Log4j in GraalVM gives ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized format specifier [d]

Question

I have an AWS Lambda function written in Java. I want to run the Lambda function with a custom GraalVM runtime as is done in this blog post for instance

Whenever the application starts up, I get the following errors:

WARNING: sun.reflect.Reflection.getCallerClass is not supported. This will impact performance.
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized format specifier [d]
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized conversion specifier [d] starting at position 16 in conversion pattern.
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized format specifier [thread]
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized conversion specifier [thread] starting at position 25 in conversion pattern.
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized format specifier [level]
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized conversion specifier [level] starting at position 35 in conversion pattern.
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized format specifier [logger]
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized conversion specifier [logger] starting at position 47 in conversion pattern.
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized format specifier [msg]
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized conversion specifier [msg] starting at position 54 in conversion pattern.
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized format specifier [n]
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized conversion specifier [n] starting at position 56 in conversion pattern.
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized format specifier [d]
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized conversion specifier [d] starting at position 16 in conversion pattern.
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized format specifier [thread]
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized conversion specifier [thread] starting at position 25 in conversion pattern.
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized format specifier [level]
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized conversion specifier [level] starting at position 35 in conversion pattern.
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized format specifier [logger]
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized conversion specifier [logger] starting at position 47 in conversion pattern.
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized format specifier [msg]
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized conversion specifier [msg] starting at position 54 in conversion pattern.
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized format specifier [n]
ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized conversion specifier [n] starting at position 56 in conversion pattern.

This is what my log4j2.xml file looks like

<Configuration status="WARN">
    <Appenders>
        <Lambda name="Lambda">
            <PatternLayout>
                <pattern>%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss} %X{AWSRequestId} %-5p %c{1} - %m%n</pattern>
            </PatternLayout>
        </Lambda>
    </Appenders>
    <Loggers>
        <Root level="INFO">
            <AppenderRef ref="Lambda"/>
        </Root>
        <Logger name="software.amazon.awssdk" level="WARN" />
        <Logger name="software.amazon.awssdk.request" level="DEBUG" />
    </Loggers>
</Configuration>

Other similar questions here suggest it is due to conflicting log4j packages in a fatjar. Based on the suggestions in this answer, I am now using shadowJar with a transformation to build the fatjar the GraalVM application is compiled from. However I am still getting the error.

The relevant parts of my gradle build file looks like this

dependencies {
    implementation platform('software.amazon.awssdk:bom:2.+')
    implementation platform('com.amazonaws:aws-xray-recorder-sdk-bom:2.+')
    implementation 'com.amazonaws:aws-lambda-java-core:1.2.1'
    implementation 'com.amazonaws:aws-lambda-java-events:2.2.9'
    implementation 'com.amazonaws:aws-xray-recorder-sdk-core'
    implementation 'com.amazonaws:aws-xray-recorder-sdk-aws-sdk-core'
    implementation 'com.amazonaws:aws-xray-recorder-sdk-aws-sdk-v2'
    implementation 'com.amazonaws:aws-xray-recorder-sdk-aws-sdk-v2-instrumentor'

    implementation 'org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-slf4j18-impl:2.13.2'
    implementation 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.6'

    implementation 'com.formkiq:lambda-runtime-graalvm:1.1'

    implementation project(":aws-java-utilities:utilities")

    runtimeOnly 'com.amazonaws:aws-lambda-java-log4j2:1.2.0'
    runtimeOnly 'mysql:mysql-connector-java:8.0.+'

    // mqttv3 1.1.1 fails to connect for unknown reasons
    testImplementation (group: 'org.eclipse.paho', name: 'org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3', version: '1.1.0'){force = true}
    testImplementation 'com.amazonaws:aws-iot-device-sdk-java:1.3.+'
    testImplementation 'org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter:5.6.2'
    testImplementation "org.mockito:mockito-core:2.+"
    testImplementation project(":aws-java-utilities:end2endTest-utilities")
    testImplementation 'software.amazon.awssdk:rdsdata'
}

shadowJar {
    archivesBaseName = project.name + '-lambda'
    manifest {
        attributes 'Main-Class': 'com.formkiq.lambda.runtime.graalvm.LambdaRuntime'
    }
    transform(com.github.jengelman.gradle.plugins.shadow.transformers.Log4j2PluginsCacheFileTransformer)
}

If I try and run the jar (or one build with the same task but a different main class), I get this error.

WARNING: sun.reflect.Reflection.getCallerClass is not supported. This will impact performance.
2021-01-16 19:35:23,290 main ERROR Error processing element Lambda ([Appenders: null]): CLASS_NOT_FOUND
2021-01-16 19:35:23,343 main ERROR Unable to locate appender "Lambda" for logger config "root"

The command I use to build the GraalVM application looks like this

docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/working oracle/graalvm-ce:20.1.0-java11 \
    /bin/bash -c "
                    gu install native-image; \
                    native-image --enable-url-protocols=http,https \
                      -H:+AllowIncompleteClasspath \
                      -H:ReflectionConfigurationFiles=/working/src/main/resources/reflect.json \
                      -H:IncludeResourceBundles=com.mysql.cj.LocalizedErrorMessages \
                      -H:IncludeResources=.\*.properties \
                      -H:IncludeResources=.\*.xml \
                      -H:+ReportUnsupportedElementsAtRuntime -J-Xmx5G --no-server -jar \"/working/build/libs/$1-lambda-all.jar\";`

gradle dependencies show me that all the references to anything with log4j are all using the same version, for instance:

...
+--- org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-slf4j18-impl:2.13.2
|    +--- org.slf4j:slf4j-api:1.8.0-beta4
|    +--- org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-api:2.13.2
|    \--- org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core:2.13.2
|         \--- org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-api:2.13.2
...

I have seen some questions on this topic mention it is due to conflicting Log4j2Plugins.dat files. I can see in my dependencies that I have two such files. One in com.amazonaws:aws-lambda-java-log4j2:1.2.0 and one in org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-api:2.13.2. According to the earlier answer I linked, the transformation in my gradle build should take care of that, but I don't know how to verify if that is true.

I have been banging my head against this problem the whole day, and I am at a real loss as to how to get the logging to work.

Any help to move me forward would be much appreciated.

Bert Huang · Answer 1 · 2022-04-06T23:27:58.680

I bumped into the same problem as you. After some digging, I stumbled across this jira and github issue:

https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LOG4J2-2604

https://github.com/oracle/graal/issues/808

Building with GraalVM you have to specify the resources to be bundled. Applying the resource-config.json settings specified in the github issue worked for me (however, the reflect-config.json did not work).

The working reflect config can be found in this other github issue https://github.com/oracle/graal/issues/2008#issuecomment-777858227

Log4j in GraalVM gives ERROR StatusLogger Unrecognized format specifier [d]

1 Answers1