log4j logging hierarchy order

Question

What is the hierarchy of log4j logging?

DEBUG
INFO
WARN
ERROR
FATAL

Which one provides the highest logging which would be helpful to troubleshoot issues? Can any one provide the order or hierarchy in which logging take place from highest to lowest? Thanks!

Hoa Nguyen · Answer 1 · 2018-06-04T14:08:12.363

405

This table might be helpful for you:

Going down the first column, you will see how the log works in each level. i.e for WARN, (FATAL, ERROR and WARN) will be visible. For OFF, nothing will be visible.

edited Jun 04 '18 at 14:08

answered May 11 '16 at 15:28

Hoa Nguyen

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The terms *visibility* and *item* are not self explanatory. I see that the official documentation is also vague on this. The output method such as `error`, `info`, `debug`, etc. of the logger assigns a priority/severity level to the logging message. If the logging really takes effect (the message will be visible) depends on the effective logging level of the logger being used. – Wolf Oct 06 '17 at 06:18
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link broken. please fix or remove – Yuriy N. May 13 '18 at 15:11
Although this answers the question (that's just asking for the "hierarchy order"), I finally downvoted for your poor terminology: *going down*, *"visibility" works*, *item*. Didn't you wish to explain how logger configuration affects the actual logging (passing log events)? *Please* consider another update. BTW: the table in the [official documentation](https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/manual/architecture.html#LoggerConfig) (at the end of the section) differs in treating `OFF` and `ALL`, well, after reading some of the source (not finding special cases) I doubt that their table is correct. – Wolf May 24 '18 at 09:58
Thank you Wolf, I have updated the answer according to your comments. – Hoa Nguyen Jun 05 '18 at 08:21
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I think this is an excellent visualization of the log levels and the expected log message types that would be output for a specific logger level setting. My only suggestion might be to have alternating row colors to guide the viewer that the chart should be interpreted by row rather than column. (i.e. the rows represent logger levels and the columns represent log message types that would be present) – Larry Hector Jun 10 '18 at 03:12

MaDa · Answer 2 · 2014-09-04T12:46:36.843

Use the force, read the source (excerpt from the Priority and Level class compiled, TRACE level was introduced in version 1.2.12):

public final static int OFF_INT = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
public final static int FATAL_INT = 50000;
public final static int ERROR_INT = 40000;
public final static int WARN_INT  = 30000;
public final static int INFO_INT  = 20000;
public final static int DEBUG_INT = 10000;
public static final int TRACE_INT = 5000; 
public final static int ALL_INT = Integer.MIN_VALUE;

or the log4j API for the Level class, which makes it quite clear.

When the library decides whether to print a certain statement or not, it computes the effective level of the responsible Logger object (based on configuration) and compares it with the LogEvent's level (depends on which method was used in the code – trace/debug/.../fatal). If LogEvent's level is greater or equal to the Logger's level, the LogEvent is sent to appender(s) – "printed". At the core, it all boils down to an integer comparison and this is where these constants come to action.

score 62 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 12 '11 at 20:08

62

OFF
FATAL
ERROR
WARN
INFO
DEBUG
TRACE
ALL

answered Oct 12 '11 at 20:08

the.malkolm

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16
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check the code where are integer variables for proof http://www.docjar.com/html/api/org/apache/log4j/Level.java.html – the.malkolm Oct 13 '11 at 07:25
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at your link it said that "ALL < DEBUG < INFO < WARN < ERROR < FATAL < OFF" and it perfectly the same as I said – the.malkolm Oct 13 '11 at 07:27
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Venn diagram OFF() ALL(TRACE(DEBUG(INFO(WARN(ERROR(FATAL)))))) – Hernán Eche May 05 '16 at 13:14
@Mike on [log4j Logging Levels](https://www.tutorialspoint.com/log4j/log4j_logging_levels.htm "log4j Logging Levels") they use **alphabetic order in the first table**. Except for the missing `trace`, they later correctly state that `ALL < DEBUG < INFO < WARN < ERROR < FATAL < OFF` (wherein `<` means less important) – Wolf May 24 '18 at 10:07

score 28 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 13 '15 at 10:56

Hierarchy of log4j logging levels are as follows in Highest to Lowest order :

TRACE
DEBUG
INFO
WARN
ERROR
FATAL
OFF

TRACE log level provides highest logging which would be helpful to troubleshoot issues. DEBUG log level is also very useful to trouble shoot the issues.

