[[error-file-path]]
=== JVM fatal error logs

By default, Elasticsearch configures the JVM to write fatal error logs
to the default logging directory (this is `/var/log/elasticsearch` for
the <<rpm,RPM>> and <<deb,Debian>> package distributions, and the `logs`
directory under the root of the Elasticsearch installation for the
<<zip-targz,tar and zip>> archive distributions). These are logs
produced by the JVM when it encounters a fatal error (e.g., a
segmentation fault). If this path is not suitable for receiving logs,
you should modify the entry `-XX:ErrorFile=...` in
<<jvm-options,`jvm.options`>> to an alternate path.