diff --git a/flume-ng-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flume/serialization/RegexLineDeserializer.java b/flume-ng-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flume/serialization/RegexLineDeserializer.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..942e56811c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/flume-ng-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flume/serialization/RegexLineDeserializer.java
@@ -0,0 +1,245 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.flume.serialization;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.regex.Matcher;
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
+
+import org.apache.flume.Context;
+import org.apache.flume.Event;
+import org.apache.flume.annotations.InterfaceAudience;
+import org.apache.flume.annotations.InterfaceStability;
+import org.apache.flume.event.EventBuilder;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+
+import com.google.common.collect.Lists;
+
+/**
+ * A deserializer that parses text lines from a file.
+ * matching line/multiLine against the regular expression.
+ */
+@InterfaceAudience.Private
+@InterfaceStability.Evolving
+public class RegexLineDeserializer implements EventDeserializer {
+
+  private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(RegexLineDeserializer.class);
+
+  private final ResettableInputStream in;
+  private final Charset outputCharset;
+  private volatile boolean isOpen;
+
+  public static final String OUT_CHARSET_KEY = "outputCharset";
+  public static final String CHARSET_DFLT = "UTF-8";
+  
+  // matching line/multiLine against the regular expression
+  public static final String FILE_PATTERN_KEY = "filePattern";
+  private Pattern pattern;
+
+  RegexLineDeserializer(Context context, ResettableInputStream in) {
+    this.in = in;
+    this.outputCharset = Charset.forName(
+        context.getString(OUT_CHARSET_KEY, CHARSET_DFLT));
+    this.isOpen = true;
+    
+    // regular expressions
+    String filePattern = context.getString(FILE_PATTERN_KEY, "");
+    if (null != filePattern && !"".equals(filePattern)) {
+      this.pattern = Pattern.compile(filePattern, Pattern.DOTALL);
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Reads a line from a file and returns an event
+   * @return Event containing parsed line
+   * @throws IOException
+   */
+  @Override
+  public Event readEvent() throws IOException {
+    ensureOpen();
+    
+    if (null != pattern) {
+      String multiLine = readLineRegex();
+      if (null == multiLine || "".equals(multiLine)) {
+        return null;
+      } else {
+        return EventBuilder.withBody(multiLine, outputCharset);
+      }
+    }
+    
+    String line = readLine();
+    if (line == null) {
+      return null;
+    } else {
+      return EventBuilder.withBody(line, outputCharset);
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Batch line read
+   * @param numEvents Maximum number of events to return.
+   * @return List of events containing read lines
+   * @throws IOException
+   */
+  @Override
+  public List<Event> readEvents(int numEvents) throws IOException {
+    ensureOpen();
+    List<Event> events = Lists.newLinkedList();
+    for (int i = 0; i < numEvents; i++) {
+      Event event = readEvent();
+      if (event != null) {
+        events.add(event);
+      } else {
+        break;
+      }
+    }
+    return events;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void mark() throws IOException {
+    ensureOpen();
+    in.mark();
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void reset() throws IOException {
+    ensureOpen();
+    in.reset();
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void close() throws IOException {
+    if (isOpen) {
+      reset();
+      in.close();
+      isOpen = false;
+    }
+  }
+
+  private void ensureOpen() {
+    if (!isOpen) {
+      throw new IllegalStateException("Serializer has been closed");
+    }
+  }
+
+  // TODO: consider not returning a final character that is a high surrogate
+  // when truncating
+  private String readLine() throws IOException {
+    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
+    int c;
+    int readChars = 0;
+    while ((c = in.readChar()) != -1) {
+      readChars++;
+
+      // FIXME: support \r\n
+      if (c == '\n') {
+        break;
+      }
+
+      sb.append((char)c);
+    }
+
+    if (readChars > 0) {
+      return sb.toString();
+    } else {
+      return null;
+    }
+  }
+  
+  private String readLineRegex() throws IOException {
+    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
+    StringBuilder multiSb = new StringBuilder();
+    Matcher matcher;
+    int c;
+    boolean hasRegex = false;
+    long nextLineStart = in.tell();
+    boolean isLastLine = true;
+    while ((c = in.readChar()) != -1) {
+      // FIXME: support \r\n
+      if (c == 65279) {
+        continue;
+      }
+      if (c == '\n') {
+        matcher = pattern.matcher(sb.toString());
+        if (matcher.matches()) {
+          if (hasRegex) {
+            in.seek(nextLineStart);
+            sb = new StringBuilder();
+            isLastLine = false;
+            break;
+          }
+          hasRegex = true;
+          multiSb = new StringBuilder();
+        }
+        if (sb.toString() != null && !"".equals(sb.toString())) {
+          multiSb.append(sb).append((char) c);
+        }
+        sb = new StringBuilder();
+        nextLineStart = in.tell();
+      } else {
+        sb.append((char) c);
+      }
+    }
+
+    // last line
+    if (isLastLine && hasRegex) {
+      if (sb.toString() != null || !"".equals(sb.toString())) {
+        matcher = pattern.matcher(sb.toString());
