# My multiline input codec is broken

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/my-multiline-input-codec-is-broken/82203>\
**Category:** Logstash\
**Created:** [April 12, 2017, 5:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/my-multiline-input-codec-is-broken/82203 "2017-04-12T17:21:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ibrahimsharaf](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ibrahimsharaf/32/17304_2.png) [@ibrahimsharaf](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ibrahimsharaf)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 5:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/my-multiline-input-codec-is-broken/82203/1 "2017-04-12T17:21:48Z")

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Hello I am using a multiline input codec to merge all the lines starting with either a whitespace or {' with the previous one, here's a snippet of my log file ([http://codepad.org/vAMFhhR2](http://codepad.org/vAMFhhR2)), I want this snippet to be parsed as a single event.

here's my input section:

```
input {
    tcp {
        port => 5000
        codec => multiline {
            pattern => "^(\s|{')"
            what => "previous"
        }
    }
}

```

the codec processes the log above into 2 separate events ([http://codepad.org/gNGvbi4j](http://codepad.org/gNGvbi4j)), ([http://codepad.org/qvRjg925](http://codepad.org/qvRjg925)).

Can you point me to the problem?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ibrahimsharaf](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ibrahimsharaf/32/17304_2.png) [@ibrahimsharaf](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ibrahimsharaf)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 5:27pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/my-multiline-input-codec-is-broken/82203/2 "2017-04-12T17:27:12Z")

</div>

Another idea would be merging all the lines that don't start with a timestamp into the pervious line that has a timestamp, but I'm not sure how to code it.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2017, 5:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/my-multiline-input-codec-is-broken/82203/3 "2017-05-10T17:38:28Z")

</div>

Closed on May 10, 2017, 5:38pm UTC

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