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......................................................................................................................................

Apache Log4j 2
v. 2.17.0
User's Guide

......................................................................................................................................
The Apache Software Foundation 2021-12-17
Table of Contents i

Table of Contents
.......................................................................................................................................
1. Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
2. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
3. Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. Log4j 1.x Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5. API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6. Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
7. Web Applications and JSPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
8. Plugins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
9. Lookups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
10. Appenders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
11. Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
12. Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
13. Async Loggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
14. Garbage-free Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
15. JMX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
16. Logging Separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
17. Extending Log4j . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
18. Programmatic Log4j Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
19. Custom Log Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Table of Contents ii

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

1 Introduction 1

1 Introduction
.......................................................................................................................................

1.1 Welcome to Log4j 2!

1.1.1 Introduction
Almost every large application includes its own logging or tracing API. In conformance with this
rule, the E.U. SEMPER project decided to write its own tracing API. This was in early 1996. After
countless enhancements, several incarnations and much work that API has evolved to become log4j,
a popular logging package for Java. The package is distributed under the Apache Software License,
a fully-fledged open source license certified by the open source initiative. The latest log4j version,
including full-source code, class files and documentation can be found at http://logging.apache.org/
log4j/2.x/index.html.
Inserting log statements into code is a low-tech method for debugging it. It may also be the only way
because debuggers are not always available or applicable. This is usually the case for multithreaded
applications and distributed applications at large.
Experience indicates that logging was an important component of the development cycle. It offers
several advantages. It provides precise context about a run of the application. Once inserted into the
code, the generation of logging output requires no human intervention. Moreover, log output can
be saved in persistent medium to be studied at a later time. In addition to its use in the development
cycle, a sufficiently rich logging package can also be viewed as an auditing tool.
As Brian W. Kernighan and Rob Pike put it in their truly excellent book "The Practice of
Programming":
As personal choice, we tend not to use debuggers beyond getting a stack trace or the value of a
variable or two. One reason is that it is easy to get lost in details of complicated data structures and
control flow; we find stepping through a program less productive than thinking harder and adding
output statements and self-checking code at critical places. Clicking over statements takes longer
than scanning the output of judiciously-placed displays. It takes less time to decide where to put print
statements than to single-step to the critical section of code, even assuming we know where that is.
More important, debugging statements stay with the program; debugging sessions are transient.
Logging does have its drawbacks. It can slow down an application. If too verbose, it can cause
scrolling blindness. To alleviate these concerns, log4j is designed to be reliable, fast and extensible.
Since logging is rarely the main focus of an application, the log4j API strives to be simple to
understand and to use.

1.1.2 Log4j 2
Log4j 1.x has been widely adopted and used in many applications. However, through the years
development on it has slowed down. It has become more difficult to maintain due to its need to be
compliant with very old versions of Java and became End of Life in August 2015. Its alternative,
SLF4J/Logback made many needed improvements to the framework. So why bother with Log4j 2?
Here are a few of the reasons.

1. Log4j 2 is designed to be usable as an audit logging framework. Both Log4j 1.x and Logback
will lose events while reconfiguring. Log4j 2 will not. In Logback, exceptions in Appenders are
never visible to the application. In Log4j 2 Appenders can be configured to allow the exception
to percolate to the application.
2. Log4j 2 contains next-generation Asynchronous Loggers based on the LMAX Disruptor library.
In multi-threaded scenarios Asynchronous Loggers have 10 times higher throughput and orders
of magnitude lower latency than Log4j 1.x and Logback.

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

1 Introduction 2

3. Log4j 2 is garbage free for stand-alone applications, and low garbage for web applications
during steady state logging. This reduces pressure on the garbage collector and can give better
response time performance.
4. Log4j 2 uses a Plugin system that makes it extremely easy to extend the framework by adding
new Appenders, Filters, Layouts, Lookups, and Pattern Converters without requiring any
changes to Log4j.
5. Due to the Plugin system configuration is simpler. Entries in the configuration do not require a
class name to be specified.
6. Support for custom log levels. Custom log levels can be defined in code or in configuration.
7. Support for lambda expressions. Client code running on Java 8 can use lambda expressions to
lazily construct a log message only if the requested log level is enabled. Explicit level checks are
not needed, resulting in cleaner code.
8. Support for Message objects. Messages allow support for interesting and complex constructs
to be passed through the logging system and be efficiently manipulated. Users are free to create
their own Message types and write custom Layouts, Filters and Lookups to manipulate
them.
9. Log4j 1.x supports Filters on Appenders. Logback added TurboFilters to allow filtering of
events before they are processed by a Logger. Log4j 2 supports Filters that can be configured to
process events before they are handled by a Logger, as they are processed by a Logger or on an
Appender.
10.Many Logback Appenders do not accept a Layout and will only send data in a fixed format.
Most Log4j 2 Appenders accept a Layout, allowing the data to be transported in any format
desired.
11.Layouts in Log4j 1.x and Logback return a String. This resulted in the problems discussed at
Logback Encoders. Log4j 2 takes the simpler approach that Layouts always return a byte array.
This has the advantage that it means they can be used in virtually any Appender, not just the ones
that write to an OutputStream.
12.The Syslog Appender supports both TCP and UDP as well as support for the BSD syslog and
the RFC 5424 formats.
13.Log4j 2 takes advantage of Java 5 concurrency support and performs locking at the lowest level
possible. Log4j 1.x has known deadlock issues. Many of these are fixed in Logback but many
Logback classes still require synchronization at a fairly high level.
14.It is an Apache Software Foundation project following the community and support model used
by all ASF projects. If you want to contribute or gain the right to commit changes just follow the
path outlined at Contributing.

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

2 Architecture 3

2 Architecture
.......................................................................................................................................

2.1 Architecture

2.1.1 Main Components

Log4j uses the classes shown in the diagram below.

Applications using the Log4j 2 API will request a Logger with a specific name from the LogManager.
The LogManager will locate the appropriate LoggerContext and then obtain the Logger from it. If the
Logger must be created it will be associated with the LoggerConfig that contains either a) the same
name as the Logger, b) the name of a parent package, or c) the root LoggerConfig. LoggerConfig
objects are created from Logger declarations in the configuration. The LoggerConfig is associated
with the Appenders that actually deliver the LogEvents.

2.1.1.1 Logger Hierarchy

The first and foremost advantage of any logging API over plain System.out.println resides in
its ability to disable certain log statements while allowing others to print unhindered. This capability
assumes that the logging space, that is, the space of all possible logging statements, is categorized
according to some developer-chosen criteria.
In Log4j 1.x the Logger Hierarchy was maintained through a relationship between Loggers. In Log4j
2 this relationship no longer exists. Instead, the hierarchy is maintained in the relationship between
LoggerConfig objects.
Loggers and LoggerConfigs are named entities. Logger names are case-sensitive and they follow the
hierarchical naming rule:
Named Hierarchy

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2 Architecture 4

A LoggerConfig is said to be an ancestor of another LoggerConfig if its name followed

by a dot is a prefix of the descendant logger name. A LoggerConfig is said to be a parent
of a child LoggerConfig if there are no ancestors between itself and the descendant
LoggerConfig.
For example, the LoggerConfig named "com.foo" is a parent of the LoggerConfig named
"com.foo.Bar". Similarly, "java" is a parent of "java.util" and an ancestor of
"java.util.Vector". This naming scheme should be familiar to most developers.
The root LoggerConfig resides at the top of the LoggerConfig hierarchy. It is exceptional in
that it always exists and it is part of every hierarchy. A Logger that is directly linked to the root
LoggerConfig can be obtained as follows:
Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger(LogManager.ROOT_LOGGER_NAME);
Alternatively, and more simply:
Logger logger = LogManager.getRootLogger();
All other Loggers can be retrieved using the LogManager.getLogger static method by passing the
name of the desired Logger. Further information on the Logging API can be found in the Log4j 2
API.

2.1.1.2 LoggerContext
The LoggerContext acts as the anchor point for the Logging system. However, it is possible to have
multiple active LoggerContexts in an application depending on the circumstances. More details on the
LoggerContext are in the Log Separation section.

2.1.1.3 Configuration
Every LoggerContext has an active Configuration. The Configuration contains all the Appenders,
context-wide Filters, LoggerConfigs and contains the reference to the StrSubstitutor. During
reconfiguration two Configuration objects will exist. Once all Loggers have been redirected to the
new Configuration, the old Configuration will be stopped and discarded.

2.1.1.4 Logger
As stated previously, Loggers are created by calling LogManager.getLogger. The Logger itself
performs no direct actions. It simply has a name and is associated with a LoggerConfig. It extends
AbstractLogger and implements the required methods. As the configuration is modified Loggers may
become associated with a different LoggerConfig, thus causing their behavior to be modified.
2.Retrieving Loggers
Calling the LogManager.getLogger method with the same name will always return a reference to
the exact same Logger object.
For example, in

Logger x = LogManager.getLogger("wombat");
Logger y = LogManager.getLogger("wombat");

x and y refer to exactly the same Logger object.

Configuration of the log4j environment is typically done at application initialization. The preferred
way is by reading a configuration file. This is discussed in Configuration.
Log4j makes it easy to name Loggers by software component. This can be accomplished by
instantiating a Logger in each class, with the logger name equal to the fully qualified name of the

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

2 Architecture 5

class. This is a useful and straightforward method of defining loggers. As the log output bears the
name of the generating Logger, this naming strategy makes it easy to identify the origin of a log
message. However, this is only one possible, albeit common, strategy for naming loggers. Log4j does
not restrict the possible set of loggers. The developer is free to name the loggers as desired.
Since naming Loggers after their owning class is such a common idiom, the convenience method
LogManager.getLogger() is provided to automatically use the calling class's fully qualified class
name as the Logger name.
Nevertheless, naming loggers after the class where they are located seems to be the best strategy
known so far.

2.1.1.5 LoggerConfig
LoggerConfig objects are created when Loggers are declared in the logging configuration. The
LoggerConfig contains a set of Filters that must allow the LogEvent to pass before it will be passed to
any Appenders. It contains references to the set of Appenders that should be used to process the event.
2.Log Levels
LoggerConfigs will be assigned a Log Level. The set of built-in levels includes ALL, TRACE,
DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, FATAL, and OFF. Log4j 2 also supports custom log levels.
Another mechanism for getting more granularity is to use Markers instead. The OFF and ALL levels
are not intended to be used on calls to the logging API. Specifying OFF in the configuration implies
no logging events should match while specifying ALL would mean all events match, including
custom events. However, OFF can be used on logging API calls in special cases where the event
should always be logged regardless of the configuration. However, it is generally recommended that a
Marker with a corresponding global Marker Filter be used instead.
Log4j 1.x and Logback both have the concept of "Level Inheritance". In Log4j 2, Loggers and
LoggerConfigs are two different objects so this concept is implemented differently. Each Logger
references the appropriate LoggerConfig which in turn can reference its parent, thus achieving the
same effect.
Below are five tables with various assigned level values and the resulting levels that will be associated
with each Logger. Note that in all these cases if the root LoggerConfig is not configured a default
Level will be assigned to it.

Assigned
Logger Name LoggerConfig LoggerConfig Level Logger Level
root root DEBUG DEBUG
X root DEBUG DEBUG
X.Y root DEBUG DEBUG
X.Y.Z root DEBUG DEBUG

Example 1
In example 1 above, only the root logger is configured and has a Log Level. All the other Loggers
reference the root LoggerConfig and use its Level.

Assigned
Logger Name LoggerConfig LoggerConfig Level Level
root root DEBUG DEBUG

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2 Architecture 6

X X ERROR ERROR
X.Y X.Y INFO INFO
X.Y.Z X.Y.Z WARN WARN

Example 2
In example 2, all loggers have a configured LoggerConfig and obtain their Level from it.

Assigned
Logger Name LoggerConfig LoggerConfig Level Level
root root DEBUG DEBUG
X X ERROR ERROR
X.Y X ERROR ERROR
X.Y.Z X.Y.Z WARN WARN

Example 3
In example 3, the loggers root, X and X.Y.Z each have a configured LoggerConfig with the same
name. The Logger X.Y does not have a configured LoggerConfig with a matching name so uses the
configuration of LoggerConfig X since that is the LoggerConfig whose name has the longest match to
the start of the Logger's name.

Assigned
Logger Name LoggerConfig LoggerConfig Level level
root root DEBUG DEBUG
X X ERROR ERROR
X.Y X ERROR ERROR
X.Y.Z X ERROR ERROR

Example 4
In example 4, the loggers root and X each have a Configured LoggerConfig with the same name.
The loggers X.Y and X.Y.Z do not have configured LoggerConfigs and so get their Level from the
LoggerConfig assigned to them, X, since it is the LoggerConfig whose name has the longest match to
the start of the Logger's name.

Assigned
Logger Name LoggerConfig LoggerConfig Level level
root root DEBUG DEBUG
X X ERROR ERROR
X.Y X.Y INFO INFO
X.YZ X ERROR ERROR

Example 5

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2 Architecture 7

In example 5, the loggers root. X, and X.Y each have a Configured LoggerConfig with the same
name. The logger X.YZ does not have configured LoggerConfig and so gets its Level from the
LoggerConfig assigned to it, X, since it is the LoggerConfig whose name has the longest match to the
start of the Logger's name. It is not associated with LoggerConfig X.Y since tokens after periods must
match exactly.

Assigned
Logger Name LoggerConfig LoggerConfig Level Level
root root DEBUG DEBUG
X X ERROR ERROR
X.Y X.Y ERROR
X.Y.Z X.Y ERROR

Example 6
In example 6, LoggerConfig X.Y it has no configured level so it inherits its level from LoggerConfig
X. Logger X.Y.Z uses LoggerConfig X.Y since it doesn't have a LoggerConfig with a name that
exactly matches. It too inherits its logging level from LoggerConfig X.
The table below illustrates how Level filtering works. In the table, the vertical header shows the
Level of the LogEvent, while the horizontal header shows the Level associated with the appropriate
LoggerConfig. The intersection identifies whether the LogEvent would be allowed to pass for further
processing (Yes) or discarded (No).

Event LoggerConfig
Level Level
TRACE DEBUG INFO WARN ERROR FATAL OFF
ALL NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

TRACE YES NO NO NO NO NO NO

DEBUG YES YES NO NO NO NO NO

INFO YES YES YES NO NO NO NO

WARN YES YES YES YES NO NO NO

ERROR YES YES YES YES YES NO NO

FATAL YES YES YES YES YES YES NO

OFF YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

2.1.1.6 Filter
In addition to the automatic log Level filtering that takes place as described in the previous section,
Log4j provides Filters that can be applied before control is passed to any LoggerConfig, after
control is passed to a LoggerConfig but before calling any Appenders, after control is passed to a
LoggerConfig but before calling a specific Appender, and on each Appender. In a manner very similar
to firewall filters, each Filter can return one of three results, Accept, Deny or Neutral. A response
of Accept means that no other Filters should be called and the event should progress. A response of
Deny means the event should be immediately ignored and control should be returned to the caller. A

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

2 Architecture 8

response of Neutral indicates the event should be passed to other Filters. If there are no other Filters
the event will be processed.
Although an event may be accepted by a Filter the event still might not be logged. This can happen
when the event is accepted by the pre-LoggerConfig Filter but is then denied by a LoggerConfig filter
or is denied by all Appenders.

2.1.1.7 Appender
The ability to selectively enable or disable logging requests based on their logger is only part of the
picture. Log4j allows logging requests to print to multiple destinations. In log4j speak, an output
destination is called an Appender. Currently, appenders exist for the console, files, remote socket
servers, Apache Flume, JMS, remote UNIX Syslog daemons, and various database APIs. See the
section on Appenders for more details on the various types available. More than one Appender can be
attached to a Logger.
An Appender can be added to a Logger by calling the addLoggerAppender method of the current
Configuration. If a LoggerConfig matching the name of the Logger does not exist, one will be created,
the Appender will be attached to it and then all Loggers will be notified to update their LoggerConfig
references.
Each enabled logging request for a given logger will be forwarded to all the appenders in
that Logger's LoggerConfig as well as the Appenders of the LoggerConfig's parents. In other
words, Appenders are inherited additively from the LoggerConfig hierarchy. For example, if a
console appender is added to the root logger, then all enabled logging requests will at least print
on the console. If in addition a file appender is added to a LoggerConfig, say C, then enabled
logging requests for C and C's children will print in a file and on the console. It is possible to
override this default behavior so that Appender accumulation is no longer additive by setting
additivity="false" on the Logger declaration in the configuration file.
The rules governing appender additivity are summarized below.
Appender Additivity
The output of a log statement of Logger L will go to all the Appenders in the LoggerConfig
associated with L and the ancestors of that LoggerConfig. This is the meaning of the term
"appender additivity".
However, if an ancestor of the LoggerConfig associated with Logger L, say P, has the
additivity flag set to false, then L's output will be directed to all the appenders in L's
LoggerConfig and it's ancestors up to and including P but not the Appenders in any of the
ancestors of P.
Loggers have their additivity flag set to true by default.
The table below shows an example:

Logger Added Additivity

Name Appenders Flag Output Targets Comment
root A1 not applicable A1 The root logger
has no parent so
additivity does not
apply to it.
x A-x1, A-x2 true A1, A-x1, A-x2 Appenders of "x"
and root.

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2 Architecture 9

x.y none true A1, A-x1, A-x2 Appenders of "x"

and root. It would
not be typical to
configure a Logger
with no Appenders.
x.y.z A-xyz1 true A1, A-x1, A-x2, A- Appenders in
xyz1 "x.y.z", "x" and root.
security A-sec false A-sec No appender
accumulation since
the additivity flag is
set to false.
security.access none true A-sec Only appenders of
"security" because
the additivity flag in
"security" is set to
false.

2.1.1.8 Layout
More often than not, users wish to customize not only the output destination but also the output
format. This is accomplished by associating a Layout with an Appender. The Layout is responsible
for formatting the LogEvent according to the user's wishes, whereas an appender takes care of sending
the formatted output to its destination. The PatternLayout, part of the standard log4j distribution, lets
the user specify the output format according to conversion patterns similar to the C language printf
function.
For example, the PatternLayout with the conversion pattern "%r [%t] %-5p %c - %m%n" will output
something akin to:
176 [main] INFO org.foo.Bar - Located nearest gas station.
The first field is the number of milliseconds elapsed since the start of the program. The second field
is the thread making the log request. The third field is the level of the log statement. The fourth field
is the name of the logger associated with the log request. The text after the '-' is the message of the
statement.
Log4j comes with many different Layouts for various use cases such as JSON, XML, HTML, and
Syslog (including the new RFC 5424 version). Other appenders such as the database connectors fill in
specified fields instead of a particular textual layout.
Just as importantly, log4j will render the content of the log message according to user specified
criteria. For example, if you frequently need to log Oranges, an object type used in your current
project, then you can create an OrangeMessage that accepts an Orange instance and pass that to Log4j
so that the Orange object can be formatted into an appropriate byte array when required.

2.1.1.9 StrSubstitutor and StrLookup

The StrSubstitutor class and StrLookup interface were borrowed from Apache Commons Lang
and then modified to support evaluating LogEvents. In addition the Interpolator class was borrowed
from Apache Commons Configuration to allow the StrSubstitutor to evaluate variables that from
multiple StrLookups. It too was modified to support evaluating LogEvents. Together these provide
a mechanism to allow the configuration to reference variables coming from System Properties, the
configuration file, the ThreadContext Map, StructuredData in the LogEvent. The variables can either
be resolved when the configuration is processed or as each event is processed, if the component is
capable of handling it. See Lookups for more information.

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

3 Log4j 1.x Migration 10

3 Log4j 1.x Migration

.......................................................................................................................................

3.1 Migrating from Log4j 1.x

3.1.1 When to use this the Log4j 1.x bridge

This bridge is useful as a dependency of an "application" which would like to use Log4j v2 as its main
logging framework, if either that application itself hasn't been changed from using the Log4j 1.x API
to the 1.x API, or if such an application depends on one or several (perhaps old) libraries that are "out
of your control", and which themselves still contain code and thus a compile dependency on Log 1.x
only.
Once you have migrated all of your own application & library code under your control, you may not
need this bridge. Note that when you use a library/framework that can be configured to use several
logging frameworks, then you typically don't need this bridge either anymore, as you may be able
to directly configure it to use Log4j v2 instead v1. Some libraries/frameworks even auto-detect the
presence of certain logging framework implementations on their classpath, and automagically switch
their internal logging delegation accordingly; try simple removing the Log4j v1 dependency instead of
replacing it with this bridge, and test if logging from all of your dependencies still work.
If you own or can contribute open source to the library you depend on, then you likely would prefer
replacing its use of the Log4j v1 Logging API with the v2 API. (It typically does not make sense
for libraries to depend on this bridge and support both the v1 and v2 Log4j API, because end-users
of such a library would still have to replace their Log4j configuration v1 with a different v2 config
anyway; see below.)

3.1.2 Using the Log4j 1.x bridge

Perhaps the simplest way to convert to using Log4j 2 is to replace the log4j 1.x jar file with Log4j
2's log4j-1.2-api.jar. However, to use this successfully applications must meet the following
requirements:

1. They must not access methods and classes internal to the Log4j 1.x implementation such as
Appenders, LoggerRepository or Category's callAppenders method.
2. They must not programmatically configure Log4j.
3. They must not configure by calling the classes DOMConfigurator or
PropertyConfigurator.

3.1.3 Converting to the Log4j 2 API

For the most part, converting from the Log4j 1.x API to Log4j 2 should be fairly simple. Many of the
log statements will require no modification. However, where necessary the following changes must be
made.

1. The main package in version 1 is org.apache.log4j, in version 2 it is

org.apache.logging.log4j
2. Calls to org.apache.log4j.Logger.getLogger() must be modified to
org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager.getLogger().
3. Calls to org.apache.log4j.Logger.getRootLogger() or
org.apache.log4j.LogManager.getRootLogger() must be replaced with
org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager.getRootLogger().

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3 Log4j 1.x Migration 11

4. Calls to org.apache.log4j.Logger.getLogger that accept a LoggerFactory must

remove the org.apache.log4j.spi.LoggerFactory and use one of Log4j 2's other
extension mechanisms.
5. Replace calls to org.apache.log4j.Logger.getEffectiveLevel() with
org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger.getLevel().
6. Remove calls to org.apache.log4j.LogManager.shutdown(), they are not needed in
version 2 because the Log4j Core now automatically adds a JVM shutdown hook on start up to
perform any Core clean ups.

1. Starting in Log4j 2.1, you can specify a custom ShutdownCallbackRegistry to override the
default JVM shutdown hook strategy.
2. Starting in Log4j 2.6, you can now use
org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager.shutdown() to initiate shutdown
manually.
7. Calls to org.apache.log4j.Logger.setLevel() or similar methods
are not supported in the API. Applications should remove these. Equivalent
functionality is provided in the Log4j 2 implementation classes, see
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.Configurator.setLevel(), but may leave
the application susceptible to changes in Log4j 2 internals.
8. Where appropriate, applications should convert to use parameterized messages instead of String
concatenation.
9. org.apache.log4j.MDC and org.apache.log4j.NDC have been replaced by the Thread
Context.

3.1.4 Configuring Log4j 2

Although the Log4j 2 configuration syntax is different than that of Log4j 1.x, most, if not all, of the
same functionality is available.
Note that system property interpolation via the ${foo} syntax has been extended to allow property
lookups from many different sources. See the Lookups documentation for more details. For example,
using a lookup for the system property named catalina.base, in Log4j 1.x, the syntax would be
${catalina.base}. In Log4j 2, the syntax would be ${sys:catalina.base}.
Log4j 1.x has a XMLLayout which is different from the XmlLayout in Log4j 2, the log4j-1.2-api
module contains a Log4j1XmlLayout which produce output in the format as in Log4j 1.x. The
Log4j 1.x SimpleLayout can be emulated with PatternLayout "%level - %m%n". The Log4j 1.x
TTCCLayout can be emulated with PatternLayout "%r [%t] %p %c %notEmpty{%ndc }- %m%n".
Both PatternLayout and EnhancedPatternLayout in Log4j 1.x can be replaced with
PatternLayout in Log4j 2. The log4j-1.2-api module contains two pattern conversions "%ndc" and
"%properties" which can be used to emulate "%x" and "%X" in Log4j 1.x PatternLayout ("%x" and
%X" in Log4j 2 have a slightly different format).
Below are the example configurations for Log4j 1.x and their counterparts in Log4j 2.

3.1.4.1 Sample 1 - Simple configuration using a Console Appender

Log4j 1.x XML configuration

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE log4j:configuration PUBLIC "-//APACHE//DTD LOG4J 1.2//EN" "log4j.dtd">
<log4j:configuration xmlns:log4j='http://jakarta.apache.org/log4j/'>
<appender name="STDOUT" class="org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender">
<layout class="org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout">
<param name="ConversionPattern" value="%d %-5p [%t] %C{2} (%F:%L) - %m%n"/>
</layout>
</appender>
<category name="org.apache.log4j.xml">
<priority value="info" />
</category>
<Root>
<priority value ="debug" />
<appender-ref ref="STDOUT" />
</Root>
</log4j:configuration>
Log4j 2 XML configuration
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration>
<Appenders>
<Console name="STDOUT" target="SYSTEM_OUT">
<PatternLayout pattern="%d %-5p [%t] %C{2} (%F:%L) - %m%n"/>
</Console>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Logger name="org.apache.log4j.xml" level="info"/>
<Root level="debug">
<AppenderRef ref="STDOUT"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

3.1.4.2 Sample 2 - Simple configuration using a File Appender, XMLLayout and SimpleLayout
Log4j 1.x XML configuration

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3 Log4j 1.x Migration 13

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE log4j:configuration PUBLIC "-//APACHE//DTD LOG4J 1.2//EN" "log4j.dtd">
<log4j:configuration xmlns:log4j="http://jakarta.apache.org/log4j/">
<appender name="A1" class="org.apache.log4j.FileAppender">
<param name="File" value="A1.log" />
<param name="Append" value="false" />
<layout class="org.apache.log4j.xml.XMLLayout" />
</appender>
<appender name="STDOUT" class="org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender">
<layout class="org.apache.log4j.SimpleLayout" />
</appender>
<category name="org.apache.log4j.xml">
<priority value="debug" />
<appender-ref ref="A1" />
</category>
<root>
<priority value ="debug" />
<appender-ref ref="STDOUT" />
</Root>
</log4j:configuration>
Log4j 2 XML configuration
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration>
<Appenders>
<File name="A1" fileName="A1.log" append="false">
<Log4j1XmlLayout />
</File>
<Console name="STDOUT" target="SYSTEM_OUT">
<PatternLayout pattern="%level - %m%n"/>
</Console>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Logger name="org.apache.log4j.xml" level="debug">
<AppenderRef ref="A1"/>
</Logger>
<Root level="debug">
<AppenderRef ref="STDOUT"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

3.1.4.3 Sample 3 - SocketAppender

Log4j 1.x XML configuration. This example from Log4j 1.x is misleading. The SocketAppender does
not actually use a Layout. Configuring one will have no effect.

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3 Log4j 1.x Migration 14

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE log4j:configuration PUBLIC "-//APACHE//DTD LOG4J 1.2//EN" "log4j.dtd">
<log4j:configuration xmlns:log4j="http://jakarta.apache.org/log4j/">
<appender name="A1" class="org.apache.log4j.net.SocketAppender">
<param name="RemoteHost" value="localhost"/>
<param name="Port" value="5000"/>
<param name="LocationInfo" value="true"/>
<layout class="org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout">
<param name="ConversionPattern" value="%t %-5p %c{2} - %m%n"/>
</layout>
</appender>
<appender name="STDOUT" class="org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender">
<layout class="org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout">
<param name="ConversionPattern" value="%d %-5p [%t] %C{2} (%F:%L) - %m%n"/>
</layout>
</appender>
<category name="org.apache.log4j.xml">
<priority value="debug"/>
<appender-ref ref="A1"/>
</category>
<root>
<priority value="debug"/>
<appender-ref ref="STDOUT"/>
</Root>
</log4j:configuration>
Log4j 2 XML configuration
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration>
<Appenders>
<Socket name="A1" host="localHost" port="5000">
<PatternLayout pattern="%t %-5p %c{2} - %m%n"/>
</Socket>
<Console name="STDOUT" target="SYSTEM_OUT">
<PatternLayout pattern="%d %-5p [%t] %C{2} (%F:%L) - %m%n"/>
</Console>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Logger name="org.apache.log4j.xml" level="debug">
<AppenderRef ref="A1"/>
</Logger>
<Root level="debug">
<AppenderRef ref="STDOUT"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

3.1.4.4 Sample 4 - AsyncAppender and TTCCLayout

Log4j 1.x XML configuration using the AsyncAppender.

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3 Log4j 1.x Migration 15

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

3.1.4.5 Sample 5 - AsyncAppender with Console and File

Log4j 1.x XML configuration using the AsyncAppender.

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3 Log4j 1.x Migration 16

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE log4j:configuration PUBLIC "-//APACHE//DTD LOG4J 1.2//EN" "log4j.dtd">
<log4j:configuration xmlns:log4j="http://jakarta.apache.org/log4j/" configDebug="true">
<appender name="ASYNC" class="org.apache.log4j.AsyncAppender">
<appender-ref ref="TEMP"/>
<appender-ref ref="CONSOLE"/>
</appender>
<appender name="CONSOLE" class="org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender">
<layout class="org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout">
<param name="ConversionPattern" value="%d %-5p [%t] %C{2} (%F:%L) - %m%n"/>
</layout>
</appender>
<appender name="TEMP" class="org.apache.log4j.FileAppender">
<param name="File" value="temp"/>
<layout class="org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout">
<param name="ConversionPattern" value="%d %-5p [%t] %C{2} (%F:%L) - %m%n"/>
</layout>
</appender>
<root>
<priority value="debug"/>
<appender-ref ref="ASYNC"/>
</Root>
</log4j:configuration>
Log4j 2 XML configuration. Note that the Async Appender should be configured after the appenders
it references. This will allow it to shutdown properly.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="debug">
<Appenders>
<Console name="CONSOLE" target="SYSTEM_OUT">
<PatternLayout pattern="%d %-5p [%t] %C{2} (%F:%L) - %m%n"/>
</Console>
<File name="TEMP" fileName="temp">
<PatternLayout pattern="%d %-5p [%t] %C{2} (%F:%L) - %m%n"/>
</File>
<Async name="ASYNC">
<AppenderRef ref="TEMP"/>
<AppenderRef ref="CONSOLE"/>
</Async>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="debug">
<AppenderRef ref="ASYNC"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

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4 API 17

4 API
.......................................................................................................................................

4.1 Log4j 2 API

4.1.1 Overview
The Log4j 2 API provides the interface that applications should code to and provides the adapter
components required for implementers to create a logging implementation. Although Log4j 2 is
broken up between an API and an implementation, the primary purpose of doing so was not to allow
multiple implementations, although that is certainly possible, but to clearly define what classes and
methods are safe to use in "normal" application code.

4.1.1.1 Hello World!

No introduction would be complete without the customary Hello, World example. Here is ours. First,
a Logger with the name "HelloWorld" is obtained from the LogManager. Next, the logger is used
to write the "Hello, World!" message, however the message will be written only if the Logger is
configured to allow informational messages.
import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;

public class HelloWorld {

private static final Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger("HelloWorld");
public static void main(String[] args) {
logger.info("Hello, World!");
}
}
The output from the call to logger.info() will vary significantly depending on the configuration used.
See the Configuration section for more details.

4.1.1.2 Substituting Parameters

Frequently the purpose of logging is to provide information about what is happening in the system,
which requires including information about the objects being manipulated. In Log4j 1.x this could be
accomplished by doing:
if (logger.isDebugEnabled()) {
logger.debug("Logging in user " + user.getName() + " with birthday " + user.getBirthdayCalendar());
}
Doing this repeatedly has the effect of making the code feel like it is more about logging than the
actual task at hand. In addition, it results in the logging level being checked twice; once on the call to
isDebugEnabled and once on the debug method. A better alternative would be:
logger.debug("Logging in user {} with birthday {}", user.getName(), user.getBirthdayCalendar());
With the code above the logging level will only be checked once and the String construction will only
occur when debug logging is enabled.

4.1.1.3 Formatting Parameters

Formatter Loggers leave formatting up to you if toString() is not what you want. To facilitate
formatting, you can use the same format strings as Java's Formatter. For example:

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4 API 18

public static Logger logger = LogManager.getFormatterLogger("Foo");

logger.debug("Logging in user %s with birthday %s", user.getName(), user.getBirthdayCalendar());

logger.debug("Logging in user %1$s with birthday %2$tm %2$te,%2$tY", user.getName(), user.getBirthdayCalendar
logger.debug("Integer.MAX_VALUE = %,d", Integer.MAX_VALUE);
logger.debug("Long.MAX_VALUE = %,d", Long.MAX_VALUE);

To use a formatter Logger, you must call one of the LogManager getFormatterLogger methods. The
output for this example shows that Calendar toString() is verbose compared to custom formatting:
2012-12-12 11:56:19,633 [main] DEBUG: User John Smith with birthday java.util.GregorianCalendar[time=?,areFie
2012-12-12 11:56:19,643 [main] DEBUG: User John Smith with birthday 05 23, 1995
2012-12-12 11:56:19,643 [main] DEBUG: Integer.MAX_VALUE = 2,147,483,647
2012-12-12 11:56:19,643 [main] DEBUG: Long.MAX_VALUE = 9,223,372,036,854,775,807

4.1.1.4 Mixing Loggers with Formatter Loggers

Formatter loggers give fine-grained control over the output format, but have the drawback that the
correct type must be specified (for example, passing anything other than a decimal integer for a %d
format parameter gives an exception).
If your main usage is to use {}-style parameters, but occasionally you need fine-grained control over
the output format, you can use the printf method:
public static Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger("Foo");

logger.debug("Opening connection to {}...", someDataSource);

logger.printf(Level.INFO, "Logging in user %1$s with birthday %2$tm %2$te,%2$tY", user.getName(), user.getBir

4.1.1.5 Java 8 lambda support for lazy logging

In release 2.4, the Logger interface added support for lambda expressions. This allows client code
to lazily log messages without explicitly checking if the requested log level is enabled. For example,
previously you would write:
// pre-Java 8 style optimization: explicitly check the log level
// to make sure the expensiveOperation() method is only called if necessary
if (logger.isTraceEnabled()) {
logger.trace("Some long-running operation returned {}", expensiveOperation());
}
With Java 8 you can achieve the same effect with a lambda expression. You no longer need to
explicitly check the log level:
// Java-8 style optimization: no need to explicitly check the log level:
// the lambda expression is not evaluated if the TRACE level is not enabled
logger.trace("Some long-running operation returned {}", () -> expensiveOperation());

4.1.1.6 Logger Names

Most logging implementations use a hierarchical scheme for matching logger names with logging
configuration. In this scheme, the logger name hierarchy is represented by '.' characters in
the logger name, in a fashion very similar to the hierarchy used for Java package names. For
example, org.apache.logging.appender and org.apache.logging.filter both have
org.apache.logging as their parent. In most cases, applications name their loggers by passing the

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4 API 19

current class's name to LogManager.getLogger(...). Because this usage is so common, Log4j 2

provides that as the default when the logger name parameter is either omitted or is null. For example,
in all examples below the Logger will have a name of "org.apache.test.MyTest".
package org.apache.test;

public class MyTest {

private static final Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger(MyTest.class);
}
package org.apache.test;

public class MyTest {

private static final Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger(MyTest.class.getName());
}
package org.apache.test;

public class MyTest {

private static final Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger();
}

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5 Configuration 20

5 Configuration
.......................................................................................................................................

5.1 Configuration
Inserting log requests into the application code requires a fair amount of planning and effort.
Observation shows that approximately 4 percent of code is dedicated to logging. Consequently, even
moderately sized applications will have thousands of logging statements embedded within their code.
Given their number, it becomes imperative to manage these log statements without the need to modify
them manually.
Configuration of Log4j 2 can be accomplished in 1 of 4 ways:

1. Through a configuration file written in XML, JSON, YAML, or properties format.

2. Programmatically, by creating a ConfigurationFactory and Configuration implementation.
3. Programmatically, by calling the APIs exposed in the Configuration interface to add components
to the default configuration.
4. Programmatically, by calling methods on the internal Logger class.
This page focuses primarily on configuring Log4j through a configuration file. Information on
programmatically configuring Log4j can be found at Extending Log4j 2 and Programmatic Log4j
Configuration.
All available formats are functionally equivalent. For example, a configuration file in XML can be
rewritten using the properties format (and the opposite) without any loss of functionality. However,
the hierarchical nature of a Log4j configuration can be captured better in formats which naturally
support nesting so XML, JSON, and YAML files, are usually easier to use.
Note that unlike Log4j 1.x, the public Log4j 2 API does not expose methods to add, modify or remove
appenders and filters or manipulate the configuration in any way.

5.1.1 Configuration Archhitecture

In part because support for XML was added first, Log4j's configuration is reflected as a tree structure.
In fact every configuration dialect, including the ConfigurationBuilder, generates a Node for every
configuration element. A node is a fairly simple structure that contains a set of attributes, a set of child
nodes and a PluginType. It is important to note that every Node must have a corresponding plugn, as
the plugin is the component that actually performs the work represented by the node.
Every document type supported by Log4j has a ConfigurationFactory. The factory itself is a Log4j
plugin that declares what file extensions it supports and what its priority is. Properties have the
highest precedence with a value of 8, followed by yaml, json and xml. When autoconfiguration
is performed Log4j will call each of these factories in order to determine which, if any, support
the specified configuration file format. If one is found that factory will create the corresponding
Configuratoin object and pass the reference to the configuration data to it.
Every configuration implementation, such as XMLConfiguration, YamlConfiguration,
JsonConfiguration, etc. has the primary task of converting the configuration text into the Node tree,
typically by parsing the text with whatever tool is available for that document type. It should be noted
that while most of the supported document types are inherintly tree structured, the Java properties
syntax is not. Because of the need to convert the syntax into a Node tree the Java properties syntax
used by Log4j required all properties follow a naming pattern that made the tree structure clear. As
a consequence, the Java Properties format tends to be more verbose than using a different document
type.

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5 Configuration 21

Once the Node tree is created control is delegated to AbstractConfiguration, which convertes the
Nodes into their respective Java objects using Log4j's Plugin system and provides all the common
functionality.

5.1.2 Arbiters
In some situations it is desirable to have a single logging configuration that can be used in any
deployment environment. For example, it may be necessary to have a different default logging level
in production then in development. Another case might be where one type of appender is used when
running natively but another is used when deployed to a docker container. One way to handle that is
to use a tool such as Spring Cloud Config Server that can be environment aware and serve a different
file for each environment. Another option is to include Arbiters in the configuration.
An Arbiter is a Log4j plugin that has the job of determining whether other configured elements
should be included in the generated configuration. While all other "Core" plugins are designed to
execute as part of Log4j's runtime logic Arbiters execute after the Node tree has been constructed but
before the tree is converted to a configuration. An Arbiter is a Node itself which is always removed
from the Node tree before it the tree is processed. All an arbiter really does is provide a method that
returns a boolean result that determines whether the child nodes of the arbiter should remain in the
configuration or be pruned.
Arbiters may occur anywhere an element is allowed in the configuration. So an Aribiter could
encapsulate something as simple as a single property declaration or a whole set of Appenders or
Loggers. Arbiters may also be nested although Arbiters that are the descendant of another arbiter will
only be evalued if the ancestor returned true. The child elements of an Arbiter must be valid elements
for whatever element is the parent of the Arbiter.
This example shows two Arbiters configured that will include either a Console Appender or a List
Appender depending on whether the value of the env System Property is "dev" or "prod".

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5 Configuration 22

<Configuration name="ConfigTest" status="ERROR" monitorInterval="5">

<SystemPropertyArbiter propertyName="env" propertyValue="dev">

</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Logger name="org.apache.test" level="trace" additivity="false">
<AppenderRef ref="Out"/>
</Logger>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="Out"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

Normally Arbiters act in isolation from other Arbiters. That is, the outcome of one Arbiter will not
impact any other Arbiters. This can be cumbersome when you simply want to use one of a set of
choices. A special plugin named "Select" can be used in this case. Each element under the Select
is required to be an Arbiter. The first Arbiter that returns a true value will be the one used while
others are ignored. If no Arbiter returns true a DefaultAtrbiter may be configured with the default
configuration elements. The DefaultArbiter is an Arbiter that always returns true, so using it outside
of a Select would result in its configured elements always being included just as if it hadn't been
present.
This example shows an Arbiter that uses Javascript residing in a separate file to determine whether to
include the Console Appender. If the result is false then a List Appender will be included.

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5 Configuration 23

<Configuration name="ConfigTest" status="ERROR" monitorInterval="5">

Natively Log4j contains the SystemProperty Arbiter that can evaluate whether to include elements
based on whether a SystemProperty is non-null or has a specific value, a ClassArbiter that makes its
decision based on whether the specified class is present, and a ScriptArbiter that makes its decision
based on the result of the script configured with it.
For Spring Boot users an Arbiter named SpringProfile has been provided. The specified profiles
are evaluated by Spring's Environment.acceptsProfiles() method, so any expressions it
supports may be used as the name attribute.
This example will use a Console Appender when the Spring profile is "dev" or "staging" and a List
Appender when the active profile is "prod".

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5 Configuration 24

<Configuration name="ConfigTest" status="ERROR" monitorInterval="5">

<SpringProfile name="dev | staging">

5.1.3 Automatic Configuration

Log4j has the ability to automatically configure itself during initialization. When Log4j starts it
will locate all the ConfigurationFactory plugins and arrange them in weighted order from highest to
lowest. As delivered, Log4j contains four ConfigurationFactory implementations: one for JSON, one
for YAML, one for properties, and one for XML.

1. Log4j will inspect the "log4j2.configurationFile" system property and, if set, will
attempt to load the configuration using the ConfigurationFactory that matches the file
extension. Note that this is not restricted to a location on the local file system and may contain a
URL.
2. If no system property is set the properties ConfigurationFactory will look for log4j2-
test.properties in the classpath.
3. If no such file is found the YAML ConfigurationFactory will look for log4j2-test.yaml or
log4j2-test.yml in the classpath.
4. If no such file is found the JSON ConfigurationFactory will look for log4j2-test.json or
log4j2-test.jsn in the classpath.
5. If no such file is found the XML ConfigurationFactory will look for log4j2-test.xml in the
classpath.
6. If a test file cannot be located the properties ConfigurationFactory will look for
log4j2.properties on the classpath.
7. If a properties file cannot be located the YAML ConfigurationFactory will look for
log4j2.yaml or log4j2.yml on the classpath.
8. If a YAML file cannot be located the JSON ConfigurationFactory will look for log4j2.json or
log4j2.jsn on the classpath.

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5 Configuration 25

9. If a JSON file cannot be located the XML ConfigurationFactory will try to locate log4j2.xml
on the classpath.
10.If no configuration file could be located the DefaultConfiguration will be used. This will
cause logging output to go to the console.
An example application named MyApp that uses log4j can be used to illustrate how this is done.

import com.foo.Bar;

// Import log4j classes.

import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;

public class MyApp {

// Define a static logger variable so that it references the

// Logger instance named "MyApp".
private static final Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger(MyApp.class);

public static void main(final String... args) {

// Set up a simple configuration that logs on the console.

logger.trace("Entering application.");
Bar bar = new Bar();
if (!bar.doIt()) {
logger.error("Didn't do it.");
}
logger.trace("Exiting application.");
}
}

MyApp begins by importing log4j related classes. It then defines a static logger variable with the name
MyApp which happens to be the fully qualified name of the class.
MyApp uses the Bar class defined in the package com.foo.

package com.foo;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;

public class Bar {

static final Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger(Bar.class.getName());

public boolean doIt() {

logger.entry();
logger.error("Did it again!");
return logger.exit(false);
}
}

Log4j will provide a default configuration if it cannot locate a configuration file. The default
configuration, provided in the DefaultConfiguration class, will set up:

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5 Configuration 26

• A ConsoleAppender attached to the root logger.

• A PatternLayout set to the pattern "%d{HH:mm:ss.SSS} [%t] %-5level %logger{36} - %msg
%n" attached to the ConsoleAppender
Note that by default Log4j assigns the root logger to Level.ERROR.
The output of MyApp would be similar to:

17:13:01.540 [main] ERROR com.foo.Bar - Did it again!

17:13:01.540 [main] ERROR MyApp - Didn't do it.

As was described previously, Log4j will first attempt to configure itself from configuration files. A
configuration equivalent to the default would look like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

Once the file above is placed into the classpath as log4j2.xml you will get results identical to those
listed above. Changing the root level to trace will result in results similar to:

17:13:01.540 [main] TRACE MyApp - Entering application.

17:13:01.540 [main] TRACE com.foo.Bar - entry
17:13:01.540 [main] ERROR com.foo.Bar - Did it again!
17:13:01.540 [main] TRACE com.foo.Bar - exit with (false)
17:13:01.540 [main] ERROR MyApp - Didn't do it.
17:13:01.540 [main] TRACE MyApp - Exiting application.

Note that status logging is disabled when the default configuration is used.

5.1.4 Additivity
Perhaps it is desired to eliminate all the TRACE output from everything except com.foo.Bar.
Simply changing the log level would not accomplish the task. Instead, the solution is to add a new
logger definition to the configuration:

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5 Configuration 27

<Logger name="com.foo.Bar" level="TRACE"/>

With this configuration all log events from com.foo.Bar will be recorded while only error events
will be recorded from all other components.
In the previous example all the events from com.foo.Bar were still written to the Console. This is
because the logger for com.foo.Bar did not have any appenders configured while its parent did. In
fact, the following configuration

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

would result in

17:13:01.540 [main] TRACE com.foo.Bar - entry

17:13:01.540 [main] TRACE com.foo.Bar - entry
17:13:01.540 [main] ERROR com.foo.Bar - Did it again!
17:13:01.540 [main] TRACE com.foo.Bar - exit (false)
17:13:01.540 [main] TRACE com.foo.Bar - exit (false)
17:13:01.540 [main] ERROR MyApp - Didn't do it.

Notice that the trace messages from com.foo.Bar appear twice. This is because the appender
associated with logger com.foo.Bar is first used, which writes the first instance to the Console.
Next, the parent of com.foo.Bar, which in this case is the root logger, is referenced. The event is
then passed to its appender, which is also writes to the Console, resulting in the second instance. This
is known as additivity. While additivity can be quite a convenient feature (as in the first previous
example where no appender reference needed to be configured), in many cases this behavior is
considered undesirable and so it is possible to disable it by setting the additivity attribute on the logger
to false:

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5 Configuration 28

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

Once an event reaches a logger with its additivity set to false the event will not be passed to any of its
parent loggers, regardless of their additivity setting.

5.1.5 Automatic Reconfiguration

When configured from a File, Log4j has the ability to automatically detect changes to the
configuration file and reconfigure itself. If the monitorInterval attribute is specified on the
configuration element and is set to a non-zero value then the file will be checked the next time a
log event is evaluated and/or logged and the monitorInterval has elapsed since the last check. The
example below shows how to configure the attribute so that the configuration file will be checked for
changes only after at least 30 seconds have elapsed. The minimum interval is 5 seconds.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

5.1.6 Chainsaw can automatically process your log files (Advertising appender configurations)
Log4j provides the ability to 'advertise' appender configuration details for all file-based appenders
as well as socket-based appenders. For example, for file-based appenders, the file location and the
pattern layout in the file are included in the advertisement. Chainsaw and other external systems can
discover these advertisements and use that information to intelligently process the log file.
The mechanism by which an advertisement is exposed, as well as the advertisement format, is specific
to each Advertiser implementation. An external system which would like to work with a specific
Advertiser implementation must understand how to locate the advertised configuration as well as the
format of the advertisement. For example, a 'database' Advertiser may store configuration details in
a database table. An external system can read that database table in order to discover the file location
and the file format.

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5 Configuration 29

Log4j provides one Advertiser implementation, a 'multicastdns' Advertiser, which advertises appender
configuration details via IP multicast using the http://jmdns.sourceforge.net library.
Chainsaw automatically discovers log4j's multicastdns-generated advertisements and displays
those discovered advertisements in Chainsaw's Zeroconf tab (if the jmdns library is in Chainsaw's
classpath). To begin parsing and tailing a log file provided in an advertisement, just double-click
the advertised entry in Chainsaw's Zeroconf tab. Currently, Chainsaw only supports FileAppender
advertisements.
To advertise an appender configuration:
• Add the JmDns library from http://jmdns.sourceforge.net to the application classpath
• Set the 'advertiser' attribute of the configuration element to 'multicastdns'
• Set the 'advertise' attribute on the appender element to 'true'
• If advertising a FileAppender-based configuration, set the 'advertiseURI' attribute on the
appender element to an appropriate URI
FileAppender-based configurations require an additional 'advertiseURI' attribute to be specified on
the appender. The 'advertiseURI' attribute provides Chainsaw with information on how the file can be
accessed. For example, the file may be remotely accessible to Chainsaw via ssh/sftp by specifying a
Commons VFS ( http://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-vfs/) sftp:// URI, an http:// URI may
be used if the file is accessible through a web server, or a file:// URI can be specified if accessing the
file from a locally-running instance of Chainsaw.
Here is an example advertisement-enabled appender configuration which can be used by a locally-
running Chainsaw to automatically tail the log file (notice the file:// advertiseURI):
Please note, you must add the JmDns library from http://jmdns.sourceforge.net to your
application classpath in order to advertise with the 'multicastdns' advertiser.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

5.1.7 Configuration Syntax

As of version 2.9, for security reasons, Log4j does not process DTD in XML files. If you want to split
the configuration in multiple files, use XInclude or Composite Configuration.
As the previous examples have shown as well as those to follow, Log4j allows you to easily redefine
logging behavior without needing to modify your application. It is possible to disable logging for
certain parts of the application, log only when specific criteria are met such as the action being
performed for a specific user, route output to Flume or a log reporting system, etc. Being able to do
this requires understanding the syntax of the configuration files.
The configuration element in the XML file accepts several attributes:

Attribute Name Description

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5 Configuration 30

advertiser (Optional) The Advertiser plugin name which will

be used to advertise individual FileAppender or
SocketAppender configurations. The only Advertiser
plugin provided is 'multicastdns".
dest Either "err" for stderr, "out" for stdout, a file path, or a
URL.
monitorInterval The minimum amount of time, in seconds, that must
elapse before the file configuration is checked for
changes.
name The name of the configuration.
packages A comma separated list of package names to
search for plugins. Plugins are only loaded once per
classloader so changing this value may not have any
effect upon reconfiguration.
schema Identifies the location for the classloader to located the
XML Schema to use to validate the configuration. Only
valid when strict is set to true. If not set no schema
validation will take place.
shutdownHook Specifies whether or not Log4j should automatically
shutdown when the JVM shuts down. The shutdown
hook is enabled by default but may be disabled by
setting this attribute to "disable"
shutdownTimeout Specifies how many milliseconds appenders and
background tasks will get to shutdown when the
JVM shuts down. Default is zero which mean
that each appender uses its default timeout, and
don't wait for background tasks. Not all appenders
will honor this, it is a hint and not an absolute
guarantee that the shutdown procedure will not
take longer. Setting this too low increase the risk
of losing outstanding log events not yet written to
the final destination. See LoggerContext.stop(long,
java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit). (Not used if
shutdownHook is set to "disable".)
status The level of internal Log4j events that should
be logged to the console. Valid values for this
attribute are "off", "trace", "debug", "info",
"warn", "error", "fatal", and "all". Log4j will log
details about initialization, rollover and other
internal actions to the status logger. Setting
status="trace" is one of the first tools
available to you if you need to troubleshoot
log4j.
(Alternatively, setting system property
log4j2.debug will also print internal Log4j2
logging to the console, including internal logging
that took place before the configuration file was
found.)
strict Enables the use of the strict XML format. Not
supported in JSON configurations.
verbose Enables diagnostic information while loading plugins.

