# Logstash Configuration File Ordering Does Matter
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-configuration-file-ordering-does-matter/28840
**Category:** Logstash
**Created:** [September 8, 2015, 1:32pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-configuration-file-ordering-does-matter/28840 "2015-09-08T13:32:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Yarden\_Bar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Yarden_Bar)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2015, 1:32pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-configuration-file-ordering-does-matter/28840/1 "2015-09-08T13:32:34Z")
Hi all,
I'm running logstash with a couple of -f switches and for some unknown reason, the order of the files does matter:
```
input-filter-output:
~/util/logstash-1.5.4/bin/logstash -f ./conf.d/input-50-email-sending.conf -f ./conf.d/filter-50-email-sending.conf -f ./conf.d/output-50-receiver.conf
Logstash startup completed
Logstash shutdown completed
input-output-filter:
~/util/logstash-1.5.4/bin/logstash -f ./conf.d/input-50-email-sending.conf -f ./conf.d/output-50-receiver.conf -f ./conf.d/filter-50-email-sending.conf
Logstash startup completed
Logstash shutdown completed
filter-output-input:
~/util/logstash-1.5.4/bin/logstash -f ./conf.d/filter-50-email-sending.conf -f ./conf.d/output-50-receiver.conf -f ./conf.d/input-50-email-sending.conf
Logstash startup completed
#gave is some time to run...
^CSIGINT received. Shutting down the pipeline. {:level=>:warn}
Logstash shutdown completed
```
Can someone explain this behaviour ?
Thanks,
Yarden
---
### Author:  [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2015, 2:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-configuration-file-ordering-does-matter/28840/2 "2015-09-08T14:17:28Z")
Huh. Very odd. I've seen a couple of other folks reporting the same symptom, i.e. that Logstash immediately terminates right away without anything interesting in the log. Do _you_ get anything useful if you crank up the log level with `--debug`?
---
### Author:  [@Yarden\_Bar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Yarden_Bar)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2015, 7:09pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-configuration-file-ordering-does-matter/28840/3 "2015-09-12T19:09:37Z")
Hi Magnus,
With --debug, I found the following:
input-filter-output:
```
Plugin not defined in namespace, checking for plugin file {:type=>"output", :name=>"http", :path=>"logstash/outputs/http", :level=>:debug, :file=>"logstash/plugin.rb", :line=>"133", :method=>"lookup"}
Plugin not defined in namespace, checking for plugin file {:type=>"codec", :name=>"plain", :path=>"logstash/codecs/plain", :level=>:debug, :file=>"logstash/plugin.rb", :line=>"133", :method=>"lookup"}
```
input-output-filter
```
Plugin not defined in namespace, checking for plugin file {:type=>"filter", :name=>"csv", :path=>"logstash/filters/csv", :level=>:debug, :file=>"logstash/plugin.rb", :line=>"133", :method=>"lookup"}
```
filter-output-input: Logstash starts and stays up:
```
Plugin not defined in namespace, checking for plugin file {:type=>"input", :name=>"file", :path=>"logstash/inputs/file", :level=>:debug, :file=>"logstash/plugin.rb", :line=>"133", :method=>"lookup"}
Plugin not defined in namespace, checking for plugin file {:type=>"codec", :name=>"plain", :path=>"logstash/codecs/plain", :level=>:debug, :file=>"logstash/plugin.rb", :line=>"133", :method=>"lookup"}
```
I didn't expect seeing errors in the 3rd bullet (filter-output-input), but Logstash stays up.
If the full log is needed, I can pastebin it, but it will take me some time to sanitize it.
Thanks
---
### Author:  [@Yarden\_Bar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Yarden_Bar)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-configuration-file-ordering-does-matter/28840/4 "2015-09-12T20:24:36Z")
Another interesting thing is that if I start Logstash with "bin/logstash - /etc/logstash/conf.d" (passing a directory containing my configuration) its working.
What is different between specifying specific files in certain order and specifying a directory containing the configuration?
---
### Author:  [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2015, 2:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-configuration-file-ordering-does-matter/28840/5 "2015-09-13T14:53:29Z")
> What is different between specifying specific files in certain order and specifying a directory containing the configuration?
Logstash sorts the configuration files found in a directory by name before reading them. Given how you have named your files, perhaps they happen to end up in the order that happens to work?
---
### Author:  [@Yarden\_Bar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Yarden_Bar)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2015, 6:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-configuration-file-ordering-does-matter/28840/6 "2015-09-14T18:10:29Z")
My config files are standardised as follows:
filter-[ORDERING\_NUMBER]-[DESC].conf =\> filter-50-CDN.conf
input-[ORDERING\_NUMBER]-[DESC].conf =\> input-50-sockets.conf
output-[ORDERING\_NUMBER]-[DESC].conf =\> output-50-http.conf
But we don't know that for sure, and if so, we don't know order that files should be ordered in.
Should I open an issue on main Logstash?
---
### Author:  [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2015, 6:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-configuration-file-ordering-does-matter/28840/7 "2015-09-14T18:23:30Z")
Yes, please open an issue for this. Configuration file ordering shouldn't matter except for the internal order of filters.
---
### Author:  [@Yarden\_Bar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Yarden_Bar)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2015, 9:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-configuration-file-ordering-does-matter/28840/8 "2015-09-14T21:56:51Z")
[Issue](https://github.com/elastic/logstash/issues/3920) opened.
Thank you,
Yarden
---
### Author:  [@lwintergerst](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/lwintergerst)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 9:14am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-configuration-file-ordering-does-matter/28840/9 "2015-10-21T09:14:27Z")
Hi,
can you tell me the order of letters and numbers?
lets say I have these files.
001-conf.conf
999-conf.conf
aaa-conf.conf
zzz-conf.conf
will this be run in the order above, or are letters used first and then numbers?
---
### Author:  [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 9:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-configuration-file-ordering-does-matter/28840/10 "2015-10-21T09:43:18Z")
Standard ASCII ordering (for lack of a better term) is used, so numbers come first, then lowercase letters, then uppercase letters.
---
### Author:  [@lwintergerst](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/lwintergerst)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2015, 9:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-configuration-file-ordering-does-matter/28840/11 "2015-10-21T09:57:08Z")
thanks for the fast response, that helps a lot
---
### Author:  [@Architha](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Architha)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2016, 9:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-configuration-file-ordering-does-matter/28840/12 "2016-02-09T09:25:11Z")
How can you do the same on Windows ? Because there is no `conf.d` folder to store config files.
Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2016, 9:35am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-configuration-file-ordering-does-matter/28840/13 "2016-02-09T09:35:22Z")
> How can you do the same on Windows ? Because there is no conf.d folder to store config files.
Just create one somewhere. Logstash will read all config files in any directory it's configured to use with `-f`.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 5:12am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-configuration-file-ordering-does-matter/28840/14 "2017-07-06T05:12:34Z")