+        // matched or not 
+        if (matcher.matches()) {
+          // first line
+          in.seek(nextLineStart);
+          sb = new StringBuilder();
+        } else {
+          multiSb.append(sb);
+        }
+      }
+    }
+    String multiLine = multiSb.toString();
+    if (multiLine != null && !"".equals(multiLine)) {
+      if (multiSb.lastIndexOf("\n") == multiSb.length() - 1 && multiSb.length() > 1) {
+        multiLine = multiLine.substring(0, multiSb.length() - 1);
+      }
+      return multiLine;
+    } else {
+      // last line
+      if (sb.toString() != null || !"".equals(sb.toString())) {
+        matcher = pattern.matcher(sb.toString());
+        if (matcher.matches()) {
+          return sb.toString();
+        }
+      }
+      return null;
+    }
+  }
+
+  public static class Builder implements EventDeserializer.Builder {
+
+    @Override
+    public EventDeserializer build(Context context, ResettableInputStream in) {
+      return new RegexLineDeserializer(context, in);
+    }
+
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/flume-ng-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flume/serialization/TestRegexLineDeserializer.java b/flume-ng-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flume/serialization/TestRegexLineDeserializer.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ca7d02d48c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/flume-ng-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flume/serialization/TestRegexLineDeserializer.java
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.flume.serialization;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+
+import org.apache.flume.Context;
+import org.apache.flume.Event;
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+public class TestRegexLineDeserializer {
+
+  private String fileInfo;
+
+  @Before
+  public void setup() {
+    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
+    sb.append("2016-10-19 10:19:10,188 INFO  - Configuration provider starting");
+    sb.append("\n");
+    sb.append("2016-10-19 10:19:10,199 DEBUG - Starting validation of for agent: agent");
+    sb.append("\n");
+    sb.append("SOURCES: {s1={ parameters:{decodeErrorPolicy=REPLACE} }}");
+    sb.append("\n");
+    sb.append("CHANNELS: {c1={ parameters:{checkpointDir=./agent/checkpoint} }}");
+    sb.append("\n");
+    sb.append("SINKS: {k1={ parameters:{clusterName=es, indexType=test4} }}");
+    sb.append("\n");
+    sb.append("\n");
+    sb.append("2016-10-19 10:19:10,204 DEBUG - Created channel c1");
+    sb.append("\n");
+    fileInfo = sb.toString();
+  }
+  
+  @Test
+  public void testMultiLine() throws IOException {
+    // ^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2},\d{3}
+    // ^((${srcStartWithString})(\\s|\\S)).*
+    Context context = new Context();
+    context.put("filePattern", "^((\\d{4}-\\d{2}-\\d{2} \\d{2}:\\d{2}:\\d{2},\\d{3})(\\s|\\S)).*");
+    ResettableInputStream in = new TestRegexLineInputStream(fileInfo);
+    EventDeserializer des = new RegexLineDeserializer(context, in);
+    Event evt = des.readEvent();
+    String line1 = new String(evt.getBody(), "UTF-8");
+    System.out.println("line 1\n" + line1);
+    des.mark();
+    evt = des.readEvent();
+    String line2 = new String(evt.getBody(), "UTF-8");
+    System.out.println("line 2\n" + line2);
+    des.mark();
+    evt = des.readEvent();
+    String line3 = new String(evt.getBody(), "UTF-8");
+    System.out.println("line 3\n" + line3);
+    des.reset();
+    des.mark();
+    des.close();
+  }
+}
diff --git a/flume-ng-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flume/serialization/TestRegexLineInputStream.java b/flume-ng-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flume/serialization/TestRegexLineInputStream.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5e12d68579
--- /dev/null
+++ b/flume-ng-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flume/serialization/TestRegexLineInputStream.java
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.flume.serialization;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+
+public class TestRegexLineInputStream extends ResettableInputStream {
+
+  private String str;
+  int markPos = 0;
+  int curPos = 0;
+
+  /**
+   * Warning: This test class does not handle character/byte conversion at all!
+   * @param str String to use for testing
+   */
+  public TestRegexLineInputStream(String str) {
+    this.str = str;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public int readChar() throws IOException {
+    if (curPos >= str.length()) {
+      return -1;
+    }
+    return str.charAt(curPos++);
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void mark() throws IOException {
+    markPos = curPos;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void reset() throws IOException {
+    curPos = markPos;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void seek(long newPos) throws IOException {
+    curPos = Integer.valueOf(newPos + "");
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public long tell() throws IOException {
+    return curPos;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public int read() throws IOException {
+    throw new UnsupportedOperationException("This test class doesn't return " +
+        "bytes!");
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public int read(byte[] b, int off, int len) throws IOException {
+    throw new UnsupportedOperationException("This test class doesn't return " +
+        "bytes!");
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void close() throws IOException {
+    // no-op
+  }
+}