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5 Configuration 31

5.1.8 Configuration with XML

Log4j can be configured using two XML flavors; concise and strict.
5.Concise Syntax
The concise format makes configuration very easy as the element names match the components they
represent however it cannot be validated with an XML schema. For example, the ConsoleAppender
is configured by declaring an XML element named Console under its parent appenders element.
However, element and attribute names are are not case sensitive. In addition, attributes can either be
specified as an XML attribute or as an XML element that has no attributes and has a text value. So
<PatternLayout pattern="%m%n"/>
and

<PatternLayout>
<Pattern>%m%n</Pattern>
</PatternLayout>
are equivalent.
The file below represents the structure of an XML configuration, but note that the elements in italics
below represent the concise element names that would appear in their place.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>;

<Configuration>
<Properties>
<Property name="name1">value</property>
<Property name="name2" value="value2"/>
</Properties>
<
filter ... />
<Appenders>
<
appender ... >
<
filter ... />
</
appender>
...
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Logger name="name1">
<
filter ... />
</Logger>
...
<Root level="level">
<AppenderRef ref="name"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

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5 Configuration 32

See the many examples on this page for sample appender, filter and logger declarations.
5.Strict XML
In addition to the concise XML format above, Log4j allows configurations to be specified in a
more "normal" XML manner that can be validated using an XML Schema. This is accomplished by
replacing the friendly element names above with their object type as shown below. For example,
instead of the ConsoleAppender being configured using an element named Console it is instead
configured as an appender element with a type attribute containing "Console".

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>;

<Configuration>
<Properties>
<Property name="name1">value</property>
<Property name="name2" value="value2"/>
</Properties>
<Filter type="type" ... />
<Appenders>
<Appender type="type" name="name">
<Filter type="type" ... />
</Appender>
...
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Logger name="name1">
<Filter type="type" ... />
</Logger>
...
<Root level="level">
<AppenderRef ref="name"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

Below is a sample configuration using the strict format.

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5 Configuration 33

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Configuration status="debug" strict="true" name="XMLConfigTest"
packages="org.apache.logging.log4j.test">
<Properties>
<Property name="filename">target/test.log</Property>
</Properties>
<Filter type="ThresholdFilter" level="trace"/>

<Logger name="org.apache.logging.log4j.test2" level="debug" additivity="false">

</Configuration>

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5 Configuration 34

5.1.8.2 Configuration with JSON

In addition to XML, Log4j can be configured using JSON. The JSON format is very similar to the
concise XML format. Each key represents the name of a plugin and the key/value pairs associated
with it are its attributes. Where a key contains more than a simple value it itself will be a subordinate
plugin. In the example below, ThresholdFilter, Console, and PatternLayout are all plugins while the
Console plugin will be assigned a value of STDOUT for its name attribute and the ThresholdFilter
will be assigned a level of debug.

{ "configuration": { "status": "error", "name": "RoutingTest",

"packages": "org.apache.logging.log4j.test",
"properties": {
"property": { "name": "filename",
"value" : "target/rolling1/rollingtest-$${sd:type}.log" }
},
"ThresholdFilter": { "level": "debug" },
"appenders": {
"Console": { "name": "STDOUT",
"PatternLayout": { "pattern": "%m%n" },
"ThresholdFilter": { "level": "debug" }
},
"Routing": { "name": "Routing",
"Routes": { "pattern": "$${sd:type}",
"Route": [
{
"RollingFile": {
"name": "Rolling-${sd:type}", "fileName": "${filename}",
"filePattern": "target/rolling1/test1-${sd:type}.%i.log.gz",
"PatternLayout": {"pattern": "%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n"},
"SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy": { "size": "500" }
}
},
{ "AppenderRef": "STDOUT", "key": "Audit"}
]
}
}
},
"loggers": {
"logger": { "name": "EventLogger", "level": "info", "additivity": "false",
"AppenderRef": { "ref": "Routing" }},
"root": { "level": "error", "AppenderRef": { "ref": "STDOUT" }}
}
}
}

Note that in the RoutingAppender the Route element has been declared as an array. This is valid
because each array element will be a Route component. This won't work for elements such as
appenders and filters, where each element has a different name in the concise format. Appenders and
filters can be defined as array elements if each appender or filter declares an attribute named "type"
that contains the type of the appender. The following example illustrates this as well as how to declare
multiple loggers as an array.

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5 Configuration 35

{ "configuration": { "status": "debug", "name": "RoutingTest",

"packages": "org.apache.logging.log4j.test",
"properties": {
"property": { "name": "filename",
"value" : "target/rolling1/rollingtest-$${sd:type}.log" }
},
"ThresholdFilter": { "level": "debug" },
"appenders": {
"appender": [
{ "type": "Console", "name": "STDOUT", "PatternLayout": { "pattern": "%m%n" }, "ThresholdFilter": {
{ "type": "Routing", "name": "Routing",
"Routes": { "pattern": "$${sd:type}",
"Route": [
{
"RollingFile": {
"name": "Rolling-${sd:type}", "fileName": "${filename}",
"filePattern": "target/rolling1/test1-${sd:type}.%i.log.gz",
"PatternLayout": {"pattern": "%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n"},
"SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy": { "size": "500" }
}
},
{ "AppenderRef": "STDOUT", "key": "Audit"}
]
}
}
]
},
"loggers": {
"logger": [
{ "name": "EventLogger", "level": "info", "additivity": "false",
"AppenderRef": { "ref": "Routing" }},
{ "name": "com.foo.bar", "level": "error", "additivity": "false",
"AppenderRef": { "ref": "STDOUT" }}
],
"root": { "level": "error", "AppenderRef": { "ref": "STDOUT" }}
}
}
}

Additional runtime dependencies are required for using JSON configuration files.

5.1.8.3 Configuration with YAML

Log4j also supports using YAML for configuration files. The structure follows the same pattern as
both the XML and YAML configuration formats. For example:

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5 Configuration 36

Configuration:
status: warn
name: YAMLConfigTest
properties:
property:
name: filename
value: target/test-yaml.log
thresholdFilter:
level: debug
appenders:
Console:
name: STDOUT
target: SYSTEM_OUT
PatternLayout:
Pattern: "%m%n"
File:
name: File
fileName: ${filename}
PatternLayout:
Pattern: "%d %p %C{1.} [%t] %m%n"
Filters:
ThresholdFilter:
level: error

Loggers:
logger:
-
name: org.apache.logging.log4j.test1
level: debug
additivity: false
ThreadContextMapFilter:
KeyValuePair:
key: test
value: 123
AppenderRef:
ref: STDOUT
-
name: org.apache.logging.log4j.test2
level: debug
additivity: false
AppenderRef:
ref: File
Root:
level: error
AppenderRef:
ref: STDOUT

Additional runtime dependencies are required for using YAML configuration files.

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5 Configuration 37

5.1.8.4 Configuration with Properties

As of version 2.4, Log4j now supports configuration via properties files. Note that the property syntax
is NOT the same as the syntax used in Log4j 1. Like the XML and JSON configurations, properties
configurations define the configuration in terms of plugins and attributes to the plugins.
Prior to version 2.6, the properties configuration requires that you list the identifiers of the
appenders, filters and loggers, in a comma separated list in properties with those names. Each
of those components will then be expected to be defined in sets of properties that begin with
component.<.identifier>.. The identifier does not have to match the name of the component
being defined but must uniquely identify all the attributes and subcomponents that are part of the
component. If the list of identifiers is not present the identifer must not contain a '.'. Each individual
component MUST have a "type" attribute specified that identifies the component's Plugin type.
As of version 2.6, this list of identifiers is no longer required as names are inferred upon first usage,
however if you wish to use more complex identifies you must still use the list. If the list is present it
will be used.
Unlike the base components, when creating subcomponents you cannot specify an element containing
a list of identifiers. Instead, you must define the wrapper element with its type as is shown in the
policies definition in the rolling file appender below. You then define each of the subcomponents
below that wrapper element, as the TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy and SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy are
defined below.
Properties configuration files support the advertiser, monitorInterval, name, packages,
shutdownHook, shutdownTimeout, status, verbose, and dest attrbutes. See Configuration Syntax for
the definitions of these attributes.

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5 Configuration 38

status = error
dest = err
name = PropertiesConfig

property.filename = target/rolling/rollingtest.log

filter.threshold.type = ThresholdFilter
filter.threshold.level = debug

appender.console.type = Console
appender.console.name = STDOUT
appender.console.layout.type = PatternLayout
appender.console.layout.pattern = %m%n
appender.console.filter.threshold.type = ThresholdFilter
appender.console.filter.threshold.level = error

appender.rolling.type = RollingFile
appender.rolling.name = RollingFile
appender.rolling.fileName = ${filename}
appender.rolling.filePattern = target/rolling2/test1-%d{MM-dd-yy-HH-mm-ss}-%i.log.gz
appender.rolling.layout.type = PatternLayout
appender.rolling.layout.pattern = %d %p %C{1.} [%t] %m%n
appender.rolling.policies.type = Policies
appender.rolling.policies.time.type = TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy
appender.rolling.policies.time.interval = 2
appender.rolling.policies.time.modulate = true
appender.rolling.policies.size.type = SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy
appender.rolling.policies.size.size=100MB
appender.rolling.strategy.type = DefaultRolloverStrategy
appender.rolling.strategy.max = 5

logger.rolling.name = com.example.my.app
logger.rolling.level = debug
logger.rolling.additivity = false
logger.rolling.appenderRef.rolling.ref = RollingFile

rootLogger.level = info
rootLogger.appenderRef.stdout.ref = STDOUT

5.1.8.5 Configuring Loggers

An understanding of how loggers work in Log4j is critical before trying to configure them. Please
reference the Log4j architecture if more information is required. Trying to configure Log4j without
understanding those concepts will lead to frustration.
A LoggerConfig is configured using the logger element. The logger element must have a name
attribute specified, will usually have a level attribute specified and may also have an additivity
attribute specified. The level may be configured with one of TRACE, DEBUG, INFO, WARN,
ERROR, ALL or OFF. If no level is specified it will default to ERROR. The additivity attribute may
be assigned a value of true or false. If the attribute is omitted the default value of true will be used.

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5 Configuration 39

Capturing location information (the class name, file name, method name, and line number of the
caller) can be slow. Log4j tries to optimize this by reducing the size of the stack that must be
traversed to find the caller of the logging method. It does this by determining if any component that
might be accessed requires location information. This can cause performance issues if a logger is
configured at a level like trace or debug with the expectation that most logs will be filtered on an
Appender reference or Appender as Log4j will calculate the location information even though the log
event is going to be discarded. To disable this behavior the includeLocation attribute can be set
to false on the LoggerConfig. This will cause Log4j to defer calculating the location information until
absolutely necessary.
A LoggerConfig (including the root LoggerConfig) can be configured with properties that will be
added to the properties copied from the ThreadContextMap. These properties can be referenced from
Appenders, Filters, Layouts, etc just as if they were part of the ThreadContext Map. The properties
can contain variables that will be resolved either when the configuration is parsed or dynamically
when each event is logged. See Property Substitution for more information on using variables.
The LoggerConfig may also be configured with one or more AppenderRef elements. Each appender
referenced will become associated with the specified LoggerConfig. If multiple appenders are
configured on the LoggerConfig each of them be called when processing logging events.
Every configuration must have a root logger. If one is not configured the default root LoggerConfig,
which has a level of ERROR and has a Console appender attached, will be used. The main differences
between the root logger and other loggers are
1. The root logger does not have a name attribute.
2. The root logger does not support the additivity attribute since it has no parent.

5.1.8.6 Configuring Appenders

An appender is configured either using the specific appender plugin's name or with an appender
element and the type attribute containing the appender plugin's name. In addition each appender must
have a name attribute specified with a value that is unique within the set of appenders. The name will
be used by loggers to reference the appender as described in the previous section.
Most appenders also support a layout to be configured (which again may be specified either using the
specific Layout plugin's name as the element or with "layout" as the element name along with a type
attribute that contains the layout plugin's name. The various appenders will contain other attributes or
elements that are required for them to function properly.

5.1.8.7 Configuring Filters

Log4j allows a filter to be specified in any of 4 places:
1. At the same level as the appenders, loggers and properties elements. These filters can accept or
reject events before they have been passed to a LoggerConfig.
2. In a logger element. These filters can accept or reject events for specific loggers.
3. In an appender element. These filters can prevent or cause events to be processed by the
appender.
4. In an appender reference element. These filters are used to determine if a Logger should route the
event to an appender.
Although only a single filter element can be configured, that element may be the filters element
which represents the CompositeFilter. The filters element allows any number of filter elements
to be configured within it. The following example shows how multiple filters can be configured on the
ConsoleAppender.

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5 Configuration 40

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Configuration status="debug" name="XMLConfigTest" packages="org.apache.logging.log4j.test">
<Properties>
<Property name="filename">target/test.log</Property>
</Properties>
<ThresholdFilter level="trace"/>

<Logger name="org.apache.logging.log4j.test2" level="debug" additivity="false">

</Configuration>

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5 Configuration 41

5.1.9 Property Substitution

Log4j 2 supports the ability to specify tokens in the configuration as references to properties defined
elsewhere. Some of these properties will be resolved when the configuration file is interpreted while
others may be passed to components where they will be evaluated at runtime. To accomplish this,
Log4j uses variations of Apache Commons Lang's StrSubstitutor and StrLookup classes. In a
manner similar to Ant or Maven, this allows variables declared as ${name} to be resolved using
properties declared in the configuration itself. For example, the following example shows the filename
for the rolling file appender being declared as a property.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Configuration status="debug" name="RoutingTest" packages="org.apache.logging.log4j.test">
<Properties>
<Property name="filename">target/rolling1/rollingtest-$${sd:type}.log</Property>
</Properties>
<ThresholdFilter level="debug"/>

</Configuration>

While this is useful, there are many more places properties can originate from. To accommodate this,
Log4j also supports the syntax ${prefix:name} where the prefix identifies tells Log4j that variable

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5 Configuration 42

name should be evaluated in a specific context. See the Lookups manual page for more details. The
contexts that are built in to Log4j are:

Prefix Context
base64 Base64 encoded data. The format is
${base64:Base64_encoded_data}.
For example:
${base64:SGVsbG8gV29ybGQhCg==} yields
Hello World!.
bundle Resource bundle. The format is
${bundle:BundleName:BundleKey}.
The bundle name follows package
naming conventions, for example:
${bundle:com.domain.Messages:MyKey}.
ctx Thread Context Map (MDC)
date Inserts the current date and/or time using the specified
format
env System environment variables. The formats are
${env:ENV_NAME} and ${env:ENV_NAME:-
default_value}.
jndi A value set in the default JNDI Context. (Requires
system property log4j2.enableJndiLookup to
be set to true.)
jvmrunargs A JVM input argument accessed through
JMX, but not a main argument; see
RuntimeMXBean.getInputArguments(). Not available
on Android.
log4j Log4j configuration properties. The expressions
${log4j:configLocation} and
${log4j:configParentLocation}
respectively provide the absolute path to the log4j
configuration file and its parent folder.
main A value set with
MapLookup.setMainArguments(String[])
map A value from a MapMessage
sd A value from a StructuredDataMessage. The key "id"
will return the name of the StructuredDataId without
the enterprise number. The key "type" will return the
message type. Other keys will retrieve individual
elements from the Map.
sys System properties. The formats are
${sys:some.property} and
${sys:some.property:-default_value}.

5.1.10 Default Properites

A default property map can be declared in the configuration file by placing a Properties element
directly after the Configuration element and before any Loggers, Filters, Appenders, etc. are declared.
If the value cannot be located in the specified lookup the value in the default property map will be

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5 Configuration 43

used. The default map is pre-populated with a value for "hostName" that is the current system's host
name or IP address and the "contextName" with is the value of the current logging context. See many
places a Properties element is used in this section for examples.
Default properties may also be specified in the Lookup by using the syntax ${lookupName:key:-
defaultValue}. In some cases the key might contain a leading '-'. When this is the case an escape
character must be included, such as ${main:\--file:-app.properties}. This would use the
MainMapLookup for a key named --file. If the key is not found then app.properties would be
used as the default value.

5.1.11 Enabling Message Pattern Lookups

A message is processed (by default) without using lookups, for example if you defined <Property
name="foo.bar">FOO_BAR </Property>, then logger.info("${foo.bar}") will output
${foo.bar} instead of FOO_BAR. You could enable message pattern lookups by defining message
pattern using %m{lookups}.

5.1.12 Lookup Variables with Multiple Leading '$' Characters

An interesting feature of StrLookup processing is that when a variable reference is declared with
multiple leading '$' characters each time the variable is resolved the leading '$' is simply removed. In
the previous example the "Routes" element is capable of resolving the variable at runtime. To allow
this the prefix value is specified as a variable with two leading '$' characters. When the configuration
file is first processed the first '$' character is simply removed. Thus, when the Routes element is
evaluated at runtime it is the variable declaration "${sd:type}" which causes the event to be inspected
for a StructuredDataMessage and if one is present the value of its type attribute to be used as the
routing key. Not all elements support resolving variables at runtime. Components that do will
specifically call that out in their documentation.
If no value is found for the key in the Lookup associated with the prefix then the value associated
with the key in the properties declaration in the configuration file will be used. If no value is found the
variable declaration will be returned as the value. Default values may be declared in the configuration
by doing:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Configuration>
<Properties>
<Property name="type">Audit</property>
</Properties>
...
</Configuration>

As a footnote, it is worth pointing out that the variables in the RollingFile appender declaration will
also not be evaluated when the configuration is processed. This is simply because the resolution
of the whole RollingFile element is deferred until a match occurs. See RoutingAppender for more
information.

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

5 Configuration 44

5.1.13 Scripts
Log4j provides support for JSR 223 scripting languages to be used in some of its components.
Any language that provides support for the JSR 223 scripting engine may be used. A list of the
languages and bindings for them can be found at the Scripting Engine web site. However, some of
the languages listed there, such as JavaScript, Groovy and Beanshell, directly support the JSR 223
scripting framework and only require that the jars for that language be installed.
The components that support using scripts do so by allowing a <script>, <scriptFile>, or <scriptRef>
element to be configured on them. The script element contains a name for the script, the language
of the script, and the script text. The scriptFile element contains the name of the script, its location,
its language, its charset, and whether the file should be watched for changes. The scriptRef element
contains the name of the script that is defined in the <scripts> configuration element. The name of
the script is used to store the script, along with its ScriptEngine, so it can quickly be located each
time the script needs to be run. While the name is not required, providing it will help in debugging
problems when the script is running. The language must be provided on the script element and must
specify one of the language names that appear in the Configuration status log as described in the next
section. If the language is not specified on the scriptFile element the language will be determined by
the file extension of the script path. If file monitoring is requested it will only be enabled if a non-
zero monitorInterval is specified on the configuration element. That interval will be used to check for
changes in the file.

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

5 Configuration 45

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

</Configuration>

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

5 Configuration 46

If the status attribute on the Configuration element is set to DEBUG the list of script engines currently
installed and their attributes will be listed. Although some engines may say they are not thread safe,
Log4j takes steps to insure that the scripts will run in a thread-safe manner if the engine advertises
that it is not thread safe.

2015-09-27 16:13:22,925 main DEBUG Installed script engines

2015-09-27 16:13:22,963 main DEBUG AppleScriptEngine Version: 1.1, Language: AppleScript, Threading: Not Thre
Compile: false, Names: {AppleScriptEngine, AppleScript, OSA}
2015-09-27 16:13:22,983 main DEBUG Groovy Scripting Engine Version: 2.0, Language: Groovy, Threading: MULTITH
Compile: true, Names: {groovy, Groovy}
2015-09-27 16:13:23,030 main DEBUG BeanShell Engine Version: 1.0, Language: BeanShell, Threading: MULTITHREAD
Compile: true, Names: {beanshell, bsh, java}
2015-09-27 16:13:23,039 main DEBUG Mozilla Rhino Version: 1.7 release 3 PRERELEASE, Language: ECMAScript, Thr
Compile: true, Names: {js, rhino, JavaScript, javascript, ECMAScript, ecmascript}

When the scripts are executed they will be provided with a set of variables that should allow them
to accomplish whatever task they are expected to perform. See the documentation for the individual
components for the list of variables that are available to the script.
The components that support scripting expect a return value to be passed back to the calling Java
code. This is not a problem for several of the scripting languages, but Javascript does not allow a
return statement unless it is within a function. However, Javascript will return the value of the last
statement executed in the script. As a consequence, code such as that shown below will result in the
desired behavior.

var result;
if (logEvent.getLoggerName().equals("JavascriptNoLocation")) {
result = "NoLocation";
} else if (logEvent.getMarker() != null && logEvent.getMarker().isInstanceOf("FLOW")) {
result = "Flow";
}
result;

5.1.13.1 A special note on Beanshell

JSR 223 scripting engines are supposed to identify that they support the Compilable interface if they
support compiling their scripts. Beanshell does this. However, whenever the compile method is called
it throws an Error (not an Exception). Log4j catches this but will log the warning shown below for
each Beanshell script when it tries to compile them. All Beanshell scripts will then be interpreted on
each execution.

2015-09-27 16:13:23,095 main DEBUG Script BeanShellSelector is compilable

2015-09-27 16:13:23,096 main WARN Error compiling script java.lang.Error: unimplemented
at bsh.engine.BshScriptEngine.compile(BshScriptEngine.java:175)
at bsh.engine.BshScriptEngine.compile(BshScriptEngine.java:154)
at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.script.ScriptManager$MainScriptRunner.<init>(ScriptManager.java:
at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.script.ScriptManager.addScript(ScriptManager.java:94)

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

5 Configuration 47

5.1.14 XInclude
XML configuration files can include other files with XInclude. Here is an example log4j2.xml file
that includes two other files:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<configuration xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
status="warn" name="XIncludeDemo">
<properties>
<property name="filename">xinclude-demo.log</property>
</properties>
<ThresholdFilter level="debug"/>
<xi:include href="log4j-xinclude-appenders.xml" />
<xi:include href="log4j-xinclude-loggers.xml" />
</configuration>

log4j-xinclude-appenders.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

log4j-xinclude-loggers.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<logger name="org.apache.logging.log4j.test2" level="debug" additivity="false">

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

5 Configuration 48

5.1.15 Composite Configuration

Log4j allows multiple configuration files to be used by specifying them as a list of comma separated
file paths on log4j.configurationFile or, when using urls, by adding secondary configuration locations
as query parameters named "override". The merge logic can be controlled by specifying a class that
implements the MergeStrategy interface on the log4j.mergeStrategy property. The default merge
strategy will merge the files using the following rules:
1. The global configuration attributes are aggregated with those in later configurations replacing
those in previous configurations, with the exceptions:
2. the highest status level will be used
3. the lowest monitorInterval greater than 0 will be used
4. packages are joined with comma
5. Properties from all configurations are aggregated. Duplicate properties replace those in previous
configurations.
6. Filters are aggregated under a CompositeFilter if more than one Filter is defined. Since Filters
are not named duplicates may be present.
7. Scripts and ScriptFile references are aggregated. Duplicate definiations replace those in previous
configurations.
8. Appenders are aggregated. Appenders with the same name are replaced by those in later
configurations, including all of the Appender's subcomponents.
9. Loggers are all aggregated. Logger attributes are individually merged with duplicates being
replaced by those in later configurations. Appender references on a Logger are aggregated with
duplicates being replaced by those in later configurations. Filters on a Logger are aggregated
under a CompositeFilter if more than one Filter is defined. Since Filters are not named duplicates
may be present. Filters under Appender references included or discarded depending on whether
their parent Appender reference is kept or discarded.

5.1.16 Status Messages

Troubleshooting tip for the impatient:

From log4j-2.9 onward, log4j2 will print all internal logging to the console if system property
log4j2.debug is either defined empty or its value equals to true (ignoring case).
Prior to log4j-2.9, there are two places where internal logging can be controlled:
• Before a configuration is found, status logger level can be controlled with system property
org.apache.logging.log4j.simplelog.StatusLogger.level.
• After a configuration is found, status logger level can be controlled in the configuration file with the "status"
attribute, for example: <Configuration status="trace">.

Just as it is desirable to be able to diagnose problems in applications, it is frequently necessary to

be able to diagnose problems in the logging configuration or in the configured components. Since
logging has not been configured, "normal" logging cannot be used during initialization. In addition,
normal logging within appenders could create infinite recursion which Log4j will detect and cause the
recursive events to be ignored. To accomodate this need, the Log4j 2 API includes a StatusLogger.
Components declare an instance of the StatusLogger similar to:
protected final static Logger logger = StatusLogger.getLogger();
Since StatusLogger implements the Log4j 2 API's Logger interface, all the normal Logger methods
may be used.

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5 Configuration 49

When configuring Log4j it is sometimes necessary to view the generated status events. This can
be accomplished by adding the status attribute to the configuration element or a default value can
be provided by setting the "Log4jDefaultStatusLevel" system property. Valid values of the status
attribute are "trace", "debug", "info", "warn", "error" and "fatal". The following configuration has the
status attribute set to debug.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Configuration status="debug" name="RoutingTest">
<Properties>
<Property name="filename">target/rolling1/rollingtest-$${sd:type}.log</Property>
</Properties>
<ThresholdFilter level="debug"/>

</Configuration>

During startup this configuration produces:

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

5 Configuration 50

2011-11-23 17:08:00,769 DEBUG Generated plugins in 0.003374000 seconds

2011-11-23 17:08:00,789 DEBUG Calling createProperty on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.
config.Property for element property with params(name="filename",
value="target/rolling1/rollingtest-${sd:type}.log")
2011-11-23 17:08:00,792 DEBUG Calling configureSubstitutor on class org.apache.logging.log4j.
core.config.plugins.PropertiesPlugin for element properties with
params(properties={filename=target/rolling1/rollingtest-${sd:type}.log})
2011-11-23 17:08:00,794 DEBUG Generated plugins in 0.001362000 seconds
2011-11-23 17:08:00,797 DEBUG Calling createFilter on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.
filter.ThresholdFilter for element ThresholdFilter with params(level="debug",
onMatch="null", onMismatch="null")
2011-11-23 17:08:00,800 DEBUG Calling createLayout on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.
layout.PatternLayout for element PatternLayout with params(pattern="%m%n",
Configuration(RoutingTest), null, charset="null")
2011-11-23 17:08:00,802 DEBUG Generated plugins in 0.001349000 seconds
2011-11-23 17:08:00,804 DEBUG Calling createAppender on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.
appender.ConsoleAppender for element Console with params(PatternLayout(%m%n), null,
target="null", name="STDOUT", ignoreExceptions="null")
2011-11-23 17:08:00,804 DEBUG Calling createFilter on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.
filter.ThresholdFilter for element ThresholdFilter with params(level="debug",
onMatch="null", onMismatch="null")
2011-11-23 17:08:00,813 DEBUG Calling createRoute on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.appender.
routing.Route for element Route with params(AppenderRef="null", key="null", Node=Route)
2011-11-23 17:08:00,823 DEBUG Calling createRoute on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.appender.
routing.Route for element Route with params(AppenderRef="STDOUT", key="Audit", Node=Route)
2011-11-23 17:08:00,825 DEBUG Calling createRoutes on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.appender.
routing.Routes for element Routes with params(pattern="${sd:type}",
routes={Route(type=dynamic default), Route(type=static Reference=STDOUT key='Audit'))})
2011-11-23 17:08:00,827 DEBUG Calling createAppender on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.appender.
routing.RoutingAppender for element Routing with params(name="Routing",
ignoreExceptions="null", Routes({Route(type=dynamic default),Route(type=static
Reference=STDOUT key='Audit')}), Configuration(RoutingTest), null, null)
2011-11-23 17:08:00,827 DEBUG Calling createAppenders on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.
plugins.AppendersPlugin for element appenders with params(appenders={STDOUT, Routing})
2011-11-23 17:08:00,828 DEBUG Calling createAppenderRef on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.
config.plugins.AppenderRefPlugin for element AppenderRef with params(ref="Routing")
2011-11-23 17:08:00,829 DEBUG Calling createLogger on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.
LoggerConfig for element logger with params(additivity="false", level="info", name="EventLogger",
AppenderRef={Routing}, null)
2011-11-23 17:08:00,830 DEBUG Calling createAppenderRef on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.
config.plugins.AppenderRefPlugin for element AppenderRef with params(ref="STDOUT")

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

5 Configuration 51

2011-11-23 17:08:00,831 DEBUG Calling createLogger on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.

LoggerConfig$RootLogger for element root with params(additivity="null", level="error",
AppenderRef={STDOUT}, null)
2011-11-23 17:08:00,833 DEBUG Calling createLoggers on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.
config.plugins.LoggersPlugin for element loggers with params(loggers={EventLogger, root})
2011-11-23 17:08:00,834 DEBUG Reconfiguration completed
2011-11-23 17:08:00,846 DEBUG Calling createLayout on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.
layout.PatternLayout for element PatternLayout with params(pattern="%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n",
Configuration(RoutingTest), null, charset="null")
2011-11-23 17:08:00,849 DEBUG Calling createPolicy on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.
appender.rolling.SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy for element SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy with
params(size="500")
2011-11-23 17:08:00,851 DEBUG Calling createAppender on class org.apache.logging.log4j.core.
appender.RollingFileAppender for element RollingFile with
params(fileName="target/rolling1/rollingtest-Unknown.log",
filePattern="target/rolling1/test1-Unknown.%i.log.gz", append="null", name="Rolling-Unknown",
bufferedIO="null", immediateFlush="null",
SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy(SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy(size=500)), null,
PatternLayout(%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n), null, ignoreExceptions="null")
2011-11-23 17:08:00,858 DEBUG Generated plugins in 0.002014000 seconds
2011-11-23 17:08:00,889 DEBUG Reconfiguration started for context sun.misc.
Launcher$AppClassLoader@37b90b39
2011-11-23 17:08:00,890 DEBUG Generated plugins in 0.001355000 seconds
2011-11-23 17:08:00,959 DEBUG Generated plugins in 0.001239000 seconds
2011-11-23 17:08:00,961 DEBUG Generated plugins in 0.001197000 seconds
2011-11-23 17:08:00,965 WARN No Loggers were configured, using default
2011-11-23 17:08:00,976 DEBUG Reconfiguration completed
If the status attribute is set to error than only error messages will be written to the console. This makes
troubleshooting configuration errors possible. As an example, if the configuration above is changed to
have the status set to error and the logger declaration is:

<logger name="EventLogger" level="info" additivity="false">

the following error message will be produced.

2011-11-24 23:21:25,517 ERROR Unable to locate appender Routng for logger EventLogger
Applications may wish to direct the status output to some other destination. This can be accomplished
by setting the dest attribute to either "err" to send the output to stderr or to a file location or URL. This
can also be done by insuring the configured status is set to OFF and then configuring the application
programmatically such as:

StatusConsoleListener listener = new StatusConsoleListener(Level.ERROR);

StatusLogger.getLogger().registerListener(listener);

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

5 Configuration 52

5.1.17 Testing in Maven

Maven can run unit and functional tests during the build cycle. By default, any files placed in src/
test/resources are automatically copied to target/test-classes and are included in the classpath
during execution of any tests. As such, placing a log4j2-test.xml into this directory will cause it to be
used instead of a log4j2.xml or log4j2.json that might be present. Thus a different log configuration
can be used during testing than what is used in production.
A second approach, which is extensively used by Log4j 2, is to set the log4j.configurationFile
property in the method annotated with @BeforeClass in the junit test class. This will allow an
arbitrarily named file to be used during the test.
A third approach, also used extensively by Log4j 2, is to use the LoggerContextRule JUnit test
rule which provides additional convenience methods for testing. This requires adding the log4j-
core test-jar dependency to your test scope dependencies. For example:

public class AwesomeTest {

@Rule
public LoggerContextRule init = new LoggerContextRule("MyTestConfig.xml");

@Test
public void testSomeAwesomeFeature() {
final LoggerContext ctx = init.getLoggerContext();
final Logger logger = init.getLogger("org.apache.logging.log4j.my.awesome.test.logger");
final Configuration cfg = init.getConfiguration();
final ListAppender app = init.getListAppender("List");
logger.warn("Test message");
final List<LogEvent> events = app.getEvents();
// etc.
}
}

5.1.18 System Properties

The Log4j documentation references a number of System Properties that can be used to control
various aspects of Log4j 2 behavior. The table below lists these properties along with their default
value and a description of what they control. Any spaces present in the property name are for visual
flow and should be removed.
Note that beginning in Log4j 2.10, all system property names have been normalized to follow
a consistent naming scheme. While the old property names are still supported for backwards
compatibility, it is recommended to update configurations to use the new style. This system is
extensible and is enabled through the PropertySource interface. Additional property source classes
can be added through the standard ServiceLoader mechanism in Java SE.
Properties can be overridden by sources with a lower number priority (e.g.., -100 comes before 100).
The following sources are all available by default:

Source Priority Description

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5 Configuration 53

Environment Variables -100 Environment variables are all

prefixed with LOG4J_, are in all
caps, and words are all separated
by underscores. Only this naming
scheme is support for environment
variables as there were no old
naming schemes to maintain
compatibility with.
0
log4j2.component.properties Including this file on the classpath
file can be used as an alternative to
providing properties as system
properties. This has priority over
system properties, but they can
be overridden by environment
variables as described above.
System Properties 100 All properties can be set using
normal system property patterns.
These have the lowest priority and
can be overridden by included
properties files or environment
variables.

PropertySource priorities and descriptions

The following is a list of available global configuration properties. Note that these can only be set
once per JVM process unlike configuration settings available in configuration files. The Property
Name column contains the name used in properties files and system properties; Environemt Variable
for the equivalent environment variable; and Legacy Property Name for the pre-2.10 name.
* { // this works for all but td word-wrap:break-word; } table { // this somehow makes it work for td
table-layout:fixed; width:100%; }

Property Name
(Legacy Property
Name) Environment Variable Default Value Description
log4j2.configurationFile LOG4J_CONFIGURATION_FILE Path to an Log4j 2
( log4j.configurationFile) configuration file.
May also contain a
comma separated list
of configuration file
names. May contain a
URL. When specified
as a URL the "override"
query parameter may
be used to specify
additional configuration
file locations.
log4j2.debug LOG4J_DEBUG Log4j2 will print all
( log4j2.debug) internal logging to the
console if system property
log4j2.debug is
either defined empty or
its value equals to true
(ignoring case).

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5 Configuration 54

log4j2.mergeStrategy LOG4J_MERGE_STRATEGY The name of the

( log4j.mergeStrategy) class that implements
the MergeStrategy
interface. If not specified
DefaultMergeStrategy
will be used
when creating a
CompositeConfiguration..
log4j2.contextSelector LOG4J_CONTEXT_SELECTOR
ClassLoaderContextSelectorCreates the
( Log4jContextSelector) LoggerContexts.
An application can
have one or more
active LoggerContexts
depending on the
circumstances. See
Log Separation for more
details. Available context
selector implementation
classes:
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.a
- makes all loggers
asynchronous.
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.a
- makes all loggers
asynchronous using
a single shared
AsyncLoggerContext.
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.s
- creates a single shared
LoggerContext.
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.s
- separate
LoggerContexts for each
web application.
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.s
- use JNDI to locate
each web application's
LoggerContext.
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.o
- separate
LoggerContexts for each
OSGi bundle.
log4j2.logEventFactory LOG4J_LOG_EVENT_FACTORY
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.impl
Factory.DefaultLogEventFactory
class used by
( Log4jLogEventFactory) LoggerConfig to create
LogEvent instances.
(Ignored when the
AsyncLoggerContextSelector
is used.)
log4j2.loggerContextFactory LOG4J_LOGGER_CONTEXT_FACTORY
org.apache.logging.log4j.simple
Factory
.SimpleLoggerContextFactory
class used
( by LogManager to
log4j2.loggerContextFactory) bootstrap the logging
implementation. The
core jar provides
org.apache.logging.log4j.core .

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5 Configuration 55

log4j2.configurationFactory LOG4J_CONFIGURATION_FACTORY Fully specified class

( name of a class extending
log4j.configurationFactory) org.apache.logging.log4j.core .
If specified, an instance
of this class is added to
the list of configuration
factories.
log4j2.shutdownHookEnabled
LOG4J_SHUTDOWN_HOOK_ENABLED
true Overrides the global
( flag for whether or
log4j.shutdownHookEnabled) not a shutdown hook
should be used to stop a
LoggerContext. By
default, this is enabled
and can be disabled on a
per-configuration basis.
When running with the
log4j-web module, this
is automatically disabled.
log4j2.shutdownCallbackRegistry
LOG4J_SHUTDOWN_CALLBACK_REGISTRY
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.util
Fully specified
.DefaultShutdownCallbackRegistry
class name
( of a class implementing
log4j.shutdownCallbackRegistry) ShutdownCallbackRegistry.
If specified, an
instance of this class
is used instead of
DefaultShutdownCallbackRegistry
The specified class
must have a default
constructor.
log4j2.clock LOG4J_CLOCK SystemClock Implementation of the
( log4j.Clock) org.apache.logging.log4j .core.
interface that is used
for timestamping the log
events.
By default,
System.currentTimeMillis
is called on every log
event.
You can also specify a
fully qualified class name
of a custom class that
implements the Clock
interface.
log4j2.level LOG4J_LEVEL ERROR Log level of the default
( configuration. The default
org.apache.logging.log4j.level) configuration is used if
the ConfigurationFactory
could not successfully
create a configuration
(e.g. no log4j2.xml file
was found).
log4j2.disableThreadContextLOG4J_DISABLE_THREAD_CONTEXT
false If true, the
(disableThreadContext) ThreadContext stack and
map are disabled. (May
be ignored if a custom
ThreadContext map is
specified.)

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5 Configuration 56

log4j2.disableThreadContextStack
LOG4J_DISABLE_THREAD_CONTEXT_STACK
false If true, the
(disableThreadContextStack) ThreadContext stack is
disabled.
log4j2.disableThreadContextMap
LOG4J_DISABLE_THREAD_CONTEXT_MAP
false If true, the
(disableThreadContextMap) ThreadContext map
is disabled. (May be
ignored if a custom
ThreadContext map is
specified.)
log4j2.threadContextMap LOG4J_THREAD_CONTEXT_MAP Fully specified class
(log4j2.threadContextMap) name of a custom
ThreadContextMap
implementation class.
log4j2.isThreadContextMapInheritable
LOG4J_IS_THREAD_CONTEXT_MAP_INHERITABLE
false If true use a
(isThreadContextMapInheritable) InheritableThreadLocal
to implement the
ThreadContext map.
Otherwise, use a plain
ThreadLocal. (May
be ignored if a custom
ThreadContext map is
specified.)
log4j2.contextDataInjector LOG4J_CONTEXT_DATA_INJECTOR Fully specified class
( name of a custom
log4j2.ContextDataInjector) ContextDataInjector
implementation class.
log4j2.garbagefreeThreadContextMap
LOG4J_GARBAGEFREE_THREAD_CONTEXT_MAP
false Specify "true" to make
( the ThreadContext map
log4j2.garbagefree.threadContextMap) garbage-free.
log4j2.disableJmx LOG4J_DISABLE_JMX false If true, Log4j
( log4j2.disable.jmx) configuration objects
like LoggerContexts,
Appenders, Loggers, etc.
will not be instrumented
with MBeans and cannot
be remotely monitored
and managed.
log4j2.jmxNotifyAsync LOG4J_JMX_NOTIFY_ASYNC
false for web apps, true If true, log4j's JMX
( log4j2.jmx.notify.async) otherwise notifications are sent from
a separate background
thread, otherwise they
are sent from the caller
thread. If system property
log4j2.is.webapp
is true or the
javax.servlet.Servlet
class is on the classpath,
the default behaviour is
to use the caller thread to
send JMX notifications.
log4j2.skipJansi LOG4J_SKIP_JANSI true If true, the
( log4j.skipJansi) ConsoleAppender will not
try to use the Jansi output
stream on Windows.

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5 Configuration 57

log4j2.ignoreTCL LOG4J_IGNORE_TCL false If true, classes are only

( log4j.ignoreTCL) loaded with the default
class loader. Otherwise,
an attempt is made to
load classes with the
current thread's context
class loader before falling
back to the default class
loader.
log4j2.enableJndiContextSelector
LOG4J_ENABLE_JNDI_CONTEXT_SELECTOR
false When true, the Log4j
context selector that uses
the JNDI java protocol is
enabled. When false, the
default, they are disabled.
log4j2.enableJndiJms LOG4J_ENABLE_JNDI_JMSfalse When true, the Log4j
JMS Appender that uses
JNDI's java protocol is
enabled. When false, the
default, they are disabled.
log4j2.enableJndiLookup LOG4J_ENABLE_JNDI_LOOKUP
false When true, the Log4j
lookup that uses JNDI's
java protocol is enabled.
When false, the default,
they are disabled.
log4j2.uuidSequence LOG4J_UUID_SEQUENCE 0 System property that may
( be used to seed the UUID
org.apache.logging.log4j.uuidSequence) generation with an integer
value.
log4j2.simplelogShowContextMap
LOG4J_SIMPLELOG_SHOW_CONTEXT_MAP
false If true, the full
( ThreadContext map
org.apache.logging.log4j .simplelog.showContextMap) is included in each
SimpleLogger log
message.
log4j2.simplelogShowlogname LOG4J_SIMPLELOG_SHOWLOGNAME
false If true, the logger
( name is included in
org.apache.logging.log4j .simplelog.showlogname) each SimpleLogger log
message.
log4j2.simplelogShowShortLogname
LOG4J_SIMPLELOG_SHOW_SHORT_LOGNAME
true If true, only the last
( component of a logger
org.apache.logging.log4j .simplelog.showShortLogname) name is included in
SimpleLogger log
messages. (E.g., if
the logger name is
"mycompany.myproject.mycomponent",
only "mycomponent" is
logged.
log4j2.simplelogShowdatetimeLOG4J_SIMPLELOG_SHOWDATETIME
false If true, SimpleLogger
( log messages contain
org.apache.logging.log4j .simplelog.showdatetime) timestamp information.
log4j2.simplelogDateTimeFormat
LOG4J_SIMPLELOG_DATE_TIME_FORMAT
"yyyy/MM/dd Date-time format
( HH:mm:ss:SSS zzz" to use. Ignored if
org.apache.logging.log4j .simplelog.dateTimeFormat) org.apache.logging.log4j .simpl
is false.

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5 Configuration 58

log4j2.simplelogLogFile LOG4J_SIMPLELOG_LOG_FILE
system.err "system.err" (case-
( insensitive) logs
org.apache.logging.log4j .simplelog.logFile) to System.err,
"system.out" (case-
insensitive) logs to
System.out, any other
value is interpreted
as a file name to save
SimpleLogger messages
to.
log4j2.simplelogLevel LOG4J_SIMPLELOG_LEVEL
ERROR Default level for new
( SimpleLogger instances.
org.apache.logging.log4j .simplelog.level)
log4j2.simplelog.<loggerName>.level
LOG4J_SIMPLELOG_<LOGGER_NAME>_LEVEL
SimpleLogger default log Log level for a the
( level SimpleLogger instance
org.apache.logging.log4j .simplelog.<loggerName>.level) with the specified name.
log4j2.simplelogStatusLoggerLevel
LOG4J_SIMPLELOG_STATUS_LOGGER_LEVEL
ERROR This property is used
( to control the initial
org.apache.logging.log4j.simplelog .StatusLogger.level) StatusLogger level,
and can be overridden
in code by calling
StatusLogger.getLogger() .setLe
Note that the
StatusLogger level is
only used to determine
the status log output
level until a listener is
registered. In practice,
a listener is registered
when a configuration
is found, and from that
point onwards, status
messages are only sent to
the listeners (depending
on their statusLevel).

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

5 Configuration 59

log4j2.defaultStatusLevel LOG4J_DEFAULT_STATUS_LEVEL
ERROR The StatusLogger
( logs events that
Log4jDefaultStatusLevel) occur in the logging
system to the console.
During configuration,
AbstractConfiguration
registers a
StatusConsoleListener
with the StatusLogger
that may redirect
status log events from
the default console
output to a file. The
listener also supports
fine-grained filtering.
This system property
specifies the default
status log level for the
listener to use if the
configuration does not
specify a status level.
Note: this property is
used by the log4j-core
implementation only
after a configuration
file has been found.

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5 Configuration 60

log4j2.statusLoggerLevel LOG4J_STATUS_LOGGER_LEVEL
WARN The initial
( "listenersLevel" of
log4j2.StatusLogger.level) the StatusLogger.
If StatusLogger
listeners are added,
the "listenerLevel"
is changed to that
of the most verbose
listener. If any listeners
are registered, the
listenerLevel is used
to quickly determine
if an interested listener
exists.
By default,
StatusLogger listeners
are added when a
configuration is found
and by the JMX
StatusLoggerAdmin
MBean. For
example, if a
configuration contains
<Configuration
status="trace">,
a listener with
statusLevel TRACE
is registered and
the StatusLogger
listenerLevel is set
to TRACE, resulting
in verbose status
messages displayed on
the console.
If no listeners are
registered, the
listenersLevel is
not used, and the
StatusLogger output
level is determined by
StatusLogger.getLogger().getLev
(see property
org.apache.logging.log4j.simple
log4j2.statusEntries LOG4J_STATUS_ENTRIES200 Number of StatusLogger
( log4j2.status.entries) events that are kept
in a buffer and can
be retrieved with
StatusLogger.getStatusData().

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5 Configuration 61

log4j2.statusLoggerDateformat
LOG4J_STATUS_LOGGER_DATEFORMAT Date-time format string
( to use as the format
log4j2.StatusLogger.DateFormat) for timestamps in the
status logger output. See
java.text.SimpleDateFormat
for supported formats.
log4j2.asyncLoggerExceptionHandler
LOG4J_ASYNC_LOGGER_EXCEPTION_HANDLER
default handler See Async Logger
( System Properties for
AsyncLogger.ExceptionHandler) details.
log4j2.asyncLoggerRingBufferSize
LOG4J_ASYNC_LOGGER_RING_BUFFER_SIZE
256 * 1024 or 4 * 1024 in See Async Logger
( garbage-free mode System Properties for
AsyncLogger.RingBufferSize) details.
log4j2.asyncLoggerWaitStrategy
LOG4J_ASYNC_LOGGER_WAIT_STRATEGY
Timeout See Async Logger
( System Properties for
AsyncLogger.WaitStrategy) details.
log4j2.asyncLoggerTimeout LOG4J_ASYNC_LOGGER_TIMEOUT
10 See Async Logger
( AsyncLogger.Timeout) System Properties for
details.
log4j2.asyncLoggerSleepTimeNs
LOG4J_ASYNC_LOGGER_SLEEP_TIME_NS
100 See Async Logger
( System Properties for
AsyncLogger.SleepTimeNs) details.
log4j2.asyncLoggerRetries LOG4J_ASYNC_LOGGER_SLEEP_TIME_NS
200 See Async Logger
( AsyncLogger.Retries) System Properties for
details.
AsyncLogger.SynchronizeEnqueueWhenQueueFull
ASYNC_LOGGER_SYNCHRONIZE_ENQUEUE_WHEN_QUEUE_FULL
true See Async Logger
System Properties for
details.
log4j2.asyncLoggerThreadNameStrategy
LOG4J_ASYNC_LOGGER_THREAD_NAME_STRATEGY
CACHED See Async Logger
( System Properties for
AsyncLogger.ThreadNameStrategy) details.
log4j2.asyncLoggerConfigExceptionHandler
LOG4J_ASYNC_LOGGER_CONFIG_EXCEPTION_HANDLER
default handler See Mixed Async/
( Synchronous Logger
AsyncLoggerConfig.ExceptionHandler) System Properties for
details.
log4j2.asyncLoggerConfigRingBufferSize
LOG4J_ASYNC_LOGGER_CONFIG_RING_BUFFER_SIZE
256 * 1024 or 4 * 1024 in See Mixed Async/
( garbage-free mode Synchronous Logger
AsyncLoggerConfig.RingBufferSize) System Properties for
details.
log4j2.asyncLoggerConfigWaitStrategy
LOG4J_ASYNC_LOGGER_CONFIG_WAIT_STRATEGY
Timeout See Mixed Async/
( Synchronous Logger
AsyncLoggerConfig.WaitStrategy) System Properties for
details.
AsyncLoggerConfig.SynchronizeEnqueueWhenQueueFull
ASYNC_LOGGER_CONFIG_SYNCHRONIZE_ENQUEUE_WHEN_QUEUE_FULL
true See Mixed Async/
Synchronous Logger
System Properties for
details.

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5 Configuration 62

log4j2.julLoggerAdapter LOG4J_JUL_LOGGER_ADAPTER
org.apache.logging.log4j .jul.ApiLoggerAdapter
Default LoggerAdapter to
( log4j.jul.LoggerAdapter) use in the JUL adapter.
By default, if log4j-core is
available, then the class
org.apache.logging.log4j.jul .C
will be used.
Otherwise, the
ApiLogggerAdapter
will be used. Custom
implementations must
provide a public default
constructor.
log4j2.formatMsgAsync LOG4J_FORMAT_MSG_ASYNC
false If false (the default),
( log4j.format.msg.async) Log4j will make sure the
message is formatted
in the caller thread, to
ensure the value at the
time of the call to the
logger is the value that is
logged.
log4j2.asyncQueueFullPolicyLOG4J_ASYNC_QUEUE_FULL_POLICY Used by Async
( Loggers and the
log4j2.AsyncQueueFullPolicy) AsyncAppender to
maintain application
throughput even
when the underlying
appender cannot keep
up with the logging rate
and the queue is filling
up.
If no value is specified
(the default) events are
never discarded. If the
queue is full, the logger
call blocks until the
event can be added to
the queue.
Specify Discard to
drop events whose
level is equal or less
than the threshold level
(INFO by default)
when the queue is full.

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5 Configuration 63

log4j2.discardThreshold LOG4J_DISCARD_THRESHOLD
INFO Used by the
( DiscardingAsyncQueueFullPolicy
log4j2.DiscardThreshold) to determine which
events to drop when
the queue becomes
full. By default, INFO,
DEBUG and TRACE level
events are discarded
when the queue is full.
This property only has
effect if Discard
is specified as the
log4j2.AsyncQueueFullPolicy.
log4j2.messageFactory LOG4J_MESSAGE_FACTORY
org.apache.logging.log4j.message.
Default message factory
( log4j2.messageFactory) ParameterizedMessageFactoryused by Loggers if no
or factory was specified.
org.apache.logging.log4j.message.
ReusableMessageFactory
in garbage-free mode
log4j2.flowMessageFactory LOG4J_FLOW_MESSAGE_FACTORY
org.apache.logging.log4j.message.
Default flow message
( DefaultFlowMessageFactoryfactory used by Loggers.
log4j2.flowMessageFactory)
log4j2.isWebapp LOG4J_IS_WEBAPP true if Servlet class on This system property can
( log4j2.is.webapp) class path be used to force Log4j 2
to behave as if it is part of
a web application (when
true) or as if it is not part
of a web application
(when false).
log4j2.enableThreadlocals LOG4J_ENABLE_THREADLOCALS
true This system property can
( be used to switch off the
log4j2.enable.threadlocals) use of threadlocals, which
will partly disable Log4j's
garbage-free behaviour:
to be fully garbage-free,
Log4j stores objects in
ThreadLocal fields to
reuse them, otherwise
new objects are created
for each log event. Note
that this property is not
effective when Log4j
detects it is running in a
web application.

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5 Configuration 64

log4j2.enableDirectEncodersLOG4J_ENABLE_DIRECT_ENCODERS
true This property can be
( used to force garbage-
log4j2.enable.direct.encoders) aware Layouts and
Appenders to revert to
the pre-2.6 behaviour
where converting log
events to text generates
temporary objects like
Strings and char[] arrays,
and converting this
text to bytes generates
temporary byte[] arrays.
By default, this property is
true and garbage-aware
Layouts and Appenders
that convert log events to
text will convert this text
to bytes without creating
temporary objects.
log4j2.initialReusableMsgSize
LOG4J_INITIAL_REUSABLE_MSG_SIZE
128 In GC-free mode, this
( property determines the
log4j.initialReusableMsgSize) initial size of the reusable
StringBuilders where the
message text is formatted
and potentially passed to
background threads.
log4j2.maxReusableMsgSizeLOG4J_MAX_REUSABLE_MSG_SIZE
518 In GC-free mode, this
( property determines the
log4j.maxReusableMsgSize) maximum size of the
reusable StringBuilders
where the message text is
formatted and potentially
passed to background
threads.
log4j2.layoutStringBuilderMaxSize
LOG4J_LAYOUT_STRING_BUILDER_MAX_SIZE
2048 This property determines
( the maximum size
log4j.layoutStringBuilder.maxSize) of the thread-local
reusable StringBuilders
used to format the
log event to text by
Layouts that extend
AbstractStringLayout.

