# Logback : Configuration for Java

By

Paul Tomoiu

●

In 

Logging, 

Examples, 

Logback

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Published 2022-12-03

This tutorial explains to you how to configure the Logback for Java. This tutorial is using Eclipse and Maven. This is for a simple Java application.

Logback is a generic, reliable, fast and flexible logging library for Java.

Here is the architecture overview of Logback framework:

Here are some good things to know regarding the Logback architecture:

• The Logback Logger object is responsible for capturing logging information
• Each Logger is independently configurable
• A Logger can send log messages to multiple Appenders
• The Logback Layout object is used to format logging information (we can get "one-line-at-a-time", XML, HTML, JSON and other formats)
• The Logback Appender object is responsible for writing (publishing) logging information to various destinations such as a files, databases, JMS, console, UNIX Syslog, etc.

Here are the steps for configuring an existing Maven Java application for using log4j:

• Add the following in pom.xml :

<dependencies>
     <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/ch.qos.logback/logback-classic -->
     <dependency>
            <groupId>ch.qos.logback</groupId>
            <artifactId>logback-classic</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.3</version>
     </dependency>
</dependencies>

You can take a look to the following picture as well:

• Build the project using Maven in order to obtain the Logback libraries.

• Create a directory "resources" (for instance) under src folder

• Create the logback.xml file in it.

Here is the logback.xml content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
  <property name="LOG_DIR" value="C:/JAVA" />

  <appender name="STDOUT" class="ch.qos.logback.core.ConsoleAppender">
    <encoder>
      <pattern>%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss} | %-5p | [%thread] %logger{5}:%L - %msg%n</pattern>
    </encoder>
  </appender>

  <appender name="FILE" class="ch.qos.logback.core.FileAppender">
    <file>${LOG_DIR}/logFile.log</file>
    <append>true</append>
    <encoder>
      <pattern>%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss} | %-5p | [%thread] %logger{5}:%L - %msg%n</pattern>
    </encoder>
  </appender>

  <logger name="myLogger" level="TRACE"/>

  <root level="DEBUG">
    <appender-ref ref="STDOUT" />
    <appender-ref ref="FILE" />
  </root>

</configuration>

When you run your project, configure the CLASSPATH and add the location of the logback.xml files by clicking on:

Run As ->Run Configuration -> Classpath tab -> click on User Entries -> Advanced -> select Add Folder -> select the location of your logback.xml file and then -> OK -> Run.

Now you can use Logback framework using a basic configuration.