==== Running as a daemon
To run Elasticsearch as a daemon, specify `-d` on the command line, and record
the process ID in a file using the `-p` option:
[source,sh]
--------------------------------------------
./bin/elasticsearch -d -p pid
If you have password-protected the {es} keystore, you will be prompted
to enter the keystore's password. See <<secure-settings>> for more
details.
Log messages can be found in the `$ES_HOME/logs/` directory.
To shut down Elasticsearch, kill the process ID recorded in the `pid` file:
pkill -F pid
NOTE: The startup scripts provided in the <<rpm,RPM>> and <<deb,Debian>>
packages take care of starting and stopping the Elasticsearch process for you.