log4j vs logback

Question

We are using log4j behind a selfmade wrapper  We plan to use much more features of it now    Should we update to logback     I mean the framework not a facade like SLF4J

User · Answer

Mature project or even project deep into development stages would probably loose more than gain from such upgrade  IMHO  Logback is certainly much more advanced in an array of points  but not to an extent for complete replacement in a working system  I would certainly consider logback for a new development  but existing log4j is good enough and mature for anything already released and met end user  This is very subjective  you should see cost yourself

User · Answer

Not exactly answering your question  but if you could move away from your self-made wrapper then there is Simple Logging Facade for Java  SLF4J  which Hibernate has now switched to  instead of commons logging       SLF4J suffers from none of the class loader problems or memory leaks observed with Jakarta Commons Logging  JCL      SLF4J supports JDK logging  log4j and logback  So then it should be fairly easy to switch from log4j to logback when the time is right   Edit  Aplogies that I hadn t made myself clear  I was suggesting using SLF4J to isolate yourself from having to make a hard choice between log4j or logback

User · Answer

In the logging world there are Facades  like Apache Commons Logging  slf4j or even the Log4j 2 0 API  and implementations  Log4j 1   2  java util logging  TinyLog  Logback    Basically you should replace your selfmade wrapper with slf4j IF and only IF you are not happy with it for some reason  While Apache Commons Logging is not really providing a modern API  slf4j and the new Log4j 2 facade is providing that  Given that quite a bunch of apps use slf4j as a wrapper it might make sense to use that   slf4j gives a number of nice API sugar  like this example from slf4j docs   logger debug  Temperature set to     Old temperature was       t  oldT    It s variable substitution  This is also supported by Log4j 2   However you need to be aware that slf4j is developed by QOS who also maintain logback  Log4j 2 0 is baked in the Apache Software Foundation  In the past three years a vibrant and active community has grown there again  If you appreciate Open Source as it is done by the Apache Software Foundation with all its guarantees you might reconsider using slf4j in favor to use Log4j 2 directly   Please note   In the past log4j 1 was not actively maintained while Logback was  But today things are different  Log4j 2 is actively maintained and releases on almost regular schedule  It also includes lot of modern features and -imho- makes a couple of things better than Logback  This is sometimes just a matter of taste and you should draw your own conclusions   I wrote a quick overview on the new Features of Log4j 2 0  http   www grobmeier de the-new-log4j-2-0-05122012 html  When reading you will see that Log4j 2 was inspired by Logback but also by other logging frameworks  But the code base is different  it shares almost nothing with Log4j 1 and zero with Logback  This lead to some improvements like in example Log4j 2 operates with bytestreams instead of Strings under the hood  Also it doesn t loose events while reconfiguring   Log4j 2 can log with higher speed than other frameworks I know  http   www grobmeier de log4j-2-performance-close-to-insane-20072013 html  And still the user community seems to be much bigger than Logbacks  http   www grobmeier de apache-log4j-is-the-leading-logging-framework-06082013 html  That all said the best idea is you choose the logging frameworks which just fits best to what you want to achieve  I would not switch a full framework if I would disable logging in production environment and just perform basic logging in my app  However if you do a bit more with logging just look at the features which are provided by the frameworks and their developers  While you get commercial support for Logback through QOS  i heard  there is currently no commercial support for Log4j 2  On the other hand if you need to do audit logging and need high performance provided by the async appenders it makes a lot of sense to check log4j 2   Please note despite all comfort they provide  facades always eat a little performance  It s maybe not affecting you at all  but if you are on low resources you may need to save everything you can have   Without knowing you requirements better it is almost impossible to give a recommendation  Just  don t switch just because a lot of people switch  Switch only because you see value of it  And the argumentation that log4j is dead doesn t count anymore  It s alive  and it s hot   DISCLAIMER  I am currently VP  Apache Logging Services and involved in log4j as well

