Logstash on Windows requires drive letter in the path variable of the file input plugin

Elastic Stack Logstash
1

If you leave of the drive letter logstash won't process files on windows, i.e:
input {
file {
type => "cfcidnelog"
path => ["c:/Temp/logstash-cidne/REDNE.log"]
start_position => "beginning"
}
}
output { stdout { codec => "rubydebug"} }
}
works fine, but
input {
file {
type => "cfcidnelog"
path => ["/Temp/logstash-cidne/REDNE.log"]
start_position => "beginning"
}
}
output { stdout { codec => "rubydebug"} }
}
doesn't work at all.

2

Yes, Logstash's file input requires file paths to be absolute and a Windows path without a drive letter isn't absolute (unless it's a UNC path). Is this a problem?

3

Well yes, I'd call it a problem. The File input plugin should at least
give an error that the path isn't valid (as I believe it does if you try to
use an absolute path for the sincedb_path variable).

4

Oh, it doesn't complain about it either? Yeah, that's a bug.