How to strip the FQDN from an inputs.conf monitor path using host_segment?

[jking81]

I have files on multiple servers that I need to log that are housed in a directory where the path includes the system's hostname. The issue I'm dealing with is I only want the first portion of the hostname.

For example, if my hostname is set to db01.awesomesite.com, the path I'm attempting to monitor would be /var/log/stuff/db01/otherstuff.log

I've attempted this to no avail:

[monitor:///var/log/stuff/*/otherstuff.log]
host_segment = 4
sourcetype = awesome_sourcetype
index = awesome_index
disabled = false

Changing the host in the Universal Forwarder config isn't acceptable as I need to maintain the full host in my Splunk host field.

[nnmiller]

A simple solution: set up symlinks with the short names, and monitor those file paths with Splunk rather than the ones with the FQDN. You will just need to ensure the symlink is created before a host starts sending data.