# You must set ES\_CLASSPATH
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/you-must-set-es-classpath/8284
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [July 2, 2012, 3:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/you-must-set-es-classpath/8284 "2012-07-02T15:24:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@John\_Beynon](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/John_Beynon)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2012, 3:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/you-must-set-es-classpath/8284/1 "2012-07-02T15:24:30Z")
Hi,
I'm new to ES so be gentle 🙂
I'm scripting a server build via Chef and am getting the error messge
You must set the ES\_CLASSPATH var
whenever I try to start ElasticSearch. The only other question that relates
to this in the forum asks what the output of 'java -v' gives - my output is
below;
java version "1.6.0\_24"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea6 1.11.1) (6b24-1.11.1-4ubuntu2)
OpenJDK Client VM (build 20.0-b12, mixed mode, sharing)
Any ideas?
Thanks,
John.
---
### Author:  [@drewr](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/drewr)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/you-must-set-es-classpath/8284/2 "2012-07-02T16:03:15Z")
John Beynon wrote:
> I'm scripting a server build via Chef and am getting the error messge
>
> You must set the ES\_CLASSPATH var
bin/elasticsearch is having trouble finding bin/elasticsearch.in.sh.
What does your run script that chef writes out look like?
-Drew
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2017, 3:21am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/you-must-set-es-classpath/8284/3 "2017-07-06T03:21:47Z")