Log4j 2

echnologies used:   Java SE 1.8 | Log4j 2.8.2 | Maven 3.3.9 | Jackson API 2.8.7 | Eclipse Neon.3

RollingFileAppender is a file appender which rolls over the log files once it has reached a certain size limit or date/time pattern no longer applies.

In this post, I will show you how to use the RollingFileAppender to backup and compress the old log files based on - 

• Date and Time
• Size of log file
• Cron expression

Jar dependencies

Edit pom.xml file and add log4j2 and Jackson API dependencies in it.

<dependencies>  <dependency>    <groupId>org.apache.logging.log4j</groupId>    <artifactId>log4j-core</artifactId>    <version>2.8.2</version>  </dependency>  <dependency>    <groupId>org.apache.logging.log4j</groupId>    <artifactId>log4j-api</artifactId>    <version>2.8.2</version>  </dependency>  <dependency>    <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>    <artifactId>jackson-core</artifactId>    <version>2.8.7</version>  </dependency>  <dependency>    <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>    <artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>    <version>2.8.7</version>  </dependency>  <dependency>    <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>    <artifactId>jackson-annotations</artifactId>    <version>2.8.7</version>  </dependency></dependencies>

Rolling based on Date and Time

You can use the TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy to rollover the log file based on the date and time pattern used in <FilePattern/>element as follows.

<RollingFile name="RollingFile">  <FileName>C:/log/mylog.log</FileName>  <FilePattern>C:/log/time-based-logs/%d{yyyy-MM-dd-hh-mm}.log.zip</FilePattern>  <PatternLayout>    <Pattern>%d{yyyy-MMM-dd HH:mm:ss a} [%t] %-5level %logger{36} - %msg%n</Pattern>  </PatternLayout>  <Policies>    <TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy interval="2" modulate="true" />  </Policies>  <DefaultRolloverStrategy max="5" /></RollingFile>

Here are sample date/time patterns for rolling of files base on date/time.

DATE/TIME PatternDescriptionIntervale Attribute Example%d{yyyy-MM-dd-hh-mm}.log.zipRoll the log files every minutes

If interval=2, rollovers will occur every 2nd minutes.

E.g. - 2017-07-26-09-57.log.zip, 2017-07-26-09-59.log.zip, 2017-07-26-10-01.log.zip, 2017-07-26-10-03.log.zip etc..

%d{yyyy-MM-dd-hh}.log.zipRoll the log files hourly

If interval=4, rollovers will occur every 4 hours.

E.g. - 2017-07-26-09.log.zip, 2017-07-26-10.log.zip, 2017-07-26-11.log.zip etc..

%d{yyyy-MM-dd}.log.zipRoll the log files daily

If interval=1, rollovers will occur every day.

E.g. - 2017-07-26.log.zip, 2017-07-27.log.zip etc..

The following is the complete example of log4j2.xml file for rolling files every 2nd minutes.

log4j2.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><Configuration>  <Appenders>    <!-- Console Appender -->    <Console name="Console" target="SYSTEM_OUT">      <PatternLayout pattern="%d{yyyy-MMM-dd HH:mm:ss a} [%t] %-5level %logger{36} - %msg%n" />    </Console>    <!-- Rolling File Appender -->    <RollingFile name="RollingFile">      <FileName>C:/log/mylog.log</FileName>      <FilePattern>C:/log/time-based-logs/%d{yyyy-MM-dd-hh-mm}.log.zip</FilePattern>      <PatternLayout>        <Pattern>%d{yyyy-MMM-dd HH:mm:ss a} [%t] %-5level %logger{36} - %msg%n</Pattern>      </PatternLayout>      <Policies>        <TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy interval="2" modulate="true" />      </Policies>      <DefaultRolloverStrategy max="5" />    </RollingFile>  </Appenders>  <Loggers>    <Logger name="com.boraji.tutorial.log4j2" level="debug" additivity="false">      <AppenderRef ref="RollingFile" />      <AppenderRef ref="Console" />    </Logger>    <Root level="trace">      <AppenderRef ref="Console" />    </Root>  </Loggers></Configuration>

The <DefaultRolloverStrategy> element define a rollover strategy that will keep up to 5 files before removing them.

A simple Java program to test the above log4j 2 configuration.

MainApp.java

package com.boraji.tutorial.log4j2;import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;public class MainApp {   private static final Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger(MainApp.class);   public static void main(String[] args) {      for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++) {         logger.info("Rolling file appender example...");         try {            Thread.sleep(500);         } catch (InterruptedException e) {            e.printStackTrace();         }      }   }}

 

Rolling based on size of file

You can use the SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy to rollover the log file based on the size of file as follows.

