# Logstash requires setting a file
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-requires-setting-a-file/64658
**Category:** Logstash
**Created:** [November 2, 2016, 3:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-requires-setting-a-file/64658 "2016-11-02T03:25:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@w0lverine](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/w0lverine)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2016, 3:25am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-requires-setting-a-file/64658/1 "2016-11-02T03:25:30Z")
Logstash Info error: A setting file is missing
I installed the deb file of logstash 5.0 and I starting logstash for the first time. I get an INFO error:
> INFO: Logstash requires a setting file which is typically located in $LS\_HOME/config or /etc/logstash. If you installed Logstash through a package and are starting it manually please specify the location to this settings file by passing in "--path.settings=/path/.."
> ERROR: Failed to load settings file from "path.settings". Aborting... path.setting=/usr/share/logstash/config, exception=Errno::ENOENT, message=\>No such file or directory - /usr/share/logstash/config/logstash.yml
This seems pretty obvious to fix. So I created a directory LS\_HOME/config and moved my logstash-simple.conf file there and my logstash.yml from /etc/logstash/conf.d to /etc/logstash/ directory Same INFO error
So I than used the -f flag to specified the location of the configuration file. Same INFO error. So it seems like /bin/logstash script is trying to look for a setting file .config or logstash.yml even though both files exist in the request places.
When I use:
> bin/logstash -e 'input { stdin { } } output { stdout {} }'
same INFO error appears. I am out ideas. Does anyone know how to fix this INFO error?
\*This is a fresh install from the logstash 5.0 deb file.
Documentation:[Stashing Your First Event | Logstash Reference [5.0] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/logstash/5.0/first-event.html)
---
### Author:  [@theuntergeek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/theuntergeek)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2016, 3:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-requires-setting-a-file/64658/2 "2016-11-02T03:56:33Z")
Sorry for the confusion. We are making changes to the `-e` flag as soon as we can. It behaves differently for package (DEB/RPM) installed versions than the tarball installed version because Logstash needs `--path.settings` to be set to run, and packages install the correct one in `/etc/logstash`. The assumption made was that people installing with packages are going to go straight to `/etc/logstash/conf.d` to put their pipeline configuration, rather than experiment with the `-e` flag.
As far as `$LS_HOME` is concerned, package installed variants are again, different. `$LS_HOME` doesn't matter because it looks in `/etc/logstash/logstash.yml` to find all of the settings, rather than `$LS_HOME/config`. Putting config there is just going to cause future difficulty.
---
### Author:  [@w0lverine](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/w0lverine)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2016, 3:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-requires-setting-a-file/64658/3 "2016-11-02T03:57:30Z")
Thanks for the quick response ! I just messaged you on another post as well.
---
### Author:  [@theuntergeek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/theuntergeek)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-requires-setting-a-file/64658/4 "2016-11-02T03:58:56Z")
The reason for all of this headache is that we assumed people would be starting Logstash via upstart and systemd, not at the command-line. We have over 5 years of that use pattern that doesn't just go away. 5.0 is a major release, so we figured we could make some breaking changes and that would be acceptable. These are the growing pains 🙂
---
### Author:  [@theuntergeek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/theuntergeek)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2016, 4:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-requires-setting-a-file/64658/5 "2016-11-02T04:06:11Z")
For anyone else coming here:
> ```auto
>
> ```
cd logstash-5.0.0
bin/logstash -e 'input { stdin { } } output { stdout {} }'
```auto
This step from the documentation only works this way if you install Logstash as a tarball, not as an RPM or DEB package. This is because the `$LS_HOME` variable is set locally, rather than finding configuration settings in `/etc/logstash`, which is what happens with a package install.
