diff --git a/stack.sh b/stack.sh
index d2f18d48c1..e73b16aa70 100755
--- a/stack.sh
+++ b/stack.sh
@@ -548,25 +548,14 @@ if [[ -n "$LOGFILE" ]]; then
     exec 3>&1
     if [[ "$VERBOSE" == "True" ]]; then
         # Set fd 1 and 2 to write the log file
-        exec 1> >( awk -v logfile=${LOGFILE} '
-                /((set \+o$)|xtrace)/ { next }
-                {
-                    cmd ="date +\"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%3N | \""
-                    cmd | getline now
-                    close("date +\"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%3N | \"")
-                    sub(/^/, now)
-                    print > logfile
-                    fflush(logfile)
-                    print
-                    fflush("")
-                }' ) 2>&1
+        exec 1> >( ./tools/outfilter.py -v -o "${LOGFILE}" ) 2>&1
         # Set fd 6 to summary log file
-        exec 6> >( tee "${SUMFILE}" )
+        exec 6> >( ./tools/outfilter.py -o "${SUMFILE}" )
     else
         # Set fd 1 and 2 to primary logfile
-        exec 1> "${LOGFILE}" 2>&1
+        exec 1> >( ./tools/outfilter.py -o "${LOGFILE}" ) 2>&1
         # Set fd 6 to summary logfile and stdout
-        exec 6> >( tee "${SUMFILE}" >&3 )
+        exec 6> >( ./tools/outfilter.py -v -o "${SUMFILE}" >&3 )
     fi
 
     echo_summary "stack.sh log $LOGFILE"
@@ -583,7 +572,7 @@ else
         exec 1>/dev/null 2>&1
     fi
     # Always send summary fd to original stdout
-    exec 6>&3
+    exec 6> >( ./tools/outfilter.py -v >&3 )
 fi
 
 # Set up logging of screen windows
diff --git a/tools/outfilter.py b/tools/outfilter.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..9686a387c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/outfilter.py
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+#
+# Copyright 2014 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
+#
+# Licensed 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.
+
+# This is an output filter to filter and timestamp the logs from grenade and
+# devstack. Largely our awk filters got beyond the complexity level which were
+# sustainable, so this provides us much more control in a single place.
+#
+# The overhead of running python should be less than execing `date` a million
+# times during a run.
+
+import argparse
+import datetime
+import re
+import sys
+
+IGNORE_LINES = re.compile('(set \+o|xtrace)')
+HAS_DATE = re.compile('^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}.\d{3} \|')
+
+
+def get_options():
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
+        description='Filter output by devstack and friends')
+    parser.add_argument('-o', '--outfile',
+                        help='Output file for content',
+                        default=None)
+    parser.add_argument('-v', '--verbose', action='store_true',
+                        default=False)
+    return parser.parse_args()
+
+
+def skip_line(line):
+    """Should we skip this line."""
+    return IGNORE_LINES.search(line) is not None
+
+
+def main():
+    opts = get_options()
+    outfile = None
+    if opts.outfile:
+        outfile = open(opts.outfile, 'a', 0)
+
+    # otherwise fileinput reprocess args as files
+    sys.argv = []
+    while True:
+        line = sys.stdin.readline()
+        if not line:
+            return 0
+
+        # put skip lines here
+        if skip_line(line):
+            continue
+
+        # this prevents us from nesting date lines, because
+        # we'd like to pull this in directly in grenade and not double
+        # up on devstack lines
+        if HAS_DATE.search(line) is None:
+            now = datetime.datetime.utcnow()
+            line = ("%s | %s" % (
+                now.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f")[:-3],
+                line))
+
+        if opts.verbose:
+            sys.stdout.write(line)
+            sys.stdout.flush()
+        if outfile:
+            outfile.write(line)
+            outfile.flush()
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    try:
+        sys.exit(main())
+    except KeyboardInterrupt:
+        sys.exit(1)