No log4j2 configuration file found. Using default configuration: logging only errors to the console

Question

$ java -Dlog4j.configuration=file:///path/to/your/log4j2.xml -jar /path/to/your/jar_file.jar

Written to the console, you get

ERROR StatusLogger No log4j2 configuration file found. Using default configuration: logging only errors to the console.

But, it also looks like the configuration file has been found and was not parsable:

    log4j:WARN Continuable parsing error 2 and column 31
    log4j:WARN Document root element "Configuration", must match DOCTYPE root "null".
    log4j:WARN Continuable parsing error 2 and column 31
    log4j:WARN Document is invalid: no grammar found.
    log4j:ERROR DOM element is - not a <log4j:configuration> element.
    log4j:WARN No appenders could be found for logger (kafka.utils.VerifiableProperties).
    log4j:WARN Please initialize the log4j system properly.
    log4j:WARN See http://logging.apache.org/log4j/1.2/faq.html#noconfig for more info.

Answer 1

Problem 1

ERROR StatusLogger No log4j2 configuration file found. Using default configuration: logging only errors to the console.

Solution 1

To work with version 2 of log4j aka "log4j2"

-Dlog4j.configuration=

should read

-Dlog4j.configurationFile=

• 1.2 manual: http://logging.apache.org/log4j/1.2/manual.html
• 2.x manual: http://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/manual/configuration.html

Problem 2

log4j:WARN ....

Solution 2

In your project, uninclude the log4j-1.2 jar and instead, include the log4j-1.2-api-2.1.jar. I wasn't sure how exactly to exclude the log4j 1.2. I knew that what dependency of my project was requiring it. So, with some reading, I excluded a bunch of stuff.

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.kafka</groupId>
    <artifactId>kafka_2.10</artifactId>
    <version>0.8.2.0</version>
    <exclusions>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>org.apache.logging.log4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>log4j-core</artifactId>                
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>org.apache.log4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>log4j-core</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>log4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
        </exclusion>          
    </exclusions>
</dependency>

I am not sure which of the exclusions did the trick. Separately, I included a dependency to the 1.2 api which bridges to 2.x.

<!--
    http://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.0/manual/migration.html
    http://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.0/maven-artifacts.html
    Log4j 1.x API Bridge
    If existing components use Log4j 1.x and you want to have this logging
    routed to Log4j 2, then remove any log4j 1.x dependencies and add the
    following.
-->
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.logging.log4j</groupId>
    <artifactId>log4j-1.2-api</artifactId>
    <version>2.2</version>
</dependency>

Now, the 1.2 logs which were only going to the console actually flow to our 2.x appenders.