User · Answer

Not exactly answering your question  but if you could move away from your self-made wrapper then there is Simple Logging Facade for Java  SLF4J  which Hibernate has now switched to  instead of commons logging       SLF4J suffers from none of the class loader problems or memory leaks observed with Jakarta Commons Logging  JCL      SLF4J supports JDK logging  log4j and logback  So then it should be fairly easy to switch from log4j to logback when the time is right   Edit  Aplogies that I hadn t made myself clear  I was suggesting using SLF4J to isolate yourself from having to make a hard choice between log4j or logback

User · Answer

Your decision should be based on   your actual need for these  more features   and your expected cost of implementing the change    You should resist the urge to change APIs just because it s  newer  shinier  better   I follow a policy of  if it s not broken  don t kick it    If your application requires a very sophisticated logging framework  you may want to consider why

User · Answer

Your decision should be based on   your actual need for these  more features   and your expected cost of implementing the change    You should resist the urge to change APIs just because it s  newer  shinier  better   I follow a policy of  if it s not broken  don t kick it    If your application requires a very sophisticated logging framework  you may want to consider why

User · Answer

In the logging world there are Facades  like Apache Commons Logging  slf4j or even the Log4j 2 0 API  and implementations  Log4j 1   2  java util logging  TinyLog  Logback    Basically you should replace your selfmade wrapper with slf4j IF and only IF you are not happy with it for some reason  While Apache Commons Logging is not really providing a modern API  slf4j and the new Log4j 2 facade is providing that  Given that quite a bunch of apps use slf4j as a wrapper it might make sense to use that   slf4j gives a number of nice API sugar  like this example from slf4j docs   logger debug  Temperature set to     Old temperature was       t  oldT    It s variable substitution  This is also supported by Log4j 2   However you need to be aware that slf4j is developed by QOS who also maintain logback  Log4j 2 0 is baked in the Apache Software Foundation  In the past three years a vibrant and active community has grown there again  If you appreciate Open Source as it is done by the Apache Software Foundation with all its guarantees you might reconsider using slf4j in favor to use Log4j 2 directly   Please note   In the past log4j 1 was not actively maintained while Logback was  But today things are different  Log4j 2 is actively maintained and releases on almost regular schedule  It also includes lot of modern features and -imho- makes a couple of things better than Logback  This is sometimes just a matter of taste and you should draw your own conclusions   I wrote a quick overview on the new Features of Log4j 2 0  http   www grobmeier de the-new-log4j-2-0-05122012 html  When reading you will see that Log4j 2 was inspired by Logback but also by other logging frameworks  But the code base is different  it shares almost nothing with Log4j 1 and zero with Logback  This lead to some improvements like in example Log4j 2 operates with bytestreams instead of Strings under the hood  Also it doesn t loose events while reconfiguring   Log4j 2 can log with higher speed than other frameworks I know  http   www grobmeier de log4j-2-performance-close-to-insane-20072013 html  And still the user community seems to be much bigger than Logbacks  http   www grobmeier de apache-log4j-is-the-leading-logging-framework-06082013 html  That all said the best idea is you choose the logging frameworks which just fits best to what you want to achieve  I would not switch a full framework if I would disable logging in production environment and just perform basic logging in my app  However if you do a bit more with logging just look at the features which are provided by the frameworks and their developers  While you get commercial support for Logback through QOS  i heard  there is currently no commercial support for Log4j 2  On the other hand if you need to do audit logging and need high performance provided by the async appenders it makes a lot of sense to check log4j 2   Please note despite all comfort they provide  facades always eat a little performance  It s maybe not affecting you at all  but if you are on low resources you may need to save everything you can have   Without knowing you requirements better it is almost impossible to give a recommendation  Just  don t switch just because a lot of people switch  Switch only because you see value of it  And the argumentation that log4j is dead doesn t count anymore  It s alive  and it s hot   DISCLAIMER  I am currently VP  Apache Logging Services and involved in log4j as well

User · Answer

Mature project or even project deep into development stages would probably loose more than gain from such upgrade  IMHO  Logback is certainly much more advanced in an array of points  but not to an extent for complete replacement in a working system  I would certainly consider logback for a new development  but existing log4j is good enough and mature for anything already released and met end user  This is very subjective  you should see cost yourself

