Log4j seems not to work in Spring Boot

Question

I tried to add Spring and Maven to one of my existing project, and I find that no matter how I configure, the logging seems to be out of my control.

I tried putting the log4j.properties in src/main/java and src/main/resources(Actually I am not sure where to put).

But when I use Log4j to log, the log displays in the console only, though I configure it into a file.

My log4j.properties is like:

log4j.rootLogger=DEBUG, A1 
log4j.appender.A1=org.apache.log4j.FileAppender
log4j.appender.A1.encoding=utf-8
log4j.appender.A1.File=E:\Programminglog\debug.log 
log4j.appender.A1.Threshold = DEBUG 
log4j.appender.A1.Append=true
log4j.appender.A1.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.A1.layout.ConversionPattern = %-d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss}  [ %t:%r ] - [ %p ]  %m%n

I am not sure if I miss something or Spring overrides some settings, since I am new to Maven and Spring.

PS: Before I add dependencies of Log4j in pom.xml,no compile errors though I use org.apache.log4j.Logger

This is how my application.java looks like:

@Configuration
@EnableAutoConfiguration
@ComponentScan({"hello","wodinow.weixin.jaskey"})
public class Application extends WebMvcConfigurerAdapter  {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ApplicationContext ctx = SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);

        System.out.println("Let's inspect the beans provided by Spring Boot:");

        String[] beanNames = ctx.getBeanDefinitionNames();
        Arrays.sort(beanNames);
        for (String beanName : beanNames) {
            System.out.println(beanName);
        }

        LogUtil.info("Application Boots!");// here this line does not show in the file
    }

    @Bean
    public CommandService commandService(){
        return CommandService.getInstance();
    }
}

Answer 1

If you are using log4j with spring-boot then you have to add dependency with "exclusions" in your pom.xml

 <dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
  <version>1.3.3.RELEASE</version>
  **<exclusions>
    <exclusion>
      <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
      <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-logging</artifactId>
    </exclusion>
  </exclusions>**
</dependency>

**<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-log4j</artifactId>
  <version>1.2.5.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>**

Please follow this. It will resolve your problem.

http://www.atechref.com/blog/maven/spring-boot-using-log4j-logging/

Answer 2

UPDATE

By default, If you use the ‘Starter POMs’, Logback will be used for logging

(From: Spring Boot Reference, Chapter 25 Logging)

So either you configure your logging via logback logback.xml or you include the log4j libs. (when you need more help with including the lib then please post your pom.xml)

I reccomend to use logback (and slf4j)

---

OLD:

• put the log4j.properties file in src\main\resources (not in ...\java)
• make sure that it is named log4j.properties (in your question you named the file log4j.propertie)
• add this lines to your web.xml

web.xml:

  <context-param>
      <param-name>log4jConfigLocation</param-name>
      <param-value>/WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties</param-value>
  </context-param>

  <listener>
      <listener-class>org.springframework.web.util.Log4jConfigListener</listener-class>
  </listener>

(@see Initializing Log4J with Spring?)

Answer 3

I ran into this exact problem, it turned out that spring boot includes Spring Boot Starter Logging and will ignore anything you add while that is still there. I was able to fix it by double clicking on my pom and clicking on Spring-Boot-Starter-Logging and then selecting "edit starters" then removing the spring boot starter logging.

If you are using some other kind of dependency management system the idea is the same, just carefully review anything that spring boot included in your project and make sure that log4J is the only logging system included.

Answer 4

First create log4j2-apring.xml in resources dir. second exclude default sprint bood logback from starter in pom.xml then add log4j starter to po.xml.

  <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        <exclusions>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-logging</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
        </exclusions>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-log4j2</artifactId>
    </dependency>