# What's the right way to read a file on a remote system?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/whats-the-right-way-to-read-a-file-on-a-remote-system/65827>\
**Category:** Logstash\
**Created:** [November 11, 2016, 3:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/whats-the-right-way-to-read-a-file-on-a-remote-system/65827 "2016-11-11T15:36:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TonyEnnis](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/tonyennis/32/13121_2.png) [@TonyEnnis](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/TonyEnnis)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2016, 3:36pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/whats-the-right-way-to-read-a-file-on-a-remote-system/65827/1 "2016-11-11T15:36:23Z")

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I want to read this syslog file:

**[http://this.that.theother/dir/derp/syslog.log](http://this.that.theother/dir/derp/syslog.log)**

The normal file plug-in (input?) does not like the URI; it wants a file:

> \<ArgumentError: File paths must be absolute, relative path specified:

What's the right way to read this file? There is no authentication or other type of roadblock. I can browse the file so I know it is there.

Also, from the logstash system, I can curl the URI and get the data.

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**Author:** ![magnusbaeck](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/magnusbaeck/32/44943_2.png) [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2016, 6:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/whats-the-right-way-to-read-a-file-on-a-remote-system/65827/2 "2016-11-12T18:14:44Z")

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Use the http\_poller plugin. Note that it won't tail the file and track its position like the file input does; it'll read and process it in full each time.

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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:** [December 10, 2016, 6:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/whats-the-right-way-to-read-a-file-on-a-remote-system/65827/3 "2016-12-10T18:15:22Z")

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Closed on December 10, 2016, 6:15pm UTC

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