Combining parts of Stream - system.reactive

Question

I've got an observable watching a log that is continuously being written too. Each line is a new onNext call. Sometimes the log outputs a single log item over multiple lines. Detecting this is easy, I just can't find the right RX call.
I'd like to find a way to collect the single log items into a List of lines, and onNext the list when the single log item is complete.
Buffer doesn't seem right as this isn't time based, it's algorithm based.
GroupBy might be what I want, but the documentation is confusing for it. It also seems that the observables it creates probably won't have onComplete called until the completion of the source observable.
This solution can't delay the log much (preferably not at all). I need to be reading the log as close to real time as possible, and order matters.
Any push in the right direction would be great.

Answer 1

This is a typical reactive parsing problem. You could use Rxx Parsers, or for a native solution you can build your own state machine with either Scan or by defining an async iterator. Scan is preferable for simple parsers and often uses a Scan-Where-Select pattern.
Async iterator state machine example: Turnstile
Scan parser example (untested):
IObservable<string> lines = ReadLines();
IObservable<IReadOnlyList<string>> parsed = lines.Scan(
new
{
ParsingItem = (IEnumerable<string>)null,
Item = (IEnumerable<string>)null
},
(state, line) =>
// I'm assuming here that items never span lines partially.
IsItem(line)
? IsItemLastLine(line)
? new
{
ParsingItem = (IEnumerable<string>)null,
Item = (state.ParsingItem ?? Enumerable.Empty<string>()).Concat(line)
}
: new
{
ParsingItem = (state.ParsingItem ?? Enumerable.Empty<string>()).Concat(line),
Item = (List<string>)null
}
: new
{
ParsingItem = (IEnumerable<string>)null,
Item = new[] { line }
})
.Where(result => result.Item != null)
.Select(result => result.Item.ToList().AsReadOnly());