# Starting filebeat documentation is really confusing

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/starting-filebeat-documentation-is-really-confusing/69067>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** filebeat\
**Created:** [December 14, 2016, 6:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/starting-filebeat-documentation-is-really-confusing/69067 "2016-12-14T18:21:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Elhanan\_Maayan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elhanan\_Maayan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Elhanan_Maayan)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 6:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/starting-filebeat-documentation-is-really-confusing/69067/1 "2016-12-14T18:21:00Z")

</div>

hi..  
the docs in filebeat can be really confusing  
for example:  
[https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/current/filebeat-command-line.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/current/filebeat-command-line.html)

"To start Filebeat, you must use the -c config/path option to specify the path to the configuration file."

why? i thought it has a default location.

in here, it states various configuration options in filebeat.yml:  
[https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/current/configuration-path.html#\_conf](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/current/configuration-path.html#_conf)

"This is the default base path for configuration files, including the main YAML configuration file", but wait, isn't this option actually defined filebeat.yml configuration ? according to this , it looks like filebeat is reading a configuration file which tells it the configuration file is in another location?

another strange thin is that all other options are identical by name to their cli counter parts,  
[https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/current/filebeat-command-line.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/current/filebeat-command-line.html)

except path.conf which in cli is - path.config

i'm attempting to use filebeat as a linux service

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dedemorton](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dedemorton/32/84409_2.png) [@dedemorton](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dedemorton)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 6:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/starting-filebeat-documentation-is-really-confusing/69067/2 "2016-12-16T18:55:19Z")

</div>

Thanks very much for identifying these issues in the documentation. In older versions of Filebeat, you had to specify the path to the config file when you started Filebeat in the foreground. This topic should have been updated when the default was added, but the topic was overlooked.

I've opened an issue in GitHub to track the doc issues that you've identified:

> <https://github.com/elastic/beats/issues/3215>

Please let us know if you are having any specific issues with Filebeat.

Thanks again for helping us improve the documentation.

DeDe

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Elhanan\_Maayan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elhanan\_Maayan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Elhanan_Maayan)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 4:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/starting-filebeat-documentation-is-really-confusing/69067/3 "2016-12-17T16:01:26Z")

</div>

it's all part me attempting to run filebeat as a service on raspberry pi,  
another issue was until i directed all output from fileBeat to /dev/null  
the service start simply hanged., it's it's all fine if you allready have a  
service file, but when you don't it was extremely hard to see how to  
configure, you have distros for linuxes but the tar ones' don't contain the  
filebeat service ones.

---

<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:** [January 14, 2017, 4:01pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/starting-filebeat-documentation-is-really-confusing/69067/4 "2017-01-14T16:01:39Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.