How do I find where ElasticSearch is installing my plugins?

To find your elasticsearch home directory & install plugin(s) follow these steps below.

Locate your home directory ( Look for Settings -> Path -> Home for value )

$ curl "localhost:9200/_nodes/settings?pretty=true"

Goto Location (Example settings.path.home value: /usr/local/Cellar/elasticsearch/1.5.0)

$ cd /usr/local/Cellar/elasticsearch/1.5.0

Install Plugin (Example plugin: mobz/elasticsearch-head)

$ bin/plugin -install mobz/elasticsearch-head

I used this command:

$ curl "localhost:9200/_nodes?pretty=true&settings=true"

Check next setting: nodes - settings - path - plugins and use it as your plugins directory.

I had the same problem as you and I was able to locate the ES_HOME directory by following @imotiv's suggestion.

Simply call PATH_TO_SERVER:9200/_cluster/nodes?settings=true&pretty=true

Therein you'll see the path.home entry. That is your ES working directory.

Once you locate your ElasticSearch home folder, in my case /usr/share/elasticsearch, cd down to that location.

Once there, you could simply run bin/plugin -install elasticsearch/elasticsearch-analysis-phonetic/1.3.0 and it will automatically do the rest for you.

Hope this helps.