User · Answer

Not exactly answering your question  but if you could move away from your self-made wrapper then there is Simple Logging Facade for Java  SLF4J  which Hibernate has now switched to  instead of commons logging       SLF4J suffers from none of the class loader problems or memory leaks observed with Jakarta Commons Logging  JCL      SLF4J supports JDK logging  log4j and logback  So then it should be fairly easy to switch from log4j to logback when the time is right   Edit  Aplogies that I hadn t made myself clear  I was suggesting using SLF4J to isolate yourself from having to make a hard choice between log4j or logback

User · Answer

Logback natively implements the SLF4J API  This means that if you are using logback  you are actually using the SLF4J API  You could theoretically use the internals of the logback API directly for logging  but that is highly discouraged  All logback documentation and examples on loggers are written in terms of the SLF4J API    So by using logback  you d be actually using SLF4J and if for any reason you wanted to switch back to log4j  you could do so within minutes by simply dropping slf4j-log4j12 jar onto your class path   When migrating from logback to log4j  logback specific parts  specifically those contained in logback xml configuration file would still need to be migrated to its log4j equivalent  i e  log4j properties   When migrating in the other direction  log4j configuration  i e  log4j properties  would need to be converted to its logback equivalent  There is an on-line tool for that  The amount of work involved in migrating configuration files is much less than the work required to migrate logger calls disseminated throughout all your software s source code and its dependencies

User · Answer

Not exactly answering your question  but if you could move away from your self-made wrapper then there is Simple Logging Facade for Java  SLF4J  which Hibernate has now switched to  instead of commons logging       SLF4J suffers from none of the class loader problems or memory leaks observed with Jakarta Commons Logging  JCL      SLF4J supports JDK logging  log4j and logback  So then it should be fairly easy to switch from log4j to logback when the time is right   Edit  Aplogies that I hadn t made myself clear  I was suggesting using SLF4J to isolate yourself from having to make a hard choice between log4j or logback

User · Answer

Your decision should be based on   your actual need for these  more features   and your expected cost of implementing the change    You should resist the urge to change APIs just because it s  newer  shinier  better   I follow a policy of  if it s not broken  don t kick it    If your application requires a very sophisticated logging framework  you may want to consider why

User · Answer

Your decision should be based on   your actual need for these  more features   and your expected cost of implementing the change    You should resist the urge to change APIs just because it s  newer  shinier  better   I follow a policy of  if it s not broken  don t kick it    If your application requires a very sophisticated logging framework  you may want to consider why

User · Answer

Logback natively implements the SLF4J API  This means that if you are using logback  you are actually using the SLF4J API  You could theoretically use the internals of the logback API directly for logging  but that is highly discouraged  All logback documentation and examples on loggers are written in terms of the SLF4J API    So by using logback  you d be actually using SLF4J and if for any reason you wanted to switch back to log4j  you could do so within minutes by simply dropping slf4j-log4j12 jar onto your class path   When migrating from logback to log4j  logback specific parts  specifically those contained in logback xml configuration file would still need to be migrated to its log4j equivalent  i e  log4j properties   When migrating in the other direction  log4j configuration  i e  log4j properties  would need to be converted to its logback equivalent  There is an on-line tool for that  The amount of work involved in migrating configuration files is much less than the work required to migrate logger calls disseminated throughout all your software s source code and its dependencies

User · Answer

Should you   Yes   Why   Log4J has essentially been deprecated by Logback   Is it urgent   Maybe not   Is it painless   Probably  but it may depend on your logging statements   Note that if you really want to take full advantage of LogBack  or SLF4J   then you really need to write proper logging statements   This will yield advantages like faster code because of the lazy evaluation  and less lines of code because you can avoid guards   Finally  I highly recommend SLF4J    Why recreate the wheel with your own facade

User · Answer

Should you   Yes   Why   Log4J has essentially been deprecated by Logback   Is it urgent   Maybe not   Is it painless   Probably  but it may depend on your logging statements   Note that if you really want to take full advantage of LogBack  or SLF4J   then you really need to write proper logging statements   This will yield advantages like faster code because of the lazy evaluation  and less lines of code because you can avoid guards   Finally  I highly recommend SLF4J    Why recreate the wheel with your own facade

[java] log4j vs logback

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