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

5 Configuration 65

log4j2.unboxRingbufferSize LOG4J_UNBOX_RINGBUFFER_SIZE
32 The
( org.apache.logging.log4j.util.U
log4j.unbox.ringbuffer.size) utility manages a small
thread-local ring buffer
of StringBuilders. Each
time one of the box()
methods is called, the
next slot in the ring buffer
is used, until the ring
buffer is full and the first
slot is reused. By default
the Unbox ring buffer has
32 slots, so user code
can have up to 32 boxed
primitives in a single
logger call.
If more slots
are required, set
system property
log4j.unbox.ringbuffer.size
to the desired ring
buffer size. Note that
the specified number
will be rounded up to
the nearest power of 2.
log4j2.loggerContextStacktraceOnStart
LOG4J_LOGGER_CONTEXT_STACKTRACE_ON_START
false Prints a stacktrace to
( the status logger at
log4j.LoggerContext.stacktrace.on.start) DEBUG level when the
LoggerContext is started.
For debug purposes.
log4j2.trustStoreLocation LOG4J_TRUST_STORE_LOCATION The location of the trust
store. If not provided the
default trust store will be
used.
log4j2.trustStorePassword LOG4J_TRUST_STORE_PASSWORD Password needed to
access the trust store.
log4j2.trustStorePasswordFile
LOG4J_TRUST_STORE_PASSWORD_FILE The location of a file that
contains the password for
the trust store.
log4j2.trustStorePasswordEnvironmentVariable
LOG4J_TRUST_STORE_PASSWORD_ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE
The name of the
environment variable that
contains the trust store
password.
log4j2.trustStoreType LOG4J_TRUST_STORE_TYPE The type of key store
used for the trust store.
log4j2.trustStoreKeyManagerFactoryAlgorithm
LOG4J_TRUST_STORE_KEY_MANAGER_FACTORY_ALGORITHM
Java cryptographic
algorithm.
log4j2.keyStoreLocation LOG4J_KEY_STORE_LOCATION The location of the key
store. If not provided the
default key store will be
used.
log4j2.keyStorePassword LOG4J_KEY_STORE_PASSWORD Password needed to
access the key store.

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5 Configuration 66

log4j2.keyStorePasswordFileLOG4J_KEY_STORE_PASSWORD_FILE The location of a file that

contains the password for
the key store.
log4j2.keyStorePasswordEnvironmentVariable
LOG4J_KEY_STORE_PASSWORD_ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE
The name of the
environment variable that
contains the key store
password.
log4j2.keyStoreType LOG4J_KEY_STORE_TYPE The type of key store.
log4j2.keyStoreKeyManagerFactoryAlgorithm
LOG4J_KEY_STORE_KEY_MANAGER_FACTORY_ALGORITHM
Java cryptographic
algorithm.
log4j2.sslVerifyHostName false true or false if the host
name should be verified

Log4j 2 global configuration properties

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6 Web Applications and JSPs 67

6 Web Applications and JSPs

.......................................................................................................................................

6.1 Using Log4j 2 in Web Applications

You must take particular care when using Log4j or any other logging framework within a Java EE
web application. It's important for logging resources to be properly cleaned up (database connections
closed, files closed, etc.) when the container shuts down or the web application is undeployed.
Because of the nature of class loaders within web applications, Log4j resources cannot be cleaned up
through normal means. Log4j must be "started" when the web application deploys and "shut down"
when the web application undeploys. How this works varies depending on whether your application is
a Servlet 3.0 or newer or Servlet 2.5 web application.
Due to the namespace change from javax to jakarta you need to use log4j-jakarta-web
instead of log4j-web for Servlet 5.0 or newer.
In either case, you'll need to add the log4j-web module to your deployment as detailed in the
Maven, Ivy, and Gradle Artifacts manual page.
To avoid problems the Log4j shutdown hook will automatically be disabled when the log4j-web jar is
included.

6.1.1 Configuration
Log4j allows the configuration file to be specified in web.xml using the log4jConfiguration
context parameter. Log4j will search for configuration files by:
1. If a location is provided it will be searched for as a servlet context resource. For example, if
log4jConfiguration contains "logging.xml" then Log4j will look for a file with that name in
the root directory of the web application.
2. If no location is defined Log4j will search for a file that starts with "log4j2" in the WEB-INF
directory. If more than one file is found, and if a file that starts with "log4j2-name" is present,
where name is the name of the web application, then it will be used. Otherwise the first file will
be used.
3. The "normal" search sequence using the classpath and file URLs will be used to locate the
configuration file.

6.1.2 Servlet 3.0 and Newer Web Applications

A Servlet 3.0 or newer web application is any <web-app> whose version attribute has a value of
"3.0" or higher. Of course, the application must also be running in a compatible web container.
Some examples are:
• Tomcat 7.0 and higher
• GlassFish 3.0 and higher
• JBoss 7.0 and higher
• Oracle WebLogic 12c and higher
• IBM WebSphere 8.0 and higher

6.1.2.1 The Short Story

Log4j 2 "just works" in Servlet 3.0 and newer web applications. It is capable of automatically
starting when the application deploys and shutting down when the application undeploys.

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

6 Web Applications and JSPs 68

Thanks to the ServletContainerInitializer API added to Servlet 3.0, the relevant Filter and
ServletContextListener classes can be registered dynamically on web application startup.
Important Note! For performance reasons, containers often ignore certain JARs known not to
contain TLDs or ServletContainerInitializers and do not scan them for web-fragments and
initializers. Importantly, Tomcat 7 <7.0.43 ignores all JAR files named log4j*.jar, which prevents this
feature from working. This has been fixed in Tomcat 7.0.43, Tomcat 8, and later. In Tomcat 7 <7.0.43
you will need to change catalina.properties and remove "log4j*.jar" from the jarsToSkip
property. You may need to do something similar on other containers if they skip scanning Log4j JAR
files.

6.1.2.2 The Long Story

The Log4j 2 Web JAR file is a web-fragment configured to order before any other web
fragments in your application. It contains a ServletContainerInitializer (
Log4jServletContainerInitializer) that the container automatically discovers and initializes. This adds
the Log4jServletContextListener and Log4jServletFilter to the ServletContext. These classes
properly initialize and deinitialize the Log4j configuration.
For some users, automatically starting Log4j is problematic or undesirable. You can easily disable
this feature using the isLog4jAutoInitializationDisabled context parameter. Simply add it
to your deployment descriptor with the value "true" to disable auto-initialization. You must define the
context parameter in web.xml. If you set in programmatically, it will be too late for Log4j to detect
the setting.
<context-param>
<param-name>isLog4jAutoInitializationDisabled</param-name>
<param-value>true</param-value>
</context-param>
Once you disable auto-initialization, you must initialize Log4j as you would a Servlet 2.5 web
application. You must do so in a way that this initialization happens before any other application code
(such as Spring Framework startup code) executes.
You can customize the behavior of the listener and filter using the log4jContextName,
log4jConfiguration, and/or isLog4jContextSelectorNamed context parameters. Read
more about this in the Context Parameters section below. You must not manually configure the
Log4jServletContextListener or Log4jServletFilter in your deployment descriptor (
web.xml) or in another initializer or listener in a Servlet 3.0 or newer application unless you disable
auto-initialization with isLog4jAutoInitializationDisabled. Doing so will result in startup
errors and unspecified erroneous behavior.

6.1.3 Servlet 2.5 Web Applications

A Servlet 2.5 web application is any <web-app> whose version attribute has a value of "2.5." The
version attribute is the only thing that matters; even if the web application is running in a Servlet
3.0 or newer container, it is a Servlet 2.5 web application if the version attribute is "2.5." Note that
Log4j 2 does not support Servlet 2.4 and older web applications.
If you are using Log4j in a Servlet 2.5 web application, or if you have disabled auto-initialization
with the isLog4jAutoInitializationDisabled context parameter, you must configure
the Log4jServletContextListener and Log4jServletFilter in the deployment descriptor or
programmatically. The filter should match all requests of any type. The listener should be the very
first listener defined in your application, and the filter should be the very first filter defined and
mapped in your application. This is easily accomplished using the following web.xml code:

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

6 Web Applications and JSPs 69

<listener>
<listener-class>org.apache.logging.log4j.web.Log4jServletContextListener</listener-class>
</listener>

<filter>
<filter-name>log4jServletFilter</filter-name>
<filter-class>org.apache.logging.log4j.web.Log4jServletFilter</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>log4jServletFilter</filter-name>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
<dispatcher>REQUEST</dispatcher>
<dispatcher>FORWARD</dispatcher>
<dispatcher>INCLUDE</dispatcher>
<dispatcher>ERROR</dispatcher>
<dispatcher>ASYNC</dispatcher><!-- Servlet 3.0 w/ disabled auto-initialization only; not supported in
</filter-mapping>
You can customize the behavior of the listener and filter using the log4jContextName,
log4jConfiguration, and/or isLog4jContextSelectorNamed context parameters. Read more
about this in the Context Parameters section below.

6.1.4 Context Parameters

By default, Log4j 2 uses the ServletContext's context name as the LoggerContext name
and uses the standard pattern for locating the Log4j configuration file. There are three context
parameters that you can use to control this behavior. The first, isLog4jContextSelectorNamed,
specifies whether the context should be selected using the JndiContextSelector. If
isLog4jContextSelectorNamed is not specified or is anything other than true, it is assumed to
be false.
If isLog4jContextSelectorNamed is true, log4jContextName must be specified or
display-name must be specified in web.xml; otherwise, the application will fail to start with an
exception. log4jConfiguration should also be specified in this case, and must be a valid URI for
the configuration file; however, this parameter is not required.
If isLog4jContextSelectorNamed is not true, log4jConfiguration may optionally be
specified and must be a valid URI or path to a configuration file or start with "classpath:" to denote
a configuration file that can be found on the classpath. Without this parameter, Log4j will use the
standard mechanisms for locating the configuration file.
When specifying these context parameters, you must specify them in the deployment descriptor (
web.xml) even in a Servlet 3.0 or never application. If you add them to the ServletContext within
a listener, Log4j will initialize before the context parameters are available and they will have no
effect. Here are some sample uses of these context parameters.

6.1.4.1 Set the Logging Context Name to "myApplication"

<context-param>
<param-name>log4jContextName</param-name>
<param-value>myApplication</param-value>
</context-param>

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6 Web Applications and JSPs 70

6.1.4.2 Set the Configuration Path/File/URI to "/etc/myApp/myLogging.xml"

<context-param>
<param-name>log4jConfiguration</param-name>
<param-value>file:///etc/myApp/myLogging.xml</param-value>
</context-param>

6.1.4.3 Use the JndiContextSelector

<context-param>
<param-name>isLog4jContextSelectorNamed</param-name>
<param-value>true</param-value>
</context-param>
<context-param>
<param-name>log4jContextName</param-name>
<param-value>appWithJndiSelector</param-value>
</context-param>
<context-param>
<param-name>log4jConfiguration</param-name>
<param-value>file:///D:/conf/myLogging.xml</param-value>
</context-param>
Note that in this case you must also set the "Log4jContextSelector" system property to
"org.apache.logging.log4j.core.selector.JndiContextSelector".
For security reasons, from Log4j 2.17.0, JNDI must be enabled by setting system property
log4j2.enableJndiContextSelector=true.

6.1.5 Using Web Application Information During the Configuration

You may want to use information about the web application during configuration. For example,
you could embed the web application's context path in the name of a Rolling File Appender. See
WebLookup in Lookups for more information.

6.1.6 JavaServer Pages Logging

You may use Log4j 2 within JSPs just as you would within any other Java code. Simple obtain
a Logger and call its methods to log events. However, this requires you to use Java code within
your JSPs, and some development teams rightly are not comfortable with doing this. If you have a
dedicated user interface development team that is not familiar with using Java, you may even have
Java code disabled in your JSPs.
For this reason, Log4j 2 provides a JSP Tag Library that enables you to log events without using any
Java code. To read more about using this tag library, read the Log4j Tag Library documentation.
Important Note! As noted above, containers often ignore certain JARs known not to contain TLDs
and do not scan them for TLD files. Importantly, Tomcat 7 <7.0.43 ignores all JAR files named
log4j*.jar, which prevents the JSP tag library from being automatically discovered. This does not
affect Tomcat 6.x and has been fixed in Tomcat 7.0.43, Tomcat 8, and later. In Tomcat 7 <7.0.43
you will need to change catalina.properties and remove "log4j*.jar" from the jarsToSkip
property. You may need to do something similar on other containers if they skip scanning Log4j JAR
files.

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

6 Web Applications and JSPs 71

6.1.7 Asynchronous Requests and Threads

The handling of asynchronous requests is tricky, and regardless of Servlet container version or
configuration Log4j cannot handle everything automatically. When standard requests, forwards,
includes, and error resources are processed, the Log4jServletFilter binds the LoggerContext
to the thread handling the request. After request processing completes, the filter unbinds the
LoggerContext from the thread.
Similarly, when an internal request is dispatched using a javax.servlet.AsyncContext, the
Log4jServletFilter also binds the LoggerContext to the thread handling the request and
unbinds it when request processing completes. However, this only happens for requests dispatched
through the AsyncContext. There are other asynchronous activities that can take place other than
internal dispatched requests.
For example, after starting an AsyncContext you could start up a separate thread to process the
request in the background, possibly writing the response with the ServletOutputStream. Filters
cannot intercept the execution of this thread. Filters also cannot intercept threads that you start in the
background during non-asynchronous requests. This is true whether you use a brand new thread or a
thread borrowed from a thread pool. So what can you do for these special threads?
You may not need to do anything. If you didn't use the isLog4jContextSelectorNamed
context parameter, there is no need to bind the LoggerContext to the thread. Log4j can safely
locate the LoggerContext on its own. In these cases, the filter provides only very modest
performance gains, and only when creating new Loggers. However, if you did specify the
isLog4jContextSelectorNamed context parameter with the value "true", you will need to
manually bind the LoggerContext to asynchronous threads. Otherwise, Log4j will not be able to
locate it.
Thankfully, Log4j provides a simple mechanism for binding the LoggerContext to asynchronous
threads in these special circumstances. The simplest way to do this is to wrap the Runnable instance
that is passed to the AsyncContext.start() method.

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6 Web Applications and JSPs 72

import java.io.IOException;
import javax.servlet.AsyncContext;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.web.WebLoggerContextUtils;

public class TestAsyncServlet extends HttpServlet {

@Override
protected void doGet(final HttpServletRequest req, final HttpServletResponse resp) throws ServletExceptio
final AsyncContext asyncContext = req.startAsync();
asyncContext.start(WebLoggerContextUtils.wrapExecutionContext(this.getServletContext(), new Runnable(
@Override
public void run() {
final Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger(TestAsyncServlet.class);
logger.info("Hello, servlet!");
}
}));
}

@Override
protected void doPost(final HttpServletRequest req, final HttpServletResponse resp) throws ServletExcepti
final AsyncContext asyncContext = req.startAsync();
asyncContext.start(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
final Log4jWebSupport webSupport =
WebLoggerContextUtils.getWebLifeCycle(TestAsyncServlet.this.getServletContext());
webSupport.setLoggerContext();
// do stuff
webSupport.clearLoggerContext();
}
});
}
}

This can be slightly more convenient when using Java 1.8 and lambda functions as demonstrated
below.

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6 Web Applications and JSPs 73

import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.web.WebLoggerContextUtils;

public class TestAsyncServlet extends HttpServlet {

@Override
protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp) throws ServletException, IOExcepti
final AsyncContext asyncContext = req.startAsync();
asyncContext.start(WebLoggerContextUtils.wrapExecutionContext(this.getServletContext(), () -> {
final Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger(TestAsyncServlet.class);
logger.info("Hello, servlet!");
}));
}
}

Alternatively, you can obtain the Log4jWebLifeCycle instance from the ServletContext
attributes, call its setLoggerContext method as the very first line of code in your asynchronous
thread, and call its clearLoggerContext method as the very last line of code in your asynchronous
thread. The following code demonstrates this. It uses the container thread pool to execute
asynchronous request processing, passing an anonymous inner Runnable to the start method.

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6 Web Applications and JSPs 74

import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.web.Log4jWebLifeCycle;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.web.WebLoggerContextUtils;

public class TestAsyncServlet extends HttpServlet {

@Override
protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp) throws ServletException, IOExcepti
final AsyncContext asyncContext = req.startAsync();
asyncContext.start(new Runnable() {
@Override
public void run() {
final Log4jWebLifeCycle webLifeCycle =
WebLoggerContextUtils.getWebLifeCycle(TestAsyncServlet.this.getServletContext());
webLifeCycle.setLoggerContext();
try {
final Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger(TestAsyncServlet.class);
logger.info("Hello, servlet!");
} finally {
webLifeCycle.clearLoggerContext();
}
}
});
}
}

Note that you must call clearLoggerContext once your thread is finished processing. Failing
to do so will result in memory leaks. If using a thread pool, it can even disrupt the logging of other
web applications in your container. For that reason, the example here shows clearing the context in a
finally block, which will always execute.

6.1.8 Using the Servlet Appender

Log4j provides a Servlet Appender that uses the servlet context as the log target. For example:

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6 Web Applications and JSPs 75

<Configuration status="WARN" name="ServletTest">

</Configuration>
To avoid double logging of exceptions to the servlet context, you must use %ex{none} in your
PatternLayout as shown in the example. The exception will be omitted from the message text but
it is passed to the servlet context as the actual Throwable object.

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7 Plugins 76

7 Plugins
.......................................................................................................................................

7.1 Plugins

7.1.1 Introduction

Log4j 1.x allowed for extension by requiring class attributes on most of the configuration
declarations. In the case of some elements, notably the PatternLayout, the only way to add new
pattern converters was to extend the PatternLayout class and add them via code. One goal of Log4j 2
is to make extending it extremely easy through the use of plugins.
In Log4j 2 a plugin is declared by adding a @Plugin annotation to the class declaration. During
initialization the Configuration will invoke the PluginManager to load the built-in Log4j plugins as
well as any custom plugins. The PluginManager locates plugins by looking in five places:

1. Serialized plugin listing files on the classpath. These files are generated automatically during the
build (more details below).
2. (OSGi only) Serialized plugin listing files in each active OSGi bundle. A BundleListener is
added on activation to continue checking new bundles after log4j-core has started.
3. A comma-separated list of packages specified by the log4j.plugin.packages system
property.
4. Packages passed to the static PluginManager.addPackages method (before Log4j
configuration occurs).
5. The packages declared in your log4j2 configuration file.
If multiple Plugins specify the same (case-insensitive) name, then the load order above determines
which one will be used. For example, to override the File plugin which is provided by the built-
in FileAppender class, you would need to place your plugin in a JAR file in the CLASSPATH
ahead of log4j-core.jar. This is not recommended; plugin name collisions will cause a warning
to be emitted. Note that in an OSGi environment, the order that bundles are scanned for plugins
generally follows the same order that bundles were installed into the framework. See getBundles()
and SynchronousBundleListener. In short, name collisions are even more unpredictable in an OSGi
environment.
Serialized plugin listing files are generated by an annotation processor contained in the log4j-
core artifact which will automatically scan your code for Log4j 2 plugins and output a metadata
file in your processed classes. There is nothing extra that needs to be done to enable this; the
Java compiler will automatically pick up the annotation processor on the class path unless you
explicitly disable it. In that case, it would be important to add another compiler pass to your build
process that only handles annotation processing using the Log4j 2 annotation processor class,
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.plugins.processor.PluginProcessor. To
do this using Apache Maven, add the following execution to your maven-compiler-plugin (version 2.2
or higher) build plugin:

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7 Plugins 77

<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.1</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>log4j-plugin-processor</id>
<goals>
<goal>compile</goal>
</goals>
<phase>process-classes</phase>
<configuration>
<proc>only</proc>
<annotationProcessors>
<annotationProcessor>org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.plugins.processor.PluginProcessor</annota
</annotationProcessors>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>

As the configuration is processed the appropriate plugins will be automatically configured and
initialized. Log4j 2 utilizes a few different categories of plugins which are described in the following
sections.

7.1.2 Core

Core plugins are those that are directly represented by an element in a configuration file, such as an
Appender, Layout, Logger or Filter. Custom plugins that conform to the rules laid out in the next
paragraph may simply be referenced in the configuration, provided they are appropriate configured to
be loaded by the PluginManager.
Every Core plugin must declare a static method annotated with @PluginFactory or
@PluginBuilderFactory. The former is used for static factory methods that provide all options
as method parameters, and the latter is used to construct a new Builder<T> class whose fields
are used for injecting attributes and child nodes. To allow the Configuration to pass the correct
parameters to the method, every parameter to the method must be annotated as one of the following
attribute types. Each attribute or element annotation must include the name that must be present in the
configuration in order to match the configuration item to its respective parameter. For plugin builders,
the names of the fields will be used by default if no name is specified in the annotation. There are
dozens of plugins in Log4j Core that can be used as examples for more complex scenarios including
hierarchical builder classes (e.g., see FileAppender). See Extending Log4j with Plugin Builders for
more details.

7.1.2.1 Attribute Types

PluginAttribute
The parameter must be convertible from a String using a TypeConverter. Most built-in
types are already supported, but custom TypeConverter plugins may also be provided
for more type support. Note that PluginBuilderAttribute can be used in builder class
fields as an easier way to provide default values.

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7 Plugins 78

PluginElement
The parameter may represent a complex object that itself has parameters that can be
configured. This also supports injecting an array of elements.
PluginConfiguration
The current Configuration object will be passed to the plugin as a parameter.
PluginNode
The current Node being parsed will be passed to the plugin as a parameter.
PluginValue
The value of the current Node or its attribute named value.

7.1.2.2 Constraint Validators

Plugin factory fields and parameters can be automatically validated at runtime using constraint
validators inspired by the Bean Validation spec. The following annotations are bundled in Log4j, but
custom ConstraintValidators can be created as well.
Required
This annotation validates that a value is non-empty. This covers a check for null as well as
several other scenarios: empty CharSequence objects, empty arrays, empty Collection
instances, and empty Map instances.
ValidHost
This annotation validates that a value corresponds to a valid hostname. This uses the same
validation as InetAddress::getByName.
ValidPort
This annotation validates that a value corresponds to a valid port number between 0 and
65535.

7.1.3 Converters

Converters are used by PatternLayout to render the elements identified by the conversion pattern.
Every converter must specify its category as "Converter" on the @Plugin annotation, have a static
newInstance method that accepts an array of Strings as its only parameter and returns an instance
of the Converter, and must have a @ConverterKeys annotation present that contains the array of
converter patterns that will cause the Converter to be selected. Converters that are meant to handle
LogEvents must extend the LogEventPatternConverter class and must implement a format method
that accepts a LogEvent and a StringBuilder as arguments. The Converter should append the
result of its operation to the StringBuilder.
A second type of Converter is the FileConverter - which must have "FileConverter" specified in the
category attribute of the @Plugin annotation. While similar to a LogEventPatternConverter,
instead of a single format method these Converters will have two variations; one that takes an Object
and one that takes an array of Objects instead of the LogEvent. Both append to the provided
StringBuilder in the same fashion as a LogEventPatternConverter. These Converters are
typically used by the RollingFileAppender to construct the name of the file to log to.
If multiple Converters specify the same ConverterKeys, then the load order above determines
which one will be used. For example, to override the %date converter which is provided by the
built-in DatePatternConverter class, you would need to place your plugin in a JAR file in

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7 Plugins 79

the CLASSPATH ahead of log4j-core.jar. This is not recommended; pattern ConverterKeys

collisions will cause a warning to be emitted. Try to use unique ConverterKeys for your custom
pattern converters.

7.1.4 KeyProviders

Some components within Log4j may provide the ability to perform data encryption. These
components require a secret key to perform the encryption. Applications may provide the key by
creating a class that implements the SecretKeyProvider interface.

7.1.5 Lookups

Lookups are perhaps the simplest plugins of all. They must declare their type as "Lookup" on the
plugin annotation and must implement the StrLookup interface. They will have two methods; a
lookup method that accepts a String key and returns a String value and a second lookup method
that accepts both a LogEvent and a String key and returns a String. Lookups may be referenced by
specifying ${name:key} where name is the name specified in the Plugin annotation and key is the
name of the item to locate.

7.1.6 TypeConverters

TypeConverters are a sort of meta-plugin used for converting strings into other types in a plugin
factory method parameter. Other plugins can already be injected via the @PluginElement
annotation; now, any type supported by the type conversion system can be used in a
@PluginAttribute parameter. Conversion of enum types are supported on demand and do
not require custom TypeConverter classes. A large number of built-in Java classes are already
supported; see TypeConverters for a more exhaustive listing.
Unlike other plugins, the plugin name of a TypeConverter is purely cosmetic. Appropriate type
converters are looked up via the Type interface rather than via Class<?> objects only. Do note that
TypeConverter plugins must have a default constructor. When multiple converters match for a type,
the first will be returned. If any extends from Comparable<TypeConverter<?>>, it will be used
for determining the order.

7.2 Developer Notes

If a plugin class implements Collection or Map, then no factory method is used. Instead, the class
is instantiated using the default constructor, and all child configuration nodes are added to the
Collection or Map.

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8 Lookups 80

8 Lookups
.......................................................................................................................................

8.1 Lookups
Lookups provide a way to add values to the Log4j configuration at arbitrary places. They are a
particular type of Plugin that implements the StrLookup interface. Information on how to use
Lookups in configuration files can be found in the Property Substitution section of the Configuration
page.

8.1.1 Context Map Lookup

The ContextMapLookup allows applications to store data in the Log4j ThreadContext Map and then
retrieve the values in the Log4j configuration. In the example below, the application would store the
current user's login id in the ThreadContext Map with the key "loginId". During initial configuration
processing the first '$' will be removed. The PatternLayout supports interpolation with Lookups and
will then resolve the variable for each event. Note that the pattern "%X{loginId}" would achieve the
same result.

<File name="Application" fileName="application.log">

<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] $${ctx:loginId} %m%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>
</File>

8.1.2 Date Lookup

The DateLookup is somewhat unusual from the other lookups as it doesn't use the key to locate an
item. Instead, the key can be used to specify a date format string that is valid for SimpleDateFormat.
The current date, or the date associated with the current log event will be formatted as specified.

<RollingFile name="Rolling-${map:type}" fileName="${filename}" filePattern="target/rolling1/test1-$${date:MM-

8.1.3 Docker Lookup

The DockerLookup can be used to lookup attributes from the Docker container the application is
running in.
Log4j Docker provides access to the following container attributes:

containerId The full id assigned to the container.

containerName The name assigned to the container.
imageId The id assigned to the image.

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8 Lookups 81

imageName The name assigned to the image.

shortContainerId The first 12 characters of the container id.
shortImageId The first 12 characters of the image id.

<JsonLayout properties="true" compact="true" eventEol="true">

<KeyValuePair key="containerId" value="${docker:containerId}"/>
<KeyValuePair key="containerName" value="${docker:containerName}"/>
<KeyValuePair key="imageName" value="${docker:imageName}"/>
</JsonLayout>
This Lookup is subject to the requirements listed at Log4j Docker Support

8.1.4 Environment Lookup

The EnvironmentLookup allows systems to configure environment variables, either in global files
such as /etc/profile or in the startup scripts for applications, and then retrieve those variables from
within the logging configuration. The example below includes the name of the currently logged in
user in the application log.

<File name="Application" fileName="application.log">

<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] $${env:USER} %m%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>
</File>
This lookup also supports default value syntax. In the sample below, when the USER environment
variable is undefined, the default value jdoe is used:

<File name="Application" fileName="application.log">

8.1.5 EventLookup
The EventLookup provides access to fields within the log event from the configuration.

Key Description
Exception Returns the simple class name of the Exception, if one
is included in the event.
Level Returns the logging Level of the event.
Logger Returns the name of the Logger.
Marker Returns the name of the Marker associated with the
log event, if one is present.
Message Returns the formatted Message string.
ThreadId Returns the thread id associated with the log event.

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8 Lookups 82

ThreadName Returns the name of the thread associate with the log
event.
Timestamp Returns the time in milliseconds when the event
occurred.

In this example the RoutingAppender picks a route based on the presence of a Marker named
"AUDIT" being present in the log event.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

8.1.6 Java Lookup

The JavaLookup allows Java environment information to be retrieved in convenient preformatted
strings using the java: prefix.

Key Description

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8 Lookups 83

version The short Java version, like:

Java version 1.7.0_67
runtime The Java runtime version, like:
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment
(build 1.7.0_67-b01) from Oracle
Corporation
vm The Java VM version, like:
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM
(build 24.65-b04, mixed mode)
os The OS version, like:
Windows 7 6.1 Service Pack 1,
architecture: amd64-64
locale Hardware information, like:
default locale: en_US, platform
encoding: Cp1252
hw Hardware information, like:
processors: 4, architecture:
amd64-64, instruction sets: amd64

For example:

<File name="Application" fileName="application.log">

8.1.7 Jndi Lookup

As of Log4j 2.17.0 JNDI operations require that log4j2.enableJndiLookup=true be set as
a system property or the corresponding environment variable for this lookup to function. See the
enableJndiLookup system property.
The JndiLookup allows variables to be retrieved via JNDI. By default the key will be prefixed with
java:comp/env/, however if the key contains a ":" no prefix will be added.
The JDNI Lookup only supports the java protocol or no protocol (as shown in the example below).

<File name="Application" fileName="application.log">

<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] $${jndi:logging/context-name} %m%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>
</File>
Java's JNDI module is not available on Android.

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8 Lookups 84

8.1.8 JVM Input Arguments Lookup (JMX)

Maps JVM input arguments -- but not main arguments -- using JMX to acquire the JVM arguments.
Use the prefix jvmrunargs to access JVM arguments.
See the Javadocs for java.lang.management.RuntimeMXBean.getInputArguments() .
Java's JMX module is not available on Android or on Google App Engine.

8.1.9 Kubernetes Lookup

The KubernetesLookup can be used to lookup attributes from the Kubernetes environment for the
container the application is running in.
Log4j Kubernetes provides access to the following container attributes:

accountName The service account name

clusterName The name of the cluster the application is deployed in
containerId The full id assigned to the container
containerName The name assigned to the container
host The name assigned to the host operating system
hostIp The host's ip address
imageId The id assigned to the container image
imageName The name assigned to the container image
labels All labels formatted in a list
labesl.app The application name
labels.podTemplateHash The pod's template hash value
masterUrl The URL used to access the API server
namespaceId The id of the namespace the various kubernetes
components are located within
namespaceName The namespace the various kubernetes components
are located within
podId The pod's ip number
podIp The pod's ip address
podName The name of the pod

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8 Lookups 85

<GelfLayout includeStackTrace="true" host="${hostName}" includeThreadContext="true" includeNullDelimite

compressionType="OFF">
<ThreadContextIncludes>requestId,sessionId,loginId,userId,ipAddress,callingHost</ThreadContextInclude
<MessagePattern>%d [%t] %-5p %X{requestId, sessionId, loginId, userId, ipAddress} %C{1.}.%M:%L - %m%n
<KeyValuePair key="docker.containerId" value="${docker:containerId:-}"/>
<KeyValuePair key="application" value="$${lower:${spring:spring.application.name}}"/>
<KeyValuePair key="kubernetes.serviceAccountName" value="${k8s:accountName:-}"/>
<KeyValuePair key="kubernetes.clusterName" value="${k8s:clusterName:-}/>
<KeyValuePair key="kubernetes.containerId" value="${k8s:containerId:-}"/>
<KeyValuePair key="kubernetes.containerName" value="${k8s:containerName:-}"/>
<KeyValuePair key="kubernetes.host" value="${k8s:host:-}"/>
<KeyValuePair key="kubernetes.labels.app" value="${k8s:labels.app:-}"/>
<KeyValuePair key="kubernetes.labels.pod-template-hash" value="${k8s:labels.podTemplateHash:-}"/>
<KeyValuePair key="kubernetes.master_url" value="${k8s:masterUrl:-}"/>
<KeyValuePair key="kubernetes.namespaceId" value="${k8s:namespaceId:-}"/>
<KeyValuePair key="kubernetes.namespaceName" value="${k8s:namespaceName:-}"/>
<KeyValuePair key="kubernetes.podID" value="${k8s:podId:-}"/>
<KeyValuePair key="kubernetes.podIP" value="${k8s:podIp:-}"/>
<KeyValuePair key="kubernetes.podName" value="${k8s:podName:-}"/>
<KeyValuePair key="kubernetes.imageId" value="${k8s:imageId:-}"/>
<KeyValuePair key="kubernetes.imageName" value="${k8s:imageName:-}"/>
</GelfLayout>
This Lookup is subject to the configuration requirements listed at Log4j Kubernetes Support

8.1.10 Log4j Configuration Location Lookup

Log4j configuration properties. The expressions ${log4j:configLocation} and
${log4j:configParentLocation} respectively provide the absolute path to the log4j
configuration file and its parent folder.
The example below uses this lookup to place log files in a directory relative to the log4j configuration
file.

<File name="Application" fileName="${log4j:configParentLocation}/logs/application.log">

8.1.11 Lower Lookup

The LowerLookup converts the passed in argument to lower case. Presumably the value will be the
result of a nested lookup.

<File name="Application" fileName="application.log">

<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] $${lower:{${spring:spring.application.name}} %m%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>
</File>

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8 Lookups 86

8.1.12 Main Arguments Lookup (Application)

This lookup requires that you manually provide the main arguments of the application to Log4j:

import org.apache.logging.log4j.core.lookup.MainMapLookup;

public static void main(String args[]) {

MainMapLookup.setMainArguments(args);
...
}
If the main arguments have been set, this lookup allows applications to retrieve these main argument
values from within the logging configuration. The key that follows the main: prefix can either be a
0-based index into the argument list, or a string, where ${main:myString} is substituted with the
value that follows myString in the main argument list.
Note: Many applications use leading dashes to identify command arguments. Specifying ${main:--
file} would result in the lookup failing because it would look for a variable named "main" with
a default value of "-file". To avoid this the ":" separating the Lookup name from the key must be
followed by a backslash as an escape character as in ${main:\--file}
For example, suppose the static void main String[] arguments are:
--file foo.txt --verbose -x bar
Then the following substitutions are possible:

Expression Result
${main:0} --file
${main:1} foo.txt
${main:2} --verbose
${main:3} -x
${main:4} bar
${main:\--file} foo.txt
${main:\-x} bar
${main:bar} null
${main:\--quiet:-true} true

Example usage:

<File name="Application" fileName="application.log">

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8 Lookups 87

8.1.13 Map Lookup

The MapLookup serves several purposes.

1. Provide the base for Properties declared in the configuration file.

2. Retrieve values from MapMessages in LogEvents.
3. Retrieve values set with MapLookup.setMainArguments(String[])
The first item simply means that the MapLookup is used to substitute properties that are defined in the
configuration file. These variables are specified without a prefix - e.g. ${name}. The second usage
allows a value from the current MapMessage, if one is part of the current log event, to be substituted.
In the example below the RoutingAppender will use a different RollingFileAppender for each unique
value of the key named "type" in the MapMessage. Note that when used this way a value for "type"
should be declared in the properties declaration to provide a default value in case the message is not a
MapMessage or the MapMessage does not contain the key. See the Property Substitution section of
the Configuration page for information on how to set the default values.

8.1.14 Marker Lookup

The marker lookup allows you to use markers in interesting configurations like a routing appender.
Consider the following YAML configuration and code that logs to different files based on markers:

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8 Lookups 88

Configuration:
status: debug

Appenders:
Console:
RandomAccessFile:
- name: SQL_APPENDER
fileName: logs/sql.log
PatternLayout:
Pattern: "%d{ISO8601_BASIC} %-5level %logger{1} %X %msg%n"
- name: PAYLOAD_APPENDER
fileName: logs/payload.log
PatternLayout:
Pattern: "%d{ISO8601_BASIC} %-5level %logger{1} %X %msg%n"
- name: PERFORMANCE_APPENDER
fileName: logs/performance.log
PatternLayout:
Pattern: "%d{ISO8601_BASIC} %-5level %logger{1} %X %msg%n"

Routing:
name: ROUTING_APPENDER
Routes:
pattern: "$${marker:}"
Route:
- key: PERFORMANCE
ref: PERFORMANCE_APPENDER
- key: PAYLOAD
ref: PAYLOAD_APPENDER
- key: SQL
ref: SQL_APPENDER

Loggers:
Root:
level: trace
AppenderRef:
- ref: ROUTING_APPENDER

public static final Marker SQL = MarkerFactory.getMarker("SQL");

public static final Marker PAYLOAD = MarkerFactory.getMarker("PAYLOAD");
public static final Marker PERFORMANCE = MarkerFactory.getMarker("PERFORMANCE");

final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(Logger.ROOT_LOGGER_NAME);

logger.info(SQL, "Message in Sql.log");

logger.info(PAYLOAD, "Message in Payload.log");
logger.info(PERFORMANCE, "Message in Performance.log");
Note the key part of the configuration is pattern: "$${marker:}". This will produce three log
files, each with a log event for a specific marker. Log4j will route the log event with the SQL marker
to sql.log, the log event with the PAYLOAD marker to payload.log, and so on.
You can use the notation "${marker:name}" and "$${marker:name}" to check for the existence
of a marker where name is the marker name. If the marker exists, the expression returns the name,
otherwise null.

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8 Lookups 89

8.1.15 Spring Boot Lookup

The Spring Boot Lookup retrieves the values of Spring properties from the Spring configuration
as well as values of the active and default profiles. Specifying a key of "profiles.active" will reutrn
the active profiles while a key of "profiles.default" will return the default profiles. The default and
active profiles can be an array. If more than one profile is present they will be returned as a comma
separated list. To retrieve a single item from the array append "[{index}]" to the key. For example, to
return the first active profile in the list specify "profiles.active[0]".
This Lookup will return null values until Spring Boot initializes application logging.

<File name="Application" fileName="application-${spring:profiles.active[0]}.log">

<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] $${spring:spring.application.name} %m%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>
</File>
This Lookup requires log4j-spring-cloud-config-client be included in the application.

8.1.16 Structured Data Lookup

The StructuredDataLookup is very similar to the MapLookup in that it will retrieve values from
StructuredDataMessages. In addition to the Map values it will also return the name portion of
the id (not including the enterprise number) and the type field. The main difference between
the example below and the example for MapMessage is that the "type" is an attribute of the
StructuredDataMessage while "type" would have to be an item in the Map in a MapMessage.

8.1.17 System Properties Lookup

As it is quite common to define values inside and outside the application by using System Properties,
it is only natural that they should be accessible via a Lookup. As system properties are often defined
outside the application it would be quite common to see something like:

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8 Lookups 90

<Appenders>
<File name="ApplicationLog" fileName="${sys:logPath}/app.log"/>
</Appenders>
This lookup also supports default value syntax. In the sample below, when the logPath system
property is undefined, the default value /var/logs is used:

8.1.18 Upper Lookup

The UpperLookup converts the passed in argument to upper case. Presumably the value will be the
result of a nested lookup.

<File name="Application" fileName="application.log">

<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] $$upper{${spring:spring.application.name}} %m%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>
</File>

8.1.19 Web Lookup

The WebLookup allows applications to retrieve variables that are associated with the ServletContext.
In addition to being able to retrieve various fields in the ServletContext, WebLookup supports looking
up values stored as attributes or configured as initialization parameters. The following table lists
various keys that can be retrieved:

Key Description
attr. name Returns the ServletContext attribute with the specified
name
contextPath The context path of the web application
contextPathName The first token in the context path of the web
application splitting on "/" characters.
effectiveMajorVersion Gets the major version of the Servlet specification that
the application represented by this ServletContext is
based on.
effectiveMinorVersion Gets the minor version of the Servlet specification that
the application represented by this ServletContext is
based on.
initParam. name Returns the ServletContext initialization parameter
with the specified name
majorVersion Returns the major version of the Servlet API that this
servlet container supports.
minorVersion Returns the minor version of the Servlet API that this
servlet container supports.

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8 Lookups 91

rootDir Returns the result of calling getRealPath with a value

of "/".
serverInfo Returns the name and version of the servlet container
on which the servlet is running.
servletContextName Returns the name of the web application as defined
in the display-name element of the deployment
descriptor

Any other key names specified will first be checked to see if a ServletContext attribute exists with that
name and then will be checked to see if an initialization parameter of that name exists. If the key is
located then the corresponding value will be returned.

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9 Appenders
.......................................................................................................................................

9.1 Appenders
Appenders are responsible for delivering LogEvents to their destination. Every Appender must
implement the Appender interface. Most Appenders will extend AbstractAppender which
adds Lifecycle and Filterable support. Lifecycle allows components to finish initialization after
configuration has completed and to perform cleanup during shutdown. Filterable allows the
component to have Filters attached to it which are evaluated during event processing.
Appenders usually are only responsible for writing the event data to the target destination. In most
cases they delegate responsibility for formatting the event to a layout. Some appenders wrap other
appenders so that they can modify the LogEvent, handle a failure in an Appender, route the event to a
subordinate Appender based on advanced Filter criteria or provide similar functionality that does not
directly format the event for viewing.
Appenders always have a name so that they can be referenced from Loggers.
In the tables below, the "Type" column corresponds to the Java type expected. For non-JDK classes,
these should usually be in Log4j Core unless otherwise noted.

9.1.1 AsyncAppender
The AsyncAppender accepts references to other Appenders and causes LogEvents to be written to
them on a separate Thread. Note that exceptions while writing to those Appenders will be hidden from
the application. The AsyncAppender should be configured after the appenders it references to allow it
to shut down properly.
By default, AsyncAppender uses java.util.concurrent.ArrayBlockingQueue which does not require
any external libraries. Note that multi-threaded applications should exercise care when using
this appender as such: the blocking queue is susceptible to lock contention and our tests showed
performance may become worse when more threads are logging concurrently. Consider using lock-
free Async Loggers for optimal performance.

Parameter Name Type Description

AppenderRef String The name of the Appenders to
invoke asynchronously. Multiple
AppenderRef elements can be
configured.
blocking boolean If true, the appender will wait until
there are free slots in the queue. If
false, the event will be written to the
error appender if the queue is full.
The default is true.
shutdownTimeout integer How many milliseconds the
Appender should wait to flush
outstanding log events in the queue
on shutdown. The default is zero
which means to wait forever.

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9 Appenders 93

bufferSize integer Specifies the maximum number

of events that can be queued.
The default is 1024. Note that
when using a disruptor-style
BlockingQueue, this buffer size
must be a power of 2.
When the application is
logging faster than the
underlying appender can keep
up with for a long enough
time to fill up the queue, the
behaviour is determined by the
AsyncQueueFullPolicy.
errorRef String The name of the Appender to
invoke if none of the appenders can
be called, either due to errors in the
appenders or because the queue is
full. If not specified then errors will
be ignored.
filter Filter A Filter to determine if the
event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
name String The name of the Appender.
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing
exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.
includeLocation boolean Extracting location is an expensive
operation (it can make logging 5
- 20 times slower). To improve
performance, location is not
included by default when adding
a log event to the queue. You
can change this by setting
includeLocation="true".
BlockingQueueFactory BlockingQueueFactory This element overrides what type
of BlockingQueue to use. See
below documentation for more
details.

AsyncAppender Parameters
There are also a few system properties that can be used to maintain application throughput
even when the underlying appender cannot keep up with the logging rate and the queue is
filling up. See the details for system properties log4j2.AsyncQueueFullPolicy and
log4j2.DiscardThreshold.
A typical AsyncAppender configuration might look like:

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9 Appenders 94

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<File name="MyFile" fileName="logs/app.log">
<PatternLayout>
<Pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</Pattern>
</PatternLayout>
</File>
<Async name="Async">
<AppenderRef ref="MyFile"/>
</Async>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="Async"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
Starting in Log4j 2.7, a custom implementation of BlockingQueue or TransferQueue can be
specified using a BlockingQueueFactory plugin. To override the default BlockingQueueFactory,
specify the plugin inside an <Async/> element like so:

<Configuration name="LinkedTransferQueueExample">
<Appenders>
<List name="List"/>
<Async name="Async" bufferSize="262144">
<AppenderRef ref="List"/>
<LinkedTransferQueue/>
</Async>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root>
<AppenderRef ref="Async"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
Log4j ships with the following implementations:

Plugin Name Description

ArrayBlockingQueue This is the default implementation that uses
ArrayBlockingQueue.
DisruptorBlockingQueue This uses the Conversant Disruptor implementation of
BlockingQueue. This plugin takes a single optional
attribute, spinPolicy, which corresponds to
JCToolsBlockingQueue This uses JCTools, specifically the MPSC bounded
lock-free queue.

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9 Appenders 95

LinkedTransferQueue This uses the new in Java 7 implementation

LinkedTransferQueue. Note that this queue does not
use the bufferSize configuration attribute from
AsyncAppender as LinkedTransferQueue does
not support a maximum capacity.

BlockingQueueFactory Implementations

9.1.2 CassandraAppender
The CassandraAppender writes its output to an Apache Cassandra database.
A keyspace and table must be configured ahead of time, and the columns of
that table are mapped in a configuration file. Each column can specify either a
StringLayout (e.g., a PatternLayout) along with an optional conversion type, or only
a conversion type for org.apache.logging.log4j.spi.ThreadContextMap or
org.apache.logging.log4j.spi.ThreadContextStack to store the MDC or NDC in a map
or list column respectively. A conversion type compatible with java.util.Date will use the log
event timestamp converted to that type (e.g., use java.util.Date to fill a timestamp column type
in Cassandra).

Parameter Name Type Description

batched boolean Whether or not to use batch
statements to write log messages
to Cassandra. By default, this is
false.
batchType BatchStatement.Type The batch type to use when using
batched writes. By default, this is
LOGGED.
bufferSize int The number of log messages to
buffer or batch before writing. By
default, no buffering is done.
clusterName String The name of the Cassandra cluster
to connect to.

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9 Appenders 96

columns ColumnMapping[] A list of column mapping

configurations. Each column must
specify a column name. Each
column can have a conversion type
specified by its fully qualified class
name. By default, the conversion
type is String. If the configured
type is assignment-compatible
with ReadOnlyStringMap
/ ThreadContextMap or
ThreadContextStack, then that
column will be populated with
the MDC or NDC respectively.
If the configured type is
assignment-compatible with
java.util.Date, then the
log timestamp will be converted
to that configured date type. If
a literal attribute is given,
then its value will be used as is in
the INSERT query without any
escaping. Otherwise, the layout or
pattern specified will be converted
into the configured type and stored
in that column.
contactPoints SocketAddress[] A list of hosts and ports of
Cassandra nodes to connect to.
These must be valid hostnames or
IP addresses. By default, if a port is
not specified for a host or it is set to
0, then the default Cassandra port
of 9042 will be used. By default,
localhost:9042 will be used.
filter Filter A Filter to determine if the
event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing
exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.
keyspace String The name of the keyspace
containing the table that log
messages will be written to.
name String The name of the Appender.
password String The password to use (along with
the username) to connect to
Cassandra.

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9 Appenders 97

table String The name of the table to write log

messages to.
useClockForTimestampGenerator boolean Whether or not to
use the configured
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.util.Cl
as a TimestampGenerator. By
default, this is false.
username String The username to use to connect
to Cassandra. By default, no
username or password is used.
useTls boolean Whether or not to use TLS/SSL
to connect to Cassandra. This is
false by default.

CassandraAppender Parameters
Here is an example CassandraAppender configuration:

This example configuration uses the following table schema:

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9 Appenders 98

CREATE TABLE logs (

id timeuuid PRIMARY KEY,
timeid timeuuid,
message text,
level text,
marker text,
logger text,
timestamp timestamp,
mdc map<text,text>,
ndc list<text>
);

9.1.3 ConsoleAppender
As one might expect, the ConsoleAppender writes its output to either System.out or System.err with
System.out being the default target. A Layout must be provided to format the LogEvent.

Parameter Name Type Description

filter Filter A Filter to determine if the
event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
layout Layout The Layout to use to format the
LogEvent. If no layout is supplied
the default pattern layout of "%m
%n" will be used.
follow boolean Identifies whether the appender
honors reassignments of
System.out or System.err via
System.setOut or System.setErr
made after configuration. Note that
the follow attribute cannot be used
with Jansi on Windows. Cannot be
used with direct.

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9 Appenders 99

direct boolean Write directly to

java.io.FileDescriptor
and bypass
java.lang.System.out/.err.
Can give up to 10x performance
boost when the output is
redirected to file or other process.
Cannot be used with Jansi on
Windows. Cannot be used with
follow. Output will not respect
java.lang.System.setOut()/.setErr()
and may get intertwined
with other output to
java.lang.System.out/.err
in a multi-threaded application.
New since 2.6.2. Be aware that this
is a new addition, and it has only
been tested with Oracle JVM on
Linux and Windows so far.
name String The name of the Appender.
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing
exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.
target String Either "SYSTEM_OUT" or
"SYSTEM_ERR". The default is
"SYSTEM_OUT".

ConsoleAppender Parameters
A typical Console configuration might look like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<Console name="STDOUT" target="SYSTEM_OUT">
<PatternLayout pattern="%m%n"/>
</Console>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="STDOUT"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

9.1.4 FailoverAppender
The FailoverAppender wraps a set of appenders. If the primary Appender fails the secondary
appenders will be tried in order until one succeeds or there are no more secondaries to try.

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9 Appenders 100

Parameter Name Type Description

filter Filter A Filter to determine if the
event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
primary String The name of the primary Appender
to use.
failovers String[] The names of the secondary
Appenders to use.
name String The name of the Appender.
retryIntervalSeconds integer The number of seconds that should
pass before retrying the primary
Appender. The default is 60.
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing
exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
target String Either "SYSTEM_OUT" or
"SYSTEM_ERR". The default is
"SYSTEM_ERR".

FailoverAppender Parameters
A Failover configuration might look like:

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9 Appenders 101

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

9.1.5 FileAppender
The FileAppender is an OutputStreamAppender that writes to the File named in the fileName
parameter. The FileAppender uses a FileManager (which extends OutputStreamManager) to
actually perform the file I/O. While FileAppenders from different Configurations cannot be shared,
the FileManagers can be if the Manager is accessible. For example, two web applications in a
servlet container can have their own configuration and safely write to the same file if Log4j is in a
ClassLoader that is common to both of them.

Parameter Name Type Description

append boolean When true - the default, records
will be appended to the end of the
file. When set to false, the file will
be cleared before new records are
written.
bufferedIO boolean When true - the default, records
will be written to a buffer and the
data will be written to disk when the
buffer is full or, if immediateFlush
is set, when the record is written.
File locking cannot be used with
bufferedIO. Performance tests
have shown that using buffered I/O
significantly improves performance,
even if immediateFlush is enabled.

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9 Appenders 102

bufferSize int When bufferedIO is true, this is

the buffer size, the default is 8192
bytes.
createOnDemand boolean The appender creates the file
on-demand. The appender only
creates the file when a log event
passes all filters and is routed to
this appender. Defaults to false.
filter Filter A Filter to determine if the
event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
fileName String The name of the file to write to.
If the file, or any of its parent
directories, do not exist, they will be
created.
immediateFlush boolean When set to true - the default,
each write will be followed
by a flush. This will guarantee
that the data is passed to the
operating system for writing; it
does not guarantee that the data
is actually written to a physical
device such as a disk drive.
Note that if this flag is set to
false, and the logging activity
is sparse, there may be an
indefinite delay in the data
eventually making it to the
operating system, because it is
held up in a buffer. This can
cause surprising effects such
as the logs not appearing in the
tail output of a file immediately
after writing to the log.
Flushing after every write is
only useful when using this
appender with synchronous
loggers. Asynchronous
loggers and appenders will
automatically flush at the end
of a batch of events, even if
immediateFlush is set to false.
This also guarantees the data is
passed to the operating system
but is more efficient.
layout Layout The Layout to use to format the
LogEvent. If no layout is supplied
the default pattern layout of "%m
%n" will be used.

