# Using environment variables in kibana.yml

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-environment-variables-in-kibana-yml/41307>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Created:** [February 9, 2016, 6:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-environment-variables-in-kibana-yml/41307 "2016-02-09T18:29:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ave19](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ave19/32/11631_2.png) [@ave19](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ave19)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 6:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-environment-variables-in-kibana-yml/41307/1 "2016-02-09T18:29:07Z")

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Hello all!

I've done some looking around, but can't find the answer: Is it possible to use environment variables in kibana.yml to influence things like the logging.dest target? I've tried a couple things, but have had no luck.

```auto
logging.dest: %{LOG_DIR}  

```

Creates the file `%{LOG_DIR}` which isn't quite what I was after. 😃

Thanks!

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**Author:** ![Court](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/court/32/6640_2.png) [@Court](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Court)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 7:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-environment-variables-in-kibana-yml/41307/2 "2016-02-09T19:31:43Z")

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I'm looking to see if there are other options, but the only thing I can think of off-hand is to set the config via CLI arguments using the environment variables. Something like:

bin/kibana --logging.dest=LOG\_DIR

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ave19](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ave19/32/11631_2.png) [@ave19](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ave19)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 11:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-environment-variables-in-kibana-yml/41307/3 "2016-02-09T23:20:19Z")

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Thanks! I saw that, too... I made that work for that particular setting... now if I could just get the PID to come out somewhere writable to me...

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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:** [July 6, 2017, 2:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/using-environment-variables-in-kibana-yml/41307/4 "2017-07-06T14:02:43Z")

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