# Unable to start logstash: ERROR: Unknown command '�f'

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-start-logstash-error-unknown-command-i-f/198783>\
**Category:** Logstash\
**Created:** [September 9, 2019, 8:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-start-logstash-error-unknown-command-i-f/198783 "2019-09-09T20:28:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![chinmay.parkar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@chinmay.parkar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/chinmay.parkar)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 8:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-start-logstash-error-unknown-command-i-f/198783/1 "2019-09-09T20:28:10Z")

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[root@localhost logstash-6.3.0]# ./bin/logstash –f logstash.conf  
ERROR: Unknown command '�f'

See: 'bin/logstash --help'  
[ERROR] 2019-09-09 11:27:30.255 [main] Logstash - java.lang.IllegalStateException: Logstash stopped processing because of an error: (SystemExit) exit

Please check this issue and let me know

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Badger](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/badger/32/25190_2.png) [@Badger](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Badger)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 8:33pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-start-logstash-error-unknown-command-i-f/198783/2 "2019-09-09T20:33:30Z")

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I suggest you try

```
sh -x ./bin/logstash –f logstash.conf

```

to see which command is generating that error.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chinmay.parkar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@chinmay.parkar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/chinmay.parkar)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 8:41pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-start-logstash-error-unknown-command-i-f/198783/3 "2019-09-09T20:41:29Z")

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I got this result: [https://pastebin.com/A4evg40b](https://pastebin.com/A4evg40b)

Please check further

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Badger](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/badger/32/25190_2.png) [@Badger](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Badger)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-start-logstash-error-unknown-command-i-f/198783/4 "2019-09-09T21:04:44Z")

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It took me a while to understand this. You can see that at the end of the java exec is

```
org.logstash.Logstash $'\226f' logstash.conf

```

Your problem is that where you have '-f logstash.conf' on your command line, you have used an en-dash (octal \226 in Windows CP1251) and not a hyphen (octal \55, decimal 45). That is, you have –f instead of -f.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chinmay.parkar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@chinmay.parkar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/chinmay.parkar)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 9:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-start-logstash-error-unknown-command-i-f/198783/5 "2019-09-09T21:12:54Z")

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Thank you so much! It worked 🙂 You are a genius!

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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:** [October 7, 2019, 9:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-start-logstash-error-unknown-command-i-f/198783/6 "2019-10-07T21:23:28Z")

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