Programmatically configure LogBack appender

Question

I have a logback appender defined in the logback.xml, it\'s a DB appender, but I\'m curious if there is any way to configure the appender in java using my own connection poo

Answer 1

As a reference, when you try to modify code responsible for creating loggers, there is a bunch of rules that must be satisfied in order for a logger to work.

These rules were described in a great and helpful article Programmatic configuration of slf4j/logback:

Now I have experience with programmatic configuration of slf4j/logback.

Task

A program must open separate log file for each processed input file.

Solution for task

Instead of configuring logback via xml, the one needs to “manually” instantiate encoders, appenders and loggers, then configure and link them together.

Caveat 1

Logback goes crazy on attempt to share encoder (i.e. PatternLayoutEncoder) between appenders.

Solution for caveat 1

Create separate encoder for each appender.

Caveat 2

Logback refuses to log anything, if encoders and appenders are not associated with logging context.

Solution for caveat 2

Call setContext on each encoder and appender, passing LoggerFactory as a parameter.

Caveat 3

Logback refuses to log anything, if encoders and appenders are not started.

Solution for caveat 3

encoders and appenders need to be started in the correct order, i.e. first encoders, then appenders.

Caveat 4

RollingPolicy objects (i.e. TimeBasedRollingPolicy) produce strange error messages like “date format not recognized”, when they are not attached to the same context as appender.

Solution for caveat 4

call setContext on RollingPolicy same way as on encoders and appenders.

Here is working example of “manual” logback configuration:

package testpackage

import ch.qos.logback.classic.Level
import ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger
import ch.qos.logback.classic.LoggerContext
import ch.qos.logback.classic.encoder.PatternLayoutEncoder
import ch.qos.logback.core.ConsoleAppender
import ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender
import ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.TimeBasedRollingPolicy

import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory

class TestLogConfig {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    LoggerContext logCtx = LoggerFactory.getILoggerFactory();

    PatternLayoutEncoder logEncoder = new PatternLayoutEncoder();
    logEncoder.setContext(logCtx);
    logEncoder.setPattern("%-12date{YYYY-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS} %-5level - %msg%n");
    logEncoder.start();

    ConsoleAppender logConsoleAppender = new ConsoleAppender();
    logConsoleAppender.setContext(logCtx);
    logConsoleAppender.setName("console");
    logConsoleAppender.setEncoder(logEncoder);
    logConsoleAppender.start();

    logEncoder = new PatternLayoutEncoder();
    logEncoder.setContext(logCtx);
    logEncoder.setPattern("%-12date{YYYY-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS} %-5level - %msg%n");
    logEncoder.start();

    RollingFileAppender logFileAppender = new RollingFileAppender();
    logFileAppender.setContext(logCtx);
    logFileAppender.setName("logFile");
    logFileAppender.setEncoder(logEncoder);
    logFileAppender.setAppend(true);
    logFileAppender.setFile("logs/logfile.log");

    TimeBasedRollingPolicy logFilePolicy = new TimeBasedRollingPolicy();
    logFilePolicy.setContext(logCtx);
    logFilePolicy.setParent(logFileAppender);
    logFilePolicy.setFileNamePattern("logs/logfile-%d{yyyy-MM-dd_HH}.log");
    logFilePolicy.setMaxHistory(7);
    logFilePolicy.start();

    logFileAppender.setRollingPolicy(logFilePolicy);
    logFileAppender.start();

    Logger log = logCtx.getLogger("Main");
    log.setAdditive(false);
    log.setLevel(Level.INFO);
    log.addAppender(logConsoleAppender);
    log.addAppender(logFileAppender);
  }
}