# Guidance for parsing log file

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/guidance-for-parsing-log-file/165604>\
**Category:** Logstash\
**Created:** [January 24, 2019, 12:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/guidance-for-parsing-log-file/165604 "2019-01-24T12:37:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![Badger](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/badger/32/25190_2.png) [@Badger](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Badger)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 1:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/guidance-for-parsing-log-file/165604/2 "2019-01-24T13:34:09Z")

</div>

Use a file input with a multiline codec

```
codec => multiline {
    pattern => "^%{TIMESTAMP_ISO8601} "
    negate => true
    what => "previous"
}
```

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_[View the full topic](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/guidance-for-parsing-log-file/165604)._