Getting Data In

Blacklisting directories without read permission

_smp_
Builder

Hi. I have configured a 6.5.3 Linux Universal Forwarder with an inputs.conf like this:

[monitor:///www/*/logs/access_log*]
disabled = 0
index = web
sourcetype = access_combined
crcSalt = <SOURCE>
blacklist = \.gz$|lost\+found

I am trying to blacklist a directory named '/www/lost+found' because the splunk user does not have read-permission to this directory. But the blacklist regex isn't working because I am still seeing a WARN FilesystemChangeWatcher - error reading directory "/www/lost+found": Permission denied error in the _internal log. It seems to be ignoring .gz files as I would expect. Is this an issue with the regex? Or is this more of an order-of-operations type of situation where it needs to read the directory before processing the blacklist?

0 Karma

woodcock
Esteemed Legend

Try this:

 blacklist = \.gz$|(lost\+found)
0 Karma

_smp_
Builder

Unfortunately no, that didn't work either.

0 Karma

gcusello
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

Hi scottprigge,
try to use blacklist = lost\+found
and then restart Splunk on Forwarder.
Bye.
Giuseppe

0 Karma

_smp_
Builder

Sorry, maybe I misunderstood something. But I already have that exact blacklist regex included in the stanza of my original post. The difference is that I also need to exclude files ending with a .gz extension so my regex looks like \.gz$|lost\+found

0 Karma

gcusello
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

Sorry I misunderstood,
try with

blacklist = \.gz$|lost\+found.

Bye.
Giuseppe

0 Karma

_smp_
Builder

No, that doesn't seem to have made any difference.

0 Karma
Got questions? Get answers!

Join the Splunk Community Slack to learn, troubleshoot, and make connections with fellow Splunk practitioners in real time!

Meet up IRL or virtually!

Join Splunk User Groups to connect and learn in-person by region or remotely by topic or industry.

Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Data Management Digest – September 2026

    Welcome to the September 2026 edition of Data Management Digest! September brought a fresh wave of ...

Federated Search for CloudWatch Unified Data Store Is Generally Available

As organizations modernize their cloud environments, AWS workloads generate more security, operational, and ...

Announcing Modern Navigation: A New Era of Splunk User Experience

We are excited to introduce the Modern Navigation feature in the Splunk Platform, available to both cloud and ...