:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-subdirectories-scan-doubt/85609/2 "2017-05-12T18:34:42Z")

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The `*` does not trigger a recursive search. You would want to use `/var/log/*/*` to match files like `/var/log/dir1/mylogfile`.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kernel\_Panic](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/kernel_panic/32/12294_2.png) [@Kernel\_Panic](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Kernel_Panic)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 6:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-subdirectories-scan-doubt/85609/3 "2017-05-12T18:37:05Z")

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Thanks!

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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:** [June 9, 2017, 6:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-subdirectories-scan-doubt/85609/4 "2017-06-09T18:50:45Z")

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