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9 Appenders 103

locking boolean When set to true, I/O operations

will occur only while the file lock
is held allowing FileAppenders
in multiple JVMs and potentially
multiple hosts to write to the
same file simultaneously. This will
significantly impact performance
so should be used carefully.
Furthermore, on many systems
the file lock is "advisory" meaning
that other applications can perform
operations on the file without
acquiring a lock. The default value
is false.
name String The name of the Appender.
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing
exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.
filePermissions String File attribute permissions
in POSIX format to apply
whenever the file is created.
Underlying files system shall
support POSIX file attribute
view.
Examples: rw------- or rw-rw-
rw- etc...
fileOwner String File owner to define whenever
the file is created.
Changing file's owner may be
restricted for security reason
and Operation not permitted
IOException thrown. Only
processes with an effective
user ID equal to the user ID
of the file or with appropriate
privileges may change
the ownership of a file if
_POSIX_CHOWN_RESTRICTED
is in effect for path.
Underlying files system shall
support file owner attribute
view.

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9 Appenders 104

fileGroup String File group to define whenever

the file is created.
Underlying files system shall
support POSIX file attribute
view.

FileAppender Parameters
Here is a sample File configuration:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<File name="MyFile" fileName="logs/app.log">
<PatternLayout>
<Pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</Pattern>
</PatternLayout>
</File>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="MyFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

9.1.6 FlumeAppender
This is an optional component supplied in a separate jar.
Apache Flume is a distributed, reliable, and available system for efficiently collecting, aggregating,
and moving large amounts of log data from many different sources to a centralized data store. The
FlumeAppender takes LogEvents and sends them to a Flume agent as serialized Avro events for
consumption.
The Flume Appender supports three modes of operation.

1. It can act as a remote Flume client which sends Flume events via Avro to a Flume Agent
configured with an Avro Source.
2. It can act as an embedded Flume Agent where Flume events pass directly into Flume for
processing.
3. It can persist events to a local BerkeleyDB data store and then asynchronously send the events to
Flume, similar to the embedded Flume Agent but without most of the Flume dependencies.
Usage as an embedded agent will cause the messages to be directly passed to the Flume Channel and
then control will be immediately returned to the application. All interaction with remote agents will
occur asynchronously. Setting the "type" attribute to "Embedded" will force the use of the embedded
agent. In addition, configuring agent properties in the appender configuration will also cause the
embedded agent to be used.

Parameter Name Type Description

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9 Appenders 105

agents Agent[] An array of Agents to which the

logging events should be sent. If
more than one agent is specified
the first Agent will be the primary
and subsequent Agents will be
used in the order specified as
secondaries should the primary
Agent fail. Each Agent definition
supplies the Agents host and port.
The specification of agents and
properties are mutually exclusive.
If both are configured an error will
result.
agentRetries integer The number of times the agent
should be retried before failing to
a secondary. This parameter is
ignored when type="persistent" is
specified (agents are tried once
before failing to the next).
batchSize integer Specifies the number of events
that should be sent as a batch. The
default is 1. This parameter only
applies to the Flume Appender.
compress boolean When set to true the message body
will be compressed using gzip
connectTimeoutMillis integer The number of milliseconds Flume
will wait before timing out the
connection.
dataDir String Directory where the Flume write
ahead log should be written. Valid
only when embedded is set to
true and Agent elements are used
instead of Property elements.
filter Filter A Filter to determine if the
event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
eventPrefix String The character string to prepend
to each event attribute in order to
distinguish it from MDC attributes.
The default is an empty string.
flumeEventFactory FlumeEventFactory Factory that generates the
Flume events from Log4j
events. The default factory is the
FlumeAvroAppender itself.
layout Layout The Layout to use to format the
LogEvent. If no layout is specified
RFC5424Layout will be used.
lockTimeoutRetries integer The number of times to retry if a
LockConflictException occurs while
writing to Berkeley DB. The default
is 5.

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9 Appenders 106

maxDelayMillis integer The maximum number of

milliseconds to wait for batchSize
events before publishing the batch.
mdcExcludes String A comma separated list of mdc
keys that should be excluded from
the FlumeEvent. This is mutually
exclusive with the mdcIncludes
attribute.
mdcIncludes String A comma separated list of mdc
keys that should be included in
the FlumeEvent. Any keys in the
MDC not found in the list will be
excluded. This option is mutually
exclusive with the mdcExcludes
attribute.
mdcRequired String A comma separated list of mdc
keys that must be present in the
MDC. If a key is not present a
LoggingException will be thrown.
mdcPrefix String A string that should be prepended
to each MDC key in order to
distinguish it from event attributes.
The default string is "mdc:".
name String The name of the Appender.
properties Property[] One or more Property elements
that are used to configure the
Flume Agent. The properties
must be configured without
the agent name (the appender
name is used for this) and no
sources can be configured.
Interceptors can be specified for
the source using "sources.log4j-
source.interceptors". All other
Flume configuration properties
are allowed. Specifying both
Agent and Property elements
will result in an error.
When used to configure in
Persistent mode the valid
properties are:
1. "keyProvider" to specify the
name of the plugin to provide
the secret key for encryption.
requestTimeoutMillis integer The number of milliseconds Flume
will wait before timing out the
request.

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9 Appenders 107

ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing

exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.
type enumeration One of "Avro", "Embedded", or
"Persistent" to indicate which
variation of the Appender is
desired.

FlumeAppender Parameters
A sample FlumeAppender configuration that is configured with a primary and a secondary agent,
compresses the body, and formats the body using the RFC5424Layout:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<Flume name="eventLogger" compress="true">
<Agent host="192.168.10.101" port="8800"/>
<Agent host="192.168.10.102" port="8800"/>
<RFC5424Layout enterpriseNumber="18060" includeMDC="true" appName="MyApp"/>
</Flume>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="eventLogger"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
A sample FlumeAppender configuration that is configured with a primary and a secondary agent,
compresses the body, formats the body using the RFC5424Layout, and persists encrypted events to
disk:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<Flume name="eventLogger" compress="true" type="persistent" dataDir="./logData">
<Agent host="192.168.10.101" port="8800"/>
<Agent host="192.168.10.102" port="8800"/>
<RFC5424Layout enterpriseNumber="18060" includeMDC="true" appName="MyApp"/>
<Property name="keyProvider">MySecretProvider</Property>
</Flume>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="eventLogger"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

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9 Appenders 108

A sample FlumeAppender configuration that is configured with a primary and a secondary agent,
compresses the body, formats the body using RFC5424Layout and passes the events to an embedded
Flume Agent.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<Flume name="eventLogger" compress="true" type="Embedded">
<Agent host="192.168.10.101" port="8800"/>
<Agent host="192.168.10.102" port="8800"/>
<RFC5424Layout enterpriseNumber="18060" includeMDC="true" appName="MyApp"/>
</Flume>
<Console name="STDOUT">
<PatternLayout pattern="%d [%p] %c %m%n"/>
</Console>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Logger name="EventLogger" level="info">
<AppenderRef ref="eventLogger"/>
</Logger>
<Root level="warn">
<AppenderRef ref="STDOUT"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
A sample FlumeAppender configuration that is configured with a primary and a secondary agent
using Flume configuration properties, compresses the body, formats the body using RFC5424Layout
and passes the events to an embedded Flume Agent.

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9 Appenders 109

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Configuration status="error" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<Flume name="eventLogger" compress="true" type="Embedded">
<Property name="channels">file</Property>
<Property name="channels.file.type">file</Property>
<Property name="channels.file.checkpointDir">target/file-channel/checkpoint</Property>
<Property name="channels.file.dataDirs">target/file-channel/data</Property>
<Property name="sinks">agent1 agent2</Property>
<Property name="sinks.agent1.channel">file</Property>
<Property name="sinks.agent1.type">avro</Property>
<Property name="sinks.agent1.hostname">192.168.10.101</Property>
<Property name="sinks.agent1.port">8800</Property>
<Property name="sinks.agent1.batch-size">100</Property>
<Property name="sinks.agent2.channel">file</Property>
<Property name="sinks.agent2.type">avro</Property>
<Property name="sinks.agent2.hostname">192.168.10.102</Property>
<Property name="sinks.agent2.port">8800</Property>
<Property name="sinks.agent2.batch-size">100</Property>
<Property name="sinkgroups">group1</Property>
<Property name="sinkgroups.group1.sinks">agent1 agent2</Property>
<Property name="sinkgroups.group1.processor.type">failover</Property>
<Property name="sinkgroups.group1.processor.priority.agent1">10</Property>
<Property name="sinkgroups.group1.processor.priority.agent2">5</Property>
<RFC5424Layout enterpriseNumber="18060" includeMDC="true" appName="MyApp"/>
</Flume>
<Console name="STDOUT">
<PatternLayout pattern="%d [%p] %c %m%n"/>
</Console>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Logger name="EventLogger" level="info">
<AppenderRef ref="eventLogger"/>
</Logger>
<Root level="warn">
<AppenderRef ref="STDOUT"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

9.1.7 JDBCAppender
The JDBCAppender writes log events to a relational database table using standard JDBC. It
can be configured to obtain JDBC connections using a JNDI DataSource or a custom factory
method. Whichever approach you take, it must be backed by a connection pool. Otherwise, logging
performance will suffer greatly. If batch statements are supported by the configured JDBC driver
and a bufferSize is configured to be a positive number, then log events will be batched. Note
that as of Log4j 2.8, there are two ways to configure log event to column mappings: the original
ColumnConfig style that only allows strings and timestamps, and the new ColumnMapping plugin
that uses Log4j's built-in type conversion to allow for more data types (this is the same plugin as in
the Cassandra Appender).

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To get off the ground quickly during development, an alternative to using a connection source based
on JNDI is to use the non-pooling DriverManager connection source. This connection source uses a
JDBC connection string, a user name, and a password. Optionally, you can also use properties.

Parameter Name Type Description

name String Required. The name of
the Appender.
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true,
causing exceptions
encountered while
appending events to be
internally logged and
then ignored. When set
to false exceptions
will be propagated to the
caller, instead. You must
set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in
a FailoverAppender.
filter Filter A Filter to determine
if the event should be
handled by this Appender.
More than one Filter
may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
bufferSize int If an integer greater
than 0, this causes
the appender to buffer
log events and flush
whenever the buffer
reaches this size.
connectionSource ConnectionSource Required. The
connections source
from which database
connections should be
retrieved.
tableName String Required. The name of
the database table to
insert log events into.
columnConfigs ColumnConfig[] Required (and/or
columnMappings).
Information about the
columns that log event
data should be inserted
into and how to insert that
data. This is represented
with multiple <Column>
elements.

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columnMappings ColumnMapping[] Required (and/or

columnConfigs). A list
of column mapping
configurations. Each
column must specify
a column name. Each
column can have a
conversion type specified
by its fully qualified
class name. By default,
the conversion type
is String. If the
configured type is
assignment-compatible
with ReadOnlyStringMap
/ ThreadContextMap or
ThreadContextStack,
then that column will be
populated with the MDC
or NDC respectively (this
is database-specific how
they handle inserting a
Map or List value). If
the configured type is
assignment-compatible
with java.util.Date,
then the log timestamp
will be converted to that
configured date type. If
the configured type is
assignment-compatible
with java.sql.Clob
or java.sql.NClob,
then the formatted event
will be set as a Clob
or NClob respectively
(similar to the traditional
ColumnConfig plugin).
If a literal attribute
is given, then its value
will be used as is in the
INSERT query without
any escaping. Otherwise,
the layout or pattern
specified will be converted
into the configured type
and stored in that column.
immediateFail boolean false When set to true, log
events will not wait to
try to reconnect and will
fail immediately if the
JDBC resources are not
available. New in 2.11.2

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reconnectIntervalMillis long 5000 If set to a value greater

than 0, after an error, the
JDBCDatabaseManager
will attempt to reconnect
to the database after
waiting the specified
number of milliseconds.
If the reconnect fails
then an exception will
be thrown (which can be
caught by the application
if ignoreExceptions
is set to false). New in
2.11.2.

JDBCAppender Parameters
When configuring the JDBCAppender, you must specify a ConnectionSource implementation
from which the Appender gets JDBC connections. You must use exactly one of the following nested
elements:

• <DataSource>: Uses JNDI.

• <ConnectionFactory>: Points to a class-method pair to provide JDBC connections.
• <DriverManager>: A quick and dirty way to get off the ground, no connection pooling.
• <PoolingDriver>: Uses Apache Commons DBCP to provide connection pooling.

Parameter Name Type Description

jndiName String Required. The full, prefixed
JNDI name that the
javax.sql.DataSource
is bound to, such as java:/
comp/env/jdbc/
LoggingDatabase. The
DataSource must be backed
by a connection pool; otherwise,
logging will be very slow.

DataSource Parameters

Parameter Name Type Description

class Class Required. The fully qualified name
of a class containing a static
factory method for obtaining JDBC
connections.

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method Method Required. The name of a static

factory method for obtaining
JDBC connections. This method
must have no parameters and
its return type must be either
java.sql.Connection or
DataSource. If the method
returns Connections, it must
obtain them from a connection
pool (and they will be returned to
the pool when Log4j is done with
them); otherwise, logging will be
very slow. If the method returns a
DataSource, the DataSource
will only be retrieved once, and it
must be backed by a connection
pool for the same reasons.

ConnectionFactory Parameters

Parameter Name Type Description

connectionString String Required. The driver-specific JDBC
connection string.
userName String The database user name. You
cannot specify both properties and
a user name or password.
password String The database password. You
cannot specify both properties and
a user name or password.
driverClassName String The JDBC driver class name.
Some old JDBC Driver can only
be discovered by explicitly loading
them by class name.
properties Property[] A list of properties. You cannot
specify both properties and a user
name or password.

DriverManager Parameters

Parameter Name Type Description

DriverManager parameters DriverManager parameters This connection source inherits all
parameter from the DriverManager
connection source.

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poolName String The pool name used to pool

JDBC Connections. Defaults
to example. You can use the
JDBC connection string prefix
jdbc:apache:commons:dbcp:
followed by the pool name if you
want to use a pooled connection
elsewhere. For example:
jdbc:apache:commons:dbcp:example.
PoolableConnectionFactory PoolableConnectionFactory Defines a
element PoolableConnectionFactory.

PoolingDriver Parameters (Apache Commons DBCP)

Parameter Name Type Description

autoCommitOnReturn boolean See Apache Commons DBCP
PoolableConnectionFactory.
cacheState boolean See Apache Commons DBCP
PoolableConnectionFactory.
ConnectionInitSqls Strings See Apache Commons DBCP
PoolableConnectionFactory.
defaultAutoCommit boolean See Apache Commons DBCP
PoolableConnectionFactory.
defaultCatalog String See Apache Commons DBCP
PoolableConnectionFactory.
defaultQueryTimeoutSeconds integer See Apache Commons DBCP
PoolableConnectionFactory.
defaultReadOnly boolean See Apache Commons DBCP
PoolableConnectionFactory.
defaultTransactionIsolation integer See Apache Commons DBCP
PoolableConnectionFactory.
disconnectionSqlCodes Strings See Apache Commons DBCP
PoolableConnectionFactory.
fastFailValidation boolean See Apache Commons DBCP
PoolableConnectionFactory.
maxConnLifetimeMillis long See Apache Commons DBCP
PoolableConnectionFactory.
maxOpenPreparedStatements integer See Apache Commons DBCP
PoolableConnectionFactory.
poolStatements boolean See Apache Commons DBCP
PoolableConnectionFactory.
rollbackOnReturn boolean See Apache Commons DBCP
PoolableConnectionFactory.
validationQuery String See Apache Commons DBCP
PoolableConnectionFactory.

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validationQueryTimeoutSeconds integer See Apache Commons DBCP

PoolableConnectionFactory.

PoolableConnectionFactory Parameters (Apache Commons DBCP)

When configuring the JDBCAppender, use the nested <Column> elements to specify which columns
in the table should be written to and how to write to them. The JDBCAppender uses this information
to formulate a PreparedStatement to insert records without SQL injection vulnerability.

Parameter Name Type Description

name String Required. The name of the
database column.
pattern String Use this attribute to insert a value
or values from the log event in this
column using a PatternLayout
pattern. Simply specify any legal
pattern in this attribute. Either
this attribute, literal, or
isEventTimestamp="true"
must be specified, but not more
than one of these.
literal String Use this attribute to insert a
literal value in this column. The
value will be included directly
in the insert SQL, without any
quoting (which means that if
you want this to be a string,
your value should contain
single quotes around it like
this: literal="'Literal
String'"). This is especially
useful for databases that don't
support identity columns.
For example, if you are using
Oracle you could specify
literal="NAME_OF_YOUR_SEQUENCE.NEXTVA
to insert a unique ID in
an ID column. Either this
attribute, pattern, or
isEventTimestamp="true"
must be specified, but not more
than one of these.

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parameter String Use this attribute to insert an

expression with a parameter
marker '?' in this column. The
value will be included directly
in the insert SQL, without any
quoting (which means that if
you want this to be a string,
your value should contain
single quotes around it like this:
<ColumnMapping
name="instant"
parameter="TIMESTAMPADD('MILLISECOND'
TIMESTAMP
'1970-01-01')"/>
You can only specify one of
literal or parameter.
isEventTimestamp boolean Use this attribute to insert the
event timestamp in this column,
which should be a SQL datetime.
The value will be inserted as a
java.sql.Types.TIMESTAMP.
Either this attribute (equal
to true), pattern, or
isEventTimestamp must be
specified, but not more than one of
these.
isUnicode boolean This attribute is ignored unless
pattern is specified. If
true or omitted (default),
the value will be inserted as
unicode ( setNString or
setNClob). Otherwise, the value
will be inserted non-unicode (
setString or setClob).
isClob boolean This attribute is ignored unless
pattern is specified. Use this
attribute to indicate that the column
stores Character Large Objects
(CLOBs). If true, the value will be
inserted as a CLOB ( setClob or
setNClob). If false or omitted
(default), the value will be inserted
as a VARCHAR or NVARCHAR (
setString or setNString).

Column Parameters

Parameter Name Type Description

name String Required. The name of the
database column.

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pattern String Use this attribute to insert a value

or values from the log event in this
column using a PatternLayout
pattern. Simply specify any legal
pattern in this attribute. Either
this attribute, literal, or
isEventTimestamp="true"
must be specified, but not more
than one of these.
literal String Use this attribute to insert a literal
value in this column. The value
will be included directly in the
insert SQL, without any quoting
(which means that if you want this
to be a string, your value should
contain single quotes around it
like this: literal="'Literal
String'"). This is especially
useful for databases that don't
support identity columns. For
example, if you are using
Oracle you could specify
literal="NAME_OF_YOUR_SEQUENCE.NEXTVA
to insert a unique ID in
an ID column. Either this
attribute, pattern, or
isEventTimestamp="true"
must be specified, but not more
than one of these.
layout Layout The Layout to format the LogEvent.
type String Conversion type name, a fully-
qualified class name.

ColumnMapping Parameters
Here are a couple sample configurations for the JDBCAppender, as well as a sample factory
implementation that uses Commons Pooling and Commons DBCP to pool database connections:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

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package net.example.db;

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.util.Properties;

import javax.sql.DataSource;

import org.apache.commons.dbcp.DriverManagerConnectionFactory;
import org.apache.commons.dbcp.PoolableConnection;
import org.apache.commons.dbcp.PoolableConnectionFactory;
import org.apache.commons.dbcp.PoolingDataSource;
import org.apache.commons.pool.impl.GenericObjectPool;

public class ConnectionFactory {

private static interface Singleton {
final ConnectionFactory INSTANCE = new ConnectionFactory();
}

private final DataSource dataSource;

private ConnectionFactory() {
Properties properties = new Properties();
properties.setProperty("user", "logging");
properties.setProperty("password", "abc123"); // or get properties from some configuration file

GenericObjectPool<PoolableConnection> pool = new GenericObjectPool<PoolableConnection>();

DriverManagerConnectionFactory connectionFactory = new DriverManagerConnectionFactory(
"jdbc:mysql://example.org:3306/exampleDb", properties
);
new PoolableConnectionFactory(
connectionFactory, pool, null, "SELECT 1", 3, false, false, Connection.TRANSACTION_READ_COMMI
);

this.dataSource = new PoolingDataSource(pool);

}

public static Connection getDatabaseConnection() throws SQLException {

return Singleton.INSTANCE.dataSource.getConnection();
}
}
This appender is MapMessage-aware.
The following configuration uses a MessageLayout to indicate that the Appender should match the
keys of a MapMessage to the names of ColumnMappings when setting the values of the Appender's
SQL INSERT statement. This let you insert rows for custom values in a database table based on a
Log4j MapMessage instead of values from LogEvents.

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</Configuration>

9.1.8 JMS Appender

The JMS Appender sends the formatted log event to a JMS Destination.
The JMS Appender requires JNDI support so as of release 2.17.0 this appender will not function
unless log4j2.enableJndiJms=true is configured as a system property or environment variable.
See the enableJndiJms system property.
Note that in Log4j 2.0, this appender was split into a JMSQueueAppender and a JMSTopicAppender.
Starting in Log4j 2.1, these appenders were combined into the JMS Appender which makes no
distinction between queues and topics. However, configurations written for 2.0 which use the
<JMSQueue/> or <JMSTopic/> elements will continue to work with the new <JMS/> configuration
element.

Parameter Name Type Default Description

factoryBindingName String Required The name to locate in
the Context that provides
the ConnectionFactory.
This can be any
subinterface of
ConnectionFactory
as well.

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factoryName String Required The fully qualified

class name that should
be used to define
the Initial Context
Factory as defined in
INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY.
If a factoryName is
specified without a
providerURL a warning
message will be logged
as this is likely to cause
problems.
filter Filter null A Filter to determine
if the event should be
handled by this Appender.
More than one Filter
may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
layout Layout Required The Layout to use to
format the LogEvent. New
since 2.9, in previous
versions SerializedLayout
was default.
name String Required The name of the
Appender.
password String null The password to use
to create the JMS
connection.
providerURL String Required The URL of the provider
to use as defined by
PROVIDER_URL.
From Log4j 2.17, only
the java: protocol is
supported.
destinationBindingName String Required The name to use to
locate the Destination.
This can be a Queue
or Topic, and as such,
the attribute names
queueBindingName
and
topicBindingName
are aliases to maintain
compatibility with the
Log4j 2.0 JMS appenders.
securityPrincipalName String null The name of the
identity of the Principal
as specified by
SECURITY_PRINCIPAL.
If a securityPrincipalName
is specified without
securityCredentials a
warning message will be
logged as this is likely to
cause problems.

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securityCredentials String null The security credentials

for the principal
as specified by
SECURITY_CREDENTIALS.
ignoreExceptions boolean true When true, exceptions
caught while appending
events are internally
logged and then ignored.
When false exceptions
are propagated to the
caller. You must set
this to false when
wrapping this Appender in
a FailoverAppender.
immediateFail boolean false When set to true, log
events will not wait to
try to reconnect and will
fail immediately if the
JMS resources are not
available. New in 2.9.
reconnectIntervalMillis long 5000 If set to a value greater
than 0, after an error, the
JMSManager will attempt
to reconnect to the broker
after waiting the specified
number of milliseconds.
If the reconnect fails
then an exception will
be thrown (which can be
caught by the application
if ignoreExceptions
is set to false). New in
2.9.
urlPkgPrefixes String null A colon-separated list
of package prefixes for
the class name of the
factory class that will
create a URL context
factory as defined by
URL_PKG_PREFIXES.
userName String null The user id used to create
the JMS connection.

JMS Appender Parameters

Here is a sample JMS Appender configuration:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp">
<Appenders>
<JMS name="jmsQueue" destinationBindingName="MyQueue"
factoryBindingName="MyQueueConnectionFactory">
<JsonLayout properties="true"/>
</JMS>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="jmsQueue"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
To map your Log4j MapMessages to JMS javax.jms.MapMessages, set the layout of the appender
to MessageLayout with <MessageLayout /> (Since 2.9.):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp">
<Appenders>
<JMS name="jmsQueue" destinationBindingName="MyQueue"
factoryBindingName="MyQueueConnectionFactory">
<MessageLayout />
</JMS>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="jmsQueue"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

9.1.9 JPAAppender
As of Log4j 2.11.0, JPA support has moved from the existing module log4j-core to the new
module log4j-jpa.
The JPAAppender writes log events to a relational database table using the Java Persistence
API 2.1. It requires the API and a provider implementation be on the classpath. It also requires
a decorated entity configured to persist to the table desired. The entity should either extend
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.appender.db.jpa.BasicLogEventEntity
(if you mostly want to use the default mappings) and provide at least an @Id property, or
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.appender.db.jpa.AbstractLogEventWrapperEntity
(if you want to significantly customize the mappings). See the Javadoc for these two classes for
more information. You can also consult the source code of these two classes as an example of how to
implement the entity.

Parameter Name Type Description

name String Required. The name of the
Appender.

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ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing

exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.
filter Filter A Filter to determine if the
event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
bufferSize int If an integer greater than 0, this
causes the appender to buffer log
events and flush whenever the
buffer reaches this size.
entityClassName String Required. The fully qualified
name of the concrete
LogEventWrapperEntity
implementation that has JPA
annotations mapping it to a
database table.
persistenceUnitName String Required. The name of the JPA
persistence unit that should be
used for persisting log events.

JPAAppender Parameters
Here is a sample configuration for the JPAAppender. The first XML sample is the Log4j
configuration file, the second is the persistence.xml file. EclipseLink is assumed here, but
any JPA 2.1 or higher provider will do. You should always create a separate persistence unit
for logging, for two reasons. First, <shared-cache-mode> must be set to "NONE," which is
usually not desired in normal JPA usage. Also, for performance reasons the logging entity should
be isolated in its own persistence unit away from all other entities and you should use a non-JTA
data source. Note that your persistence unit must also contain <class> elements for all of the
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.appender.db.jpa.converter converter classes.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="error">
<Appenders>
<JPA name="databaseAppender" persistenceUnitName="loggingPersistenceUnit"
entityClassName="com.example.logging.JpaLogEntity" />
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="warn">
<AppenderRef ref="databaseAppender"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<persistence-unit name="loggingPersistenceUnit" transaction-type="RESOURCE_LOCAL">

<provider>org.eclipse.persistence.jpa.PersistenceProvider</provider>
<class>org.apache.logging.log4j.core.appender.db.jpa.converter.ContextMapAttributeConverter</class>
<class>org.apache.logging.log4j.core.appender.db.jpa.converter.ContextMapJsonAttributeConverter</class>
<class>org.apache.logging.log4j.core.appender.db.jpa.converter.ContextStackAttributeConverter</class>
<class>org.apache.logging.log4j.core.appender.db.jpa.converter.ContextStackJsonAttributeConverter</class>
<class>org.apache.logging.log4j.core.appender.db.jpa.converter.MarkerAttributeConverter</class>
<class>org.apache.logging.log4j.core.appender.db.jpa.converter.MessageAttributeConverter</class>
<class>org.apache.logging.log4j.core.appender.db.jpa.converter.StackTraceElementAttributeConverter</class
<class>org.apache.logging.log4j.core.appender.db.jpa.converter.ThrowableAttributeConverter</class>
<class>com.example.logging.JpaLogEntity</class>
<non-jta-data-source>jdbc/LoggingDataSource</non-jta-data-source>
<shared-cache-mode>NONE</shared-cache-mode>
</persistence-unit>

</persistence>
package com.example.logging;
...
@Entity
@Table(name="application_log", schema="dbo")
public class JpaLogEntity extends BasicLogEventEntity {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
private long id = 0L;

public TestEntity() {
super(null);
}
public TestEntity(LogEvent wrappedEvent) {
super(wrappedEvent);
}

@Id
@GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
@Column(name = "id")
public long getId() {
return this.id;
}

public void setId(long id) {

this.id = id;
}

// If you want to override the mapping of any properties mapped in BasicLogEventEntity,

// just override the getters and re-specify the annotations.
}

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package com.example.logging;
...
@Entity
@Table(name="application_log", schema="dbo")
public class JpaLogEntity extends AbstractLogEventWrapperEntity {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
private long id = 0L;

public TestEntity() {
super(null);
}
public TestEntity(LogEvent wrappedEvent) {
super(wrappedEvent);
}

@Id
@GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
@Column(name = "logEventId")
public long getId() {
return this.id;
}

public void setId(long id) {

this.id = id;
}

@Override
@Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
@Column(name = "level")
public Level getLevel() {
return this.getWrappedEvent().getLevel();
}

@Override
@Column(name = "logger")
public String getLoggerName() {
return this.getWrappedEvent().getLoggerName();
}

@Override
@Column(name = "message")
@Convert(converter = MyMessageConverter.class)
public Message getMessage() {
return this.getWrappedEvent().getMessage();
}
...
}

9.1.10 HttpAppender
The HttpAppender sends log events over HTTP. A Layout must be provided to format the LogEvent.

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Will set the Content-Type header according to the layout. Additional headers can be specified with
embedded Property elements.
Will wait for response from server, and throw error if no 2xx response is received.
Implemented with HttpURLConnection.

Parameter Name Type Description

name String The name of the Appender.
filter Filter A Filter to determine if the
event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
layout Layout The Layout to use to format the
LogEvent.
Ssl SslConfiguration Contains the configuration for
the KeyStore and TrustStore for
https. Optional, uses Java runtime
defaults if not specified. See SSL
verifyHostname boolean Whether to verify server hostname
against certificate. Only valid for
https. Optional, defaults to true
url string The URL to use. The URL scheme
must be "http" or "https".
method string The HTTP method to use. Optional,
default is "POST".
connectTimeoutMillis integer The connect timeout in
milliseconds. Optional, default is 0
(infinite timeout).
readTimeoutMillis integer The socket read timeout in
milliseconds. Optional, default is 0
(infinite timeout).
headers Property[] Additional HTTP headers to use.
The values support lookups.
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing
exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.

HttpAppender Parameters
Here is a sample HttpAppender configuration snippet:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

...
<Appenders>
<Http name="Http" url="https://localhost:9200/test/log4j/">
<Property name="X-Java-Runtime" value="$${java:runtime}" />
<JsonLayout properties="true"/>
<SSL>
<KeyStore location="log4j2-keystore.jks" passwordEnvironmentVariable="KEYSTORE_PASSWORD"/>
<TrustStore location="truststore.jks" passwordFile="${sys:user.home}/truststore.pwd"/>
</SSL>
</Http>
</Appenders>

9.1.11 KafkaAppender
The KafkaAppender logs events to an Apache Kafka topic. Each log event is sent as a Kafka record.

Parameter Name Type Description

topic String The Kafka topic to use. Required.
key String The key that will be sent to Kafka
with every message. Optional value
defaulting to null. Any of the
Lookups) can be included.
filter Filter A Filter to determine if the
event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
layout Layout The Layout to use to format the
LogEvent. Required, there is
no default. New since 2.9, in
previous versions <PatternLayout
pattern="%m"/> was default.
name String The name of the Appender.
Required.
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing
exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.

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9 Appenders 129

syncSend boolean The default is true, causing

sends to block until the record
has been acknowledged by the
Kafka server. When set to false
sends return immediately, allowing
for lower latency and significantly
higher throughput. New since
2.8. Be aware that this is a new
addition, and it has not been
extensively tested. Any failure
sending to Kafka will be reported
as error to StatusLogger and the
log event will be dropped (the
ignoreExceptions parameter will not
be effective). Log events may arrive
out of order to the Kafka server.
properties Property[] You can set properties in Kafka
producer properties. You need to
set the bootstrap.servers
property, there are sensible default
values for the others. Do not set
the value.serializer nor
key.serializer properties.

KafkaAppender Parameters
Here is a sample KafkaAppender configuration snippet:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
...
<Appenders>
<Kafka name="Kafka" topic="log-test">
<PatternLayout pattern="%date %message"/>
<Property name="bootstrap.servers">localhost:9092</Property>
</Kafka>
</Appenders>
This appender is synchronous by default and will block until the record has been acknowledged by
the Kafka server, timeout for this can be set with the timeout.ms property (defaults to 30 seconds).
Wrap with Async appender and/or set syncSend to false to log asynchronously.
This appender requires the Kafka client library. Note that you need to use a version of the Kafka
client library matching the Kafka server used.
Note:Make sure to not let org.apache.kafka log to a Kafka appender on DEBUG level, since that
will cause recursive logging:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
...
<Loggers>
<Root level="DEBUG">
<AppenderRef ref="Kafka"/>
</Root>
<Logger name="org.apache.kafka" level="INFO" /> 
</Loggers>

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9.1.12 MemoryMappedFileAppender
New since 2.1. Be aware that this is a new addition, and although it has been tested on several
platforms, it does not have as much track record as the other file appenders.
The MemoryMappedFileAppender maps a part of the specified file into memory and writes log
events to this memory, relying on the operating system's virtual memory manager to synchronize the
changes to the storage device. The main benefit of using memory mapped files is I/O performance.
Instead of making system calls to write to disk, this appender can simply change the program's
local memory, which is orders of magnitude faster. Also, in most operating systems the memory
region mapped actually is the kernel's page cache (file cache), meaning that no copies need to be
created in user space. (TODO: performance tests that compare performance of this appender to
RandomAccessFileAppender and FileAppender.)
There is some overhead with mapping a file region into memory, especially very large regions (half
a gigabyte or more). The default region size is 32 MB, which should strike a reasonable balance
between the frequency and the duration of remap operations. (TODO: performance test remapping
various sizes.)
Similar to the FileAppender and the RandomAccessFileAppender, MemoryMappedFileAppender uses
a MemoryMappedFileManager to actually perform the file I/O. While MemoryMappedFileAppender
from different Configurations cannot be shared, the MemoryMappedFileManagers can be if the
Manager is accessible. For example, two web applications in a servlet container can have their own
configuration and safely write to the same file if Log4j is in a ClassLoader that is common to both of
them.

Parameter Name Type Description

append boolean When true - the default, records
will be appended to the end of the
file. When set to false, the file will
be cleared before new records are
written.
fileName String The name of the file to write to.
If the file, or any of its parent
directories, do not exist, they will be
created.
filters Filter A Filter to determine if the
event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.

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immediateFlush boolean When set to true, each write

will be followed by a call to
MappedByteBuffer.force().
This will guarantee the data is
written to the storage device.
The default for this parameter is
false. This means that the data
is written to the storage device
even if the Java process crashes,
but there may be data loss if the
operating system crashes.
Note that manually forcing
a sync on every log event
loses most of the performance
benefits of using a memory
mapped file.
Flushing after every write is
only useful when using this
appender with synchronous
loggers. Asynchronous
loggers and appenders will
automatically flush at the end
of a batch of events, even if
immediateFlush is set to false.
This also guarantees the data
is written to disk but is more
efficient.
regionLength int The length of the mapped region,
defaults to 32 MB (32 * 1024
* 1024 bytes). This parameter
must be a value between 256 and
1,073,741,824 (1 GB or 2^30);
values outside this range will be
adjusted to the closest valid value.
Log4j will round the specified value
up to the nearest power of two.
layout Layout The Layout to use to format the
LogEvent. If no layout is supplied
the default pattern layout of "%m
%n" will be used.
name String The name of the Appender.
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing
exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.

MemoryMappedFileAppender Parameters

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9 Appenders 132

Here is a sample MemoryMappedFile configuration:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<MemoryMappedFile name="MyFile" fileName="logs/app.log">
<PatternLayout>
<Pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</Pattern>
</PatternLayout>
</MemoryMappedFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="MyFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

9.1.13 NoSQLAppender
The NoSQLAppender writes log events to a NoSQL database using an internal lightweight provider
interface. Provider implementations currently exist for MongoDB and Apache CouchDB, and writing
a custom provider is quite simple.

Parameter Name Type Description

name String Required. The name of the
Appender.
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing
exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.
filter Filter A Filter to determine if the
event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
bufferSize int If an integer greater than 0, this
causes the appender to buffer log
events and flush whenever the
buffer reaches this size.
NoSqlProvider NoSQLProvider<C extends Required. The NoSQL provider that
NoSQLConnection<W, T extends provides connections to the chosen
NoSQLObject<W>>> NoSQL database.

NoSQLAppender Parameters

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You specify which NoSQL provider to use by specifying the appropriate configuration element within
the <NoSql> element. The types currently supported are <MongoDb> and <CouchDb>. To create
your own custom provider, read the JavaDoc for the NoSQLProvider, NoSQLConnection, and
NoSQLObject classes and the documentation about creating Log4j plugins. We recommend you
review the source code for the MongoDB and CouchDB providers as a guide for creating your own
provider.
The following example demonstrates how log events are persisted in NoSQL databases if represented
in a JSON format:

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{
"level": "WARN",
"loggerName": "com.example.application.MyClass",
"message": "Something happened that you might want to know about.",
"source": {
"className": "com.example.application.MyClass",
"methodName": "exampleMethod",
"fileName": "MyClass.java",
"lineNumber": 81
},
"marker": {
"name": "SomeMarker",
"parent" {
"name": "SomeParentMarker"
}
},
"threadName": "Thread-1",
"millis": 1368844166761,
"date": "2013-05-18T02:29:26.761Z",
"thrown": {
"type": "java.sql.SQLException",
"message": "Could not insert record. Connection lost.",
"stackTrace": [
{ "className": "org.example.sql.driver.PreparedStatement$1", "methodName": "responder", "file
{ "className": "org.example.sql.driver.PreparedStatement", "methodName": "executeUpdate", "fi
{ "className": "com.example.application.MyClass", "methodName": "exampleMethod", "fileName":
{ "className": "com.example.application.MainClass", "methodName": "main", "fileName": "MainCl
],
"cause": {
"type": "java.io.IOException",
"message": "Connection lost.",
"stackTrace": [
{ "className": "java.nio.channels.SocketChannel", "methodName": "write", "fileName": null, "l
{ "className": "org.example.sql.driver.PreparedStatement$1", "methodName": "responder", "file
{ "className": "org.example.sql.driver.PreparedStatement", "methodName": "executeUpdate", "fi
{ "className": "com.example.application.MyClass", "methodName": "exampleMethod", "fileName":
{ "className": "com.example.application.MainClass", "methodName": "main", "fileName": "MainCl
]
}
},
"contextMap": {
"ID": "86c3a497-4e67-4eed-9d6a-2e5797324d7b",
"username": "JohnDoe"
},
"contextStack": [
"topItem",
"anotherItem",
"bottomItem"
]
}

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9.1.14 NoSQLAppender for MongoDB

Starting with Log4 2.11.0, we provide the following MongoDB modules:

• Added in v2.11.0, dropped in v2.14.0: log4j-mongodb2 defines the configuration element

MongoDb2 matching the MongoDB Driver version 2.
• Added in v2.11.0: log4j-mongodb3 defines the configuration element MongoDb3 matching
the MongoDB Driver version 3.
• Added in v2.14.0: log4j-mongodb4 defines the configuration element MongoDb4 matching
the MongoDB Driver version 4.
We no longer provide the module log4j-mongodb.
The module log4j-mongodb2 aliases the old configuration element MongoDb to MongoDb2.

9.1.15 NoSQLAppender for MongoDB 3

This section details specializations of the NoSQLAppender provider for MongoDB using the
MongoDB driver version 3. The NoSQLAppender Appender writes log events to a NoSQL database
using an internal lightweight provider interface.

Parameter Name Type Description

collectionName String Required. The name of the
MongoDB collection to insert the
events into.
writeConcernConstant Field By default, the MongoDB provider
inserts records with the instructions
com.mongodb.WriteConcern.ACKNOWLEDGED
Use this optional attribute to specify
the name of a constant other than
ACKNOWLEDGED.
writeConcernConstantClass Class If you specify
writeConcernConstant,
you can use this attribute to
specify a class other than
com.mongodb.WriteConcern
to find the constant on (to create
your own custom instructions).

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9 Appenders 136

factoryClassName Class To provide a connection to

the MongoDB database, you
can use this attribute and
factoryMethodName
to specify a class and static
method to get the connection
from. The method must return a
com.mongodb.client.MongoDatabase
or a
com.mongodb.MongoClient.
If the
com.mongodb.client.MongoDatabase
is not authenticated, you must
also specify a username and
password. If you use the
factory method for providing a
connection, you must not specify
the databaseName, server, or
port attributes.
factoryMethodName Method See the documentation for attribute
factoryClassName.
databaseName String If you do not specify a
factoryClassName and
factoryMethodName for
providing a MongoDB connection,
you must specify a MongoDB
database name using this
attribute. You must also specify
a username and password.
You can optionally also specify a
server (defaults to localhost),
and a port (defaults to the default
MongoDB port).
server String See the documentation for attribute
databaseName.
port int See the documentation for attribute
databaseName.
username String See the documentation for
attributes databaseName and
factoryClassName.
password String See the documentation for
attributes databaseName and
factoryClassName.
capped boolean Enable support for capped
collections
collectionSize int Specify the size in bytes of the
capped collection to use if enabled.
The minimum size is 4096 bytes,
and larger sizes will be increased
to the nearest integer multiple of
256. See the capped collection
documentation linked above for
more information.

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9 Appenders 137

MongoDB3 Provider Parameters

This appender is MapMessage-aware.
Here are a few sample configurations for the NoSQLAppender and MongoDB3 provider:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="error">
<Appenders>
<NoSql name="databaseAppender">
<MongoDb3 databaseName="applicationDb" collectionName="applicationLog" server="mongo.example.org"
username="loggingUser" password="abc123" />
</NoSql>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="warn">
<AppenderRef ref="databaseAppender"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="error">
<Appenders>
<NoSql name="databaseAppender">
<MongoDb3 collectionName="applicationLog" factoryClassName="org.example.db.ConnectionFactory"
factoryMethodName="getNewMongoClient" />
</NoSql>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="warn">
<AppenderRef ref="databaseAppender"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

9.1.16 NoSQLAppender for MongoDB 4

This section details specializations of the NoSQLAppender provider for MongoDB using the
MongoDB driver version 4. The NoSQLAppender Appender writes log events to a NoSQL database
using an internal lightweight provider interface.

Parameter Name Type Description

connection String Required. The MongoDB
connection string in the
format mongodb://
[username:password@]host1[:port1]
[,host2[:port2],...
[,hostN[:portN]]][/
[database.collection][?
options]]
capped boolean Enable support for capped
collections

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9 Appenders 138

collectionSize int Specify the size in bytes of the

capped collection to use if enabled.
The minimum size is 4096 bytes,
and larger sizes will be increased
to the nearest integer multiple of
256. See the capped collection
documentation linked above for
more information.

MongoDB4 Provider Parameters

This appender is MapMessage-aware.
Here are a few sample configurations for the NoSQLAppender and MongoDB4 provider:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="WARN">
<Appenders>
<NoSql name="MongoDbAppender">
<MongoDb4 connection="mongodb://log4jUser:12345678@localhost:${sys:MongoDBTestPort:-27017}/testDb.testC
</NoSql>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="ALL">
<AppenderRef ref="MongoDbAppender" />
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="WARN">
<Appenders>
<NoSql name="MongoDbAppender">
<MongoDb4
connection="mongodb://localhost:${sys:MongoDBTestPort:-27017}/testDb.testCollection"
capped="true"
collectionSize="1073741824"/>
</NoSql>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="ALL">
<AppenderRef ref="MongoDbAppender" />
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

9.1.17 NoSQLAppender for Apache CouchDB

This section details specializations of the NoSQLAppender provider for CouchDB. The
NoSQLAppender writes log events to a NoSQL database using an internal lightweight provider
interface.

Parameter Name Type Description

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9 Appenders 139

factoryClassName Class To provide a connection to

the CouchDB database, you
can use this attribute and
factoryMethodName
to specify a class and static
method to get the connection
from. The method must return a
org.lightcouch.CouchDbClient
or a
org.lightcouch.CouchDbProperties.
If you use the factory method for
providing a connection, you must
not specify the databaseName,
protocol, server, port,
username, or password
attributes.
factoryMethodName Method See the documentation for attribute
factoryClassName.
databaseName String If you do not specify a
factoryClassName and
factoryMethodName for
providing a CouchDB connection,
you must specify a CouchDB
database name using this
attribute. You must also specify
a username and password.
You can optionally also specify
a protocol (defaults to http),
server (defaults to localhost),
and a port (defaults to 80 for http
and 443 for https).
protocol String Must either be "http" or "https."
See the documentation for attribute
databaseName.
server String See the documentation for attribute
databaseName.
port int See the documentation for attribute
databaseName.
username String See the documentation for
attributes databaseName.
password String See the documentation for
attributes databaseName.

CouchDB Provider Parameters

Here are a few sample configurations for the NoSQLAppender and CouchDB provider:

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9 Appenders 140

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

9.1.18 OutputStreamAppender
The OutputStreamAppender provides the base for many of the other Appenders such as the File
and Socket appenders that write the event to an Output Stream. It cannot be directly configured.
Support for immediateFlush and buffering is provided by the OutputStreamAppender. The
OutputStreamAppender uses an OutputStreamManager to handle the actual I/O, allowing the stream
to be shared by Appenders in multiple configurations.

9.1.19 RandomAccessFileAppender
The RandomAccessFileAppender is similar to the standard FileAppender except it is always
buffered (this cannot be switched off) and internally it uses a ByteBuffer + RandomAccessFile
instead of a BufferedOutputStream. We saw a 20-200% performance improvement compared
to FileAppender with "bufferedIO=true" in our measurements. Similar to the FileAppender,
RandomAccessFileAppender uses a RandomAccessFileManager to actually perform the file
I/O. While RandomAccessFileAppender from different Configurations cannot be shared, the
RandomAccessFileManagers can be if the Manager is accessible. For example, two web applications
in a servlet container can have their own configuration and safely write to the same file if Log4j is in a
ClassLoader that is common to both of them.

Parameter Name Type Description

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immediateFlush boolean When set to true - the default,

each write will be followed
by a flush. This will guarantee
that the data is passed to the
operating system for writing; it
does not guarantee that the data
is actually written to a physical
device such as a disk drive.
Note that if this flag is set to
false, and the logging activity
is sparse, there may be an
indefinite delay in the data
eventually making it to the
operating system, because it is
held up in a buffer. This can
cause surprising effects such
as the logs not appearing in the
tail output of a file immediately
after writing to the log.
Flushing after every write is
only useful when using this
appender with synchronous
loggers. Asynchronous
loggers and appenders will
automatically flush at the end
of a batch of events, even if
immediateFlush is set to false.
This also guarantees the data is
passed to the operating system
but is more efficient.
bufferSize int The buffer size, defaults to 262,144
bytes (256 * 1024).
layout Layout The Layout to use to format the
LogEvent. If no layout is supplied
the default pattern layout of "%m
%n" will be used.
name String The name of the Appender.
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing
exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.

RandomAccessFileAppender Parameters
Here is a sample RandomAccessFile configuration:

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9 Appenders 142

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

9.1.20 RewriteAppender
The RewriteAppender allows the LogEvent to manipulated before it is processed by another
Appender. This can be used to mask sensitive information such as passwords or to inject
information into each event. The RewriteAppender must be configured with a RewritePolicy. The
RewriteAppender should be configured after any Appenders it references to allow it to shut down
properly.

Parameter Name Type Description

AppenderRef String The name of the Appenders to
call after the LogEvent has been
manipulated. Multiple AppenderRef
elements can be configured.
filter Filter A Filter to determine if the
event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
name String The name of the Appender.
rewritePolicy RewritePolicy The RewritePolicy that will
manipulate the LogEvent.
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing
exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.

RewriteAppender Parameters

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9 Appenders 143

9.1.20.1 RewritePolicy
RewritePolicy is an interface that allows implementations to inspect and possibly modify LogEvents
before they are passed to Appender. RewritePolicy declares a single method named rewrite that must
be implemented. The method is passed the LogEvent and can return the same event or create a new
one.
9.MapRewritePolicy
MapRewritePolicy will evaluate LogEvents that contain a MapMessage and will add or update
elements of the Map.

Parameter Name Type Description

mode String "Add" or "Update"
keyValuePair KeyValuePair[] An array of keys and their values.

The following configuration shows a RewriteAppender configured to add a product key and its value
to the MapMessage.:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<Console name="STDOUT" target="SYSTEM_OUT">
<PatternLayout pattern="%m%n"/>
</Console>
<Rewrite name="rewrite">
<AppenderRef ref="STDOUT"/>
<MapRewritePolicy mode="Add">
<KeyValuePair key="product" value="TestProduct"/>
</MapRewritePolicy>
</Rewrite>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="Rewrite"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

9.PropertiesRewritePolicy
PropertiesRewritePolicy will add properties configured on the policy to the ThreadContext Map being
logged. The properties will not be added to the actual ThreadContext Map. The property values may
contain variables that will be evaluated when the configuration is processed as well as when the event
is logged.

Parameter Name Type Description

properties Property[] One of more Property elements to
define the keys and values to be
added to the ThreadContext Map.

The following configuration shows a RewriteAppender configured to add a product key and its value
to the MapMessage:

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9 Appenders 144

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<Console name="STDOUT" target="SYSTEM_OUT">
<PatternLayout pattern="%m%n"/>
</Console>
<Rewrite name="rewrite">
<AppenderRef ref="STDOUT"/>
<PropertiesRewritePolicy>
<Property name="user">${sys:user.name}</Property>
<Property name="env">${sys:environment}</Property>
</PropertiesRewritePolicy>
</Rewrite>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="Rewrite"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

9.LoggerNameLevelRewritePolicy
You can use this policy to make loggers in third party code less chatty by changing event levels. The
LoggerNameLevelRewritePolicy will rewrite log event levels for a given logger name prefix. You
configure a LoggerNameLevelRewritePolicy with a logger name prefix and a pairs of levels, where a
pair defines a source level and a target level.

Parameter Name Type Description

logger String A logger name used as a prefix to
test each event's logger name.
LevelPair KeyValuePair[] An array of keys and their values,
each key is a source level, each
value a target level.

The following configuration shows a RewriteAppender configured to map level INFO to DEBUG and
level WARN to INFO for all loggers that start with com.foo.bar.

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9 Appenders 145

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

9.1.21 RollingFileAppender
The RollingFileAppender is an OutputStreamAppender that writes to the File named in the fileName
parameter and rolls the file over according the TriggeringPolicy and the RolloverPolicy. The
RollingFileAppender uses a RollingFileManager (which extends OutputStreamManager) to
actually perform the file I/O and perform the rollover. While RolloverFileAppenders from different
Configurations cannot be shared, the RollingFileManagers can be if the Manager is accessible. For
example, two web applications in a servlet container can have their own configuration and safely
write to the same file if Log4j is in a ClassLoader that is common to both of them.
A RollingFileAppender requires a TriggeringPolicy and a RolloverStrategy. The triggering
policy determines if a rollover should be performed while the RolloverStrategy defines how
the rollover should be done. If no RolloverStrategy is configured, RollingFileAppender will
use the DefaultRolloverStrategy. Since log4j-2.5, a custom delete action can be configured
in the DefaultRolloverStrategy to run at rollover. Since 2.8 if no file name is configured then
DirectWriteRolloverStrategy will be used instead of DefaultRolloverStrategy. Since log4j-2.9, a
custom POSIX file attribute view action can be configured in the DefaultRolloverStrategy to run at
rollover, if not defined, inherited POSIX file attribute view from the RollingFileAppender will be
applied.
File locking is not supported by the RollingFileAppender.

Parameter Name Type Description

append boolean When true - the default, records
will be appended to the end of the
file. When set to false, the file will
be cleared before new records are
written.

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9 Appenders 146

bufferedIO boolean When true - the default, records

will be written to a buffer and the
data will be written to disk when the
buffer is full or, if immediateFlush
is set, when the record is written.
File locking cannot be used with
bufferedIO. Performance tests
have shown that using buffered I/O
significantly improves performance,
even if immediateFlush is enabled.
bufferSize int When bufferedIO is true, this is
the buffer size, the default is 8192
bytes.
createOnDemand boolean The appender creates the file
on-demand. The appender only
creates the file when a log event
passes all filters and is routed to
this appender. Defaults to false.
filter Filter A Filter to determine if the
event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
fileName String The name of the file to write to.
If the file, or any of its parent
directories, do not exist, they will be
created.
filePattern String The pattern of the file name of
the archived log file. The format
of the pattern is dependent on
the RolloverPolicy that is used.
The DefaultRolloverPolicy will
accept both a date/time pattern
compatible with SimpleDateFormat
and/or a %i which represents an
integer counter. The pattern also
supports interpolation at runtime so
any of the Lookups (such as the
DateLookup) can be included in the
pattern.

