diff --git a/harvester.go b/harvester.go
index ad09b931..fe4fee5f 100644
--- a/harvester.go
+++ b/harvester.go
@@ -126,6 +126,7 @@ func (h *Harvester) open() *os.File {
 
 func (h *Harvester) readline(reader *bufio.Reader, buffer *bytes.Buffer, eof_timeout time.Duration) (*string, int, error) {
 	var is_partial bool = true
+	var over_line_limit = false
 	var newline_length int = 1
 	start_time := time.Now()
 
@@ -143,8 +144,16 @@ func (h *Harvester) readline(reader *bufio.Reader, buffer *bytes.Buffer, eof_tim
 				}
 			}
 
-			// TODO(sissel): if buffer exceeds a certain length, maybe report an error condition? chop it?
-			buffer.Write(segment)
+			if options.maxLineBytes > 0 && buffer.Len() + len(segment) > options.maxLineBytes {
+				if !over_line_limit {
+					emit("harvest: max line length reached, ignoring rest of line.")
+					over_line_limit = true
+				}
+				newline_length = 0
+				buffer.Write(segment[:options.maxLineBytes-buffer.Len()])
+			} else {
+				buffer.Write(segment)
+			}
 		}
 
 		if err != nil {
diff --git a/logstash-forwarder.go b/logstash-forwarder.go
index cb521650..a7ca9621 100644
--- a/logstash-forwarder.go
+++ b/logstash-forwarder.go
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ var options = &struct {
 	useSyslog           bool
 	tailOnRotate        bool
 	quiet               bool
+	maxLineBytes        int
   version bool
 }{
 	spoolSize:           1024,
@@ -42,8 +43,9 @@ func emitOptions() {
 	emit("\tharvester-buff-size: %d\n", options.harvesterBufferSize)
 	emit("\t--- flags ---------\n")
 	emit("\ttail (on-rotation):  %t\n", options.tailOnRotate)
-	emit("\tlog-to-syslog:          %t\n", options.useSyslog)
-	emit("\tquiet:             %t\n", options.quiet)
+	emit("\tlog-to-syslog:       %t\n", options.useSyslog)
+	emit("\tquiet:               %t\n", options.quiet)
+	emit("\tmax-line-bytes:      %d\n", options.maxLineBytes)
 	if runProfiler() {
 		emit("\t--- profile run ---\n")
 		emit("\tcpu-profile-file:    %s\n", options.cpuProfileFile)
@@ -79,6 +81,7 @@ func init() {
 
 	flag.BoolVar(&options.quiet, "quiet", options.quiet, "operate in quiet mode - only emit errors to log")
 	flag.BoolVar(&options.version, "version", options.version, "output the version of this program")
+	flag.IntVar(&options.maxLineBytes, "max-line-bytes", options.maxLineBytes, "max number of bytes forwarded per line - note: set to 0 for unlimited.")
 }
 
 func init() {
diff --git a/spec/lumberjack_spec.rb b/spec/lumberjack_spec.rb
index 5d8a16ac..16aa8256 100644
--- a/spec/lumberjack_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lumberjack_spec.rb
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
     Lumberjack::Server.new(:ssl_certificate => ssl_certificate, :ssl_key => ssl_key, :port => port)
   end
 
+  let(:max_line_bytes) { 32 }
   let(:logstash_forwarder_config) do
     <<-CONFIG
     {
@@ -68,7 +69,9 @@
     # TODO(sissel): Refactor this once we figure out a good way to do
     # multi-component integration tests and property tests.
     fd = File.new(input_file, "wb")
-    lines = [ "Hello world", "Fancy Pants", "Some Unicode Emoji: 👍 💗 " ]
+    lines = [ "Hello world", "Fancy Pants", "Some Unicode Emoji: 👍 💗 ",
+              "A really long line that should get truncated",
+              "X" * (2 ** 12) ]
     lines.each { |l| fd.write(l + "\n") }
     fd.flush
     fd.close
@@ -86,7 +89,7 @@
     lines.zip(events).each do |line, event|
       # TODO(sissel): Resolve the need for this hack.
       event["line"].force_encoding("UTF-8")
-      expect(event["line"]).to(eq(line))
+      expect(event["line"]).to(eq(line[0...max_line_bytes]))
       expect(event[random_field]).to(eq(random_value))
     end
   end
@@ -97,7 +100,9 @@
   context "when compiled from source" do
     let(:lsf) do
       # Start the process, return the pid
-      IO.popen(["./logstash-forwarder", "-config", config_file, "-quiet"])
+      IO.popen(["./logstash-forwarder", "-config", config_file, "-quiet",
+                "-max-line-bytes", "#{max_line_bytes}",
+                "-harvest-buffer-size", "#{max_line_bytes-1}"])
     end
     let(:host) { "localhost" }
     it_behaves_like "logstash-forwarder"