How to intercept SLF4J (with logback) logging via a JUnit test?

Question

Is it possible to somehow intercept the logging (SLF4J + logback) and get an InputStream (or something else that is readable) via a JUnit test case...?

Answer 1

I would recommend a simple, reusable spy implementation that can be included in a test as JUnit rule:

public final class LogSpy extends ExternalResource {

    private Logger logger;
    private ListAppender appender;

    @Override
    protected void before() {
        appender = new ListAppender<>();
        logger = (Logger) LoggerFactory.getLogger(Logger.ROOT_LOGGER_NAME); // cast from facade (SLF4J) to implementation class (logback)
        logger.addAppender(appender);
        appender.start();
    }

    @Override
    protected void after() {
        logger.detachAppender(appender);
    }

    public List getEvents() {
        if (appender == null) {
            throw new UnexpectedTestError("LogSpy needs to be annotated with @Rule");
        }
        return appender.list;
    }
}

In your test, you'd activate the spy in the following way:

@Rule
public LogSpy log = new LogSpy();

Call log.getEvents() (or other, custom methods) to check the logged events.