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immediateFlush boolean When set to true - the default,

each write will be followed
by a flush. This will guarantee
that the data is passed to the
operating system for writing; it
does not guarantee that the data
is actually written to a physical
device such as a disk drive.
Note that if this flag is set to
false, and the logging activity
is sparse, there may be an
indefinite delay in the data
eventually making it to the
operating system, because it is
held up in a buffer. This can
cause surprising effects such
as the logs not appearing in the
tail output of a file immediately
after writing to the log.
Flushing after every write is
only useful when using this
appender with synchronous
loggers. Asynchronous
loggers and appenders will
automatically flush at the end
of a batch of events, even if
immediateFlush is set to false.
This also guarantees the data is
passed to the operating system
but is more efficient.
layout Layout The Layout to use to format the
LogEvent. If no layout is supplied
the default pattern layout of "%m
%n" will be used.
name String The name of the Appender.
policy TriggeringPolicy The policy to use to determine if a
rollover should occur.
strategy RolloverStrategy The strategy to use to determine
the name and location of the
archive file.
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing
exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.

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filePermissions String File attribute permissions

in POSIX format to apply
whenever the file is created.
Underlying files system shall
support POSIX file attribute
view.
Examples: rw------- or rw-rw-
rw- etc...
fileOwner String File owner to define whenever
the file is created.
Changing file's owner may be
restricted for security reason
and Operation not permitted
IOException thrown. Only
processes with an effective
user ID equal to the user ID
of the file or with appropriate
privileges may change
the ownership of a file if
_POSIX_CHOWN_RESTRICTED
is in effect for path.
Underlying files system shall
support file owner attribute
view.
fileGroup String File group to define whenever
the file is created.
Underlying files system shall
support POSIX file attribute
view.

RollingFileAppender Parameters

9.1.21.1 Triggering Policies

9.Composite Triggering Policy

The CompositeTriggeringPolicy combines multiple triggering policies and returns true if any
of the configured policies return true. The CompositeTriggeringPolicy is configured simply by
wrapping other policies in a Policies element.
For example, the following XML fragment defines policies that rollover the log when the JVM starts,
when the log size reaches twenty megabytes, and when the current date no longer matches the log’s
start date.
<Policies>
<OnStartupTriggeringPolicy />
<SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy size="20 MB" />
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy />
</Policies>

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9.Cron Triggering Policy

The CronTriggeringPolicy triggers rollover based on a cron expression. This policy is controlled
by a timer and is asynchronous to processing log events, so it is possible that log events from the
previous or next time period may appear at the beginning or end of the log file. The filePattern
attribute of the Appender should contain a timestamp otherwise the target file will be overwritten on
each rollover.

Parameter Name Type Description

schedule String The cron expression. The
expression is the same as what is
allowed in the Quartz scheduler.
See CronExpression for a full
description of the expression.
evaluateOnStartup boolean On startup the cron expression
will be evaluated against the file's
last modification timestamp. If the
cron expression indicates a rollover
should have occurred between that
time and the current time the file
will be immediately rolled over.

CronTriggeringPolicy Parameters
9.OnStartup Triggering Policy
The OnStartupTriggeringPolicy policy causes a rollover if the log file is older than the current
JVM's start time and the minimum file size is met or exceeded.

Parameter Name Type Description

minSize long The minimum size the file must
have to roll over. A size of zero will
cause a roll over no matter what
the file size is. The default value is
1, which will prevent rolling over an
empty file.

OnStartupTriggeringPolicy Parameters
Google App Engine note:
When running in Google App Engine, the OnStartup policy causes a rollover if
the log file is older than the time when Log4J initialized. (Google App Engine
restricts access to certain classes so Log4J cannot determine JVM start time with
java.lang.management.ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean().getStartTime() and
falls back to Log4J initialization time instead.)
9.SizeBased Triggering Policy
The SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy causes a rollover once the file has reached the specified size.
The size can be specified in bytes, with the suffix KB, MB or GB, for example 20MB. The size may
also contain a fractional value such as 1.5 MB. The size is evaluated using the Java root Locale so
a period must always be used for the fractional unit. When combined with a time based triggering
policy the file pattern must contain a %i otherwise the target file will be overwritten on every rollover
as the SizeBased Triggering Policy will not cause the timestamp value in the file name to change.

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When used without a time based triggering policy the SizeBased Triggering Policy will cause the
timestamp value to change.
9.TimeBased Triggering Policy
The TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy causes a rollover once the date/time pattern no longer applies
to the active file. This policy accepts an interval attribute which indicates how frequently the
rollover should occur based on the time pattern and a modulate boolean attribute.

Parameter Name Type Description

interval integer How often a rollover should
occur based on the most specific
time unit in the date pattern. For
example, with a date pattern with
hours as the most specific item and
and increment of 4 rollovers would
occur every 4 hours. The default
value is 1.
modulate boolean Indicates whether the interval
should be adjusted to cause the
next rollover to occur on the interval
boundary. For example, if the item
is hours, the current hour is 3 am
and the interval is 4 then the first
rollover will occur at 4 am and then
next ones will occur at 8 am, noon,
4pm, etc. The default value is false.
maxRandomDelay integer Indicates the maximum number
of seconds to randomly delay a
rollover. By default, this is 0 which
indicates no delay. This setting is
useful on servers where multiple
applications are configured to
rollover log files at the same time
and can spread the load of doing
so across time.

TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy Parameters

9.1.21.2 Rollover Strategies

9.Default Rollover Strategy

The default rollover strategy accepts both a date/time pattern and an integer from the filePattern
attribute specified on the RollingFileAppender itself. If the date/time pattern is present it will be
replaced with the current date and time values. If the pattern contains an integer it will be incremented
on each rollover. If the pattern contains both a date/time and integer in the pattern the integer will
be incremented until the result of the date/time pattern changes. If the file pattern ends with ".gz",
".zip", ".bz2", ".deflate", ".pack200", or ".xz" the resulting archive will be compressed using the
compression scheme that matches the suffix. The formats bzip2, Deflate, Pack200 and XZ require
Apache Commons Compress. In addition, XZ requires XZ for Java. The pattern may also contain
lookup references that can be resolved at runtime such as is shown in the example below.

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The default rollover strategy supports three variations for incrementing the counter. To illustrate
how it works, suppose that the min attribute is set to 1, the max attribute is set to 3, the file name is
"foo.log", and the file name pattern is "foo-%i.log".

Number of rollovers Active output target Archived log files Description

0 foo.log - All logging is going to the
initial file.
1 foo.log foo-1.log During the first rollover
foo.log is renamed to
foo-1.log. A new foo.log
file is created and starts
being written to.
2 foo.log foo-2.log, foo-1.log During the second rollover
foo.log is renamed to
foo-2.log. A new foo.log
file is created and starts
being written to.
3 foo.log foo-3.log, foo-2.log, During the third rollover
foo-1.log foo.log is renamed to
foo-3.log. A new foo.log
file is created and starts
being written to.
4 foo.log foo-3.log, foo-2.log, In the fourth and
foo-1.log subsequent rollovers,
foo-1.log is deleted,
foo-2.log is renamed to
foo-1.log, foo-3.log is
renamed to foo-2.log and
foo.log is renamed to
foo-3.log. A new foo.log
file is created and starts
being written to.

By way of contrast, when the fileIndex attribute is set to "min" but all the other settings are the same
the "fixed window" strategy will be performed.

Number of rollovers Active output target Archived log files Description

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3 foo.log foo-1.log, foo-2.log, During the third rollover

foo-3.log foo-2.log is renamed to
foo-3.log, foo-1.log is
renamed to foo-2.log and
foo.log is renamed to
foo-1.log. A new foo.log
file is created and starts
being written to.
4 foo.log foo-1.log, foo-2.log, In the fourth and
foo-3.log subsequent rollovers,
foo-3.log is deleted,
foo-2.log is renamed to
foo-3.log, foo-1.log is
renamed to foo-2.log and
foo.log is renamed to
foo-1.log. A new foo.log
file is created and starts
being written to.

Finally, as of release 2.8, if the fileIndex attribute is set to "nomax" then the min and max values
will be ignored and file numbering will increment by 1 and each rollover will have an incrementally
higher value with no maximum number of files.

Parameter Name Type Description

fileIndex String If set to "max" (the default), files
with a higher index will be newer
than files with a smaller index.
If set to "min", file renaming and
the counter will follow the Fixed
Window strategy described above.
min integer The minimum value of the counter.
The default value is 1.
max integer The maximum value of the counter.
Once this values is reached
older archives will be deleted on
subsequent rollovers. The default
value is 7.
compressionLevel integer Sets the compression level, 0-9,
where 0 = none, 1 = best speed,
through 9 = best compression. Only
implemented for ZIP files.
tempCompressedFilePattern String The pattern of the file name
of the archived log file during
compression.

DefaultRolloverStrategy Parameters

9.DirectWrite Rollover Strategy

The DirectWriteRolloverStrategy causes log events to be written directly to files represented by the
file pattern. With this strategy file renames are not performed. If the size-based triggering policy

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causes multiple files to be written during the specified time period they will be numbered starting at
one and continually incremented until a time-based rollover occurs.
Warning: If the file pattern has a suffix indicating compression should take place the current file will
not be compressed when the application is shut down. Furthermore, if the time changes such that the
file pattern no longer matches the current file it will not be compressed at startup either.

Parameter Name Type Description

maxFiles String The maximum number of files to
allow in the time period matching
the file pattern. If the number of
files is exceeded the oldest file will
be deleted. If specified, the value
must be greater than 1. If the value
is less than zero or omitted then the
number of files will not be limited.
compressionLevel integer Sets the compression level, 0-9,
where 0 = none, 1 = best speed,
through 9 = best compression. Only
implemented for ZIP files.
tempCompressedFilePattern String The pattern of the file name
of the archived log file during
compression.

DirectWriteRolloverStrategy Parameters
Below is a sample configuration that uses a RollingFileAppender with both the time and size based
triggering policies, will create up to 7 archives on the same day (1-7) that are stored in a directory
based on the current year and month, and will compress each archive using gzip:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" fileName="logs/app.log"
filePattern="logs/$${date:yyyy-MM}/app-%d{MM-dd-yyyy}-%i.log.gz">
<PatternLayout>
<Pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</Pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<Policies>
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy />
<SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy size="250 MB"/>
</Policies>
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
This second example shows a rollover strategy that will keep up to 20 files before removing them.

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" fileName="logs/app.log"
filePattern="logs/$${date:yyyy-MM}/app-%d{MM-dd-yyyy}-%i.log.gz">
<PatternLayout>
<Pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</Pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<Policies>
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy />
<SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy size="250 MB"/>
</Policies>
<DefaultRolloverStrategy max="20"/>
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
Below is a sample configuration that uses a RollingFileAppender with both the time and size based
triggering policies, will create up to 7 archives on the same day (1-7) that are stored in a directory
based on the current year and month, and will compress each archive using gzip and will roll every 6
hours when the hour is divisible by 6:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" fileName="logs/app.log"
filePattern="logs/$${date:yyyy-MM}/app-%d{yyyy-MM-dd-HH}-%i.log.gz">
<PatternLayout>
<Pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</Pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<Policies>
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy interval="6" modulate="true"/>
<SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy size="250 MB"/>
</Policies>
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
This sample configuration uses a RollingFileAppender with both the cron and size based triggering
policies, and writes directly to an unlimited number of archive files. The cron trigger causes a rollover
every hour while the file size is limited to 250MB:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" filePattern="logs/app-%d{yyyy-MM-dd-HH}-%i.log.gz">
<PatternLayout>
<Pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</Pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<Policies>
<CronTriggeringPolicy schedule="0 0 * * * ?"/>
<SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy size="250 MB"/>
</Policies>
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
This sample configuration is the same as the previous but limits the number of files saved each hour
to 10:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" filePattern="logs/app-%d{yyyy-MM-dd-HH}-%i.log.gz">
<PatternLayout>
<Pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</Pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<Policies>
<CronTriggeringPolicy schedule="0 0 * * * ?"/>
<SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy size="250 MB"/>
</Policies>
<DirectWriteRolloverStrategy maxFiles="10"/>
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

9.Log Archive Retention Policy: Delete on Rollover

Log4j-2.5 introduces a Delete action that gives users more control over what files are deleted at
rollover time than what was possible with the DefaultRolloverStrategy max attribute. The Delete
action lets users configure one or more conditions that select the files to delete relative to a base
directory.
Note that it is possible to delete any file, not just rolled over log files, so use this action with care!
With the testMode parameter you can test your configuration without accidentally deleting the
wrong files.

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9 Appenders 156

Parameter Name Type Description

basePath String Required. Base path from where to
start scanning for files to delete.
maxDepth int The maximum number of levels
of directories to visit. A value of 0
means that only the starting file (the
base path itself) is visited, unless
denied by the security manager.
A value of Integer.MAX_VALUE
indicates that all levels should be
visited. The default is 1, meaning
only the files in the specified base
directory.
followLinks boolean Whether to follow symbolic links.
Default is false.
testMode boolean If true, files are not deleted but
instead a message is printed to
the status logger at INFO level.
Use this to do a dry run to test if the
configuration works as expected.
Default is false.
pathSorter PathSorter A plugin implementing the
PathSorter interface to sort the files
before selecting the files to delete.
The default is to sort most recently
modified files first.

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9 Appenders 157

pathConditions PathCondition[] Required if no ScriptCondition

is specified. One or more
PathCondition elements.
If more than one condition
is specified, they all need
to accept a path before it is
deleted. Conditions can be
nested, in which case the inner
condition(s) are evaluated only
if the outer condition accepts
the path. If conditions are not
nested they may be evaluated in
any order.
Conditions can also be
combined with the logical
operators AND, OR and NOT
by using the IfAll, IfAny and
IfNot composite conditions.
Users can create custom
conditions or use the built-in
conditions:
• IfFileName - accepts files
whose path (relative to the
base path) matches a regular
expression or a glob.
• IfLastModified - accepts files
that are as old as or older than
the specified duration.
• IfAccumulatedFileCount -
accepts paths after some
count threshold is exceeded
during the file tree walk.
• IfAccumulatedFileSize -
accepts paths after the
accumulated file size threshold
is exceeded during the file tree
walk.
• IfAll - accepts a path if all
nested conditions accept
it (logical AND). Nested
conditions may be evaluated in
any order.
• IfAny - accepts a path if one of
the nested conditions accept it
(logical OR). Nested conditions
may be evaluated in any order.
• IfNot - accepts a path if the
nested condition does not
accept it (logical NOT).

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9 Appenders 158

scriptCondition ScriptCondition Required if no PathConditions

are specified. A
ScriptCondition element
specifying a script.
The ScriptCondition should
contain a Script, ScriptRef or
ScriptFile element that specifies
the logic to be executed.
(See also the ScriptFilter
documentation for more
examples of configuring
ScriptFiles and ScriptRefs.)
The script is passed a number of
parameters, including a list of
paths found under the base path
(up to maxDepth) and must
return a list with the paths to
delete.

Delete Parameters

Parameter Name Type Description

glob String Required if regex not specified.
Matches the relative path (relative
to the base path) using a limited
pattern language that resembles
regular expressions but with a
simpler syntax.
regex String Required if glob not specified.
Matches the relative path (relative
to the base path) using a regular
expression as defined by the
Pattern class.
nestedConditions PathCondition[] An optional set of nested
PathConditions. If any nested
conditions exist they all need
to accept the file before it is
deleted. Nested conditions are only
evaluated if the outer condition
accepts a file (if the path name
matches).

IfFileName Condition Parameters

Parameter Name Type Description

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9 Appenders 159

age String Required. Specifies a duration.

The condition accepts files that are
as old or older than the specified
duration.
nestedConditions PathCondition[] An optional set of nested
PathConditions. If any nested
conditions exist they all need
to accept the file before it is
deleted. Nested conditions are only
evaluated if the outer condition
accepts a file (if the file is old
enough).

IfLastModified Condition Parameters

Parameter Name Type Description

exceeds int Required. The threshold count from
which files will be deleted.
nestedConditions PathCondition[] An optional set of nested
PathConditions. If any nested
conditions exist they all need
to accept the file before it is
deleted. Nested conditions are only
evaluated if the outer condition
accepts a file (if the threshold count
has been exceeded).

IfAccumulatedFileCount Condition Parameters

Parameter Name Type Description

exceeds String Required. The threshold
accumulated file size from which
files will be deleted. The size can
be specified in bytes, with the suffix
KB, MB or GB, for example 20MB.
nestedConditions PathCondition[] An optional set of nested
PathConditions. If any nested
conditions exist they all need
to accept the file before it is
deleted. Nested conditions are only
evaluated if the outer condition
accepts a file (if the threshold
accumulated file size has been
exceeded).

IfAccumulatedFileSize Condition Parameters

Below is a sample configuration that uses a RollingFileAppender with the cron triggering policy
configured to trigger every day at midnight. Archives are stored in a directory based on the current

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year and month. All files under the base directory that match the "*/app-*.log.gz" glob and are 60
days old or older are deleted at rollover time.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Properties>
<Property name="baseDir">logs</Property>
</Properties>
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" fileName="${baseDir}/app.log"
filePattern="${baseDir}/$${date:yyyy-MM}/app-%d{yyyy-MM-dd}.log.gz">
<PatternLayout pattern="%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n" />
<CronTriggeringPolicy schedule="0 0 0 * * ?"/>
<DefaultRolloverStrategy>
<Delete basePath="${baseDir}" maxDepth="2">
<IfFileName glob="*/app-*.log.gz" />
<IfLastModified age="P60D" />
</Delete>
</DefaultRolloverStrategy>
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
Below is a sample configuration that uses a RollingFileAppender with both the time and size based
triggering policies, will create up to 100 archives on the same day (1-100) that are stored in a
directory based on the current year and month, and will compress each archive using gzip and will
roll every hour. During every rollover, this configuration will delete files that match "*/app-*.log.gz"
and are 30 days old or older, but keep the most recent 100 GB or the most recent 10 files, whichever
comes first.

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

Parameter Name Type Description

script Script, ScriptFile or ScriptRef The Script element that specifies
the logic to be executed. The
script is passed a list of paths
found under the base path and
must return the paths to delete
as a java.util.List<
PathWithAttributes>. See
also the ScriptFilter documentation
for an example of how ScriptFiles
and ScriptRefs can be configured.

ScriptCondition Parameters

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9 Appenders 162

Parameter Name Type Description

basePath java.nio.file.Path The directory from where the
Delete action started scanning
for files to delete. Can be used to
relativize the paths in the pathList.
pathList java.util.List< The list of paths found under the
PathWithAttributes> base path up to the specified
max depth, sorted most recently
modified files first. The script is free
to modify and return this list.
statusLogger StatusLogger The StatusLogger that can be used
to log internal events during script
execution.
configuration Configuration The Configuration that owns this
ScriptCondition.
substitutor StrSubstitutor The StrSubstitutor used to replace
lookup variables.
? String Any properties declared in the
configuration.

Script Parameters
Below is a sample configuration that uses a RollingFileAppender with the cron triggering policy
configured to trigger every day at midnight. Archives are stored in a directory based on the current
year and month. The script returns a list of rolled over files under the base directory dated Friday the
13th. The Delete action will delete all files returned by the script.

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9 Appenders 163

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Configuration status="trace" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Properties>
<Property name="baseDir">logs</Property>
</Properties>
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" fileName="${baseDir}/app.log"
filePattern="${baseDir}/$${date:yyyy-MM}/app-%d{yyyyMMdd}.log.gz">
<PatternLayout pattern="%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n" />
<CronTriggeringPolicy schedule="0 0 0 * * ?"/>
<DefaultRolloverStrategy>
<Delete basePath="${baseDir}" maxDepth="2">
<ScriptCondition>
<Script name="superstitious" language="groovy"><![CDATA[
import java.nio.file.*;

def result = [];

def pattern = ~/\d*\/app-(\d*)\.log\.gz/;

pathList.each { pathWithAttributes ->

def relative = basePath.relativize pathWithAttributes.path
statusLogger.trace 'SCRIPT: relative path=' + relative + " (base=$basePath)";

// remove files dated Friday the 13th

def matcher = pattern.matcher(relative.toString());

if (matcher.find()) {
def dateString = matcher.group(1);
def calendar = Date.parse("yyyyMMdd", dateString).toCalendar();
def friday13th = calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH) == 13 \
&& calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK) == Calendar.FRIDAY;
if (friday13th) {
result.add pathWithAttributes;
statusLogger.trace 'SCRIPT: deleting path ' + pathWithAttributes;
}
}
}
statusLogger.trace 'SCRIPT: returning ' + result;
result;
]] >
</Script>
</ScriptCondition>
</Delete>
</DefaultRolloverStrategy>
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

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9.Log Archive File Attribute View Policy: Custom file attribute on Rollover
Log4j-2.9 introduces a PosixViewAttribute action that gives users more control over which file
attribute permissions, owner and group should be applied. The PosixViewAttribute action lets users
configure one or more conditions that select the eligible files relative to a base directory.

Parameter Name Type Description

basePath String Required. Base path from where
to start scanning for files to apply
attributes.
maxDepth int The maximum number of levels
of directories to visit. A value of 0
means that only the starting file (the
base path itself) is visited, unless
denied by the security manager.
A value of Integer.MAX_VALUE
indicates that all levels should be
visited. The default is 1, meaning
only the files in the specified base
directory.
followLinks boolean Whether to follow symbolic links.
Default is false.
pathConditions PathCondition[] see DeletePathCondition
filePermissions String File attribute permissions in
POSIX format to apply when
action is executed.
Underlying files system shall
support POSIX file attribute
view.
Examples: rw------- or rw-rw-
rw- etc...
fileOwner String File owner to define when
action is executed.
Changing file's owner may be
restricted for security reason
and Operation not permitted
IOException thrown. Only
processes with an effective
user ID equal to the user ID
of the file or with appropriate
privileges may change
the ownership of a file if
_POSIX_CHOWN_RESTRICTED
is in effect for path.
Underlying files system shall
support file owner attribute
view.

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fileGroup String File group to define when

action is executed.
Underlying files system shall
support POSIX file attribute
view.

PosixViewAttribute Parameters
Below is a sample configuration that uses a RollingFileAppender and defines different POSIX file
attribute view for current and rolled log files.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="trace" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Properties>
<Property name="baseDir">logs</Property>
</Properties>
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" fileName="${baseDir}/app.log"
filePattern="${baseDir}/$${date:yyyy-MM}/app-%d{yyyyMMdd}.log.gz"
filePermissions="rw-------">
<PatternLayout pattern="%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n" />
<CronTriggeringPolicy schedule="0 0 0 * * ?"/>
<DefaultRolloverStrategy stopCustomActionsOnError="true">
<PosixViewAttribute basePath="${baseDir}/$${date:yyyy-MM}" filePermissions="r--r--r--">
<IfFileName glob="*.gz" />
</PosixViewAttribute>
</DefaultRolloverStrategy>
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>

</Configuration>

9.1.22 RollingRandomAccessFileAppender
The RollingRandomAccessFileAppender is similar to the standard RollingFileAppender except
it is always buffered (this cannot be switched off) and internally it uses a ByteBuffer +
RandomAccessFile instead of a BufferedOutputStream. We saw a 20-200% performance
improvement compared to RollingFileAppender with "bufferedIO=true" in our measurements. The
RollingRandomAccessFileAppender writes to the File named in the fileName parameter and rolls the
file over according the TriggeringPolicy and the RolloverPolicy. Similar to the RollingFileAppender,
RollingRandomAccessFileAppender uses a RollingRandomAccessFileManager to actually perform
the file I/O and perform the rollover. While RollingRandomAccessFileAppender from different
Configurations cannot be shared, the RollingRandomAccessFileManagers can be if the Manager is
accessible. For example, two web applications in a servlet container can have their own configuration
and safely write to the same file if Log4j is in a ClassLoader that is common to both of them.

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A RollingRandomAccessFileAppender requires a TriggeringPolicy and a RolloverStrategy.

The triggering policy determines if a rollover should be performed while the RolloverStrategy
defines how the rollover should be done. If no RolloverStrategy is configured,
RollingRandomAccessFileAppender will use the DefaultRolloverStrategy. Since log4j-2.5, a custom
delete action can be configured in the DefaultRolloverStrategy to run at rollover.
File locking is not supported by the RollingRandomAccessFileAppender.

Parameter Name Type Description

append boolean When true - the default, records
will be appended to the end of the
file. When set to false, the file will
be cleared before new records are
written.
filter Filter A Filter to determine if the
event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
fileName String The name of the file to write to.
If the file, or any of its parent
directories, do not exist, they will be
created.
filePattern String The pattern of the file name of the
archived log file. The format of the
pattern should is dependent on the
RolloverStrategu that is used. The
DefaultRolloverStrategy will accept
both a date/time pattern compatible
with SimpleDateFormat and/or
a %i which represents an integer
counter. The integer counter allows
specifying a padding, like %3i for
space-padding the counter to 3
digits or (usually more useful) %03i
for zero-padding the counter to 3
digits. The pattern also supports
interpolation at runtime so any
of the Lookups (such as the
DateLookup can be included in the
pattern.

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9 Appenders 167

immediateFlush boolean When set to true - the default,

each write will be followed by
a flush. This will guarantee the
data is written to disk but could
impact performance.
Flushing after every write is
only useful when using this
appender with synchronous
loggers. Asynchronous
loggers and appenders will
automatically flush at the end
of a batch of events, even if
immediateFlush is set to false.
This also guarantees the data
is written to disk but is more
efficient.
bufferSize int The buffer size, defaults to 262,144
bytes (256 * 1024).
layout Layout The Layout to use to format the
LogEvent. If no layout is supplied
the default pattern layout of "%m
%n" will be used.
name String The name of the Appender.
policy TriggeringPolicy The policy to use to determine if a
rollover should occur.
strategy RolloverStrategy The strategy to use to determine
the name and location of the
archive file.
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing
exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.
filePermissions String File attribute permissions
in POSIX format to apply
whenever the file is created.
Underlying files system shall
support POSIX file attribute
view.
Examples: rw------- or rw-
rw-rw- etc...

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fileOwner String File owner to define whenever

the file is created.
Changing file's owner may be
restricted for security reason
and Operation not permitted
IOException thrown. Only
processes with an effective
user ID equal to the user ID
of the file or with appropriate
privileges may change
the ownership of a file if
_POSIX_CHOWN_RESTRICTED
is in effect for path.
Underlying files system shall
support file owner attribute
view.
fileGroup String File group to define whenever
the file is created.
Underlying files system shall
support POSIX file attribute
view.

RollingRandomAccessFileAppender Parameters

9.1.22.1 Triggering Policies

See RollingFileAppender Triggering Policies.

9.1.22.2 Rollover Strategies

See RollingFileAppender Rollover Strategies.
Below is a sample configuration that uses a RollingRandomAccessFileAppender with both the time
and size based triggering policies, will create up to 7 archives on the same day (1-7) that are stored in
a directory based on the current year and month, and will compress each archive using gzip:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<RollingRandomAccessFile name="RollingRandomAccessFile" fileName="logs/app.log"
filePattern="logs/$${date:yyyy-MM}/app-%d{MM-dd-yyyy}-%i.log.gz">
<PatternLayout>
<Pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</Pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<Policies>
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy />
<SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy size="250 MB"/>
</Policies>
</RollingRandomAccessFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingRandomAccessFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
This second example shows a rollover strategy that will keep up to 20 files before removing them.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<RollingRandomAccessFile name="RollingRandomAccessFile" fileName="logs/app.log"
filePattern="logs/$${date:yyyy-MM}/app-%d{MM-dd-yyyy}-%i.log.gz">
<PatternLayout>
<Pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</Pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<Policies>
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy />
<SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy size="250 MB"/>
</Policies>
<DefaultRolloverStrategy max="20"/>
</RollingRandomAccessFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingRandomAccessFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
Below is a sample configuration that uses a RollingRandomAccessFileAppender with both the time
and size based triggering policies, will create up to 7 archives on the same day (1-7) that are stored in
a directory based on the current year and month, and will compress each archive using gzip and will
roll every 6 hours when the hour is divisible by 6:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

9.1.23 RoutingAppender
The RoutingAppender evaluates LogEvents and then routes them to a subordinate Appender. The
target Appender may be an appender previously configured and may be referenced by its name or the
Appender can be dynamically created as needed. The RoutingAppender should be configured after
any Appenders it references to allow it to shut down properly.
You can also configure a RoutingAppender with scripts: you can run a script when the appender starts
and when a route is chosen for an log event.

Parameter Name Type Description

Filter Filter A Filter to determine if the
event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
name String The name of the Appender.
RewritePolicy RewritePolicy The RewritePolicy that will
manipulate the LogEvent.
Routes Routes Contains one or more Route
declarations to identify the criteria
for choosing Appenders.

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9 Appenders 171

Script Script This Script runs when Log4j

starts the RoutingAppender and
returns a String Route key to
determine the default Route.
This script is passed the
following variables:

Parameter
Name Type Description
configurationConfiguration
The
active
Configuration.
staticVariables
Map A Map
shared
between
all script
invocations
for this
appender
instance.
This is
the same
map
passed
to the
Routes
Script.

RoutingAppender
Script Parameters
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing
exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.

RoutingAppender Parameters
In this example, the script causes the "ServiceWindows" route to be the default route on Windows
and "ServiceOther" on all other operating systems. Note that the List Appender is one of our test
appenders, any appender can be used, it is only used as a shorthand.

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9 Appenders 172

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Configuration status="WARN" name="RoutingTest">
<Appenders>
<Routing name="Routing">
<Script name="RoutingInit" language="JavaScript"><![CDATA[
java.lang.System.getProperty("os.name").search("Windows") > -1 ? "ServiceWindows" : "ServiceOther";]]
</Script>
<Routes>
<Route key="ServiceOther">
<List name="List1" />
</Route>
<Route key="ServiceWindows">
<List name="List2" />
</Route>
</Routes>
</Routing>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="Routing" />
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

9.1.23.1 Routes
The Routes element accepts a single attribute named "pattern". The pattern is evaluated against all
the registered Lookups and the result is used to select a Route. Each Route may be configured with a
key. If the key matches the result of evaluating the pattern then that Route will be selected. If no key
is specified on a Route then that Route is the default. Only one Route can be configured as the default.
The Routes element may contain a Script child element. If specified, the Script is run for each log
event and returns the String Route key to use.
You must specify either the pattern attribute or the Script element, but not both.
Each Route must reference an Appender. If the Route contains a ref attribute then the Route will
reference an Appender that was defined in the configuration. If the Route contains an Appender
definition then an Appender will be created within the context of the RoutingAppender and will be
reused each time a matching Appender name is referenced through a Route.
This script is passed the following variables:

Parameter Name Type Description

configuration Configuration The active Configuration.
staticVariables Map A Map shared between all script
invocations for this appender
instance. This is the same map
passed to the Routes Script.
logEvent LogEvent The log event.

RoutingAppender Routes Script Parameters

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9 Appenders 173

In this example, the script runs for each log event and picks a route based on the presence of a Marker
named "AUDIT".
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="WARN" name="RoutingTest">
<Appenders>
<Console name="STDOUT" target="SYSTEM_OUT" />
<Flume name="AuditLogger" compress="true">
<Agent host="192.168.10.101" port="8800"/>
<Agent host="192.168.10.102" port="8800"/>
<RFC5424Layout enterpriseNumber="18060" includeMDC="true" appName="MyApp"/>
</Flume>
<Routing name="Routing">
<Routes>
<Script name="RoutingInit" language="JavaScript"><![CDATA[
if (logEvent.getMarker() != null && logEvent.getMarker().isInstanceOf("AUDIT")) {
return "AUDIT";
} else if (logEvent.getContextMap().containsKey("UserId")) {
return logEvent.getContextMap().get("UserId");
}
return "STDOUT";]]>
</Script>
<Route>
<RollingFile
name="Rolling-${mdc:UserId}"
fileName="${mdc:UserId}.log"
filePattern="${mdc:UserId}.%i.log.gz">
<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy size="500" />
</RollingFile>
</Route>
<Route ref="AuditLogger" key="AUDIT"/>
<Route ref="STDOUT" key="STDOUT"/>
</Routes>
<IdlePurgePolicy timeToLive="15" timeUnit="minutes"/>
</Routing>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="Routing" />
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

9.1.23.2 Purge Policy

The RoutingAppender can be configured with a PurgePolicy whose purpose is to stop and remove
dormant Appenders that have been dynamically created by the RoutingAppender. Log4j currently
provides the IdlePurgePolicy as the only PurgePolicy available for cleaning up the Appenders. The
IdlePurgePolicy accepts 2 attributes; timeToLive, which is the number of timeUnits the Appender

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9 Appenders 174

should survive without having any events sent to it, and timeUnit, the String representation of
java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit which is used with the timeToLive attribute.
Below is a sample configuration that uses a RoutingAppender to route all Audit events to a
FlumeAppender and all other events will be routed to a RollingFileAppender that captures only the
specific event type. Note that the AuditAppender was predefined while the RollingFileAppenders are
created as needed.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<Flume name="AuditLogger" compress="true">
<Agent host="192.168.10.101" port="8800"/>
<Agent host="192.168.10.102" port="8800"/>
<RFC5424Layout enterpriseNumber="18060" includeMDC="true" appName="MyApp"/>
</Flume>
<Routing name="Routing">
<Routes pattern="$${sd:type}">
<Route>
<RollingFile name="Rolling-${sd:type}" fileName="${sd:type}.log"
filePattern="${sd:type}.%i.log.gz">
<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy size="500" />
</RollingFile>
</Route>
<Route ref="AuditLogger" key="Audit"/>
</Routes>
<IdlePurgePolicy timeToLive="15" timeUnit="minutes"/>
</Routing>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="Routing"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

9.1.24 SMTPAppender
Sends an e-mail when a specific logging event occurs, typically on errors or fatal errors.
The number of logging events delivered in this e-mail depend on the value of BufferSize option.
The SMTPAppender keeps only the last BufferSize logging events in its cyclic buffer. This keeps
memory requirements at a reasonable level while still delivering useful application context. All events
in the buffer are included in the email. The buffer will contain the most recent events of level TRACE
to WARN preceding the event that triggered the email.
The default behavior is to trigger sending an email whenever an ERROR or higher severity event
is logged and to format it as HTML. The circumstances on when the email is sent can be controlled
by setting one or more filters on the Appender. As with other Appenders, the formatting can be
controlled by specifying a Layout for the Appender.

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9 Appenders 175

Parameter Name Type Description

name String The name of the Appender.
from String The email address of the sender.
replyTo String The comma-separated list of reply-
to email addresses.
to String The comma-separated list of
recipient email addresses.
cc String The comma-separated list of CC
email addresses.
bcc String The comma-separated list of BCC
email addresses.
subject String The subject of the email message.
bufferSize integer The maximum number of log
events to be buffered for inclusion
in the message. Defaults to 512.
layout Layout The Layout to use to format the
LogEvent. If no layout is supplied
HTML layout will be used.
filter Filter A Filter to determine if the
event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
smtpDebug boolean When set to true enables session
debugging on STDOUT. Defaults to
false.
smtpHost String The SMTP hostname to send to.
This parameter is required.
smtpPassword String The password required to
authenticate against the SMTP
server.
smtpPort integer The SMTP port to send to.
smtpProtocol String The SMTP transport protocol (such
as "smtps", defaults to "smtp").
smtpUsername String The username required to
authenticate against the SMTP
server.
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing
exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.

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9 Appenders 176

SSL SslConfiguration Contains the configuration for the

KeyStore and TrustStore. See
SSL.

SMTPAppender Parameters
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<SMTP name="Mail" subject="Error Log" to="errors@logging.apache.org" from="test@logging.apache.org"
smtpHost="localhost" smtpPort="25" bufferSize="50">
</SMTP>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="Mail"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

9.1.25 ScriptAppenderSelector
When the configuration is built, the ScriptAppenderSelector appender calls a Script
to compute an appender name. Log4j then creates one of the appender named listed under
AppenderSet using the name of the ScriptAppenderSelector. After configuration, Log4j
ignores the ScriptAppenderSelector. Log4j only builds the one selected appender from the
configuration tree, and ignores other AppenderSet child nodes.
In the following example, the script returns the name "List2". The appender name is recorded under
the name of the ScriptAppenderSelector, not the name of the selected appender, in this example,
"SelectIt".
<Configuration status="WARN" name="ScriptAppenderSelectorExample">
<Appenders>
<ScriptAppenderSelector name="SelectIt">
<Script language="JavaScript"><![CDATA[
java.lang.System.getProperty("os.name").search("Windows") > -1 ? "MyCustomWindowsAppender" : "MySyslo
</Script>
<AppenderSet>
<MyCustomWindowsAppender name="MyAppender" ... />
<SyslogAppender name="MySyslog" ... />
</AppenderSet>
</ScriptAppenderSelector>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="SelectIt" />
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

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9 Appenders 177

9.1.26 SocketAppender
The SocketAppender is an OutputStreamAppender that writes its output to a remote destination
specified by a host and port. The data can be sent over either TCP or UDP and can be sent in any
format. You can optionally secure communication with SSL. Note that the TCP and SSL variants
write to the socket as a stream and do not expect response from the target destination. Due to
limitations in the TCP protocol that means that when the target server closes its connection some log
events may continue to appear to succeed until a closed connection exception is raised, causing those
events to be lost. If guaranteed delivery is required a protocol that requires acknowledgements must
be used.

Parameter Name Type Description

name String The name of the Appender.
host String The name or address of the system
that is listening for log events.
This parameter is required. If the
host name resolves to multiple
IP addresses the TCP and SSL
variations will fail over to the next
IP address when a connection is
lost.
port integer The port on the host that is listening
for log events. This parameter must
be specified.
protocol String "TCP" (default), "SSL" or "UDP".
SSL SslConfiguration Contains the configuration for the
KeyStore and TrustStore. See
SSL.
filter Filter A Filter to determine if the
event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
immediateFail boolean When set to true, log events will
not wait to try to reconnect and will
fail immediately if the socket is not
available.
immediateFlush boolean When set to true - the default,
each write will be followed by a
flush. This will guarantee the data
is written to disk but could impact
performance.
bufferedIO boolean When true - the default, events are
written to a buffer and the data will
be written to the socket when the
buffer is full or, if immediateFlush is
set, when the record is written.
bufferSize int When bufferedIO is true, this is
the buffer size, the default is 8192
bytes.

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9 Appenders 178

layout Layout The Layout to use to format the

LogEvent. Required, there is no
default. New since 2.9, in previous
versions SerializedLayout was
default.
reconnectionDelayMillis integer If set to a value greater than 0,
after an error the SocketManager
will attempt to reconnect to the
server after waiting the specified
number of milliseconds. If the
reconnect fails then an exception
will be thrown (which can be
caught by the application if
ignoreExceptions is set to
false).
connectTimeoutMillis integer The connect timeout in
milliseconds. The default
is 0 (infinite timeout, like
Socket.connect() methods).
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing
exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.

SocketAppender Parameters
This is an unsecured TCP configuration:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<Socket name="socket" host="localhost" port="9500">
<JsonLayout properties="true"/>
</Socket>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="socket"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
This is a secured SSL configuration:

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9 Appenders 179

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

9.1.27 SSL Configuration

Several appenders can be configured to use either a plain network connection or a Secure Socket
Layer (SSL) connection. This section documents the parameters available for SSL configuration.

Parameter Name Type Description

protocol String SSL if omitted. See also Standard
names.
KeyStore KeyStore Contains your private keys and
certificates, and determines which
authentication credentials to send
to the remote host.
TrustStore TrustStore Contains the CA certificates
of the remote counterparty.
Determines whether the remote
authentication credentials (and thus
the connection) should be trusted.
verifyHostName boolean Toggles whether or not to perform
host name verification. Defaults to
false.

SSL Configuration Parameters

9.1.27.1 KeyStore
The keystore is meant to contain your private keys and certificates, and determines which
authentication credentials to send to the remote host.

Parameter Name Type Description

location String Path to the keystore file.

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9 Appenders 180

password char[] Plain text password to

access the keystore. Cannot
be combined with either
passwordEnvironmentVariable
or passwordFile.
passwordEnvironmentVariable String Name of an environment variable
that holds the password. Cannot be
combined with either password
or passwordFile.
passwordFile String Path to a file that holds the
password. Cannot be combined
with either password or
passwordEnvironmentVariable.
type String Optional KeyStore type, e.g.
JKS, PKCS12, PKCS11, BKS,
Windows-MY/Windows-ROOT,
KeychainStore, etc. The
default is JKS. See also Standard
types.
keyManagerFactoryAlgorithm String Optional KeyManagerFactory
algorithm. The default is
SunX509. See also Standard
algorithms.

KeyStore Configuration Parameters

9.1.27.2 TrustStore
The trust store is meant to contain the CA certificates you are willing to trust when a remote party
presents its certificate. Determines whether the remote authentication credentials (and thus the
connection) should be trusted.
In some cases, they can be one and the same store, although it is often better practice to use distinct
stores (especially when they are file-based).

Parameter Name Type Description

location String Path to the keystore file.
password char[] Plain text password to
access the keystore. Cannot
be combined with either
passwordEnvironmentVariable
or passwordFile.
passwordEnvironmentVariable String Name of an environment variable
that holds the password. Cannot be
combined with either password
or passwordFile.
passwordFile String Path to a file that holds the
password. Cannot be combined
with either password or
passwordEnvironmentVariable.

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9 Appenders 181

type String Optional KeyStore type, e.g.

JKS, PKCS12, PKCS11, BKS,
Windows-MY/Windows-ROOT,
KeychainStore, etc. The
default is JKS. See also Standard
types.
trustManagerFactoryAlgorithm String Optional TrustManagerFactory
algorithm. The default is
SunX509. See also Standard
algorithms.

TrustStore Configuration Parameters

9.1.27.3 Example

...
<SSL>
<KeyStore location="log4j2-keystore.jks" passwordEnvironmentVariable="KEYSTORE_PASSWORD"/>
<TrustStore location="truststore.jks" passwordFile="${sys:user.home}/truststore.pwd"/>
</SSL>
...

9.1.28 SyslogAppender
The SyslogAppender is a SocketAppender that writes its output to a remote destination specified
by a host and port in a format that conforms with either the BSD Syslog format or the RFC 5424
format. The data can be sent over either TCP or UDP.

Parameter Name Type Description

advertise boolean Indicates whether the appender
should be advertised.
appName String The value to use as the APP-
NAME in the RFC 5424 syslog
record.
charset String The character set to use when
converting the syslog String to a
byte array. The String must be
a valid Charset. If not specified,
the default system Charset will be
used.
connectTimeoutMillis integer The connect timeout in
milliseconds. The default
is 0 (infinite timeout, like
Socket.connect() methods).
enterpriseNumber integer The IANA enterprise number as
described in RFC 5424

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9 Appenders 182

filter Filter A Filter to determine if the

event should be handled by
this Appender. More than one
Filter may be used by using a
CompositeFilter.
facility String The facility is used to try to classify
the message. The facility option
must be set to one of "KERN",
"USER", "MAIL", "DAEMON",
"AUTH", "SYSLOG", "LPR",
"NEWS", "UUCP", "CRON",
"AUTHPRIV", "FTP", "NTP",
"AUDIT", "ALERT", "CLOCK",
"LOCAL0", "LOCAL1", "LOCAL2",
"LOCAL3", "LOCAL4", "LOCAL5",
"LOCAL6", or "LOCAL7". These
values may be specified as upper
or lower case characters.
format String If set to "RFC5424" the data will
be formatted in accordance with
RFC 5424. Otherwise, it will be
formatted as a BSD Syslog record.
Note that although BSD Syslog
records are required to be 1024
bytes or shorter the SyslogLayout
does not truncate them. The
RFC5424Layout also does not
truncate records since the receiver
must accept records of up to 2048
bytes and may accept records that
are longer.
host String The name or address of the system
that is listening for log events. This
parameter is required.
id String The default structured data id to
use when formatting according to
RFC 5424. If the LogEvent contains
a StructuredDataMessage the id
from the Message will be used
instead of this value.
ignoreExceptions boolean The default is true, causing
exceptions encountered while
appending events to be internally
logged and then ignored. When
set to false exceptions will be
propagated to the caller, instead.
You must set this to false when
wrapping this Appender in a
FailoverAppender.
immediateFail boolean When set to true, log events will
not wait to try to reconnect and will
fail immediately if the socket is not
available.

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immediateFlush boolean When set to true - the default,

each write will be followed by a
flush. This will guarantee the data
is written to disk but could impact
performance.
includeMDC boolean Indicates whether data from the
ThreadContextMap will be included
in the RFC 5424 Syslog record.
Defaults to true.
Layout Layout A custom layout which overrides
the format setting.
loggerFields List of KeyValuePairs Allows arbitrary PatternLayout
patterns to be included as
specified ThreadContext fields;
no default specified. To use,
include a >LoggerFields< nested
element, containing one or more
>KeyValuePair< elements. Each
>KeyValuePair< must have a key
attribute, which specifies the key
name which will be used to identify
the field within the MDC Structured
Data element, and a value attribute,
which specifies the PatternLayout
pattern to use as the value.
mdcExcludes String A comma separated list of mdc
keys that should be excluded from
the LogEvent. This is mutually
exclusive with the mdcIncludes
attribute. This attribute only applies
to RFC 5424 syslog records.
mdcIncludes String A comma separated list of mdc
keys that should be included in
the FlumeEvent. Any keys in the
MDC not found in the list will be
excluded. This option is mutually
exclusive with the mdcExcludes
attribute. This attribute only applies
to RFC 5424 syslog records.
mdcRequired String A comma separated list of mdc
keys that must be present in the
MDC. If a key is not present a
LoggingException will be thrown.
This attribute only applies to RFC
5424 syslog records.
mdcPrefix String A string that should be prepended
to each MDC key in order to
distinguish it from event attributes.
The default string is "mdc:". This
attribute only applies to RFC 5424
syslog records.
messageId String The default value to be used in the
MSGID field of RFC 5424 syslog
records.

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9 Appenders 184

name String The name of the Appender.

newLine boolean If true, a newline will be appended
to the end of the syslog record. The
default is false.
port integer The port on the host that is listening
for log events. This parameter must
be specified.
protocol String "TCP" or "UDP". This parameter is
required.
SSL SslConfiguration Contains the configuration for the
KeyStore and TrustStore. See
SSL.
reconnectionDelayMillis integer If set to a value greater than 0,
after an error the SocketManager
will attempt to reconnect to the
server after waiting the specified
number of milliseconds. If the
reconnect fails then an exception
will be thrown (which can be
caught by the application if
ignoreExceptions is set to
false).

SyslogAppender Parameters
A sample syslogAppender configuration that is configured with two SyslogAppenders, one using
the BSD format and one using RFC 5424.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<Syslog name="bsd" host="localhost" port="514" protocol="TCP"/>
<Syslog name="RFC5424" format="RFC5424" host="localhost" port="8514"
protocol="TCP" appName="MyApp" includeMDC="true"
facility="LOCAL0" enterpriseNumber="18060" newLine="true"
messageId="Audit" id="App"/>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Logger name="com.mycorp" level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RFC5424"/>
</Logger>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="bsd"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
For SSL this appender writes its output to a remote destination specified by a host and port over SSL
in a format that conforms with either the BSD Syslog format or the RFC 5424 format.

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9 Appenders 185

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

9.1.29 ZeroMQ/JeroMQ Appender

The ZeroMQ appender uses the JeroMQ library to send log events to one or more ZeroMQ
endpoints.
This is a simple JeroMQ configuration:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration name="JeroMQAppenderTest" status="TRACE">
<Appenders>
<JeroMQ name="JeroMQAppender">
<Property name="endpoint">tcp://*:5556</Property>
<Property name="endpoint">ipc://info-topic</Property>
</JeroMQ>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="info">
<AppenderRef ref="JeroMQAppender"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
The table below describes all options. Please consult the JeroMQ and ZeroMQ documentation for
details.

Parameter Name Type Description

name String The name of the Appender.
Required.
Layout layout The Layout to use to format the
LogEvent. If no layout is supplied
the default pattern layout of "%m
%n" will be used.
Filters Filter The Filter(s) of the Appender.
Properties Property[] One or more Property elements,
named endpoint.

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9 Appenders 186

ignoreExceptions boolean If true, exceptions will be logged

and suppressed. If false errors will
be logged and then passed to the
application.
affinity long The ZMQ_AFFINITY option.
Defaults to 0.
backlog long The ZMQ_BACKLOG option.
Defaults to 100.
delayAttachOnConnect boolean The
ZMQ_DELAY_ATTACH_ON_CONNECT
option. Defaults to false.
identity byte[] The ZMQ_IDENTITY option.
Defaults to none.
ipv4Only boolean The ZMQ_IPV4ONLY option.
Defaults to true.
linger long The ZMQ_LINGER option. Defaults
to -1.
maxMsgSize long The ZMQ_MAXMSGSIZE option.
Defaults to -1.
rcvHwm long The ZMQ_RCVHWM option.
Defaults to 1000.
receiveBufferSize long The ZMQ_RCVBUF option.
Defaults to 0.
receiveTimeOut int The ZMQ_RCVTIMEO option.
Defaults to -1.
reconnectIVL long The ZMQ_RECONNECT_IVL
option. Defaults to 100.
reconnectIVLMax long The
ZMQ_RECONNECT_IVL_MAX
option. Defaults to 0.
sendBufferSize long The ZMQ_SNDBUF option.
Defaults to 0.
sendTimeOut int The ZMQ_SNDTIMEO option.
Defaults to -1.
sndHwm long The ZMQ_SNDHWM option.
Defaults to 1000.
tcpKeepAlive int The ZMQ_TCP_KEEPALIVE
option. Defaults to -1.
tcpKeepAliveCount long The ZMQ_TCP_KEEPALIVE_CNT
option. Defaults to -1.
tcpKeepAliveIdle long The ZMQ_TCP_KEEPALIVE_IDLE
option. Defaults to -1.
tcpKeepAliveInterval long The
ZMQ_TCP_KEEPALIVE_INTVL
option. Defaults to -1.
xpubVerbose boolean The ZMQ_XPUB_VERBOSE
option. Defaults to false.

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9 Appenders 187

JeroMQ Parameters

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10 Layouts 188

10 Layouts
.......................................................................................................................................

10.1 Layouts
An Appender uses a Layout to format a LogEvent into a form that meets the needs of whatever will
be consuming the log event. In Log4j 1.x and Logback Layouts were expected to transform an event
into a String. In Log4j 2 Layouts return a byte array. This allows the result of the Layout to be useful
in many more types of Appenders. However, this means you need to configure most Layouts with a
Charset to ensure the byte array contains correct values.
The root class for layouts that use a Charset is
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.layout.AbstractStringLayout where the default is
UTF-8. Each layout that extends AbstractStringLayout can provide its own default. See each
layout below.
A custom character encoder was added to Log4j 2.4.1 for the ISO-8859-1 and US-ASCII charsets,
to bring some of the performance improvements built-in to Java 8 to Log4j for use on Java 7. For
applications that log only ISO-8859-1 characters, specifying this charset will improve performance
significantly.

10.1.1 CSV Layouts

This layout creates Comma Separated Value (CSV) records and requires Apache Commons CSV
1.4.
The CSV layout can be used in two ways: First, using CsvParameterLayout to log event
parameters to create a custom database, usually to a logger and file appender uniquely configured for
this purpose. Second, using CsvLogEventLayout to log events to create a database, as an alternative
to using a full DBMS or using a JDBC driver that supports the CSV format.
The CsvParameterLayout converts an event's parameters into a CSV record, ignoring the message.
To log CSV records, you can use the usual Logger methods info(), debug(), and so on:

logger.info("Ignored", value1, value2, value3);

Which will create the CSV record:

value1, value2, value3

Alternatively, you can use a ObjectArrayMessage, which only carries parameters:

logger.info(new ObjectArrayMessage(value1, value2, value3));

The layouts CsvParameterLayout and CsvLogEventLayout are configured with the following
parameters:

Parameter Name Type Description

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10 Layouts 189

format String One of the predefined formats:

Default, Excel, MySQL,
RFC4180, TDF. See
CSVFormat.Predefined.
delimiter Character Sets the delimiter of the format to
the specified character.
escape Character Sets the escape character of the
format to the specified character.
quote Character Sets the quoteChar of the format to
the specified character.
quoteMode String Sets the output quote policy
of the format to the specified
value. One of: ALL, MINIMAL,
NON_NUMERIC, NONE.
nullString String Writes null as the given nullString
when writing records.
recordSeparator String Sets the record separator of the
format to the specified String.
charset Charset The output Charset.
header Sets the header to include when Desc.
the stream is opened.
footer Sets the footer to include when the Desc.
stream is closed.

