title: Logstash multiline filter configuration and java exceptions
body: <p>We started recently to gather all java server logs with logstash.</p>
  
  <p>Default log4j configuration works fine, but for exceptions and sql queries we use : </p>
  
  <p><a href="http://logstash.net/docs/1.2.2/filters/multiline" rel="nofollow">http://logstash.net/docs/1.2.2/filters/multiline</a></p>
  
  <pre><code>filter {
   multiline {
    type =&gt; "somefiletype"
    pattern =&gt; "^\s"
    what =&gt; "previous"
   }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but this does not work 100% precisely, some Exceptions/SQLs does not have desired format.</p>
  
  <p>Would be possible to configure multiline plugin in the way that : </p>
  
  <p><strong>IF there's not timestamp on the beggining of the line it's multiline log message ?</strong></p>