<RollingFile name="RollingFile">  <FileName>C:/log/mylog.log</FileName>  <FilePattern>C:/log/size-based-logs/%d{yyyy-MM-dd-hh}-%i.log.zip</FilePattern>  <PatternLayout>    <Pattern>%d{yyyy-MMM-dd HH:mm:ss a} [%t] %-5level %logger{36} - %msg%n</Pattern>  </PatternLayout>  <Policies>    <SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy size="10 KB"/>  </Policies>  <DefaultRolloverStrategy max="5" /></RollingFile>

You can specify the size of file in bytes, with the suffix KB, MB or GB.

Here is the complete log4j2.xml file for rolling files based on the specified size in <SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy/> element.

log4j2.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><Configuration>  <Appenders>    <!-- Console Appender -->    <Console name="Console" target="SYSTEM_OUT">      <PatternLayout pattern="%d{yyyy-MMM-dd HH:mm:ss a} [%t] %-5level %logger{36} - %msg%n" />    </Console>    <!-- Rolling File Appender -->    <RollingFile name="RollingFile">      <FileName>C:/log/mylog.log</FileName>      <FilePattern>C:/log/size-based-logs/%d{yyyy-MM-dd-hh}-%i.log.zip</FilePattern>      <PatternLayout>        <Pattern>%d{yyyy-MMM-dd HH:mm:ss a} [%t] %-5level %logger{36} - %msg%n</Pattern>      </PatternLayout>      <Policies>        <SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy size="10 KB" />      </Policies>      <DefaultRolloverStrategy max="5" />    </RollingFile>  </Appenders>  <Loggers>    <Logger name="com.boraji.tutorial.log4j2" level="debug" additivity="false">      <AppenderRef ref="RollingFile" />      <AppenderRef ref="Console" />    </Logger>    <Root level="trace">      <AppenderRef ref="Console" />    </Root>  </Loggers></Configuration>

The following is a simple java program to test the above log4j2.xml configuration.

package com.boraji.tutorial.log4j2;import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;public class MainApp {   private static final Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger(MainApp.class);   public static void main(String[] args) {      for (int i = 0; i < 50000; i++) {         logger.info("Rolling file appender example...");      }   }}

Rolling based on cron expression

You can use the CronTriggeringPolicy to rollover the log file based on the specified cron expression as follows.

<RollingFile name="RollingFile">  <FileName>C:/log/mylog.log</FileName>  <FilePattern>C:/log/cron-based-logs/%d{yyyy-MM-dd-hh-mm}-%i.log.zip</FilePattern>  <PatternLayout>    <Pattern>%d{yyyy-MMM-dd HH:mm:ss a} [%t] %-5level %logger{36} - %msg%n</Pattern>  </PatternLayout>  <Policies>    <CronTriggeringPolicy schedule="0 0/2 * 1/1 * ? *" />  </Policies>  <DefaultRolloverStrategy max="5" /></RollingFile>

The following is the complete log4j2.xml file, which trigger rollover after every 2nd minutes as specified in schedule attribute of<CronTriggeringPolicy/> element by cron expression.

log4j2.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><Configuration>  <Appenders>    <!-- Console Appender -->    <Console name="Console" target="SYSTEM_OUT">      <PatternLayout pattern="%d{yyyy-MMM-dd HH:mm:ss a} [%t] %-5level %logger{36} - %msg%n" />    </Console>    <!-- Rolling File Appender -->    <RollingFile name="RollingFile">      <FileName>C:/log/mylog.log</FileName>      <FilePattern>C:/log/cron-based-logs/%d{yyyy-MM-dd-hh-mm}-%i.log.zip</FilePattern>      <PatternLayout>        <Pattern>%d{yyyy-MMM-dd HH:mm:ss a} [%t] %-5level %logger{36} - %msg%n</Pattern>      </PatternLayout>      <Policies>        <CronTriggeringPolicy schedule="0 0/2 * 1/1 * ? *" />      </Policies>      <DefaultRolloverStrategy max="5" />    </RollingFile>  </Appenders>  <Loggers>    <Logger name="com.boraji.tutorial.log4j2" level="debug" additivity="false">      <AppenderRef ref="RollingFile" />      <AppenderRef ref="Console" />    </Logger>    <Root level="trace">      <AppenderRef ref="Console" />    </Root>  </Loggers></Configuration>

The following is a simple java program to test the above log4j2.xml configuration.

package com.boraji.tutorial.log4j2;import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;public class MainApp {   private static final Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger(MainApp.class);   public static void main(String[] args) {      for (int i = 0; i < 1000; i++) {         logger.info("Rolling file appender example...");         try {            Thread.sleep(1000);         } catch (InterruptedException e) {            e.printStackTrace();         }      }   }}https://www.boraji.com/log4j-2-rollingfileappender-example