CsvParameterLayout and CsvLogEventLayout

Logging as a CSV events looks like this:

logger.debug("one={}, two={}, three={}", 1, 2, 3);

Produces a CSV record with the following fields:

1. Time Nanos
2. Time Millis
3. Level
4. Thread ID
5. Thread Name
6. Thread Priority
7. Formatted Message
8. Logger FQCN
9. Logger Name
10.Marker
11.Thrown Proxy
12.Source
13.Context Map
14.Context Stack

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10 Layouts 190

0,1441617184044,DEBUG,main,"one=1, two=2, three=3",org.apache.logging.log4j.spi.AbstractLogger,,,,org.apache.

Additional runtime dependencies are required for using CSV layouts.

10.1.2 GELF Layout

Lays out events in the Graylog Extended Log Format (GELF) 1.1.
This layout compresses JSON to GZIP or ZLIB (the compressionType) if log event data is larger
than 1024 bytes (the compressionThreshold). This layout does not implement chunking.
Configure as follows to send to a Graylog 2.x server with UDP:

Configure as follows to send to a Graylog 2.x server with TCP:

Parameter Name Type Description

host String The value of the host property
(optional, defaults to local host
name).
compressionType GZIP, ZLIB or OFF Compression to use (optional,
defaults to GZIP)
compressionThreshold int Compress if data is larger than this
number of bytes (optional, defaults
to 1024)
includeMapMessage boolean Whether to include fields from
MapMessages as additional fields
(optional, default to true).
includeNullDelimiter boolean Whether to include NULL byte as
delimiter after each event (optional,
default to false). Useful for Graylog
GELF TCP input. Cannot be used
with compression.

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10 Layouts 191

includeStacktrace boolean Whether to include full stacktrace

of logged Throwables (optional,
default to true). If set to false, only
the class name and message of the
Throwable will be included.
includeThreadContext boolean Whether to include thread context
as additional fields (optional,
default to true).
mapMessageExcludes String A comma separated list of
attributes from the MapMessage
to exclude when formatting the
event. This attribute only applies
when includeMapMessage="true" is
specified. If mapMessageIncludes
are also specified this attribute will
be ignored.
mapMessageIncludes String A comma separated list of
attributes from the MapMessageto
include when formatting the event.
This attribute only applies when
includeMapMessage="true" is
specified. If mapMessageExcludes
are also specified this attribute will
override them. MapMessage fields
specified here that have no value
will be omitted.
mapPrefix String A String to prepend to all elements
of the MapMessage when rendered
as a field. Defaults to an empty
String.
messagePattern String The pattern to use to format the
String. A messagePattern and
patternSelector cannot both be
specified. If both are present the
message pattern will be ignored
and an error will be logged. If not
supplied only the text derived from
the logging message will be used.
See PatternLayout for information
on the pattern strings.
omitEmptyFields boolean If true fields which are null or
are zero-length strings will not
be included as a field in the Gelf
JSON. This setting will not affect
whether those fields appear in the
message fields. The default value
is false.

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10 Layouts 192

patternSelector PatternSelector The PatternSelector to

use to format the String.
A messagePattern and
patternSelector cannot both be
specified. If both are present
the message pattern will be
ignored and an error will be
logged. If not supplied only the
text derived from the logging
message will be used. See
PatternSelectors for information on
how to specify a PatternSelector.
See PatternLayout for information
on the pattern strings.
threadContextExcludes String A comma separated list of
ThreadContext attributes to
exclude when formatting the event.
This attribute only applies when
includeThreadContext="true" is
specified. If threadContextIncludes
are also specified this attribute will
be ignored.
threadContextIncludes String A comma separated list of
ThreadContext attributes to
include when formatting the event.
This attribute only applies when
includeThreadContext="true" is
specified. If threadContextExcludes
are also specified this attribute
will override them. ThreadContext
fields specified here that have no
value will be omitted.
ThreadContextPrefix String A String to prepend to all elements
of the ThreadContextMap when
rendered as a field. Defaults to an
empty String.

GelfLayout Parameters
To include any custom field in the output, use following syntax:

<GelfLayout includeThreadContext="true" threadContextIncludes="loginId,requestId">

%d %5p [%t] %c{1} %X{loginId, requestId} - %m%n
<KeyValuePair key="additionalField1" value="constant value"/>
<KeyValuePair key="additionalField2" value="$${ctx:key}"/>
</GelfLayout>

Custom fields are included in the order they are declared. The values support lookups.
See also:

• The GELF specification

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10 Layouts 193

10.1.3 HTML Layout

The HtmlLayout generates an HTML page and adds each LogEvent to a row in a table.

Parameter Name Type Description

charset String The character set to use when
converting the HTML String to a
byte array. The value must be a
valid Charset. If not specified, this
layout uses UTF-8.
contentType String The value to assign to the Content-
Type header. The default is "text/
html".
locationInfo boolean
If true, the filename and line
number will be included in
the HTML output. The default
value is false.
Generating location
information is an expensive
operation and may impact
performance. Use with caution.
title String A String that will appear as the
HTML title.
fontName String The font-family to use. The
default is "arial,sans-serif".
fontSize String The font-size to use. The
default is "small".
datePattern String The date format of the
logging event. The default is
"JVM_ELAPSE_TIME", which
outputs the milliseconds since
JVM started. For other valid
values, refer to the date pattern of
PatternLayout.
timezone String The timezone id of the
logging event. If not specified,
this layout uses the
java.util.TimeZone.getDefault
as default timezone. Like date
pattern of PatternLayout, you
can use timezone id from
java.util.TimeZone.getTimeZone.

HtmlLayout Parameters
Configure as follows to use dataPattern and timezone in HtmlLayout:

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10 Layouts 194

10.1.4 JSON Layout

Note: JsonTemplate is considered deprecated. JsonTemplateLayout provides more capabilitites and
should be used instead.
Appends a series of JSON events as strings serialized as bytes.

10.1.4.1 Complete well-formed JSON vs. fragment JSON

If you configure complete="true", the appender outputs a well-formed JSON document. By
default, with complete="false", you should include the output as an external file in a separate file
to form a well-formed JSON document.
If complete="false", the appender does not write the JSON open array character "[" at the start of
the document, "]" and the end, nor comma "," between records.
Log event follows this pattern:

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10 Layouts 195

{
"instant" : {
"epochSecond" : 1493121664,
"nanoOfSecond" : 118000000
},
"thread" : "main",
"level" : "INFO",
"loggerName" : "HelloWorld",
"marker" : {
"name" : "child",
"parents" : [ {
"name" : "parent",
"parents" : [ {
"name" : "grandparent"
} ]
} ]
},
"message" : "Hello, world!",
"thrown" : {
"commonElementCount" : 0,
"message" : "error message",
"name" : "java.lang.RuntimeException",
"extendedStackTrace" : [ {
"class" : "logtest.Main",
"method" : "main",
"file" : "Main.java",
"line" : 29,
"exact" : true,
"location" : "classes/",
"version" : "?"
} ]
},
"contextStack" : [ "one", "two" ],
"endOfBatch" : false,
"loggerFqcn" : "org.apache.logging.log4j.spi.AbstractLogger",
"contextMap" : {
"bar" : "BAR",
"foo" : "FOO"
},
"threadId" : 1,
"threadPriority" : 5,
"source" : {
"class" : "logtest.Main",
"method" : "main",
"file" : "Main.java",
"line" : 29
}
}
If complete="false", the appender does not write the JSON open array character "[" at the start of
the document, "]" and the end, nor comma "," between records.

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10 Layouts 196

10.1.4.2 Pretty vs. compact JSON

The compact attribute determines whether the output will be "pretty" or not. The default value is
"false", which means the appender uses end-of-line characters and indents lines to format the text. If
compact="true", then no end-of-line or indentation is used, which will cause the output to take less
space. Of course, the message content may contain, escaped end-of-lines.

Parameter Name Type Description

charset String The character set to use when
converting to a byte array. The
value must be a valid Charset. If
not specified, UTF-8 will be used.
compact boolean If true, the appender does not
use end-of-lines and indentation.
Defaults to false.
eventEol boolean If true, the appender appends
an end-of-line after each record.
Defaults to false. Use with
eventEol=true and compact=true to
get one record per line.
endOfLine String If set, overrides the default end-
of-line string. E.g. set it to "\n"
and use with eventEol=true and
compact=true to have one record
per line separated by "\n" instead of
"\r\n". Defaults to null (i.e. not set).
complete boolean If true, the appender includes the
JSON header and footer, and
comma between records. Defaults
to false.
properties boolean If true, the appender includes
the thread context map in the
generated JSON. Defaults to false.
propertiesAsList boolean If true, the thread context map
is included as a list of map entry
objects, where each entry has a
"key" attribute (whose value is
the key) and a "value" attribute
(whose value is the value). Defaults
to false, in which case the thread
context map is included as a simple
map of key-value pairs.
locationInfo boolean If true, the appender includes
the location information in the
generated JSON. Defaults to
false.
Generating location
information is an expensive
operation and may impact
performance. Use with caution.

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10 Layouts 197

includeStacktrace boolean If true, include full stacktrace of

any logged Throwable (optional,
default to true).
includeTimeMillis boolean If true, the timeMillis attribute
is included in the Json payload
instead of the instant. timeMillis will
contain the number of milliseconds
since midnight, January 1, 1970
UTC.
stacktraceAsString boolean Whether to format the stacktrace
as a string, and not a nested object
(optional, defaults to false).
includeNullDelimiter boolean Whether to include NULL byte as
delimiter after each event (optional,
default to false).
objectMessageAsJsonObject boolean If true, ObjectMessage is serialized
as JSON object to the "message"
field of the output log. Defaults to
false.

JsonLayout Parameters
To include any custom field in the output, use following syntax:

Custom fields are always last, in the order they are declared. The values support lookups.
Additional runtime dependencies are required for using JsonLayout.

10.1.5 JSON Template Layout

JsonTemplateLayout is a customizable, efficient, and garbage-free JSON emitting
layout. It encodes LogEvents according to the structure described by the JSON template
provided. For instance, given the following JSON template modelling the the official Logstash
JSONEventLayoutV1

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10 Layouts 198

{
"mdc": {
"$resolver": "mdc"
},
"exception": {
"exception_class": {
"$resolver": "exception",
"field": "className"
},
"exception_message": {
"$resolver": "exception",
"field": "message"
},
"stacktrace": {
"$resolver": "exception",
"field": "stackTrace",
"stackTrace": {
"stringified": true
}
}
},
"line_number": {
"$resolver": "source",
"field": "lineNumber"
},
"class": {
"$resolver": "source",
"field": "className"
},
"@version": 1,
"source_host": "${hostName}",
"message": {
"$resolver": "message",
"stringified": true
},
"thread_name": {
"$resolver": "thread",
"field": "name"
},
"@timestamp": {
"$resolver": "timestamp"
},
"level": {
"$resolver": "level",
"field": "name"
},
"file": {
"$resolver": "source",
"field": "fileName"
},
"method": {
"$resolver": "source",
"field": "methodName"
},
"logger_name": {
"$resolver": "logger",
"field": "name"
©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
}
}
10 Layouts 199

in combination with the below Log4j configuration:

<JsonTemplateLayout eventTemplateUri="classpath:LogstashJsonEventLayoutV1.json"/>
JSON Template Layout will render JSON documents as follows:

{
"exception": {
"exception_class": "java.lang.RuntimeException",
"exception_message": "test",
"stacktrace": "java.lang.RuntimeException: test\n\tat org.apache.logging.log4j.JsonTemplateLayoutDemo.mai
},
"line_number": 12,
"class": "org.apache.logging.log4j.JsonTemplateLayoutDemo",
"@version": 1,
"source_host": "varlik",
"message": "Hello, error!",
"thread_name": "main",
"@timestamp": "2017-05-25T19:56:23.370+02:00",
"level": "ERROR",
"file": "JsonTemplateLayoutDemo.java",
"method": "main",
"logger_name": "org.apache.logging.log4j.JsonTemplateLayoutDemo"
}
See JSON Template Layout page for the complete documentation.

10.1.6 Pattern Layout

A flexible layout configurable with pattern string. The goal of this class is to format a LogEvent and
return the results. The format of the result depends on the conversion pattern.
The conversion pattern is closely related to the conversion pattern of the printf function in C. A
conversion pattern is composed of literal text and format control expressions called conversion
specifiers.
Note that any literal text, including Special Characters, may be included in the conversion pattern.
Special Characters include \t, \n, \r, \f. Use \\ to insert a single backslash into the output.
Each conversion specifier starts with a percent sign (%) and is followed by optional format modifiers
and a conversion character. The conversion character specifies the type of data, e.g. category,
priority, date, thread name. The format modifiers control such things as field width, padding, left and
right justification. The following is a simple example.
Let the conversion pattern be "%-5p [%t]: %m%n" and assume that the Log4j environment was set
to use a PatternLayout. Then the statements
Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger("MyLogger");
logger.debug("Message 1");
logger.warn("Message 2");
would yield the output
DEBUG [main]: Message 1
WARN [main]: Message 2

Note that there is no explicit separator between text and conversion specifiers. The pattern parser
knows when it has reached the end of a conversion specifier when it reads a conversion character. In

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10 Layouts 200

the example above the conversion specifier %-5p means the priority of the logging event should be
left justified to a width of five characters.
If the pattern string does not contain a specifier to handle a Throwable being logged, parsing of
the pattern will act as if the "%xEx" specifier had be added to the end of the string. To suppress
formatting of the Throwable completely simply add "%ex{0}" as a specifier in the pattern string.

Parameter Name Type Description

charset String The character set to use when
converting the syslog String to a
byte array. The String must be a
valid Charset. If not specified, this
layout uses the platform default
character set.
pattern String A composite pattern string of one or
more conversion patterns from the
table below. Cannot be specified
with a PatternSelector.
patternSelector PatternSelector A component that analyzes
information in the LogEvent and
determines which pattern should
be used to format the event.
The pattern and patternSelector
parameters are mutually exclusive.
replace RegexReplacement Allows portions of the resulting
String to be replaced. If configured,
the replace element must
specify the regular expression to
match and the substitution. This
performs a function similar to the
RegexReplacement converter but
applies to the whole message while
the converter only applies to the
String its pattern generates.
alwaysWriteExceptions boolean If true (it is by default) exceptions
are always written even if the
pattern contains no exception
conversions. This means that if
you do not include a way to output
exceptions in your pattern, the
default exception formatter will be
added to the end of the pattern.
Setting this to false disables
this behavior and allows you to
exclude exceptions from your
pattern output.
header String The optional header string to
include at the top of each log file.
footer String The optional footer string to include
at the bottom of each log file.
disableAnsi boolean If true (default is false), do not
output ANSI escape codes.

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noConsoleNoAnsi boolean If true (default is false) and

System.console() is null, do
not output ANSI escape codes.

PatternLayout Parameters

Parameter Name Type Description

regex String A Java-compliant regular
expression to match in the resulting
string. See Pattern .
replacement String The string to replace any matched
sub-strings with.

RegexReplacement Parameters

10.1.6.1 Patterns
The conversions that are provided with Log4j are:

Conversion Pattern Description

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10 Layouts 202

c{precision} Outputs the name of the logger that published

logger{precision} the logging event. The logger conversion
specifier can be optionally followed by precision
specifier, which consists of a decimal integer, or
a pattern starting with a decimal integer.
When the precision specifier is an integer
value, it reduces the size of the logger name.
If the number is positive, the layout prints the
corresponding number of rightmost logger name
components. If negative, the layout removes the
corresponding number of leftmost logger name
components.
If the precision contains any non-integer
characters, then the layout abbreviates the name
based on the pattern. If the precision integer is
less than one, the layout still prints the right-most
token in full. By default, the layout prints the
logger name in full.

Conversion
Pattern Logger Name Result
%c{1} org.apache. Foo
commons.Foo
%c{2} org.apache. commons.Foo
commons.Foo
%c{10} org.apache. org.apache.
commons.Foo commons.Foo
%c{-1} org.apache. apache.
commons.Foo commons.Foo
%c{-2} org.apache. commons.Foo
commons.Foo
%c{-10} org.apache. org.apache.
commons.Foo commons.Foo
%c{1.} org.apache. o.a.c.Foo
commons.Foo
%c{1.1.~.~} org.apache. o.a.~.~.Foo
commons.test.
Foo
%c{.} org.apache. ....Foo
commons.test.
Foo

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C{precision} Outputs the fully qualified class name of

class{precision} the caller issuing the logging request. This
conversion specifier can be optionally followed
by precision specifier, that follows the same
rules as the logger name converter.
Generating the class name of the caller (
location information) is an expensive operation
and may impact performance. Use with caution.

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10 Layouts 204

d{pattern} Outputs the date of the logging event. The date

date{pattern} conversion specifier may be followed by a set of
braces containing a date and time pattern string
per SimpleDateFormat .
The predefined named formats are:

Pattern Example
%d{DEFAULT} 2012-11-02 14:34:02,123
%d{DEFAULT_MICROS} 2012-11-02
14:34:02,123456
%d{DEFAULT_NANOS} 2012-11-02
14:34:02,123456789
%d{ISO8601} 2012-11-02T14:34:02,781
%d{ISO8601_BASIC} 20121102T143402,781
%d{ISO8601_OFFSET_DATE_TIME_HH}
2012-11-02'T'14:34:02,781-07
%d{ISO8601_OFFSET_DATE_TIME_HHMM}
2012-11-02'T'14:34:02,781-0700
%d{ISO8601_OFFSET_DATE_TIME_HHCMM}
2012-11-02'T'14:34:02,781-07:00
%d{ABSOLUTE} 14:34:02,781
%d{ABSOLUTE_MICROS} 14:34:02,123456
%d{ABSOLUTE_NANOS} 14:34:02,123456789
%d{DATE} 02 Nov 2012
14:34:02,781
%d{COMPACT} 20121102143402781
%d{UNIX} 1351866842
%d{UNIX_MILLIS} 1351866842781

You can also use a set of braces

containing a time zone id per
java.util.TimeZone.getTimeZone. If no date
format specifier is given then the DEFAULT
format is used.
You can define custom date formats:

Pattern Example
%d{HH:mm:ss,SSS} 14:34:02,123
%d{HH:mm:ss,nnnn} to 14:34:02,1234 to
%d{HH:mm:ss,nnnnnnnnn} 14:34:02,123456789
%d{dd MMM yyyy 02 Nov 2012
HH:mm:ss,SSS} 14:34:02,123
%d{dd MMM yyyy 02 Nov 2012
HH:mm:ss,nnnn} to 14:34:02,1234
%d{dd MMM yyyy to 02 Nov 2012
HH:mm:ss,nnnnnnnnn} 14:34:02,123456789
%d{HH:mm:ss}{GMT+0} 18:34:02

%d{UNIX} outputs the UNIX time in seconds.

%d{UNIX_MILLIS} outputs the UNIX time in
milliseconds. The UNIX time is the difference,
©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL
in seconds for UNIX and in milliseconds for
RIGHTS RESERVED.

UNIX_MILLIS, between the current time and

midnight, January 1, 1970 UTC. While the time
unit is milliseconds, the granularity depends on
10 Layouts 205

enc{ pattern}{[HTML|XML|JSON|CRLF]} Encodes and escapes special characters suitable

encode{ pattern}{[HTML|XML|JSON|CRLF]} for output in specific markup languages. By
default, this encodes for HTML if only one
option is specified. The second option is used to
specify which encoding format should be used.
This converter is particularly useful for encoding
user provided data so that the output data is not
written improperly or insecurely.
A typical usage would encode the message
%enc{%m} but user input could come from
other locations as well, such as the MDC
%enc{%mdc{key}}
Using the HTML encoding format, the following
characters are replaced:

Character Replacement
'\r', '\n' Converted into escaped
strings "\\r" and "\\n"
respectively
&, <, >, ", ', / Replaced with the
corresponding HTML
entity

Using the XML encoding format, this follows

the escaping rules specified by the XML
specification:

Character Replacement
&, <, >, ", ' Replaced with the
corresponding XML
entity

Using the JSON encoding format, this follows

the escaping rules specified by RFC 4627
section 2.5:

Character Replacement
U+0000 - U+001F \u0000 - \u001F
Any other control Encoded into its
characters \uABCD equivalent
escaped code point
" \"
\ \\

For example, the pattern {"message":

"%enc{%m}{JSON}"} could be used to output
a valid JSON document containing the log
message as a string value.
Using the CRLF encoding format, the following
characters are replaced:
©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Character Replacement
'\r', '\n' Converted into escaped
strings "\\r" and "\\n"
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equals{pattern}{test}{substitution} Replaces occurrences of 'test', a string, with its

equalsIgnoreCase{pattern}{test}{substitution} replacement 'substitution' in the string resulting
from evaluation of the pattern. For example,
"%equals{[%marker]}{[]}{}" will replace '[]'
strings produces by events without markers with
an empty string.
The pattern can be arbitrarily complex and
in particular can contain multiple conversion
keywords.
ex| exception| throwable Outputs the Throwable trace bound to the
{ logging event, by default this will output the full
[ "none" trace as one would normally find with a call to
| "full" Throwable.printStackTrace().
| depth
| "short" You can follow the throwable conversion
| "short.className" word with an option in the form
| "short.fileName" %throwable{option}.
| "short.lineNumber"
| "short.methodName" %throwable{short} outputs the first line of
| "short.message" the Throwable.
| "short.localizedMessage"]
} %throwable{short.className} outputs the
{filters(package,package,...)} name of the class where the exception occurred.
{suffix( pattern)}
%throwable{short.methodName} outputs
{separator( separator)}
the method name where the exception occurred.
%throwable{short.fileName} outputs the
name of the class where the exception occurred.
%throwable{short.lineNumber} outputs
the line number where the exception occurred.
%throwable{short.message} outputs the
message.
%throwable{short.localizedMessage}
outputs the localized message.
%throwable{n} outputs the first n lines of the
stack trace.
Specifying %throwable{none} or
%throwable{0} suppresses output of the
exception.
Use {filters( packages)} where packages
is a list of package names to suppress matching
stack frames from stack traces.
Use {suffix( pattern)} to add the output of
pattern at the end of each stack frames.
Use a {separator(...)} as the end-of-
line string. For example: separator(|). The
default value is the line.separator system
property, which is operating system dependent.

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F Outputs the file name where the logging request

file was issued.
Generating the file information ( location
information) is an expensive operation and may
impact performance. Use with caution.
highlight{pattern}{style} Adds ANSI colors to the result of the enclosed
pattern based on the current event's logging
level. (See Jansi configuration.)
The default colors for each level are:

Level ANSI color

FATAL Bright red
ERROR Bright red
WARN Yellow
INFO Green
DEBUG Cyan
TRACE Black (looks dark grey)

The color names are ANSI names defined in the

AnsiEscape class.
The color and attribute names and are standard,
but the exact shade, hue, or value.

Intensity
Code0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Black Red GreenYellowBlue Magenta
Normal Cyan White

Black Red GreenYellowBlue Magenta

Bright Cyan White

Color table
You can use the default colors with:
%highlight{%d [%t] %-5level: %msg%n%throwable}

You can override the default colors in the

optional {style} option. For example:
%highlight{%d [%t] %-5level: %msg%n%throwable}
{FATAL=white, ERROR=red, WARN=blue, INFO=black,
DEBUG=green, TRACE=blue}

You can highlight only the a portion of the log

event:
%d [%t] %highlight{%-5level: %msg%n%throwable}

You can style one part of the message and

highlight the rest the log event:
%style{%d [%t]}{black} %highlight{%-5level:
%msg%n%throwable}

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10 Layouts 208

You can also use the STYLE key to use a

predefined group of colors:
%highlight{%d [%t] %-5level: %msg%n%throwable}
{STYLE=Logback}
The STYLE value can be one of:

Style Description
Default See above
Logback
ANSI
Level color
FATAL Blinking
bright red
ERROR Bright red
WARN Red
INFO Blue
DEBUG Normal
TRACE Normal

K{key} Outputs the entries in a MapMessage, if one is

map{key} present in the event. The K conversion character
MAP{key} can be followed by the key for the map placed
between braces, as in %K{clientNumber}
where clientNumber is the key. The value in
the Map corresponding to the key will be output.
If no additional sub-option is specified, then the
entire contents of the Map key value pair set is
output using a format {{key1,val1},{key2,val2}}
l Outputs location information of the caller which
location generated the logging event.
The location information depends on the JVM
implementation but usually consists of the fully
qualified name of the calling method followed by
the callers source the file name and line number
between parentheses.
Generating location information is an expensive
operation and may impact performance. Use with
caution.
L Outputs the line number from where the logging
line request was issued.
Generating line number information ( location
information) is an expensive operation and may
impact performance. Use with caution.

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

10 Layouts 209

m{ansi} Outputs the application supplied message

msg{ansi} associated with the logging event.
message{ansi}
From Log4j 2.16.0, support for lookups in log
messages has been removed for security reasons.
Both the {lookups} and the {nolookups}
options on the %m, %msg and %message pattern
are now ignored. If either is specified a message
will be logged.
Add {ansi} to render messages with ANSI
escape codes (requires JAnsi, see configuration.)
The default syntax for embedded ANSI codes is:
@|
code(,
code)*
text|@
For example, to render the message "Hello" in
green, use:
@|green Hello|@
To render the message "Hello" in bold and red,
use:
@|bold,red Warning!|@
You can also define custom style names in the
configuration with the syntax:
%message{ansi}{StyleName=value(,value)*( StyleName=value(,valu
For example:
%message{ansi}{WarningStyle=red,bold KeyStyle=white ValueStyle
The call site can look like this:
logger.info("@|KeyStyle {}|@ = @|ValueStyle {}|@", entry.getKe

M Outputs the method name where the logging

method request was issued.
Generating the method name of the caller (
location information) is an expensive operation
and may impact performance. Use with caution.
marker The full name of the marker, including parents, if one
is present.
markerSimpleName The simple name of the marker (not including
parents), if one is present.

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10 Layouts 210

maxLen Outputs the result of evaluating the pattern and

maxLength truncating the result. If the length is greater than
20, then the output will contain a trailing ellipsis.
If the provided length is invalid, a default value
of 100 is used.
Example syntax: %maxLen{%p: %c{1} - %m
%notEmpty{ =>%ex{short}}}{160} will be
limited to 160 characters with a trailing ellipsis.
Another example: %maxLen{%m}{20} will be
limited to 20 characters and no trailing ellipsis.
n Outputs the platform dependent line separator
character or characters.
This conversion character offers practically
the same performance as using non-portable
line separator strings such as "\n", or "\r\n".
Thus, it is the preferred way of specifying a line
separator.
N Outputs the result of System.nanoTime() at
nano the time the log event was created.
pid{[defaultValue]} Outputs the process ID if supported by the
processId{[defaultValue]} underlying platform. An optional default value
may be specified to be shown if the platform
does not support process IDs.
variablesNotEmpty{pattern} Outputs the result of evaluating the pattern if and
varsNotEmpty{pattern} only if all variables in the pattern are not empty.
notEmpty{pattern}
For example:
%notEmpty{[%marker]}

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10 Layouts 211

p| level{ level= label, level= label, ...} p| Outputs the level of the logging event.
level{length= n} p| level{lowerCase= true| false} You provide a level name map in the form
"level=value, level=value" where level is the
name of the Level and value is the value that
should be displayed instead of the name of the
Level.
For example:
%level{WARN=Warning, DEBUG=Debug, ERROR=Error, TRACE=Trace, IN

Alternatively, for the compact-minded:

%level{WARN=W, DEBUG=D, ERROR=E, TRACE=T, INFO=I}

More succinctly, for the same result as above,

you can define the length of the level label:
%level{length=1}
If the length is greater than a level name length,
the layout uses the normal level name.
You can combine the two kinds of options:
%level{ERROR=Error, length=2}
This give you the Error level name and all other
level names of length 2.
Finally, you can output lower-case level names
(the default is upper-case):
%level{lowerCase=true}

r Outputs the number of milliseconds elapsed since

relative the JVM was started until the creation of the logging
event.
R{string}{length} Produces a string containing the requested number
repeat{string}{length} of instances of the specified string. For example,
"%repeat{*}{2}" will result in the string "**".
replace{pattern}{regex}{substitution} Replaces occurrences of 'regex', a regular
expression, with its replacement 'substitution'
in the string resulting from evaluation of the
pattern. For example, "%replace{%msg}{\s}
{}" will remove all spaces contained in the event
message.
The pattern can be arbitrarily complex and
in particular can contain multiple conversion
keywords. For instance, "%replace{%logger
%msg}{\.}{/}" will replace all dots in the logger
or the message of the event with a forward slash.

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

10 Layouts 212

rEx| rException| rThrowable The same as the %throwable conversion word

{ but the stack trace is printed starting with the
["none" | "short" | "full" | depth] first exception that was thrown followed by each
[,filters(package,package,...)] subsequent wrapping exception.
[,separator( separator)]
} The throwable conversion word can be followed
{ansi( by an option in the form %rEx{short} which
Key=Value,Value,... will only output the first line of the Throwable or
Key=Value,Value,... %rEx{n} where the first n lines of the stack trace
...)
}
will be printed.
{suffix( pattern)} Specifying %rEx{none} or %rEx{0} will
suppress printing of the exception.
Use filters( packages) where packages
is a list of package names to suppress matching
stack frames from stack traces.
Use a separator string to separate the lines of
a stack trace. For example: separator(|). The
default value is the line.separator system
property, which is operating system dependent.
Use rEx{suffix( pattern) to add the output
of pattern to the output only when there is a
throwable to print.
sn Includes a sequence number that will be incremented
sequenceNumber in every event. The counter is a static variable so will
only be unique within applications that share the same
converter Class object.

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

10 Layouts 213

style{pattern}{ANSI style} Uses ANSI escape sequences to style the result

of the enclosed pattern. The style can consist of
a comma separated list of style names from the
following table. (See Jansi configuration.)

Style Name Description

Normal Normal display
Bright Bold
Dim Dimmed or faint
characters
Underline Underlined characters
Blink Blinking characters
Reverse Reverse video
Hidden
Black or FG_Black Set foreground color to
black
Red or FG_Red Set foreground color to
red
Green or FG_Green Set foreground color to
green
Yellow or FG_Yellow Set foreground color to
yellow
Blue or FG_Blue Set foreground color to
blue
Magenta or FG_Magenta Set foreground color to
magenta
Cyan or FG_Cyan Set foreground color to
cyan
White or FG_White Set foreground color to
white
Default or FG_Default Set foreground color to
default (white)
BG_Black Set background color to
black
BG_Red Set background color to
red
BG_Green Set background color to
green
BG_Yellow Set background color to
yellow
BG_Blue Set background color to
blue
BG_Magenta Set background color to
magenta
BG_Cyan Set background color to
cyan
BG_White Set background color to
white

For example:
©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
%style{%d{ISO8601}}{black} %style{[%t]}{blue} %style{%-5level:

You can also combine styles:

%d %highlight{%p} %style{%logger}{bright,cyan} %C{1.} %msg%n
10 Layouts 214

T Outputs the ID of the thread that generated the logging

tid event.
threadId
t Outputs the name of the thread that generated the
tn logging event.
thread
threadName
tp Outputs the priority of the thread that generated the
threadPriority logging event.
fqcn Outputs the fully qualified class name of the logger.
endOfBatch Outputs the EndOfBatch status of the logging event,
as "true" or "false".
x Outputs the Thread Context Stack (also known as the
NDC Nested Diagnostic Context or NDC) associated with
the thread that generated the logging event.
X{key[,key2...]} Outputs the Thread Context Map (also
mdc{key[,key2...]} known as the Mapped Diagnostic Context
MDC{key[,key2...]} or MDC) associated with the thread that
generated the logging event. The X conversion
character can be followed by one or more
keys for the map placed between braces, as in
%X{clientNumber} where clientNumber is
the key. The value in the MDC corresponding to
the key will be output.
If a list of keys are provided, such as %X{name,
number}, then each key that is present in the
ThreadContext will be output using the format
{name=val1, number=val2}. The key/value pairs
will be printed in the order they appear in the list.
If no sub-options are specified then the entire
contents of the MDC key value pair set is output
using a format {key1=val1, key2=val2}. The
key/value pairs will be printed in sorted order.
See the ThreadContext class for more details.
u{"RANDOM" | "TIME"} Includes either a random or a time-based UUID.
uuid The time-based UUID is a Type 1 UUID that can
generate up to 10,000 unique ids per millisecond,
will use the MAC address of each host, and to try
to insure uniqueness across multiple JVMs and/or
ClassLoaders on the same host a random number
between 0 and 16,384 will be associated with each
instance of the UUID generator Class and included
in each time-based UUID generated. Because
time-based UUIDs contain the MAC address and
timestamp they should be used with care as they can
cause a security vulnerability.

©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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xEx| xException| xThrowable The same as the %throwable conversion word

{ but also includes class packaging information.
["none" | "short" | "full" | depth]
[,filters(package,package,...)] At the end of each stack element of the
[,separator( separator)] exception, a string containing the name of the
} jar file that contains the class or the directory
{ansi( the class is located in and the "Implementation-
Key=Value,Value,... Version" as found in that jar's manifest will be
Key=Value,Value,... added. If the information is uncertain, then the
...)
}
class packaging data will be preceded by a tilde,
{suffix( pattern)} i.e. the '~' character.
The throwable conversion word can be followed
by an option in the form %xEx{short} which
will only output the first line of the Throwable
or %xEx{n} where the first n lines of the stack
trace will be printed. Specifying %xEx{none} or
%xEx{0} will suppress printing of the exception.
Use filters( packages) where packages
is a list of package names to suppress matching
stack frames from stack traces.
Use a separator string to separate the lines of
a stack trace. For example: separator(|). The
default value is the line.separator system
property, which is operating system dependent.
The ansi option renders stack traces with
ANSI escapes code using the JAnsi library.
(See configuration.) Use {ansi} to use the
default color mapping. You can specify your
own mappings with key=value pairs. The keys
are:
• Prefix
• Name
• NameMessageSeparator
• Message
• At
• CauseLabel
• Text
• More
• Suppressed
• StackTraceElement.ClassName
• StackTraceElement.ClassMethodSeparator
• StackTraceElement.MethodName
• StackTraceElement.NativeMethod
• StackTraceElement.FileName
• StackTraceElement.LineNumber
• StackTraceElement.Container
• StackTraceElement.ContainerSeparator
• StackTraceElement.UnknownSource
• ExtraClassInfo.Inexact
• ExtraClassInfo.Container
• ExtraClassInfo.ContainerSeparator
• ExtraClassInfo.Location
• ExtraClassInfo.Version
The values are names from JAnsi's Code class
©2021, The Apache Software Foundation • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

like blue, bg_red, and so on (Log4j ignores

case.)
The special key StyleMapName can be set to
10 Layouts 216

% The sequence %% outputs a single percent sign.

By default the relevant information is output as is. However, with the aid of format modifiers it is
possible to change the minimum field width, the maximum field width and justification.
The optional format modifier is placed between the percent sign and the conversion character.
The first optional format modifier is the left justification flag which is just the minus (-) character.
Then comes the optional minimum field width modifier. This is a decimal constant that represents the
minimum number of characters to output. If the data item requires fewer characters, it is padded on
either the left or the right until the minimum width is reached. The default is to pad on the left (right
justify) but you can specify right padding with the left justification flag. The padding character is
space. If the data item is larger than the minimum field width, the field is expanded to accommodate
the data. The value is never truncated. To use zeros as the padding character prepend the minimum
field width with a zero.
This behavior can be changed using the maximum field width modifier which is designated by
a period followed by a decimal constant. If the data item is longer than the maximum field, then
the extra characters are removed from the beginning of the data item and not from the end. For
example, it the maximum field width is eight and the data item is ten characters long, then the first
two characters of the data item are dropped. This behavior deviates from the printf function in C
where truncation is done from the end.
Truncation from the end is possible by appending a minus character right after the period. In that
case, if the maximum field width is eight and the data item is ten characters long, then the last two
characters of the data item are dropped.
Below are various format modifier examples for the category conversion specifier.

Format modifier left justify minimum width maximum width comment

%20c false 20 none Left pad with spaces
if the category name
is less than 20
characters long.
%-20c true 20 none Right pad with
spaces if the
category name
is less than 20
characters long.
%.30c NA none 30 Truncate from the
beginning if the
category name
is longer than 30
characters.
%20.30c false 20 30 Left pad with spaces
if the category
name is shorter
than 20 characters.
However, if category
name is longer than
30 characters, then
truncate from the
beginning.

10 Layouts 217

%-20.30c true 20 30 Right pad with

spaces if the
category name
is shorter than
20 characters.
However, if category
name is longer than
30 characters, then
truncate from the
beginning.
%-20.-30c true 20 30 Right pad with
spaces if the
category name
is shorter than
20 characters.
However, if category
name is longer than
30 characters, then
truncate from the
end.

Pattern Converters

10.1.6.2 ANSI Styling on Windows

ANSI escape sequences are supported natively on many platforms but are not by default on Windows.
To enable ANSI support add the Jansi jar to your application and set property log4j.skipJansi to
false. This allows Log4j to use Jansi to add ANSI escape codes when writing to the console.
NOTE: Prior to Log4j 2.10, Jansi was enabled by default. The fact that Jansi requires native code
means that Jansi can only be loaded by a single class loader. For web applications this means the Jansi
jar has to be in the web container's classpath. To avoid causing problems for web applications, Log4j
will no longer automatically try to load Jansi without explicit configuration from Log4j 2.10 onward.

10.1.6.3 Example Patterns

10.Filtered Throwables
This example shows how to filter out classes from unimportant packages in stack traces.
<properties>
<property name="filters">org.junit,org.apache.maven,sun.reflect,java.lang.reflect</property>
</properties>
...
<PatternLayout pattern="%m%xEx{filters(${filters})}%n"/>
The result printed to the console will appear similar to:

10 Layouts 218

Exception java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: IllegalArgument

at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.pattern.ExtendedThrowableTest.
testException(ExtendedThrowableTest.java:72) [test-classes/:?]
... suppressed 26 lines
at $Proxy0.invoke(Unknown Source)} [?:?]
... suppressed 3 lines
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException: null pointer
at org.apache.logging.log4j.core.pattern.ExtendedThrowableTest.
testException(ExtendedThrowableTest.java:71) ~[test-classes/:?]
... 30 more

10.ANSI Styled
The log level will be highlighted according to the event's log level. All the content that follows the
level will be bright green.
<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %highlight{%p} %style{%C{1.} [%t] %m}{bold,green}%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>

10.1.6.4 Pattern Selectors

The PatternLayout can be configured with a PatternSelector to allow it to choose a pattern to
use based on attributes of the log event or other factors. A PatternSelector will normally be
configured with a defaultPattern attribute, which is used when other criteria don't match, and a set of
PatternMatch elements that identify the various patterns that can be selected.
10.LevelPatternSelector
The LevelPatternSelector selects patterns based on the log level of the log event. If the Level in the
log event is equal to (ignoring case) the name specified on the PatternMatch key attribute, then the
pattern specified on that PatternMatch element will be used.
10.MarkerPatternSelector
The MarkerPatternSelector selects patterns based on the Marker included in the log event. If the
Marker in the log event is equal to or is an ancestor of the name specified on the PatternMatch key
attribute, then the pattern specified on that PatternMatch element will be used.
<PatternLayout>
<MarkerPatternSelector defaultPattern="[%-5level] %c{1.} %msg%n">
<PatternMatch key="FLOW" pattern="[%-5level] %c{1.} ====== %C{1.}.%M:%L %msg ======%n"/>
</MarkerPatternSelector>
</PatternLayout>

10.ScriptPatternSelector
The ScriptPatternSelector executes a script as descibed in the Scripts section of the Configuration
chapter. The script is passed all the properties configured in the Properties section of the
configuration, the StrSubstitutor used by the Confguration in the "substitutor" variables, and the log
event in the "logEvent" variable, and is expected to return the value of the PatternMatch key that
should be used, or null if the default pattern should be used.

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10.1.7 RFC5424 Layout

As the name implies, the Rfc5424Layout formats LogEvents in accordance with RFC 5424, the
enhanced Syslog specification. Although the specification is primarily directed at sending messages
via Syslog, this format is quite useful for other purposes since items are passed in the message as self-
describing key/value pairs.

Parameter Name Type Description

appName String The value to use as the APP-
NAME in the RFC 5424 syslog
record.
charset String The character set to use when
converting the syslog String to a
byte array. The String must be
a valid Charset. If not specified,
the default system Charset will be
used.
enterpriseNumber integer The IANA enterprise number as
described in RFC 5424
exceptionPattern String One of the conversion specifiers
from PatternLayout that defines
which ThrowablePatternConverter
to use to format exceptions. Any
of the options that are valid for
those specifiers may be included.
The default is to not include the
Throwable from the event, if any, in
the output.

10 Layouts 220

facility String The facility is used to try to classify

the message. The facility option
must be set to one of "KERN",
"USER", "MAIL", "DAEMON",
"AUTH", "SYSLOG", "LPR",
"NEWS", "UUCP", "CRON",
"AUTHPRIV", "FTP", "NTP",
"AUDIT", "ALERT", "CLOCK",
"LOCAL0", "LOCAL1", "LOCAL2",
"LOCAL3", "LOCAL4", "LOCAL5",
"LOCAL6", or "LOCAL7". These
values may be specified as upper
or lower case characters.
format String If set to "RFC5424" the data will
be formatted in accordance with
RFC 5424. Otherwise, it will be
formatted as a BSD Syslog record.
Note that although BSD Syslog
records are required to be 1024
bytes or shorter the SyslogLayout
does not truncate them. The
RFC5424Layout also does not
truncate records since the receiver
must accept records of up to 2048
bytes and may accept records that
are longer.
id String The default structured data id to
use when formatting according to
RFC 5424. If the LogEvent contains
a StructuredDataMessage the id
from the Message will be used
instead of this value.
includeMDC boolean Indicates whether data from the
ThreadContextMap will be included
in the RFC 5424 Syslog record.
Defaults to true.
loggerFields List of KeyValuePairs Allows arbitrary PatternLayout
patterns to be included as
specified ThreadContext fields;
no default specified. To use,
include a <LoggerFields> nested
element, containing one or more
<KeyValuePair> elements. Each
<KeyValuePair> must have a key
attribute, which specifies the key
name which will be used to identify
the field within the MDC Structured
Data element, and a value attribute,
which specifies the PatternLayout
pattern to use as the value.
mdcExcludes String A comma separated list of mdc
keys that should be excluded from
the LogEvent. This is mutually
exclusive with the mdcIncludes
attribute. This attribute only applies
to RFC 5424 syslog records.

10 Layouts 221

mdcIncludes String A comma separated list of mdc

keys that should be included in
the FlumeEvent. Any keys in the
MDC not found in the list will be
excluded. This option is mutually
exclusive with the mdcExcludes
attribute. This attribute only applies
to RFC 5424 syslog records.
mdcRequired String A comma separated list of mdc
keys that must be present in the
MDC. If a key is not present a
LoggingException will be thrown.
This attribute only applies to RFC
5424 syslog records.
mdcPrefix String A string that should be prepended
to each MDC key in order to
distinguish it from event attributes.
The default string is "mdc:". This
attribute only applies to RFC 5424
syslog records.
mdcId String A required MDC ID. This attribute
only applies to RFC 5424 syslog
records.
messageId String The default value to be used in the
MSGID field of RFC 5424 syslog
records.
newLine boolean If true, a newline will be appended
to the end of the syslog record. The
default is false.
newLineEscape String String that should be used to
replace newlines within the
message text.

Rfc5424Layout Parameters

10.1.8 Serialized Layout

The SerializedLayout simply serializes the LogEvent into a byte array using Java Serialization. The
SerializedLayout accepts no parameters.
This layout is deprecated since version 2.9. Java Serialization has inherent security weaknesses, using
this layout is no longer recommended. An alternative layout containing the same information is
JsonLayout, configured with properties="true".

10.1.9 Syslog Layout

The SyslogLayout formats the LogEvent as BSD Syslog records matching the same format used by
Log4j 1.2.

Parameter Name Type Description

10 Layouts 222

charset String The character set to use when

converting the syslog String to a
byte array. The String must be a
valid Charset. If not specified, this
layout uses UTF-8.
facility String The facility is used to try to classify
the message. The facility option
must be set to one of "KERN",
"USER", "MAIL", "DAEMON",
"AUTH", "SYSLOG", "LPR",
"NEWS", "UUCP", "CRON",
"AUTHPRIV", "FTP", "NTP",
"AUDIT", "ALERT", "CLOCK",
"LOCAL0", "LOCAL1", "LOCAL2",
"LOCAL3", "LOCAL4", "LOCAL5",
"LOCAL6", or "LOCAL7". These
values may be specified as upper
or lower case characters.
newLine boolean If true, a newline will be appended
to the end of the syslog record. The
default is false.
newLineEscape String String that should be used to
replace newlines within the
message text.

SyslogLayout Parameters

10.1.10 XML Layout

Appends a series of Event elements as defined in the log4j.dtd.

10.1.10.1 Complete well-formed XML vs. fragment XML

If you configure complete="true", the appender outputs a well-formed XML document where
the default namespace is the Log4j namespace "http://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.0/
events". By default, with complete="false", you should include the output as an external
entity in a separate file to form a well-formed XML document, in which case the appender uses
namespacePrefix with a default of "log4j".
A well-formed XML document follows this pattern:

10 Layouts 223

<Event xmlns="http://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.0/events"
level="INFO"
loggerName="HelloWorld"
endOfBatch="false"
thread="main"
loggerFqcn="org.apache.logging.log4j.spi.AbstractLogger"
threadId="1"
threadPriority="5">
<Instant epochSecond="1493121664" nanoOfSecond="118000000"/>
<Marker name="child">
<Parents>
<Marker name="parent">
<Parents>
<Marker name="grandparent"/>
</Parents>
</Marker>
</Parents>
</Marker>
<Message>Hello, world!</Message>
<ContextMap>
<item key="bar" value="BAR"/>
<item key="foo" value="FOO"/>
</ContextMap>
<ContextStack>
<ContextStackItem>one</ContextStackItem>
<ContextStackItem>two</ContextStackItem>
</ContextStack>
<Source
class="logtest.Main"
method="main"
file="Main.java"
line="29"/>
<Thrown commonElementCount="0" message="error message" name="java.lang.RuntimeException">
<ExtendedStackTrace>
<ExtendedStackTraceItem
class="logtest.Main"
method="main"
file="Main.java"
line="29"
exact="true"
location="classes/"
version="?"/>
</ExtendedStackTrace>
</Thrown>
</Event>

If complete="false", the appender does not write the XML processing instruction and the root
element.

10.1.10.2 Marker
Markers are represented by a Marker element within the Event element. The Marker element
appears only when a marker is used in the log message. The name of the marker's parent will be
provided in the parent attribute of the Marker element.

10 Layouts 224

10.1.10.3 Pretty vs. compact XML

By default, the XML layout is not compact (a.k.a. not "pretty") with compact="false",
which means the appender uses end-of-line characters and indents lines to format the XML. If
compact="true", then no end-of-line or indentation is used. Message content may contain, of
course, end-of-lines.

Parameter Name Type Description

charset String The character set to use when
converting to a byte array. The
value must be a valid Charset. If
not specified, UTF-8 will be used.
compact boolean If true, the appender does not
use end-of-lines and indentation.
Defaults to false.
complete boolean If true, the appender includes the
XML header and footer. Defaults to
false.
properties boolean If true, the appender includes
the thread context map in the
generated XML. Defaults to false.
locationInfo boolean If true, the appender includes
the location information in the
generated XML. Defaults to
false.
Generating location
information is an expensive
operation and may impact
performance. Use with caution.
includeStacktrace boolean If true, include full stacktrace of
any logged Throwable (optional,
default to true).
stacktraceAsString boolean Whether to format the stacktrace
as a string, and not a nested object
(optional, defaults to false).
includeNullDelimiter boolean Whether to include NULL byte as
delimiter after each event (optional,
default to false).

XmlLayout Parameters
To include any custom field in the output, use following syntax:

Custom fields are always last, in the order they are declared. The values support lookups.
Additional runtime dependencies are required for using XmlLayout.

10 Layouts 225

10.1.11 YAML Layout

Appends a series of YAML events as strings serialized as bytes.
A YAML log event follows this pattern:
---
instant:
epochSecond: 1493121664
nanoOfSecond: 118000000
thread: "main"
level: "INFO"
loggerName: "HelloWorld"
marker:
name: "child"
parents:
- name: "parent"
parents:
- name: "grandparent"
message: "Hello, world!"
thrown:
commonElementCount: 0
message: "error message"
name: "java.lang.RuntimeException"
extendedStackTrace:
- class: "logtest.Main"
method: "main"
file: "Main.java"
line: 29
exact: true
location: "classes/"
version: "?"
contextStack:
- "one"
- "two"
endOfBatch: false
loggerFqcn: "org.apache.logging.log4j.spi.AbstractLogger"
contextMap:
bar: "BAR"
foo: "FOO"
threadId: 1
threadPriority: 5
source:
class: "logtest.Main"
method: "main"
file: "Main.java"
line: 29

Parameter Name Type Description

10 Layouts 226

charset String The character set to use when

converting to a byte array. The
value must be a valid Charset. If
not specified, UTF-8 will be used.
properties boolean If true, the appender includes
the thread context map in the
generated YAML. Defaults to false.
locationInfo boolean If true, the appender includes
the location information in the
generated YAML. Defaults to
false.
Generating location
information is an expensive
operation and may impact
performance. Use with caution.
includeStacktrace boolean If true, include full stacktrace of
any logged Throwable (optional,
default to true).
stacktraceAsString boolean Whether to format the stacktrace
as a string, and not a nested object
(optional, defaults to false).
includeNullDelimiter boolean Whether to include NULL byte as
delimiter after each event (optional,
default to false).

YamlLayout Parameters
To include any custom field in the output, use following syntax:

Custom fields are always last, in the order they are declared. The values support lookups.
Additional runtime dependencies are required for using YamlLayout.

10.1.12 Location Information

If one of the layouts is configured with a location-related attribute like HTML locationInfo, or one of
the patterns %C or %class, %F or %file, %l or %location, %L or %line, %M or %method, Log4j
will take a snapshot of the stack, and walk the stack trace to find the location information.
This is an expensive operation: 1.3 - 5 times slower for synchronous loggers. Synchronous loggers
wait as long as possible before they take this stack snapshot. If no location is required, the snapshot
will never be taken.
However, asynchronous loggers need to make this decision before passing the log message to another
thread; the location information will be lost after that point. The performance impact of taking a stack
trace snapshot is even higher for asynchronous loggers: logging with location is 30-100 times slower

10 Layouts 227

than without location. For this reason, asynchronous loggers and asynchronous appenders do not
include location information by default.
You can override the default behaviour in your logger or asynchronous appender configuration by
specifying includeLocation="true".

11 Filters 228

11 Filters
.......................................................................................................................................

11.1 Filters
Filters allow Log Events to be evaluated to determine if or how they should be published. A Filter
will be called on one of its filter methods and will return a Result, which is an Enum that has one of 3
values - ACCEPT, DENY or NEUTRAL.
Filters may be configured in one of four locations:

1. Context-wide Filters are configured directly in the configuration. Events that are rejected by
these filters will not be passed to loggers for further processing. Once an event has been accepted
by a Context-wide filter it will not be evaluated by any other Context-wide Filters nor will the
Logger's Level be used to filter the event. The event will be evaluated by Logger and Appender
Filters however.
2. Logger Filters are configured on a specified Logger. These are evaluated after the Context-
wide Filters and the Log Level for the Logger. Events that are rejected by these filters will be
discarded and the event will not be passed to a parent Logger regardless of the additivity setting.
3. Appender Filters are used to determine if a specific Appender should handle the formatting and
publication of the event.
4. Appender Reference Filters are used to determine if a Logger should route the event to an
appender.

