﻿---
title: Glob Pattern Support
description: Logstash supports the following patterns wherever glob patterns are allowed: Here are some common examples of glob patterns: 
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2696/reference/logstash/glob-support
products:
  - Logstash
---

# Glob Pattern Support
Logstash supports the following patterns wherever glob patterns are allowed:
<definitions>
  <definition term="*">
    Match any file. You can also use an `*` to restrict other values in the glob. For example, `*conf` matches all files that end in `conf`. `*apache*` matches any files with `apache` in the name. This pattern does not match hidden files (dot files) on Unix-like operating systems. To match dot files, use a pattern like `{*,.*}`.
  </definition>
  <definition term="**">
    Match directories recursively.
  </definition>
  <definition term="?">
    Match any one character.
  </definition>
  <definition term="[set]">
    Match any one character in a set. For example, `[a-z]`. Also supports set negation (`[^a-z]`).
  </definition>
  <definition term="{p,q}">
    Match either literal `p` or literal `q`. The matching literal can be more than one character, and you can specify more than two literals. This pattern is the equivalent to using alternation with the vertical bar in regular expressions (`foo|bar`).
  </definition>
  <definition term="\">
    Escape the next metacharacter. This means that you cannot use a backslash in Windows as part of a glob. The pattern `c:\foo*` will not work, so use `foo*` instead.
  </definition>
</definitions>


## Example Patterns

Here are some common examples of glob patterns:
<definitions>
  <definition term=""/path/to/*.conf"">
    Matches config files ending in `.conf` in the specified path.
  </definition>
  <definition term=""/var/log/*.log"">
    Matches log files ending in `.log` in the specified path.
  </definition>
  <definition term=""/var/log/**/*.log"">
    Matches log files ending in `.log` in subdirectories under the specified path.
  </definition>
  <definition term=""/path/to/logs/{app1,app2,app3}/data.log"">
    Matches app log files in the `app1`, `app2`, and `app3` subdirectories under the specified path.
  </definition>
</definitions>