# Syslog and multiline

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/syslog-and-multiline/139010>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** filebeat\
**Created:** [July 7, 2018, 11:33am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/syslog-and-multiline/139010 "2018-07-07T11:33:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Magnus\_Therning](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/magnus_therning/32/33091_2.png) [@Magnus\_Therning](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Magnus_Therning)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2018, 11:33am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/syslog-and-multiline/139010/1 "2018-07-07T11:33:16Z")

</div>

I'm trying to get logging from a service connected to _filebeat_ (running in another container). The log messages are sent using _syslog_ and many of them are split over several lines so I want to set up `multiline`, but I can't seem to get it to work.

I set up _filebeat_ like this:

```auto
  filebeat:
    image: docker.elastic.co/beats/filebeat:6.3.1
    stdin_open: true
    tty: true
    command: filebeat -v -c /config-dir/filebeat.yml
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"
    volumes:
      - ./log-cfg/filebeat.yml:/config-dir/filebeat.yml

```

and the _filebeat_ configuration itself looks like this:

```auto
filebeat.inputs:
  - type: syslog
    enabled: true
    protocol.tcp.host: ":5000"
    multiline:
      pattern: '^[0-9]{4}'
      negate: true
      match: after

output:
  console.pretty: true

```

I test it by sending a multi-line log message like this:

```auto
logger --server localhost --port 5000 --tcp --rfc3164 -f /dev/stdin <<EOF
2018-07-07 foo
  bar
2018-07-07 bar
  baz
EOF

```

I was expecting the above to result in 2 JSON objects being produced by _filebeat_ but I get 4. Am I making some silly mistake here?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jsoriano](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jsoriano/32/27920_2.png) [@jsoriano](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jsoriano)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 10:32am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/syslog-and-multiline/139010/3 "2018-07-13T10:32:54Z")

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Hi @Magnus_Therning,

`multiline` is not currently supported in syslog input. I have created an issue for that [https://github.com/elastic/beats/issues/7594](https://github.com/elastic/beats/issues/7594)

---

<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:** [August 10, 2018, 10:33am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/syslog-and-multiline/139010/4 "2018-08-10T10:33:01Z")

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