# Question about read mode vs tail mode

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-about-read-mode-vs-tail-mode/186227>\
**Category:** Logstash\
**Created:** [June 18, 2019, 10:59am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-about-read-mode-vs-tail-mode/186227 "2019-06-18T10:59:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Anabella\_Cristaldi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/anabella_cristaldi/32/23612_2.png) [@Anabella\_Cristaldi](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Anabella_Cristaldi)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 10:59am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-about-read-mode-vs-tail-mode/186227/1 "2019-06-18T10:59:16Z")

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Hi,  
I'm processing files that comes from an external server; so once copied, files are static and no new content will be added into the file.  
Originally I was reading the files in tail mode but I've experienced some issues processing some lines of the files ( were not ingested into ES.) I have a complex logstash configuration with several translate filters + large dictionaries for enrichment.

I made a change from tail to read mode and I have noticed that:

- Files are processed one at a time (In tail mode, If I have 3 files there were open till files aged at the specified time in close\_older)
- Processing is much faster.

Is the performance significant affected then when using tail mode?  
Thank you  
Regards  
Ana

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 10:59am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/question-about-read-mode-vs-tail-mode/186227/2 "2019-07-16T10:59:22Z")

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