# No error for permission if symlinks involved in paths for filebeat

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/no-error-for-permission-if-symlinks-involved-in-paths-for-filebeat/100984>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** filebeat\
**Created:** [September 19, 2017, 8:18am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/no-error-for-permission-if-symlinks-involved-in-paths-for-filebeat/100984 "2017-09-19T08:18:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![raazeev64](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7feea3/32.png) [@raazeev64](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/raazeev64)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 8:18am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/no-error-for-permission-if-symlinks-involved-in-paths-for-filebeat/100984/1 "2017-09-19T08:18:38Z")

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I tried to run filebeat to monitor a path that involved a symlink.

```
    symlink: /var/log/current -> /var/log/version1
    paths: /var/log/current/logs/abc.log
    Actual file location: /var/log/version1/logs/abc.log

```

The file names and paths are only indicative and not actual.  
There were permission issues(read permission was not there on the actual path but on symlink path) with the symlink but filebeat did not throw any error.

Is this by design or a bug?

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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:** [September 19, 2017, 1:22pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/no-error-for-permission-if-symlinks-involved-in-paths-for-filebeat/100984/2 "2017-09-19T13:22:13Z")

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Did you [enable symlinks](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/5.6/configuration-filebeat-options.html#_symlinks) for the prospector?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![raazeev64](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7feea3/32.png) [@raazeev64](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/raazeev64)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 1:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/no-error-for-permission-if-symlinks-involved-in-paths-for-filebeat/100984/3 "2017-09-19T13:38:35Z")

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Yes, I had it enabled.  
I tried accessing the files from the concerned user, when I discovered that there were issues with the permission. After i gave the appropriate permissions, I was able to harvest the logs with the exact same yml configuration for filebeat.

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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:** [September 19, 2017, 1:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/no-error-for-permission-if-symlinks-involved-in-paths-for-filebeat/100984/4 "2017-09-19T13:48:09Z")

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Ok, good I wanted to make sure we had the basics covered.

> [@raazeev64](#):
>
> Is this by design or a bug?

Probably the best people to answer this question are either @ruflin or @kvch.

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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:** [October 17, 2017, 1:48pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/no-error-for-permission-if-symlinks-involved-in-paths-for-filebeat/100984/5 "2017-10-17T13:48:13Z")

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