11.1.1 BurstFilter
The BurstFilter provides a mechanism to control the rate at which LogEvents are processed by silently
discarding events after the maximum limit has been reached.

Parameter Name Type Description

level String Level of messages to be filtered.
Anything at or below this level will
be filtered out if maxBurst has
been exceeded. The default is
WARN meaning any messages that
are higher than warn will be logged
regardless of the size of a burst.
rate float The average number of events per
second to allow.
maxBurst integer The maximum number of events
that can occur before events are
filtered for exceeding the average
rate. The default is 10 times the
rate.
onMatch String Action to take when the filter
matches. May be ACCEPT, DENY
or NEUTRAL. The default value is
NEUTRAL.

11 Filters 229

onMismatch String Action to take when the filter does

not match. May be ACCEPT,
DENY or NEUTRAL. The default
value is DENY.

Burst Filter Parameters

A configuration containing the BurstFilter might look like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" fileName="logs/app.log"
filePattern="logs/app-%d{MM-dd-yyyy}.log.gz">
<BurstFilter level="INFO" rate="16" maxBurst="100"/>
<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy />
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

11.1.2 CompositeFilter
The CompositeFilter provides a way to specify more than one filter. It is added to the configuration as
a filters element and contains other filters to be evaluated. The filters element accepts no parameters.
A configuration containing the CompositeFilter might look like:

11 Filters 230

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

11.1.3 DynamicThresholdFilter
The DynamicThresholdFilter allows filtering by log level based on specific attributes. For example,
if the user's loginId is being captured in the ThreadContext Map then it is possible to enable debug
logging for only that user. If the log event does not contain the specified ThreadContext item
NEUTRAL will be returned.

Parameter Name Type Description

key String The name of the item in the
ThreadContext Map to compare.
defaultThreshold String Level of messages to be filtered.
The default threshold only applies if
the log event contains the specified
ThreadContext Map item and its
value does not match any key in
the key/value pairs.

11 Filters 231

keyValuePair KeyValuePair[] One or more KeyValuePair

elements that define the matching
value for the key and the Level to
evaluate when the key matches.
onMatch String Action to take when the filter
matches. May be ACCEPT, DENY
or NEUTRAL. The default value is
NEUTRAL.
onMismatch String Action to take when the filter does
not match. May be ACCEPT,
DENY or NEUTRAL. The default
value is DENY.

Dynamic Threshold Filter Parameters

Here is a sample configuration containing the DynamicThresholdFilter:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<DynamicThresholdFilter key="loginId" defaultThreshold="ERROR"
onMatch="ACCEPT" onMismatch="NEUTRAL">
<KeyValuePair key="User1" value="DEBUG"/>
</DynamicThresholdFilter>
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" fileName="logs/app.log"
filePattern="logs/app-%d{MM-dd-yyyy}.log.gz">
<BurstFilter level="INFO" rate="16" maxBurst="100"/>
<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy />
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

11.1.4 MapFilter
The MapFilter allows filtering against data elements that are in a MapMessage.

Parameter Name Type Description

keyValuePair KeyValuePair[] One or more KeyValuePair
elements that define the key in the
map and the value to match on.
If the same key is specified more
than once then the check for that
key will automatically be an "or"
since a Map can only contain a
single value.

11 Filters 232

operator String If the operator is "or" then a match

by any one of the key/value pairs
will be considered to be a match,
otherwise all the key/value pairs
must match.
onMatch String Action to take when the filter
matches. May be ACCEPT, DENY
or NEUTRAL. The default value is
NEUTRAL.
onMismatch String Action to take when the filter does
not match. May be ACCEPT,
DENY or NEUTRAL. The default
value is DENY.

Map Filter Parameters

As in this configuration, the MapFilter can be used to log particular events:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<MapFilter onMatch="ACCEPT" onMismatch="NEUTRAL" operator="or">
<KeyValuePair key="eventId" value="Login"/>
<KeyValuePair key="eventId" value="Logout"/>
</MapFilter>
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" fileName="logs/app.log"
filePattern="logs/app-%d{MM-dd-yyyy}.log.gz">
<BurstFilter level="INFO" rate="16" maxBurst="100"/>
<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy />
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
This sample configuration will exhibit the same behavior as the preceding example since the only
logger configured is the root.

11 Filters 233

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" fileName="logs/app.log"
filePattern="logs/app-%d{MM-dd-yyyy}.log.gz">
<BurstFilter level="INFO" rate="16" maxBurst="100"/>
<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy />
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<MapFilter onMatch="ACCEPT" onMismatch="NEUTRAL" operator="or">
<KeyValuePair key="eventId" value="Login"/>
<KeyValuePair key="eventId" value="Logout"/>
</MapFilter>
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile">
</AppenderRef>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
This third sample configuration will exhibit the same behavior as the preceding examples since the
only logger configured is the root and the root is only configured with a single appender reference.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" fileName="logs/app.log"
filePattern="logs/app-%d{MM-dd-yyyy}.log.gz">
<BurstFilter level="INFO" rate="16" maxBurst="100"/>
<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy />
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile">
<MapFilter onMatch="ACCEPT" onMismatch="NEUTRAL" operator="or">
<KeyValuePair key="eventId" value="Login"/>
<KeyValuePair key="eventId" value="Logout"/>
</MapFilter>
</AppenderRef>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

11 Filters 234

11.1.5 MarkerFilter
The MarkerFilter compares the configured Marker value against the Marker that is included in the
LogEvent. A match occurs when the Marker name matches either the Log Event's Marker or one of its
parents.

Parameter Name Type Description

marker String The name of the Marker to
compare.
onMatch String Action to take when the filter
matches. May be ACCEPT, DENY
or NEUTRAL. The default value is
NEUTRAL.
onMismatch String Action to take when the filter does
not match. May be ACCEPT,
DENY or NEUTRAL. The default
value is DENY.

Marker Filter Parameters

A sample configuration that only allows the event to be written by the appender if the Marker
matches:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" fileName="logs/app.log"
filePattern="logs/app-%d{MM-dd-yyyy}.log.gz">
<MarkerFilter marker="FLOW" onMatch="ACCEPT" onMismatch="DENY"/>
<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy />
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

11.1.6 NoMarkerFilter
The NoMarkerFilter checks that there is no marker included in the LogEvent. A match occurs when
there is no marker in the Log Event.

Parameter Name Type Description

onMatch string Action to take when the filter
matches. May be ACCEPT, DENY
or NEUTRAL. The default value is
NEUTRAL.

11 Filters 235

onMismatch string Action to take when the filter does

not match. May be ACCEPT,
DENY or NEUTRAL. The default
value is DENY.

No Marker Filter Parameters

A sample configuration that only allows the event to be written by the appender if no marker is there:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" fileName="logs/app.log" filePattern="logs/app-%d{MM-dd-yyyy}.log.gz">
<NoMarkerFilter onMatch="ACCEPT" onMismatch="DENY"/>
<PatternLayout pattern="%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n"/>
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy />
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

11.1.7 RegexFilter
The RegexFilter allows the formatted or unformatted message to be compared against a regular
expression.

Parameter Name Type Description

regex String The regular expression.
useRawMsg boolean If true the unformatted message will
be used, otherwise the formatted
message will be used. The default
value is false.
onMatch String Action to take when the filter
matches. May be ACCEPT, DENY
or NEUTRAL. The default value is
NEUTRAL.
onMismatch String Action to take when the filter does
not match. May be ACCEPT,
DENY or NEUTRAL. The default
value is DENY.

Regex Filter Parameters

A sample configuration that only allows the event to be written by the appender if it contains the word
"test":

11 Filters 236

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

11.1.8 Script
The ScriptFilter executes a script that returns true or false.

Parameter Name Type Description

script Script, ScriptFile or ScriptRef The Script element that specifies
the logic to be executed.
onMatch String Action to take when the script
returns true. May be ACCEPT,
DENY or NEUTRAL. The default
value is NEUTRAL.
onMismatch String Action to take when the filter
returns false. May be ACCEPT,
DENY or NEUTRAL. The default
value is DENY.

Script Filter Parameters

Parameter Name Type Description

configuration Configuration The Configuration that owns this
ScriptFilter.
level Level The logging Level associated with
the event. Only present when
configured as a global filter.
loggerName String The name of the logger. Only
present when configured as a
global filter.
logEvent LogEvent The LogEvent being processed.
Not present when configured as a
global filter.

11 Filters 237

marker Marker The Marker passed on the logging

call, if any. Only present when
configured as a global filter.
message Message The Message associated with the
logging call. Only present when
configured as a global filter.
parameters Object[] The parameters passed to the
logging call. Only present when
configured as a global filter. Some
Messages include the parameters
as part of the Message.
throwable Throwable The Throwable passed to the
logging call, if any. Only present
when configured as a global filter.
Som Messages include Throwable
as part of the Message.
substitutor StrSubstitutor The StrSubstitutor used to replace
lookup variables.

Script Parameters
The sample below shows how to declare script fields and then reference them in specific components.
See ScriptCondition for an example of how the Script element can be used to embed script code
directly in the configuration.

11 Filters 238

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

11.1.9 StructuredDataFilter
The StructuredDataFilter is a MapFilter that also allows filtering on the event id, type and message.

Parameter Name Type Description

keyValuePair KeyValuePair[] One or more KeyValuePair
elements that define the key
in the map and the value to
match on. "id", "id.name",
"type", and "message" should
be used to match on the
StructuredDataId, the name portion
of the StructuredDataId, the
type, and the formatted message
respectively. If the same key is
specified more than once then the
check for that key will automatically
be an "or" since a Map can only
contain a single value.

11 Filters 239

operator String If the operator is "or" then a match

StructuredData Filter Parameters

As in this configuration, the StructuredDataFilter can be used to log particular events:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<StructuredDataFilter onMatch="ACCEPT" onMismatch="NEUTRAL" operator="or">
<KeyValuePair key="id" value="Login"/>
<KeyValuePair key="id" value="Logout"/>
</StructuredDataFilter>
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" fileName="logs/app.log"
filePattern="logs/app-%d{MM-dd-yyyy}.log.gz">
<BurstFilter level="INFO" rate="16" maxBurst="100"/>
<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy />
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>

11.1.10 ThreadContextMapFilter (or ContextMapFilter)

The ThreadContextMapFilter or ContextMapFilter allows filtering against data elements that are in
the current context. By default this is the ThreadContext Map.

Parameter Name Type Description

11 Filters 240

keyValuePair KeyValuePair[] One or more KeyValuePair

elements that define the key in the
map and the value to match on.
If the same key is specified more
than once then the check for that
key will automatically be an "or"
since a Map can only contain a
single value.
operator String If the operator is "or" then a match
by any one of the key/value pairs
will be considered to be a match,
otherwise all the key/value pairs
must match.
onMatch String Action to take when the filter
matches. May be ACCEPT, DENY
or NEUTRAL. The default value is
NEUTRAL.
onMismatch String Action to take when the filter does
not match. May be ACCEPT,
DENY or NEUTRAL. The default
value is DENY.

Context Map Filter Parameters

A configuration containing the ContextMapFilter might look like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="warn" name="MyApp" packages="">
<ContextMapFilter onMatch="ACCEPT" onMismatch="NEUTRAL" operator="or">
<KeyValuePair key="User1" value="DEBUG"/>
<KeyValuePair key="User2" value="WARN"/>
</ContextMapFilter>
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="RollingFile" fileName="logs/app.log"
filePattern="logs/app-%d{MM-dd-yyyy}.log.gz">
<BurstFilter level="INFO" rate="16" maxBurst="100"/>
<PatternLayout>
<pattern>%d %p %c{1.} [%t] %m%n</pattern>
</PatternLayout>
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy />
</RollingFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<Root level="error">
<AppenderRef ref="RollingFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
The ContextMapFilter can also be applied to a logger for filtering:

11 Filters 241

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

11.1.11 ThresholdFilter
This filter returns the onMatch result if the level in the LogEvent is the same or more specific than
the configured level and the onMismatch value otherwise. For example, if the ThresholdFilter is
configured with Level ERROR and the LogEvent contains Level DEBUG then the onMismatch value
will be returned since ERROR events are more specific than DEBUG.

Parameter Name Type Description

level String A valid Level name to match on.
onMatch String Action to take when the filter
matches. May be ACCEPT, DENY
or NEUTRAL. The default value is
NEUTRAL.
onMismatch String Action to take when the filter does
not match. May be ACCEPT,
DENY or NEUTRAL. The default
value is DENY.

Threshold Filter Parameters

A sample configuration that only allows the event to be written by the appender if the level matches:

11 Filters 242

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

11.1.12 TimeFilter
The time filter can be used to restrict filter to only a certain portion of the day.

Parameter Name Type Description

start String A time in HH:mm:ss format.
end String A time in HH:mm:ss format.
Specifying an end time less than
the start time will result in no log
entries being written.
timezone String The timezone to use when
comparing to the event timestamp.
onMatch String Action to take when the filter
matches. May be ACCEPT, DENY
or NEUTRAL. The default value is
NEUTRAL.
onMismatch String Action to take when the filter does
not match. May be ACCEPT,
DENY or NEUTRAL. The default
value is DENY.

Time Filter Parameters

A sample configuration that only allows the event to be written by the appender from 5:00 to 5:30 am
each day using the default timezone:

11 Filters 243

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

12 Async Loggers 244

12 Async Loggers
.......................................................................................................................................

12.1 Asynchronous Loggers for Low-Latency Logging

Asynchronous logging can improve your application's performance by executing the I/O operations in
a separate thread. Log4j 2 makes a number of improvements in this area.
• Asynchronous Loggers are a new addition in Log4j 2. Their aim is to return from the call to
Logger.log to the application as soon as possible. You can choose between making all Loggers
asynchronous or using a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous Loggers. Making all Loggers
asynchronous will give the best performance, while mixing gives you more flexibility.
• LMAX Disruptor technology. Asynchronous Loggers internally use the Disruptor, a lock-free
inter-thread communication library, instead of queues, resulting in higher throughput and lower
latency.
• As part of the work for Async Loggers, Asynchronous Appenders have been enhanced to
flush to disk at the end of a batch (when the queue is empty). This produces the same result as
configuring "immediateFlush=true", that is, all received log events are always available on disk,
but is more efficient because it does not need to touch the disk on each and every log event.
(Async Appenders use ArrayBlockingQueue internally and do not need the disruptor jar on the
classpath.)

12.1.1 Trade-offs
Although asynchronous logging can give significant performance benefits, there are situations where
you may want to choose synchronous logging. This section describes some of the trade-offs of
asynchronous logging.
Benefits
• Higher peak throughput. With an asynchronous logger your application can log messages at 6 -
68 times the rate of a synchronous logger.
This is especially interesting for applications that occasionally need to log bursts of messages.
Async logging can help prevent or dampen latency spikes by shortening the wait time until the
next message can be logged. If the queue size is configured large enough to handle the burst,
asynchronous logging will help prevent your application from falling behind (as much) during a
sudden increase of activity.
• Lower logging response time latency. Response time latency is the time it takes for a call to
Logger.log to return under a given workload. Asynchronous Loggers have consistently lower
latency than synchronous loggers or even queue-based asynchronous appenders.
Drawbacks
• Error handling. If a problem happens during the logging process and an exception is thrown, it
is less easy for an asynchronous logger or appender to signal this problem to the application.
This can partly be alleviated by configuring an ExceptionHandler, but this may still not cover
all cases. For this reason, if logging is part of your business logic, for example if you are using
Log4j as an audit logging framework, we would recommend to synchronously log those audit
messages. (Note that you can still combine them and use asynchronous logging for debug/trace
logging in addition to synchronous logging for the audit trail.)
• In some rare cases, care must be taken with mutable messages. Most of the time you don't need
to worry about this. Log4 will ensure that log messages like logger.debug("My object
is {}", myObject) will use the state of the myObject parameter at the time of the call to
logger.debug(). The log message will not change even if myObject is modified later. It is
safe to asynchronously log mutable objects because most Message implementations built-in to

12 Async Loggers 245

Log4j take a snapshot of the parameters. There are some exceptions however: MapMessage and
StructuredDataMessage are mutable by design: fields can be added to these messages after the
message object was created. These messages should not be modified after they are logged with
asynchronous loggers or asynchronous appenders; you may or may not see the modifications in
the resulting log output. Similarly, custom Message implementations should be designed with
asynchronous use in mind, and either take a snapshot of their parameters at construction time, or
document their thread-safety characteristics.
• If your application is running in an environment where CPU resources are scarce, like a machine
with one CPU with a single core, starting another thread is not likely to give better performance.
• If the sustained rate at which your application is logging messages is faster than the maximum
sustained throughput of the underlying appender, the queue will fill up and the application will
end up logging at the speed of the slowest appender. If this happens, consider selecting a faster
appender, or logging less. If neither of these is an option, you may get better throughput and
fewer latency spikes by logging synchronously.

12.1.2 Making All Loggers Asynchronous

Log4j-2.9 and higher require disruptor-3.3.4.jar or higher on the classpath. Prior to Log4j-2.9,
disruptor-3.0.0.jar or higher was required.
This is simplest to configure and gives the best performance. To make all loggers asynchronous,
add the disruptor jar to the classpath and set the system property log4j2.contextSelector
to org.apache.logging.log4j.core.async.AsyncLoggerContextSelector or
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.async.BasicAsyncLoggerContextSelector.
By default, location is not passed to the I/O thread by asynchronous loggers. If one of your layouts or
custom filters needs location information, you need to set "includeLocation=true" in the configuration
of all relevant loggers, including the root logger.
A configuration that does not require location might look like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!-- Don't forget to set system property

-Dlog4j2.contextSelector=org.apache.logging.log4j.core.async.AsyncLoggerContextSelector
or
-Dlog4j2.contextSelector=org.apache.logging.log4j.core.async.BasicAsyncLoggerContextSelector
to make all loggers asynchronous. -->

12 Async Loggers 246

When AsyncLoggerContextSelector or BasicAsyncLoggerContextSelector is used to

make all loggers asynchronous, make sure to use normal <root> and <logger> elements in the
configuration. The context selector will ensure that all loggers are asynchronous, using a mechanism
that is different from what happens when you configure <asyncRoot> or <asyncLogger>. The
latter elements are intended for mixing async with sync loggers. If you use both mechanisms together
you will end up with two background threads, where your application passes the log message to
thread A, which passes the message to thread B, which then finally logs the message to disk. This
works, but there will be an unnecessary step in the middle.
There are a few system properties you can use to control aspects of the asynchronous logging
subsystem. Some of these can be used to tune logging performance.
The below properties can also be specified by creating a file named
log4j2.component.properties and including this file in the classpath of the application.
Note that system properties were renamed into a more consistent style in Log4j 2.10.0. All old
property names are still supported which are documented here.

System Property Default Value Description

log4j2.asyncLoggerExceptionHandler default handler Fully qualified name of a
class that implements the
com.lmax.disruptor.ExceptionHandler
interface. The class needs to have
a public zero-argument constructor.
If specified, this class will be
notified when an exception occurs
while logging the messages.
If not specified, the default
exception handler will print a
message and stack trace to the
standard error output stream.
log4j2.asyncLoggerRingBufferSize 256 * 1024 Size (number of slots) in
the RingBuffer used by the
asynchronous logging subsystem.
Make this value large enough
to deal with bursts of activity.
The minimum size is 128. The
RingBuffer will be pre-allocated
at first use and will never grow or
shrink during the life of the system.
When the application is
logging faster than the
underlying appender can keep
up with for a long enough
time to fill up the queue, the
behaviour is determined by the
AsyncQueueFullPolicy.

12 Async Loggers 247

log4j2.asyncLoggerWaitStrategy Timeout Valid values: Block, Timeout,

Sleep, Yield.
Block is a strategy that uses
a lock and condition variable
for the I/O thread waiting for
log events. Block can be used
when throughput and low-latency
are not as important as CPU
resource. Recommended for
resource constrained/virtualised
environments.
Timeout is a variation of
the Block strategy that will
periodically wake up from the lock
condition await() call. This ensures
that if a notification is missed
somehow the consumer thread is
not stuck but will recover with a
small latency delay (default 10ms).
Sleep is a strategy that initially
spins, then uses a Thread.yield(),
and eventually parks for the
minimum number of nanos the OS
and JVM will allow while the I/O
thread is waiting for log events.
Sleep is a good compromise
between performance and CPU
resource. This strategy has very
low impact on the application
thread, in exchange for some
additional latency for actually
getting the message logged.
Yield is a strategy that uses a
Thread.yield() for waiting for log
events after an initially spinning.
Yield is a good compromise
between performance and CPU
resource, but may use more CPU
than Sleep in order to get the
message logged to disk sooner.
log4j2.asyncLoggerTimeout 10 Timeout in milliseconds of
TimeoutBlockingWaitStrategy.
See the WaitStrategy System
Property for details.
log4j2.asyncLoggerSleepTimeNs 100 Sleep time (in nanoseconds) of
SleepingWaitStrategy. See
the WaitStrategy System Property
for details.
log4j2.asyncLoggerRetries 200 Total number of spin cycles and
Thread.yield() cycles of
SleepingWaitStrategy. See
the WaitStrategy System Property
for details.

12 Async Loggers 248

AsyncLogger.SynchronizeEnqueueWhenQueueFull
true Synchronizes access to the
Disruptor ring buffer for blocking
enqueue operations when the
queue is full. Users encountered
excessive CPU utilization with
Disruptor v3.4.2 when the
application was logging more
than the underlying appender
could keep up with and the ring
buffer became full, especially
when the number of application
threads vastly outnumbered the
number of cores. CPU utilization is
significantly reduced by restricting
access to the enqueue operation.
Setting this value to false may
lead to very high CPU utilization
when the async logging queue is
full.
log4j2.asyncLoggerThreadNameStrategy
CACHED Valid values: CACHED,
UNCACHED.
By default, AsyncLogger caches
the thread name in a ThreadLocal
variable to improve performance.
Specify the UNCACHED option
if your application modifies the
thread name at runtime (with
Thread.currentThread().setName())
and you want to see the new thread
name reflected in the log.

12 Async Loggers 249

log4j2.clock SystemClock Implementation of the

org.apache.logging.log4j.core.util.Cl
interface that is used for
timestamping the log
events when all loggers are
asynchronous.
By default,
System.currentTimeMillis
is called on every log event.
CachedClock is an
optimization intended for low-
latency applications where
time stamps are generated
from a clock that updates its
internal time in a background
thread once every millisecond,
or every 1024 log events,
whichever comes first. This
reduces logging latency a
little, at the cost of some
precision in the logged time
stamps. Unless you are logging
many events, you may see
"jumps" of 10-16 milliseconds
between log time stamps. WEB
APPLICATION WARNING:
The use of a background
thread may cause issues for
web applications and OSGi
applications so CachedClock is
not recommended for this kind
of applications.
You can also specify the fully
qualified class name of a
custom class that implements
the Clock interface.

System Properties to configure all asynchronous loggers

There are also a few system properties that can be used to maintain application throughput
even when the underlying appender cannot keep up with the logging rate and the queue is
filling up. See the details for system properties log4j2.asyncQueueFullPolicy and
log4j2.discardThreshold.

12.1.3 Mixing Synchronous and Asynchronous Loggers

Log4j-2.9 and higher require disruptor-3.3.4.jar or higher on the classpath. Prior to
Log4j-2.9, disruptor-3.0.0.jar or higher was required. There is no need to set system property
"Log4jContextSelector" to any value.

12 Async Loggers 250

Synchronous and asynchronous loggers can be combined in configuration. This gives you more
flexibility at the cost of a slight loss in performance (compared to making all loggers asynchronous).
Use the <asyncRoot> or <asyncLogger> configuration elements to specify the loggers that
need to be asynchronous. A configuration can contain only one root logger (either a <root> or an
<asyncRoot> element), but otherwise async and non-async loggers may be combined. For example,
a configuration file containing <asyncLogger> elements can also contain <root> and <logger>
elements for the synchronous loggers.
By default, location is not passed to the I/O thread by asynchronous loggers. If one of your layouts or
custom filters needs location information, you need to set "includeLocation=true" in the configuration
of all relevant loggers, including the root logger.
A configuration that mixes asynchronous loggers might look like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!-- No need to set system property "log4j2.contextSelector" to any value

when using <asyncLogger> or <asyncRoot>. -->

<Configuration status="WARN">
<Appenders>

<RandomAccessFile name="RandomAccessFile" fileName="asyncWithLocation.log"
immediateFlush="false" append="false">
<PatternLayout>
<Pattern>%d %p %class{1.} [%t] %location %m %ex%n</Pattern>
</PatternLayout>
</RandomAccessFile>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>

<AsyncLogger name="com.foo.Bar" level="trace" includeLocation="true">
<AppenderRef ref="RandomAccessFile"/>
</AsyncLogger>
<Root level="info" includeLocation="true">
<AppenderRef ref="RandomAccessFile"/>
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
There are a few system properties you can use to control aspects of the asynchronous logging
subsystem. Some of these can be used to tune logging performance.
The below properties can also be specified by creating a file named
log4j2.component.properties and including this file in the classpath of the application.
Note that system properties were renamed into a more consistent style in Log4j 2.10. All old property
names are still supported which are documented here.

System Property Default Value Description

12 Async Loggers 251

log4j2.asyncLoggerConfigExceptionHandler
default handler Fully qualified name of a
class that implements the
com.lmax.disruptor.ExceptionHandler
interface. The class needs to have
a public zero-argument constructor.
If specified, this class will be
notified when an exception occurs
while logging the messages.
If not specified, the default
exception handler will print a
message and stack trace to the
standard error output stream.
log4j2.asyncLoggerConfigRingBufferSize
256 * 1024 Size (number of slots) in
the RingBuffer used by the
asynchronous logging subsystem.
Make this value large enough
to deal with bursts of activity.
The minimum size is 128. The
RingBuffer will be pre-allocated
at first use and will never grow or
shrink during the life of the system.
When the application is
logging faster than the
underlying appender can keep
up with for a long enough
time to fill up the queue, the
behavious is determined by the
AsyncQueueFullPolicy.

12 Async Loggers 252

log4j2.asyncLoggerConfigWaitStrategy
Timeout Valid values: Block, Timeout,
Sleep, Yield.
Block is a strategy that uses
a lock and condition variable
for the I/O thread waiting for
log events. Block can be used
when throughput and low-latency
are not as important as CPU
resource. Recommended for
resource constrained/virtualised
environments.
Timeout is a variation of
the Block strategy that will
periodically wake up from the lock
condition await() call. This ensures
that if a notification is missed
somehow the consumer thread is
not stuck but will recover with a
small latency delay (default 10ms).
Sleep is a strategy that initially
spins, then uses a Thread.yield(),
and eventually parks for the
minimum number of nanos the OS
and JVM will allow while the I/O
thread is waiting for log events.
Sleep is a good compromise
between performance and CPU
resource. This strategy has very
low impact on the application
thread, in exchange for some
additional latency for actually
getting the message logged.
Yield is a strategy that uses a
Thread.yield() for waiting for log
events after an initially spinning.
Yield is a good compromise
between performance and CPU
resource, but may use more CPU
than Sleep in order to get the
message logged to disk sooner.
log4j2.asyncLoggerConfigTimeout 10 Timeout in milliseconds of
TimeoutBlockingWaitStrategy.
See the WaitStrategy System
Property for details.
log4j2.asyncLoggerConfigSleepTimeNs
100 Sleep time (in nanoseconds) of
SleepingWaitStrategy. See
the WaitStrategy System Property
for details.
log4j2.asyncLoggerConfigRetries 200 Total number of spin cycles and
Thread.yield() cycles of
SleepingWaitStrategy. See
the WaitStrategy System Property
for details.

12 Async Loggers 253

AsyncLoggerConfig.SynchronizeEnqueueWhenQueueFull
true Synchronizes access to the
Disruptor ring buffer for blocking
enqueue operations when the
queue is full. Users encountered
excessive CPU utilization with
Disruptor v3.4.2 when the
application was logging more
than the underlying appender
could keep up with and the ring
buffer became full, especially
when the number of application
threads vastly outnumbered the
number of cores. CPU utilization is
significantly reduced by restricting
access to the enqueue operation.
Setting this value to false may
lead to very high CPU utilization
when the async logging queue is
full.

System Properties to configure mixed asynchronous and normal loggers

12.1.4 Location, location, location...

If one of the layouts is configured with a location-related attribute like HTML locationInfo, or one of
the patterns %C or $class, %F or %file, %l or %location, %L or %line, %M or %method, Log4j
will take a snapshot of the stack, and walk the stack trace to find the location information.
This is an expensive operation: 1.3 - 5 times slower for synchronous loggers. Synchronous loggers
wait as long as possible before they take this stack snapshot. If no location is required, the snapshot
will never be taken.
However, asynchronous loggers need to make this decision before passing the log message to another
thread; the location information will be lost after that point. The performance impact of taking a stack
trace snapshot is even higher for asynchronous loggers: logging with location is 30-100 times slower
than without location. For this reason, asynchronous loggers and asynchronous appenders do not
include location information by default.
You can override the default behaviour in your logger or asynchronous appender configuration by
specifying includeLocation="true".

12.1.5 Asynchronous Logging Performance

The throughput performance results below were derived from running the PerfTest, MTPerfTest and
PerfTestDriver classes which can be found in the Log4j 2 unit test source directory. For throughput
tests, the methodology used was:

• First, warm up the JVM by logging 200,000 log messages of 500 characters.

12 Async Loggers 254

• Repeat the warm-up 10 times, then wait 10 seconds for the I/O thread to catch up and buffers to
drain.
• Measure how long it takes to execute 256 * 1024 / threadCount calls to Logger.log and express
the result in messages per second.
• Repeat the test 5 times and average the results.
The results below were obtained with log4j-2.0-beta5, disruptor-3.0.0.beta3, log4j-1.2.17 and
logback-1.0.10.

12.1.5.1 Logging Peak Throughput

The graph below compares the throughput of synchronous loggers, asynchronous appenders and
asynchronous loggers. This is the total throughput of all threads together. In the test with 64 threads,
asynchronous loggers are 12 times faster than asynchronous appenders, and 68 times faster than
synchronous loggers.
Asynchronous loggers' throughput increases with the number of threads, whereas both synchronous
loggers and asynchronous appenders have more or less constant throughput regardless of the number
of threads that are doing the logging.

12.1.5.2 Asynchronous Throughput Comparison with Other Logging Packages

We also compared peak throughput of asynchronous loggers to the synchronous loggers and
asynchronous appenders available in other logging packages, specifically log4j-1.2.17 and
logback-1.0.10, with similar results. For asynchronous appenders, total logging throughput of all
threads together remains roughly constant when adding more threads. Asynchronous loggers make
more effective use of the multiple cores available on the machine in multi-threaded scenarios.

12 Async Loggers 255

On Solaris 10 (64bit) with JDK1.7.0_06, 4-core Xeon X5570 dual CPU @2.93Ghz with
hyperthreading switched on (16 virtual cores):

16 32 64
Logger 1 thread 2 threads 4 threads 8 threads threads threads threads
Log4j 2: 2,652,412 909,119 776,993 516,365 239,246 253,791 288,997
Loggers all
asynchronous
Log4j 2: 2,454,358 839,394 854,578 597,913 261,003 216,863 218,937
Loggers
mixed sync/
async
Log4j 2: 1,713,429 603,019 331,506 149,408 86,107 45,529 23,980
Async
Appender
Log4j1: 2,239,664 494,470 221,402 109,314 60,580 31,706 14,072
Async
Appender
Logback: 2,206,907 624,082 307,500 160,096 85,701 43,422 21,303
Async
Appender
Log4j 2: 273,536 136,523 67,609 34,404 15,373 7,903 4,253
Synchronous
Log4j1: 326,894 105,591 57,036 30,511 13,900 7,094 3,509
Synchronous
Logback: 178,063 65,000 34,372 16,903 8,334 3,985 1,967
Synchronous

Throughput per thread in messages/second

12 Async Loggers 256

On Windows 7 (64bit) with JDK1.7.0_11, 2-core Intel i5-3317u CPU @1.70Ghz with hyperthreading
switched on (4 virtual cores):

Logger 1 thread 2 threads 4 threads 8 threads 16 threads 32 threads

Log4j 2: 1,715,344 928,951 1,045,265 1,509,109 1,708,989 773,565
Loggers all
asynchronous
Log4j 2: 571,099 1,204,774 1,632,204 1,368,041 462,093 908,529
Loggers
mixed sync/
async
Log4j 2: 1,236,548 1,006,287 511,571 302,230 160,094 60,152
Async
Appender
Log4j1: Async 1,373,195 911,657 636,899 406,405 202,777 162,964
Appender
Logback: 1,979,515 783,722 582,935 289,905 172,463 133,435
Async
Appender
Log4j 2: 281,250 225,731 129,015 66,590 34,401 17,347
Synchronous
Log4j1: 147,824 72,383 32,865 18,025 8,937 4,440
Synchronous
Logback: 149,811 66,301 32,341 16,962 8,431 3,610
Synchronous

Throughput per thread in messages/second

12.1.5.3 Response Time Latency

This section has been rewritten with the Log4j 2.6 release. The previous version only reported service time
instead of response time. See the response time side bar on the performance page on why this is too
optimistic. Furthermore the previous version reported average latency, which does not make sense since
latency is not a normal distribution. Finally, the previous version of this section only reported the maximum
latency of up to 99.99% of the measurements, which does not tell you how bad the worst 0.01% were. This is
unfortunate because often the "outliers" are all that matter when it comes to response time. From this release
we will try to do better and report response time latency across the full range of percentages, including all the
outliers. Our thanks to Gil Tene for his How NOT to measure latency presentation. (Now we know why this is
also known as the "Oh s#@t!" presentation.)

Response time is how long it takes to log a message under a certain load. What is often reported as
latency is actually service time: how long it took to perform the operation. This hides the fact that a
single spike in service time adds queueing delay for many of the subsequent operations. Service time
is easy to measure (and often looks good on paper) but is irrelevant for users since it omits the time
spent waiting for service. For this reason we report response time: service time plus wait time.
The response time test results below were all derived from running the ResponseTimeTest class
which can be found in the Log4j 2 unit test source directory. If you want to run these tests yourself,
here are the command line options we used:
• -Xms1G -Xmx1G (prevent heap resizing during the test)

12 Async Loggers 257

• -DLog4jContextSelector=org.apache.logging.log4j.core.async.AsyncLoggerContextSelector
-DAsyncLogger.WaitStrategy=busyspin (to use Async Loggers. The BusySpin wait strategy
reduces some jitter.)
• classic mode: -Dlog4j2.enable.threadlocals=false -Dlog4j2.enable.direct.encoders=false
garbage-free mode: -Dlog4j2.enable.threadlocals=true -Dlog4j2.enable.direct.encoders=true
• -
XX:CompileCommand=dontinline,org.apache.logging.log4j.core.async.perftest.NoOpIdleStrategy::idle
• -verbose:gc -XX:+PrintGCDetails -XX:+PrintGCDateStamps -XX:+PrintTenuringDistribution
-XX:+PrintGCApplicationConcurrentTime -XX:+PrintGCApplicationStoppedTime (to eyeball
GC and safepoint pauses)
The graph below compares response time latency of the ArrayBlockingQueue-based asynchronous
appenders in Logback 1.1.7, Log4j 1.2.17 to the various options for asynchronous logging that Log4j
2.6 offers. Under a workload of 128,000 messages per second, using 16 threads (each logging at a rate
of 8,000 messages per second), we see that Logback 1.1.7, Log4j 1.2.17 experience latency spikes
that are orders of magnitude larger than Log4j 2.

The graph below zooms in on the Log4j 2 results for the same test. We see that the worst-case
response time is highest for the ArrayBlockingQueue-based Async Appender. Garbage-free async
loggers have the best response time behaviour.

12 Async Loggers 258

12.1.6 Under The Hood

Asynchronous Loggers are implemented using the LMAX Disruptor inter-thread messaging library.
From the LMAX web site:
... using queues to pass data between stages of the system was introducing latency, so we focused
on optimising this area. The Disruptor is the result of our research and testing. We found that cache
misses at the CPU-level, and locks requiring kernel arbitration are both extremely costly, so we
created a framework which has "mechanical sympathy" for the hardware it's running on, and that's
lock-free.
LMAX Disruptor internal performance comparisons with
java.util.concurrent.ArrayBlockingQueue can be found here.

13 Garbage-free Logging 259

13 Garbage-free Logging
.......................................................................................................................................

13.1 Garbage-free Steady State Logging

Garbage collection pauses are a common cause of latency spikes and for many systems significant
effort is spent on controlling these pauses.
Many logging libraries, including previous versions of Log4j, allocate temporary objects like log
event objects, Strings, char arrays, byte arrays and more during steady state logging. This contributes
to pressure on the garbage collector and increases the frequency with which GC pauses occur.
From version 2.6, Log4j runs in "garbage free" mode by default where objects and buffers are reused
and no temporary objects are allocated as much as possible. There is also a "low garbage" mode
which is not completely garbage free but does not use ThreadLocal fields. This is the default mode
when Log4j detects it is running in a web application. Finally, it is possible to switch off all garbage-
free logic and run in "classic mode" instead. For details, see the Configuration section below.

13.1.1 A Contrived Example

To highlight the difference that garbage-free logging can make, we used Java Flight Recorder to
measure a simple application that does nothing but log a simple string as often as possible for about
12 seconds.
The application was configured to use Async Loggers, a RandomAccessFile appender and a "%d %p
%c{1.} [%t] %m %ex%n" pattern layout. (Async Loggers used the Yield WaitStrategy.)
Mission Control shows that with Log4j 2.5 this application allocates memory at a rate of about 809
MB/sec, resulting in 141 minor collections. Log4j 2.6 does not allocate temporary objects in this
configuration, and as a result the same application with Log4j 2.6 has a memory allocation rate of 1.6
MB/sec and was GC-free with 0 (zero) garbage collections.

With Log4j 2.5: memory allocation rate 809 MB/sec, Log4j 2.6 did not allocate temporary objects: 0 (zero)
141 minor collections. garbage collections.

13.1.2 Configuration
Garbage-free logging in Log4j 2.6 is partially implemented by reusing objects in ThreadLocal fields,
and partially by reusing buffers when converting text to bytes.

13 Garbage-free Logging 260

ThreadLocal fields holding non-JDK classes can cause memory leaks in web applications when
the application server's thread pool continues to reference these fields after the web application is
undeployed. To avoid causing memory leaks, Log4j will not use these ThreadLocals when it detects
that it is used in a web application (when the javax.servlet.Servlet class is in the classpath, or
when system property log4j2.isWebapp is set to "true").
Some garbage-reducing functionality does not rely on ThreadLocals and is enabled by default for
all applications: in Log4j 2.6, converting log events to text and text to bytes can be done by directly
encoding text into a reused ByteBuffer without creating intermediary Strings, char arrays and byte
arrays. So while logging is not completely garbage-free for web applications yet, the pressure on the
garbage collector can still be significantly reduced.

Note 1: as of version 2.6, a Log4j configuration containing a <Properties> section will result in
temporary objects being created during steady-state logging.
Note 2: the Async Logger Timeout wait strategy (the default) and the Block wait strategy cause
java.util.concurrent.locks.AbstractQueuedSynchronizer$Node objects to be created.
The Yield and Sleep wait strategies are garbage-free. (See here and here.)

13.1.2.1 Disabling Garbage-free Logging

There are two separate system properties for manually controlling the mechanisms Log4j uses to
avoid creating temporary objects:
• log4j2.enableThreadlocals - if "true" (the default for non-web applications) objects are
stored in ThreadLocal fields and reused, otherwise new objects are created for each log event.
• log4j2.enableDirectEncoders - if "true" (the default) log events are converted to text and
this text is converted to bytes without creating temporary objects. Note: synchronous logging
performance may be worse for multi-threaded applications in this mode due to synchronization
on the shared buffer. If your application is multi-threaded and logging performance is important,
consider using Async Loggers.
• The ThreadContext map is not garbage-free by default, but from Log4j 2.7 it can be configured
to be garbage-free by setting system property log4j2.garbagefreeThreadContextMap to
"true".
Instead of system properties, the above properties can also be specified in a file named
log4j2.component.properties by including this file in the classpath of the application. See the
manual regarding system properties for more info.

13.1.2.2 Supported Appenders

The following appenders are garbage-free during steady-state logging:
• Console
• File
• RollingFile (some temporary objects are created during file rollover)
• RandomAccessFile
• RollingRandomAccessFile (some temporary objects are created during file rollover)
• MemoryMappedFile
Any other appenders not in the above list (including AsyncAppender) create temporary objects during
steady-state logging. Instead of AsyncAppender, use Async Loggers to log asynchronously in a
garbage-free manner.

13 Garbage-free Logging 261

13.1.2.3 Supported Filters

The following filters are garbage-free during steady-state logging:

• CompositeFilter (adding and removing element filters creates temporary objects for thread
safety)
• DynamicThresholdFilter
• LevelRangeFilter (garbage free since 2.8)
• MapFilter (garbage free since 2.8)
• MarkerFilter (garbage free since 2.8)
• StructuredDataFilter (garbage free since 2.8)
• ThreadContextMapFilter (garbage free since 2.8)
• ThresholdFilter (garbage free since 2.8)
• TimeFilter (garbage free since 2.8 except when range must be recalculated once per day)
Other filters like BurstFilter, RegexFilter and ScriptFilter are not trivial to make garbage free, and
there is currently no plan to change them.

13.1.2.4 Supported Layouts

13.GelfLayout
GelfLayout is garbage-free when used with compressionType="OFF", as long as no additional field
contains '${' (variable substitution).
13.JsonTemplateLayout
JsonTemplateLayout is garbage-free with a few exceptions.
13.PatternLayout
PatternLayout with the following limited set of conversion patterns is garbage-free. Format modifiers
to control such things as field width, padding, left and right justification will not generate garbage.

Conversion Pattern Description

%c{precision}, %logger{precision} Logger name

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%d, %date Note: Only the predefined date formats are garbage-
free: (millisecond separator may be either a comma ','
or a period '.')

Pattern Example
%d{DEFAULT} 2012-11-02 14:34:02,781
%d{ISO8601} 2012-11-02T14:34:02,781
%d{ISO8601_BASIC} 20121102T143402,781
%d{ABSOLUTE} 14:34:02,781
%d{DATE} 02 Nov 2012
14:34:02,781
%d{COMPACT} 20121102143402781
%d{HH:mm:ss,SSS} 14:34:02,781
%d{dd MMM yyyy 02 Nov 2012
HH:mm:ss,SSS} 14:34:02,781
%d{HH:mm:ss}{GMT+0} 18:34:02
%d{UNIX} 1351866842
%d{UNIX_MILLIS} 1351866842781

%enc{pattern}, %encode{pattern} Encodes special characters such as '\n' and HTML

characters to help prevent log forging and some XSS
attacks that could occur when displaying logs in a web
browser - garbage-free since 2.8
%equals{pattern}{test}{substitution}, Replaces occurrences of 'test', a string, with its
%equalsIgnoreCase{pattern}{test}{substitution} replacement 'substitution' in the string resulting from
evaluation of the pattern - garbage-free since 2.8
%highlight{pattern}{style} Adds ANSI colors - garbage-free since 2.7 (unless
nested pattern is not garbage free)
K{key}, map{key}, MAP{key} Outputs the entries in a MapMessage, if one is
present in the event - garbage-free since 2.8.
%m, %msg, %message Log message (garbage-free unless message text
contains '${')
%marker The full name of the marker (including parents) -
garbage-free since 2.8
%markerSimpleName The simple name of the marker (not including parents)
%maxLen, %maxLength Truncates another pattern to some max number of
characters - garbage-free since 2.8
%n The platform dependent line separator
%N, %nano System.nanoTime() when the event was logged
%notEmpty{pattern}, %varsNotEmpty{pattern}, Outputs the result of evaluating the pattern if and only
%variablesNotEmpty{pattern} if all variables in the pattern are not empty - garbage-
free since 2.8
%p, %level The level of the logging event
%r, %relative The number of milliseconds elapsed since the JVM
was started until the creation of the logging event -
garbage-free since 2.8

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%sn, %sequenceNumber A sequence number that will be incremented in every

event - garbage-free since 2.8
%style{pattern}{ANSI style} Style the message - garbage-free since 2.7 (unless
nested pattern is not garbage free)
%T, %tid, %threadId The ID of the thread that generated the logging event
%t, %tn, %thread, %threadName The name of the thread that generated the logging
event
%tp The priority of the thread that generated the logging
event
%X{key[,key2...]}, %mdc{key[,key2...]}, Outputs the Thread Context Map (also known as the
%MDC{key[,key2...]} Mapped Diagnostic Context or MDC) associated with
the thread that generated the logging event - garbage-
free since 2.8
literal text Garbage-free unless literal contains '${' (variable
substitution)

Other PatternLayout conversion patterns, and other Layouts may be updated to avoid creating
temporary objects in future releases. (Patches welcome!)
Note: Logging exceptions and stack traces will create temporary objects with any layout. (However,
Layouts will only create these temporary objects when an exception actually occurs.) We haven't
figured out a way to log exceptions and stack traces without creating temporary objects. That is
unfortunate, but you probably still want to log them when they happen.

Note: patterns containing regular expressions and lookups for property substitution will result in temporary
objects being created during steady-state logging.
Including location information is done by walking the stacktrace of an exception, which creates
temporary objects, so the following patterns are not garbage-free:
• %C, %class - Class Name
• %F, %file - File Location
• %l, %location - Location
• %L, %line - Line Location
• %M, %method - Method Location
Also, the pattern converters for formatting Throwables are not garbage-free:

• %ex, %exception, %throwable - The Throwable trace bound to the LoggingEvent

• %rEx, %rException %rThrowable - Same as %ex but with wrapping exceptions
• %xEx, %xException, %xThrowable - Same as %ex but with class packaging information
• %u, %uuid - Creates a new random or time-based UUID while formatting

13.1.2.5 API Changes

Methods have been added to the Logger interface so that no vararg array objects are created when
logging messages with up to ten parameters.
Also, methods have been added to the Logger interface to log java.lang.CharSequence
messages. User-defined objects that implement the CharSequence interface can be logged without
creating temporary objects: Log4j will try to turn CharSequence messages, Object messages and

13 Garbage-free Logging 264

message parameters into text by appending them to a StringBuilder as a CharSequence. This avoids
calling toString() on these objects.
An alternative is to implement the
org.apache.logging.log4j.util.StringBuilderFormattable interface. If an object is
logged that implements this interface, its formatTo method is called instead of toString().
Log4j may call toString() on message and parameter objects when garbage-free logging is
disabled (when system property log4j2.enableThreadlocals is set to "false".)

13.1.2.6 Impact on Application Code: Autoboxing

We made an effort to make logging garbage-free without requiring code changes in existing
applications, but there is one area where this was not possible. When logging primitive values (i.e. int,
double, boolean, etc.) the JVM autoboxes these primitive values to their Object wrapper equivalents,
creating garbage.
Log4j provides an Unbox utility to prevent autoboxing of primitive parameters. This utility contains a
thread-local pool of reused StringBuilders. The Unbox.box(primitive) methods write directly
into a StringBuilder, and the resulting text will be copied into the final log message text without
creating temporary objects.
import static org.apache.logging.log4j.util.Unbox.box;

...
public void garbageFree() {
logger.debug("Prevent primitive autoboxing {} {}", box(10L), box(2.6d));
}

Note: not all logging is garbage free. Specifically:

• The ThreadContext map is not garbage-free by default, but can be configured to be garbage-free by
setting system property log4j2.garbagefreeThreadContextMap to "true".
• The ThreadContext stack is not garbage-free.
• Logging more than 10 parameters creates vararg arrays.
• Logging very large messages (more than 518 characters) when all loggers are Async Loggers will cause
the internal StringBuilder in the RingBuffer to be trimmed back to their max size.
• Logging messages containing '${': substituting a ${variable} creates temporary objects.
• Logging a lambda as a parameter ( logger.info("lambda value is {}", () ->
callExpensiveMethod())) creates a vararg array. Logging a lambda expression by itself is
garbage-free: logger.debug(() -> callExpensiveMethod()).
• The Logger.traceEntry and Logger.traceExit methods create temporary objects.

13.1.3 Performance

13.1.3.1 Response Time Latency

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single spike in service time adds queueing delay for many of the subsequent operations. Service time
is easy to measure (and often looks good on paper) but is irrelevant for users since it omits the time
spent waiting for service. For this reason we report response time: service time plus wait time. See the
response time section of the performance page for more detail.
The response time test results below were all derived from running the ResponseTimeTest class
which can be found in the Log4j 2 unit test source directory. If you want to run these tests yourself,
here are the command line options we used:

• -Xms1G -Xmx1G (prevent heap resizing during the test)

13.1.3.2 Async Loggers

The graph below compares "classic" logging to garbage-free logging response time behaviour for
Log4j's Async Loggers. In the graph, "100k" means logging at a sustained load of 100,000 messages/
second, "800k" is a sustained load of 800,000 messages/second.

In classic mode we see numerous minor garbage collections which pause the application threads for
3 milliseconds or more. This quickly adds up to response time delays of almost 10 milliseconds. As
you can see in the graph, increasing the load shifts the curve to the left (there are more spikes). This
makes sense: logging more means more pressure on the garbage collector resulting in more minor GC

13 Garbage-free Logging 266

pauses. We experimented a little with reducing the load to 50,000 or even 5000 messages/second, but
this did not eliminate the 3 millisecond pauses, it just made them occur less frequently. Note that all
GC pauses in this test are minor GC pauses. We did not see any full garbage collections.
In garbage-free mode, maximum response time remains well below 1 millisecond under a wide range
of loads. (Max 780 us at 800,000 messages/sec, max 407 us at 600,000 messages/sec, with the 99%
around 5 us for all loads up to 800,000 messages/sec.) Increasing or decreasing the load does not
change the response time behaviour. We did not investigate the cause of the 200-300 microsecond
pauses we saw in these tests.
When we increased the load further we begin to see larger response time pauses for both classic and
garbage-free logging. At sustained loads of 1 million messages/second or more we start to approach
the maximum throughput of the underlying RandomAccessFile Appender (see the synchronous
logging throughput chart below). At these loads the ringbuffer starts to fill up and backpressure kicks
in: attempting to add another message when the ringbuffer is full will block until a free slot becomes
available. We start to see response times of tens of milliseconds or more; and attempting to increase
the load even more results in larger and larger response time spikes.

13.1.3.3 Synchronous File Logging

With synchronous file logging, garbage-free logging still performs better than classic logging, but the
difference is less pronounced.
At a workload of 100,000 messages/second, classic logging max response time was a little over
2 milliseconds where garbage-free logging was a little over 1 millisecond. When the workload is
increased to 300,000 messages/second, classic logging shows response time pauses of 6 milliseconds
where the garbage-free response times were less than 3 milliseconds. It may be possible to improve on
this, we did not investigate further yet.

The above results are obtained with the ResponseTimeTest class which can be found in the Log4j 2
unit test source directory, running on JDK 1.8.0_45 on RHEL 6.5 (Linux 2.6.32-573.1.1.el6.x86_64)
with 10-core Xeon CPU E5-2660 v3 @2.60GHz with hyperthreading switched on (20 virtual cores).

13 Garbage-free Logging 267

13.1.3.4 Classic Logging has Slightly Higher Throughput

Throughput is slightly worse for garbage-free logging, compared to classic logging. This is true for
both synchronous and asynchronous logging. The graph below compares the sustained throughput of
synchronous logging to a file with Log4j 2.6 in garbage-free mode, classic mode and Log4j 2.5.

The results above are obtained with the JMH Java benchmark harness. See the
FileAppenderBenchmark source code in the log4j-perf module.