The `-e` flag was designed to merge your command-line configuration with whatever was in the `-f` (now `--path.config`) pipeline configuration file. If `-f` was omitted, then `-e` was the _only_ configuration. With `--path.settings` providing a default `--path.config` of `/etc/logstash/conf.d`, if there are no files there, you get a glob error that states no file was found, and things don't work. We're going to change the `-e` and `-f` flags to be mutually exclusive in a soon-to-come patch release. https://github.com/elastic/logstash/issues/6164 and https://github.com/elastic/logstash/issues/6165
```
---
### Author:  [@w0lverine](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/w0lverine)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2016, 4:15am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-requires-setting-a-file/64658/6 "2016-11-02T04:15:55Z")
If you are using linux:
> Distributor ID: Ubuntu
> Description: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS
> Release: 14.04
> Codename: trusty
The upstart command works but the error will still persist if you directly query with logstash:
> sudo initctl start logstash
---
### Author:  [@theuntergeek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/theuntergeek)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2016, 4:45am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-requires-setting-a-file/64658/7 "2016-11-02T04:45:58Z")
> [@w0lverine](#):
>
> The upstart command works but the error will still persist if you directly query with logstash:
Which error? The one that says you need to have a configuration file in `/etc/logstash/conf.d`, or the one about `logstash.yml`? I ask because out of the box, if you start with a pipeline configuration in `/etc/logstash/conf.d` using the created startup script, you should not see the `No such file or directory - /usr/share/logstash/config/logstash.yml` error because the packaged version's `logstash.yml` file is in `/etc/logstash`, and the startup scripts are configured with this.
---
### Author:  [@w0lverine](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/w0lverine)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2016, 11:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-requires-setting-a-file/64658/8 "2016-11-02T11:26:44Z")
Yes it was the same error but works now. Not sure what happened last night.
---
### Author:  [@chromechris](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/chromechris)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2017, 10:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-requires-setting-a-file/64658/9 "2017-02-16T22:14:00Z")
> [@theuntergeek](#):
>
> --path.config
I am kind of goin nuts now, lol. What good be the correct command line to run with falgs included for running Logstash 5? I have tried many things but keep getting errors such as `[2017-02-16T15:10:12,995][INFO][logstash.agent] No config files found in path {:path=>"/opt/logstash/logstash-db-shipper.conf"} [2017-02-16T15:10:13,000][ERROR][logstash.agent] failed to fetch pipeline configuration {:message=>"No config files found: /opt/logstash/logstash-db-shipper.conf. Can you make sure this path is a logstash config file?"}`. I'd really appreaciate anyone who can give me example please. ☹
---
### Author:  [@theuntergeek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/theuntergeek)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2017, 4:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-requires-setting-a-file/64658/10 "2017-02-21T16:15:19Z")
If you are still determined to launch Logstash from the command-line (rather than sysv/upstart/systemd), then you need a `--path.settings` at the very least. By default, `--path.settings` will point to `$LS_HOME/config`, where `$LS_HOME` is the directory where Logstash is installed. _However,_ if you installed Logstash via an RPM or DEB, then `--path.settings` defaults to `/etc/logstash`. In order to make Logstash work at the command-line, you need to manually specify the `--path.settings` to the correct location. Inside `$LS_HOME/config` or `/etc/logstash` is the `logstash.yml` file, and a few others. This should be edited accordingly. You can override pretty much anything in the `logstash.yml` file with command-line flags, such as `--path.config` (which is the same thing as `-f`), which should point to a configuration file or directory of config files.
---
### Author:  [@chromechris](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/chromechris)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2017, 6:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-requires-setting-a-file/64658/11 "2017-02-28T18:28:39Z")
> [@chromechris](#):
>
> lol. What good be the correct command line to run with falgs included for running Logstash 5? I have tried many things but keep getting errors such as [2017-02-16T15:10:12,995][INFO][logstash.agent] No config files found in path {:path=\>"/opt/logstash/logstash-db-shipper.conf"}[2017-02-16T15:10:13,000][ERROR][logstash.agent] failed to fetch pipeline configuration {:message=\>"No config files found: /opt/logstash/logstash-db-shipper.conf. Can you make sure this path is a logstash config file?"}. I'd really appreaciate any
Thanks! I found my issue. It was a cronjob that was an outdated elasticsearch installation. Thanks again. 🙂
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 4:28am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logstash-requires-setting-a-file/64658/12 "2017-07-06T04:28:12Z")