[[configuration-general-options]]
== Specify general settings

You can specify settings in the +{beatname_lc}.yml+ config file to control the
general behavior of {beatname_uc}. This includes:

* <<configuration-global-options,Global options>> that control things like
publisher behavior and the location of some files.

* <<configuration-general,General options>> that are supported by all Elastic
Beats.

[float]
[[configuration-global-options]]
=== Global Filebeat configuration options

These options are in the `filebeat` namespace.

[float]
==== `registry_file`

The name of the registry file. If a relative path is used, it is considered relative to the
data path. See the <<directory-layout>> section for details. The default is `${path.data}/registry`.

[source,yaml]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
filebeat.registry_file: registry
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is not possible to use a symlink as registry file.

NOTE: The registry file is only updated when new events are flushed and not on a predefined period.
That means in case there are some states where the TTL expired, these are only removed when new event are processed.

[float]
==== `registry_file_permissions`

The permissions mask to apply on registry file. The default value is 0600. The permissions option must be a valid Unix-style file permissions mask expressed in octal notation. In Go, numbers in octal notation must start with 0.

This option is not supported on Windows.

Examples:

    0644: give read and write access to the file owner, and read access to all others.
    0600: give read and write access to the file owner, and no access to all others.
    0664: give read and write access to the file owner and members of the group associated with the file, as well as read access to all other users.

[source,yaml]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
filebeat.registry_file_permissions: 0600
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[float]
==== `registry_flush`


The timeout value that controls when registry entries are written to disk
(flushed). When an unwritten update exceeds this value, it triggers a write to
disk. When registry_flush is set to 0s, the registry is written to disk after
each batch of events has been published successfully. The default value is 0s.

NOTE: The registry is always updated when Filebeat shuts down normally. After an
abnormal shutdown, the registry will not be up-to-date if the registry_flush
value is >0s. Filebeat will send published events again (depending on values in
the last updated registry file).

NOTE: Filtering out a huge number of logs can cause many registry updates, slowing
down processing. Setting registry_flush to a value >0s reduces write operations,
helping Filebeat process more events.


[float]
==== `config_dir`

deprecated:[6.0.0, Use <<load-input-config>> instead.]

The full path to the directory that contains additional input configuration files.
Each configuration file must end with `.yml`. Each config file must also specify the full Filebeat
config hierarchy even though only the `inputs` part of each file is processed. All global
options, such as `registry_file`, are ignored.

The `config_dir` option MUST point to a directory other than the directory where the main Filebeat config file resides.

If the specified path is not absolute, it is considered relative to the configuration path. See the
<<directory-layout>> section for details.

[source,yaml]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
filebeat.config_dir: path/to/configs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[float]
[[shutdown-timeout]]
==== `shutdown_timeout`

How long Filebeat waits on shutdown for the publisher to finish sending events
before Filebeat shuts down.

By default, this option is disabled, and Filebeat does not wait for the
publisher to finish sending events before shutting down. This means that any
events sent to the output, but not acknowledged before Filebeat shuts down,
are sent again when you restart Filebeat. For more details about how this
works, see <<at-least-once-delivery>>.

You can configure the `shutdown_timeout` option to specify the maximum amount
of time that Filebeat waits for the publisher to finish sending events before
shutting down. If all events are acknowledged before `shutdown_timeout` is
reached, Filebeat will shut down.

There is no recommended setting for this option because determining the correct
value for `shutdown_timeout` depends heavily on the environment in which
Filebeat is running and the current state of the output.

Example configuration:

[source,yaml]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
filebeat.shutdown_timeout: 5s
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

include::{libbeat-dir}/docs/generalconfig.asciidoc[]
