# Unexpected problem when running logstash with flag
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unexpected-problem-when-running-logstash-with-flag/165792
**Category:** Logstash
**Created:** [January 25, 2019, 2:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unexpected-problem-when-running-logstash-with-flag/165792 "2019-01-25T14:25:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@tszyro](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/tszyro)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2019, 2:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unexpected-problem-when-running-logstash-with-flag/165792/1 "2019-01-25T14:25:46Z")
I am trying to implement new filter in Logstash. To do so I try to run production logstash with local configuration. I created all necessary files in the folder from which I run. When specify flag `-f` to make sure the correct file is picked up logstash exits without giving any reason.
```
$ /usr/share/logstash/bin/logstash --path.settings . --path.data data -f ./pipelines.yml -l . --log.level debug
Sending Logstash's logs to . which is now configured via log4j2.properties
$
```
directory structure as follows:
```
[~/logstash/logstash_conf]$ ls
jvm.options logstash.yml startup.options
data log4j2.properties debug_file
pipelines.yml logstash-plain.log
```
I have spent a whole day trying to debug my pipeline and find the problem. I did came down to most basic pipeline:
```
# MY COMMENT
- pipeline.id: amq
config.string: "input { stdin { } } output { stdout { codec => rubydebug } }"
```
I can confirm in log that I run correct pipeline:
```
[2019-01-25T14:20:44,627][ERROR][logstash.agent] Failed to execute action {:action=>LogStash::PipelineAction::Create/pipeline_id:main, :exception=>"LogStash::ConfigurationError", :message=>"Expected one of #, input, filter, output at line 2, column 1 (byte 14) after # MY COMMENT\n", :backtrace=>["/usr/share/logstash/logstash-core/lib/logstash/compiler.rb:42:in `compile_imperative'", "/usr/share/logstash/logstash-core/lib/logstash/compiler.rb:50:in `compile_graph'", "/usr/share/logstash/logstash-core/lib/logstash/compiler.rb:12:in `block in compile_sources'", "org/jruby/RubyArray.java:2486:in `map'", "/usr/share/logstash/logstash-core/lib/logstash/compiler.rb:11:in `compile_sources'", "/usr/share/logstash/logstash-core/lib/logstash/pipeline.rb:49:in `initialize'", "/usr/share/logstash/logstash-core/lib/logstash/pipeline.rb:167:in `initialize'", "/usr/share/logstash/logstash-core/lib/logstash/pipeline_action/create.rb:40:in `execute'", "/usr/share/logstash/logstash-core/lib/logstash/agent.rb:305:in `block in converge_state'"]}
```
BUT when I run logstash without specifying `-f` flag the behaviour is as expected.
```
$ /usr/share/logstash/bin/logstash --path.settings . --path.data data -l . --log.level debug
Sending Logstash's logs to . which is now configured via log4j2.properties
The stdin plugin is now waiting for input:
hello World
{
"message" => "hello World",
"@version" => "1",
"host" => "###",
"@timestamp" => 2019-01-25T14:04:46.183Z
}
```
I did use `-f` successfully on other machine and did not experience such problems
Do I miss something or is it simply a bug?
```
$ /usr/share/logstash/bin/logstash --version logstash 6.3.1
```
---
### Author:  [@Badger](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Badger)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2019, 3:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unexpected-problem-when-running-logstash-with-flag/165792/2 "2019-01-25T15:24:29Z")
> [@tszyro](#):
>
> /usr/share/logstash/bin/logstash [...] -f ./pipelines.yml
That's not going to work.
1. You can give logstash a config on the command line using -e
2. You can tell logstash to read a configuration from a file using -f
3. If you do not supply either -e or -f then logstash will use pipelines.yml
You are trying to mix 2 and 3.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2019, 3:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unexpected-problem-when-running-logstash-with-flag/165792/3 "2019-02-22T15:24:32Z")
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