How do I set log4j level on the command line?

Question

I want to add some log.debug statements to a class I\'m working on, and I\'d like to see that in output when running the test. I\'d like to override the log4j properties on

Answer 1

Based on @lijat, here is a simplified implementation. In my spring-based application I simply load this as a bean.

public static void configureLog4jFromSystemProperties()
{
  final String LOGGER_PREFIX = "log4j.logger.";

  for(String propertyName : System.getProperties().stringPropertyNames())
  {
    if (propertyName.startsWith(LOGGER_PREFIX)) {
      String loggerName = propertyName.substring(LOGGER_PREFIX.length());
      String levelName = System.getProperty(propertyName, "");
      Level level = Level.toLevel(levelName); // defaults to DEBUG
      if (!"".equals(levelName) && !levelName.toUpperCase().equals(level.toString())) {
        logger.error("Skipping unrecognized log4j log level " + levelName + ": -D" + propertyName + "=" + levelName);
        continue;
      }
      logger.info("Setting " + loggerName + " => " + level.toString());
      Logger.getLogger(loggerName).setLevel(level);
    }
  }
}