13.1.4 Under the Hood

Custom Message implementations that implement
org.apache.logging.log4j.util.StringBuilderFormattable can be converted to text
by garbage-free Layouts without creating temporary objects. PatternLayout uses this mechanism and
other layouts that convert LogEvents to text will likely also look for this interface.
Custom Layouts that want to be garbage-free should implement the Encoder<LogEvent>
interface. For custom Layouts that convert a LogEvent to a text representation, the
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.layout.StringBuilderEncoder class may be useful to
convert this text to bytes in a garbage-free manner.
Custom Appenders that want to be garbage-free should provide their Layout with a
ByteBufferDestination implementation that the Layout can directly write into.
AbstractOutputStreamAppender has been modified to make the ConsoleAppender,
(Rolling)FileAppender, (Rolling)RandomAccessFileAppender and MemoryMappedFileAppender
garbage-free. An effort has been made to minimize impact on custom Appenders that extend
AbstractOutputStreamAppender, but it is impossible to guarantee that changing
the superclass will not impact any and all subclasses. Custom Appenders that extend
AbstractOutputStreamAppender should verify that they still function correctly. In case there is a
problem, system property log4j2.enable.direct.encoders can be set to "false" to revert to the
pre-Log4j 2.6 behaviour.

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14 JMX
.......................................................................................................................................

14.1 JMX
Log4j 2 has built-in support for JMX. The StatusLogger, ContextSelector, and all LoggerContexts,
LoggerConfigs and Appenders are instrumented with MBeans and can be remotely monitored and
controlled.
Also included is a simple client GUI that can be used to monitor the StatusLogger output, as well as
to remotely reconfigure Log4j with a different configuration file, or to edit the current configuration
directly.

14.2 Enabling JMX

JMX support is enabled by default. When Log4j initializes, the StatusLogger, ContextSelector,
and all LoggerContexts, LoggerConfigs and Appenders are instrumented with MBeans. To
disable JMX completely, and prevent these MBeans from being created, specify system property
log4j2.disableJmx to true when you start the Java VM.

14.2.1 Local Monitoring and Management

To perform local monitoring you don't need to specify any system properties. The JConsole tool
that is included in the Java JDK can be used to monitor your application. Start JConsole by typing
$JAVA_HOME/bin/jconsole in a command shell. For more details, see Oracle's documentation on
how to use JConsole.

14.2.2 Remote Monitoring and Management

To enable monitoring and management from remote systems, set the following system property when
starting the Java VM.
com.sun.management.jmxremote.port=portNum
In the property above, portNum is the port number through which you want to enable JMX RMI
connections.
For more details, see Oracle's documentation on Remote Monitoring and Management.

14.2.3 RMI impact on Garbage Collection

Be aware that RMI by default triggers a full GC every hour. See the Oracle documentation for the
sun.rmi.dgc.server.gcInterval and sun.rmi.dgc.client.gcInterval properties. The
default value of both properties is 3600000 milliseconds (one hour). Before Java 6, it was one minute.
The two sun.rmi arguments reflect whether your JVM is running in server or client mode. If you want
to modify the GC interval time it may be best to specify both properties to ensure the argument is
picked up by the JVM.
An alternative may be to disable explicit calls to System.gc() altogether with -
XX:+DisableExplicitGC, or (if you are using the CMS or G1 collector) add -XX:

14 JMX 269

+ExplicitGCInvokesConcurrent to ensure the full GCs are done concurrently in parallel with
your application instead of forcing a stop-the-world collection.

14.3 Log4j Instrumented Components

The best way to find out which methods and attributes of the various Log4j components are accessible
via JMX is to look at the Javadoc or by exploring directly in JConsole.
The screenshot below shows the Log4j MBeans in JConsole.

14.4 Client GUI

Log4j includes a basic client GUI that can be used to monitor the StatusLogger output and to remotely
modify the Log4j configuration. The client GUI can be run as a stand-alone application or as a
JConsole plug-in.

14.4.1 Running the Client GUI as a JConsole Plug-in

To run the Log4j JMX Client GUI as a JConsole Plug-in, start JConsole with the following command:

14 JMX 270

$JAVA_HOME/bin/jconsole -pluginpath /path/to/log4j-api-

${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar:/path/to/log4j-core-${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar:/
path/to/log4j-jmx-gui-${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar
or on Windows:
%JAVA_HOME%\bin\jconsole -pluginpath \path\to\log4j-api-
${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar;\path\to\log4j-core-${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar;
\path\to\log4j-jmx-gui-${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar
If you execute the above command and connect to your application, you will see an extra "Log4j 2"
tab in the JConsole window. This tab contains the client GUI, with the StatusLogger selected. The
screenshot below shows the StatusLogger panel in JConsole.

14.4.2 Remotely Editing the Log4j Configuration

The client GUI also contains a simple editor that can be used to remotely change the Log4j
configuration.
The screenshot below shows the configuration edit panel in JConsole.

14 JMX 271

The configuration edit panel provides two ways to modify the Log4j configuration: specifying a
different configuration location URI, or modifying the configuration XML directly in the editor panel.
If you specify a different configuration location URI and click the "Reconfigure from Location"
button, the specified file or resource must exist and be readable by the application, or an error will
occur and the configuration will not change. If an error occurred while processing the contents of
the specified resource, Log4j will keep its original configuration, but the editor panel will show the
contents of the file you specified.
The text area showing the contents of the configuration file is editable, and you can directly modify
the configuration in this editor panel. Clicking the "Reconfigure with XML below" button will send
the configuration text to the remote application where it will be used to reconfigure Log4j on the fly.
This will not overwrite any configuration file. Reconfiguring with text from the editor happens in
memory only and the text is not permanently stored anywhere.

14.4.3 Running the Client GUI as a Stand-alone Application

To run the Log4j JMX Client GUI as a stand-alone application, run the following command:

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$JAVA_HOME/bin/java -cp /path/to/log4j-api-${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar:/

path/to/log4j-core-${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar:/path/to/log4j-jmx-gui-
${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar org.apache.logging.log4j.jmx.gui.ClientGui
<options>
or on Windows:
%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java -cp \path\to\log4j-api-${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar;
\path\to\log4j-core-${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar;\path\to\log4j-jmx-gui-
${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar org.apache.logging.log4j.jmx.gui.ClientGui
<options>
Where options are one of the following:

• <host>:<port>
• service:jmx:rmi:///jndi/rmi://<host>:<port>/jmxrmi
• service:jmx:rmi://<host>:<port>/jndi/rmi://<host>:<port>/jmxrmi
The port number must be the same as the portNum specified when you started the application you
want to monitor.
For example, if you started your application with these options:
com.sun.management.jmxremote.port=33445
com.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false
com.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false
(Note that this disables all security so this is not recommended for production environments.
Oracle's documentation on Remote Monitoring and Management provides details on how to
configure JMX more securely with password authentication and SSL.)
Then you can run the client with this command:
$JAVA_HOME/bin/java -cp /path/to/log4j-api-${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar:/
path/to/log4j-core-${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar:/path/to/log4j-jmx-gui-
${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar org.apache.logging.log4j.jmx.gui.ClientGui
localhost:33445
or on Windows:
%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java -cp \path\to\log4j-api-${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar;
\path\to\log4j-core-${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar;\path\to\log4j-jmx-gui-
${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar org.apache.logging.log4j.jmx.gui.ClientGui
localhost:33445
The screenshot below shows the StatusLogger panel of the client GUI when running as a stand-alone
application.

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The screenshot below shows the configuration editor panel of the client GUI when running as a stand-
alone application.

14 JMX 274

15 Logging Separation 275

15 Logging Separation
.......................................................................................................................................

15.1 Logging Separation

There are many well known use cases where applications may share an environment with other
applications and each has a need to have its own, separate logging environment. This purpose of this
section is to discuss some of these cases and ways to accomplish this.

15.1.1 Use Cases

This section describes some of the use cases where Log4j could be used and what its desired behavior
might be.

15.1.1.1 Standalone Application

Standalone applications are usually relatively simple. They typically have one bundled executable that
requires only a single logging configuration.

15.1.1.2 Web Applications

A typical web application will be packaged as a WAR file and will include all of its dependencies in
WEB-INF/lib and will have its configuration file located in the class path or in a location configured
in the web.xml. Be sure to follow the instructions to initialize Log4j 2 in a web application.

15.1.1.3 Java EE Applications

A Java EE application will consist of one or more WAR files and possible some EJBs, typically all
packaged in an EAR file. Usually, it is desirable to have a single configuration that applies to all the
components in the EAR. The logging classes will generally be placed in a location shared across all
the components and the configuration needs to also be shareable. Be sure to follow the instructions to
initialize Log4j 2 in a web application.

15.1.1.4 "Shared" Web Applications and REST Service Containers

In this scenario there are multiple WAR files deployed into a single container. Each of the
applications should use the same logging configuration and share the same logging implementation
across each of the web applications. When writing to files and streams each of the applications should
share them to avoid the issues that can occur when multiple components try to write to the same
file(s) through different File objects, channels, etc.

15.1.1.5 OSGi Applications

An OSGi container physically separates each JAR into its own ClassLoader, thus enforcing
modularity of JARs as well as providing standardized ways for JARs to share code based on version
numbers. Suffice to say, the OSGi framework is beyond the scope of this manual. There are some
differences when using Log4j in an OSGi container. By default, each JAR bundle is scanned for its
own Log4j configuration file. Similar to the web application paradigm, every bundle has its own
LoggerContext. As this may be undesirable when a global Log4j configuration is wanted, then the
ContextSelector should be overridden with BasicContextSelector or JndiContextSelector.

15.1.2 Approaches

15 Logging Separation 276

15.1.2.1 The Simple Approach

The simplest approach for separating logging within applications is to package each application
with its own copy of Log4j and to use the BasicContextSelector. While this works for standalone
applications and may work for web applications and possibly Java EE applications, it does not work
at all in the last case. However, when this approach does work it should be used as it is ultimately the
simplest and most straightforward way of implementing logging.

15.1.2.2 Using Context Selectors

There are a few patterns for achieving the desired state of logging separation using ContextSelectors:
1. Place the logging jars in the container's classpath and
set the system property log4j2.contextSelector to
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.selector.BasicContextSelector. This will create
a single LoggerContext using a single configuration that will be shared across all applications.
2. Place the logging jars in the container's classpath and use the default
ClassLoaderContextSelector. Follow the instructions to initialize Log4j 2 in a web application.
Each application can be configured to share the same configuration used at the container or can
be individually configured. If status logging is set to debug in the configuration there will be
output from when logging is initialized in the container and then again in each web application.
3. Follow the instructions to initialize Log4j 2 in a web application and set the
system property or servlet context parameter log4j2.contextSelector to
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.selector.JndiContextSelector. This will cause the
container to use JNDI to locate each web application's LoggerContext. Be sure to
set the isLog4jContextSelectorNamed context parameter to true and also set the
log4jContextName and log4jConfiguration context parameters. Note that the
JndiContextSelector will not work unless log4j2.enableJndiContextSelector=true is
set as a system property or environment variable. See the enableJndiContextSelector system
property.
The exact method for setting system properties depends on the container. For Tomcat, edit
$CATALINA_HOME/conf/catalina.properties. Consult the documentation for other web
containers.

16 Extending Log4j 277

16 Extending Log4j
.......................................................................................................................................

16.1 Extending Log4j

Log4j 2 provides numerous ways that it can be manipulated and extended. This section includes an
overview of the various ways that are directly supported by the Log4j 2 implementation.

16.1.1 LoggerContextFactory
The LoggerContextFactory binds the Log4j API to its implementation. The Log4j LogManager
locates a LoggerContextFactory by using java.util.ServiceLoader to locate all instances of
org.apache.logging.log4j.spi.Provider. Each implementation must provide a class that
extends org.apache.logging.log4j.spi.Provider and should have a no-arg constructor
that delegates to Provider's constructor passing the Priority, the API versions it is compatible with,
and the class that implements org.apache.logging.log4j.spi.LoggerContextFactory.
Log4j will compare the current API version and if it is compatible the implementation will be
added to the list of providers. The API version in org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager
is only changed when a feature is added to the API that implementations need to be aware
of. If more than one valid implementation is located the value for the Priority will be
used to identify the factory with the highest priority. Finally, the class that implements
org.apache.logging.log4j.spi.LoggerContextFactory will be instantiated and bound to
the LogManager. In Log4j 2 this is provided by Log4jContextFactory.
Applications may change the LoggerContextFactory that will be used by

1. Create a binding to the logging implementation.

a. Implement a new LoggerContextFactory.

b. Implement a class that extends org.apache.logging.spi.Provider. with a no-
arg constructor that calls super-class's constructor with the Priority, the API version(s),
LoggerContextFactory class, and optionally, a ThreadContextMap implementation
class.
c. Create a META-INF/services/org.apache.logging.spi.Provider file that
contains the name of the class that implements org.apache.logging.spi.Provider.
2. Setting the system property log4j2.loggerContextFactory to the name of the
LoggerContextFactory class to use.
3. Setting the property "log4j2.loggerContextFactory" in a properties file named
"log4j2.LogManager.properties" to the name of the LoggerContextFactory class to use. The
properties file must be on the classpath.

16.1.2 ContextSelector
ContextSelectors are called by the Log4j LoggerContext factory. They perform the actual
work of locating or creating a LoggerContext, which is the anchor for Loggers and their
configuration. ContextSelectors are free to implement any mechanism they desire to manage
LoggerContexts. The default Log4jContextFactory checks for the presence of a System Property
named "Log4jContextSelector". If found, the property is expected to contain the name of the Class
that implements the ContextSelector to be used.
Log4j provides five ContextSelectors:
BasicContextSelector

16 Extending Log4j 278

Uses either a LoggerContext that has been stored in a ThreadLocal or a common

LoggerContext.
ClassLoaderContextSelector
Associates LoggerContexts with the ClassLoader that created the caller of the getLogger
call. This is the default ContextSelector.
JndiContextSelector
Locates the LoggerContext by querying JNDI. As of Log4j 2.17.0 JNDI operations
require that log4j2.enableJndiContextSelector=true be set as a system
property or the corresponding environment variable for this lookup to function. See the
enableJndiContextSelector system property.
AsyncLoggerContextSelector
Creates a LoggerContext that ensures that all loggers are AsyncLoggers.
BundleContextSelector
Associates LoggerContexts with the ClassLoader of the bundle that created the caller of the
getLogger call. This is enabled by default in OSGi environments.

16.1.3 ConfigurationFactory
Modifying the way in which logging can be configured is usually one of the areas with the most
interest. The primary method for doing that is by implementing or extending a ConfigurationFactory.
Log4j provides two ways of adding new ConfigurationFactories. The first is by defining the system
property named "log4j.configurationFactory" to the name of the class that should be searched first for
a configuration. The second method is by defining the ConfigurationFactory as a Plugin.
All the ConfigurationFactories are then processed in order. Each factory is called on its
getSupportedTypes method to determine the file extensions it supports. If a configuration file is
located with one of the specified file extensions then control is passed to that ConfigurationFactory to
load the configuration and create the Configuration object.
Most Configuration extend the BaseConfiguration class. This class expects that the subclass will
process the configuration file and create a hierarchy of Node objects. Each Node is fairly simple
in that it consists of the name of the node, the name/value pairs associated with the node, The
PluginType of the node and a List of all of its child Nodes. BaseConfiguration will then be passed the
Node tree and instantiate the configuration objects from that.

16 Extending Log4j 279

@Plugin(name = "XMLConfigurationFactory", category = "ConfigurationFactory")

@Order(5)
public class XMLConfigurationFactory extends ConfigurationFactory {

/**
* Valid file extensions for XML files.
*/
public static final String[] SUFFIXES = new String[] {".xml", "*"};

/**
* Returns the Configuration.
* @param loggerContext The logger context.
* @param source The InputSource.
* @return The Configuration.
*/
@Override
public Configuration getConfiguration(final LoggerContext loggerContext, final ConfigurationSource source
return new XmlConfiguration(loggerContext, source);
}

/**
* Returns the file suffixes for XML files.
* @return An array of File extensions.
*/
public String[] getSupportedTypes() {
return SUFFIXES;
}
}

16.1.4 LoggerConfig
LoggerConfig objects are where Loggers created by applications tie into the configuration. The
Log4j implementation requires that all LoggerConfigs be based on the LoggerConfig class, so
applications wishing to make changes must do so by extending the LoggerConfig class. To declare
the new LoggerConfig, declare it as a Plugin of type "Core" and providing the name that applications
should specify as the element name in the configuration. The LoggerConfig should also define a
PluginFactory that will create an instance of the LoggerConfig.
The following example shows how the root LoggerConfig simply extends a generic LoggerConfig.

16 Extending Log4j 280

@Plugin(name = "root", category = "Core", printObject = true)

public static class RootLogger extends LoggerConfig {

@PluginFactory
public static LoggerConfig createLogger(@PluginAttribute(value = "additivity", defaultBooleanValue = true
@PluginAttribute(value = "level", defaultStringValue = "ERROR") L
@PluginElement("AppenderRef") AppenderRef[] refs,
@PluginElement("Filters") Filter filter) {
List<AppenderRef> appenderRefs = Arrays.asList(refs);
return new LoggerConfig(LogManager.ROOT_LOGGER_NAME, appenderRefs, filter, level, additivity);
}
}

16.1.5 LogEventFactory
A LogEventFactory is used to generate LogEvents. Applications may replace the standard
LogEventFactory by setting the value of the system property Log4jLogEventFactory to the name of
the custom LogEventFactory class.
Note: When log4j is configured to have all loggers asynchronous, log events are pre-allocated in a
ring buffer and the LogEventFactory is not used.

16.1.6 MessageFactory
A MessageFactory is used to generate Message objects. Applications may replace the standard
ParameterizedMessageFactory (or ReusableMessageFactory in garbage-free mode) by setting the
value of the system property log4j2.messageFactory to the name of the custom MessageFactory class.
Flow messages for the Logger.entry() and Logger.exit() methods have a separate
FlowMessageFactory. Applications may replace the DefaultFlowMessageFactory by setting the value
of the system property log4j2.flowMessageFactory to the name of the custom FlowMessageFactory
class.

16.1.7 Lookups
Lookups are the means in which parameter substitution is performed. During Configuration
initialization an "Interpolator" is created that locates all the Lookups and registers them for use when
a variable needs to be resolved. The interpolator matches the "prefix" portion of the variable name to a
registered Lookup and passes control to it to resolve the variable.
A Lookup must be declared using a Plugin annotation with a type of "Lookup". The name specified
on the Plugin annotation will be used to match the prefix. Unlike other Plugins, Lookups do not use
a PluginFactory. Instead, they are required to provide a constructor that accepts no arguments. The
example below shows a Lookup that will return the value of a System Property.
The provided Lookups are documented here: Lookups

16 Extending Log4j 281

@Plugin(name = "sys", category = "Lookup")

public class SystemPropertiesLookup implements StrLookup {

/**
* Lookup the value for the key.
* @param key the key to be looked up, may be null
* @return The value for the key.
*/
public String lookup(String key) {
return System.getProperty(key);
}

/**
* Lookup the value for the key using the data in the LogEvent.
* @param event The current LogEvent.
* @param key the key to be looked up, may be null
* @return The value associated with the key.
*/
public String lookup(LogEvent event, String key) {
return System.getProperty(key);
}
}

16.1.8 Filters
As might be expected, Filters are the used to reject or accept log events as they pass through the
logging system. A Filter is declared using a Plugin annotation of type "Core" and an elementType of
"filter". The name attribute on the Plugin annotation is used to specify the name of the element users
should use to enable the Filter. Specifying the printObject attribute with a value of "true" indicates
that a call to toString will format the arguments to the filter as the configuration is being processed.
The Filter must also specify a PluginFactory method that will be called to create the Filter.
The example below shows a Filter used to reject LogEvents based upon their logging level. Notice the
typical pattern where all the filter methods resolve to a single filter method.

16 Extending Log4j 282

@Plugin(name = "ThresholdFilter", category = "Core", elementType = "filter", printObject = true)

public final class ThresholdFilter extends AbstractFilter {

private final Level level;

private ThresholdFilter(Level level, Result onMatch, Result onMismatch) {

super(onMatch, onMismatch);
this.level = level;
}

public Result filter(Logger logger, Level level, Marker marker, String msg, Object[] params) {
return filter(level);
}

public Result filter(Logger logger, Level level, Marker marker, Object msg, Throwable t) {
return filter(level);
}

public Result filter(Logger logger, Level level, Marker marker, Message msg, Throwable t) {
return filter(level);
}

@Override
public Result filter(LogEvent event) {
return filter(event.getLevel());
}

private Result filter(Level level) {

return level.isAtLeastAsSpecificAs(this.level) ? onMatch : onMismatch;
}

@Override
public String toString() {
return level.toString();
}

/**
* Create a ThresholdFilter.
* @param loggerLevel The log Level.
* @param match The action to take on a match.
* @param mismatch The action to take on a mismatch.
* @return The created ThresholdFilter.
*/
@PluginFactory
public static ThresholdFilter createFilter(@PluginAttribute(value = "level", defaultStringValue = "ERROR"
@PluginAttribute(value = "onMatch", defaultStringValue = "NEUT
@PluginAttribute(value = "onMismatch", defaultStringValue = "D
return new ThresholdFilter(level, onMatch, onMismatch);
}
}

16 Extending Log4j 283

16.1.9 Appenders
Appenders are passed an event, (usually) invoke a Layout to format the event, and then "publish"
the event in whatever manner is desired. Appenders are declared as Plugins with a type of "Core"
and an elementType of "appender". The name attribute on the Plugin annotation specifies the name
of the element users must provide in their configuration to use the Appender. Appenders should
specify printObject as "true" if the toString method renders the values of the attributes passed to the
Appender.
Appenders must also declare a PluginFactory method that will create the appender. The example
below shows an Appender named "Stub" that can be used as an initial template.
Most Appenders use Managers. A manager actually "owns" the resources, such as an OutputStream
or socket. When a reconfiguration occurs a new Appender will be created. However, if nothing
significant in the previous Manager has changed, the new Appender will simply reference it instead
of creating a new one. This insures that events are not lost while a reconfiguration is taking place
without requiring that logging pause while the reconfiguration takes place.

@Plugin(name = "Stub", category = "Core", elementType = "appender", printObject = true)

public final class StubAppender extends AbstractOutputStreamAppender<StubManager> {

private StubAppender(String name,

Layout<? extends Serializable> layout,
Filter filter,
boolean ignoreExceptions,
StubManager manager) {
super(name, layout, filter, ignoreExceptions, true, manager);
}

@PluginFactory
public static StubAppender createAppender(@PluginAttribute("name") String name,
@PluginAttribute("ignoreExceptions") boolean ignoreExceptions,
@PluginElement("Layout") Layout layout,
@PluginElement("Filters") Filter filter) {

if (name == null) {
LOGGER.error("No name provided for StubAppender");
return null;
}

StubManager manager = StubManager.getStubManager(name);

if (manager == null) {
return null;
}
if (layout == null) {
layout = PatternLayout.createDefaultLayout();
}
return new StubAppender(name, layout, filter, ignoreExceptions, manager);
}
}

16 Extending Log4j 284

16.1.10 Layouts
Layouts perform the formatting of events into the printable text that is written by Appenders to some
destination. All Layouts must implement the Layout interface. Layouts that format the event into a
String should extend AbstractStringLayout, which will take care of converting the String into the
required byte array.
Every Layout must declare itself as a plugin using the Plugin annotation. The type must be "Core",
and the elementType must be "layout". printObject should be set to true if the plugin's toString
method will provide a representation of the object and its parameters. The name of the plugin must
match the value users should use to specify it as an element in their Appender configuration. The
plugin also must provide a static method annotated as a PluginFactory and with each of the methods
parameters annotated with PluginAttr or PluginElement as appropriate.

@Plugin(name = "SampleLayout", category = "Core", elementType = "layout", printObject = true)

public class SampleLayout extends AbstractStringLayout {

protected SampleLayout(boolean locationInfo, boolean properties, boolean complete,

Charset charset) {
}

@PluginFactory
public static SampleLayout createLayout(@PluginAttribute("locationInfo") boolean locationInfo,
@PluginAttribute("properties") boolean properties,
@PluginAttribute("complete") boolean complete,
@PluginAttribute(value = "charset", defaultStringValue = "UTF-8")
return new SampleLayout(locationInfo, properties, complete, charset);
}
}

16.1.11 PatternConverters
PatternConverters are used by the PatternLayout to format the log event into a printable String. Each
Converter is responsible for a single kind of manipulation, however Converters are free to format the
event in complex ways. For example, there are several converters that manipulate Throwables and
format them in various ways.
A PatternConverter must first declare itself as a Plugin using the standard Plugin annotation but must
specify value of "Converter" on the type attribute. Furthermore, the Converter must also specify the
ConverterKeys attribute to define the tokens that can be specified in the pattern (preceded by a '%'
character) to identify the Converter.
Unlike most other Plugins, Converters do not use a PluginFactory. Instead, each Converter is required
to provide a static newInstance method that accepts an array of Strings as the only parameter. The
String array are the values that are specified within the curly braces that can follow the converter key.
The following shows the skeleton of a Converter plugin.

16 Extending Log4j 285

@Plugin(name = "query", category = "Converter")

@ConverterKeys({"q", "query"})
public final class QueryConverter extends LogEventPatternConverter {

public QueryConverter(String[] options) {

}

public static QueryConverter newInstance(final String[] options) {

return new QueryConverter(options);
}
}

16.1.12 Plugin Builders

Some plugins take a lot of optional configuration options. When a plugin takes many options, it is
more maintainable to use a builder class rather than a factory method (see Item 2: Consider a builder
when faced with many constructor parameters in Effective Java by Joshua Bloch). There are some
other advantages to using an annotated builder class over an annotated factory method:
• Attribute names don't need to be specified if they match the field name.
• Default values can be specified in code rather than through an annotation (also allowing a
runtime-calculated default value which isn't allowed in annotations).
• Adding new optional parameters doesn't require existing programmatic configuration to be
refactored.
• Easier to write unit tests using builders rather than factory methods with optional parameters.
• Default values are specified via code rather than relying on reflection and injection, so they work
programmatically as well as in a configuration file.
Here is an example of a plugin factory from ListAppender:

@PluginFactory
public static ListAppender createAppender(
@PluginAttribute("name") @Required(message = "No name provided for ListAppender") final String name,
@PluginAttribute("entryPerNewLine") final boolean newLine,
@PluginAttribute("raw") final boolean raw,
@PluginElement("Layout") final Layout<? extends Serializable> layout,
@PluginElement("Filter") final Filter filter) {
return new ListAppender(name, filter, layout, newLine, raw);
}
Here is that same factory using a builder pattern instead:

16 Extending Log4j 286

@PluginBuilderFactory
public static Builder newBuilder() {
return new Builder();
}

public static class Builder implements org.apache.logging.log4j.core.util.Builder<ListAppender> {

@PluginBuilderAttribute
@Required(message = "No name provided for ListAppender")
private String name;

@PluginBuilderAttribute
private boolean entryPerNewLine;

@PluginBuilderAttribute
private boolean raw;

@PluginElement("Layout")
private Layout<? extends Serializable> layout;

@PluginElement("Filter")
private Filter filter;

public Builder setName(final String name) {

this.name = name;
return this;
}

public Builder setEntryPerNewLine(final boolean entryPerNewLine) {

this.entryPerNewLine = entryPerNewLine;
return this;
}

public Builder setRaw(final boolean raw) {

this.raw = raw;
return this;
}

public Builder setLayout(final Layout<? extends Serializable> layout) {

this.layout = layout;
return this;
}

public Builder setFilter(final Filter filter) {

this.filter = filter;
return this;
}

@Override
public ListAppender build() {
return new ListAppender(name, filter, layout, entryPerNewLine, raw);
}
}

16 Extending Log4j 287

The only difference in annotations is using @PluginBuilderAttribute instead of

@PluginAttribute so that default values and reflection can be used instead of specifying them
in the annotation. Either annotation can be used in a builder, but the former is better suited for field
injection while the latter is better suited for parameter injection. Otherwise, the same annotations
( @PluginConfiguration, @PluginElement, @PluginNode, and @PluginValue) are all
supported on fields. Note that a factory method is still required to supply a builder, and this factory
method should be annotated with @PluginBuilderFactory.
When plugins are being constructed after a configuration has been parsed, a plugin builder will be
used if available, otherwise a plugin factory method will be used as a fallback. If a plugin contains
neither factory, then it cannot be used from a configuration file (it can still be used programmatically
of course).
Here is an example of using a plugin factory versus a plugin builder programmatically:

ListAppender list1 = ListAppender.createAppender("List1", true, false, null, null);

ListAppender list2 = ListAppender.newBuilder().setName("List1").setEntryPerNewLine(true).build();

16.1.13 Custom ContextDataProvider

The ContextDataProvider (introduced in Log4j 2.13.2) is an interface applications and
libraries can use to inject additional key-value pairs into the LogEvent's context data. Log4j's
ThreadContextDataInjector uses java.util.ServiceLoader to locate and load
ContextDataProvider instances. Log4j itself adds the ThreadContextData to the LogEvent
using org.apache.logging.log4j.core.impl.ThreadContextDataProvider. Custom
implementations should implement the
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.util.ContextDataProvider interface and declare
it as a service by defining the implmentation class in a file named META-INF/services/
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.util.ContextDataProvider.

16.1.14 Custom ThreadContextMap implementations

A garbage-free StringMap-based context map can be installed by setting system property
log4j2.garbagefreeThreadContextMap to true. (Log4j must be enabled to use ThreadLocals.)
Any custom ThreadContextMap implementation can be installed by setting system property
log4j2.threadContextMap to the fully qualified class name of the class implementing the
ThreadContextMap interface. By also implementing the ReadOnlyThreadContextMap interface,
your custom ThreadContextMap implementation will be accessible to applications via the
ThreadContext::getThreadContextMap method.

16.1.15 Custom_Plugins
See the Plugins section of the manual.

17 Programmatic Log4j Configuration 288

17 Programmatic Log4j Configuration

.......................................................................................................................................

17.1 Programmatic Configuration

Log4j 2 provides a few ways for applications to create their own programmatic configuration:
• Specify a custom ConfigurationFactory to start Log4j with a programmatic configuration
• Use the Configurator to replace the configuration after Log4j started
• Initialize Log4j with a combination of a configuration file and programmatic configuration
• Modify the current Configuration after initialization

17.1.1 The ConfigurationBuilder API

Starting with release 2.4, Log4j provides a ConfigurationBuilder and a set of component builders that
allow a Configuration to be created fairly easily. Actual configuration objects like LoggerConfig or
Appender can be unwieldy; they require a lot of knowledge about Log4j internals which makes them
difficult to work with if all you want is to create a Configuration.
The new ConfigurationBuilder API (in the
org.apache.logging.log4j.core.config.builder.api package) allows users to create
Configurations in code by constructing component definitions. There is no need to work directly
with actual configuration objects. Component definitions are added to the ConfigurationBuilder, and
once all the definitions have been collected all the actual configuration objects (like Loggers and
Appenders) are constructed.
ConfigurationBuilder has convenience methods for the base components that can be configured such
as Loggers, Appenders, Filter, Properties, etc. However, Log4j 2's plugin mechanism means that users
can create any number of custom components. As a trade-off, the ConfigurationBuilder API provides
only a limited number of "strongly typed" convenience methods like newLogger(), newLayout()
etc. The generic builder.newComponent() method can be used if no convenience method exists
for the component you want to configure.
For example, the builder does not know what sub-components can be configured on specific
components such as the RollingFileAppender vs. the RoutingAppender. To specify a triggering policy
on a RollingFileAppender you would use builder.newComponent().
Examples of using the ConfigurationBuilder API are in the sections that follow.

17.1.2 Understanding ConfigurationFactory

During initialization, Log4j 2 will search for available ConfigurationFactories and then select the one
to use. The selected ConfigurationFactory creates the Configuration that Log4j will use. Here is how
Log4j finds the available ConfigurationFactories:
1. A system property named log4j2.configurationFactory can be set with the name of the
ConfigurationFactory to be used.
2. ConfigurationFactory.setConfigurationFactory(ConfigurationFactory) can be
called with the instance of the ConfigurationFactory to be used. This must be called before any
other calls to Log4j.
3. A ConfigurationFactory implementation can be added to the classpath and configured as a plugin
in the "ConfigurationFactory" category. The Order annotation can be used to specify the relative
priority when multiple applicable ConfigurationFactories are found.

17 Programmatic Log4j Configuration 289

ConfigurationFactories have the concept of "supported types", which basically maps to the file
extension of the configuration file that the ConfigurationFactory can handle. If a configuration
file location is specified, ConfigurationFactories whose supported type does not include "*" or the
matching file extension will not be used.

17.1.3 Initialize Log4j Using ConfigurationBuilder with a Custom ConfigurationFactory

One way to programmatically configure Log4j 2 is to create a custom ConfigurationFactory
that uses the ConfigurationBuilder to create a Configuration. The below example overrides the
getConfiguration() method to return a Configuration created by the ConfigurationBuilder.
This will cause the Configuration to automatically be hooked into Log4j when the LoggerContext
is created. In the example below, because it specifies a supported type of "*" it will override any
configuration files provided.

17 Programmatic Log4j Configuration 290

@Plugin(name = "CustomConfigurationFactory", category = ConfigurationFactory.CATEGORY)

@Order(50)
public class CustomConfigurationFactory extends ConfigurationFactory {

static Configuration createConfiguration(final String name, ConfigurationBuilder<BuiltConfiguration> buil

builder.setConfigurationName(name);
builder.setStatusLevel(Level.ERROR);
builder.add(builder.newFilter("ThresholdFilter", Filter.Result.ACCEPT, Filter.Result.NEUTRAL).
addAttribute("level", Level.DEBUG));
AppenderComponentBuilder appenderBuilder = builder.newAppender("Stdout", "CONSOLE").
addAttribute("target", ConsoleAppender.Target.SYSTEM_OUT);
appenderBuilder.add(builder.newLayout("PatternLayout").
addAttribute("pattern", "%d [%t] %-5level: %msg%n%throwable"));
appenderBuilder.add(builder.newFilter("MarkerFilter", Filter.Result.DENY,
Filter.Result.NEUTRAL).addAttribute("marker", "FLOW"));
builder.add(appenderBuilder);
builder.add(builder.newLogger("org.apache.logging.log4j", Level.DEBUG).
add(builder.newAppenderRef("Stdout")).
addAttribute("additivity", false));
builder.add(builder.newRootLogger(Level.ERROR).add(builder.newAppenderRef("Stdout")));
return builder.build();
}

@Override
public Configuration getConfiguration(final LoggerContext loggerContext, final ConfigurationSource source
return getConfiguration(loggerContext, source.toString(), null);
}

@Override
public Configuration getConfiguration(final LoggerContext loggerContext, final String name, final URI con
ConfigurationBuilder<BuiltConfiguration> builder = newConfigurationBuilder();
return createConfiguration(name, builder);
}

@Override
protected String[] getSupportedTypes() {
return new String[] {"*"};
}
}
As of version 2.7, the ConfigurationFactory.getConfiguration() methods take an
additional LoggerContext parameter.

17.1.4 Reconfigure Log4j Using ConfigurationBuilder with the Configurator

An alternative to a custom ConfigurationFactory is to configure with the Configurator.
Once a Configuration object has been constructed, it can be passed to one of the
Configurator.initialize methods to set up the Log4j configuration.
Using the Configurator in this manner allows the application control over when Log4j is initialized.
However, should any logging be attempted before Configurator.initialize() is called then the default
configuration will be used for those log events.

17 Programmatic Log4j Configuration 291

ConfigurationBuilder<BuiltConfiguration> builder = ConfigurationBuilderFactory.newConfigurationBuilder();

builder.setStatusLevel(Level.ERROR);
builder.setConfigurationName("BuilderTest");
builder.add(builder.newFilter("ThresholdFilter", Filter.Result.ACCEPT, Filter.Result.NEUTRAL)
.addAttribute("level", Level.DEBUG));
AppenderComponentBuilder appenderBuilder = builder.newAppender("Stdout", "CONSOLE").addAttribute("target",
ConsoleAppender.Target.SYSTEM_OUT);
appenderBuilder.add(builder.newLayout("PatternLayout")
.addAttribute("pattern", "%d [%t] %-5level: %msg%n%throwable"));
appenderBuilder.add(builder.newFilter("MarkerFilter", Filter.Result.DENY, Filter.Result.NEUTRAL)
.addAttribute("marker", "FLOW"));
builder.add(appenderBuilder);
builder.add(builder.newLogger("org.apache.logging.log4j", Level.DEBUG)
.add(builder.newAppenderRef("Stdout")).addAttribute("additivity", false));
builder.add(builder.newRootLogger(Level.ERROR).add(builder.newAppenderRef("Stdout")));
ctx = Configurator.initialize(builder.build());

This example shows how to create a configuration that includes a RollingFileAppender.

ConfigurationBuilder< BuiltConfiguration > builder = ConfigurationBuilderFactory.newConfigurationBuilder();

builder.setStatusLevel( Level.ERROR);
builder.setConfigurationName("RollingBuilder");
// create a console appender
AppenderComponentBuilder appenderBuilder = builder.newAppender("Stdout", "CONSOLE").addAttribute("target",
ConsoleAppender.Target.SYSTEM_OUT);
appenderBuilder.add(builder.newLayout("PatternLayout")
.addAttribute("pattern", "%d [%t] %-5level: %msg%n%throwable"));
builder.add( appenderBuilder );
// create a rolling file appender
LayoutComponentBuilder layoutBuilder = builder.newLayout("PatternLayout")
.addAttribute("pattern", "%d [%t] %-5level: %msg%n");
ComponentBuilder triggeringPolicy = builder.newComponent("Policies")
.addComponent(builder.newComponent("CronTriggeringPolicy").addAttribute("schedule", "0 0 0 * * ?"))
.addComponent(builder.newComponent("SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy").addAttribute("size", "100M"));
appenderBuilder = builder.newAppender("rolling", "RollingFile")
.addAttribute("fileName", "target/rolling.log")
.addAttribute("filePattern", "target/archive/rolling-%d{MM-dd-yy}.log.gz")
.add(layoutBuilder)
.addComponent(triggeringPolicy);
builder.add(appenderBuilder);

// create the new logger

builder.add( builder.newLogger( "TestLogger", Level.DEBUG )
.add( builder.newAppenderRef( "rolling" ) )
.addAttribute( "additivity", false ) );

builder.add( builder.newRootLogger( Level.DEBUG )

.add( builder.newAppenderRef( "rolling" ) ) );
LoggerContext ctx = Configurator.initialize(builder.build());

17 Programmatic Log4j Configuration 292

17.1.5 Initialize Log4j by Combining Configuration File with Programmatic Configuration

Sometimes you want to configure with a configuration file but do some additional programmatic
configuration. A possible use case might be that you want to allow for a flexible configuration using
XML but at the same time make sure there are a few configuration elements that are always present
that can't be removed.
The easiest way to achieve this is to extend one of the standard Configuration classes
(XMLConfiguration, JSONConfiguration) and then create a new ConfigurationFactory for the
extended class. After the standard configuration completes the custom configuration can be added to
it.
The example below shows how to extend XMLConfiguration to manually add an Appender and a
LoggerConfig to the configuration.

17 Programmatic Log4j Configuration 293

@Plugin(name = "MyXMLConfigurationFactory", category = "ConfigurationFactory")

@Order(10)
public class MyXMLConfigurationFactory extends ConfigurationFactory {

/**
* Valid file extensions for XML files.
*/
public static final String[] SUFFIXES = new String[] {".xml", "*"};

/**
* Return the Configuration.
* @param source The InputSource.
* @return The Configuration.
*/
public Configuration getConfiguration(InputSource source) {
return new MyXMLConfiguration(source, configFile);
}

/**
* Returns the file suffixes for XML files.
* @return An array of File extensions.
*/
public String[] getSupportedTypes() {
return SUFFIXES;
}
}

public class MyXMLConfiguration extends XMLConfiguration {

public MyXMLConfiguration(final ConfigurationFactory.ConfigurationSource configSource) {
super(configSource);
}

@Override
protected void doConfigure() {
super.doConfigure();
final LoggerContext ctx = (LoggerContext) LogManager.getContext(false);
final Configuration config = context.getConfiguration();
final Layout layout = PatternLayout.createDefaultLayout(config);
final Appender appender = FileAppender.createAppender("target/test.log", "false", "false", "File", "t
"false", "false", "4000", layout, null, "false", null, config);
appender.start();
addAppender(appender);
LoggerConfig loggerConfig = LoggerConfig.createLogger("false", "info", "org.apache.logging.log4j",
"true", refs, null, config, null );
loggerConfig.addAppender(appender, null, null);
addLogger("org.apache.logging.log4j", loggerConfig);
}
}

17 Programmatic Log4j Configuration 294

17.1.6 Programmatically Modifying the Current Configuration after Initialization

Applications sometimes have the need to customize logging separate from the actual configuration.
Log4j allows this although it suffers from a few limitations:

1. If the configuration file is changed the configuration will be reloaded and the manual changes
will be lost.
2. Modification to the running configuration requires that all the methods being called
(addAppender and addLogger) be synchronized.
As such, the recommended approach for customizing a configuration is to extend one of the standard
Configuration classes, override the setup method to first do super.setup() and then add the custom
Appenders, Filters and LoggerConfigs to the configuration before it is registered for use.
The following example adds an Appender and a new LoggerConfig using that Appender to the current
configuration.

final LoggerContext ctx = (LoggerContext) LogManager.getContext(false);

final Configuration config = ctx.getConfiguration();
final Layout layout = PatternLayout.createDefaultLayout(config);
Appender appender = FileAppender.createAppender("target/test.log", "false", "false", "File", "true",
"false", "false", "4000", layout, null, "false", null, config);
appender.start();
config.addAppender(appender);
AppenderRef ref = AppenderRef.createAppenderRef("File", null, null);
AppenderRef[] refs = new AppenderRef[] {ref};
LoggerConfig loggerConfig = LoggerConfig.createLogger("false", "info", "org.apache.logging.log4j",
"true", refs, null, config, null );
loggerConfig.addAppender(appender, null, null);
config.addLogger("org.apache.logging.log4j", loggerConfig);
ctx.updateLoggers();
}

17.1.7 Appending Log Events to Writers and OutputStreams Programmatically

Log4j 2.5 provides facilities to append log events to Writers and OutputStreams. For example,
this provides simple integration for JDBC Driver implementors that use Log4j internally and
still want to support the JDBC APIs CommonDataSource.setLogWriter(PrintWriter),
java.sql.DriverManager.setLogWriter(PrintWriter), and
java.sql.DriverManager.setLogStream(PrintStream).
Given any Writer, like a PrintWriter, you tell Log4j to append events to that writer by creating a
WriterAppender and updating the Log4j configuration:

17 Programmatic Log4j Configuration 295

void addAppender(final Writer writer, final String writerName) {

final LoggerContext context = LoggerContext.getContext(false);
final Configuration config = context.getConfiguration();
final PatternLayout layout = PatternLayout.createDefaultLayout(config);
final Appender appender = WriterAppender.createAppender(layout, null, writer, writerName, false, true);
appender.start();
config.addAppender(appender);
updateLoggers(appender, config);
}

private void updateLoggers(final Appender appender, final Configuration config) {

final Level level = null;
final Filter filter = null;
for (final LoggerConfig loggerConfig : config.getLoggers().values()) {
loggerConfig.addAppender(appender, level, filter);
}
config.getRootLogger().addAppender(appender, level, filter);
}
You can achieve the same effect with an OutputStream, like a PrintStream:

void addAppender(final OutputStream outputStream, final String outputStreamName) {

final LoggerContext context = LoggerContext.getContext(false);
final Configuration config = context.getConfiguration();
final PatternLayout layout = PatternLayout.createDefaultLayout(config);
final Appender appender = OutputStreamAppender.createAppender(layout, null, outputStream, outputStreamNam
appender.start();
config.addAppender(appender);
updateLoggers(appender, config);
}
The difference is the use of OutputStreamAppender instead of WriterAppender.

18 Custom Log Levels 296

18 Custom Log Levels

.......................................................................................................................................

18.1 Custom Log Levels

18.1.1 Defining Custom Log Levels in Code

Log4J 2 supports custom log levels. Custom log levels can be defined in code or in configuration. To
define a custom log level in code, use the Level.forName() method. This method creates a new
level for the specified name. After a log level is defined you can log messages at this level by calling
the Logger.log() method and passing the custom log level:

// This creates the "VERBOSE" level if it does not exist yet.

final Level VERBOSE = Level.forName("VERBOSE", 550);

final Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger();

logger.log(VERBOSE, "a verbose message"); // use the custom VERBOSE level

// Create and use a new custom level "DIAG".

logger.log(Level.forName("DIAG", 350), "a diagnostic message");

// Use (don't create) the "DIAG" custom level.

// Only do this *after* the custom level is created!
logger.log(Level.getLevel("DIAG"), "another diagnostic message");

// Using an undefined level results in an error: Level.getLevel() returns null,

// and logger.log(null, "message") throws an exception.
logger.log(Level.getLevel("FORGOT_TO_DEFINE"), "some message"); // throws exception!
When defining a custom log level, the intLevel parameter (550 and 350 in the example above)
determines where the custom level exists in relation to the standard levels built-in to Log4J 2. For
reference, the table below shows the intLevel of the built-in log levels.

Standard Level intLevel

OFF 0
FATAL 100
ERROR 200
WARN 300
INFO 400
DEBUG 500
TRACE 600
ALL Integer.MAX_VALUE

Standard log levels built-in to Log4J

18 Custom Log Levels 297

18.1.2 Defining Custom Log Levels in Configuration

Custom log levels can also be defined in configuration. This is convenient for using a custom level
in a logger filter or an appender filter. Similar to defining log levels in code, a custom level must be
defined first, before it can be used. If a logger or appender is configured with an undefined level, that
logger or appender will be invalid and will not process any log events.
The CustomLevel configuration element creates a custom level. Internally it calls the same
Level.forName() method discussed above.

Parameter Name Type Description

name String The name of the custom level. Note
that level names are case sensitive.
The convention is to use all upper-
case names.
intLevel integer Determines where the custom level
exists in relation to the standard
levels built-in to Log4J 2 (see the
table above).

CustomLevel Parameters
The following example shows a configuration that defines some custom log levels and uses a custom
log level to filter log events sent to the console.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

18 Custom Log Levels 298

18.1.3 Convenience Methods for the Built-in Log Levels

The built-in log levels have a set of convenience methods on the Logger interface that makes them
easier to use. For example, the Logger interface has 24 debug() methods that support the DEBUG
level:

// convenience methods for the built-in DEBUG level

debug(Marker, Message)
debug(Marker, Message, Throwable)
debug(Marker, Object)
debug(Marker, Object, Throwable)
debug(Marker, String)
debug(Marker, String, Object...)
debug(Marker, String, Throwable)
debug(Message)
debug(Message, Throwable)
debug(Object)
debug(Object, Throwable)
debug(String)
debug(String, Object...)
debug(String, Throwable)
// lambda support methods added in 2.4
debug(Marker, MessageSupplier)
debug(Marker, MessageSupplier, Throwable)
debug(Marker, String, Supplier<?>...)
debug(Marker, Supplier<?>)
debug(Marker, Supplier<?>, Throwable)
debug(MessageSupplier)
debug(MessageSupplier, Throwable)
debug(String, Supplier<?>...)
debug(Supplier<?>)
debug(Supplier<?>, Throwable)
Similar methods exist for the other built-in levels. Custom levels, in contrast, need to pass in the log
level as an extra parameter.

// need to pass the custom level as a parameter

logger.log(VERBOSE, "a verbose message");
logger.log(Level.forName("DIAG", 350), "another message");
It would be nice to have the same ease of use with custom levels, so that after declaring the custom
VERBOSE/DIAG levels, we could use code like this:

// nice to have: descriptive methods and no need to pass the level as a parameter
logger.verbose("a verbose message");
logger.diag("another message");
logger.diag("java 8 lambda expression: {}", () -> someMethod());
The standard Logger interface cannot provide convenience methods for custom levels, but the next
few sections introduce a code generation tool to create loggers that aim to make custom levels as easy
to use as built-in levels.

18 Custom Log Levels 299

18.1.4 Adding or Replacing Log Levels

We assume that most users want to add custom level methods to the Logger interface, in addition to
the existing trace(), debug(), info(), ... methods for the built-in log levels.
There is another use case, Domain Specific Language loggers, where we want to replace the existing
trace(), debug(), info(), ... methods with all-custom methods.
For example, for medical devices we could have only critical(), warning(), and advisory()
methods. Another example could be a game that has only defcon1(), defcon2(), and defcon3()
levels.
If it were possible to hide existing log levels, users could customize the Logger interface to match
their requirements. Some people may not want to have a FATAL or a TRACE level, for example.
They would like to be able to create a custom Logger that only has debug(), info(), warn() and error()
methods.

18.1.5 Generating Source Code for a Custom Logger Wrapper

Common Log4J usage is to get an instance of the Logger interface from the LogManager and call
the methods on this interface. However, the custom log Levels are not known in advance, so Log4J
cannot provide an interface with convenience methods for these custom log Levels.
To solve this, Log4J ships with a tool that generates source code for a Logger wrapper. The generated
wrapper class has convenience methods for each custom log level, making custom levels just as easy
to use as the built-in levels.
There are two flavors of wrappers: ones that extend the Logger API (adding methods to the built-in
levels) and ones that customize the Logger API (replacing the built-in methods).
When generating the source code for a wrapper class, you need to specify:

• the fully qualified name of the class to generate

• the list of custom levels to support and their intLevel relative strength
• whether to extend Logger (and keep the existing built-in methods) or have only methods for the
custom log levels
You would then include the generated source code in the project where you want to use custom log
levels.

18.1.6 Example Usage of a Generated Logger Wrapper

Here is an example of how one would use a generated logger wrapper with custom levels DIAG,
NOTICE and VERBOSE:

18 Custom Log Levels 300

// ExtLogger is a generated logger wrapper

import com.mycompany.myproject.ExtLogger;

public class MyService {

// instead of Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger(MyService.class):
private static final ExtLogger logger = ExtLogger.create(MyService.class);

public void demoExtendedLogger() {

// ...
logger.trace("the built-in TRACE level");
logger.verbose("a custom level: a VERBOSE message");
logger.debug("the built-in DEBUG level");
logger.notice("a custom level: a NOTICE message");
logger.info("the built-in INFO level");
logger.diag("a custom level: a DIAG message");
logger.warn("the built-in WARN level");
logger.error("the built-in ERROR level");
logger.fatal("the built-in FATAL level");
logger.notice("java 8 lambda expression only executed if NOTICE is enabled: {}", () -> someMethod());
// ...
}
...
}

18.1.7 Generating Extended Loggers

Use the following command to generate a logger wrapper that adds methods to the built-in ones:

java -cp log4j-core-${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar org.apache.logging.log4j.core.tools.ExtendedLoggerGenerator \

com.mycomp.ExtLogger DIAG=350 NOTICE=450 VERBOSE=550 > com/mycomp/ExtLogger.java
This will generate source code for a logger wrapper that has the convenience methods for the built-in
levels as well as the specified custom levels. The tool prints the generated source code to the console.
By appending " > filename" the output can be redirected to a file.
NOTE: Prior to log4j-2.9, this tool was an inner class Generate$ExtendedLogger.
Under the bash shell on Unix/Mac/Linux the dollar character $ needs to be escaped, so the class name
should be between single quotes 'org.apache.logging.log4j.core.tools.Generate$ExtendedLogger’.

18.1.8 Generating Custom Loggers

Use the following command to generate a logger wrapper that hides the built-in levels and has only
custom levels:

java -cp log4j-core-${Log4jReleaseVersion}.jar org.apache.logging.log4j.core.tools.CustomLoggerGenerator \

com.mycomp.MyLogger DEFCON1=350 DEFCON2=450 DEFCON3=550 > com/mycomp/MyLogger.java
This will generate source code for a logger wrapper that only has convenience methods for the
specified custom levels, not for the built-in levels. The tool prints the generated source code to the
console. By appending " > filename" the output can be redirected to a file.
NOTE: Prior to log4j-2.9, this tool was an inner class Generate$ExtendedLogger.

18 Custom Log Levels 301

Under the bash shell on Unix/Mac/Linux the dollar character $ needs to be escaped, so the class name
should be between single quotes 'org.apache.logging.log4j.core.tools.Generate$CustomLogger’.