How to stop Splunk forwarder from re-indexing files when I edit them with vi?

[bhupalbobbadi]

Splunk forwarder is re-indexing files when I edit them with vi.
Has anybody seen this before?

I have used the below configs, still it is re-indexing again and again.

crcSalt =' <' SOURCE '>'
initCrcLength = 2560

TIA for your help.

[codebuilder · Accepted solution]

This is expected behavior. The hash value of your file changes if you modify it, even if the filename does not change.
The short answer is, you should not manually modify files that are being monitored by a Splunk forwarder.

If you do manually modify it (for whatever reason), change the file extension (add a timestamp, change .log to .log.bak, etc.) and blacklist that file extension.

There are multiple solutions to this issue, but the easiest is to not manually modify the file. This is one case where Splunk is behaving 100% as expected.

[bhupalbobbadi]

sounds reasonable. Thanks.