You can also refer this link for more information about log levels : https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.0/manual/architecture.html

score 12 · Answer 5 · answered May 28 '14 at 17:33

[Taken from http://javarevisited.blogspot.com/2011/05/top-10-tips-on-logging-in-java.html]

DEBUG is the lowest restricted java logging level and we should write everything we need to debug an application, this java logging mode should only be used on Development and Testing environment and must not be used in production environment.

INFO is more restricted than DEBUG java logging level and we should log messages which are informative purpose like Server has been started, Incoming messages, outgoing messages etc in INFO level logging in java.

WARN is more restricted than INFO java logging level and used to log warning sort of messages e.g. Connection lost between client and server. Database connection lost, Socket reaching to its limit. These messages and java logging level are almost important because you can setup alert on these logging messages in java and let your support team monitor health of your java application and react on this warning messages. In Summary WARN level is used to log warning message for logging in Java.

ERROR is the more restricted java logging level than WARN and used to log Errors and Exception, you can also setup alert on this java logging level and alert monitoring team to react on this messages. ERROR is serious for logging in Java and you should always print it.

FATAL java logging level designates very severe error events that will presumably lead the application to abort. After this mostly your application crashes and stopped.

OFF java logging level has the highest possible rank and is intended to turn off logging in Java.

Richard Inglis · Answer 6 · 2022-01-28T14:41:54.047

I find the term "logging level" to be a bit confusing, so I prefer to think of it like this:

Events have a SEVERITY (a level). In log4j this is modelled as an integer.
Loggers have a THRESHOLD (aka a LoggerConfig level, used to filter Events)

By convention, log4j defines some Standard Log Levels. In v2.x these are (in order of decending severity): OFF, FATAL, ERROR, WARN, INFO, DEBUG, TRACE, ALL. Note that OFF and ALL are only intended as Logger threshold values, not Event severity levels). You can also add your own custom levels, and assign them a numerical value.

A Logger will ignore any events less severe than its threshold:

A threshold of OFF means no logging.
A threshold of FATAL means only FATAL events (or worse) are logged.
A threshold of ERROR means only ERROR, FATAL (or worse) are logged.
A threshold of WARN means only WARN, ERROR, FATAL (or worse) are logged.
etc...
A threshold of ALL means all events are logged (the most verbose option)

As a diagram (based on the table shown in the log4j v2.x docs) it looks like this:

score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 26 '18 at 11:04

4

Hierarchy order

ALL
TRACE
DEBUG
INFO
WARN
ERROR
FATAL
OFF

answered Apr 26 '18 at 11:04

Sarath

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score 4 · Answer 8 · answered May 20 '21 at 20:05

4

To make it clear, there is no defined term like 'hierarchy' in log4j. Yes there are different levels. For troubleshooting you have to select which level you want the logs.

answered May 20 '21 at 20:05

Caffeine Coder

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joym8 · Answer 9 · 2023-04-06T20:08:56.947

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Adding .NET log levels for reference

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/logging/?view=aspnetcore-7.0

edited Apr 06 '23 at 20:08

answered Apr 06 '23 at 18:05

joym8

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score -1 · Answer 10 · answered Dec 21 '21 at 20:17

TRACE --> DEBUG--> INFO -->WARN --> ERROR --> FATAL

If Log level is set for WARN. it will log all the WARN and all levels below it.(ERROR and FATAL). If Log level is set for TRACE. it will log all the TRACE and all levels below it.(DEBUG,INFO,WARN,ERROR,FATAL).

log4j logging hierarchy order

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